WIthout a reasonable signup bonus for like $3-5k initial spend, this card is going to tank. Getting the Arrival+ is still the way to go for the $500 travel bonus and AF fee waived first year.

15k bonus for $15k spend essentially means 2x miles per dollar, that is of course the average person puts all their yearly spend on this just card. Any savvy churner knows getting the most amount of points is best done by using multiple cards for category-based spending rather than a single one..

Other question is if AF is waived for the first year. If it is and if points transfer 1:1 to lh yielding a 2 x earn for 2 M&M miles / USD spend I will get it.

Sadly Barclay isn't known for waiving first AF.

If the goal is to set the spend limit so high to prevent people from cashing in on that 15k/10k bonuses, then yes, this will keep churners away from gaming the bonuses.

But the question you have to ask here is what will be the draw to get people to even apply for this card in the first place when there's a $150 AF and nothing special about it. Why not just go for Sapphire Preferred which only has $99 AF or Citi Preferred for $95, both of which offer 50K signup bonuses and strong categories?

Granted we still don't know which airline partner this could have, but other cards offer ways to purchase award tickets directly/indirectly for your preferred airline.

My thoughts on this are: CC companies usually buy miles for a penny. Credit card companies make around 2.5% per dollar on spending. By keeping the spending threshold high (and poor gift card, etc. redemption), Barclays is hoping to keep the rewards payout to 2.5 cents. They will probably make $100 from $150 AF.

My bet is that this card comes with travel insurance which is at least as good as CSR and maybe in line with Prestige. To do this, they would also need some help from MC. This is also where the higher spending threshold comes in -- MC would be willing to pick up bigger portion of the travel insurance cost.

Barclays will make another few hundred bucks on average per cardholder every year on interest income -- higher spending here helps here again as if you have more outstanding balance, Barclays will likely make more in interest income.

Net net, Barclays wants to reduce its upfront marketing cost by no signup bonus so that they could pass on the entire transaction income to cardholders in form of rewards. They make between $300 to $400 per card per year in annual fee and interest income less credit loss write offs. Also, this card will have far less churn than most other higher end cards. If they get 100,000 cardholders, this could be around $40 million a year profit for Barclays. They key for them is to keep/maintain the integrity of there transfer partner platform i.e. 1:1 transfer for unique airlines and hotel chains!

CSR with 100K bonus had very low marketing cost because it went viral.

Spending rewards are nice and all but every bank has cards with those. 2% cashback at 0 AF is better than double unlimited miles at 150 AF. Dollars are the ultimate flex currency. With award space being as crappy as it is, I prefer $s.

Barclay needs to do better than 0 bonus with 150 AF and some milestone spending bonus. If that's what it will be, this will go the opposite of viral.

If I can get an aviator with a 50K signup bonus with $95 AF or a M&M card with a 50K bonus with $90 AF, this new card will not even break even at 25K annual spend in terms of miles gained if there's double earning with 25K bonus miles earned after 25K spend.

Check out JP Morgan's 10Q a few quarters ago. From what I recollect, they mentioned that the launch (because of 100K sign up) cost them $300 million.

I would count marketing cost as advertising cost, but I guess you could count bonus cost as that too.

But the reality is that the CSR set a benchmark and countering with a 0K signup bonus is weak sauce.

My point exactly. For $150 AF, there's plenty of other cards out there that will give better value for $15k spend. Anyone can get all these cc benefits and travel insurance for less (e.g. Sapphire Preferred).

The only card I have that didn't come with a signup bonus is the discover miles it. But that has 3% cashback and no AF. A much better deal than 2x points and 150 AF.

Except A+ is no more

No more leaks about the card either.