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The British Airways Visa Signature Card has long been a favorite of TPG thanks to the large sign-up bonus and ability to earn a companion ticket after hitting a spending threshold. Recently, Chase launched a sibling Avios-earning card with the Iberia Visa Signature Card. And now, Chase is introducing a third Avios card: the Aer Lingus Visa Signature Card.
Chase — who’s learned the power of a 100,000 point bonus — is going big with a sign-up offer worth up to 100,000 bonus Avios.
Sign-Up Bonus
This card offers three tiers to the sign-up bonus:
- 50,000 bonus Avios for making $3,000 in purchases within 3 months of account opening
- 25,000 bonus Avios for making an additional $7,000 in purchases (for a total of $10,000) within 12 months of account opening
- 25,000 bonus Avios for making an additional $10,000 in purchases (for a total of $20,000) within 12 months of account opening
The terms and conditions restrict “current cardmembers of this credit card” as well as “previous cardmembers of this credit card who received a new cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months.” Considering this is a brand new card, no one should be limited by these restrictions at this time.
Earning From Spending: Cardmembers will earn 3 Avios “for every $1 you spend on Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, LEVEL and OpenSkies purchases.” All other purchases will earn 1x Avios.
Companion Ticket: Just like the British Airways Visa Signature Card, you can earn a companion ticket by spending $30,000 or more on this card in a calendar year. Digging into the terms and conditions, we see the good news that “no taxes and fees apply to the Companion Ticket.”
However, the T&C also drop some bad news: this voucher is only good for economy flights. “The Companion Ticket will be in the form of a voucher that can be redeemed by a Cardmember for an economy companion ticket with a paid economy flight.”
Other Benefits: There are no foreign transaction fees on this card. Also, cardmembers and authorized users will get priority boarding on Aer Lingus operated flights between the US and Ireland. You don’t have to book the flight with your credit card to get this perk. Instead, cardmembers “must display their valid Aer Lingus Visa credit card number at the gate prior to boarding.”
Annual Fee: $95 per year. Unfortunately, this annual fee isn’t waived for the first year.
What’s Missing: This card doesn’t offer the 10% discount on flights that the British Airways Visa Signature Card and Iberia Visa Signature Card offer.
Also, when rumors of this card surfaced last month, this card was supposed to include auto rental collision damage waiver, lost luggage reimbursement and purchase protection. Unfortunately these benefits aren’t listed on the card’s offer page.
Although the British Airways Visa Signature Card and Iberia Visa Signature Card both are not subject to Chase’s 5/24 rule, after a few recent new credit cards, I’m in an application cool off period. While we don’t yet have data points if this card is subject to 5/24, we suspect that it’s not.
Source: thepointsguy.com