Question about Chase credit card Avios and friend ticket

[Eli_6]

I know people on here may not be able to answer this, but thought I would ask anyway.  My husband and I both have British Airways Chase cards.   The way it works on the credit card is once you spend so much on the card every year, you get a friend fly free BUT you have to book the friend fly free ticket on the BA website and use avios to pay for the main pasenger's ticket.  

 

So, for example, this past summer, my husband and I both purchased our tickets for ourselves with Avios and then used a friend fly free for each of our two children and we were able to all fly roundtrip business class to Europe.   We are doing the same thing for this upcoming summer as well...already have the tickets booked.

 

We have two more friend fly free tickets we have to use by July 2024.  (He has one and I have one.)  Problem is, we only have enough Avios for one round trip business class ticket and it appears they went "up" on how many avios the flights now cost...i.e. they used to be 120k avios and now they are 180k for business class.  My thought process was to have my husband close out his Avios card and then after about a few months, reapply because they offer a 100k sign on bonus. He would qualify because it has been more than 2 years since he got the new member offer and the fine print says you can get one every two years if you open a new card. My question is this:  If he cancels his current BA credit card, will that then cancel his "friend fly free" ticket that he has already earned?  I would not think so because those Avios and the friend fly free ticket are already "earned" and on our British Airways avios account.  But...you never know.  I was wondering if anyone knows... 

 

My other thought process was to have him take out a new amex card and get their miles (which transfer to British Airways) and then transfer it to his british airways. (We put everything we possibly can that doesn't charge a fee on our credit card and pay them off every month...I have put kid's private school tuition,  furniture, monthly bills, etc. on my credit cards and then pay them off just to accumulate avios/miles.) 

 

And, yes, I know that I am thinking about this way in advance, but I have to in order to make sure I have the avios/miles ready to book the flights when the rewards flights come out approximately 11 months in advance.  Many flights only have 4-6 business class reward tickets available per flight and since we are trying to get 4 of us on the same flight, I obviously want to book them as soon as possible. 

[Eli_6]

As an aside, I am using these to fly to cruises in Europe.

[FlyerTalker]

Double check that fine print.  I suspect that you can't just close a card after two years and get another with bonus shortly thereafter.

 

Also, Chase has 5/24, so that might preclude a new card.

 

Have you considered just purchasing the Avios from BA?  Or purchase from Iberia or Etihad, as sometimes the costs are different.

[the mice]

Chase can tell your husband exactly when he actually "earned" the sign up bonus and when he would be eligible again.   It might not be when you think it is.  Case in point: I received a sign up bonus for another Chase card in mid-May and 2 years later was trying to get in under an elevated sign up bonus offer for that card which was expiring May 31.  I had already canceled my card a few weeks earlier and called Chase about eligibility.  (Sorry, I cannot remember if I applied and got a message saying I was not eligible for the sign up bonus).  Chase told me their date of record was in early June, weeks later than the date I received the sign up bonus miles.  They wouldn't budge, even though my statements showed when the bonus miles posted.   So I ended up not applying for the card again.