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British Airways 100K offer is back! Plus a quadruple dip worth a look

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BA 100K: The on-again, off-again 100,000-mile offer from British Airways is on again. Whether or not this is a good deal depends on whether you’ll take advantage of the sweet spots of this program, which generally do not involve flying on actual British Airways flights. Good values include flying BA partners on short haul domestic trips (I can go from my Charlotte home to NYC for 9,000 miles, or to Miami for 15,000), or from the west coast to Hawaii, or from the U.S. to Central or South America, or even using Iberia Airlines to cross the Atlantic.

If you’re in a position to do any of those trips, then this is a great deal. You get 50,000 miles after your first $2,000 in purchases, and then 25,000 after the next $8,000, and 25,000 more after a subsequent $10,000. The BA card gives you 1.25 miles per dollar, so you’ll end up with 125,000 miles if you meet the $20K minimum spend. Note that the annual fee of $95 is not waived.

So after the 50,000-mile initial bonus, this card is effectively a 4 miles-per-dollar card for the next $18K of spend. And if you’re going to hit that $20K mark, you’re then only $10K away from the BA companion pass, which may or may not be worth it for you.

UNITED DEVALUATION: I really don’t have anything to add to the conversation, but I will say that Frequent Miler’s exclusive interview with a high-ranking United exec was pretty funny.

DISCOVER “IT” NOW OFFERING $100 BONUS: UPDATE: The bonus is up to $150 now. The Discover IT card is now offering $100 cash back for a $500 spend, the highest bonus I’ve seen for this card. (This is not an affiliate link, by the way, nor is anything else in this article.) If you’ve considered adding their rotating 5% card to your arsenal, it might be a good time to pull the trigger. $100 isn’t great, but Discover is known to have the occasional good deal on portfolio marketing efforts.

AMEX / BEST BUY QUADRUPLE DIP: There’s currently an Amex Sync offer that gives you $25 back on a  purchase of $250 or more at a certain blue-and-yellow electronics retailer, and hopefully by now all of you know that you can buy Visa gift cards there and get 2% back on your purchase for the chain’s loyalty program. I certainly knew that, but what I didn’t know was that it gets even better: Miles, Points, and Mai Tais informed me of the existence of something called Shopkick, which can add another couple of percentage points to the deal. MPMT’s math:

  • $400 (2x $200) of Visa gift cards ($5.95 fee) = $411.90
  • $25 Statement credit – $11.90 in fees = $13.10 money maker
  • 411 My Best Buy (formerly Reward Zone) points (250 points = $5, so $8.22). Elite members earn 10-25% more points.
  • 1661 kicks from Shopkick (2500 kicks = $10) worth approx. $6.64 in gift cards

…which gives us a profit of $28 for this deal. Apparently Target is involved with this Shopkick thing, so those of you with the Target Amex may want to look into this.

AND FINALLY: Travel Blogger Buzz reports on a sweet but short-lived manufactured spending deal he found at the Speedway gas station. Definitely worth a read!

Comments

  1. JOHN says

    Re: B.A. Chase card offer
    How many Chase cards can (or should) a person have?
    I have 5 now, so a little leery of applying for the B.A. offer.

  3. pfdigest says

    I wouldn’t let that stop you from applying. Even if you do have too many, they should still let you close an account in order to get the new one approved via the reconsideration line.

  4. pfdigest says

    It doesn’t get a lot of attention, but that store’s credit card is surprisingly nice to have in your wallet. 🙂

  8. pfdigest says

    I don’t know if you can use gift cards to buy Visa GCs–last time I checked was a year or two ago and I’d be surprised if they haven’t tightened up since then. I do know that you can *not* use rewardzone/myrewards certificates to buy Visa GCs. You can, however, use the certificates to buy Amazon/Kindle GCs.

  9. Elaine says

    Thanks for the tip on Discover. Just this weekend I saw a $75 link but this is better. I know many folks turn their noses up on this card but $100 is $100! Link is working now.

    I am applying for the CSP with my next churn so wonder about adding the British Airlines card as well, as both are Chase… I currently have two other Chase cards but want the CSP since we’ll be downgrading my husband’s when his fee hits in a few weeks. But I will consider it. Thanks again.

  10. pfdigest says

    Just saw this over at FWF:
    http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1001041/m18075949/#m18075949

    the poster says “Last time I did it, bestbuy allowed me to buy Visas using GC and reward zone cards”

    …I’ve tried a couple of times recently to use RZ certs to buy prepaid cards and both times it was a no-go. The second time they told me the system wouldn’t let it go through. Maybe it’s a YMMV thing? I hestitate to make a definitive pronouncement since I don’t have a great deal of information.

  15. pfdigest says

    Thanks, saw that on SD a couple of hours ago. I’ve edited this article with the improved offer and I’ve put a blurb in tomorrow’s exciting installment.

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