The British Airways Visa Signature® Card is currently offering 100,000 Avios as a signup bonus for being approved for the card.  The 100,000 Avios comes as a tiered bonus

• 50,000 Avios after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months
• An extra 25,000 bonus Avios after you spend $10,000 within your first year from account opening
• An additional 25,000 bonus Avios after you spend $20,000 within your first year from account opening

I’m a big fan of planning where you want to go BEFORE you just sign up for cards, and strongly believe that (especially if you’re just starting out) you should go slowly and make sure you understand the ramifications of what you’re doing.  Above all, I repeat my mantra: DO NOT SIGN UP FOR A CREDIT CARD JUST BECAUSE SOME GUY ON THE INTERNET SAYS THAT YOU SHOULD!!!

Having said all that, the British Airways Visa Signature® Card is over on our top credit card offers page, and I may receive a commission if you’re approved for it after going through my link

There are some indications that the 100,000 offer may be ending September 30th (Saturday) (reddit r/churning, VFTW).  It’s hard to say if this is the case or not for sure.  Others have seen October 5th as a possible end date.  A lot of times in the miles and points world it can be a bit of an echo chamber where someone blogs about something, then someone else writes a similar post based on the first one, etc. etc.  So in this case, who knows when and whether this 100,000 Avios offer will expire.

Here are 5 reasons to consider the British Airways Visa Signature® Card

Short-haul flights (even within the USA)

British Airways has a distance-based chart, which means that the cost in Avios of a flight depends on the number of flown miles between the origin and destination.

I know many people starting out ignore British Airways and Avios because they’re focused on domestic flights and think that because British Airways doesn’t fly domestically within the US that there is no use for Avios (I did when I was first starting out).  But actually Avios are one of the cheapest ways to fly short-haul flights domestically.  Any flight less than 1150 flown miles costs only 7500 Avios one-way.  You just need to fly on one of British Airways’ partners – which in the US are primarily Alaska Airlines and American Airlines

It used to be even better as flights 650 flown miles or less cost only 4500 Avios.  That’s still true outside of North America, where you can get some really good redemptions on oneworld partners.

Cheap west coast flights to Hawaii

Another sweet spot on the British Airways distance-based award chart are flights that are close to 3000 flown miles.  Boston to Dublin at 2994 flown miles used to be the most-used example, but BA changed the rules on that flight specifically.  But you can still use only 12,500 Avios to fly from most West Coast cities to Hawaii, as long as the flown distance is under 3000 miles.

This used to be THE cheapest way to get from the West Coast to Hawaii, but recently an even cheaper award chart came out for miles to Hawaii.

Family pooling

British Airways is one of the few airlines that allow you to combine / pool your miles and points with friends and family for free.

(SEE ALSO: How to transfer Hilton points to friends and family for free)

You can set up an Avios household account for up to 7 people, combine all your Avios, and then book flights for any of the 7 people using your combined stash of Avios.  Read more in my earlier article about the British Airways household account.

British Airways Avios also transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards, Starwood AND American Express Membership Rewards, so if you need even more Avios, they’re not that difficult to get.

It’s not subject to the Chase 5/24 rule

Unlike most Chase cards, which are hard / impossible to get if you’ve had 5 or more cards in the past 24 months, the British Airways Visa Signature® Card is still available even if you’re over 5/24

(SEE ALSO: The two types of cards not subject to Chase 5/24)

So for those of you like me who are “running out of” cards to get, this is an attractive option.

Earning a companion ticket

If you spend $30,000 on your card in one calendar year, you’ll get what British Airways calls a “Travel Together” ticket.  You can get 2 tickets for the mileage price of only one ticket on ANY British Airways flight (in any cabin class).  $30,000 is a lot of course and you should consider what other points you might get with that spend, but if you’re spending $20,000 to maximize the 100,000 Avios bonus and have a good source of spending, it’s not THAT much more 🙂

Unfortunately, it’s only good once and you still have to pay all the taxes and fees.  So if you’re using it on a premium cabin award, that can be pretty extensive.

If you’re looking for a companion ticket that allows unlimited companion travel, you may want to check out the Southwest Companion Pass

(SEE ALSO: Is now the right time to apply for the Southwest Companion Pass?)

I would not recommend this card as your first card, and personally I don’t know that I’d spend the $10,000 or $20,000 to fully maximize this offer, but if you have an easy source of spending (either organic or manufactured), this definitely has a good signup bonus

Are you planning on applying for the British Airways Visa Signature® Card?  Where are you planning on going with all your Avios?

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