Chase Sapphire Preferred or Barclay Arrival?

[lexrjSD]

Arrival AF version by a MILE! (i have both cards btw)

Been using the card for 2 months and its been nothing but great surprises:
-Points post right away, no need to wait for the statement to close and be paid. It makes a lot easier to track if your points are posting correctly, unlike Chase.
-Website is clean, simple and fast. Not as great as AMEX which in my opinion it's the best, but it's far better and faster than Chase.
-I had the pleasant surprise of finding out that Barclay has the exact same Faster Rewards Mall as Chase, which is great for racking up some points.
-The only thing CSP is better so far was the looks of the card, which is cool but not important to me.

-I understand that using the CSP to transfer points can be better, but in order to transfer points you have to earn them, and earning with the Arrival is a lot faster since I can add the 1% categories to it.

-I'm not loyal to any hotel chain or airline, so there is nothing better than just booking whatever you want instead going through crapy UR mall or dealing with points transfering, which quite frankly I don't see the great advantage. Would love if someone can show me an example of the great advantage of points transferring. 

Overall I'm very happy with my switch, it feels even better knowing that I'm going to get an extra 1% reward on around $800/mo, which comes down to an extra 10k points per yr.

CSP is going to be PCed and thown into the socks drawer very soon.

[DigitalArk]

---

@lexrjSD wrote:

Arrival AF version by a MILE! (i have both cards btw)

Been using the card for 2 months and its been nothing but great surprises:
-Points post right away, no need to wait for the statement to close and be paid. It makes a lot easier to track if your points are posting correctly, unlike Chase.
-Website is clean, simple and fast. Not as great as AMEX which in my opinion it's the best, but it's far better and faster than Chase.
-I had the pleasant surprise of finding out that Barclay has the exact same Faster Rewards Mall as Chase, which is great for racking up some points.
-The only thing CSP is better so far was the looks of the card, which is cool but not important to me.

-I understand that using the CSP to transfer points can be better, but in order to transfer points you have to earn them, and earning with the Arrival is a lot faster since I can add the 1% categories to it.

-I'm not loyal to any hotel chain or airline, so there is nothing better than just booking whatever you want instead going through crapy UR mall or dealing with points transfering, which quite frankly I don't see the great advantage. Would love if someone can show me an example of the great advantage of points transferring. 

Overall I'm very happy with my switch, it feels even better knowing that I'm going to get an extra 1% reward on around $800/mo, which comes down to an extra 10k points per yr.

CSP is going to be PCed and thown into the socks drawer very soon.

---

+1 totally agree!!

[longtimelurker]

---

@lexrjSD wrote:

Arrival AF version by a MILE! (i have both cards btw)

Been using the card for 2 months and its been nothing but great surprises:
-Points post right away, no need to wait for the statement to close and be paid. It makes a lot easier to track if your points are posting correctly, unlike Chase.
-Website is clean, simple and fast. Not as great as AMEX which in my opinion it's the best, but it's far better and faster than Chase.
-I had the pleasant surprise of finding out that Barclay has the exact same Faster Rewards Mall as Chase, which is great for racking up some points.
-The only thing CSP is better so far was the looks of the card, which is cool but not important to me.

-I understand that using the CSP to transfer points can be better, but in order to transfer points you have to earn them, and earning with the Arrival is a lot faster since I can add the 1% categories to it.

-I'm not loyal to any hotel chain or airline, so there is nothing better than just booking whatever you want instead going through crapy UR mall or dealing with points transfering, which quite frankly I don't see the great advantage. Would love if someone can show me an example of the great advantage of points transferring. 

Overall I'm very happy with my switch, it feels even better knowing that I'm going to get an extra 1% reward on around $800/mo, which comes down to an extra 10k points per yr.

CSP is going to be PCed and thown into the socks drawer very soon.

---

Easiest cases are premium cabin international flights.

So, let's take Boston - Toyoko:  Departing Mar 12, returning Mar 19:  First class cost: $5377.60.   Transferring UR points to United, same flight takes 135,000 points + $49.70.   So this values the points at over 3.9c per point.

So in this case, even if ALL my CSP spending was at 1%, I would need to put $135K on the card to get this award.  Whereas at 2.2%, I would need to spend $244K with the arrival.   And if I use 2% categories on the CSP, the margin is even wider.

Now, I had to choose those dates for reward availablity, but if I wanted to make that trip and was somewhat flexible, here points transfer wins.

But I think this goes along with what people have said: if your major interest is coach flights, especially domestically, then Arrival might well be better than CSP (and something like US Bank Flexperks might be better than either).  But for "aspirational" trips, you need either point transfer or to be a very heavy spender to get there with credit cards.

[DavidZeng]

I still don't understand why Arrival and Blue air can be seen as travel card. I simply see arrival as 2% cash back card and can only redeem cash for travel expense. Maybe with some special perks I did not understand too well. 

[longtimelurker]

---

@DavidZeng wrote:

I still don't understand why Arrival and Blue air can be seen as travel card. I simply see arrival as 2% cash back card and can only redeem cash for travel expense. Maybe with some special perks I did not understand too well. 

---

I think you are right, I had the same problem when Cap One Venture was getting all the press as Travel Card of the Year etc.   They are basically restricted cash-back cards, but ones with good  earning rates and in the case of Arrival, good sign on bonus.

[DavidZeng]

I value CSP for transferring to airline partner as a great perk, since I can redeem at some certain time of the year even redeem for Business class, then I can easily get more than 2X value of the points, I did a calculation, if I redeem for a round trip business flight ticket, the value would soar to 7X. So I would stock my points with UR or AMEX MR, and redeem them for a special fancy trip, if I want cash, I would use something like 5% categories cards or 6% grocery cards like BCP. 

[longtimelurker]

---

@DavidZeng wrote:

I value CSP for transferring to airline partner as a great perk, since I can redeem at some certain time of the year even redeem for Business class, then I can easily get more than 2X value of the points, I did a calculation, if I redeem for a round trip business flight ticket, the value would soar to 7X. So I would stock my points with UR or AMEX MR, and redeem them for a special fancy trip, if I want cash, I would use something like 5% categories cards or 6% grocery cards like BCP. 

---

Right, but then you have to be careful to make sure you have all the points you need.  In some cases this will mean NOT using the 5%/6% cards and using just the MR/UR card, even though the other card offers a higher benefit.   In your example, this is moot, as if you really value the transfer at 7c per point, that beats the 6% BCP anyway.

[Kenny]

---

@longtimelurker wrote:

---

@DavidZeng wrote:

I still don't understand why Arrival and Blue air can be seen as travel card. I simply see arrival as 2% cash back card and can only redeem cash for travel expense. Maybe with some special perks I did not understand too well. 

---

I think you are right, I had the same problem when Cap One Venture was getting all the press as Travel Card of the Year etc.   They are basically restricted cash-back cards, but ones with good  earning rates and in the case of Arrival, good sign on bonus.

---

This is how I feel about my Arrival as well.

[Changingmantra]

Yesterday- started looking through the shopping portal - RewardsBoost- on my Arrival and I am VERY impressed -  I mean - I recently got a good deal on a new cell phone - but it I was shocked to see that I would have gotten 7500 miles if I had used Barclay's shopping portal and purchased directly from the carrier.  In some cases - the extra points options will be better appreciated on the no annual fee Arrival where you get 2 points for $1 spent on travel and dining only - 1 for $1 on other purchases.  Through the portal you can get at least 2 for $1 on those other purchases -   and they have a LOT of stores -  I found out just in time that I can get 4 for $1 on purchases from Vitacost.  NICE!  The other stores - with free shipping included are - Apple - Walmart - Textbook.com - magazine.com - etc.

I have not joined yet, but you also get extra miles for joining and posting in their travel community.  As someone who has not done a lot of traveling, but want to start, , I find the travel stories  and tips to be very valuable.  

_________________________

I just read that  the RewardsBoost miles are in ADDITION to what you are already earning -  For example -  whereas I would normally get  2 for $1 when ordering from Vitacost  - now I will get 6 miles for every $1 spent-  Impressive -

[longtimelurker]

---

@Changingmantra wrote:

Yesterday- started looking through the shopping portal - RewardsBoost- on my Arrival and I am VERY impressed -  I mean - I recently got a good deal on a new cell phone - but it I was shocked to see that I would have gotten 7500 miles if I had used Barclay's shopping portal and purchased directly from the carrier.  In some cases - the extra points options will be better appreciated on the no annual fee Arrival where you get 2 points for $1 spent on travel and dining only - 1 for $1 on other purchases.  Through the portal you can get at least 2 for $1 on those other purchases -   and they have a LOT of stores -  I found out just in time that I can get 4 for $1 on purchases from Vitacost.  NICE!  The other stores - with free shipping included are - Apple - Walmart - Textbook.com - magazine.com - etc.

I have not joined yet, but you also get extra miles for joining and posting in their travel community.  As someone who has not done a lot of traveling, but want to start, , I find the travel stories  and tips to be very valuable.  

_________________________

I just read that  the RewardsBoost miles are in ADDITION to what you are already earning -  For example -  whereas I would normally get  2 for $1 when ordering from Vitacost  - now I will get 6 miles for every $1 spent-  Impressive -

---

Remember to also check out cashback portals.  So for example TopCashBack gives 8% back on purchases from Vitacost, and this is in addition to whatever your credit card gives, so using your Rewards card there would give 9 or 10%