Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs > Capital One | Rewards Miles
Reload this Page >

Travel rewards cards - Barclays Arrival vs. CapitalOne Venture

Travel rewards cards - Barclays Arrival vs. CapitalOne Venture

Old Oct 9, 2013, 11:24 am
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 11
Travel rewards cards - Barclays Arrival vs. CapitalOne Venture

Newbie here, and considering signing up for my first travel rewards card. My husband and I each have a no-fee Citi Dividend card which gives us 1% cash back, but I'm interested in trying something new which will give us a better rewards return and apply the reward to something fun, like travel.

We're casual travelers, and usually fly once or twice a year for leisure. We usually go with the airline that gives us the best price/schedule, though fly Delta the most since as we live near a Delta hub. I looked into the SkyMiles AMEX, but don't think it would give us the best benefit, as we don't always fly routes where Delta has the most competitive offering. We have also been unable to book a SkyMiles award ticket at the "saver" level for either of our last two itineraries.

Because of this, the two cards I'm most intrigued by are the Barclays Arrival and CapitalOne Venture. I really like the flexibility of accumulating "points" and being able to offset travel charges based on price spent, vs. tiered redemption (like US Bank FlexPerks) or miles (my experience with SkyMiles restrictions). I also like being able to apply them to other things like rental cars/hotels, since we sometimes stay in a hotel w/o flying.

Looking at the basic perks of both cards, the Barclays Arrival seems to be the obvious winner, but I want to first ask a few questions for anyone who has had experience with either or both of these cards.

Flexibility of redemption in regards to "travel charges": This is my biggest concern about the Barclays since it seems they will only let you use points for charges that are filed under certain merchant codes, and are rigid about it. I've read some anecdotal reports that seem to indicate that CapitalOne is more flexible about what constitutes a "travel" charge. Is this true? We sometimes book nontraditional lodging such as VRBO/bed and breakfasts, so this could be a big drawback to the Barclays. Is there a way you can check, in advance, if a charge would count as "travel" to Barclays?

Devaluation/change of rewards programs: Obviously none of us has a crystal ball, but does anyone have a guess as to which bank would less quickly devalue or change the rewards program? I am conservative with our credit and would plan to keep the new card for awhile, charging all spending to it to maximize our potential reward in a single pool.

Two cardholders building "points" in a single account: It seems preferable to have my husband and I both cardholders that have the ability to accumulate points in the same "bucket" so we can build rewards to offset larger travel charges more quickly. What is the feasibility/possibility of doing this with either card?

Travel insurance: I've bought supplementary travel insurance for a couple of trips before. I see both cards have some coverage, but Barclay's includes interruption/cancellation; can anyone comment on the value of this benefit vs. purchasing supplementary insurance through a third party? Do you only get this benefit if you book tickets, etc. with the card?

Thanks!
nbtmn is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2013, 7:25 pm
  #2  
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: NYC: UA 1K, DL Platinum, AAirpass, Avis PC
Posts: 4,599
The bonus should be the kicker here. Both of you should apply and get the 40,000 point intro each.

Also note with Arrival you can use points for partial credit - with Venture you need enough points to cover the whole charge.
cerealmarketer is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2013, 8:01 pm
  #3  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,731
Originally Posted by cerealmarketer
The bonus should be the kicker here. Both of you should apply and get the 40,000 point intro each.

Also note with Arrival you can use points for partial credit - with Venture you need enough points to cover the whole charge.
No idea whether the redemption mechanism has changed since the famous Million Miles promo 2+ years ago. Below was possible in the past. Not sure if it still works now.

We had the Venture cards during that $1,000 promo. You could split the redemption on airline charges into fractions to suit your available points. You could also use the same charge to redeem again and again and again within the 90 days period. I had a $41 AA reward ticket taxes charge and was able to redeem against it to drain 70% of the $1000 worth of bonus in that 90 days period.

Those who still have Venture could chime in if it is still the case.
Happy is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2013, 8:27 pm
  #4  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: San Antonio
Programs: AS MVP
Posts: 2,276
1. Barclays is not very flexible, at least with the easy-to-use online redemptions. I could not redeem for train tickets in France because for whatever reason Thello is coded as a freight rail company, not a travel provider (maybe it has to do with the level of service provided on their overnight trains...) But with the $300 additional on the bonus and 10% of points redeemed back, my vote goes for Barclays.

2. Both programs score very well for any short-term devaluations, not so well if you have to buy very expensive tickets that could have been purchased with miles. I have redeemed points and miles from every major U.S. airline except Delta within the past year, and am consistently getting 2-3 cents per mile even for coach family (4) domestic tickets. For that reason, I would suggest one of you get an Arrival or Venture card, and the other get either a United card with 55K miles or two Southwest cards (if SW works for your travel plans) for a companion pass. You can get the SW cards later this month, before the 50K promotion ends Oct 30, and do the spending after the Dec statement posts so the points are earned and counted in 2014, and the CP would be good until the end of 2015.

3. You can only redeem against charges made on a specific account, so it is probably easiest to just get one card and add the other as an authorized user. Currently my wife has the Arrival card; the plan is that we run out the points and I get one before her fee comes due, so we never have to pay the annual fee.

4. I have no clue. I buy tickets, pray, and work with whatever happens. The unplanned things usually just add extra adventure But welcome to Flyertalk!
KennyBSAT is offline  
Old Oct 10, 2013, 9:40 am
  #5  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 11
Thanks for the responses so far!

I am aware of the much-larger signing bonus with Barclays and the fact that it allows partial redemption whereas Venture does not. I was also aware they were less flexible; thanks for chiming in with your experience KennyBSAT. If we go with Barclays, there is a chance I won't be able to apply the bonus to any charge for at least a year or two, since I unfortunately booked plane tickets for our upcoming ski trip two weeks ago, before I started seriously thinking about getting a travel card. We would be able to only apply the bonus to our rental car on the upcoming trip, but only if the charge is coded correctly, and/or lodging, but again, only if it's coded correctly, which seems unlikely if we go the VRBO route. I also know we're going to go to Florida in the fall of next year, though my folks will be treating us to that trip to celebrate my mom's retirement. So likely no more paid-for travel until 2015 or beyond.

So, in summary, it seems that Venture has the much lower bonus but we would likely be able to start using benefits more quickly, whereas Barclays would give us a lot of travel bonus money but there's a chance it could be much longer before we could actually use it - likely after the renewal period, and after the fee kicks in.

I suspect that, based on what I have read, Delta seems to be one of the stricter airlines for FF miles; is that true? That is unfortunate since they are by far the biggest carrier that serves our area. We've never flown United or SW. I seem to see very few United itineraries when searching for flights, and SW hasn't been competitive on price the times I've checked, taking in to account checked bags. Also, we've flown in to smaller airports like BGR and MYR in the last couple of years, and those are usually served by a very limited number of carriers, which always includes Delta. That's why I'm hesitant to lock ourselves into a FF program that isn't Delta, and find the "reimburse you for cash purchase" cards the most appealing, even though the cpm benefit isn't as great. We don't really want to plan our travel around destinations a certain carrier serves, or dates that FF tickets are available.

I wonder if it's best to wait on getting a travel card for the time being - unless we got the Barclays now with the knowledge we'd have a ton of racked up points whenever we would next have a redeemable expense. I'm certainly open to the idea of waiting awhile before reaping the rewards from a new card. Getting a card now would still earn us more than our current 1% cash back cards, as long as the programs don't devalue significantly between now and then.
nbtmn is offline  
Old Oct 11, 2013, 1:06 pm
  #6  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,731
Originally Posted by nbtmn
Thanks for the responses so far!

I am aware of the much-larger signing bonus with Barclays and the fact that it allows partial redemption whereas Venture does not. I was also aware they were less flexible;
Actually Venture used to be very flexible especially if you redeem it over the phone. Hopefully you could find the old thread and resurrect it in the hope someone would give you more updated insight.

The old thread about Venture's initial foray into the big push of gaining new customers via the Million Miles promo - that was a $1,000 bonus offer have many posts about people were able to redeem digital camera, iPad and whatnot with their Venture points when talking to the CSRs!

As I mentioned earlier, in the past the Venture online redemption allows you to split the redemption into fractions and the same charge can used to redeem multiple times during the 90 days period. Using that mechanism I was able to redeem $600+ against a $41 AA award ticket taxes. I was also able to drain the bal down to 2 pts using fractional redemption. (it is a bit counterintuitive that also requires playing with it but in that old thread there were several such mentionings and I experimented with proven success - when you redeem 2 tickets instead of 1, it actually divided the amount into 1/2. So you can play with the number to get the optimal value to drain your points.)
Happy is offline  
Old Oct 11, 2013, 1:27 pm
  #7  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SNA/LAX... somewhere sunny and warm, but crowded.
Programs: AA/UA/UR/MRP/IHG Plat
Posts: 916
I just signed up for and was approved for the Barclaycard. I also have a long-standing Cap 1 card...along with a Sapphire and some airline cards.

I use the Cap 1 for rental cars and non-brand local hotels, especially in Europe. It's never been a problem with coding. I plan to use the Barclaycard the same way. I was debating getting it...on top of the Cap 1...but liked the 40K bonus points and especially the 10% refund on redemption...which Cap 1 does not offer.

It's nice having those cards available for the occasional low-cost air deals that pop up now and then...<200 coast-to coast or <300 CA to Hawaii that are better than using airline miles. Good luck with your decision.
jacknyoc is offline  
Old Oct 11, 2013, 1:58 pm
  #8  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 11
Sorry, Happy - I meant the Arrival program being less flexible than Venture in regards to what counts as "travel," not vice versa. I see the way I worded it was ambiguous. What you describe is how I understood Venture to work, very flexible in allowing for travel redemption.

I ended up deciding on an Arrival, as well as an AMEX Blue Cash Preferred. I did the math, and based on our spending, we would overall come out ahead if we pair the two and charge all the "high earning category" spending to the AMEX and everything else to Arrival, even taking in to account two annual fees. I also thought about it more, and like the idea of diversifying the type of award, in case we find the Arrival too restrictive on redemption. Both have a nice signing bonus, which negates the fees for both cards for the first couple years. I figure I'll try this paring out for awhile and see how it works, and if I end up being unhappy with one or both of the cards, will cancel and try something else.

Thanks everyone for the input!
nbtmn is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2014, 8:10 am
  #9  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 701
Originally Posted by nbtmn
Two cardholders building "points" in a single account: It seems preferable to have my husband and I both cardholders that have the ability to accumulate points in the same "bucket" so we can build rewards to offset larger travel charges more quickly. What is the feasibility/possibility of doing this with either card?
Venture allows you to transfer points between accounts (and from bank accounts if you have one) so if one person is closing their account you don't have to orphan/lose points.
MyTravels is offline  
Old Mar 26, 2014, 11:07 pm
  #10  
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 526
Originally Posted by nbtmn

Two cardholders building "points" in a single account: It seems preferable to have my husband and I both cardholders that have the ability to accumulate points in the same "bucket" so we can build rewards to offset larger travel charges more quickly. What is the feasibility/possibility of doing this with either card?
Venture allows transfers and the Arrival allows authorized user, so really shouldn't be an issue for either card.
Doctor of Credit is offline  
Old Mar 27, 2014, 1:04 am
  #11  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: KWI
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 806
Travel rewards cards - Barclays Arrival vs. CapitalOne Venture

I stay at Hostels instead of hotels and they always code properly as eligible for redemption. If a hostel is eligible I think a B&B should be.
LoneTree is offline  
Old Mar 27, 2014, 5:22 pm
  #12  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,437
I don't remember if Venture has a minimum amount to redeem, Arrival has $25. Also one can transfer points from one Venture card to another online, while Arrival does not have that feature.

Arrival earns more per dollar.
UA Fan is offline  
Old Mar 28, 2014, 1:10 am
  #13  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: KWI
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 806
Originally Posted by UA Fan
I don't remember if Venture has a minimum amount to redeem, Arrival has $25. Also one can transfer points from one Venture card to another online, while Arrival does not have that feature.

Arrival earns more per dollar.
No minimum on Venture. I have both so I use Arrival on purchases >$25 and that I know will code properly, Venture for <$25 and things that Arrival ignores (usually trains) or are questionable.
LoneTree is offline  
Old Mar 28, 2014, 6:03 am
  #14  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 11
Yes, I can vouch that Arrival won't let you offset anything under $25. I had a couple of $5 airline charges that would definitely have coded as travel, but they didn't show up as travel reimbursement options in the card portal.

So far, I've used my Arrival to offset both a B&B stay as well as a Thrifty rental car. Both were coded as "travel."
nbtmn is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.