Barclays Arrival Plus Back From the Dead With a Huge Bonus Worth $600 in Travel, and 2 Miles & Points Sales Worth a Look

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1.   Barclays Arrival Plus Coming Back With Its Highest-Ever Sign-Up Bonus!

The Barclays Arrival Plus card was discontinued a while ago but it looks like Barclays is resurrecting the Arrival Plus, and hitching it to the biggest sign-up bonus we’ve ever seen with the card!

You’ll earn 60,000 Arrival miles (worth $600 in travel) after spending $5,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.  The $89 annual fee is waived for the first year.

Use the Sign-Up Bonus From the Barclays Arrival Plus for Free Nights at Boutique Hotels That Don’t Have a Loyalty Program

View From the Wing reports that Barclays is sending out applications through the mail.  And online applications will launch on July 1, 2018.

We don’t know if any of the card’s benefits have changed.  Let’s hope it’s all good news!

2.   Buy American Airlines Miles for as Little as 1.72 Cents Each

American Airlines miles are on sale once again.  And you’ll have a tough time buying them for less than this.

Through June 30, 2018, you can buy American Airlines miles for just 1.72 cents per mile.  But you’ll have to spend a lot to receive a discount that big.  Here’s what you’ll get:

  • 1,000 to 10,000 miles – No discount
  • 11,000 to 20,000 miles – 2,500 bonus miles + 10% discount
  • 21,000 to 50,000 miles – 5,000 bonus miles + 10% discount
  • 51,000 to 75,000 miles – 15,000 bonus miles + 10% discount
  • 76,000 to 100,000 miles – 27,500 bonus miles + 10% discount
  • 101,000 to 125,000 miles – 45,000 bonus miles + 10% discount
  • 126,000 to 149,000 miles – 70,000 bonus miles + 10% discount
  • 150,000 miles – 100,000 bonus miles + 10% discount

It’s generally NOT a good idea to buy airline miles, because they’re so expensive.  But during sales like this, it could make sense if you have a certain award flight in mind.

For example, if you bought the highest amount of American Airlines miles with this promotion, you would spend ~$3,983, and end up with 250,000 American Airlines miles.  That’s more than enough miles for 2 round-trip Business Class flights between the Dallas and Zurich on American Airlines.

The cash price for 2 round-trip Business Class flights between Dallas and Zurich is ~$6,400.  So you and a travel partner could fly Business Class at a ~$2,400 discount by purchasing miles ($6,400 for 2 round-trip tickets – ~$4,000 cost of miles)!

As always, do the math to see if purchasing miles makes sense for you.

3.   Buy IHG Points for 0.5 Cents Each

Through June 15, 2018, at 11:59 pm Eastern Time, you can buy IHG points for as little as 0.5 cents each.  You’ll have to buy at least 5,000 points in a single transaction to trigger the bonus.

IHG normally sells points for 1.15 to 1.35 cents each.  Or if you’re comfortable with it, you can buy points for as little as 0.6 cents each with the IHG Points & Cash trick.

Category 1 IHG hotels cost 10,000 IHG points per night.  So you could effectively buy nights at those hotels for $50 with this sale (10,000 points per night X 0.5 cents per point).

Or, if you can find a PointBreaks hotel that works with your travel plans, it will only cost 5,000 IHG points, or $25 per night (5,000 points per night X 0.5 cents per point)!

But it’s NOT a good idea to buy points for just any IHG hotel stay.  Do the math and see if buying points is worth it for you.

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Million Mile Secrets features a team of points and miles experts who have traveled to over 80 countries and have used 60+ credit cards responsibly to accumulate loyalty points and travel the world on the cheap! The Million Mile Secrets team has been featured on The Points Guy, TIME, Yahoo Finance and many other leading points & miles media outlets.

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

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