Free Frequent Flyer Miles points to the best signup offer I’ve seen yet for a Continental Airlines Mastercard: 20,000 miles after first purchase and a statement credit of $50 to offset the $85 fee.
Since I’ve never seen this card with a fee waiver, effectively offering a $35 annual fee is a great deal for 20,000 miles.
The card also comes with two Continental lounge passes annually after your first year so you only get those if you keep the card into the future, which personally I would not. But then I’m not a huge fan of Continental miles, at least such that I would put my spending towards earning Continental miles over all the other currencies that I might be earning with the same credit card spend.
My wife’s gotten a fee-waived-first-year offer a few times over the course of the last year. I might still have the paperwork somewhere, even though I decided that it wasn’t worth pursuing given that we never fly Continental (not really a fit for our routes out of SFO).
i get first year fee waived offers from continental master card all the time too. i actually have the card now. combined with the free miles from chase for opening a checking account it’s a really good deal. i know that gary thinks that continental miles are not worthy but i have never had a problem redeeming for europe flights in the summer…