As many have already mentioned, Chase has finally brought back the 100,000 sign-up bonus offer for the British Airways Visa Signature Card. Unfortunately, the spending requirements are significantly steeper than the previous 2011 offers and many feel that the switch from BA miles to Avios points (the new mileage currency at BA) has already watered down the value of each point earned. However, there is still great value to be had with this offer, especially for short haul domestic travelers who would normally feel guilty redeeming their miles for such trips, international business travelers looking to take a weekend trip from their foreign based work location, international leisure travelers seeking to add another leg to their trip, and North American travelers looking to score a getaway to the Caribbean or Hawaii.
The Short Haul Guilty Redeemers
One of the most common pieces of advice I give to friends, family, and JuicyMiles.com clients is to never waste their miles on short haul domestic trips. I even chastise those who request assistance booking a New York to Florida trip, instead supplying them with a cost / benefit analysis of their proposed mileage redemption compared to the cost of a purchased itinerary. Except for rare last minute travel, the value proposition in redeeming for short haul trips is normally appalling. In full disclosure, I only redeem my personal miles for business or first class international travel, usually on airlines I normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to travel on. I also redeem my miles for family vacations every holiday season to the Caribbean. While this may appear to be a contradiction, 35,000 AAdvantage miles to the Caribbean is a great value when taking into account roundtrip flight prices during winter break. With the Avios distance based redemptions, short-haul travelers no longer need to feel guilty when redeeming points for domestic itineraries. I took a look at some of the redemptions I’ve recently assisted with and compared them to standard program costs:
New York – Miami
Cost using American AAdvantage MileSAAver Award -> 25,000 roundtrip
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 15,000 roundtrip
Dallas – Cancun, Mexico
Cost using American AAdvantage MileSAAver Award -> 35,000 roundtrip
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 15,000 roundtrip
New York – Toronto
Cost using American AAdvantage MileSAAver Award -> 25,000 roundtrip
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 9,000 roundtrip
Avios required can be calculated on BA’s website using their calculator. Remember that while the distance-based system makes short-haul trips more reasonable, it has increased the points required on several medium and long-haul routes. More on ways around this in a later post…
Weekend Trips and Add-Ons for International Travelers
Business Travelers
Another great use of Avios is for last minute travel when working abroad. Let’s say you are working in London and want to explore another location in Europe for the weekend. You may have no idea if you can take that weekend trip until late Thursday night and by that time even the discount airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet have outrageous prices. The same goes for travelers in other OneWorld cities who need to book last minute travel when low fares have all but disappeared. I’ve been able to book several short hop trips from work locations to destinations all over Europe using the distance based awards we discussed above. Some recent bookings include:
London, UK – Nice, France
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 4,500 – 9,000 roundtrip (depending on how much tax you want to pay).
Helsinki, Finland – Moscow, Russia
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 9,000 roundtrip
Madrid, Spain – Marrakech, Morocco
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 15,000 roundtrip
Leisure Travelers
Leisure travelers can use the same approach if they decide last minute that they want to tack on an additional trip to their itinerary. Consider:
Quito, Ecuador – Lima, Peru
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 15,000 roundtrip
Sydney, Australia – Melbourne, Australia
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 9,000 roundtrip
*For both business and leisure travelers, it’s important to review the prices for both the full service and low cost discount carriers on the route prior to utilizing these short-hop awards*
Hawaii & The Caribbean
For those of you on the West Coast, Avios offers some great redemption options to Hawaii:
Los Angeles – Kahului/Maui, Kona, or Honolulu
Cost using AAdvantage MileSAAver Award -> 45,000 (peak) and 35,000 (off peak)
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 25,000 roundtrip
New York – St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Kitts, San Juan, or Turks & Caicos
Cost using AAdvantage MileSAAver Award -> 35,000 (peak) and 25,000 (off peak)
Cost when booked with BA Avios -> 20,000 roundtrip
I’ll soon be posting about some decent long-haul opportunities that still exist using Avios for business and first class travel. In the meantime, check out Lucky’s blog post on a great deal using BA partner, Aer Lingus, to get to Europe from North America for 25,000 points in coach or 50,000 points in business.
NYC Dining Credits – MY FAVORITE NON MILEAGE PERK OF THE CARD!
If you are in the NYC area there is another great reason to get the card, the MICHELIN $100 back dining offer. Essentially, you can use the card at any NYC MICHELIN star-rated restaurant through July 31st and receive a $50 credit after you dine once and another $50 statement credit upon your second use as long as your bill is $50 or more. I took advantage of this offer in 2011 and now again in 2012. The offer itself completely offsets the $95 annual fee for the card. You can also book your tables online at opentable.com to earn those points as well. Check out the offer here.
The Card Specifics
- You will get 50,000 bonus Avios after you make $1,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- Plus pay no foreign transaction fees when you travel abroad
- You will also get 2.5 Avios for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases and 1.25 Avios for every $1 spent on all other purchases
- Every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases on your British Airways Visa card, you’ll earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years
- Chip with Signature Technology allows you to use your card for chip based purchases in Europe & beyond, while still giving you the ability to use your card as you do today at home
If I had card b4 can I get bonus again?
@T – you should definitely be able to get approved for the card again. However, I’m sure you’re more interested in whether you’ll receive the points…there are a few reports of those who have spoken with Chase representatives and have been informed that they will qualify for the bonus again due to this being a different offer. I would NOT put too much weight behind those claims, especially since Chase clearly states that you cannot receive multiple bonuses for the same card product. . If you do decide to risk it make sure you get the name and location of any representative who informs you that the points will be rewarded again. I would probably not chance the credit pull though as I think it’s more likely that you won’t receive the bonus again.
@T – you should definitely be able to get approved for the card again. However, I’m sure you’re more interested in whether you’ll receive the points…there are a few reports of those who have spoken with Chase representatives and have been informed that they will qualify for the bonus again due to this being a different offer. I would NOT put too much weight behind those claims, especially since Chase clearly states that you cannot receive multiple bonuses for the same card product. . If you do decide to risk it make sure you get the name and location of any representative who informs you that the points will be rewarded again. I would probably not chance the credit pull though as I think it’s more likely that you won’t receive the bonus again.
Thanks for the analysis. I do feel guilty about redeeming for domestic flights and the calculator helped show the value in redeeming BA Avios.
No problem Bryan, glad that help with the guilt! There is definitely some value to be had on the short haul redemptions.
Thanks
very good article, helped me see the bright side of avios.
Is euro-train a better (in terms of both cost and scenic view) option than redeeming airline miles (avios or AA or UA) for (vacation) traveling with in Europe?
UK-PAris, or Paris-Germany or germany-Netherlands etc.
I got ink and sapphire in Feb. My score is over 750 and credit utilization is well below 5%. do you think I can still get both BA card and UA mileage card on the same day?
what should be my strategy?
@shoaib – it depends for the European trips you mention, but generally I wouldn’t recommend redeeming on any of those routes:
UK-Paris – The Eurostar train through the chunnel can be quite pricey depending on the day and availability. On average it’s usually £73 – £300. The views are OK but not great. I’d recommend checking on EasyJet.com, RyanAir.com, and even airfrance.com for some web only specials. Make sure you search all london area airports – LHR, LGW, STN, and LCY. Remember, using avios on this route will involve several options as to whether you use points to offset the fees.
Paris -Germany – Depends where you are going in Germany, I’ve done Paris through Germany several times and there are nice views and the tickets are very reasonable. I usually use raileurope.com for pricing. Again, check out the low-cost airlines for comparison.
Germany-Netherlands – Again, depends on exactly where you are going but these too would often be quite reasonable. You can decide whether to use Avios on any of these once you collect the pricing for the trains, regular airlines, and discount airlines. A 4,000 point redemption might make sense for last minute travel or days with little availability. In general, I wouldn’t redeem AA or UA miles for intra-europe travel.
The rule of thumb with Chase is normally 90 days between applications but several have reported luck applying for a card after 30 days. If you are planning on getting the BA and UA cards, I would apply the same day as you mention.
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Wondering if possible to get to Hawaii from new jersey or ny with Avios and what the mileage would be. I’m having a difficult time finding info on BA site. Thanks.
@Phil, it’s possible, both AA and Alaska are BA partners and fly to Hawaii. However, the Hawaii deal is really only a great value from the west coast. See the following post. If you do want to redeem on BA, it’s 25k each way in coach and 50k in business. However, remember to stay on one carrier or the mileage price really increases. For example, flying on AA from NY/NJ to Seattle and then connecting in Seatle to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines would cost significantly more, you need to stay on one carrier – AA from EWR/JFK to LAX/ and then AA to Hawaii OR Alaska from EWR to Seattle and then Alaska to Hawaii. The website can be quirky when constructing the NY – Hawaii flights b/c of the connection and you may need to call the BA desk. They’ll sometimes waive the booking fee if you explain that the site wasn’t working properly. Let me know if you have any other questions.
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