LINK: Barclaycard Arrival Plus(TM) World Elite MasterCard®
It’s been a while since I’ve evaluated the cards I carry. The Delta MQM-providing products feature prominently in my now Atlanta-centric life, but I have been on the watch for something new. I frequently get questions on the best credit card for earning points towards a cruise. My advice often is that points are best spent on other travel modes, but most any product is better than the cruise line cards. I recently covered the new MyCruise Rewards card options, and while I believe that one of those products, the Celebrity Cruises Visa Signature premium card, is attractive for a certain kind of frequent floater, I think I demonstrated that other card products are generally a better deal. One product that rose higher than others was the Barclaycard Arrival Plus(TM) World Elite MasterCard®, which I recently added to my wallet.
The basics of the card are:
- Earn 40,000 bonus miles when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days — that’s enough to redeem for a $400 travel statement credit
- Earn 2X miles on all purchases
- Miles don’t expire as long as your account is open, active and in good standing
- Chip card for increased confidence and convenience to pay abroad as easily as you do at home
- Book the travel you want — airfare, hotels, cruises and more and earn miles on your purchase
- Get 10% miles back to use toward your next redemption every time you redeem for travel statement credits
- No foreign transaction fees on anything you buy while in another country
- Complimentary online FICO® Score access for Barclaycard Arrival cardmembers
I applied online, and was instantly approved for a reasonably generous credit line. I was offered an option to have my new card overnighted to me, but I went with snail mail. My new card arrived in about a week, and I immediately set out to meet my minimum spend of $1,000 (now $3,000) in 90 days, because I had an idea in my mind for exactly what I wanted to do with my miles.
- Deck 9 Superior Oceanview Stateroom – $571
- Other random charges – $1000
- More random charges (since I’m using the Arrival Card exclusively) – $1000
- Total charges – $2,571
- Total miles earned – 45,142
Redeem Miles for Travel Purchases Online
- Redeem 45,000 miles towards cruise ($450 in value)
- Final cost of cruise – $121
- Final miles balance – 4,642 (thanks to 10 percent redemption bonus for travel)
Rinse, and repeat, because the Barclaycard Arrival Plus(TM) World Elite MasterCard® is a keeper for me. Whether my use of the card for a cruise would represent a good value for you, is up to you to decide. It works for me. I hope this information is useful as you evaluate the benefits of adding a new card product to your wallet.
-MJ, October 1, 2013
Disclosure: If you apply for and receive a credit card through the links in this post, I will receive a commission. I appreciate your readership and support of the blog whether you use my links or not.
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Good idea using this as a ‘rebate’ on a cruise…. hmmm, might have to ponder this one a bit.
[…] first 3 months. There’s also the new Barclay Card Arrival World MasterCard which I recently covered here. The flexibility offered by any of these points currencies make for a nice backup plan when it […]