Let’s take the choo choo train to Lake Louise, compare Barclay Arrival vs Fidelity Amex cards, eat and earn miles, visit the 911 museum, learn of a horror MS story and learn lessons from it, go on more train rides, look at some totally screwed up weather things (like Firenado…say what!!!), sit back and watch a mesmerizing Grand Canyon timelapse video and follow that up with 100 insults…nope, not directed to your favorite bloggers (you wished!) and other stuff others won’t blog about because…they are busy adding more credit card affiliate links!
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Great Ultimate Rewards Value on Amtrak Special Routes. By Amol at Hack My Trip. This is why this blog is in the world famous TBB “Blogs I Like” list. They could have come up with yet another lame excuse to pump some Chase Ink credit cards. Instead, took the time to actually try out some awards that no others blogged about (as far as I know). I think the Amtrak awards are very under rated! We had an absolutely fabulous time riding in sleeper cabins across the US and up the West Coast to Seattle! Best flat bed ever, no joke!
Fantastic non angry comments over at Personal Finance Digest at his “Barclaycard Arrival vs. Fidelity Amex: Can you justify paying an annual fee?“. Reading the comments and the arguments laid out may…educate you! I personally plan to keep the Arrival card, go for the annual fee waiver and then pimp it as hard as I do my Amazon link guys 🙂
You can get 2,000 AA and US miles after you join Rewards Network and do a qualifying dine (or buy a gift card for later dine) at your favorite participating restaurant.
Kathy at Will Run for Miles had the opportunity to tour the 911 Museum before it opened to the public. Here are the photos and here is her own 911 story that day in New York City.
Travel With Grant has a horror story MSing. The blog post ends with some lessons learned (bold font added for emphasis):
- Double check that the receipt matches the gift card purchased. Â Do not leave the store if they do not match. Â This would have solved my problem in 30 seconds.
- Always keep your receipt and gift card packaging until the gift card is successfully activated and unloaded.
- Try not to sit on gift cards too long. Â The longer you hold on to them, the more time there is for something to go wrong.
- There is a really big price to pay if you screw up buying/unloading gift cards.  It would take a lot of MS to make up for $500 lost, so always be careful and don’t take anything for granted even if you have done something 100+ or 1,000+ times.  1 screw up will really set you back.
- Twitter is your best friend. Â I have had several issues over the months and Twitter has helped solve all of them, including issues with Staples Easy Rebates, The Counter Burger, Experian Credit Monitoring Service, IHG, Chase, American Express, Citi, Discover, Marriott, and Hilton; all have been resolved by going through Twitter.
Ridiculous post of the weekend was the question conveniently picked to be answered over at The Points Guy: “Sapphire Preferred vs Arrival Plus: Which is Best Abroad?”. The answer of course was “Get Both!”. Shakin….No, I can’t shake my head anymore!
Milevalue is seeking a talented writer to join the team. So blog owner can focus on selling credit cards even more? Hey, affiliate income from the banks is not going to get better so I am scared to see how this blog is going to make money to pay others!
A few amazing train trips the world has to offer. By theCHIVE. Wondering if a reader has taken the Trans-Siberian Railway train. If yes, please comment on your experience.
Mind Blowing Natural Weather Phenomena. By Bored Daddy. Mind blowing indeed, never heard of firenado!
This is probably one of the most stunning timelapse videos I have posted links to: Grand Canyon and Monument Valley Timelapse. By The Adventure Blog
The 100 Greatest Movie Insults of all Time. By Memolition. Classic!
Life Advice for the Class of 2014. By Jonathan Clements of the Wall Street Journal. Must read!
Ahhhh, this is how they make these disaster movies…
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Oh Canada First
I have done the Trans Siberian from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar which is about 25% of the way. Doing the whole thing is on my bucket list.
Thanks for the link-to George. I know all you experienced MSers out there never make mistakes, but those lessons should keep the beginners out of trouble. I’m tempted to do an Amtrak ride for Labor Day weekend (Sep 1). Paid holiday at work = paying me to travel 🙂
Check the black out dates. Covers the major holidays usually.
I checked LAX-SEA on Amtrak and it shows up as a paid option. I don’t have many Amtrak points, so I’m not sure how much a one way would be.
UR transfers over to Amtrak.
Wow, you were right. Blackout dates appear on the days before/after the planned trip (Fri August 29) and the day after (Mon Sep 1).
Just got back on Amtrak from Washington. Much better than flying or driving, although Wi-Fi didnt work on the way back. Too bad there are no nicer Amtrak products here in the Northeast,
I found the comments section over at pfdigest more frustrating than anything. If you’re not paying the annual fee (and it doesn’t look like anybody with decent spend will pay it) then the arrival is the clear winner as long as you have travel expenses to redeem against.
Also somebody almost let something out of the bag but glad to see it wasn’t publicly outed.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking travel cash back is the same as cash back. If you do I’ll happily book your travel for cash.
My guess is that his (William Charles) last statement refers to a trick that makes the arrival points just as valuable as cashback.
Bingo!
The trick is non-sustainable and against the intended use. But hey, if the Arrival card works for you, then keep it and use it. Why is it so important to try to win this nonsense debate?
Unsustainable? That’s an opinion based on hot air. This trick has worked for cards other than the arrival and has been exploited for years.
Regarding the debate: I don’t believe he’s looking to “win” a debate. The arrival-fidelity Amex comparison is missing crucial info and without it I wouldn’t be able to properly decide what’s better.
Does that also bother you?
If you had travel credit and wanted to convert it to cash, would you accept less cash than the travel credit? What if you had cash and wanted travel credit, would you accept less less travel credit than cash? If the answers are different then clearly the two are not worth the same. Yes, you can use “tricks” to cash out travel credit. But that doesn’t change the fact that the travel credit is worth less than cash. Not really any different than Home Improvement GCs. Yes, you might have home improvement expenses to cash them. Or you could use “tricks” to cash them out. But is anyone naive enough to believe they are worth the same as cash. Yet people continue to insist Arrival travel credit is worth the same as a cash. LOL.
I’m sorry that you don’t understand the trick. Becuase if you did, you wouldn’t be writing that. I’ll notify MMS to write up a full post with big circles and arrows.
I fully understand the trick. The problem is it’s not scalable and there is risk. Who needs MMS when there are idiots feeding it to a room of noobs at FTU?
Nobody is saying they are the same, I’m saying that a 0.222% premium is more than worth the difference.
I assume you mean points rather than cards.
Except I’m not even talking about refunds, there is another trick.
My guess is he has an Arrival affiliate link.
What was frustrating about the conversation, that people disagreed with you or that people ‘almost’ but did not publicly out something?
Valuation related questions remind me of abortion issue debates. Everyone feels so strongly about their positions. I think we are beating this to death 🙂
Both, I found it frustrating that people kept counting the annual fee when the reports show that it’s easily waived. People also weren’t taking into account the sign up bonus and other benefits of BOTH cards.
I thought it was a pretty lazy piece by pfdigest to be honest. For most people the best option is going to be getting the Arrival card year one, call retention to get the annual fee waived and then cancelling it if not and then picking up the FIDO card.
If you’re MSing huge amounts or don’t have any travel expenses, the conversation changes and you’re going to be better off with the FIDO card in a lot of cases.
I’ve had like 15 people message me about the 9-10% travel trick, so I’m sure it’s no long before that cat is out of the bag as well.
Let it out of the bag. You can control this pussy cat.
>>>>>>>>the best option is going to be getting the Arrival card year one, call retention to get the annual fee waived and then cancelling it if not and then picking up the FIDO card.
To me, there are no absolutes when it comes to how people spend their miles/points. I see it more like the opposite of North Korean practices you know lol.
By the way, this is how I plan to handle it. It just does not mean it is the BEST way to handle it. It is the best for ME at this present time.
I think I have an idea about the trick but if someone email me you can rest assured NOONE will know FROM me and as sure as hell there will never be any pics and arrows type post here at TBB. Having said that, I have no idea how to make them arrows, they are so neat 🙂
I really don’t see what the frustration is all about, you have a blog, go write something better and we all win.
+1
Great post as always. And thanks for the mention.
I’ve done the Glacier Express from Zermatt to St. Moritz-it left Zermatt around 9 am, and went through and over the glacier around noon, just as they served a great lunch with wine in the dining car. We got to St. Moritz around 3, so I think it was closer to 6 hours for our trip. The price for this (20 years ago) was not stupid high, and I’d go again tomorrow.
@ Spencer F: Congrats!
@ Shawn: How long ago? What did you think of it? Have you done a trip report blog post about it? Was there wifi? 🙂
@ Grant & yuneeq: Sleeper cabins can be booked by calling. Amtrak csr’s are great booking these. Major holidays are blackouts so beware. Yes, u can transfer Chase UR to Amtrak. Sure breaks the boredom of airplane flat beds and food in the air.
@ William Charles & HikerT & yuneeq & anh & Matt: Yeah, that comment exchange was interesting. I think it was educational for readers to read everyone’s arguments. I don’t spend a lot of time on valuing awards. We are all different, with different situations and personal goals. I always felt you should use awards that make you happy and don’t listen to anyone making fun of how YOU use YOUR points! Well, listen anyway to get their point of view. Still, they are your points to use as you please. In my case, I do NOT like Fidelity and they told me they do not welcome me anymore as a customer since I opened several accounts (at 50k) each some time ago. Arrival works for me for paying with travel. I intend to ask for a fee waiver. Life is simpler without dealing with Fidelity FOR ME. Simplicity is way under valued and under appreciated. Peace 🙂
@ Kathy: Thanks. And you are welcome.
@ Sam: That train ride looks totally awesome. Looks like my bucket list got a little longer! Thanks
Firenado vs. Sharknado: who wins?
btw George–you don’t need to deal w/ Fidelity to have the Fidelity Amex, you can have MBNA/FIA/BofA send you a check for your rewards.
Sharknado: Lol, I knew someone will bring it up! I still deal with Fidelity when I have to look at the name of the card. I also have a feeling (dangerous!) that they may not keep the card much longer (even though they said they will…for 18 months). Time will tell…
I keep on seeing the Fidelity vs. Barclays comparisons and they keep on being wrong
No particular issue with the bloggers, as the few of them who are covering it are still better than not covering it at all and they still get the larger point correct (that it’s rarely justifiable to pay the fee after year 1), but the 40K or 45K number they throw around is a myth because it doesn’t take into account an important factor – when you redeem Arrival points, you don’t get 2.222% back on those purchases (besides the 10% points back that was already baked into the calculations), With the Fidelity card you do get 2% back on those redemptions.
To use an example, and going on the assumption that we value Fidelity at 2%, we’ll treat both currencies as equal liquidity and the extra benefits on either card are negligible (all debatable)
Say you spend $4500 – you would have $100 to redeem with Arrival (2.22222% of 4500) and $90 to redeem with Fidelity. However, when you redeem that $100 Arrival, you’re not getting any points for it (besides the 10% back that was already baked in). When you spend the $90 in Fidelity, you ARE STILL GETTING 2% BACK ON THAT. So when you spend that $90 you just got back, you make another $1.80 when “redeeming” it, When you “redeem” the $100 you got back from the Arrival card, you don’t
So really, Barclays isn’t truly 2.2222% – because you’re not getting that 2.222% back on all purchases like you are with Fidelity. Only on ones where you’re not redeeming points. When you factor in that you’re not getting points on that XYZ travel purchase you made (because you used arrival points) wheras you would get Fidelity points on XYZ travel purchase, it changes the game
The true “cash back” you get with the Arrival is ~2.17 points, which by my math tells me you need to spend around $52000 to justify the annual fee. And if you’re spending $52000 on the Arrival card, you’re not playing the game correctly.
By the way Ingy and DeltaPoints…. feel free to use this analysis when informing your readers about the drawbacks of the card
No need to ask me for permission
Interesting angle. I would like to add, that when booking with arrival, as you mentioned, you get no additional points, and you need to use the arrival card. With fidelity, you can take cash back and book travel with the PRG for 3x points (worth between 4-4.5% in points).
Excellent point
Assuming you redeem that $90 for travel (which is not unreasonable to say because we’re comparing it to Arrival points that HAVE to be redeemed for travel), and you have one of the dozens of credit cards out there that bonus travel, you actually get a lot more than 2% back on those $90
If you can get even 2.675% back on those $90 (aka, if you use a CSP and eventually redeem those points for 1.25 cents each – a conservative estimate) that pushes the annual fee justification to almost $55,000. Many other cards in many situations (i.e. SPG Amex at an SPG hotel, PRG on airfare etc.) would get you far above a 2.675% return, and thus push it closer to $60,000
All purchases made with the Arrival card earn 2%. Whether you redeem points for them or not. $12,500 in purchases earns 25K miles. If that includes a $250 and a $25 travel purchase, you can redeem points for the $250 and then immediately redeem for the $25. Ignoring the remaining 25 points, that is precisely 2.2%. Factor in those leftover points if you do any volume, and you get 2.222 and so on. And access to a portal that often pays ~4.4% on AMEX gift cards that you can buy with any card and earn whatever points or cashback you like. And the fee is waived. Just call.
But if you view it that way, then you need to be consistent with how you valuate Fidelity points
If you spend $4500 in Fidelity, you get back $90. When you spend that $90, you get back $1.8. When you spend that $1.8, you get back $0.036 and so on.
And when you do that, the math works out to getting around a 2.041% return on your original $4500 spend with Fidelity
So I don’t care how you want to calculate arrivals, so long as you’re applying a consistent calculation to Fidelity – so no matter how you slice it, the difference between Arrival and Fidelity is smaller than .222222% – it’s somewhere in the .17-.18% range….. which means you need upwards of 50K in NON-BONUSED spend. Which is a far cry from 40-45K and without the non-bonused qualifier
If they waive the fee? Great. I wouldn’t know since I don’t have the card due to it’s overratedness.
Like I said upthread…
I think we all agree the Arrival card is not worth the annual fee 🙂
Yes, and shall we all leave it as that and stop beating the dead horse. If you don’t have to pay annual fee, you should keep the Arrival Card. Heck, anything without annual fees, just keep them. Never know once in a while a trick will surface…
All good points. I think Arrival and FIDO will make a very nice pair when I add the Fidelity along with my next Exec.
Another factor is the likelihood of a devaluation. I can’t say what the chances are with Barclays but I think I am ok with the cash Fidelity will send (but I’ll have to see what Fox News says this morning about that).
I think Fidelity may devalue sooner than Arrival. I see Fidelity putting a cap on 2% CB spend…
Agree, 0 annual fees and 2% are usually not sustainable in the long run for issuers. The old priceline was no annual fees, 2% (5% for priceline purchases) but that one was short lived. I was lucky enough to get it but can’t get another one for my wife
According to Delta Points…time is running out to get 60,000 Chase Ink points…you heard it there first!
That’s ludicrous! Oh wait, it’s not lol
The pioneer of it was MMS
MommyPoints soon followed
FTG joined the party this weekend with a divorced cousin
And now we can add OMAT to the list
I’m of course referring to bloggers who stoop to the ultimate low of using family members as a tool to peddle credit cards. Lucky even took a page out of the TPG playbook and linked cards into a conversation (was there a blue underlined hyperlink when he said it at the restaurant?)
Even Dan, the guy who is neck and neck with TPG for being the ultimate bombarder of links (that’s about where the similarities in the content ends) was able to resist the urge of peddling credit cards for one post when talking about his son
Not Lucky…. he even linked to a card he recommended his parents NOT use
Yeah, pretty sad! They still look better than this Wallet Sl”o”t!!!
Hey George, this is just a little humor for you on this Monday. I know you’re a big soccer fan so thought you might think this is funny… I did
http://p.fod4.com/upload/aff3567c9abaad4b798a350dc1e1b1a3/zbcSUVfdSDShfu3JbSSs_Not%20That%20One.gif
That link looks spamish but it’s not it’s just a gif: Shortened it so it looks more acceptable http://bit.ly/1jZP00P
That looked like me 22 pounds ago 🙂
I just stumbled across your blog today, and I think I have a new addiction. Keep up the awesome work, and I’ll keep you in mind next time I buy anything on Amazon!
P.S. I’ll be doing a bunch of train rides in Norway in the next week, and the Golden Route in Switzerland in a few weeks — I’m hoping they’re as stunning as everyone says! Sadly the Trans-Siberian Railway will have to stay on my bucket list for now too
P.P.S. Trains DO count as travel! Who would’ve thought?! It may seem shocking, but *affiliate Barlays link* or *affiliate CSP link* are definitely great cards to use when buying tickets… Don’t forget to use your *affiliate link* or *affiliate link* to buy your camera online!
I wish I had them so I could then edit your post to insert them 😉
I always liked trains. But I do like planes too! Saw last night the movie Railway Man….Very moving stuff about the effects of war, demons and stuff like that. Main character was train enthusiast.
And thanks for coming aboard, the kind words and taking the time to comment!
Has this become the Adam blog or something?
I have no idea why so many Adams read me 🙂 If they only could use my Amazon link too lol.
Howie’s grandmother just passed away, and yet he still found a way to include a Barclaycard link in his latest post at FTG. My condolences to him, but it’s reassuring that he found a way to still pimp his cards at the expense of a loved one.
+ 1 million.
I am still shaking my head what else we will see over at FTG to help sell cards. May her memory rest in eternal peace, please apply for the Barclays Arrival card!
Some people are so deep into this they have no idea what they look like.
To all the writers at FTG. Get your friends and family to use FTG Arrival link to make Howie feel better.
Sorry for her loss but…oh what a way to remember her! Shameful.
TBB
“Gutless Coward”
Other topics FTG will cover:
Funeral homes that accept credit cards
Buying sugar free food on the first Friday of the month because you have type 2 diabetes
Travel Challenge – Flying to the Mayo Clinic for cancer treatment
5% back at Lowe’s for home repair improvements after your house burned down
Remember this isn’t some Internet Brands guy – Howie has been with the blog since it was privately owned by a frequent commenter on these boards, and runs the Chicago seminars founded by said commenter
FTU should make a slogan to rebut the criticisms of them being the same as the Seminars –
“FTU, where we only exploit able-bodied family members”
You are killing me….oh wait, maybe we should not talk like this. I still can’t get over honoring the dead grandmother with an Arrival affiliate link.
In other thoughts, I got stuck behind some person at Wal Mart for trying to honor an expired coupon. Had to wait for manager “It’s expired” she said! Phuck…there was more, I had to leave. I still got 3 more gift cards to cash…I don’t know how everyone else puts up with this crap. Or my store sucks completely!
On the other hand, picked up some ribs for just $1.78 per lb…hope I fire up the grill this weekend!
Drunk Tennessee man tried to have sex with ATM, picnic table: cops
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/drunk-tenn-man-sex-atm-picnic-table-cops-article-1.1798910#ixzz32GkVbZQU
Very funny but also very sad. This guy obviously has a serious problem, hope he gets the help he needs.