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
Feb 10, 2016, 5:20 am
#3166
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: PHX
Programs: AA, SPG, UR
Posts: 329
This happened to me before but I ignored it. Happened again last week for a charge of over 150 for a redemption I was hoping to write off with points. Checked my account today and the charges are split as "close-in ticketing fee" of 75 and taxes of remaining amount on same day. Anyone made a case to Barclay Arrival that the total is over $100 for airfare so it should be allowed to be reimbursed with points? I am on slow connection so cant search easily if this has been tackled before. I need to book my return and was wondering if there was a work-around too.
Any response? same happened on my return ticket. Two charges just under $100. Anyone plead their similar case to Arrival Rewards CS?
Feb 10, 2016, 8:52 am
#3167
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: All of them
Posts: 1,664
Good god people, how many times do we have to go over the fact that if you need to clear out these points, just book a refundable hotel over $100 close to whatever amount of points you have, wait for the charge to post, redeem the points, cancel the booking. You can do this with hotels.com easily as they have an option to pay now on pretty much every hotel.
No need for more questions on how to rescue trapped points.
No need for more questions on how to rescue trapped points.
Feb 10, 2016, 3:26 pm
#3168
Join Date: Aug 2015
Programs: AA EXP, AS MVP Gold, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Platinum
Posts: 142
Hit the $3K spend in couple of weeks and as as soon as they posted, I got the 40K bonus!
Feb 11, 2016, 10:57 am
#3169
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 4,166
Closed my Arrival+ card and moved credit to my Aviator card. I'll try again for another Arrival+ card in 6+ months.
Feb 13, 2016, 5:54 am
#3170
Join Date: May 2011
Location: NYC
Programs: UA 1K, AS MVP Gold, TK *Gold, HHonors Gold, SPG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 570
On my last few large travel purchases (> 5k), Barclays hasn't allowed me to redeem more than 2k worth of credit per transaction. Just 1 month ago, I was able to redeem a 5k+ purchase in full.
I called Barclays and the CSR said he was surprised he couldn't redeem more than 2k either. He wanted to escalate this to his technical team but I declined since I have significant MS on my A+ and anyone looking through it wouldn't be helpful. Is this a new A+ "feature" or is Barclays throttling and giving me a hint to slow down?
I called Barclays and the CSR said he was surprised he couldn't redeem more than 2k either. He wanted to escalate this to his technical team but I declined since I have significant MS on my A+ and anyone looking through it wouldn't be helpful. Is this a new A+ "feature" or is Barclays throttling and giving me a hint to slow down?
Last edited by Duffman; Feb 13, 2016 at 6:55 am
Feb 18, 2016, 9:45 am
#3171
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 41
I'm having the same issue. I used my Arrival+ to pay for my fees for two AC award tickets that were booked together in one transaction totaling ~$110. It showed up as two separate $55 transactions. Seriously?
Feb 18, 2016, 5:48 pm
#3172
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 441
I have booked awards with DL, AA, AS, UA, F9, SQ, BA, etc. and they all do this to the best of my recollection.
Feb 19, 2016, 11:10 am
#3173
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 329
I was just approved for the Arrival card (20k points) yesterday after recon. I hit the submit buttons at the same time on the Arrival and Hawaiian Airlines cards at the same time. Hawaiian card was instant approval with $11k limit.
I have 2 years of good history with Barclay. After calling recon on the Arrival card, he was able to approve after moving $5k credit line from the Hawaiian card.
I currently only have 1 other card open with them (Red Aviator) with $9k limit. Spent about $20k on it last year.
Was very happy to get two Barclays in one day!
I have 2 years of good history with Barclay. After calling recon on the Arrival card, he was able to approve after moving $5k credit line from the Hawaiian card.
I currently only have 1 other card open with them (Red Aviator) with $9k limit. Spent about $20k on it last year.
Was very happy to get two Barclays in one day!
Feb 22, 2016, 7:17 pm
#3174
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 392
I've been seeing this for many months now:
We're simplifying our log in process.
Coming soon, the log in step that asks you to verify your security image and phrase will be removed. This simplified process will be quicker and easier without sacrificing account security.
Coming soon, the log in step that asks you to verify your security image and phrase will be removed. This simplified process will be quicker and easier without sacrificing account security.
Feb 23, 2016, 10:48 am
#3175
Join Date: May 2009
Location: East Coast
Programs: SPG-Hyatt-IHG-UA-AA-MR-UR
Posts: 123
I paid my annual fee back in November, and it seems that I'm still able to redeem for travel rewards on the old minimum of 2,500 miles. Is this happening to anyone else?
Feb 25, 2016, 10:48 am
#3176
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: PDX & PHX
Programs: AA,AS,HH,HY,IB,LH,IHG,MAR,WN
Posts: 199
Would the charge be refunded back to the BA+ card that it was paid from? Followed by Barclays clawback of statement credit?
Feb 25, 2016, 11:57 am
#3177
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: All of them
Posts: 1,664
Yes it goes back as a refund, no there's no clawback. Charges and refunds are never correlated together on their end so any travel purchase is redeemable regardless of any future refunds from same merchant.
Feb 25, 2016, 11:16 pm
#3178
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 41
I booked a hotel room a refundable room on hotels.com and chose the pay now option. The charge has posted to my account but the travel statement credit page is not showing the charge as redeemable. The charge was for ~$500. The charge shows up as HOTELS.COM127939944438 and category is travel agency. Do I need to wait a few days for the charge to show up on the travel statement redemption page?
Feb 26, 2016, 7:50 am
#3179
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: All of them
Posts: 1,664
I booked a hotel room a refundable room on hotels.com and chose the pay now option. The charge has posted to my account but the travel statement credit page is not showing the charge as redeemable. The charge was for ~$500. The charge shows up as HOTELS.COM127939944438 and category is travel agency. Do I need to wait a few days for the charge to show up on the travel statement redemption page?
Feb 26, 2016, 8:10 am
#3180
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 41
That's very strange, for me as soon as the charge posts it shows up as redeemable. I think you have to have enough points to do a minimum redemption, so in my case it's at least $25 worth of points has to be available, and for many who signed up after the new rules it'll be $100 minimum.