Special Offer - 100,000 Bonus Miles - Right now, the British Airways Visa Signature Card is offering a 100,000 Avios sign up bonus. Here is how it works. After you use the card for the first time, you will get 50,000 bonus miles in your BA account. Upon spending $10,000 within the first 12 months, you get 25,000 additional miles. Then if you spend another $10,000 within 12 months (ie total spend of $20,000), you will get another 25,000 miles. That makes it a total of 100,000 Avios miles if you spend $20,000 within the first year. I got this card myself last year (so did Mrs Credit Card) when they ran a similar 100,000 bonus offer and we have absolutely no regrets about accumulating over 200,000 miles in our account!

But aside from the bonus miles, let's take a closer look at this card.

Miles Formula - The British Airways Credit Card allows you to earn 2.5 miles on British Airways purchases and 1.5 miles for every dollar you spend on other purchases. You can earn unlimited miles. If you spend $30,000 on the card each year, you will get a Travel Together Ticket which is essentially a free companion ticket when you redeem your BA miles for a BA flight (not with their partners).

No Foreign Transaction Fee - The British Airways Card joins a select group of rewards credit cards which do not charge any foreign transaction fee. This is great news for international travelers.

SMART PIN Technology - Another great feature about this card is that it comes with a SMART PIN embedded in the card (much like those in Europe) so that it will work just as well when you travel abroad.

One World Partners - British Airways is a member of the OneWorld Airline Alliance. That means that you can use British Airways miles for tickets on OneWorld's airline members. They include

• American Airlines
• Cathay Pacific
• Iberai
• FinnAir
• LAN
• Qantas
• Japan Airlines
• Malev
• Mexicana
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• S7 Airlines


Non One World Partners - BA is also partners with


• Aer Lingus
• Alaska Airlines
• KingFisher

This card has a few positives going for it. Firstly, you earn 2.5 Miles for bookings on BA versus the standard double miles for most other airline cards. Secondly, you earn 1.5 miles on regular purchases which is better than the standard 1 mile for all other airline cards.

It is comparable with the better airline cards in that you get a free companion ticket equivalent when you spend $30,000 a year.

The fact that it charges no foreign transaction fee makes this card a standout among airline credit cards at this moment.

The BA Miles that you earn on this card does not count towards elite status progression or retention (as BA calls it). Other cards like United, Delta Reserve and Platinum versions all allow card members to earn certain amount of elite qualifying miles when you meet certain spend levels. One could argue that these cards that allow elite qualifying miles earnings have higher annual fees and are the upper tier cards.

Lastly, the card does not give automatic access to BA lounges, which is a feature that many other cards have.

Conclusion - The British Airways Visa Signature Card will be most suitable for folks who fly frequent to Europe or London via British Airways. It really allows you to rack up a lot miles (which you need for upgrades and offsets to their infamous fuel surcharges). Because of their partnerships with American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, you can use their miles for domestic trips as well. But regardless of whether you fly them or not, you should take advantage of their 100,000 bonus miles offer.