[Outdated] Which Barclays Card Is Better? Frontier Vs Arrival

This post is now out of date, information contained therein is no longer accurate.

This question comes from reddit.com/r/churning user Camarda. I thought it deserved it’s own post, so here we go.

Question:

I’m torn between the Arrival and the Frontier. I fly Frontier a couple times a year. Is it worth it to get the Arrival with the annual fee vs. the Barclay without the annual fee?

Answer:

This is an interesting question, first let’s look at the two cards. We’re going to be focusing on the sign up bonuses and annual fees, the results will obviously change if you’re planning on using these as your everyday cards or plan to keep them after the first year.

Option 1: Barclaycard® Arrival™ World MasterCard – Annual Fee.

• Annual fee of $89 which is waived the first year
• 40,000 bonus miles when you spend $1,000 within three months
• 10% miles back when you redeem them for travel

Miles are worth a fixed rate, they are worth 0.5¢ when you redeem them for statement credit (making the 40,000 bonus miles worth $200) or 1¢ when you redeem them for travel expenses (making the 40,000 bonus miles worth $400). You also get 10% miles back when you redeem them for travel meaning you’ll actually get $440 worth of value.

You mentioned that you travel a few times per year, so we’re going to assume that you’ll be able to use these miles for travel. This makes the sign up bonus worth a total of $440 for you. 

Option Two: Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® – Annual Fee

• Annual fee of $69 is not waived
• Earn 40,000 miles when you spend $500 within 90 days.
• 10,000 bonus miles when you do a balance transfer ($1 transfer = 1 mile)

First of all, taking advantage of the balance transfer is not worth it as they charge you 4% or $10, whichever is higher. Meaning this card will give you a total of 40,000 miles. By looking at the frontier awards chart we’re able to find out that these are worth:

• Two roundtrip tickets within the US (including Alaska) (20,000 miles per roundtrip flight)
• One round trip ticket to Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. (30,000 miles per roundtrip)

Unfortunately it’s not possible to exchange your miles for You can also transfer your points with points.com, but be aware that the exchange rates are truly awful and will result in the Arrival being much better.

The Verdict

Because the annual fee of $69 is not waived on the frontier card, you’ll need to get over $509 of value out of the 40,000 frontier miles for it to be worth it. As you said in the original question, you’re already making a couple of flights per year – see how much these flights cost you and if it’s more than $509, you’d likely be better offer with frontier. Just remember that taxes & some fees aren’t included when using points, so check to see how much those are for your specific flights.

The spending requirements ($1,000 and $500 respectively) are easy to hit and shouldn’t pose an issue for anybody – especially when you take into account using amazon payments (fee free) and other manufactured spend methods.