Bank of America Asiana Visa Signature Review
Updated September 2, 2016. Since August 2016, this product is issued as a Visa Signature. For the previous BofA Asian Amex, please see our review here.
The Facts
The Math
If you can effectively offset the annual fee by the anniversary 10K-mile certificate, $100 annual rebate, or two Asiana Lounges passes, you may want to keep this card. However, since the new earning rate for general spending is only 1 mile per dollar spent, we will recommend you use Amex SPG since it allows points to be transferred to Asiana Club Miles and returns 1.25 miles per dollar spent.
The Conclusion
This Asiana Visa is a good card to keep for Asiana flyers. Its 3-2-1 earning structure is also pretty competitive if accumulating Asiana miles is what you want to do. For general spending, we recommend Amex SPG due to higher return rate.
The Facts
- Annual Fee: $99
- Signup Bonus: 30,000 miles after you spend $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening. Historical Best Bonus: 38,000 miles on Asiana Amex in 2014 with a requirement of purchasing an Asiana ticket; 30,000 miles on Asiana Visa in 2016.
- Application Landing Page
- Rewards: 3x Asiana, 2x gas and grocery stores, 1x everywhere else.
- Best Use of Asiana Club Miles: Asiana Airlines is a member of Star Alliance. Asiana Club Miles are generally valuable when redeemed on Asiana or partner flights. You need to take into account the fuel surcharges that are added to award tickets though.
- Major Benefits: (1) One $100 annual rebate towards Asiana purchases. (2) Two Asiana Lounge passes upon anniversary (only valid in Asiana lounges in U.S.) (3) One 10,000 miles certificate upon anniversary - note that this is not 10K miles but rather a certificate that you can combine with Asiana miles in your account to redeem. (4) Waived foreign transaction fees with an embedded EMV chip.
- Other Facts: Before August 2016, this product was issued as an American Express by BofA. In late 2012, BofA greatly diluted the value of this product by replacing the 2x miles on everything with a 3-2-1 earning structure. In August 2016, BofA switched from Amex network to Visa network for this product - most features are kept the same with an addition of waived foreign transaction fees.
The Math
If you can effectively offset the annual fee by the anniversary 10K-mile certificate, $100 annual rebate, or two Asiana Lounges passes, you may want to keep this card. However, since the new earning rate for general spending is only 1 mile per dollar spent, we will recommend you use Amex SPG since it allows points to be transferred to Asiana Club Miles and returns 1.25 miles per dollar spent.
The Conclusion
This Asiana Visa is a good card to keep for Asiana flyers. Its 3-2-1 earning structure is also pretty competitive if accumulating Asiana miles is what you want to do. For general spending, we recommend Amex SPG due to higher return rate.