The Barclaycard Arrival Plus if a great option for flexible travel redemptions. The card earns 2 miles per dollar spent, and miles are worth 1 cent a piece when redeemed for a travel statement credit. I’ve received the 50,000 mile sign-up bonus from this card twice. That’s over $1,000 in free travel! I tend to use this card when I want to book a tour, buy train tickets, or stay in a boutique hotel. If you’re new to the Barclaycard Arrival Plus, here’s a step-by-step guide on redeeming miles for a travel statement credit.
In this example, I redeemed 24,000 miles for a $240 statement credit for a tour I booked on viator.com. I think Viator may be a bit more expensive than contacting a local tour company yourself, but I mainly use it for the convenience and the fact that I can get the tour for free with Arrival Plus miles.
Step 1: Sign-in and head to the “Rewards & Benefit Center”
Keep in mind that travel statement credits require a minimum redemption of 10,000 miles. This means you can only redeem Barclaycard Arrival Plus miles for travel if your travel purchase cost $100 or more.
Step 2: Click “Start using my miles”
This brings you to the rewards portal where you will see several different redemption options. Redeeming miles for a travel statement credit will always give you the best value since miles are worth 1 cent each. If you choose a regular statement credit or gift card, miles are only worth 0.5 cents each.
Step 3: Select “Travel Statement Credits”
You’ll now find yourself on the “Travel statement credits” page. Any purchases available for a travel statement credit will show up here. These purchases must be at least $100 and have occurred in the past 120 days. Sometimes it takes a day or two for a recent purchase to show up here.
Step 4: Select “Redeem Now”
When you click “Redeem Now”, a drop down will show up with your redemption options. If you have enough miles, you can redeem the exact amount of miles needed to get a full statement credit. Otherwise, you can do a partial redemption with options in 2,500 mile increments.
Step 5: Review and verify your statement credit selection
This page shows you how many miles you will have left after completing your redemption.
Step 6: Confirm your travel statement credit
Once you hit confirm, you’ll get a 5% rebate on the miles you redeemed. Even with the 5% bonus, I’m still below the threshold for completing an additional travel credit redemption in this example. I think this is a marketing ploy by Barclaycard to get you to keep the card so you keep spending more to get 10,000 miles to complete your next redemption. Instead, you can earn miles for free with the Barclaycard Travel Community. You can also read more about my strategy for redeeming Barclaycard Arrival Plus miles here.
Final Thoughts
It’s super easy to get free travel with the Barclaycard Arrival Plus. The online portal makes it easy to redeem miles though there are some limitations like the $100 purchase threshold for travel statement credits and the inability to complete a partial redemption of any value. Even so, with a 50,000 mile sign-up bonus and flexibility in redemption options, this card is worth getting at least once!
