Finally our long-lasting struggle as a species is over: It’s not raining tacos anymore, but instead it’s raining Avios, or at least drizzling them.
New Cards
Two new cards issued by Cardless entered the market yesterday. Taken at face value they barely qualify for /r/mildlyinteresting content, but since when do we take anything at face value around here?
Cardless Privilege Club Infinite
This is an all time high (and all time low) sign-up bonus (affiliate link free application):
- 25,000 Avios after one transaction
- 25,000 Avios after spending $5,000 in 90 days
- 10,000 Avios if you apply by June 4
- 150 Qpoints toward status
- $499 annual fee
Ongoing spend:
- 5x on Qatar
- 3x on “restaurant spends” (yes, that’s the term they use)
- 1x elsewhere
Cardless Privilege Club Signature
This is also an all time high (and all time low) sign-up bonus (affiliate link free application):
- 20,000 Avios after one transaction
- 20,000 Avois after spending $3,000 in 90 days
- 10,000 Avios if you apply by June 4
- $99 annual fee
Ongoing spend:
- 4x on Qatar
- 2x on “restaurant spends” (yes, they kept it the same the second time)
- 1x elsewhere
Bonuses on Old Cards
Other Avios cards that aren’t issued by Cardless are joining the party too: Chase’s Avios cards have sign-up bonuses of 85,000 Avios after $5,000 spend in three months. All of these have had better offers in the 100,000 to 130,000 points range the past and will probably have better offers in the future though, so I see little to no reason to pay any attention.
MEAB Commentary
Remember, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, American Express Membership Rewards, and Capital One miles all transfer to at least one Avios partner, and Avios miles can mostly be transferred freely between all partners at Avios.com. That means that each of the sign-up bonuses mentioned above should be compared with an average sign-up bonus for flexible currency cards, like the Ink Preferred or Venture X Business card. That generally makes the Avios cards a bad deal.
There is a specific use case that changes everything though, especially if you have a way to manufacture “restaurant spends” with the Cardless Infinite card. Qatar’s status Qpoints are earned based on non-promotional Avios earning, not based on total spend. So, $500 in “restaurant spends” on the Infinite card will earn you 1,500 Avios and 2 QP, which means you can earn Gold status with 450 QP from spend and 150 QP from the sign-up bonus, all for only $112,500 in restaurant spends. UPDATE: I’m not sure how I missed it, but the Infinite card gives you Gold status in the first year without any need for restaurant spends. Thanks to Eric for letting me know.
Qatar Gold status will earn you oneworld Sapphire, which will get you access to AA lounges including Flagship lounges even on domestic flights, and it’ll get you into much nicer oneworld alliance member lounges too. You can also retain status with 270 QP in subsequent years, so you’ll only need $67,500 in restaurant spends to renew.
Good luck, and happy Wednesday friends!
The Qatar status program visualized (from /r/mildlyinteresting)