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It’s easy to earn 2X travel rewards at any hotel in New York City.
With limited days available to leave the office and specific openings in kids’ sports schedules, staycations and short trips are often the best option for a busy family’s vacation. Because these types of trips are more affordable than, say, a European vacation, you can pay for a big chunk, if not all, of your family’s vacation with points.
Our favorite card for the average American family is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® because of how easy it is to stack up rewards and how wide-ranging the options are for using points.
The average American family spends about $51,000 a year on expenses. If you only charge 75 percent of these expenses to the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard®, you’ll rack up close to 77,000 miles (or $770 in travel rewards, with 100 miles equaling $1) by earning 2 miles per $1 spent on all purchases.
Plus, with the 40,000 bonus miles you can get an extra $500 worth of earned travel if you spend $3,000 on the card in the first 90 days. So, that’s around $1,200 of earned travel for a family getaway.
One of the great things about redeeming miles with this Barclaycard is that you do not have to book travel through some travel portal with Barclays, nor do you have to adhere to rules excluding certain modes of transportation or certain hotel chains. In our case here in Baltimore we can make those travel rewards go pretty far by taking the less-expensive commuter train to D.C., or the affordable Mega or Bolt bus to New York. You simply make a travel-related purchase on your card, and call Barclay to credit all or a portion of your expenses.
Stay in a cabin on your favorite lake and earn free travel.
Unlike other travel rewards cards, the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® will allow you to apply your credits to a wide range of lodging options. If you want to take your family to a remote cabin on a lake that you booked through Airbnb you’ll receive the credit. Even purchases like a parking space for your RV while camping is eligible for credits if you pay with the Barclaycard.
We think that’s pretty great, and really flexible. You can still put your reward credits towards that fabulous European getaway, and you can earn a bunch of miles by using your Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard®.
We believe that the ease of earning with this credit card combined with the flexibility of redeeming points makes the overall value proposition of this card worth putting all of your yearly expenses on it.
Read more on the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard®
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Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard®
- Enjoy 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 toward an eligible travel purchase.
- Earn 2X miles on all purchases
- Get 5% miles back to use toward your next redemption, every time you redeem
- Miles don’t expire as long as your account is open, active and in good standing
- No foreign transaction fees on purchases made while traveling abroad
- 0% introductory APR for 12 months on Balance Transfers made within 45 days of account opening. After that, a variable APR will apply, 16.99%, 20.99% or 23.99%, based on your creditworthiness. There is a fee for balance transfers.
Bonus
40,000 miles
Balance Transfer
0% Intro APR for 12 months
Ongoing APR
16.99, 20.99%, or 23.99% variable
Annual Fee
$0 first year; then $89
About Me
Barbara Jones is Point Savvy, an expert at earning and using rewards. A complete junkie for points, she has 35 years of experience navigating the credit card industry as an advertiser who’s made a career out of an intimate knowledge of loyalty programs. She’s here to help you understand how to best use points for amazing travel all the while saving you money and building your credit score.
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