Redeem, Redeem!
Just a reminder that coming November 17, most of us will have our Arrival+ benefits change:
- The 10% bonus awarded upon redeeming miles for travel will drop to 5%
- The minimum redemption will be $100, versus the current $25
- Tourist attractions will no longer be part of the travel redemption category
The latter two won’t affect someone who has lots of travel to redeem against, but the bonus-drop will affect everyone. Try to redeem whatever you can by November 16 so as to gain that extra 5%.
Personally, I have 58,000 points to redeem for $580 in travel. I’ll get a $58 bonus by redeeming now, versus a $29 bonus if I’d wait until November 17.
Exact Dates
When these changes go into effect depend on when you applied for the card:
- If you applied for the card before September 30th, 2014 then they will go into effect on November 17, 2015.
- If you applied for the card on or after October 1st, 2014 then they will go into effect on August 16, 2016.
- Some who got the card before September 30, 2014 report getting notification from Barclay that they’ll keep the old terms until August 16, 2016.
You probably received an email and mailing about the changes. To find the email, search “[email protected]” and you should find an email sent on October 1 entitled, “Important Rewards Program Changes” (HT: FQF).
Retention Offer
One final note regarding the Arrival+. In the past, it was considered easy to get a retention offer when the annual fee came due, either in the form of a statement credit or in the form of free points. It seems like they’ve made an internal decision to stop such offers and really push the $89 annual fee on everyone. This is based on my own experience (I tried hard, a few routes) and I’ve seen some others mention it as well.
In the end, I decided to keep the card and pay the annual fee since I use it a lot, but it’s worth knowing that they era of waived annual fees may be over. Let us know if you’ve had a different experience.
