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.
Has anyone tried to redeem Arrival+ points for something like a reciprocity fee for entering a country? I’m heading to Argentina next month and will have to pay $160 reciprocity fee, it would be great if I could use my Arrival+ points to cover it.
So there’s a report on Reddit that the November 17th devaluation will impact ALL accounts, regardless of what we’ve been told or received via snail mail.
https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/3scuje/psa_barclay_arrival_redemption_devaluation_in_7/
Note, I’m not suggesting I instantly believe it. However, it wouldn’t surprise me. I put out a SM and I’m hoping for a response by tomorrow. I think others who aren’t supposed to be impacted until 2016 should do the same. If we can’t find concrete evidence it may behoove us to collectively gather data points to help clarify whether or not we’re all impacted.
I called in today and was told that the terms as listed here on DoC are correct (no, I of course didn’t reference DoC). I had asked them to confirm the date when the terms of my rewards redemption changes. After putting me on hold to confer with what I’m guessing was a supervisor she told me confidently that I have until August of 2016.
You say a few routes. That’s a shame. Did Twitter put in the request and it was denied?
Yea, I tried Twitter as well. No luck.
I tried hard to get the annual fee waived and had absolutely no luck. I tried the cancellations department as well and the rep I was connected to seriously pushed a hard sell of the benefits on me. I wasn’t actually going to cancel but after talking with her I almost considered it. Continuously interrupted me and tried to talk over me and insisted that the changes to the benefits are actually in my favor. I’ll use as many points as I can in the next week, continue to hit this card hard over the next 6-8 months, burn up the rest of my points, and then cancel before I pay the fee again late next year.
I applied for the card before Sept 2014 I think but downgraded to the fee-free version about 6 months ago. And currently (for at least the past few weeks) my redemption option has been out of service completely on my account. Probably won’t work again until they implement the stingier rules. Guess I should call them and find out why but I don’t much care. This card went from the top of my heap to the bottom and I probably won’t use it any more.
I also tried getting a retention offer with no success…My annual fee just posted last week. I decided to keep the card for several reasons, one being I have a very high credit limit and I use this card the most. I manufacturered $4k spend at Safeway last week to offset the annual fee.
Wrote a summary of my one year with Barclay. $230k charges in one year!
http://wp.me/p6O8NO-ce
You look like a prime candidate for a shutdown. Please do some research re. the topic, if you haven’t already! Some people had their accounts closed by banks and their points (including Arrival+) confiscated, due to highly unusual activities.
You’ve been warned.
“Due to highly unusual activities” … but they’re not. I put in a lot of charges every month for business expenses and they’ve increased my credit limit to meet my needs.
Hmm. Looking at your blog it seems that the business expenses you’re referring to consist of purchasing many gift cards which you’re then reselling. Also, I got the impression that this is a personal cc account. I for one would not assume that Barclay is ok and will continue to be ok with those spending patterns based on just the fact that they increased the credit line.
Also, please note that some of those who have been shutdown have sometimes been hit because the bank saw something they didn’t like in the credit reports collected *after* the account was open. For example, seeing a big spike in the total new credit lines, from other banks, made a bank nervous to the point where they chose to shut down the customer’s account.
Oh, and btw, sometimes these shutdowns also affect an entire “cluster of accounts” which are related to the suspect customer. I’ve read stories about banks shutting down the accounts of the customer’s entire family.
In any case, please keep us updated on how this goes. The readers of this blog are paying close attention to this type of stories 😉
Good luck.
Barclay (US Air card) shutdown happened to me in March 2015:
with no warning, they sent me a letter, and closed my 13-mo old account. I had the AF waived the month before by spending 3 K in 30 days, and screwed me by not paying 5000 miles I earned from a promo I qualified a FULL 30-day cycle before.
My typical MS/real spending on the card was about 500 – 1000 / mo; except one month where I spent $15K, cycling through a 9K credit limit more than once, by prepaying before limit reached.
Their account closure letter said they noticed too many inquiries with other non-Barclay banks, do they deemed me risky, and closed me down. I am done with all Barclays products; too much hassle to get approved with many TU inquiries on my acct.
You jumped the gun. Accusations before questions. I don’t think she cares about your warning either. IF she does his MS, she already knows the risks.
Seems like those are college kids that lie about their income and seriously heavy hitters that trigger a financial review(amongst other things). If your CL is based on legit income and normal spend is mixed in there, I don’t see the concern. Barclaycard still makes money on MS even at 2%. They charge a ridiculous swipe fee from what I understand..2.7% I think? .5% of 250k is $1250 a year in swipe fees, or a $100/mo. Pretty damn lucrative for the bank assuming you’re not a hidden credit risk.
My husband got the card in Dec 2013, but he got a letter that says the changes will happen August 2016. I hope it wasn’t a fluke that he got that letter!
I got it too and I’m a long term cardholder.
Confused by the “Redemption Bonus Changes”:
It says something about reducing to 5% bonus, but at the same time expanding to all redemptions including cash back, gift cards, etc. Does this mean you no longer have to worry about redeeming for travel to get full value from the card?
No, it’s still only half value for the non-travel redemption. It’s just that now you also get the 5% bonus on those redemptions, whereas before you did not get any bonus on them. The 10% bonus was only for the travel redemptions.
pay the annual fee! why?
why not close or downgrade and reapply if they refuse to waive annual fee then get sign up bonus again as this card is churnable?
…because you have built up a $35k flexible spend CL and Citigold is easy MS. 🙂
Yea, that’s an option.
I was actually going to do that. I had drained my miles and on the day I was going to close the card, the good DOC posted about the Citibank checking offer. The Arrival card is the perfect card to do the funding. Upped my CL (hard pull) instead of closing the cards (wife and I) I used the cards to fund 2 Citigold and 2 Savings. Now have 180,000 miles in both accounts. So the DOC saved me or gained me $1,800+ in travel. There is a promo for the Citigold itself but I may never get it and I’m not going to throw a hissyfit if they say no (not targeted).
Just to add, called Barclay twice to ask for the $89 fee waiver. They said no and this was their reason. “We offer a no annual fee Arrival card and because of your ability to downgrade to that card, we will not waive the fee”