Update: This offer has expired
Just a month ago, the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® increased their welcome offer to 70,000 miles! This is the best ever we’ve seen for this card and a card offer I did not want to miss out on. In the past, the publicly available offer ranged anywhere between 40,000-60,000 miles, so this is definitely an offer worth considering! This is different than some of the other points and miles card since it is a fixed redemption card. This means you are redeeming at a fixed 1 mile = 1 cent per travel — 70,000 miles from the sign up offer means $700 towards travel. I personally love having a fixed redemption card to use on travel purchases that do not take your normal hotel points or airline miles, or on hotel/airline purchases where using their own points isn’t a good value.
With this card, you’ll also earn 2x miles on every single purchase, plus when you go to redeem your miles, you’ll receive a 5% rebate back on your points. Ultimately this means you are earning 2.11% back on all purchases.
Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard®
Enjoy 70,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first 90 days. $89 annual fee waived for the first year. *Terms Apply.
Using Your Miles
To redeem the miles earned from the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard®, all you do is make your travel related purchase on the card (as if you normally would with any credit card), and once the charge hits your card, you go online and redeem the miles for that purchase. This means you do not need to worry about award availability for flights or hotels or blackout dates. You are just redeeming your miles at a fixed 1 mile = 1 cent. Then within a few weeks after redeeming your points, you’ll receive the 5% rebate on your redemption.
You can use your points on most travel related purchases, including: airfare, hotels, car rentals, cruises, trains, taxis, uber/lyft, etc. You also do not need to purchase directly from the hotel or airline (although there are sometimes benefits of doing this), and can use your miles for third party hotel sites such as hotels.com, expedia.com, etc. or even travel agencies and tour groups. These miles are great to earn for extra travel expenses where you typically cannot use your hotel points or airline miles.
The one restriction for using your miles is that you must redeem for a minimum $100 purchase, but on the flip side, you can also redeem your points for only a portion of the travel expense. Let’s say you purchased a $1,000 flight, but only have 80,000 miles in your account. You can redeem your miles to cover $800 of the flight and then you’ll just be paying $200 out of pocket.
Having a flexible point and miles card, such as the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® is definitely recommended and this definitely one of the better offers on the table right now. Once you put the $5,000 minimum spend on the card, you’ll earn another 10,000 miles (since every dollar spent = 2 miles) which will net you a total of 80,000 miles which is worth a fixed $800 towards any travel purchase! If you want to take into consideration the 5% rebate when you go ahead and redeem your miles, then you are effectively looking at a $840 value from this welcome offer!
How I Am Using My 70,000 Points
We are a big ski family, but unfortunately there are not many chain hotels in the Northeast where I live. We depend on smaller ski lodges nearby mountains for our weekend ski trips. While I love the smaller mom and pop hotel feel, it means we are spending money on our lodging instead of using hotel points. This is where miles from the Barclaycard Arrival Plus come in handy. I was able to use my points to put towards an Expedia reservation I made at ski hotel right near Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. Since lift tickets can get quite pricey, having the Barclaycard Arrival Plus points essentially erase the cost of our two night hotel stay was quite nice! Fortunately, hotel prices in the Northeast aren’t too expensive (compared to the ski lodges out West), so I still have a good amount of miles left over to put towards another vacation.
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I’ve had the Barclays Arrival Card before but I don’t think it was the Plus. Can I get this card? Thanks for any info.
@Kathy – Yes you should be able to. However, Barclaycard can sometimes be strict with approving you for a 3rd card, so if you already have two open cards with them, getting a 3rd might be challenging.
Hi Jen.
My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe in 2020. This sounds like it will be a perfect way to reduce the cost. Thanks!!!!
@John – That sounds like a wonderful trip! Enjoy!
I’m trying to understand the redemption rules for the miles earned by this card. Can the miles be redeemed in 10,000 point minimum increments ($100.00) to defray multiple smaller travel purchases or is that only individual purchases of greater than $100 are eligible for points redemption? If it’s the latter, most cab or Uber/Lyft rides, many train rides, short term car rentals, and inexpensive hotel stays would not qualify.
Hi it is only in increments of 100.00 it used to be only 25.00 I think. You can by a gift card from said places for 100+ an then use the gift card to offset charges against the 100 that qualifies as a travel redemption. Only exclusion is the annual fee they allow you to offset that for whatever balance you have in the account I believe.
@Jon – Similar to what Tom said. Let’s say you purchase hotels from hotels.com or expedia.com, for example, that are less than $100 total. You can purchase a gift card from those sites, use your points for the gift card, and then use the gift card to book the hotels.
Is this card subject to 6/24? Thanks.
@Gene – Yes, however, there is not a hard set “6/24” rule, although many data points that suggest many folks will be denied based on this. With that being said, there are also data points of people being approved although being over “6/24”. Please share your experience if you do decide to apply!
I downgraded my Arrival + 2 yrs ago, I put under $50 spend/yr on it, and put under $50/yr on my downgraded AA card. Have every card under the sun but I’m itching for another card since I have some large year end spend planned. Safely under 5/24. Think Barclay’s hip to me not putting spend on the Barclay cards I have while I apply for a 3rd card?
@Acker – There are no hard rules with Barclaycard, but getting a 3rd card with them sometimes can be difficult. And they do look at spend on prior cards when making a decision on whether or not to extend more credit. Definitely let me know how it works out if you do decide to apply!