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Card issuers are continuing to pull out all the stops to attract new customers to travel rewards cards.
The latest offer aimed at elite travelers comes from Chase and its British Airways Visa Signature card. For a limited time, the card is offering 100,000 air miles to new customers.
With the British Airways Visa Signature card, you earn 50,000 bonus miles after your first purchase plus an additional 50,000 air miles after you spend $2,500 in the first three months of the account opening.
Those 100,000 bonus air miles are enough for two transatlantic reward flights.
With the British Airways Visa Signature card, you earn 2.5 miles for every dollar that you spend on British Airways purchases. You earn 1.25 miles for every dollar that you spend on all other purchases. The card comes with a $95 annual fee.
Every year that you charge $30,000 on the card, you will receive a free travel voucher for a companion that can be used in conjunction with a British Airways rewards flight. This voucher, which is called a "travel together ticket," is good for two years.
As with several other credit cards from Chase, the British Airways Visa Signature card does not charge foreign transaction fees.
Most banks and credit card issuers charge foreign currency conversion fees when customers make purchases outside the United States. This fee is often 3 percent of every foreign purchase made with the card.
In recent months, Citibank and American Express have made moves to drop fees for foreign purchases from some credit cards.
Capital One has a longtime policy of not charging fees on foreign purchases on any of its credit cards.
In March, Capital One launched a travel rewards promotion on its Venture Rewards credit card that matched reward miles earned on an airline credit card. The promotion ended after 25 days when Capital One matched one billion rewards miles for new Venture Rewards customers, according to a press release from Capital One.
