Not sure if this has been covered, but I've found a way to earn frequent traveller points that can be used to pay for ANY travel related* expense.The Barclay Bank Arrival MasterCard earns 2points for every dollar charged to the card. These points are redeemable as a direct statement credit to offset travel-related expenses, defined by the card as follows:
A travel purchase and redemption is defined as: Airlines, Travel Agencies & Tour Operators, Hotels, Motels & Resorts, Cruise Lines, Passenger Railways and Car Rental Agencies. Purchases made at merchants that do not process transactions under these terms or that use incorrect MasterCard merchant category codes will not qualify. Barclaycard is not responsible for incorrectly coded purchases.
This is great for divers who don't necessarily want to stay at a chain hotel with points (eg Hilton, Marriott, etc) preferring to stay at a dive resort (eg Sunset House, Buddy Dive, etc) or even possibly want to take a liveaboard trip.
Points are earned at 2x per dollar spent, and redeemed at $10 per 1000pts. This is on the good/generous end of a frequent flier program in terms of point "earn rate" as well as "redemtion value." Plus there's a significant sign-up bonus of 40,000pts, so you could easily have 46,000 points within a day of signing up; 40,000 sign up bonus plus 2x $3,000 spend w/in first three months to earn bonus. (There are easy ways to "manufacture" spending to hit bonus levels. if you don't ordinarily spend $1,000 a month on a credit card.) This means that for less than 10min of your time you would have at LEAST $460 to spend on travel.
I signed up for a Barclay Arrival MasterCard that I recieved on March 1st and quickly manufactured spending to hit/exceed bonus on the first day I had the card. My plan was (and still is) to earn enough points to pay for a liveaboard trip. However, I was surprised to find that my daughter's Sweet 16 celebration - a NYC dinner cruise for her and some friends - actually showed up on my statement as "a cruise" and therefore travel-related. With two clicks of a mouse I was able to apply 55,000 points as a $550 credit on my account... which immediately reduced my credit card bill for March by $550:
As mentioned above, I'm not sure if this has been covered before... but this opens up a whole world of possibilities for absolutely free dive trips. Free airfare, free dive resorts, free liveaboards, etc. And even if you want to stay at a chain hotel on those points, if they have a dive-op on site that can be charged to your room... and then can be "paid for" by billing those incidental charges to the Barclay card.
For instance, if I went to Curacao to dive I could...
Get a free plane ticket using United FF miles
Get a free week at the Marriott using Marriott points
Get a free week of diving from Caribbean Sea Sports by billing that package to my room and paying that bill with my Barclay MasterCard.
Barclaycard Arrival - Travel Rewards Credit Card With Double Miles
The only caveat I will throw out there is there is the potential unknown of how any individual business (hotel, liveaboard, etc) lists themselves in the MasterCard merchant category code. (The way credit card companies track charges, and travel rewards programs determine reimbursement.) If you are interested in this approach I would ask. They should know.
When I was at "Beneath The Sea" last week I spoke with all the various livaboard companies, and found that only ONE boat - the M/V Spree - bills out to a credit card category that would qualify for this approach. None of the usual suspect "liveaboard fleet" companies bills to an appropriate code. One boat even told me that the purposely bill to "Clothing, retail" in order to eek a few extra pennies out of the credit card fees.
Perhaps Frank will come along and confirm what he told me... that the Spree bills out to "4411 - Steamships/Cruise Lines" which does fall under the general "Travel Services" category in the MasterCard system, and would qualify. Accordingly, if someone wanted to get a $450 (or more) discount on an M/V Spree trip, all they'd need to do is open a Barclay Arrival MasterCard, hit the $3000 threashold to get the 45,000 bonus points, book a Spree trip billed to the card, and when the bill comes, apply the 45,000 points to delete $450 from the bill. Personally, I'm shooting to put enough spend on the card to get a whole trip on the Spree for free... but a $450 discount right off the bat is a nice start!
I book most of my dive travel through my LDS, who uses Caradonna for most resorts/trips. Their merchant code is "Travel Agency" so any hotel, liveaboard, dive op package I book through them will hit my bill as "Travel" and qualify. I have, in the past, had some travel to small/boutique hotels show up on my credit card as "XXXXXXX Property Holdings, Inc" or similar. These might not qualify.
I would think that this could be a boon all-the-way around.
Ray
A travel purchase and redemption is defined as: Airlines, Travel Agencies & Tour Operators, Hotels, Motels & Resorts, Cruise Lines, Passenger Railways and Car Rental Agencies. Purchases made at merchants that do not process transactions under these terms or that use incorrect MasterCard merchant category codes will not qualify. Barclaycard is not responsible for incorrectly coded purchases.
This is great for divers who don't necessarily want to stay at a chain hotel with points (eg Hilton, Marriott, etc) preferring to stay at a dive resort (eg Sunset House, Buddy Dive, etc) or even possibly want to take a liveaboard trip.
Points are earned at 2x per dollar spent, and redeemed at $10 per 1000pts. This is on the good/generous end of a frequent flier program in terms of point "earn rate" as well as "redemtion value." Plus there's a significant sign-up bonus of 40,000pts, so you could easily have 46,000 points within a day of signing up; 40,000 sign up bonus plus 2x $3,000 spend w/in first three months to earn bonus. (There are easy ways to "manufacture" spending to hit bonus levels. if you don't ordinarily spend $1,000 a month on a credit card.) This means that for less than 10min of your time you would have at LEAST $460 to spend on travel.
I signed up for a Barclay Arrival MasterCard that I recieved on March 1st and quickly manufactured spending to hit/exceed bonus on the first day I had the card. My plan was (and still is) to earn enough points to pay for a liveaboard trip. However, I was surprised to find that my daughter's Sweet 16 celebration - a NYC dinner cruise for her and some friends - actually showed up on my statement as "a cruise" and therefore travel-related. With two clicks of a mouse I was able to apply 55,000 points as a $550 credit on my account... which immediately reduced my credit card bill for March by $550:
As mentioned above, I'm not sure if this has been covered before... but this opens up a whole world of possibilities for absolutely free dive trips. Free airfare, free dive resorts, free liveaboards, etc. And even if you want to stay at a chain hotel on those points, if they have a dive-op on site that can be charged to your room... and then can be "paid for" by billing those incidental charges to the Barclay card.
For instance, if I went to Curacao to dive I could...
Get a free plane ticket using United FF miles
Get a free week at the Marriott using Marriott points
Get a free week of diving from Caribbean Sea Sports by billing that package to my room and paying that bill with my Barclay MasterCard.
Barclaycard Arrival - Travel Rewards Credit Card With Double Miles
The only caveat I will throw out there is there is the potential unknown of how any individual business (hotel, liveaboard, etc) lists themselves in the MasterCard merchant category code. (The way credit card companies track charges, and travel rewards programs determine reimbursement.) If you are interested in this approach I would ask. They should know.
When I was at "Beneath The Sea" last week I spoke with all the various livaboard companies, and found that only ONE boat - the M/V Spree - bills out to a credit card category that would qualify for this approach. None of the usual suspect "liveaboard fleet" companies bills to an appropriate code. One boat even told me that the purposely bill to "Clothing, retail" in order to eek a few extra pennies out of the credit card fees.
Perhaps Frank will come along and confirm what he told me... that the Spree bills out to "4411 - Steamships/Cruise Lines" which does fall under the general "Travel Services" category in the MasterCard system, and would qualify. Accordingly, if someone wanted to get a $450 (or more) discount on an M/V Spree trip, all they'd need to do is open a Barclay Arrival MasterCard, hit the $3000 threashold to get the 45,000 bonus points, book a Spree trip billed to the card, and when the bill comes, apply the 45,000 points to delete $450 from the bill. Personally, I'm shooting to put enough spend on the card to get a whole trip on the Spree for free... but a $450 discount right off the bat is a nice start!
I book most of my dive travel through my LDS, who uses Caradonna for most resorts/trips. Their merchant code is "Travel Agency" so any hotel, liveaboard, dive op package I book through them will hit my bill as "Travel" and qualify. I have, in the past, had some travel to small/boutique hotels show up on my credit card as "XXXXXXX Property Holdings, Inc" or similar. These might not qualify.
I would think that this could be a boon all-the-way around.
Ray
