If you have been reading my posts, you can see that most of my credit cards are issued by American Express, Chase and Citibank. Rob and I recently got 4 new credit cards issued through those banks in the last few months, so I need to hold off on my applications to those banks for a bit. (See #6 in Getting Started) I have not gotten a credit card from a different bank for years, until now……..
I just applied for and was approved for the Virgin Atlantic World Elite MasterCard credit card from Bank of America.
The offer that I took advantage of, but which is no longer available, is below. Maybe they will run it again! The offer code was VAB858.
20,000 Flying Club bonus miles after your first retail purchase
50,000 additional Flying Club bonus miles after you spend at least $12,000 in qualifying purchases within 6 months of your account open date (This is the part of the offer no longer available)
Earn up to 5,000 Flying Club bonus miles when you add additional authorized users to your card. (2,500 bonus miles per additional cardholder–I added Rob!)
This 6 month $12,000 spend would normally be tough for me because I love using so many of my other credit cards on everyday spending, but I have a plan. I send my 3 kids to sleep away camp. Our camp lets us pay our hefty deposit and our tuition monthly using a credit card. So this is the card I gave the camp. This 12K will now not be a problem! Does your camp take credit cards? This is a question worth asking…….
In addition to the 75,000 Flying Club miles above, you can earn an additional 15,000 Flying Club bonus miles. If you keep the card for a year, you earn 7,500 bonus miles when spend $15,000 in your first year and an additional 7,500 miles when you spend $25,000 in your first year. Fortunately or should I say unfortunately :-), I will meet both of these thresholds with my camp tuition.
The $90 annual fee is not waived with the offer :-(. Although I personally will not use this card on anything but camp, it does have some attractive features, most notably…Earning 3 miles per $1 spent directly on Virgin Atlantic purchases and 1.5 miles per $1 spent on all other purchases. Most airlines have a 1 to 1 spend ratio on purchases as opposed to the 1.5/1 ratio for this card. (Chase British Air Visa has a 1.25/1 ratio).
Also, similar to British Airways Visa Travel Together Ticket (but in my opinion, not as attractive despite the spend threshold of $25K versus $30K), if you spend at least $25,000 in Net Purchases using your card within a year (beginning on the date you open your account and continuing for every 12 month period thereafter), you will also qualify for an Economy companion reward ticket for half the standard miles of a reward economy seat, maximum one reward companion ticket per year. You must pay flight related taxes, fees and charges relating to the complimentary reward flight.