The king of cash back cards is the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®, which isn't even a cash back card.

The card offers 2.15% back on all purchases in the form of free travel.

The Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® offers new cardholders 40,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in 90 days, which is worth $430 in free travel, and 2.15% back toward travel on all purchases. See my full breakdown of the Arrival Plus.

Existing cardholders have better perks than new cardholders. If you got the Arrival Plus before September 30, 2014, your benefits will be aligned with new cardholders' on November 17, 2015.

In a recent Free Credit Card Consultation, Matt wrote:
Goal: April 4 - 7 from Chicago (preferably ORD) to San Francisco Bay Area for 2 adults. Ideally, we'd like to fly both ways (economy or business) and stay at a hotel entirely on points earned from new and current cards. Thank you for your help! We love your website and plan on using your Award Booking Service in the future - especially for international adventures.

Here's my response:
There's a lag time when earning miles.

Arrival miles can be redeemed for any travel expense like any flight (no blackouts), taxes and fees on award tickets, hotels, airbnb, car rentals, cruises, and more. After the 10% rebate on all travel redemptions and the fact that you earn 2 miles per dollar on the purchase before you remove it from your account with a redemption, this card offer 2.28% back toward travel on all purchases.

Barclaycard has put out a video about how to redeem Arrival miles, which I think is a smart move.

The card offer described in this post has expired. To see the latest top travel credit cards with big bonuses that will save you tons, check out our Top 10 List for Consumers and Top 10 List for Small Businesses.

I can earn 5,000 bonus Arrival miles if I spend $1,500 per month in January, February, and March on my Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®.

The Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® offers 2 miles per dollar on all purchases.