Enhanced British Airways Credit Card Offer

UPDATE: I wrote this post yesterday to auto post this morning and unfortunately the offer is no longer available. Hopefully there will be another 100,000 point offer soon. To see the most current British Airways credit card offer of 50,000 points after meeting the minimum spend requirement, check out this compiled list of offers. 

Yesterday I read a few reports about British Airways upping their credit card offer to allow you to earn up to 100,000 points. While 100,000 points is a great offer, it does require a decent spend threshold. Here are the terms:

• Earn 50,000 bonus points after $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
• Earn 25,000 bonus points after $10,000 in purchases within the first year of account opening
• Earn 25,000 bonus points after you make an additional $10,000 in purchases within the first year of account opening

To earn the entire 100,000 bonus points you’ll need to spend a total of $20,000 within the first year of account opening. By no means impossible, but definitely a bit higher then many of the other offers out there. You do have an entire year, however, and using Vanilla Reloads could help you reach this minimum spend requirement. This card comes with a $95 annual fee a year and is NOT waived the first year.

I personally am a big fan of the British Airways Avios program. Redeeming miles works very differently then other loyalty programs so I recommend reading my British Airways blog series prior to applying for the card. And remember, British Airways is part of the OneWorld Alliance so you can use your British Airways Avios points on many partner airlines, including American!

While redeeming your points for a flight from the US to London will result in hefty taxes (including flights with a layover in London), there are some amazing opportunities to redeem your points which require minimal points and taxes are low. My top redemption opportunities include:

• Using your British Airways Avios flights for American Airline domestic flights. Specifically short-haul flights that only cost 4,500 Avios points one way – for example New York to Toronto.
• Flying from Boston to Dublin, Ireland on partner airline Aer Lingus will only cost you 25,000 Avios points roundtrip. Or, if you’d prefer business class you can flying for 50,000 points roundtrip. This route is also available from Chicago and JFK for 40,000 points in economy and 80,000 points in business. You can then fly to other parts of Europe from Dublin if you desire.
• Flying from Chicago, New York, Boston, or Miami to Madrid on either American Airlines or Iberia Airlines. You can transfer your British Airways points to Iberia’s “Avios” loyalty program and then redeem your points at a 1:1 rate. This will reduce the fuel charges significantly and you can redeem just 40,000 points + $124.79 in taxes. You can also do this for a flight to Barcelona although your fees might be about $20 more (direct flights to Barcelona are only from NY and Miami).

I personally got this card a few years ago. While I ultimately got 100,000 points, the minimum spend requirement was significantly less. I believe at the time it was about $10,000 over the course of the year.

Thanks to View from the Wing for sharing this promotion!

Disclosure: This is NOT my affiliate link, but the best available British Airways offer currently available. As always, enjoy traveling on a deal!