These Banks Will Pay You $500 Just for Getting Their Travel Rewards Card

The time I officially got into travel hacking was when I applied for a credit card just to receive the welcome bonus of 50,000 miles which has a value of approximately $500.

Up until that point I earned my airline miles the old-fashioned way, by flying. Mostly for business.

Do you know how many business trips you have to go on to actually fly 50,000 miles in a calendar year? It’s a lot. A milestone I only accomplished once. My typical year was closer to 35,000 miles.

Needless to say, my hard-earned miles were very precious to me.

I Used to Resent Those Who Had Travel Cards

It seems strange to me now but back then I used to resent the people who would get airline status and bonuses and privileges just for having a credit card, regardless of how few miles they flew. I was out there flying all over the place, fighting for every mile while the traveler with the card got the upgrade and the lounge access and the bonus miles. I didn’t fully understand how the system worked.

Well, that was then. I get it now and I’m 100% on board.

Travel Rewards Cards are the Easiest Way to Accumulate Miles and Privileges

The fact is, the best way to accumulate airline miles and privileges is not to spend most of your time in airplanes like I did. The fastest way to accumulate airline miles and privileges is through travel credit cards.

But not just any travel cards. You want to seek out the ones with the most substantial welcome bonuses. The ones willing to pay you up to $500 or more in miles just for getting one of their cards.  

However, you don’t want to pay through the nose for the privilege. Many cards that offer huge welcome bonuses also come with an equally large annual fee of $450 or more.

I’ll be focusing on cards with annual fees below $100, many of which have fees waived for the first year. This gives you a whole year to test out the card and see if it is right for you. And you still get the welcome bonus even if you decide not to keep the card.

Who are These Banks and What’s the Catch?

I’ll list the banks in a minute. But first, what’s the catch?

There is no catch. However, there are some qualifications. The first being that you get accepted for the card. The second is that you meet their stipulated minimum purchase requirement.

Minimum Spend Requirement

The minimum purchase requirement stipulated by the banks means the welcome bonus is only issued after a certain amount of money is spent on the card in new purchases, within a certain time period. The time period is usually the first three months of the card being issues and the minimum spend requirement can be anywhere form $1,000 up to $5,000. But it can be as little as a single purchase of any amount. For most cards it ranges between $2,000 and $4,000 in the first three months.

How Do They Pay You?

The welcome bonus is paid a variety of ways. Some banks actually pay you in cash back. Others pay you in miles. Trust me when I say you want the miles, not the cash back.

While they say cash is king, miles have a potential multiplier effect making their value far in excess of the cash value of the miles themselves. This is because when miles are transferred to airline partners, those 50,000 miles can be redeemed for airline tickets priced well above that $500 cash value of the miles.

Cards Paying $500 or More in Welcome Bonuses

Here are some travel rewards cards with welcome bonuses that have a value of at least $500:*

Card	Bonus	Approximate Value in $$	Spend Requirement	Annual Fee
Barclays Aviator Red	60,000	$600	1 purchase in first 90 days	$95
Barclaycard  Arrival +	70,000	$700	$5,000 in first 90 days	$89 (waived first year)
Capital One Venture	50,000	$500	$3,000 in first 3 months	$95 (waived first year)
Chase Sapphire Preferred	60,000	$600	$4,000 in first 3 months	$95
Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select	50,000	$500	$2,500 in first 3 months	$99 (waived first year)
Delta SkyMiles Amex	60,000	$600	$2,000 in first 3 months	$95 (waived first year)

*as of 03/19/19

• Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard = 60,000 bonus miles after paying $95 annual fee and making one purchase in first 90 days
  • Miles transferred to American Airlines
• Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard = 70,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 on purchases in first 90 days ($89 annual fee waived first year)
  • Points awarded in statement credit of $700
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card = 50,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening ($95 annual fee waived first year)
  • Transferrable to several travel partners
• Chase Sapphire Preferred = 60,000 bonus points (transferrable to United) after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening ($95 annual fee)
  • Miles transferrable to a variety of airlines and travel partners, United Airlines among them
• Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard = 50,000 bonus miles after spending $2,500 in first 3 months ($99 annual fee waived first year)
  • Miles transferred to American Airlines
• Gold Delta SlyMiles Credit Card from American Express = 60,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 in the first three months the account is opened ($95 annual fee waived first year)
  • Miles transferred to Delta Airlines

Getting the Most from Your Miles

The best way to get the absolute most value from your miles is to redeem them for travel. The reason for this is that there are many travel redemption scenarios where the flights you can book far exceed the dollar value of the award miles.

Here are Some Examples of what kinds of trips you could book for the welcome bonus award miles being offered by these credit cards.

Destination (flying from San Francisco)	Tickets	Total Miles	Examples of Cost*
New York	2 Round Trip – Coach	50,000	$758
Jamaica	2 Round Trip – Coach	60,000	$724
Hawaii	1 Round Trip – Coach	45,000	$523
Europe – London	1 Round Trip – Coach	60,000	$396
Europe – London	1-way – Business Class	57,000	$10,967
Asia – Japan	1-way – Business Class	60,000	$4,988

*Per google flights for travel on American Airlines on May 5^th, return on May 12^th 2019. Flights were checked on March 19th, 2019.

As you can see from the chart above, while the credit card welcome bonuses have a “cash value” of $500 – $700, in cases where these points can be transferred for flights, the value of these bonuses can far exceed their cash value. Often by thousands of dollars.

This is where it’s important to use your points strategically.

A Redemption to Avoid – Super Cheap Economy Tickets

If you were going to fly from San Francisco to London on this particular itinerary, it would make much more sense to pay $396 cash for the ticket than to spend 60,000 miles worth $600.

Why are economy class flights to Europe so cheap? Competition. Over the last few years, a lot of discount carriers out of Europe started flying to the US at very low prices, forcing legacy carriers to lower prices in order to compete.

A Redemption to Book – International Business Class

Unlike the economy class redemption to London, booking a business class flight to London would present tremendous value. In the example above that one-way ticket would cost over $10,000!

Now, this one-way price is obviously inflated because it is targeted at the business traveler. If you were to book a roundtrip business class ticket it would only cost $8,995, so obviously the one-way price is inflated. But even at half of the round-trip cost of $4,497.50, that still presents huge value for the 57,000 miles required to redeem that ticket. The cash value of those miles in only $570. Not a bad return on your investment.

This is why I’m such a proponent of international business class redemptions when it makes sense. In most cases that is where the most value can be achieved for the relatively fewest miles.

Conclusion

All of the issuing banks listed above will give you $500 or more, just for having their card. If you turn those miles into savvy travel redemptions the value you get could be hundreds or even thousands more. What’s in your wallet?