Another $574 statement credit towards our cruise!
I’m happy to report that our upcoming 7-day
Caribbean cruise will be mostly paid for by redeeming our Barclaycard
Arrival miles! The total cost of
each of our cruise tickets was $573.51 per person, which included a balcony
suite and $100 onboard ship credit.
I have previously redeemed 55,000 of my Arrival miles for a $550
statement credit for my cruise ticket. The 40,000 mile sign up bonus on my Barlaycard
Arrival Plus MasterCard gave me a big jump start to earning enough miles through
regular and manufactured
spending. It also helps that
the Arrival+ earns 2 miles on every purchase.
Since my wife has previously used 45,600 of her Arrival miles to
book us two round trip flights to Portland, Oregon, her account was seriously
low on miles. By putting all of
our regular credit card spending on her Barclaycard Arrival card, and by making
a few extra trips to CVS to pick up Vanilla Reload cards (now
dead) and PayPal
My Cash cards, we quickly earned enough points to cover the cost of my
wife’s cruise ticket.
My wife logged into her account to see that she has already earned
62,000 Arrival miles:
When redeeming my wife’s Arrival miles towards cash back on her
cruise ticket, she was given an option to redeem 57,400 miles for a $574 statement
credit. I thought this was
strange since I was only given the option to redeem up to 55,000 of my Arrival
miles for a $550 statement credit on my account. I’m not complaining about the extra $74 cash back though!
The total cost of our cruise tickets came out to be $573.51 x 2 = $1,147.02. By redeeming our Arrival miles, we have received a total of $1,124 cash back as statement credits! Our net costs for 2 cruise tickets will
be only $23.02!*
 |
| A few days later, my wife received a $573.51 statement credit in her account! |
We fly out to our port of departure this Saturday morning. Due to limited Internet access, I will
not be making any posts while on vacation. If you are interested in going on a free cruise (or a free
flight, free hotel stay, or any other free travel), the Arrival+ will help you get there. With a 40,000 mile sign up bonus and ability to earn 2 miles
per dollar spent on every purchase, you can quickly earn miles towards your
next trip!
*Note: we did purchase 22
reload cards (Vanilla Reload and PayPal My Cash cards) with my wife’s Arrival
card to generate around $11,086.90 worth of manufactured spending ($503.95 x 22
= $11,086.90). The Vanilla Reload
and PayPal My Cash cards each have a $3.95 activation fee per $500
purchase. The total amount we paid
for activation fees was $86.90 (22 x
$3.95 = $86.90). This is still a
substantial savings. We put the
money we saved from our trip into our investment accounts.
