I received information to apply for a BA Visa card. It states that I can earn miles for BA and it's partners. I've never had a card that earns air miles. Is it easy to redeem your miles, is it worth it? Does anyone else have this card? Just don't know whether it is worth it to apply or not. I always pay my balance off each month. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

I don't know about the BA credit card but there are lots of credit cards out there offering miles. A few years ago we had one to earn miles on Northwest Airlines. After we had accumulated enough purchases to earn a free ticket we called to book one, thinking this would be great to use to visit my daughter in Minneapolis. Well for our "free" ticket the credit card company wanted $1000! Apparently the miles only earned you a $300 discount off the cost of a full fare no advance purchase ticket price. What a rip off. We cut up that credit card pronto and won't ever consider these airline miles claims again. Oh, and I bought my own ticket to Mpls. on Travelocity and paid less than $300.

I don't have the BA card, but my husband and I both have the Northwest card that Daisy posted about. I've never had that experience with my card- its been great. You have to plan way in advance to redeem your free miles. There are a restricted number of 'free miles' seats available on each flight and when they are gone you are out of luck or you will have to pay double miles. Read the fine print and decide if that card is the best thing for you- many times they have annual fees. If you use credit cards, pay them off in full every month, so you don't have to deal with the interest payment.

You'll get a lot more detailed information about your question on the flyertalk.com bulletin board (which focuses on frequent flyer programs), but here are a few basics:

- BA miles accumulated on a card are as easy (or hard) to redeem as miles accumulated through travel.
- If you pay off your balance each month, such a card could be a good deal for you (one of the downsides of such cards is that they often have very high interest rates - bad for those who carry balances).
- Whether it's worth it depends on how much you charge to the card. I've had such a card for years, and usually I accumulate enough miles per year for at least one North American ticket.
- Check whether your card offer means that you get automatic enrollment in BA Executive Club. If you're not a BA Exec Club member yet, this could be worth it, because enrollment in BA Exec Club is now restricted to people who fly at least once in one of the more expensive economy tickets or in a premium cabin (and people who get BA credit cards).
- Don't make a decision based on the possibility of "free companion tickets". There are usually lots of strings attached, making such offers not very valuable.
- Consider whether another promotional card is a better deal for you - e.g. a card that refunds a small percentage of the balance, one that gives you hotel points etc.
- If you're thinking of getting a credit card that accumulates airline miles, shop around for the deal that suits you best. If you don't fly a lot on Oneworld Airlines (BA, American, Qantas etc), you might be better off with a card linked to your preferred airline. Even if you do fly OneWorld, you might be better off with a card linked to a different airline in the group (e.g. if you're in the US, a card linked to American Airlines might be a better deal). Even though you can redeem BA miles on partner airlines, the redemption conditions are more restrictive on the other airlines (e.g. cancellation and change penalties, inability to upgrade a ticket using miles, etc.) Or you might prefer a card that accumulates points that can be converted into miles on one of several airlines at a later date.
- Sometimes it's worth waiting for the second mailing - they might offer more bonus miles than the first time they send you the application. But it's a risk.

This is a very interesting card offered by Bank One. Like the airline cards offered as linked by the airlines as opposed to credit cards offering miles on credit card operated programmes (such as Capital One miles and MBNA whatever it is called), the miles go into your frequent flyer account. The frequent flyer programme offered by BA does allow travel on AA (except transatlantic flights on AA which compete with BA). When you reach, I believe 50,000 miles, you can use them to get a ticket on BA say to London subject to capacity controls although with the many flights BA operates say between NY and London, it is not a problem.

Just let me add one other thing about this particular card. The programme is offereb by Bank One. Three or four years ago, Bank One imposed the additional 2% fee for foreign currency transactions. This has been discussed ad nauseum, it is a fee where the banks do nothing for you but charge it anyway because they can. Anyway, when Bank One imposed the fee on all their cards, this particular card was exempted. Holders of this card paid just the pass along 1% fee of Visa for foreign transactions. I always believed the reason this card was exempted was because BA didn't want people paying this surcharge when they were a foreign airline.

Several months ago, for whatever the reason i.e. Bank One decided to give BA a piece of the action or something like that, Bank One suddenly reversed this policy and began attaching the 2% surcharge to purchases in foreign currency on this card. Nobody at Bank One or BA has been able to explain this abrupt change in policy. Nobody at Bank One can explain what services they are providing to justify this charge other than it is standard practice in the industry, a downright lie of course.

Anyway, the programme is good, BA frequent flyer programme is good because of the tie in with AA (I think for 25,000 miles you can get a free domestic trip on AA). But you pay a $75 fee and now have to pay the 2% on foreign transactions.

While it's true that you can get an AA flight with BA points, there are some hassles with using BA points to book rewards with partner airlines - most importantly, you can't cancel or change the ticket once it's booked. The points are gone if you don't use the ticket for the exact itinerary you originally booked. Also, while you can use points to upgrade a BA ticket (e.g. buy an economy ticket and use points to upgrade), you can't do the same thing with BA points on an AA flight. That's why I suggested that you should get a miles-linked credit card that is linked to your primary airline (if that's BA, great but if you mostly fly AA you're better off looking for a credit card linked to AA).

All true...incidentally BA also has a partnership with America West.

The things I think you need to check on are: whether or not you must use ONLY US-flagged carriers? who are the partner airlines? And don't forget, a partner airline today may not be a partner airline tomorrow. can you book open jaws tickets? do you have to book 21 days or more out? do you have to stay over a Saturday night? Is there a dollar limit on the value of your ticket? what are the blackout dates? how long can you hold the miles before they expire?

Daisy54, I've never heard of the situation you describe with the Northwest Airlines Card.

I had one for years and used miles for free flights, not dollar discounts. What's missing here?

Did you get in a situation where there were no FF seats on the days you wanted and had to purchase a ticket instead of using the miles for a travel award?

That happens often when you don't call and reserve seats well in advance.

Degas - the credit card we had that we tried to use for a ticket on Northwest wasn't a Northwest Airlines specific card, it was from MNBA and we had to choose which airlines to use the miles for. We chose Northwest since my daughter lives in Minneapolis which is NW's hub and one of the few airlines that flys there non-stop from L.A. We were willing to be flexible as to dates & times but it was still $1000 for a coach ticket. So we decided we would be better off shopping for a credit card with low interest & no annual fee, rather than one with alleged perks.

Daisy, your problem was not with Northwest, but with those multi-airline frequent flyers card accounts. I have looked into them, and if you read the small print, they say good for a free ticket worth up to $300 or $400 full price. Well, there are NO $300 full price fares anymore, so it ends up being just what you found, $300 off full fare, and you can find supersavers for way below that.

If Northwest is a good airline for you to fly (you are close to a hub or something), you could get a strictly Northwest card, and be happy using it.

Daisey54, thanks, I knew I was missing something in your story. I rejected one card that was very similiar to that kind. Fine print killed you!

I do use an airlines card, but pay off all charges each month so the interest is not a factor. It takes me about 18 months to get enough miles for a flight to Europe and it costs me about $90 in fees for that period. I think that is a good deal, but we do have to plan ahead to ensure FF seats are availible. I also use the miles for upgrades to business class, which is a welcome treat.

Yes, the card is a fine way to get BA miles. And the BA Executive Club (frequent flier program) works pretty well.

But that "foreign transaction fee" that one poster mentioned is just absurd. In that regard, the card is no longer a good one to use for overseas travel. I use mine to purchase BA tickets, but not for other expenses while traveling overseas.

Can you imagine how absurd it is that British Airways allowed Bank One to pull this garbage. British Airways is a foreign airlines profiting from its customers travelling to foreign destinations. I am sure their objections were one reason Bank One did not initially put the foreign surcharge on this card; the only card they sponsor they didn't. Why BA is allowing this now is beyond me.