How One Sign-up Bonus Paid for 7 tickets from Florida to Calgary
Full disclosure: The flights were one way and in economy. But still, not bad, right? Such is a tale of 100,000 miles British Airways Visa bonus. If I had to pick my most lucrative credit card sign-up bonus ever, this would be it. I would like to highlight it and show you what is possible with miles.
Four years ago, Chase came up with 100,000 BA Visa after just $2,000 spent. I really had no use for the miles at the time and we just had a new baby, but the offer seemed too good to pass up. Indeed it was. Well, then they offered a couple of promotions to add an authorized user to get an extra 5,000 miles and so forth, and before I knew it, we had 125,000 miles without ever getting on their planes. I got a similar offer in my name later, though not quite as good. The miles just sat there and sat there. I honestly was not sure when we would use them.
Well, a few years ago, my sister-in-law talked me into going to Canada. I really hesitated, since we had a toddler and a 4-year-old, but in the end agreed. I had no hope of finding 7 award tickets together (my in-laws were coming too), but still checked my BA account. Well, we did find 7 seats both ways on American Airlines, who is a partner. I have redeemed my AA miles for several tickets, because it was 12,500 miles apiece, instead of 17,500 on British Airways.
The truth is, British Airways just went through a change in the program, where it was more expensive for us to get the flights we needed. This redemption was not spectacular; we only got 1.38 cents per mile after taxes. Since I value a mile at 1 cent, anything over that is fine by me.
Why am I telling you this? Remember how in the beginning I said that we ended up with 125,000 miles after just a 1 card sign-up? That one bonus covered tickets that were running $250 apiece, or $1,750 total. The card had an annual fee of $95, so technically, we got $1,655 from one card! These are the flights we would have paid for, if we had to. This offer still comes back now and again, though the spending requirement to get the 100,000 miles is $20,000 instead of $2,000. Yes, this was my best sign-up bonus ever!