nettlebed

I had a Providian card that became WaMu that became Chase, and is now about to become an ex-card.

As far as customer reviews of these sort of things go, they're normally squeaky-wheel stuff: people who got screwed over bitch about it, so the larger the company, the more negative reviews you're likely to see (in purely numerical terms). My view is that ALL credit card companies are bastards that want to rip as many dollars from you as they can, and to hell with the lot of them.

I pay my balance off each month, and only take cards with a fee where it will benefit (e.g. tonight M & I booked return flights from SEA->EWR for a total of $216, thanks to our cheap companion fare). She has applied for the Chase card - I can't, as a current customer - and when we have taken advantage of them, we'll drop them as soon as they start to try and rip money from our nostrils.

Nettie

BTW, I'd rather have a skunk than a dog any day...

tonrob

Chase are absolute arseholes when it comes to customer service in my experience.

Unfortunately I've had a few occasions where I have had to call them and my experience has been poor each time. The most recent was where I was trying to get a statement date changed so that points would post to a rewards account ahead of a certain date on which I wanted to redeem them for an expensive hotel stay.

I had held the card for a few years so was comfortable with the posting cycle/dates and actually called to change the statement date over two statement cycles in advance to give it plenty of time for potential cock-ups.

My first request resulted in a "yes, no problem" but the next statement still came on the old date. Still with plenty of time I called them to point out their error - no apology but I was reassured that they would fix this for the next statement. This (my calls and their assurances) carried on to the point where we were days away from my need to redeem and I called them to make sure everything would be ok as the statement dates were still cocked up.

Was told all would be fine. Lo and behold - it wasn't. I called them at the last minute but they weren't interested - they admitted responibility but shrugged their shoulders on the subject of accountability - they couldn't give a toss. The supervisor I spoke to just kept repeating the same nonsense and I asked for a manager. I got dumped into voicemail. I called back and asked for a live manager and they point blank refused. Basically I was stuffed and they didn't give a shit. I have been a cardholder for 5 years and have 3 cards with them. Tossers.

John Murray

The BA site shows 50,000 for a flight from USA to Zone 1 (UK). Is this 50,000 return or 50,000 each way? I couldn't find this specified anywhere.

cindyabs

Normally that's return unless you're looking at Biz or First Class.

rebs

I agree that a credit card linked to an airline reward program is a great way to build up substantial amounts of points. We had a credit card in the UK linked to Virgin flying club and have a fair few points for them - not much use here since Virgin don't fly to our local airport

We've also got a few of the companion ticket vouchers - but they don't work in the way I was hoping they would. Certainly for Virgin, you have to purchase a ticket with a certain fare code in order to be able to use the companion voucher - that fare code excludes tickets purchased with points/miles.

I've also never been successful in getting a reward flight booked with a partner airline - despite the fact that ought to be possible

Mallory

I decided to get this Chase Visa/BA card. I made the first purchase over Xmas, which is supposed to give me one free ticket to zone 1. I then made a charge for $2,500, as you have to make $2k more charges in the first 3 months to get the 2nd ticket. The day after I made the 2nd charge I got an e-mail from Chase stating that they had changed the rules, and invited me to go online and look.

I went to look to see what the change was, and they had charged me a $75 annual fee! Can't cancel the card, because I would lose the 2 tickets. Exortion by CC companies makes me sick.

snowbunny

Ouch! I hate that. Many companies are racing to beat the implementation of the consumer protection act passed last summer by Congress. It either should have gone immediately into effect, or not been passed at all. Every single card issuer is now jacking up every fee and sending heaps of mail about it.

Dan725

You're not serious, right? $75 annual fee for two free transatlantic tickets (plus an optional third companion ticket if you spend $30k, plus accumulated miles spending that $30k amounting to nearly a fourth...) doesn't seem like a bad deal to me. I must've gotten this card right around the same time you did, and was always aware there was a $75 annual fee for the visa signature card.

Mallory

Well they aren't really free are they? I think the taxes and fees, for 2 tickets, are over $300, plus the $75.

Not complaining about the tickets. I just didn't like getting an e-mail as soon as I fell into the trap for $75. I like to know things beforehand. BA is getting ready to strike at Easter, which is something else to consider.

Dan725

Yep you are right, "Free" is stretching it a bit but still not a bad price. BA does seem to have the worst taxes and fees around for some reason, but for me it's the only direct shot to the UK so makes it worth it, strikes permitting....

Mallory

It's not the most convenient airline for me, which does make a difference. I'm still happy to get the tickets, it's just the boomerang e-mail about the $75that annoyed me.

tonrob

Where did you read that the card didn't have an annual fee? It was clearly stated when I applied back in early December.

As an FYI - BA miles go further and there are lower fees when you use them with some of the One World partner airlines. A spanner in the works is that you can't use BA miles on trans-Atlantic AA flights though (but apparently Finnair and Iberia are ok as long as you don't mind connecting).

There are some interesting threads on Flyertalk about using the points. One creative chappy (apparently) booked from NYC to Tokyo and back with a stopover in Hong Kong with his 100K points - one way economy but first class in the other direction!

Mallory

Must have missed it in the fine print!

tonrob

Anyone booked with their BA points yet?

Mrs tonrob and I have the full monty (200k) between us via this offer and we've been tossing up our options between:

1) Taking a holiday to South America (why not?) although I'm still trying to find out how to best find the options we have for traveling to various countries/cities and how many points this would be for economy/business etc.

2) Going to Europe and blowing all the points to go first class on BA.

3) According to some very useful but long-winded and confusing threads from the mileage boffins on FlyerTalk the best value/bang-for-buck you can get from these points to buy World Traveler Plus (BA's "premium economy") and then use miles to upgrade to Club ("business"). At 25k points a pop each of our Chase cards would give 4 upgrades each! Even better, as you are buying the base ticket you actually earn about 10K miles each time you do this! (So, essentially - if we went home once a year and paid WT+ we could upgrade free to business for 4 or 5 years!)

So many options, so little vacation allowance.

Edit: Pat - this has got to be worth $75....

Bob

South Africa this summer for the world cup?