UPDATE: The card described in this article is no longer available.
Original content follows…
Doctor of Credit recently broke the news that Barclays appears to be on the verge of releasing a new credit card. A source has confirmed to me that this is true and has given me a bit more to go on. First, though, here’s what Doctor of Credit reported:
- Card Name: Barclays Arrival Premier World Elite Mastercard
- Annual Fee: $150 [Update 7/6/18: Now waived the first year.]
- Global Entry credit
- Annual Big Spend Bonuses: 15K Arrival miles after $15K spend, and another 10K Arrival miles after another $10K spend
- No news yet about the signup bonus
Doctor of Credit also speculated that Arrival miles may be transferable to airline partners.
Now, here’s the scoop from my source:
- Card Name: Barclays Arrival Premier World Elite Mastercard [No “e” at the end]
- There will be at least a half-dozen airline transfer partners
- The rest of the Doctor of Credit info was correct. I take that to mean that the following details are true:
- Annual Fee: $150
- Global Entry credit
- Annual Big Spend Bonuses: 15K Arrival miles after $15K spend, and another 10K Arrival miles after another $10K spend
I love transferable points programs. At different times and for different routes, you never know in advance which airlines will have the award space you need. Plus, each program tends to have its own award sweet-spots. With transferable points programs, you can generally wait until you find award space on your desired flights before transferring points to the program that is best for booking those awards.
Of course, whether or not this will be valuable with the new Barclays card will depend on which award partners they end up with. If they stick with airlines with which they already have partnerships, then they may support any or all of the following airlines:
- American Airlines
- Frontier Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- JetBlue
- Lufthansa
But they may go beyond current partners. In my post “Promiscuous transfer partners” I pointed out that three airlines were transfer partners with all four of the most popular transferable points programs. These promiscuous airline programs are: Air France / KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. Nearly as promiscuous are Cathay Pacific, Etihad, and British Airways. It seems likely to me that Barclays will include some of these as transfer partners with the Arrival Premier card.
My source didn’t mention the ability to transfer to hotels, but Wyndham transfers would be a very nice option too!
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] Several months ago I tried applying for Capital One’s Venture card, and they quickly passed on my business. I don’t blame them though, I would have too! I doubt that I’ll be able to get any of these cards soon, but Capital One seems to be in the transferrable partner game for real, and I think the program will only improve (and not degrade like Barclays transferrable points attempt). […]
[…] expected, many of the key card details we previously reported here and here were […]
[…] week I excitedly revealed that Barclays’ not-yet-announced Arrival Premier card would offer transferable points. In my opinion, transferable points rewards are the best form of rewards. And having a new […]
Any rumor about if this card will come out in time to pay taxes?
I haven’t heard, but I did get emails on my other Barclays cards this week (Wyndham, Aviator) saying that a change was coming to the website April 1st, so I would think we’ll see something over the next couple of days. If it happens in the next couple of days, I imagine it should come in time without being expedited. We’ll see.
Worst case, it’ll come in time to make estimated payments for next year 😀
[…] Barclays Arrival Premier to offer transferable points! [via unnamed source] […]
[…] also heard from Frequent Miler that the Arrival Premier card will have transferable points. There will be at least a handful of partners to transfer to. Looking at Barclays’ […]
This seems legit! If you take a look at https://cards.barclaycardus.com/cards.html#travel/
You’ll notice that the Arrival is no longer there! Hmmmmmm!
[…] turn to jump in the premium market or credit cards. Doctor of Credit broke the news and Frequent Miler also has some additional information about the […]
[…] HUGE additional fact of this card (via The Frequent Miler) is that it is supposed to include at least a half dozen transfer […]
This is awesome news. Thanks for sharing, Greg. Seems like it’s only going to benefit us and maybe push other banks to up their game! (Zac Hood, TravelFreely.net)
If this card transfers to AA and Lufthansa and earns 2x everywhere, or even has decent bonus categories, I am in.
[…] various online communities. According to an unnamed source, this will also mark the beginning of Barclays’ flexible point transfer system. Although highly unlikely, everyone is hoping that American Airlines will become one of its […]
I love my arrival. We’ve had 4 of them. The arrival points post when the purchase posts. Transferable points that post right away are wonderful. Here’s hoping for. A decent sign up bonus and transfer partners.
[…] 2: Frequent Miler is reporting that transfers to travel partners are confirmed via an unnamed source. Barclaycard […]
[…] biggest news though isn’t anything which is mentioned above. Frequent Miler has reported from a unnamed source that the card will have transfer […]