Barclay Rewards Boost & Southwest Airline

[karinad]

I just discovered this last night while I was looking for airfare for our Oct. cruise. I went into Walmart.com through my Barclay Rewards CCL credit card. I was looking for a gift card for a gift for a party we have to go to. I seen a gift card listed there for South West Airlines. I looked into the reviews for it, etc., to see if it would work for me. I had a one way flight on hold with Southwest for $200. I was able to buy a gift card for $200. for Southwest and use it to pay for our flight. This way I'm earning points (2pts. per $1.) with Walmart towards our up-coming cruise.

 

Maybe I'm last to know this, but I never read about this before.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Good to know thanks for posting. I would take advantage of this.

[audcc77]

Huh? I may want to take advantage of this b/c I have a couple Barclay Arrival cards, but I'm confused.

 

I have never bought gift cards on Barclaycard's website, and I don't get why buying a Southwest gift card is any better return than just using my Barclaycard to straight out buy the airline tickets directly with southwest & just get the travel points.

 

I must be missing something ... please explain again ... :o

 

Thanks.

[SoBigSoSexy]

Huh? I may want to take advantage of this b/c I have a couple Barclay Arrival cards, but I'm confused.

 

I have never bought gift cards on Barclaycard's website, and I don't get why buying a Southwest gift card is any better return than just using my Barclaycard to straight out buy the airline tickets directly with southwest & just get the travel points.

 

I must be missing something ... please explain again ... :o

 

Thanks.

 

The Arrival card always earns 2 points for every $ but the Carnival branded card only earns 1 point per $ unless you use the rewards boost section. The Arrival card is a superior card but comes with an annual fee while there is no annual fee with the Carnival card (both are issued by Barclaycard)

Edited June 3, 2015 by SoBigSoSexy

[karinad]

I'm sure this is confusing if you don't shop online through the Barclay Rewards Boost. This is through the Carnival MasterCard that you would have this benefit. When you shop through this sight you have access to many online stores. There are many, Walmart.com is just one of them. I by some groceries online through Walmart and earn points 2 points per $1. spent, that goes to your Carnival account. So, instead of buying a gift card through SW or just booking the flight, I bought a gift card through Walmart.com and I earned 400 points for a $200. airfare plus, points or miles on my credit card.

 

I, also, have the Princess MasterCard through Barclay, but Princess does not offer this benefit as far as I know.

 

The airlines, like United, AA, etc. also offer a similar program. With them you don't have to have their credit card to earn miles for your FF accounts.

 

I'm sure that if your aren't familiar with these programs it's very confusing, but you could earn more points or miles by using this program. Some stores offer 5, 8, or more per $.

[drosphot]

I booked our flights to San Juan on SWA and used the Carnival card to pay for it. Now I see that I can use points to pay off the SWA charge as well as Carnival charges!

[audcc77]

The Arrival card always earns 2 points for every $ but the Carnival branded card only earns 1 point per $ unless you use the rewards boost section. The Arrival card is a superior card but comes with an annual fee while there is no annual fee with the Carnival card (both are issued by Barclaycard)

 

 

Ok. I see. I do not have a Carnival card. I agree with you that the Barclay Arrival card is superior. I was going to get a Carnival card until I saw the benefits of Barclay Arrival. I figured I'd cancel the card after the first free year, but even after paying the annual fee of $89 for each of our 2 cards, we still get a ridiculous amount of cash back. Not only that, but I discovered that we have FREE travel insurance with these cards.

 

Thanks both of you for clearing this up. :) I need to buy some Southwest airline tix in a few months, so this post peaked my interest. But it sounds like I will just use the Barclay Arrival.