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In case you aren’t familiar with Arrival miles, they are a type of reward earned by the Barclaycard Arrival Plus.

For a limited time, the Barclaycard Arrival Plus comes with 50,000 bonus Arrival miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days. You can redeem the miles to offset any travel expense greater than $100 inside your Barclaycard account within 120 days of the purchase, like any flight (no blackouts. Examples of travel expenses are taxes and fees on award tickets, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals, cruises, etc. Here is How to Redeem Arrival Miles. The Arrival miles you’d earn from meeting the minimum spending requirement, 50k from the bonus, 6k from the spending, are worth $560 in travel expense statement credits (1 Arrival mile = 1 cent towards travel).

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The Arrival Plus is a great way to earn a lot of Arrival miles quickly. But there’s another easy way to earn Arrival miles that doesn’t require any spending.

Allow me to introduce you to the Barclaycard Travel Community.

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The Barclaycard Travel Community is an aggregator of travel stories. Users share short stories about trips with at least once picture each, and some have added details like recommendations for hotels, restaurants, etc. Users are incentivized to share their experience by earning participation miles, which can be translated to Arrival miles if you have Arrival Plus or Arrival card.

You’ll earn

  • 150 participation miles for each story you write (minimum of 100 words each)
  • 10 participation miles for every detail you add
  • 10 participation miles for every kudo you receive

In case you didn’t catch it earlier, 1 Arrival mile can be redeemed for 1 cent towards travel expenses. All you have to do is register to join the community and you can start earning extra Arrival miles too!

150 Miles for Each Story Submitted (minimum of 100 words each)

Here is what 100 words looks like:

A few months ago I traveled to Buzios, Brazil. The area has tons of beaches, so no matter what scene you’re looking for (party, family, nature, whatever), you’ll find something up your alley. The rocky coast makes for good snorkeling and the main drag along the bay was filled with charming colonial architecture, sailboats, and restaurants selling delicious and fresh seafood. My favorite restaurant was a quaint little place right on the water named O Barco. I recommend avoiding the high season, December through February, as prices are higher and the place is completely full of vacationing Brazilians and Argentines.

You’ll get 150 Arrival miles for writing a paragraph of that length + adding a picture. You can contribute up to 100 stories a month, with a limit of five stories per city.

10 Miles For Every “Detail” Added

A “detail” is anything you can recognize on a map, like restaurants, hotels, bars, points of interest, etc.screen-shot-2016-11-11-at-6-07-11-pmYou can add up to 25 details per story and earn an extra 10 miles for adding each of them. Each detail must be described with at least 10 words.

screen-shot-2016-11-11-at-6-09-49-pm10 Miles for Every Kudo Received

A Kudo is essentially a “Like”. Every time someone gives your story a kudo, you’ll earn 10 Arrival miles.screen-shot-2016-11-12-at-10-38-10-am

Potential Earnings

If you maxed out the stories you’re allowed to contribute in a month, you’d earn at least 15,000 points before adding any details. Add three details per story, and you’re up to 18,000 points. That’s an extra $180 worth of travel credit per month.

It took me five minutes to submit my story with one photo and three details. 500 minutes (100 stories x 5) spent doing something that earns $180 is like earning $21 an hour. Your rhythm may not be that fast–mine not be either if I ran out of cities or stories to talk about–but if you enjoy travel writing anyways, it’s not a bad way to earn some extra cash towards travel in your free time. You’re also helping a community of people learn about new places they might want to visit around the world.

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Map that shows destinations of recent stories posted on Barclaycardtravel.com

Why Having an Arrival Plus Makes Your Participation Miles More Valuable

If you have a Barclaycard Arrival Plus or Arrival card, you can link your travel profile on barclayrcardtravel.com to your card account on barcalycard.com and your Participation miles will populate your monthly statement. This means you’ll be able to redeem them for one cent each on travel expenses (once you have at least 10,000 Arrival miles total) because they essentially turn into Arrival miles.

Participation miles can only be redeemed in increments of 2,500 for a $5 Amazon e-certificate if you do not have an Arrival Plus or Arrival card to link to your travel profile. That means they’d be worth .2 cents instead of 1 cent.

Bottom Line

If you have an Arrival Plus or Arrival Card from Barclay’s, you can earn extra Arrival miles by sharing 100 word (+ 1 photo) travel stories with Barclaycard’s Travel Community. If you travel often and enjoy travel writing, sharing these stories can be an easy and fun way to earn some extra money towards travel expenses.

Hat Tip Angelina Travels

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