HarryTheSpider

Hi All

Just spotted this on the BA web site - the link wasn't working yesterday, but it is now.

Similar to previous deals. Anybody have any more on this?

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...penxtype=click

Cheers

Harry

sambapink

There is a $75 annual fee. I wasn't informed of this at the time I applied for the card. Refused to pay it, went back and forth with Chase about it for quite some time and they reported non-payment to the credit agencies. I'm trying to get it removed as we are applying for a mortgage and it has been quite detrimental to my credit score. I no-likey Chase

nettlebed

Me too. We just dumped all our Chase stuff, apart from the mortgage, which we intend to refinance next year. When we went into the branch to close the accounts, the clerk and manager got really snotty with us, as though them trying to give us a hard time would make us want to stay.

I hate the big banks with a real vengeance.

ottotheboar

I find it is not easy to redeem the miles on a straight ticket, the best way is to use them to upgrade.

tonrob

It's a bloody fantasic card. Mrs tonrob and I each applied for last year's offer and got the 100K miles each which we then deposited into a (pooled) household account. During the year we received a number of additional offers via e-mail (e.g. bonus miles for adding additional cardholders, mileage bonuses for hitting certain spend limits in particular months etc.) which we took full advantage of. We also managed to hit the $30K spend threshold for the 241 mileage redemption voucher.

So far, from these cards we have:

Upgraded return flights from US to France (via LHR) from premium economy to (gorgeous, lie-flat) business.
Done an outright redemption for AA first class flights to the west coast and back.
Used the 241 voucher to book round trip, again in business, to go to Germany next summer.

We have a healthy miles balance left so I predict we'll be good for round-trip in business again in 2012 at least. Almost all our miles have come from Chase (instead of actually earning them by flying). The experience I got from the BA card led me to go on to take advantage of further offers from AA, Starwood and Marriott with similar great results.

All in all, without a shadow of doubt, the best $75 (x2) I ever spent. Even if the current offer is only $50K I'd still probably jump on it if I were you.

tonrob

Depends which routes you fly (some are a lot more easy than others, e.g. BOS-LHR is fairly easy as there are a number of flights each day). I agree though about the upgrades. BA's 'Miles for upgrade' is one of the best-value ways to use them (maybe apart from when you have the 241 mileage redemption voucher - if you can find availability on your route of choice).

Giantaxe

Does BA still stiff you for its fuel surcharge on frequent flyer redemptions? If so, you're still paying almost $400 in taxes and surcharges for a "free" ticket from the US to the UK.

Giantaxe

I guess the answer is "yes" it does and those surcharges are about to go up. Imo, this is a significant disadvantage in BA's (and Virgin's) frequent flyer programs as compared to most American airlines.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ve-16-dec.html

tonrob

Yes they do. It's why I only redeem for business class. $440 return Boston-Frankfurt via LHR in Club World seemed a reasonable price for me to pay, especially as I got the miles themselves for free to begin with (i.e. not for flying). When I redeemed BA miles on AA to the west coast we only paid $5 per person each way in fees for first class.

Giantaxe

I guess you could apply the same argument to upgrades as well. So the key is to use BA miles for higher classes, upgrades and partner airlines, I guess. For BA cattle class, it's kind of a ripoff.

tonrob

I agree.

Rete

Me, too. I also don't like Bank of America (BOA). Years back I paid off a cc with BOA. Had the desk tell me what was owed and wrote the check then and there. They hounded me for the $.37 they said was due and owing.

Manc

Bank of america are absolute bastards.

tonrob

Are you sure? I think it would require significant re-training and investment in human capital for them to upgrade to that level.

Manc

maybe an injection of morals and ethics too......