Barclaycard introduced their new range of Luxury cards at the start of 2016, when they originally launched they came with high annual fees (up to $995) but high sign up bonuses (up to 100,000). In May of 2016 they eliminated the sign up bonuses on all cards, but kept the high annual fees. You can read our full review of these cards here, although it should be noted that Barclaycard have now dramatically reduced benefits for Military cardholders.
Derpreport found that their is a version of the gold card in Japan, it comes with an even higher annual fee of $2,000 but some additional benefits such as:
- Hawaiian Airlines Pualani Platinum Membership
- 3x Points per 100 yen spent
- Points transfer to ANA and JAL
- Airport limousine reimbursement service
- Local car pick up and drop off service in Tokyo
- Hawaiian Airport Lounge Access
- Luxury Lounge in NYC
After probing they also found out that the Luxury Lounge in NYC is available to American Luxury cardholders as well. Unlike other credit card lounges (such as the American Express Centurion lounges) this lounge isn’t in an airport and instead in NYC itself (this is similar to the Citibank gold lounges). Information is fairly limited at the moment but it provides the following:
- Complimentary hot and cold beverages
- Mobile phone charging stations
- Free Wi-Fi, and the use of iMAC computers
Personally I don’t see a lot of value in these in city lounges, I like airport lounges because I have nothing better to do than utilize a lounge while I wait for my flight. I can’t think of a lot of other better things I’d rather be doing in NYC than getting a couple of cheap freebies.
Personally I think the Luxury Cards make zero sense, at best your paying $995 for a card with a poor earning rate and poor benefits and no sign up bonus. I was hoping after Barclaycard cut military benefits we’d see improvements to this range of the cards, but I think they are more focused on targeting unsavy consumers that prefer prestige to value.
