Update: There’s been some interesting discussion in the comments about whether you will be able cancel the card once you get the miles and have them prorate the annual fee, or if you will be able to switch this card into a no annual fee card and get the miles for free. The bottom line is that YMMV (Your mileage may vary) you might get a great rep who will help you out and you can wind up with this whole deal for free, or you might not.
Is the deal hot? Yes, and it’s simple why. Even if you can’t get Chase to prorate or waive the $85 it is worth it because of the value of a mile.
In essence you are buying 20,000 miles for $85, a cost of about 4/10ths of a penny per mile.
As far as the uses go:
-Coach ticket to Israel on Continental is about $1,000 for 70,000 miles= 1.42 cents per mile value
-BusinessFirst ticket to Israel is about $5,000 for 100,000 miles= 5 cents per mile value.
-3 systemwide RT Tickets on Southwest/ATA is about $1,000 for 20,000 miles=5 cents per mile value.
-12 systemwide RT tickets on Southwest with a companion pass is worth at least $5,000 for 50,000 miles=10 cents per mile value.
-5 nights of $400 hotel rooms is worth $2,000 at a cost of 20,000 miles=10 cents per mile.
As you can see, buying miles for under half a cent each is a hot deal, and can be extremely hot if you make good use of the miles, or if you get the fee prorated or waived and pay nothing!
Related Links:
Transfer Amex/Amtrak/Continental/Starwood Into Choice Points And Southwest Credits Post!
Chase Amtrak Mastercard Post
Continental Business World Mastercard Linky
Continental Consumer World Mastercard Linky
Chase bank offers 2 Continental Mastercards, a consumer and a business version.
They both now offer 20,000 Continental mile upon signup.
They can be applied for at the same time without any problem.
Best of all-both cards are churnable, so even if you’ve gotten a bonus from Continental in the past you can earn it again!
Unfortunately both cards have $85 annual fees, which are not waved for the 1st year. But the value you can now get out of Continental miles far outweighs the fee for a year.
What you can do with just 20,000 Continental miles:
Boring:
-Use all of it for a short-haul domestic flight on Continental.
More interesting uses:
-Transfer it into 100,000 Choice Privileges points, enough for 5 stays at normally $400/night Manhattan hotels.
-Save up for a 70,000 coach(3.5 card churns) /100,000 businessfirst ticket (5 card churns) to Israel.
-Transfer it into 40 Southwest credits. Assuming you took my advice and signed up for the 8 free credits, you now have a couple options:
-3 Sytemwide Round-Trips on Southwest Or 3 Systemwide Round-Trips besides Hawaii on ATA.
-1.5 Round-trips to Hawaii on ATA (32 credits/Hawaii ticket)
Chase has just upgraded the Continental Airlines Business Card to “World For Business” status.
World Mastercards are the only US issued credit cards that offer free CDW insurance when renting a car in Israel.
Both Continental cards have “World” status.
Additionally both cards will let you save 5% on all Continental.com tickets by using the code: ONEPASS
Other benefits for the business card include:
-Earn 5,000 more bonus miles once you spend $25,000 on the card.
-Earn 2 miles per dollar spent on Continental tickets.
-Earn 2 miles per dollar spent at restaurants, gas stations, and at office supplies stores!
-Earn 1 mile per dollar spent elsewhere.
