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The British Airways Visa Signature® Card has brought back the potential to earn a big upfront welcome offer.
The card, issued by Chase, phrases its new sign-up bonus like this: Earn 50,000 bonus Avios after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. Plus earn an additional 50,000 bonus Avios after you spend $20,000 on your purchases within your first year of account opening.
You’ll also earn:
- 3 Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways.
- 1 Avios for all other purchases.
- A Travel Together Ticket every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases on the British Airways Visa Signature® Card. It’s good for two years and grants you a seat on the same flight and in the same cabin for a companion. You’ll pay taxes, fees and carrier charges for the additional seat.
The $95 annual fee is remaining the same.
» MORE: Airline cards that offer companion tickets
Previous offers
From January through June 2019, the British Airways Visa Signature® Card had switched to a different form of incentive, one that heavily favored bigger spenders. During that time, there was no traditional upfront sign-up bonus. Instead, the card earned 4 Avios for every $1 spent on all purchases within your first year up to $30,000, for a potential earning of up to 120,000 bonus Avios. After reaching that threshold, you’d return to the typical earning rate of 3 Avios for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases and 1 Avios for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
This isn’t the first time the British Airways Visa Signature® Card has offered a chance at snagging a 100,000-point sign-up bonus. At one point in 2017, the card allowed new cardholders to earn Avios in stages:
- 50,000 bonus Avios after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months.
- An additional 25,000 bonus Avios after spending $10,000 total on purchases within your first year, for a total of 75,000 bonus Avios.
- A further 25,000 bonus Avios after spending $20,000 total on purchases within your first year, for a total of 100,000 bonus Avios.
This new sign-up bonus makes it possible to earn up to 100,000 Avios, but there’s no longer that middle 75,000-point possibility.