British Airways has decided to release their 100,000 mile credit card promotion again this year. The application and information is officially on British Airways site today. Gary, from one of my favorite blogs, View from the Wing and The Points Guy, another of my recent favorites, already have extensive discussions on the merits of the card and program, so I will leave it to the experts.
When the promotion ran last year, after it went away I had remorse that I never signed up. So now we have a chance again to potentially score 200,000 miles between my wife and I. However, I am again plagued with the issue of opening new cards when a new mortgage is in our near future. Also, in light of the Epsilon internet marketing breach that occurred earlier this week, I pulled both of our free Equifax credit reports through annualcreditreport.com just to make sure nothing weird was going on. We are clean except both of us already have one hard inquiry within the last 12 months from when we got pre-qualified for home loans last year. So unfortunately, I do not want to risk any more hits to our credit while we await for our current home to sell. Therefore, this is another great promotion we will have to watch go by and miss out on. Hmm, home ownership for our growing family or travel?
Unfortunately, the short term goals of building rewards for future travel falls short of the importance of securing a good mortgage rate in the future. The potential savings from just a fraction of a percentage point over a 30-year home loan could easily pay for any future travel. In addition, with young kids, international travel, which the British Airways miles would be best suited for use, is not in our best interest. It is too bad though because in addition to the generous enrollment offer, the British Airways card offers 1.25 miles per every dollar spent, no foreign transaction fees, plus a companion ticket with $30,000 spending within a year. Keep in mind the card also comes with a $95 annual fee, but at $0.00095/mile, it is an excellent offer to consider adding to your portfolio.