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The king of cash back cards is the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®, which isn’t even a cash back card.
The card offers 2.15% back on all purchases in the form of free travel. To be clear, the card is not a cash back card since the rewards are in the form of free travel, but since all of us do a lot of travel each year, I consider cash back and rewards for travel to be equivalent.
Beyond that world-beating rebate percentage on all spending, the sign up bonus is worth $430 in free travel, making this card a must have.
There are two reasons to get this card:
- 2.15% back on all purchases
- a sign up bonus worth $430 in free travel
Let’s talk about them in turn.
2.15% Back on All Purchases
The rewards of the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® are simple. You earn two miles per dollar on all purchases. Each mile is worth 1.075 cents net when redeemed for travel.
See why Arrival miles are worth 1.075 cents each.
The way to redeem these miles is to purchase any travel expense with the card, then request a statement credit with your miles.
See how to redeem Arrival miles.
Travel expenses are defined broadly and include:
- any flight on any airline (no need to search for award space!)
- taxes and fees on an airline award ticket
- any hotel expense (including bed & breakfasts, hostels, and non-chain hotels)
- cruises
- car rentals
- taxis
- ferries
- passenger trains
- much more
Example: You have 20,000 miles in your account. You use the credit card to purchase a $150 roundtrip ticket from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on any airline you want. You request to redeem your miles toward the purchase of that ticket in the form of a statement credit.
Barclay’s redeems 15,000 of your miles, and the $150 charge disappears. You got a free $150 flight for your 15,000 miles. In addition, of course, you will earn miles from flying a paid flight since the airline you are flying to Vegas was paid cash for your ticket!
Because of this redemption method, there are no blackout dates or capacity controls. You can redeem the miles for any seat, any time, on any airlines, to anywhere.
What I’ve described so far is only 2% back, but there are two other perks that take the deal up to 2.15%:
1. If you redeem Arrival miles for travel expenses you get 5% of the redeemed miles back instantly as a rebate. Let’s go back to the same example we just looked at.
Example revisited: We redeemed 15,000 miles for a $150 flight. Since the redemption was for travel, we get 5% of the miles back. 750 miles will be redeposited into our account.
2. You earn 2 miles per dollar even on purchases that you redeem miles to redeem from your statement.
Example revisited again: When we purchased the $150 flight, we earned 300 Arrival miles.
That means the net result is we spend 13,950 Arrival miles and get a $150 ticket, or 1.075 cents of value per mile!
How does 2.15% back on all purchases compare to other cards?
It is 7.5% better than any other cash back card I know of. I haven’t seen better than 2% back on all purchases.
It is better than almost all rewards cards. It’s a bit beyond the scope of this post, but the only cards that come close are the Starwood Preferred Guest from American Express and the United Club Card. See more on the best card for non-bonused spending here.
$430 in Free Travel
The card’s sign up bonus is 40,000 miles after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days of card membership.
Those 40,000 miles can be redeemed for $400 in free travel. And doing that will trigger a 5% rebate in points. You can use that 2,000 points for $20 more in free travel. Of course, you’d also get 100 points back, which is $1 more in travel, which means 5 points back…
The 5% rebate is an interesting lock-in feature from Barclaycard. I think they’re betting it will keep you using the card since you will have a hard time zeroing out your balance with the constant miles rebates. Whatever Barclaycard’s reasoning, I just love that the 5% rebate on travel redemptions increases the value of a miles from 1 cent to 1.075 cents.
Who Should Not Get This Card
Do not get this card if you want to collect miles to fly international First Class. Paid international First Class is exorbitantly expensive–think $10,000. A $10,000 ticket would cost 1,000,000 Arrival miles, which is far more than the number of traditional airline miles that paid first class costs.
It’s always sad to tell Award Booking Service clients who have accumulated miles on a card like the Arrival Plus and want to fly up front that they don’t have enough miles.
Who Should Get This Card
This card is ideal for people who fly economy, families, domestic flyers, and points omnivores.
- Economy Flyers– If you mainly fly economy class, it’s hard to get even 1.5 cents of value per traditional mile. Most miles credit cards earn 1 mile per dollar, meaning they get economy flyers 1.5 cents of travel per dollar spent–if that! The Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® gets economy flyers (and everyone else) 2.15 cents of travel per dollar spent.
- Families– Families have two things working against them. It’s tough to book four capacity-controlled award seats on the same flight, and they usually have little date flexibility since they want to travel over school breaks. The “miles” earned on the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® don’t require you to find award seats. They can be redeemed toward any travel purchase. A family can book four tickets to Disneyland and use their miles from this card to make that flight–whatever flight they want–for free.
- Domestic Flyers- You’d have to spend $25,000 on a United, American, or Delta credit card AND find award space on the flights you want to get a domestic roundtrip. You’d have to spend far less on the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®, and you can book any flight you want.
- Points Omnivores- This is my category. I’ll collect any mile or point I can to get more travel. I collect other types to get into international First Class. I’ll collect this type to fly more mundane planes–but not necessarily more mundane places–in economy class. A dollar saved is still a dollar saved.
Other Card Info
Here are the main things to know:
- Earn 40,000 bonus miles after 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
- Get 5% miles back to use toward your next redemption, every time you redeem
- Chip card technology, so paying for your purchases is more secure at chip-card terminals in the U.S. and abroad
- No foreign transaction fees on anything you buy while in another country
- 0% introductory APR for 12 months for each Balance Transfer made within 45 days of account opening. After that, a variable APR will apply, currently 16.24% or 20.24%, depending on your creditworthiness.
- Complimentary online FICO® Credit Score access for Barclaycard Arrival cardmembers
The car has no annual fee the first 12 months, then $89 thereafter.
Application Link: Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®
Recap
The Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® is currently offering a sign up bonus worth $430 in free travel, plus the card earns 2.15% back toward travel on all spending!
This card is ideal for economy flyers, domestic flyers, families, and points omnivores. The card is also ideal for anyone who doesn’t like to search for award space. The miles earned from this card can be used on any airline for any flight. (And you’ll even earn miles on that flight!)
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
Any limit to the amount of Barclay Cards one can have at any given time. I currently hold 3 and would like a 4th. FWIW, my credit score is over 800.
Not that I know of.
Any limit to the amount of Barclay Cards one can have at any given time. I currently hold 3 and would like a 4th. FWIW, my credit score is over 800.
Not that I know of.
Scott, you’re missing two big things here. One, this card offers a chip & PIN option, which is really hard to find on cards in the US and can be necessary for traveling in Europe. My wife and I had to sneak onto the train to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam because the kiosks wouldn’t take our chip & signature cards or our large denomination Euro bills. Second, miles redemptions for travel purchases must be for amounts of $100 or more. This might be hard for me as I rarely pay cash for flights and stays.
The $100 minimum stinks, but award taxes are routinely over that amount especially if you book two awards at once. And there must be some times when a “cash” ticket (AKA Arrival Miles ticket) is better for you than using region-based miles.
Scott, you’re missing two big things here. One, this card offers a chip & PIN option, which is really hard to find on cards in the US and can be necessary for traveling in Europe. My wife and I had to sneak onto the train to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam because the kiosks wouldn’t take our chip & signature cards or our large denomination Euro bills. Second, miles redemptions for travel purchases must be for amounts of $100 or more. This might be hard for me as I rarely pay cash for flights and stays.
The $100 minimum stinks, but award taxes are routinely over that amount especially if you book two awards at once. And there must be some times when a “cash” ticket (AKA Arrival Miles ticket) is better for you than using region-based miles.
It’s a pity that you keep perpetuating your flawed math to sell this card.
On an ONGOING BASIS you get 2.05% cashback for your purchases. C’est tout.
You only get a slightly better value from the signup bonus by double-counting the 5%.
Spend $4,750, get 9,500 points, redeem 10,000 points for $100, get 500 points back. Net change in points: zero.
Now $100/$4,750 = 0.021052631578947
The problem for me is that for it really to be a 2% card after the first year you have to put enormous spend on it. For example if you put $40,000 on it, using the 2.15% calculation, you get back $860. Subtract the $89 fee and you’re left with $771. That means that at the level of $40,000 in spend, you have a 1.93% cashback card. If you only spend $20,000 on it, you get back $430. Subtract the annual fee ($89), and you’re left with $341, making it a 1.7% cashback card. The math just doesn’t work for this card after the first year for anyone who isn’t prepared to run lots and lots of spend through it. That’s why I canceled the card the other day.
The other feature that would make it useful for some is the Barclay Travel Community, which offers points for posting stories. If you enjoy doing that, you can make it a worthwhile card to keep despite the annual fee.
Good points
I laid out my math in the linked post. It’s right.
It’s a pity that you keep perpetuating your flawed math to sell this card.
On an ONGOING BASIS you get 2.05% cashback for your purchases. C’est tout.
You only get a slightly better value from the signup bonus by double-counting the 5%.
Spend $4,750, get 9,500 points, redeem 10,000 points for $100, get 500 points back. Net change in points: zero.
Now $100/$4,750 = 0.021052631578947
The problem for me is that for it really to be a 2% card after the first year you have to put enormous spend on it. For example if you put $40,000 on it, using the 2.15% calculation, you get back $860. Subtract the $89 fee and you’re left with $771. That means that at the level of $40,000 in spend, you have a 1.93% cashback card. If you only spend $20,000 on it, you get back $430. Subtract the annual fee ($89), and you’re left with $341, making it a 1.7% cashback card. The math just doesn’t work for this card after the first year for anyone who isn’t prepared to run lots and lots of spend through it. That’s why I canceled the card the other day.
The other feature that would make it useful for some is the Barclay Travel Community, which offers points for posting stories. If you enjoy doing that, you can make it a worthwhile card to keep despite the annual fee.
Good points
I laid out my math in the linked post. It’s right.
This is lazy math. There’s a narrow scenario where the Arrival+ is better than a 2% CB card with no AF. Sure the signup bonus is decent but what about after? What about when you factor in the AF? Why don’t you talk about that?
Guess you’re a peddler like the rest of them.
This is lazy math. There’s a narrow scenario where the Arrival+ is better than a 2% CB card with no AF. Sure the signup bonus is decent but what about after? What about when you factor in the AF? Why don’t you talk about that?
Guess you’re a peddler like the rest of them.
The only cards that come close are SPG and United Club? Why not the Citi Double Cash? 2% on everything and no annual fee, and you don’t have the $100 minimum. I would say the Double Cash beats the Arrival.
The only cards that come close are SPG and United Club? Why not the Citi Double Cash? 2% on everything and no annual fee, and you don’t have the $100 minimum. I would say the Double Cash beats the Arrival.
I suppose the math is correct, but very misleading. Glad others see that there is no mention of an annual fee here, and that it needs to be accounted for when looking at the value if points. Just to add my bit of math, the amount you would need to spend on this to cancel out the annual fee beyond year 1 is (8900 cents)/(2.15 cents/dollar)=$4139, so you only start making the 2.15c/d after spending over $4000 on the card. Everything up to that point is just covering the annual fee.
Seriously considering unfollowing you after this. These are people’s credit scores and money you are giving misleading information about just so you can make a quick buck. Please have more respect for your readers.
I suppose the math is correct, but very misleading. Glad others see that there is no mention of an annual fee here, and that it needs to be accounted for when looking at the value if points. Just to add my bit of math, the amount you would need to spend on this to cancel out the annual fee beyond year 1 is (8900 cents)/(2.15 cents/dollar)=$4139, so you only start making the 2.15c/d after spending over $4000 on the card. Everything up to that point is just covering the annual fee.
Seriously considering unfollowing you after this. These are people’s credit scores and money you are giving misleading information about just so you can make a quick buck. Please have more respect for your readers.
Tough crowd here; I might have assumed that your more intelligent readers could do the math. Besides, who keeps a card more than a year unless there are some very good incentives to do so? I have 3 Barclay cards and got approved right away online, so now I have 4. Last credit score was 813. I churn cards, have way too many credit hits, but always pay on time and in full. This game doesn’t work otherwise.
Tough crowd here; I might have assumed that your more intelligent readers could do the math. Besides, who keeps a card more than a year unless there are some very good incentives to do so? I have 3 Barclay cards and got approved right away online, so now I have 4. Last credit score was 813. I churn cards, have way too many credit hits, but always pay on time and in full. This game doesn’t work otherwise.
Agree with many of the previous commenters regarding the flawed logic in the math calculation, especially in not accounting for the $89 annual fee. Using similar logic, the cash back percentage for the Citi Double Cash and Capital One Spark card (both of which have $0 annual fee) are really 2.04% because of how the statement credit is applied to future purchases. The title of the article proclaiming the arrival card to be the, “King of Cashback Cards”, smacks of hyperbole. The primary benefit of this card is the sign-up bonus of 40,000 miles, period. To tout it as the king of cashback cards is disingenuous at best.
Agree with many of the previous commenters regarding the flawed logic in the math calculation, especially in not accounting for the $89 annual fee. Using similar logic, the cash back percentage for the Citi Double Cash and Capital One Spark card (both of which have $0 annual fee) are really 2.04% because of how the statement credit is applied to future purchases. The title of the article proclaiming the arrival card to be the, “King of Cashback Cards”, smacks of hyperbole. The primary benefit of this card is the sign-up bonus of 40,000 miles, period. To tout it as the king of cashback cards is disingenuous at best.