I’ve spent almost all of my points and miles life earning sign up bonuses for flexible currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards or program specific points with Delta SkyMiles or Marriott Bonvoy. There came a time where I had to look at other options and I’ve had plenty of times where I ended up paying for a trip with cash instead of using miles. So why haven’t I signed up for a card which would help me pay for those charges?
When the Barclaycard Arrival+ card offered a 70,000 point sign up bonus, I decided it was finally time for me to sign up for a travel cash back card.
I signed up for the Barclaycard Arrival+ and earned the 70,000 points sign up bonus after spending $5,000 in the first three months. Since the card earns 2x points on all purchases, I now had 80,000 points in my account. So how can you spend these points?
Redeeming Arrival+ Points
As it turns out, it’s really easy to redeem your Arrival+ points to offset charges made to the card for travel expenses. Any travel expense over $100 can be offset with 10,000 points.
When I needed a positioning flight from Orlando to JFK to meet our Virgin Atlantic flight to London, the best flight was on Delta because we’d be able to interline our bags and connect to the international terminal using the JFK Jitney. Using SkyMiles for the trip wasn’t a great option (and therefore neither were any Delta partners) so paying cash for the tickets was the best alternative. Good thing I saved my Arrival+ points.
In order to use my Arrival+ points, all I needed to do was charge my tickets to my card. Once the tickets showed up on my account, everything is handled online.
And before you say it, yes, we paid $235.30 each for a one-way flight from Orlando to JFK. I know, I couldn’t believe that was the best price I could get either. I earned 2x points for the tickets so that was an additional 940 points in my account.
Once the charge hit, I was able to log into my account and click on the “Rewards and Benefits” tab and clicked on “Using my miles”
That brought me to a new page where I simply clicked on the “Redeem Now” tab to use my miles/points for a Travel Statement Credit
Once I clicked on that, I was brought to a page showing all my charges eligible to be offset by points. You have 120 days to claim a statement credit (but I didn’t wait that long) and the charge has to be over $100. Our Delta tickets easily qualified.
Once I clicked on “Redeem Now”, I was offered a choice of how many points I wanted to redeem. I chose to redeem the full amount of the ticket for 23,530 points.
There was one more chance to go over my redemption.
From there, I was brought to the confirmation screen. The 23,530 points were taken from my account but the 5% rebate of 1,177 points also instantly showed up in my account.
From there, I went back and repeated the process for the second ticket.
I still had points left in my account which I used to pay for our hotel night in a Hampton Inn in Fort Lauderdale.
Final Thoughts
I’m not sold on the value proposition of the Arrival+ Card since it only earns 2x points on all purchases and charges an $89 annual fee. I can earn 2% back with several other cards, like the Citi Double Cash, which charges no annual fee. Still, with a 70,000 point sign up bonus, the Arrival+ is a solid option to earn points you’re able to redeem against charges for travel expenses not covered by points and miles.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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