The 100,000-Mile British Airways Credit Card Bonus Is Back

You may remember the 100,000-mile bonus for new British Airways credit card sign-ups in 2010.

This is not that.

The original offer—one of the most generous ever—featured 100,000 bonus miles after new cardholders charged $2,000 within three months. Quick, easy, and lucrative.

In subsequent years, the offer was reprised, but with increasingly higher charge targets to earn the full 100,000 miles.

And now, in 2016, we have this:

• Earn 50,000 miles after spending $2,000 within three months
• Earn an additional 25,000 miles after spending $10,000 within the first year, or 50,000 miles after spending $20,000

So you’ll have to charge $20,000 to the card within 12 months to earn 100,000 miles.

There’s no published end date to the offer, so it could be scaled back at any time.

RELATED: Air Passenger Study: Flyers Happy to Pay for Upgrades. Really?

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Note, per the offer’s terms and conditions: “This product is available to you if you do not have this card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.” In other words, if you earned the bonus and cancelled the card more than two years ago, you’re eligible to earn the bonus a second time.

Card Details

• Annual fee: $95
• Annual percentage rate: variable, Prime Rate plus 12.74 percent, currently 16.24 percent
• Cardholders earn 3 Executive Club miles for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases, 1 mile for every $1 spent on other purchases.
• Cardholders receive a free companion award ticket every year they charge $30,000 to the card.
• Smart chip technology, so the card can be used for chip-based purchases in Europe.
• No foreign transaction fees

The Executive Club Caveat

For most consumers, $20,000 is a lot of spend. But a year is a long time. And 100,000 is a lot of miles.

As always when discussing British Airways’ Executive Club program, the issue of sky-high fuel surcharges on award tickets must be raised. While it’s possible to get solid value by redeeming miles for flights on British Airways’ partner airlines, it does require extra work to circumvent the most noxious fees.

Reader Reality Check

What would you do with 100,000 British Airways miles?

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After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.