Credit card sign up bonuses are rare these days and this deal looks unusually hot, almost like the old times. The card is called Premier Rewards Gold Card and when you sign up you will receive 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of membership. You can convert these to 15,000 frequent flier miles or buy $150 in gift cards to stores like Old Navy, Home Depot or Barnes & Noble.
This card overall is pretty good for frequent travelers since it offers 3X points on airfare in addition to 2X points on gas and groceries and 1X points on everything else.
If you spend $30,000 per calendar year you will earns additional 15,000 bonus points (yes, another $150 gift card!) however by the time you get these points you will be hit by the $175 annual fee (which is waved in the first year) so the value of this additional reward is questionable.
How would I personally use this card? I would apply for it if I knew I had some major vacation coming in the next several months. For example, we are planning a trip to Ukraine next summer to visit our family and friends. This by itself is over $5000 in airfare or over 15,000 in rewards points. If I signed up and bought the tickets now I would both satisfy the $1000 in purchases requirement to get the bonus points and also would get the 3X rewards points on the airfare to Ukraine, a total of over 30,000 points or $300 in gift cards!
Here is the list of merchants that you can buy the gift cards from with your rewards points:
http://www.membershiprewards.c.....gGiftCards