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Barclays Arrival Plus, now 70K w/$5k spend

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Old May 14, 2014, 1:15 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: rrgg
This thread is a continuation of the discussion posted here from 12.08.2012 - 5.13.2014: Barclays Arrival/Arrival Cards (1.05%/2.1% travel credits)

Current offer for Arrival Plus is 70K pts w/$5K spend & AF waived 1st year.


Barclays says that you earn “miles” but you’re actually earning cash back with the card since you can’t transfer your Barclays miles to airlines. But you can redeem them for statement credits at 0.5 cents per mile (poor value) or 1.05 cent per mile if you redeem for travel.

You get 5% of your miles back if you redeem for travel, so 40,000 miles gets you $400 towards travel and 2,000 miles back (5% of your miles back). You must have at least 10K 'miles' in your acct if you wish to redeem as a travel credit. 2500 'miles' can be redeemed for a stmt credit though.

If you want, you can redeem miles to cover a portion of a travel charge instead of the full amount. For example, if you have 80k miles and a $740 airline charge, you can choose to redeem just 70k to cover $700 of the charge.

You earn 2X miles on all purchases, so you’re effectively getting 2% cash back for each purchase. But since you get 5% of your miles back when you redeem for travel, this is effectively a 2.1% cash back card when miles are redeemed for travel.

This makes the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® (with 2.1% cash back for travel) better than the Capital One Venture card which offers only 2 miles per $1 or 2% cash back, only if you spend $30k+ per year after first year, because Arrival Plus AF is $30 more than Venture.

If you receive a call from 302-255-8000 after applying for this or any other Barclay's card, it is a legit number! You can also call them back directly at 866-951-1437.




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Let's crowd source things that have counted towards travel redemptions that are not so obvious

="3"%Successful
Don't forget travel purchase needs to be > $100 charge for 10K mile redemption
  • 9/11 Museum and Memorial - NYC
  • Accuracy Limo (via Square, Salt Lake City, UT limo service)
  • ACE Adventures (West Virginia White Water Rafting), had to call in to get it processed manually
  • agoda.com
  • AirAsia Flights (airasia.com)
  • airbnb bookings
  • airbnb GC purchased on United MPX site
  • Alaska Airlines checked baggage fee $25 charge
  • Amazing Bike Tours Thailand
  • AA Gift Card
  • American Airlines telephone booking (including booking fee)
  • Amtrak train ticket >$25 (ALB-NYP)
  • Amtrak train ticket >$25 (unknown destinations)
  • Arrival+ Annual Fee
  • Argosy Cruises (SEA, classified as RECREATION)
  • Autoeurope.com
  • BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) San Francisco
  • Balloons over Bagan
  • Bieber bus tickets
  • Boston MBTA Charlie Card reload & Commuter Rail passes & tickets
  • Burj Khalifa observation decks
  • Buying Lifemiles from Avianca
  • Capitaine Train Tickets (capitaine.com)
  • Carmel Limo (NYC car service)
  • carrentals.com
  • cheaptickets.com hotel
  • Chinese Visa Application Fees (had to call in. Credit showed up in account in 2 business days. See Post 912 and 921 for details)
  • City Taxi (Tampa)
  • CostcoTravel
  • Cotai Waterjet (Hong Kong)
  • CT Limo
  • Daily Getaways purchase of HHonors points
  • DB Bahn Trains Germany (bahn.de)
  • Disneyland Hong Kong (Manual redemption required)
  • DriveNow - all locations in EU/US
  • Dublin Bus Tours Hop on, Hop off (Green)
  • Eiffel Tower (manual redemption by phone allowed)
  • Empire State Building tickets
  • Enterprise rent-a-car, paid at the counter when returning the car (used Chase United Visa initially for primary coverage, but asked to pay with a different card when returning the car)
  • Eurostar Train Tickets (eurostar.com)
  • Europcar.com
  • Expedia.com
  • Hertz Rent-a-Car (booked on hertz.com)
  • Hong Kong Airport Express Pass
  • Hotel bookings through Rocketmiles (even refundable bookings or those tied to other promotions)
  • Hotels.com
  • Hotwire
  • ItaliaRail (online booking agency for TrenItalia)
  • LA Swamp Tours, Steamboat cruise, Haunted History Tours (New Orleans)
  • Lahaina-Maui Ferry Tickets - booked online at www.go-lanai.com
  • Las Vegas Show Booked through hotel
    Las Vegas show tickets booked online (Mandalay Bay Box office)
  • Limo Charges - Two limo charges that I made in March PRIOR the the recent changes to what qualifies as "Travel" showed up as eligible travel charges. I guess with the changes to what's covered, and for how long, these got pulled back in.
  • Lyft
  • M-Life advance reservation deposit
  • Montway Auto Transport (deposit)
  • New York City MTA Subway Cards
  • New York Waterways Ferry (between NJ and NYC)
  • Ngong Ping 360 (Hong Kong)
  • Norwegian Cruise Line purchase made from telephone order from vacationstogo.com
  • Norwegian Cruise Line (deposits and payments)
  • NS Hispeed Train Tickets (nshispeed.com)
  • NYC Taxi
  • Orbitz.com purchase
  • ORCA card for Seattle area tolls (considered the very typical GOVERNMENT SERVICES NOT ELSEWHERE CLASSIFIED)
  • Paris RATP Metro/VATP (buy 10-ticket pack for >$25 and save cost)
  • PeruRail (Machu Picchu train)
  • PMRF Beach Cottages (Kauai)
  • Priceline
  • Primetime Shuttle (Worked from LAX-SNA)
  • rail europe on Travelocity
  • rail JR Rail in Japan, load as tourist attraction, call in to get it credit (Post#938)
  • Safari Helicopter Tour (Kauai)
  • Sandals.com resort booking (unique vacations) was not redeemable last year. Is redeemable online now
  • SEASTREAK LLC - NYC (Commuter Ferri)
  • Singapore Cable Car
  • Southwest $100 gift card
  • Southwest Early Bird Check-in (billed separately from airfare charges)
  • Spirit of NY Dinner Cruises - www.spiritcruises.com, which have cruises in several other cities as well.
  • Starwood Vacation Ownership (SPG Timeshare) Westin Princeville Kauai (coded as Timeshare).
  • St Pauls Cathedral (manual redemption by phone allowed)
  • Super Shuttle (mixed, worked in SF when (billed SUPERSHUTTLE EXECUCARS), worked in Boston (SUPERSHUTTLE BOSTON), failed in LA (SUPERSHUTTLE), Worked in Cancun.
  • Taxi in Zürich
  • Top of the Rock tickets - NYC
  • Trenitalia Online
  • Trimet (Portland OR public transportation)
  • Trip Advisor Rental
  • TurboJET (Hong Kong)
  • Uber
  • Uber GC through MPX $100 (re-confirmed 11/1/2018, using Arrival Premier)
  • United Baggage Fee
  • Universal Studio Orlando tickets (had to call in)
  • Viator (sightseeing/tours)
  • Victoria Clipper (passenger ferry)
  • Wedding at the Stratosphere's Chapel in the Clouds (billed as stratosphere)
  • Windsor Castle (manual redemption by phone allowed)
  • Wine purchases from different wine tasting rooms
  • WMATA (Washington DC Metro) - [[COLOR="Red"]reconfirmed 10/5/15]
  • Zipcar

    ="3"%Unsuccessful (please mention the amount redeemed - important as anything under $25 $100 cannot be reimbursed)
    Partial redemptions are possible - however you cannot redeem against that charge again. So if you have a $500 charge and you spend 40K points against it, you cannot redeem 10K points for the remaining $100 of that charge.
  • www.b-europe.com (SNCB rail)
  • Amtrak (possibly due <$25 charge)
  • Blue Water Rafting. Merchant category "Recreation Services -- Not elsewhere classified"
  • Brazil airline GOL booked online codes as DIRECT MARKETING/DIRECT MARKETERS--NOT ELESWH ..
  • Broadmoor Hotel Food and Beverage (Colorado Spring, CO)
  • budgetair.co.uk (charged >$200)
  • Car2go
  • De Palm Tours, Aruba (classified as Recreation. Called Barclay twice.)
  • Description: ZERVE *CA WHALES Merchant Category: THEATRICAL PRODUCERS (EXCEPT MOTION PICTURES), TICKET AGENCIES...Tickets to whale watching tour purchased over the phone.
  • Evan Evans Sightseeing tours (UK based)- http://www.evanevanstours.co.uk
  • Fastrak tag autoload for San Francisco bridge tolls ($25)
  • Global Entry
  • Gotobus.com Long Distance Buses, ~$100
  • Homeaway.com, posts as real estate. Barclays said they'd make a one-time exception but future purchases won't count as travel.
  • Hostelbookers.com deposit (maybe the charge which is >$25 will count?)
  • Hotels.com Gift Card
  • IHG points and cash hotel redemption
  • Malaysian Overnight Train KUL-SIN (ktmb.com.my)
  • Monterey Aquarium
  • Parking at DCA - $136 (7/9/19)
  • Parking at HSV ($96 in parking at Huntsville International Airport)
  • Parking at IAH (Houston Intercontinental - on airport) -$76 (PARKING LOTS AND GARAGES)
  • Parking at LAS
  • Parking at LGA $204
  • Parking at Port Imperial, Weehawken, NJ
  • Parking at SNA (John Wayne Airport)
  • San Francisco Clipper Card public transit (autoload from website)
  • Skyjump at Stratosphere Hotel LV $150 (01/14) - not charged by hotel.
  • Space Needle and Chihuly Garden Tickets
  • Starwood points purchase (BUSINESS SERVICES NOT ELSEWHERE CLASSIFIED)
  • Taxi Magic /Curb- Taxi service
  • Thello train (France-Italy night train, codes as rail-freight)
  • Trenitalia (both online and in stations, posts as rail-freight)
  • UBER eGift Card (bought through the UBER app) for $100 - Not coded as "travel," so couldn't redeem online and they wouldn't do it over the phone, either.



Airlines that post purchases of multiple tickets as one amount or split them:

One Amount
BA (USD based award ticket)

Multiple Transactions
UA (award)
DL (award)

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Barclays Arrival Plus, now 70K w/$5k spend

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Old Aug 27, 2014, 1:22 pm
  #1006  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 299
Instant approval for the Arrival+. 8 new cards and lots of inquiries in the last 12 months. Currently have US Air. Closed NFL card 2 months ago. Same experience for my wife 1 month ago.

As others have stated previously, it seems the secret with Barclay is 1 app every 6 months and max 2 cards open.

Last edited by waingro; Aug 27, 2014 at 1:30 pm
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Old Aug 27, 2014, 4:54 pm
  #1007  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: MKE
Posts: 614
Just got back from Germany and Austria and had no problem using the card there. Worked at automatic subway kiosks in Munich and Vienna. Also in various grocery stores. Was able to redeem points for subway and train tickets bought while on the trip (Westbahn, MVG, Vienna tourist entrance fees). I was never asked to enter my pin for any transaction.
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Old Aug 27, 2014, 6:10 pm
  #1008  
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Originally Posted by waingro
Instant approval for the Arrival+. 8 new cards and lots of inquiries in the last 12 months. Currently have US Air. Closed NFL card 2 months ago. Same experience for my wife 1 month ago.

As others have stated previously, it seems the secret with Barclay is 1 app every 6 months and max 2 cards open.
Nope. It is YMMV.

This household was able to open US cards less than 6 months apart, all instant approvals, but needed recon call to have 3rd card open (2 existing US then approved A+)

There are reports on 4 open cards.

Key is to have some history with Barclays that is longer than one year. Now with they are more willing to waive the $89 fee on the US cards, more folks would have longer than one year on their cards...
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Old Aug 27, 2014, 7:49 pm
  #1009  
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Originally Posted by kannon99
Just got back from Germany and Austria and had no problem using the card there. Worked at automatic subway kiosks in Munich and Vienna. Also in various grocery stores. Was able to redeem points for subway and train tickets bought while on the trip (Westbahn, MVG, Vienna tourist entrance fees). I was never asked to enter my pin for any transaction.
Is that a good thing? Probably because most of the transactions weren't over the threshold to require authentication.

Would like to try out my PIN ...
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Old Aug 27, 2014, 9:16 pm
  #1010  
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Originally Posted by wco81
Is that a good thing? Probably because most of the transactions weren't over the threshold to require authentication.

Would like to try out my PIN ...
Card is signature priority so merchants will commonly not require signature below a certain amount. If it was PIN priority, however, it would always ask for a PIN.
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Old Aug 27, 2014, 9:28 pm
  #1011  
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Can I expect to be able to charge at an unmanned gas station and pay a bill over 50€ with my PIN?

That's going to determine how ultimately useful this card will be.
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Old Aug 27, 2014, 9:54 pm
  #1012  
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Originally Posted by wco81
Can I expect to be able to charge at an unmanned gas station and pay a bill over 50€ with my PIN?

That's going to determine how ultimately useful this card will be.
Yup. Will find out in late Sept when we would be driving in Normandy and Brittany where the gas stations in some places are far and few in between and often unmanned.

Toll booths in France as well - the true test of the advertised PIN Capability.
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Old Aug 27, 2014, 10:44 pm
  #1013  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,762
Originally Posted by Happy
Yup. Will find out in late Sept when we would be driving in Normandy and Brittany where the gas stations in some places are far and few in between and often unmanned.

Toll booths in France as well - the true test of the advertised PIN Capability.
You may be disappointed at some of the toll booths on the French autoroutes. Not accepting American (or many other nationality's credit cards) seems to be an ongoing problem on some of the autoroutes whether a chip and pin card or a chip and signature card or even a magnetic strip card is offered.

For a while, apparently, they all took Amex cards even thouse lacking emv chips or chip and signature but even that doesn't seem to always hold any longer.
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Old Aug 28, 2014, 8:04 am
  #1014  
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 3,537
Originally Posted by Happy
Yup. Will find out in late Sept when we would be driving in Normandy and Brittany where the gas stations in some places are far and few in between and often unmanned.

Toll booths in France as well - the true test of the advertised PIN Capability.
According to Reclusive, most of those toll booths are offline magnetic stripe transactions processed against a whitelist. US cards with never work since US banks don't participate in that whitelist.
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Old Aug 28, 2014, 9:33 am
  #1015  
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 4,166
Originally Posted by kannon99
Just got back from Germany and Austria and had no problem using the card there. Worked at automatic subway kiosks in Munich and Vienna. Also in various grocery stores. Was able to redeem points for subway and train tickets bought while on the trip (Westbahn, MVG, Vienna tourist entrance fees). I was never asked to enter my pin for any transaction.
You had subway tickets over $25?
Superorb is offline  
Old Aug 29, 2014, 8:09 am
  #1016  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 236
Retention Offers?

The annual fee is approaching for my Arrival + card. I called in today to see if they were willing to offer any retention bonuses. I spent close to $10,000 on the card over the past year and was offered nothing.

Should I try again? Anyone have any success getting the annual waived for the second year?
rjs11 is offline  
Old Aug 29, 2014, 8:11 am
  #1017  
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BAY AREA
Posts: 1,125
Tell them if they won't give you anything that you'll transfer your business to citi new 2% cash card. The card is free too. Thread is above


Originally Posted by rjs11
The annual fee is approaching for my Arrival + card. I called in today to see if they were willing to offer any retention bonuses. I spent close to $10,000 on the card over the past year and was offered nothing.

Should I try again? Anyone have any success getting the annual waived for the second year?
trikotret is offline  
Old Aug 29, 2014, 9:16 am
  #1018  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: MKE
Posts: 614
Originally Posted by Superorb
You had subway tickets over $25?
Yeah three day passes for two people.
kannon99 is offline  
Old Aug 29, 2014, 12:57 pm
  #1019  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 3,677
Originally Posted by trikotret
Tell them if they won't give you anything that you'll transfer your business to citi new 2% cash card. The card is free too. Thread is above
Or just cancel the Barclays card, and get the new Citi card. No fee, and no having to worry about whether or not charges qualify as "travel".
Brugge is offline  
Old Aug 29, 2014, 1:50 pm
  #1020  
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 4,166
Originally Posted by kannon99
Yeah three day passes for two people.
Yup, that'll do it!
Superorb is offline  


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