Spotlight On: Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard
One of the cards that I am currently using to earn points for my travels is the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard. I got the card a few months ago, and completed the minimum spend in order to get my bonus points (40,000 at the time of my application). The current offer can be found in the link I posted. At the time of this writing, this is what the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard is offering if you apply. NOTE: I have no affiliation with this or any credit card, and do not receive anything from any companies.
Benefits of the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard
I am going to break down the (best) benefits you get with this card, and also how to use the points that you are earning:
- 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $3000 within 90 days. This is equal to $400 when you use it for travel
- 2x miles on all purchases. For every $1.00 you spend, you will get 2 miles/points
- These miles/points can be used for any travel, as they will be used for a statement credit (more on that below)
- 10% miles back when you redeem for travel (which makes your 40,000 bonus worth $440 when you use it for travel)
- Free subscription to TripIt Pro (worth $49). I have been using this, and it’s pretty cool. There is an app and a website. You link your email addresses to it, and it scans your emails to compile all of your travel plans into one place. Free organizing? Sign me up!
- No foreign transaction fees
Something that may be obvious here is that you can use your points for things other than travel, but you shouldn’t. You only get the real value here when you are redeeming your miles for travel.
How to Manage and Use your Arrival Miles
One you have the card and your account, you can manage your credit card statements and your rewards at barclaycardus.com.
This is the step-by-step breakdown:
1. Use your Barclaycard to pay for your travel. You can do this by purchasing your travel the way that you normally would, using this credit card. I used my Barclaycard when I had to pay for taxes and fees on some “free” plane tickets that I got using frequent flyer miles. The fees and taxes were $150.
2. After your purchase posts to your credit card, you can sign in and go to “Manage Rewards” (see the arrow below)
3. This will bring you to the screen below. Click on “Redeem Now”
4. My account does not currently have any reimbursable purchases, but when it does, there will be a list of “Purchases available for redemption”. It will give the transaction amount, and you can click on it to redeem and confirm to get your statement credit. It can take 1-2 weeks for the statement credit to post. The statement credit is basically just like cancelling out your purchase on your credit card, making it free!
5. Once your redemption has cleared, you can check your Redemption History to see what miles you have used for your travels! This is my credit for the $150 that I spent on the airline taxes & fees. I used 15,000 miles (and then got 10% of those miles back).
What can Arrival Miles be used for?
These miles can be used for anything that qualifies as a “travel purchase”, which is determined by how the vendor is categorized. Like I showed above, I used some of my miles for the taxes and fees on some award tickets. This made those tickets completely free for us, which is great! I am also planning on using this card for some upcoming car rentals, to make those free as well. You can use them for:
- Airlines (tickets, taxes, fees, baggage fees)
- Hotels
- Cruises
- Car Rentals
- Train tickets
- Travel agencies
- Online travel agencies (like Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc)
- Theme park packages (like Disney hotel/ticket packages)
- Bed & Breakfasts
- Resorts
Anything coded as a travel purchase in the credit card category!
How to earn additional Arrival Miles
Obviously getting & using the credit card is the fastest way to earn Arrival Miles. There are also a couple of other ways to earn miles as well.
- Use the here. One of the things to keep in mind when you are booking your travel online….don’t forget to check the shopping portals like these. They often offer extra miles for clicking through the portal to sites like car rental agencies, hotels, and more.
- You can also join the Barclaycard Travel Community – you get participation miles for doing things like making a travel profile & writing travel stories. I have already earned hundreds of extra miles by doing this
One final note, I think that a bonus of $440 is worth a credit pull (that’s why I got this card), but there are many offers out there with a higher dollar value. Make sure you do your homework and shop around to see which cards are best for you and your situation.