Arrival Premier Points Guide (2019)
Credit Card Reference, Introduction to 'Transferable' Reward Points
Barclays doesn't really have a name for the transferable points program associated with the Arrival Premier card.
Barclay's program is the least interesting of the transferable reward programs. While you can get a good reward rate on your purchases, they have a weak set of airline partners, and no ability to build up large number of points via credit card signup bonuses.
The program was only introduced in April of 2018, so there is a good chance that it may quickly improve. Until that time, the Barclay program is primarily interesting for frequent flyer experts, who are capable of getting good use out of the program's more obscure frequent flyer programs, can generate enough spending to maximize the card's rewards, and willing to put in the effort to maximize the rewards that they earn every year.
Airline transfer partners
We don't have any first hand experience with the program, and the program is so new that most of the details, such as expected transfer times, haven't been shared on the internet.
No one knows whether Barclay will offer transfer promotions, like American Express or Citibank.
| Star Alliance (United) |
SkyTeam (Delta) |
Oneworld (American) |
Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada (1.7:1) |
Air France / KLM (Flying Blue) |
JAL (1.7:1) |
Etihad |
| EVA Air | China Eastern | Malaysia | Jet (India) |
| Aeromexico |
Qantas |
Rumors are that Finnair and Alitalia will be added soon.
While Etihad doesn't belong to one of the major alliances, they have several useful partners (including American Airlines) and some good values in their award chart. Flying Blue is another good program, although one that is available across all of the transferable point programs. JAL can be a very good Oneworld program, and Air Canada is a solid Star Alliance program, but you need 1.7 Barclays points, rather than 1.4 points for each mile, making them more expensive to use.
EVA Airlines offers reasonably priced rewards, but can be hard to book through, and is the only Sky Alliance partner. Aeromexico, China Eastern, Malaysia, and Qantas are all programs that you would be unlikely to want to use.
Remember that you can use points from any of these frequent flyer programs to book awards with any of that program’s partner airlines. So, you can transfer your Barclays points to Flying Blue, and then use those points to fly Delta, any of the other major airlines that are part of the SkyTeam Alliance, or any of Air France / KLM’s other airline partners. Between the different partnerships, you can use your points to book award tickets on around 100 airlines.
There are currently no hotel programs that participate in the points transfer program.
Cashing out your points
If you don’t want to use your points with frequent flyer tickets, you can easily use your points to offset any travel purchases you make with the card. You simply use your card, like normal, to make a travel purchase. Then, you go online and elect to use your points, at 1 cent each, to pay for part or all of the purchase.
The minimum amount of the purchase that you can offset is $100 (or 10,000 points), but you can redeem the exact amount of the purchase over this amount. You must redeem your miles within the first 120 days.
If you are hitting the $15,000 or $25,000 thresholds exactly, you'd be earning 3x points, or 3 cents, per dollar.
Barclays Arrival Premium Card
The only Barclays card that earns transferable points is the Arrival Premium card. You can't use points that you earn from other Arrival-branded cards.
- The card has no signup bonus.
- The card has no bonus categories. You'll earn the same 2x points on every purchase.
- The card has a $150 annual fee. There are no foreign transaction fees.
- It doesn't have much in the way of extra benefits. It does come with an automatic $100 credit towards a TSA application fee (Global Entry), which is a feature that is typically found on premium cards, but is also available on a couple of no-annual-fee cards
