I'm currently traveling through France and Spain and have been using my Barclays Aviator Chip + Sig/Pin extensively as I had the 50% bonus miles offer until the end of June. For the most part it's worked fine, I'm getting quite a few surprised looks when they put in the chip and it asks for a signature.
However there's been a few occasions so far where I'd have been stuck with the Aviator. At a gas station it only took chip & pin cards in the automated machine, I first tried my Aviator with the pin I'd set before I left and it was rejected. Then tried the Arrival + with pin and it worked no problem. Next up on the motorway at the automated tolls, some of the machines were rejecting my Aviator but took my Arrival + every time.
Kind of making me nervous to cancel my Arrival and move the whole line to the Aviator like I was planning to, so far on this trip the Arrival does seem like the more reliable travel card. Being stuck on a motorway with a line of beeping cars behind you and the Aviator not being accepted wouldn't have been much fun.
Side note, most people already know this, but most of the places I've seen that have signs up showing what cards they accepted have a hand drawn cross through American Express, not that I'd use any of mine with the foreign fee.
Quicksilver 51k | Discover It $45k | Bonvoy Business $38k | Lowe's $35k | Costco $33.5k | SWACU $30k | Ink Preferred $28k | USAA Rewards $25k | Ink Cash $22.5k | Ink Preferred $22k | Amex Blue Business Plus $17k | Freedom Flex $16k | Freedom $14k | CSR $10k | Amazon Store $10k | Amazon Business $3k | REI $3k
