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As reported by The Points Guy, Barclays is out with the details of the much anticipated Barclays Arrival Premier World Elite Mastercard. Greg was right that transfer ratios are not 1:1 (See: More about Arrival Premier transfer partners (from my source), and why the card might not be all that), but it’s still not necessarily bad. There is no signup bonus and the transfer partners are more niche than we may have expected, but this card could still be pretty interesting. We have a link to the landing page / application in our Barclays Arrival Premier Complete Guide.
Key Card Details
As expected, many of the key card details we previously reported here and here were correct:
- Card Name: Barclays Arrival Premier
- Annual fee: $150 (waived the first year)
- Signup Bonus: None
- No foreign exchange fees
- Point earning rate: 2 Arrival miles per dollar
- Bonus for big spend: 15,000 Arrival miles after $15K spend per card membership year. Another 10,000 Arrival miles for a total of $25K spend per membership year.
- Best use of Arrival miles: Redeem for travel credits at a rate of 1 cent per Arrival mile, or transfer to airline partners
- Transfer rate to airline partners is one to one — instead the ratios will be 1.4 to 1, or 1.7 to 1. See below.
Other benefits include:
- $100 Global Entry credit once every 5 years
- Complimentary ShopRunner membership
- Extended warranty, purchase assurance, price protection and satisfaction guarantee
- Complimentary concierge service (though as I noted in yesterday’s post, these services aren’t always worth much)
- Ability to earn extra Arrival miles through the Barclays Travel Community
The Transfer Partners
- Aeromexico
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- China Eastern
- Etihad
- EVA Air
- Japan Airlines
- Jet Airways
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
The transfer ratio is 1.4 Arrival miles to 1 airline mile for all of the above airlines except Japan Airlines. Since the card earns 2x everywhere, that’s an effective 1.42 miles per dollar in 8 of the 9 programs above (1.18 Japan Airlines miles). If you spend exactly $15,000 or $25,000 annually, you receive a bonus that equals an effective 3x Arrival miles — which would bump those ratios up to 2.14 miles per dollar in most of those programs or 1.76 miles per dollar for Japan Airlines. Those rates are awesome. Unfortunately, most of the transfer partners don’t have very interesting award charts — but at the very least, those earning rates for Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Etihad, and Japan Airlines are still very interesting.
Statement credits also
According to the official press release, in addition to transfer partners, you will have the ability to redeem Arrival miles for statement credits. As with the previous Arrival Plus, Arrival Premier miles are worth $0.01 each when redeemed for travel. That makes this card essentially like a 2% cash back card, or 3% cash back if you spend exactly $15K or $25k. That’s not a deal in comparison to other cash back cards considering the Arrival Premier’s $150 annual fee, but it’s a decent backup plan if you’re in need of a redemption that doesn’t fit with the transfer partners.
Quick Analysis
The intention here by Barclays is apparently to reward ongoing card use rather than attracting customers who will pump-and-dump the card. That’s an interesting strategy. And the truth is, the ratios being offered do make this card interesting even without a signup bonus.
The most interesting transfer partner is Japan Airlines, as they do have some awesome award chart sweet spots. Until now, the best option for earning JAL miles has been the SPG card. That card earns 1 point per dollar and points are transferable to JAL at 1:1 (or 20K Starpoints get you 25K JAL miles for an effective earning rate of 1.25 miles per dollar if you spend exactly $20K on the SPG card).
However, the Arrival Premier now beats that out at 1.18 Japan Airlines miles per dollar even for small transfers or better ratios if you reach the spend thresholds. For example, if you spend exactly $15K on the Arrival Premier, you’ll earn a total of 45,000 Arrival miles. That should transfer to 26,470 Japan Airlines miles — meaning $5K less spend will get you more miles than the traditional SPG sweet spot of 20K:25K. Of course, that comes with a higher annual fee of $150 on the Arrival Premier vs $95 for the SPG card.
There is also the fact that there are additional ways to earn SPG points (from stays, spending bonuses, transfers from Marriott, etc), whereas options for earning additional Arrival miles will be very limited. You will not be able to combine Arrival Miles with those from an Arrival Plus card. However, the press release notes that you will be able to earn miles through the Barclays Travel Community, which could be interesting. See this post from The Deal Mommy for more on how that has worked with the Arrival Plus.
Transfers to the other partners are less compelling since you can earn 2x on the first $50K annually (then 1x) with no annual fee on the Amex Blue Business Plus and transfer 1:1 to Flying Blue or Etihad. Sure, the ratio is a little better with the Arrival Premier if you spend exactly $15K or $25K, but the additional earnings do not mitigate the annual fee. This card is definitely best for transfers to Japan Airlines or if you are someone who maxes out the $50K spend on the Blue Business Plus and you are looking to continue earning more Flying Blue / Etihad miles.
Finally, having the option to redeem Arrival miles for 1 cent each towards travel is a nice little backup plan. This card wouldn’t be better than a no-fee 2% back card if your main goal is cash back due to the $150 fee, but it’s a strong plan B when awards don’t work out the way you expect.
For more on this card and a link to the landing page / application, see our Barclays Arrival Premier Complete Guide.
H/T: The Points Guy

[…] 2018, Barclays introduced a new rewards card with points transferable to miles but then they killed the card just 6 months […]
You need to redo your arithmetic, since SPG is turning into pumpkin on August 1st.
[…] the new Barclays Arrival Premier launched last week, I took some heat from readers who thought I wasn’t negative enough about […]
Hmm…I wish they had offered annual fee waiver, as the option to transfer to JAL does appeal to me, with a potentially better conversion rate than SPG’s. Would also be good to get a Mastercard given the current collection of cards in my wallet LOL
The AF is definitely a bummer but the list of transfer options are really interesting. I think with a $ 25 K spend the return value is great, since I get to transfer my points to Qantas.
TPG says that Barclays says this card is geared more for folks wanting a higher cash statement credit than actually using the points towards travel. More like just offering airline partners as a perk & not for the hard-core travel/points/miles set.
Assumimg this is true & CB seekers are indeed the main demographic, 25,000 points at .03 = $750. Less the card’s $150 fee is $600. If I used the highest CB card available today for ALL spend (Citi Double Cash with no AF), the same $25k of spend only makes me $500 (at .02). The $100 difference should be worth it for a person to apply for the BAP.
I have read, & seen, some rather convuluted schemes from bloggers, readers, & other consumers in the past for $100. This deal isn’t for me, but I certainly would not put it past Barclays’ demographic CB audience to pursue it, either. By the same token I wouldn’t purchase, maintain, manage, & transact caches of gift cards to raise the same $100, so…different strokes.
This card is a huge fail. Shame on anyone trying to pimp this thing. Nick, you need to look hard at yourself in the mirror – it’s a sad day when you hat tip TPG!
Read the post. Nick gave the card an honest balanced review. We have a strict editorial policy against writing articles or biasing articles for the purpose of earning affiliate revenue. In fact, when this was published we didn’t have affiliate links for the card nor did we expect to get them (it turned out that we did get an affiliate link later, after publication). Also, Nick’s pay is in no way influenced by our affiliate revenue. Plus, keep in mind that we often don’t earn any revenue for cards that we do have affiliate links for because we always publish the best offer which is usually not our affiliate link. For example, in the recent round of posts about the last chance to get the $49 IHG card, we could have linked through to creditcards dot com to earn affiliate revenue, but there is a better offer that includes a $50 credit that we linked to instead.
TPG is where we learned about the card’s release (and I believe was also the only publication at the time with the transfer rates) so Nick did the right thing with a hat tip.
I can earn those Barclay points 10x easier than any Amex or Chase card. I am all over this card. I have the Arrival Plus and love it.
You shameless shill. Bloggers are dishonest, self-serving liars. Disgusting.
The verdict is:
1) No sign up offer (this is at least $500 value missing)
2) $150 Annual Fee, first year not waived
3) A lot of things to remember in terms of spending thresholds
4) Lackluster transfer partners with exception of JAL
5) Earning ratio is ok but not great, Chase Freedom Unlimited or AMEX Blue Business Plus easily exceeds it, and both of those cards come with Sign up offer of ~20k and NO ANNUAL FEE
Truthfully, even with a 20k sign up bonus this card isn’t even that strong.
I don’t know why several people are griping about this review. I personally disagree that it’s “great” for JAL, but Nick makes a decent and detailed case for it. Otherwise, I found the review to be balanced and informative. This card is a hard pass for me, but this article made it easier for me to decide!
I think Barclays tried to design a card that was unappealing to gamers but attractive to a decent population of long-term customers. They succeeded at the first but failed at the latter. I expect a modest sign up bonus to be added in 3-6 months as their expected #s are missed.
Why would you use comparison to 2% cash back card when Alliant Credit Union offers 3% cash back year one and 2 1/2% thereafter……
I love the Alliant card. My wife picked it up a couple of months ago. I’ve mentioned it many times in the past, but here I didn’t for two reasons:
1) It has a $59 annual fee. I thought it more effective to say that this card isn’t a good deal because it essentially earns 2% back with a $150 annual fee and you can earn that with no fee. If you spend exactly $15K or $25K, it earns 3% back – so maybe a comparison to the Alliant card (or better yet, to a Discover IT Miles which earns 3% in the first year after the double up) would have been warranted. Any way you slice it, there are better cash back options with no fee (or a low-fee as is the case with Alliant.
2) I only recently realized that the Alliant card can be somewhat of a challenge to get. It was a process that took a few weeks for more wife and required emailing in statements to show assets on hand and investments, etc. It’s a great card if you can get it, but it isn’t as “available to everyone” as a Citi Double Cash or Discover IT Miles. That said, if you have the income or assets to support it, the Alliant card is a great option (though with the crackdowns from them on MS, it might be less attractive than a Double Cash or Discover IT Miles).
So those are the reasons I didn’t include it, but it could certainly make sense to make that comparison.
Nick. Can you MS with the Alliant card. No. Can you MS with the Barclay card. Yes.
Easy answer for me.
Before praising JAL transfer-ability option of this card . Compare Jal award chart with others. Even for a big MSers like me , spg -> marriott air + hotel pkg gives extra miles to AA which will save you on one world chart. Emirates surcharges makes it even bad for the JAL miles. So just think of what is the use for this JAL miles ?
This is even worst than Arrival + , bcoz of no 5% rebate and higher fees. I worked out my math for high ms spend , still arrival beats it considering the fees.
JAL has a very very good distance based chart:
For example you can do US-Asia-Australia-US on one award:
lax-nrt-tpe-hkg-mnl-bne-syd-lax
for <20,000 total flown distance with 7 stopovers and this only costs 120k in Business and 170k in First Class. Other programs (other than ANA) costs at least 200k in business for the same itinerary. It's even better that you can change your itinerary for cheap, so if you are in a region with a lot of oneworld airlines you can easily plan an entire year of trips (let's say 3 trips) on one award with stopovers and open jaw, and not worry about change fees. that's the true use of distance based charts.
lax-nrt-tpe-hkg-mnl-bne-syd-lax – tell me the probability of people taking this itinerary . Only crazy bloggers will do it. Not even big msers
DOA: Dead on Arrival. I’m glad Barclays came up with this so that other banks will see it’s failure and never repeat such a dull marketing entrance. Thank you.
It also is very useful for exposing which bloggers who are shameless shills for the credit card companies. Guess who I’m looking at here?
If any card needs you to think very hard to come up with a pro or lots of calculation to prove it might make sense to get the card,then you shouldnt get it.
[…] and 10,000 point bonuses, respectively. Running all the math, which people over at Frequent Miler are doing, you can make a case compared to the SPG card if you have that much money you want to spend, […]
Complete garbage.
Maybe it’s just me, but, if you go the Visa gift card route for MSing route, you still get a $100 bonus on the first $25k relative to just the Arrival+ (actually, taking into account the difference in annual fee, it’s actually a $161 bonus). You can still use it for travel credits at 1 cent per mile route, so, IMO, it might be worth to have both this card AND the Arrival+.
It’s also important to remember that Barclays is more MS friendly than your Amex/Chase/etc. This suggests that this could be profitable to put into your average MS techniques repertoire.
Those are just my thoughts, take them for what you will.
Let’s assume you are really into JAL miles, you have exactly $25,000 to spend, and you are thinking about getting the SPG card (but are no longer eligible for the signup bonus).
The result:
SPG card: 30,000 JAL miles with a $95 annual fee
BAP card: 44,118 JAL miles with a $150 annual fee
So you get an extra 14,118 JAL miles for $55 more, which seems like a decent deal.
The reason why I won’t be getting this card?
1. I don’t want this to delay resetting my 5/24 status
2. No signup bonus
3. I don’t value the transferable points partners
Let’s take this further
Let’s assume you are really into JAL miles, you spend an extra $5,000 to make it $30,000, and you are thinking about getting the SPG card (but are no longer eligible for the signup bonus).
The result:
SPG card: 35,000 JAL miles + SPG Gold Status with a $95 annual fee
BAP card: 50,000 JAL miles with a $150 annual fee
So you get an extra 15,000 JAL for $55 more, but you are giving up SPG Gold status. That seems like a bad deal.
All good analysis, except that you’re assuming that you only have exactly $25K or $30K to spend. If you only have $25K or $30K to spend over the course of a year, I’d argue that you shouldn’t be putting it all on either of these cards if you’re looking for maximum value. For the best value on that spend, you should be opening multiple cards and earning multiple signup bonuses. With most signup bonuses requiring aorund $3K spend, you could open something like 8 new cards and earn hundreds of thousands of miles. I don’t think any big spend bonus outweighs the value of opening multiple cards.
I’d argue that the main reason to put $25K or $30K of spending on a single credit card is that you’re following our Complete Guide to Manufactured Spending and ways to increase credit card spend and get most of it back and you’re earning more miles for a low enough cost to be attractive to you. Unless you’re looking to reduce new card applications for the purposes of getting a mortgage, your spend would be better utilized for signup bonuses. Putting $25K or $30K on a single card makes the most sense if you’re able to spend quite a bit more than $25K or $30K. Maybe there are some other specific scenarios where you’re after a certain award and there aren’t multiple signup bonuses available to earn to get you there, so you’re stuck with one card. But off the top of my head, I’m not coming up with that scenario.
So I’ll agree that if I only had $25K or $30K to spend, it certainly wouldn’t be on the Arrival Premier. But I’m going to have to think about which card it would be . . .
Thanks for the response. Totally agree on the “if you only had 25k or 30k” then the obvious choice is to churn multiple signup bonuses. I was just putting these two cards head-to-head in a hypothetical world, and it seems that it could be reasonable for some people to consider the Arrival Premier based on everyday spend/MS.
You guys are doing a good job. Ignore the haters on this thread.
SPG is free for the first year.
I intentionally emphasized if one isn’t eligible for the SPG bonus in the comparisons. My understanding is that one isn’t eligible for the AF first year waived if they’ve had the bonus before, but I could easily be wrong.
So a card that you have to pay $150 fee, and if you spend exactly 15K or 25K you can earn 1.18 JAL miles per dollar, beats a card that has $95 fee and if you spend exactly 20K you can earn 1.25 JAL miles per dollar?
Am I wrong here, or you just simply like this new card without reason?
See above for the math. You earm 1.18x JAL if you spend $1 to $14,999 vs 1s JAL with the SPG card for that same amount of spend (assuming you’re doing the spend at 1x on the SPG card). The additional JAL miles for spending $15K+ more than mitigate the additional $55 in fee unless you value JAL miles at well under 1 cent each or you spend a ton on the SPG card. Even if you spend $100K at 1x on the SPG card, you’d only get 125K JAL miles. If you spend $100K on the Arrival Plus, you’ll get 225K Arrival Plus points, worth 132,300+ JAL miles — so it takes a ton of spend for the ratio on the SPG card to work out better for JAL miles. Of course, if you spend a lot on SPG stays (and thus earn more SPG points on that spend), the SPG card could definitely work out better. I’m just comparing unbonuses spend — the math will work out differently depending on your spend patterns.
For the record, I wouldn’t spend $100K on the Arrival Premier — I’m simply making the point that if you do the math, the return for JAL miles is much better than with the SPG card.
I’m also not saying that it’s worth paying $55 more for this card in place of the SPG card. I definitely would *not* replace my SPG card with this since I also enjoy earning 1.25 Alaska miles per dollar, etc. The variety of transfer partners on the SPG card definitely make that card more attractive if it’s an either/or proposition.
I’m also not saying this card is the top card on the market. It clearly isn’t (and you won’t find it on our Top 10+ offers page since that page ranks cards based on first year value based on as objective a valuation of the signup bonus and opportunity cost as possible — the lack of signup bonus and the annual fee will keep this card off that page — but like many cards on our Best Offers page that aren’t in the top 10, it’ll still appeal to some).
So outlook seems like the uber card won’t be able to utilize these transfer points for now?
Gotta agree with the sentiment in the comments so far. Blah. As I alluded to over on DoC, and putting myself in a “regular” credit card spender’s shoes, who is the target market for this card? It has fairly obscure/niche transfer partners (at least from a domestic perspective) with convoluted transfer ratios, an up-front $150 annual fee, and no sign-up bonus. Who do they attract with this?
Honestly I had reasonable hopes for this card. I would have likely signed up with a 1:1 transfer ratio or perhaps some more interesting partners. While I a happy to see another transferable currency program at this point it is just not that interesting I think the current offer is junk and it is funny to see the bloggers tripping over themselves to try to put a positive spin on it. I’ll wait this one out and see where Barclays takes the program.
Why only Global Entry and not TSA Precheck? Yes GE is better but more hassle and not everyone needs it.
Sorry but with no signup bonus this is crap. Offering a bonus at tiered spending is something the BA/IB cards offer, but even they have a signup bonus.
When I got my GE was $100 and Precheck came with it .No bonus and $150 Next Please .
All the bloggers (outside of DoC) loving on this one. Barclays must be doling out some hefty commissions.
Indeed, even this blog is walking a tight rope between selling out and keeping credibility. Sad how this business works.
We do not get ANY commission for this card. Nor did Nick write anything here to indicate that he loves this card. He simply spelled out where it’s strong and where it’s not.
I am sick of people assuming that we only write about cards for the commissions. Come on people, credit cards are where the miles are. Every new card, especially one with transferable points, deserves considerable air time and a balanced review.
You folks here Do Work To Hard to B getting a hard time .Not ever card is going to appeal to a Free loader like most of us are .
I want that Chase 100K card I missed it .
CHEERs
Come on….
Ok…please, I was really hoping you wouldn’t be like the others on BA…sugarcoating an obvious turd. The spend bonuses do nothing but negate the rapacious annual fee, with zero additional useful benefits.
If this were 1.42 miles per $ for JAL, I could sort of see it being worthwhile, but the other programs are all duds. These transfer partners would only appeal to some serious travel hackers looking for obscure redemptions and MSing their way to high spend. Not exactly the crowd Barclays is after. Sadly, a bunch of people got paid to come up with this dud.
Sugarcoating? I said it’s best for people who are planning to transfer to JAL or who spend more than $50K per year and are looking for additional Flying Blue / Etihad miles and it’s not as good as a no-fee card for travel redemptions. It’s even better than 1.42x for JAL if you spend just over $1K or $2K per month ($15K/$25K per year).
This card definitely isn’t the one travel card I’d want to have in my wallet — it’s obviously not as good as the Blue Business Plus (mentioned in the post) and the transfer partners aren’t nearly as useful as Ultimate Rewards. But it’s definitely got some strengths. JAL has a great chart, and those who take advantage of it will be happy to earn a better rate of return than with any other card in terms of JAL miles. It’s a niche thing for sure and won’t have much value to you if you aren’t either spending enough to tap out bonus categories on other cards or looking for JAL miles….but I imagine that some readers fit the scope where this one has good value.
I wouldn’t even agree it’s good for JAL users. They can get better value from SPG….lower fee, better effective rate, and flexibility to transfer elsewhere or book a hotel if needed.
Accounting for the high annual fee, which comes with zero benefits, the spend bonus is effectively a wash, so let’s not speak of that again 🙂
This card may be of value to someone who uses Air France a lot. Etihad is very limited in it’s good redemptions, so the extra 0.15 mile/$ bump on these two is a big stretch….but I’ll give that to you.
A lower fee and flexibility with the SPG card are certainly both true and good points (I mentioned the fee in the post).
However, a better effective rate isn’t true unless you’re earning a lot of your Starpoints from stays / stay bonuses (or if you’re spending a lot more and doing many iterations of 20K to 25K transfers each year). If you’re just earning the old fashioned way — 1 point for $1 spent — the effective ratio on the Arrival Premier is better at the low end and $15K-$25K spend levels.
At first glance, it looks like the SPG card earns 1.25 points per $1 vs 1.18 for the Arrival Premier. But that’s not apples-to-apples. The SPG card earns 1 JAL mile per $1 on the first $19,999 in spend. Once you get to $20K in spend, you’re at the 1.25 earn ratio. The Arrival Premier earns better than the SPG card if you’re spending $19,999 or less.
And if you spend $20K on the Arrival Premier, you’d have 55K Arrival points ($20K at 2x plus 15K bonus for spending $15K). At 1.4 arrival points to 1 Japan Airlines mile, you’re looking at 32,352 Japan Airlines miles. That’s an effective rate of 1.62 Japan Airlines miles per dollar on the same $20K spend. If you spend exactly $15K or exactly $25K, the effective earn rate is even better. The ratio on the SPG card isn’t as strong. The vareity of partners is the strength for the SPG card.
Yes, you’ll pay an additional $55 annual fee on the Arrival Premier, though I’d personally be happy to trade $55 for an additional 7,352 Japan Airlines miles (based on $20K spend) or even better if I spend $25K if I were in the market for JAL miles.
But you’re right that the ability to transfer to other partners makes the SPG card very valuable and for that reason I’ll still put a lot of spend on the SPG card. I certainly have no plans to ditch the SPG card in favor of the Arrival Premier. The Arrival Premier is definitely not a contender in the sense of pushing something out of my wallet. If you read the post to mean that this card is the be all and end all in travel rewards, I think you mistook the tone. This card is interesting for the niche opportunities — it’s great if you like Japan Airlines miles and not bad if you’re a heavy spender in search of another opportunity for 2x Flying Blue / Etihad as both of those charts have their sweet opportunities as well.
Maybe it’s the fact that my expectations were low based on all of the information we previously published — that there might not be a signup bonus, that transfers probably wouldn’t be 1:1 and there would be a half-dozen transfer partners — but I am pleasantly surprised by a decent ratio to JAL and not a bad ratio to other partners. Based on the info we previously had and the knowledge that Barclays has never been at the forefront of travel rewards, I wasn’t expecting a new king of rewards cards. It’s an interesting niche card.
I think you’re totally right that Barclays is only going to attract a pretty specific subset with this card – it’s not a card for the masses….but then neither is the Miles & More card, the Wyndham card, the Uber card, etc. Their general MO is different than Chase / Amex / Citi / etc. I’m surprised that they didn’t include some of those existing co-brand relationships for transfer partners and that they focused on programs that the average consumer won’t know about. Will they expand it in the future the way Citi has been slowly expanding ThankYou transfer partners? I don’t know. It would certainly be more interesting that way. But for a first foray into transfer partners, the JAL angle was a positive surprise.
I definitely didn’t mean to make the post sound as though everyone should rush out and sign up for it, and I don’t think that’s the way it was presented. I’m definitely less enthusiastic about this card than many other cards. But I also see the positives.
Great response. Your detailed response regarding JAL is very useful and actually clearer than the original article.
If you had to choose between the Starwood and Arrival for JAL spend
Assumptions:
• You did not have either card
• You were not eligible for the signup bonus on the Starwood.
• 25k spend on the arrival since that is the best ROI, resulting in 1.7647 miles per
dollar
• 1.25 miles per dollar on Starwood since you will only transfer at 20K points
You’d end up with 12867 miles extra a year on the Arrival at a cost of 55 dollars. Which is 0.43 cents per mile.
If you already had the Starwood and plan on keeping it for another reason, eg different airline program, Starwood spend, Sheraton lounge access, status bonuses, you can effectively exclude the 95 fee from this calculation since you are paying that either way. The JAL spend is effectively immaterial to whether you are keeping the card or not, and paying that fee.
For this case you’d end up with 12867 miles extra a year on the Arrival at a cost of 150 dollars.
Which is 1.17 cents per mile.
These scenarios assumes only JAL miles are useful with the Arrival card. This might not be the case, but is the conclusion reached in the article. The Arrival card currently has an extremely narrow use case.
Thanks for the detailed analysis. I’m pretty borderline on getting this card. JAL redemptions have also been hit a lot with the recent Emirates surcharges.
Give it up Nick. Stop polishing this turd. Are you that desperate for $?