by Daniel | Last Updated September 18th, 2021
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If you travel a lot for business or pleasure between the US and Europe, then the British Airways Visa Signature Card is definitely worth looking into.
It has a reasonable annual fee and a great signup bonus that easily covers the cost of the card for quite a few years.
So let’s take a more detailed look at the British Airways Visa Signature Card and see exactly what you get for your money and if it’s worth adding to your wallet.
So Who Is This Card Good For?
The British Airways Visa Signature card is most beneficial for anybody who travels regularly between the United States and Europe, As most of the benefits and points earning potential are directly related to travel from the US to Europe via British Airways.
So if you rarely travel to Europe if at all, this card won’t provide you much value.
But if you do travel to and from Europe often then this card is worth considering as it does offer some great benefits.
And as this is a Chase Card, there is the 5/24 rule, which means that if you have opened 5 or more credit cards across any banks within the last 2 years, you will most probably be denied the approval of receiving the card.
So now let’s continue on and see what the annual fee of this card is.
Annual Fee
The British Airways Visa Signature card has an annual fee of $95, which is not too expensive compared to some more premium cards that have fees that can exceed $600 per year.
But let’s take a look at what exactly you get for the $95 annual fee.
Sign up Bonus
So the British Airways Visa Signature card has a sign-up bonus that offers you 100,000 Avios after you spend $5,000 within the first 3 months of opening the account, And just so you know, Avios are basically a frequent flyer currency that British Airways uses.
And Avios points are worth approximately .8 cents per point, so the 100,000 Avios sign-up bonus is worth approximately $800.
So in terms of a sign-up bonus, it’s pretty decent as it easily covers the annual fee of the card.
Earning Points
So now let’s take a look at how the British Airways Visa Signature card fairs in terms of earning points.
For the first 12 months of card ownership, you will earn 5x Avios is per dollar spent on either British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Iberia flights, and after 12 months this will revert to 3x Avios per dollar spent.
You will also receive 3x Avios per dollar spent at hotel accommodations during the first 12 months of card ownership, and after the 12 months is up it will revert to 2x Avios.
And then all other purchases will receive 1 Avios per dollar spent.
So if you do travel a fair amount, especially in or to Europe from America, you will be able to earn quite a lot of points just through the 5x Avios earnings during the first 12-months of card ownership, and the 3x Avios on hotel bookings is also pretty decent.
Benefits and User Perks
So from here let’s look at the benefits and user perks that are offered with this card.
And the main perk that this card offers is the ability to earn up to $600 in reward flight statement credits each year.
How this works is quite simple, if you use the credit card to book a reward flight to London traveling on British Airways, you will receive a statement credit.
First up you’ll get $100 back for an Economy or Premium Economy booking, and any Business or First Class booking will receive $200 in credit, and this is available to use 3 times per year.
So if you do travel to the UK or Europe more than a few times per year from America this is a really good benefit to have.
You will also have the opportunity to get 10% off British Airway flights that originate in the US when you book through a particular website that is provided to you by Chase.
Another benefit that is quite valuable is the ability to earn a Travel Together Ticket.
And to receive this you will need to spend $30,000 in a calendar year on the credit card, and the travel together ticket basically gives you the ability to bring along a friend on the same flight when you book a reward flight on a British Airways mainland flight the originates and returns to the United States, all you will have to pay for is any taxes, fees or carrier charges, and the travel together ticket is good for 2 years.
You will also receive a free 1-year DashPass Membership which usually costs $9.99 per month.
And this gives you free delivery on orders over $12 from DoorDash.
As this card is part of the Visa Signature program you will also get a $100 credit that can be used on either Global entry or TSA-PreCheck.
And finally, there are no foreign transaction fees associated with this card.
So for a card with a $95 annual fee, there are quite a few decent benefits that are included that can easily offset the annual fee fo the card on a continuing basis
So let’s now move on to what this card offers in terms of insurance-related benefits.
Insurance-Related Benefits
First of all, you will receive baggage delay insurance that will provide you up to $100 per day for 3 days if your luggage is delayed by the carrier by more than 6 hours, and this is to cover expenses such as toiletries and clothing.
You will also have trip delay reimbursement that will provide you with up to $300 if your trip is delayed for an extended period of time.
Next up you will receive lost luggage reimbursement which covers you or an immediate family member if your carry-on or checked luggage is damaged or lost by the carrier, and it covers up to $3,000 per passenger.
There is an auto rental collision damage waiver that will cover you if your rental car is damaged due to theft or a collision.
You will also receive purchase protection that gives you 120 days of coverage on new purchases, and this covers damage or theft up to $500 per claim and a total of $50,000 per account.
And finally, you will get extended warranty protection that provides you with an extra year of warranty on any US manufactures warranty that is 3 years or less.
So these are some pretty decent insurance-related benefits that include some pretty good travel-related coverage.
Final Thoughts Of The British Airways Visa Signature Card
So what are my thoughts about the British Airways Visa Signature card?
I think if you do travel between the US and Europe quite often, then it is definitely a card worth adding to your wallet as the annual fee is easily covered by both the sign-up bonus and the benefits and user perks that come with the card.
If the $5,000 spend within the first 3 months of card ownership to receive the sign-up bonus is a bit much for you then maybe the Chase Sapphire Preferred card might be something to consider, it has the same $95 annual fee, and it is currently offering a 100,000 point sign-up bonus after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of card ownership, which is $1,000 less than the British Airways Visa Signature Card, and theses points are worth up to $1250 when redeemed through Chase Ultimate rewards.
And if you’d like to see my review of this card you can click here
Anyway, that’s all I have for now, but I’d love to know what you think of this card? and if you would choose it or the Chase Sapphire Preferred card?