Last year I was not able to use my Barclaycard miles to offset a travel purchase because I needed my charges to be more than $100 with the Barclays Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard. I actually ended up downgrading this card to the No Fee version, which brought my minimum travel purchases that could be covered to $25. However, I messed up again with my travel purchase, this time not because of the amount but because of the purchase…
The card, which is not offered to the public, allows you to offset travel purchases with your balance of Arrival Miles. The minimum charge in my case needed to be $25 with my downgraded version of the card.
On our recent trip to Park City, I happily paid the airport parking garage with my No Fee Barclaycard and anticipated seeing the charge on my statement as a travel purchase and ripe to be offset. I was wrong!
The terms of the Barclaycard do not include parking as travel. This is right from the terms…
“A travel purchase is defined as: airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, campgrounds, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, trains, buses, taxis, limousines, and ferries as defined by the merchant category code.”
IT DOESN’T SAY PARKING DUMB DUMB!!
So, this charge on my card was a waste, not to mention I lost 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards points per $1 had I used my Sapphire Reserve for the parking.
Oh well, I still need to figure out where I am going to use these 7000 Barclaycard miles. I will keep trying!