This bonus offer expired Thursday, May 5th, 2011 at 11:59p.m. EST.

I just told my wife a few days ago that I actually regret not getting in on the British Airways Visa credit card 100,000 miles promotion.  We have friends in South America and using the LAN service would only cost us 40,000 miles in economy or 80,000 miles in business class with an unlimited number of stops.

That’s almost $3,000 worth of travel just for getting this card.

I actually predicted this promotion as I had received some emails yesterday that gave me an indication that Chase was planning something big with the British Airways Visa credit card.

British Airways Credit Card 100,000 Bonus Miles Offer

The offer is for 50,000 bonus miles after your first purchase and then an additional 50,000 after spending $2,500 on the card within three months.  That’s a total of 100,000 miles. 

If you haven’t already had a British Airways Visa, this is a great time to sign up. It’s even a good card without the bonus (that’s why I included it in the best credit cards for April when this was just a 50,000 bonus mile offer).

Here are some specific details about the card:

• Earn 1.25 miles per dollar you spend (or 2.25 on British Airways flights).
• No foreign currency exchange fees.
• Free companion award ticket when you spend $30,00 each year.

There is a $95 annual fee for the card.

Cautions regarding the British Airways 100,000 Miles:

1. If you have recently (within the last 6 months) applied for two credit cards with Chase, you’ll likely have to sit this one out.  That’s because Chase is known to be quite particular about the number of Chase brand cards you can have.  I know that once when I applied for two cards within a month period, I had to call and sweet talk them into approving the card.
2. British Airways is known to have some very heft fuel surcharges (like $400+ between North America and Europe).  It is possible to fly other partner airlines and get around the fee, but I just wanted you to be aware of the fees.

What can you do with 100,000 British Airways miles?

• You can get 4 roundtrip flights in the US on American Airlines.
• You can get some truly amazing itineraries to South America.  As an example, you can get New York (JFK)-Lima-Easter Island-Santiago-JFK in economy for 40K miles each, or 80K each for business class seats.  British Airways allows an unlimited number of stops.  A quick search on Orbitz showed that just JFK to Easter Island round trip (without the stops) would cost $1,391 per person.  That means you get over $2,700 worth of flights with this card.
• You can get a business class ticket on Cathay Pacific from North America to Hong Kong.  A quick search on Kayak.com shows that flight (business class) at $6,788.

Remember, any adults over 18 will be eligible for this promotion.  You can get one for yourself and one for your spouse.