The Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® is the one card that I recommend across the board for anyone that wants to earn free travel from rewards credit cards. As one of the most useful and flexible travel credit cards out there it also earns one of the highest returns among rewards cards at 2.2% back on all purchases when you redeem miles for travel.
The current 40,000 mile welcome bonus after spending $1,000 in 90 days on the card is worth $440 in free travel. With Arrival miles you can book any flight on any airline or stay at any hotel and redeem your miles for a statement credit to cover the travel purchases.
There are no blackout dates and no need to search for award availability as when using airline miles and hotel points. Arrival miles are a excellent way to pay for the taxes and fees on an award ticket, accommodations that can’t be booked with hotel points, and for rental cars.
Using Arrival miles is very simple, but in this post I’ll walk through exactly how to redeem miles for travel purchases, and explain some of the details that will allow you to get the most from Arrival miles.
How to Redeem Barclaycard Arrival Miles
I applied for the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® during my last round of credit card application and met the minimum spend within the first two weeks. The 40,000 points welcome bonus posted to my account the same day of hitting the spending requirement.
Last week I took a trip from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles on Amtrak and loved having Arrival miles to cover the cost of the ticket. This card provides an amazing way to cover travel that you you cannot done with traditional airline miles and points. This is what makes Arrival miles so flexible.
Redeeming Arrival miles for travel is simple and fast. Here’s is a quick guide of how to do it:
1. Log onto your Barclaycard account. From your account homepage you can see your card account and rewards balance. On the right side your screen you can view your rewards account and redemption options by clicking “Manage Rewards”.
2. Choose “Pay yourself back for travel”. The next screen will show you the various options for redeeming Arrival miles, these include travel redemptions, statement credits, and gift cards. An important thing to remember is that you will only receive the 10% mileage rebate back on travel purchase redemptions. To do that click the “Redeem now” button under the “Pay yourself back for travel” option.
3. Choose the travel purchases you want to redeem miles for. The next screen will list all of the travel purchases you have made on your account. Arrival miles can only be redeemed for eligible travel purchases made within the last 90 days, so be sure to redeem miles within the timeframe.
All eligible travel purchases will also show how many days you have left to use miles to remove the purchase from your account. In my case, the only travel purchase on my account is a $26.00 charge from Amtrak.
4. Click “Redeem now” next to the travel purchase. You can choose each travel purchase individually and are given the option to pay yourself back for the full charge or a portion of the total cost. The lowest mileage redemption level is 2,500 miles and in my case I was just barely over this with my 2,600 mile redemption. For each 10,000 miles redeemed you will get $100 back, so with the 10% mile rebate you are getting 1.11 cents per mile in value.
5. Once you have selected the travel purchase you want to redeem Arrival miles for you just need to click “Checkout” and then “Place your order” on the following screen.
6. You will receive a confirmation of your redemption and the 10% rebate will be instantly credited back to your account!
I received 260 miles back on my redemption of 2,600 Arrival miles–making each mile worth 1.11 cents. On top of that I actually earned 52 miles for the purchase of Amtrak ticket which means the value per Arrival mile is closer to 2.28 cents each.
How Fast Does the 40,000 Mile Bonus Post to Your Account?
The 40,000 bonus miles post almost immediately after hitting the $3,000 minimum spending requirement. You can literally hit the spending requirement and redeem the 40,000 Arrival miles within one statement cycle–making this a great card for free last minute travel.
How Do you Redeem BarclayCard Arrival Miles on Travel?
You have to make a travel purchase using your Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® and then log onto your account to pay yourself back using your Arrival miles from your account. The charge has to post to your account and cannot be pending, so it may take several days after making the purchase. It only takes a minute to redeem miles online for any travel related purchase that shows up on your account.
When Do you Receive Your 10% Mile Rebate?
You receive the 10% mile rebate immediately after redeeming Arrival miles for travel purchases.
Can You Use Arrival Miles to Cover a Portion of a Travel Cost?
You can use Arrival miles to redeem for only a portion of a travel purchase, but when you select to redeem a travel charge you will only be given several redemptions increments.
What Is the Minimum Purchase Amount You Can Redeem?
You can redeem any travel purchases over $25.00 or 2,500 Arrival miles.
How Do You Avoid Lower Value Redemptions?
You only get the 10% mile rebate for paying yourself back for travel and you also get the highest value per mile. Redeeming miles for statement credits and gift cards it not a good deal and you will only get 0.5 cents per Arrival mile vs. the 1.11 cents per mile when redeeming for travel purchases.
Recap
Using Arrival miles to pay yourself back for travel purchases is one of the best ways to cover travel costs that cannot be covered by traditional airline miles or hotel points. The redemption process is quick and simple and you can redeem Arrival miles for any travel related charges that post to your account.
When you redeem your Arrival miles for travel you get a 10% mile rebate and get 1.11 cents per mile in value. In actuality you will get 1.14 cents per mile by the time you go through the redemption process, since you also earn miles for making the travel purchase you intend to redeem miles for. This makes the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® one of the highest earning travel rewards credit card.
By having the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® you can use miles to cover any travel costs that airline miles and hotel points can’t cover. Some of the best uses for Arrival miles is to cover taxes and fees on traditional awards, bed and breakfasts or smaller accommodations, and rental cars or train travel.
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I was just approved for this card yesterday, and this has been the most helpful post about it i’ve seen!
Congrats on the 40k miles and glad you found useful!
Yes, you’d be covered for booking hotel or flights through third-party site such as hot-wire, kayak, expedia, etc. Barclaycard Arrival card’s travel spending category includes:
Airlines
Travel Agencies and Tour Operators (including online agencies such as Expedia, Priceline and TripIt)
Hotels, Motels and Resorts
Cruise Lines
Passenger Railways
Car Rental Agencies
Depending on how much you plan on using the card, I’d say grabbing the 2x earning card is worth it because you get the bonus worth $440. If you don’t get the value you want from using the card the first year you can always cancel it before the fee hits the second year.