The British Airways Visa Signature® Card is one of Chase’s popular co-branded airline credit cards. British Airways Executive Club is a great frequent flyer program, so in this post I wanted to take a closer look at this card, especially in light of the improvements that were made to it in 2019.
Who should be applying for this card, and under what circumstances is it worth spending money on the card? This is a card that I applied for last year and currently have, and it’s one that lots of other people would benefit from as well, in my opinion.
Note that if you’re looking to earn Avios with a US credit card, there are two other options — the Iberia Visa Signature® Card and Aer Lingus Visa Signature® Card.
British Airways Visa Card Basics For July 2020
There is lots to love about the British Airways Visa Card. The card has a big bonus of up to 100K Avios, it has a reasonable annual fee, it offers statement credits when you pay carrier imposed surcharges, and it earns points that can be useful whether you’re looking to redeem for premium cabin international flights or domestic economy.
Let’s take a look at what you need to know about this card, and what the best alternatives are.
Welcome Bonus Of Up To 100K Avios
The British Airways Visa offers a bonus of up to 100,000 Avios. That bonus is tiered, as follows:
- Earn 50,000 bonus Avios after spending $3,000 within the first three months
- Earn an additional 50,000 bonus Avios after spending a total of $20,000 within the first year of account opening.
Personally I value Avios at ~1.3 cents each, so to me 100,000 Avios are worth ~$1,300.
Those 100,000 Avios don’t include the points you usually earn for spending, so that means:
- Spending $3,000 will earn you a total of 53,000 Avios, which is nearly 18 Avios per dollar spent
- Spending $20,000 will earn you a total of 120,000 Avios, so incrementally you’re earning nearly four Avios per dollar spent (for $17,000 of spending you’re earning an incremental 67,000 Avios)
Assuming you spend enough on credit cards to reach the $20,000 of spending, I think it’s absolutely worth it. There could also be big value in spending $30,000, because that earns you a Travel Together Ticket, which I’ll talk more about below.
Redeem your Avios to fly British Airways’ new A350
$95 Annual Fee
The BA Visa has a $95 annual fee. This is not waived for the first year, and there’s no additional fee to add authorized users.
Card Eligibility
The welcome bonus on the British Airways Visa isn’t available to those who currently have the card, or those who have received a new cardmember bonus on the card in the past 24 months.
You are eligible for this card if you’ve had the Iberia Visa Card and/or Aer Lingus Visa Card, despite the similarities between the cards.
All Chase cards are also subjected to the 5/24 rule, whereby you likely won’t be approved for a card if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months. Then it’s worth being aware of Chase’s other general policies on card approvals.
Earning Avios With The British Airways Visa Card
The British Airways Visa Card has no foreign transaction fees and offers contactless payment, but does the rewards structure actually warrant putting spending on the card? It might, but only thanks to additional bonuses offered by the card.
Earn 1-3x Avios Per Dollar Spent
The card doesn’t have terribly exciting bonus categories. You earn:
- 3 Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and LEVEL
- 2 Avios per $1 spent on hotel accommodations
- 1 Avios per $1 spent on all other purchases
There are lots of great credit cards for airfare purchases and hotel purchases. This isn’t a card I would be putting much spending on unless you’re trying to earn a Travel Together Ticket, in which case it could definitely be worth it. More on that below.
British Airways Executive Club is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, so it could make sense to put spending on one of those cards if you want to earn Avios at an accelerated rate.
Redeem Avios for travel in Cathay Pacific business class
No Foreign Transaction Fees
The BA Visa has no foreign transaction fees, so it’s potentially a great card to use for purchases abroad.
Contactless Payment
The BA Visa Card features contactless pay technology. This means you can pay using your card without even swiping it whenever you see the contactless pay symbol.
How To Redeem British Airways Avios
British Airways Avios are a unique points currency, given that they have a distance-based award chart. This means that Avios are valuable for many types of award tickets where other programs wouldn’t be useful (and conversely, aren’t useful when many other programs may be).
Here’s the award chart for travel on British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus:
| Zone // Flight Distance | Economy Off Peak // Peak | Premium Economy Off Peak // Peak | Business Off Peak // Peak | First Off Peak // Peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 1-650 miles* *Not available in North America | 4,000 // 4,500 | 5,750 // 6,750 | 7,750 // 9,000 | 15,500 // 18,000 |
| Zone 2 651-1150 miles | 6,500 // 7,500 | 9,500 // 11,250 | 12,750 // 15,000 | 25,500 // 30,000 |
| Zone 3 1151-2000 miles | 8,500 // 10,000 | 12,750 // 15,000 | 17,000 // 20,000 | 34,000 // 40,000 |
| Zone 4 2001-3000 miles | 10,000 // 12,500 | 20,000 // 25,000 | 31,250 // 37,500 | 42,500 // 50,000 |
| Zone 5 3001-4000 miles | 13,000 // 20,000 | 26,000 // 40,000 | 50,000 // 60,000 | 68,000 // 80,000 |
| Zone 6 4001-5500 miles | 16,250 // 25,000 | 32,500 // 50,000 | 62,500 // 75,000 | 85,000 // 100,000 |
| Zone 7 5501-6500 miles | 19,500 // 30,000 | 39,000 // 60,000 | 75,000 // 90,000 | 102,000 // 120,000 |
| Zone 8 6501-7000 miles | 22,750 // 35,000 | 45,500 // 70,000 | 87,500 // 105,000 | 119,000 // 140,000 |
| Zone 9 7001+ miles | 32,50 // 50,000 | 65,000 // 100,000 | 125,000 // 150,000 | 170,000 // 200,000 |
Then here’s British Airways’ award chart for travel on partner airlines, excluding Aer Lingus and Iberia:
| Zone // Flight Distance | Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 1-650 miles* *Not available in North America | 6,000 | 9,000 | 12,500 | 24,000 |
| Zone 2 651-1150 miles | 9,000 | 12,500 | 16,500 | 33,000 |
| Zone 3 1151-2000 miles | 11,000 | 16,500 | 22,000 | 44,000 |
| Zone 4 2001-3000 miles | 13,000 | 25,750 | 38,750 | 51,500 |
| Zone 5 3001-4000 miles | 20,750 | 41,250 | 62,000 | 82,500 |
| Zone 6 4001-5500 miles | 25,750 | 51,500 | 77,250 | 103,000 |
| Zone 7 5501-6500 miles | 31,000 | 62,000 | 92,750 | 123,750 |
| Zone 8 6501-7000 miles | 36,250 | 72,250 | 108,250 | 144,250 |
| Zone 9 7001+ miles | 51,500 | 103,000 | 154,500 | 206,000 |
The basic things to be aware of include the following:
- For the British Airways award chart, peak and off-peak pricing varies based on the day you’re flying
- Pricing is per segment, so no matter what type of award you book, you’ll pay individually for each segment
- Travel on British Airways and many partner airlines is subjected to carrier imposed surcharges, which is the frustration that many people have with the program
There are so many great ways to redeem Avios, especially for flying shorter distances, where other programs have disproportionately high award costs.
This includes short-haul business class within Asia on Cathay Pacific, domestic travel within the lower 48 US on Alaska and American, travel between the US mainland and Hawaii on Alaska, short-haul travel within Europe on British Airways, travel within Australia on Qantas, and much more.
I find Avios to be invaluable as part of my overall miles & points strategy, as they’re useful in areas where other currencies aren’t.
Redeem Avios for travel on Cathay Pacific
The Value Of Household Accounts
Often one of the big challenges people have with points is figuring out how to pool them, since you typically need enough points in a single account for a redemption. One of the cool features of the British Airways Executive Club program is that you can form household accounts. This allows you to pool the Avios you earn with up to six other people registered at the same address as you.
This is especially awesome in the context of a credit card sign-up bonus, since you can pool a ton of Avios in a single account if you have two people sign-up for the card in a household, etc.
British Airways Visa Card Benefits
There are some benefits to the British Airways Visa Card that could alone justify having this card. For some people, it will be worth spending money on the card to unlock some perks, while for others just having the card and not spending money on it offers sufficient benefits.
Let’s look at how those benefits work.
10% Discount On British Airways Flights
One of the benefits of the best benefits of the British Airways Signature Visa is that it offers a 10% discount on British Airways flights starting in the US. To take advantage of this, just book through ba.com/chase10, and use your card to pay while using promotion code CHASEBA10.
If you fly British Airways with any frequency, this could cover the annual fee over and over. See this post for everything you need to know about the British Airways Visa flight discount.
Save on British Airways business class tickets with this benefit
Reward Flight Statement Credit
This perk was added to the card in 2019, and it’s potentially awesome. One frustration many people have with British Airways Executive Club is the high carrier-imposed surcharges that apply to many award tickets. Having the British Airways Visa can take some of the pain out of that.
If you have this card and redeem Avios for a reward flight, you can receive up to $600 in statement credits annually. You can earn up to three statement credits, as follows:
- Earn a $100 statement credit for an economy or premium economy booking
- Earn a $200 statement credit for a business class or first class booking
There are some basic terms to be aware of:
- You have to pay for the taxes, fees, and carrier-imposed surcharges with the British Airways Visa in order to get the statement credits
- The booking must be for a transatlantic itinerary originating in the United States with the transatlantic portion of the ticket on British Airways (though it’s fine if a connecting flight is on a partner airline)
- One-way or roundtrip travel seems to be eligible
- The reservation must be made out of the primary cardmember’s Executive Club account, though it’s fine if someone else is traveling
- The statement credit will post within 45 days of the eligible reservation being made, and will be reversed if the ticket is canceled
The statement credit can take some of the sting out of award redemptions
British Airways Travel Together Ticket
One of the potentially great perks of the British Airways Visa is that you can earn a Travel Together Ticket when you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year.
This companion ticket will be deposited in your Executive Club account four to six weeks after you’ve completed the required spending.
The voucher will appear in your Executive Club account
With this certificate, you can book a British Airways award ticket at the full cost of Avios and carrier imposed surcharges, and then for the second person, you just have to pay the surcharges.
While British Airways has hefty surcharges for travel on its own flights, this can still represent a great deal for first & business class travel, given how much those tickets would otherwise cost.
This isn’t for everyone, though it has the potential to represent a good value, and I know it’s a feature that many value.
It could be especially worthwhile to go for this the first year. In order to unlock the full sign-up bonus you need to spend $20,000, so at that point, it’s just an incremental $10,000 worth of spending to get the companion ticket.
See this post for everything you need to know about the British Airways Visa companion voucher.
The Travel Together Ticket can be worth it for first class travel
Is The British Airways Visa Card Worth It?
The British Airways Visa Card is offering an excellent sign-up bonus. This can be worth it regardless of if you’re a big spender who can easily knock out the $20,000+ worth of spending, or if you just plan on qualifying for the 50,000 Avios after spending $3,000.
Personally, this isn’t a card I would use for everyday spending, since you can earn British Airways Avios at a better rate with other American Express or Chase cards.
However, I absolutely think this card is worth holding onto if you fly British Airways with any frequency:
- The value of saving 10% on British Airways flights will add up quickly
- The up to $600 in credits for carrier-imposed surcharges can cover the annual fee on this card over and over, if you redeem Avios for travel on British Airways that originates in the US with any frequency
- If you redeem Avios on British Airways, the Travel Together Ticket could be well worth it, especially the first year, when you’re spending $20,000 anyway to unlock the full sign-up bonus
For me the BA Visa more than justifies the annual fee
What About The Aer Lingus Card & Iberia Card?
There are three Avios currencies, all belonging to International Airline Group (IAG) airlines — there’s British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia. There are also two other US-based credit cards that directly earn Avios. Specifically, we’re talking about the Iberia Visa Card (review) and Aer Lingus Visa Card (review).
Which of these cards should you select? They have a lot in common:
- They have the same annual fees
- They all offer welcome bonuses of up to 100,000 Avios
- They all have the same bonus categories
- If you meet certain conditions, you can transfer Avios between all programs at a 1:1 ratio
The differences mainly come in the form of the perks associated with just holding onto the cards, and also the perks associated with spending $30,000 on the cards in a calendar year:
- The British Airways Card offers 10% off British Airways flights and up to $600 in reward flight statement credits; you can get an award companion ticket for any class if you spend $30,000
- The Aer Lingus Card offers priority boarding for Aer Lingus flights; you can get an economy companion voucher on a paid ticket if you spend $30,000
- The Iberia Card offers 10% off Iberia flights; you can get a $1,000 companion flight discount voucher if you spend $30,000
The best card to select comes down to which benefit you value most. Also remember that you’re eligible for all three of these cards, should you be interested, so you don’t necessarily have to choose between them.
Aer Lingus also has a co-branded US credit card
Best Alternatives For Earning Avios
If you want to earn British Airways Avios, I’d recommend getting a card that earns either Amex Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards points:
- Both of these points currencies can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to British Airways Executive Club
- Many American Express and Chase cards offer bonus categories that can earn you points at an accelerated rate
- Sometimes we even see transfer bonuses to British Airways; for example, in 2019 we saw a 40% transfer bonus from Amex and a 30% transfer bonus from Chase
With that in mind, which cards should you consider? Here are some of my favorites:
- The Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) offers 3x points on dining and travel
- The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) offers 2x points on dining and travel
- The Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review) offers 1.5x points per dollar spent on everyday purchases
- The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) offers 3x points on the first $150,000 spent per cardmember year on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
- The American Express® Green Card (review) offers 3x points on dining, travel, and transit
- The American Express® Gold Card (review) offers 4x at restaurants, 4x points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 of spending per calendar year), and 3x points on airfare
- The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (review) offers 2x points on the first $50,000 spent per calendar year
British Airways Visa Card Summary
The British Airways Visa is one of the best co-branded airline credit cards out there, in my opinion. The card offers an excellent sign-up bonus, and it can be worth spending money on the card to earn a companion ticket.
Beyond that, the card can be worth having for the discounts offered on both paid tickets (up to 10% off) or award tickets (up to $200 in statement credits), which can cover the annual fee over and over.
However, when it comes to earning British Airways Avios long term, personally I’d much rather earn Amex or Chase points, and transfer them to British Airways. Not only does this allow you to earn points at a much faster rate, but it also gives you a lot more flexibility with your points.
If the BA Visa isn’t yet in your wallet, I would seriously consider it…
If you want to learn more about the British Airways Visa Signature Card or apply, follow this link.
I was strongly considering this card the other day since BA business is an easy ticket to score out of SEA even though the fees were in the $500 range. I thought $300 won’t be too bad.
Anyway, I checked a few flights and now the fees are in the $700 range each way!!! So, they give $200 off big deal. Also, pricing on BA website seemed to be about 15-20K more than the same flights on Alaska or AA for the few flights I looked at. I’m out.
Geez what’s going on with the blog? Lately starting to feel more like a credit card hawking site.
Rico,
It depends where and when you look. In particular a one-way flight to London from the US can be very expensive, more than a round-trip in some cases. I which case $600 for a OW flights is a deal.
Obviously if there are deals and sales you are better off with cash
Also note that you can use Avios on any One World airline, and most have very low fees e.g. First class on JAL To Tokyo which I redeemed for last year
And 123K signon bonus (effectively) is excellent.
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise, try redeeming those vouchers for First Class travel…..
It is utterly hilarious and monumentally sad at the same time that there’s no comparable British Airways Card available in the UK, the home country of British Airways. There’s nothing even comparable.
I don’t have any trip to UK with any regularity, so its a big no from me.
@Nick B , it’s actually NOT “utterly hilarious.” Banks offer credit card products for commercial purposes. The credit card market in the UK is much much different (putting it lightly) than the US Market. The card issuers in the UK are much more limited in profiting off of consumer credit cards (in the UK), hence they don’t have great offers in the UK. It’s really all rather simple. I do believe there are a number of things in the UK that favour merchants over consumers (from a fee perspective). So, the combination of it NOT being commercially viable for banks (hey, they are in business to make money) and the much smaller UK market for credit cards (in comparison to the USA) makes it perfectly logical that there are not better credit card alternatives for the UK market in 2020.
@TravelZork the Australian market (population 25 million) also has it better than the UK (population 66 million). It’s common to see multiple cards in Australia offering 100K+ on sign up. The most you see in the UK is 10K and there’s literally just a couple of cards that earn Avios. Just a whinge really from me … I’ve lived in the past profiting from cards, knowing that others are effectively paying for all my points and freebies.
@Nick, as I said there were merchant limitations on fees put into place. I believe it’s a combination UK perhaps UK/EU “thing.” (I am not an expert in this area.) So there is a very strict cap on the % that merchants can be charged on personal credit card products. Banks can’t make any extra £s off of travel rewards CCs. Hence, why many of the FinTech products that are popular in the UK are “business cards” (Curve is a business Mastercard debit) to get away from those limits. This is one element of the puzzle. The USA or Australian markets are NOT relative to the UK market. It’s all about £s and the commercials to the UK banks. Further, best UK MC/Visa product right now is the promotion for the VS MasterCard product when has a total bonus of 35k VS Miles (off the top of my head). AMEX basically “owns” the travel loyalty card product market in the UK. I do not foresee any real change in that until merchant fees and a few other factors are addressed.
Back to the carrier surcharges! Crazy Eddie would be impressed with the high carrier surcharges.
I have the card. I have 200,000 Avios. I book lots of AA via Avios with success. I looked at US to LHR and found availability without issue but US $600 carrier surcharges. I can book via LifeMiles on UA hardware with $30 in taxes. Crazy!
My wife signed up for this card last year during the 100k promo (I had already done it when it came around a few years back). We spent the $20k and got the miles, then pushed through to $30k to get the cert. We haven’t seen the cert materialize, and she called Chase last week to ask about it. They said they’ve never heard of that benefit and it’s not on our account anywhere. Any advice? Send them a link to the public card benefits page?
Think it is on the British Air website.
John, I have used the 2-4-1 vouchers successfully three times. You are doing something wrong.