British Airways is currently offering a Visa card through Chase with a 100,000 50,000 Avios sign up bonus.  The usual bonus is for 50,000 Avios but from time to time larger offers like this appear.  I recently wrote about the advantages of booking short flights on American Airlines by using British Airways Avios.  I have also used British Airways Avios to book business class seats to and from Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific Airlines and friends of mine have used Avios to fly Qantas Airlines in Oceania.  Ironically, what I wouldn’t use British Airways Avios for is to fly British Airways!  Why?  British Airways imposes very expensive fuel surcharges when you fly them which make an Avios redemption almost just as expensive as paying for a ticket.  In fact, I just priced a ticket from New York to London on January 16 and returning January 21 on the British Airways site for $890 versus spending 40,000 Avios and $687 in fuel surcharges. In my opinion, redeeming 40,000 Avios is hardly worth the $203 savings.

In order to earn the 100,000 50,000 Avios, you need to spend quite a bit.  Here is the breakdown:

• 50,000 Avios after you spend $2,000 in purchases in the first three months your account is open
• 25,000 Avios after you spend an additional $8,000 (for a total of $10,000) in purchases within the first year your account is open
• 25,000 Avios after you spend an additonal $10,000 (for a total of $20,000) in purchases within the first year your account is open

If you’re not a heavy spender, shoot for 50,000 points.  That’s enough for 5 round trip tickets between New York and Boston, Washington, D.C., Columbus or Cleveland.  Or, you could fly economy class on Cathay Pacific from New York to Hong Kong for 35,000 Avios and $144 in taxes or on a flat bed in business class for 70,000 Avios plus the same taxes and fees.  British Airways even offers you a choice to redeem fewer miles and spend more cash on your long haul tickets; if you want that business class seat on Cathay Pacific, you can redeem 50,000 Avios and pay $784 in taxes and fees.  Not bad, considering that same seat is currently selling for $4,525.

Each dollar you spend on the card earns you 1.25 Avios and there are no foreign transaction fees.  The card carries a $95 annual fee which is not waived for the first year.  The fine print also specifies that current or previous British Airways Visa cardholders are ineligible for this sign up bonus, though in my experience I find that as long as you cancelled the card over one year from the date of your new application, they will award the sign up bonus.  I fall into this category, having cancelled my card in April 2012.  I applied today and will update this posting with my success.

UPDATE: I received the first batch of the bonus points on this card the other day.  As I noted, Chase will usually honor the sign up bonus as long as the time between cancelling a card and reapplying for the same one is over year in length.