May 14, 2014, 1:15 pm
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
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)
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.
Very Old Wiki Info ---
Regarding official company representatives
Note that there is an official procedure for company representatives to register themselves with the FlyerTalk Community Director and verify their credentials. When that process is completed, the username will turn green in posts, rather than the standard blue.
Anyone who does not appear in green has not followed this procedure. Those posts should be considered the same as any other user's posts. It is important to remember that the moderation team does not generally monitor the veracity of any posts; it is up to you to judge a poster's content and history yourself.
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)
Barclays Arrival Plus, now 70K w/$5k spend
Sep 13, 2014, 9:46 pm
#1066
Suspended
Join Date: May 2012
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, AS, DL, BA, F9, IHG Plat, HH Gold, CC Gold, SPG Gold, MR Silver
Posts: 1,786
I had visions of sugar plums dancing before my eyes. Then I read the small print, and you can only do 5 travel stories per city. So that "2500 points every couple of days" means you will burn thru @17 cities each time. So for a month you are up to 255 cities. That's well over 3,000 cities a year. How many of us can even name 3,000 cities, much less post about them?
Did I mention you have to have a personal picture of each place to post. So no, researching cities from the encyclopedia won't work either.
Did I mention you have to have a personal picture of each place to post. So no, researching cities from the encyclopedia won't work either.
Last edited by philemer; Sep 14, 2014 at 4:06 pm Reason: personal comments removed
Sep 14, 2014, 7:52 am
#1067
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 14
Someone may want to add to the wiki that you can earn points pretty easily by just writing stories on their travel website. Each story gets you 150 points minimum with one blog post of 50 words. I wouldn't go overboard, but you could probably make 2500 points every couple of days with very little effort and no fees earning the points. That is the thing that makes this card so valuable to me aside from the great rate of return.
kosmoyagkoto, you sound quite experienced with posting stories. Can you tell us how much effort you put into each one and how long the points take to post? I wrote a bunch last night between 50 and 100 words with a photo each. I wrote some personal tidbit about each place but really want to minimize the effort I put into it.
Sep 14, 2014, 9:01 am
#1068
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Indiana
Programs: United, AA, Chase
Posts: 31
kosmoyagkoto, you sound quite experienced with posting stories. Can you tell us how much effort you put into each one and how long the points take to post? I wrote a bunch last night between 50 and 100 words with a photo each. I wrote some personal tidbit about each place but really want to minimize the effort I put into it.
My reviews aren't the greatest, but they are clearly not spam that is just made for points. Be able to make an argument that you have a lot of reviews but that they are your experience. It keeps it from feeling totally like work like MS is.
Here is a few things I do. First, I don't over do it in a single day. I read on reddit that some guy got a warning for posting 18k worth of posts in a single day. I would try to keep it at less than 8 to 10 a day.
Second, you rack up the points in the point of interest. For each POI you put in each post, you get 10 points. Put ten in each post and there you have 250 points per post instead of 150. To find POIs just google maps and find some things. You'd be surprised how many things you can add as a POI. Schools, restaurants, attractions, stores, parks, businesses, etc.
Third, start taking pictures of places you go, even places you live, neighboring towns. Write stories about them and use the pictures. For places you don't have pictures for, find one off of google images or better yet, post a picture of a different place where you can't really tell where it's at. Take a picture of a nice tree and a tire swing. That could be anywhere. Take a picture of traffic. It could also be anywhere. The possibilities are endless.
Above all, don't over do it and get your account flagged, or even worse, ruin it for the rest of us. Just use common sense and you will be fine
Sep 14, 2014, 10:57 am
#1069
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 14
Honestly, it only takes me about 1 minute, maybe two to write between 50-100 word posts. The most of your time will be listing Points of Interest for each post, which I talk about a few paragraphs down. You seem to be able to reuse some POIs from previous posts, but try to use different ones.
Sep 14, 2014, 12:44 pm
#1070
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 3,537
So, Kosmo, you're suggesting people plagiarise content, lie to others who might actually be relying on the site, and potentially ruin it for everyone if Barclay's gets sick of cleaning up fake stuff?
Last edited by philemer; Sep 14, 2014 at 4:00 pm Reason: clean up
Sep 14, 2014, 2:49 pm
#1071
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Indiana
Programs: United, AA, Chase
Posts: 31
Ha, if you read what I said, mine is legit. Never said to plagiarize others, that is a good way to get caught.
Last edited by mia; Sep 14, 2014 at 4:41 pm Reason: personal comment
Sep 14, 2014, 4:09 pm
#1072
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Intermountain West
Programs: Too many to list
Posts: 12,089
Some of you have had your posts edited because of personal comments/attacks.
It's OK to criticize an idea but NOT the person. Any new disruptive posts will be deleted and time-outs issued.
Your Mods...
It's OK to criticize an idea but NOT the person. Any new disruptive posts will be deleted and time-outs issued.
Your Mods...
Sep 14, 2014, 4:47 pm
#1074
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bay Area
Programs: DL SM, UA MP.
Posts: 12,729
Ok my card is coming up signature. Either no signature if the amount is low or signing for higher than 10 euro.
I did use on autoroute toll booth near Avignon, France.
Yes I set up PIN online and used transaction at Walmart to "download" PIN.
I did use on autoroute toll booth near Avignon, France.
Yes I set up PIN online and used transaction at Walmart to "download" PIN.
Sep 14, 2014, 7:33 pm
#1076
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Indiana
Programs: United, AA, Chase
Posts: 31
Sep 14, 2014, 9:47 pm
#1077
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bay Area
Programs: DL SM, UA MP.
Posts: 12,729
No signing, unattended booth.
It was just under 4€.
It was just under 4€.
Sep 15, 2014, 2:20 pm
#1078
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 4,166
From what I read they want you to use your card at an attended place and then you can use it at unattended offline PIN locations. I have no idea why they say to use an overseas attended signature transaction first.
Sep 15, 2014, 2:28 pm
#1079
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SEA
Programs: Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 1,947
Seattle Tolls
For fellow Seattle-ites, Barclay will manually allow Good2Go > $25 spends to be redeemed. Nice, easy way to offset tolls.
No such luck for ORCA (considered government services).
No such luck for ORCA (considered government services).
Sep 15, 2014, 2:47 pm
#1080
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 427
Headed to Seattle in a couple of weeks, that will come in handy... Thanks