Barclaycard Arrival^® Plus World Elite Mastercard^® — Full Review [2024]

Great Card If

• Traveling is your main goal and you’re going to do it often (including internationally)
• You like simple rewards and earning options and don’t want to manage a bunch of cards
• You love to shop around for deals and have no specific airline, hotel or other travel company loyalty
• You want to take advantage of the vast array of Luxury Travel Benefits available to card holders

Don’t Get If

• You’re not much of a traveler
• You intend to redeem for many smaller purchases rather than a few bigger ones ($100 minimum redemption option)
• You want to use this card for business (Barclays restricts earning for business expenses)

Welcome Bonus and Earning Rate

Beginning with a welcome bonus after your standard purchase amount within the required months (see above), you’ll be well on your way with travel credit ready to be redeemed.

The rewards rate on this card is a solid 2 points per $1 spent, with no limits and no restricted categories.

Other cards cap out the rewards at a certain dollar amount per category, or restrict the categories in which you can earn the higher rewards rate. But here, you get a nice 2x deal everywhere!

Bottom Line:  The Arrival Plus card earns 2x points for all purchases and costs $89 per year.

Card Benefits and Value

This is a travel rewards card, meaning you’ll earn the points as account credit you can apply towards travel related purchases.

Once you have enough, simply go into your account and apply the credit to your statement.

This card also gives you a 5% rebate for all redeemed points, making the value of the rewards rate equal out to 2.1 points per dollar.

Unlike some other cards, it allows you to earn miles while making your travel purchase and then apply those earned miles right back to your statement, while additionally earning a 5% rebate.

Value Compared to Other Cards

Contrast this to an airline or hotel card which deposits earned miles into the appropriate loyalty program account: when redeeming, you are taking points out but none are going back in.

Here, your redemptions are worth $0.01 per mile when redeeming for travel. This is a very standard evaluation that isn’t the worst you will find, but it also isn’t the best.

Great for Flexible Travelers

A world traveler likes flexibility, and you’ll get that with this card.

First, it has no foreign transaction fees and includes chip technology. So no matter where you are, your card will likely be accepted and continue to bring home points.

If you’re in Hong Kong and you want to travel to Thailand on a budget, you can look around for the best deals and book them all through your Arrival Plus card.

Then, redeem the miles back as statement credit, collect your rebate points, and keep going.

You won’t have to deal directly with specific airlines or hotels, but if you’re going to book through a third party it may be worth a call to confirm this will count as reimbursable.

Travel Reimbursement for Hotels, Airlines, and More … With a Caveat

Your redemption options don’t stop at airfare or hotels, either. There is a long list of items you can use your rewards for, including timeshares, cruises, discount travel sites, and most public transportation options.

Be warned though: you have to redeem for a minimum of $100 and can only apply against a purchase once, so we recommend applying your credit toward larger purchases. As always, planning is the key.

If you just aren’t traveling or using the card anymore, you do have the option to redeem for other statement credit or gift cards, but doing so cuts the value of the points in half (5000 points for $25), so we don’t recommend doing this.

Other Card Benefits

If you need a balance transfer, you can transfer to this card and enjoy 12 months of interest-free balance after the fee.

You won’t earn any points for this, so it’s not highly recommended unless you know you’ll be able to pay it off after the 12 months. Other low-interest credit cards also offer 0% APR on purchases, but no such luck with the Arrival Plus card.

Next, let’s talk about the Luxury Travel Benefits. These are actually MasterCard benefits made available to certain cardmembers.

They offer basic benefits, “World” benefits, and finally this card’s “World Elite” benefits. It basically includes all the other travel benefits in addition to some extras.

These include:

• Free business class upgrades on participating airlines with purchase of a full-price economy ticket
• Hotel room upgrades with SPG and other hotel partners
• Airline discounts up to 30%
• A complimentary companion ticket with a full-fare business class purchase
• Cruise discounts up to $500
• And many more!

Still Collect Your Loyalty Points From Your Travel Partners

It’s worth explicitly noting that you can still be a member of all the different loyalty programs and try to focus your travel on specific partners to further maximize your travel benefits.

You’ll continually be paying for everything with this card and earning card miles, but points earned through the loyalty programs still accrue into those accounts to be used later as well.

This can be an even more powerful strategy if you want to move past the beginner stage!

Best Ways To Earn Arrival Plus Rewards

Earning miles is fairly straightforward with this rewards card: buy everything on the card. Anything you could possibly pay for, try to purchase with your card as long as there are no additional fees!

You’ll get 2x points for everything plus the 5% redemption bonus back, equating to 2.1x.

Below are examples of things you could put on your card:

• Groceries
• Utilities and bills
• Restaurants, drinks, and entertainment
• Doctors visits
• Supplements
• Insurance
• Business expenses (if you don’t have a higher-earning card)
• Memberships (gym, etc.)
• Haircuts
• Rent*

When earning points, plan ahead to make sure you get to a minimum 10,000 points: this is the absolute minimum value ($100) you can redeem at once. You can always redeem anything above this amount, however.

Another way you could rack up more points is to get additional cards if you have a child or spouse who spends separately. You essentially just expand your ability to earn points but get no additional benefits.

* Note: Depending on your living situation, you may be able to pay rent on a credit card without incurring extra fees. If this is the case, absolutely use your credit card to pay for your rent! If you do have a fee, then it may or may not be worth it. Typical fees range from 2% to 3%. Let’s look at the math:

Say you pay $1,200 per month in rent. If you take a 3% fee for using a credit card, but get to accrue all those points, then you would pay $1,236 for rent and get 2.1x points for it. This is assuming the fee isn’t somehow charged separately and just rolls into your rent (fees don’t earn points, and there are many other restrictions as well). That’s worth 31,147 points (at 2.1x) total! For that amount, you can redeem a $311 travel credit.

But wait! How much did you pay in fees? Well, at this rate, $36 for 12 months is equal to $432. So you’re actually losing value by using your credit card.

At a lower fee, you could potentially break even, and it turns out that sweet spot is 2.14% for this rent amount. But will you make enough for it to be worth the hassle? With $2,000 rent and 2% fee, you would come out ahead $34. Any higher of a fee, and it’s not worth it, but if you increase rent you will make a bit more. Anyone who is able to get less than a 2% fee will likely see benefit, but make sure to do your own math for your situation.

Final Note: This only applies if the fee gets charged as rent and whole thing gets counted as a retail purchase. We have not tested this, and the scenario is all in theory!

Best Way To Redeem Arrival Plus Rewards

To redeem points earned with this card, simply go into your account, navigate to Manage Rewards, and choose to redeem points for travel purchases.

We suggest planning to do this immediately after you make your travel purchase, but it must be within 120 days (so plan accordingly!).

Also, since you can only redeem for a minimum of $100, you’ll likely get one or two good redemptions per year out of your points earned.

We’d suggest saving up to pay for one larger purchase all at once, just so you don’t have to worry about the minimum spend every time.

Know that you’ll only get your 5% points back when you redeem, so you’ll have to keep on earning and redeeming to make this card worth it.

You can use your card to redeem for gift cards and other merchandise through the Barclays portal, but doing so cuts the value of your points in half ($0.005), so we don’t recommend it!

Best Way To Maximize Arrival Plus Rewards

There are no direct partnerships with this card like you would see with other cards. However, the beauty of this arrangement is the flexibility of choosing whatever travel partner you want.

Again, you can still be a member of any loyalty program you want. This card doesn’t add to those loyalty accounts, but that shouldn’t stop you from accruing any extra rewards there as well – it’s all free!

Instead, this card offers users the Luxury Travel network from MasterCard, which includes a multitude of partners.

The only trouble is finding out who the partners really are, so you’ll likely just have to call their customer service and talk about the benefits with them.

Authorized Categories for Redeeming Miles

With regards to travel, only certain categories count as travel for the redemptions. Here is the list of approved travel categories to make redemptions against ($100 min):

Airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, campgrounds, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries

Your annual fee also counts as redeemable, but we do NOT recommend doing this.

Because this amount is less than $100 and the minimum mile redemption is 10,000, you would have to spend that many points and waste the value of some of your points!

Alternatives to the Arrival Plus Card

The Discover it Miles Card is very similar. It also earns travel rewards that are accrued on the card just like cash-back.

But which one is better? For your first year, the Discover it Miles card is better since it earns the equivalent of 3x points which can be applied to your travel purchases.

After this first year, though, the Arrival Plus card is much more valuable, because it earns at an equivalent rate of 2.1x at all times.

That earning rate is better than other cash-back cards like the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card*×Information collected independently. Not reviewed by Capital One. or the Citi Double Cash Card. The Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card only earns 1.5% cash-back, while the Citi Double Cash Card earns 2% (1% at purchase with another 1% when you pay your bill).

However, this Barclays card comes with an $89 annual fee (waived the first year), so there is a minimum amount you would have to spend in order to make up for this difference in cost.

Bottom Line:  The Arrival Plus card has the best earning rate of similar travel rewards and cash-back cards, but it has an $89 annual fee (waived the first year). This value must be accounted for when determining its worth.