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The Offer
- The Barclaycard Arrival Plus is again available for applications, the sign up bonus is the same as normal, you’ll receive 40,000 miles after $3,000 in spend within 90 days of account approval. Unfortunately the new changes have also gone into effect for new cardholders, meaning you no longer get TripIt Pro for free, the redemption bonus rebate is now 5% (instead of the previous 10%) and you have to redeem in chunks of 10,000 points against travel expenses.
Our Verdict
The new changes to this card make the sign up bonus less valuable, previously you’d earn 40,000 miles and then get a 4,000 point rebate when they were redeemed (making it worth $440), now you only get a rebate of 2,000 points (making it worth $420) plus you’ll need to put some spend on the card so you have an additional 10,000 points to redeem for another $100 in statement credit.
I still think this card is worth applying for, but it’s not really worth considering keeping it long term unless you’re able to get a retention bonus of 10,000 points or the annual fee refunded.
Hat tip to Running With Miles
Having a very frustrating experience with Barclay’s. Had an Arrival+ which I downgraded to the standard Arrival when the annual fee came due. Called about 5 months later and asked to upgrade it again (willing to pay fee and not expecting a bonus!) and was told the card could not be upgraded and that I would have to apply for a new one. So I did and was rejected because… “you already have this product.” Called reconsideration line and was told there was nothing they could do. Again tried to upgrade and told no. Apparently they really don’t want my money.
Do you loose the points on Arrival+ if you downgrade to the standard arrival?
No, you should keep all the points, I believe.
I have same experience for annual fee refund on Arrival+ as Al had. No refund of fees, Its not worth keeping this card as recovering cost of annual fee is very high.
I am also debating on applying for one of below to replace Arrival+
1. Capital One Venture
down side is it will pull credit report from all 3 credit agency and no 5% bonus on travel resumption. Good part is, its universally accepted as its a Master cad and 40,000 signon bonus.
2. Citi® Double Cash Card
downside is few transactions are identified as cash advance or no reward earning. Good part, no annual fee.
3. BOA Travel Rewards with Platinum Honors Preferred Rewards
downside is to make it meaningful 2%+ reward, one need to have 50k+ asset with Merrill Lynch for at least first 3 months of year.
4. Fidelity AmEx:
downside, AmEx is not universally accepted for MS activity.
Any connect, recommendation?
Anyone know if the miles earned can also be redeemed for non-travel statement credits? I can only find information on redeeming them for travel at 10% (and soon 5% rebate).
As of right now, they are worth 0.5/point when redeeming for non-travel.
Ah! Dang. LOL.
It is certainly less valuable, but still worth keeping if you spend over 80k/year to offset the difference in paying the annual fee over the value you would get from other no-fee 2% cards, and that’s not taking into account forex fees. Granted that’s a small percentage of people.
Yes, the $100 minimum redemption stinks, but not the end of the world. I’ve been able to do partial redemptions under the old terms. Unless I missed it, you should still be able to do that.
Forgot to add that I’ve spent more than $80,000 with the card since acct opening, but that didn’t seem to impress the supervisor… hmmm…
How long ago was that 80k spent in? I think the Capital One Venture is far superior to this card at this point.
$80k was spent over almost 2 years since acct opening (Oct ’13 until now) – used ms a lot, bought a bunch of amex gift cards (when they appeared in the Barclay web portal) and also Visa gift cards in giftcardmall (option not longer open)… Frankly it’ll be hard to maintain that level of spending over time, there are too many good deals out there, there’s the Discover It double cash-back promotion, the Amex cash-back deals are awesome too… Yes, the CapitalOne Venture requires a lower spending threshold to offset the lower annual fee; I’ll try again to call Barclay before annual fee to see if they can waive it at least for the next year…
One thing in particular I like about the Venture card is how you can redeem a travel charge multiple times. IE You can use a $10 parking fee and redeem it 10x to take $100 off your bill. No one really mentions that and that’s the main reason I like it better than the Arrival+.
Tried calling yesterday to get a refund of annual fees due in Oct, spoke with supervisor, and he did NOT give me anything; tried asking for compensation in terms of points, spending incentives to obtain points, but was unable; unsure if I should downgrade to no fee card at this point, or cancel and reapply in the near future… any thoughts?