Nothing like waking up on Sunday morning to an approval email. As predicted, Barclay gave me their Arrivalcard…

 

…which is pretty bitchin’. This is my second card from Barclays. The other one I have is an Icelandair card. It’s from 2006/7, long before I started getting interested in points and miles, but I keep it because it has no annual fee and helps with the average age of my credit accounts. I got it after my first trip to Iceland. I had pretty bad credit and didn’t shop around for a better card. In fact, I was surprised when I got it.

Fast forward to today. It’s amazing how far my credit has come in just over a year. It was only in March of 2012 that I got my first premium card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Since then, I’ve racked up quite the diverse collection of mileage currencies.

Anyway, very pleased to have this card in my arsenal. I’ve been thinking about taking my annual trip down to New Orleans, and with $440 dollars in free travel credits + a few ecerts I have lying around with Delta, this makes the trip a no-brainer.

By the by, I just redeemed my free TripIt Pro subscription and LOVE it. I like how it adds trips directly to my Google and iCal calendars, but especially how it tracks fares for your specific flights and sends you an email if the fare drops. I usually buy flights when I’m sure they’re at their cheapest, but this is certainly a nice “just in case” feature to have access to.

I also JUST noticed that this card provides access to Barclaycard Rewards Boost, yet another online shopping portal. I’ve never seen anything written about on any of the blogs, so was surprised when I saw the graphic on the Arrivalcard page.

What’s great about this is that you can go ahead and add 10% to all the payout rates since it earns Arrivalcard points. And some of the payouts are much higher than other portals, even the Ultimate Rewards portal.

Soap.com for example, a site that I love since they ship 30-pound bags of dog food right TO YOUR DOOR, pays out 5.5 points/dollar (+10% more when redeemed for travel!). This site isn’t even on the UR portal any more.

It does have some pretty pathetic payout rates on other portals tho:

 

I’ll definitely compare rates on the RewardsBoost portal when doing online shopping. I was pleasantly surprised that they seem to match or exceed the Ultimate Rewards rates.

So far, I’m thinking this card is a keeper for the TripIt Pro subscription, interesting shopping portal, and ease of redemption. More updates as thoughts solidify…

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