I love credit cards so much!

[Jax1023]

Given how goofy Chase has been with shutdowns, I guess maybe some concern is warranted there with those fraud alerts.

I guess I just take this attitude that I'll be a little bit careful but I'm not going to let it affect me playing the game. I'd rather get shut down and have earned 20%+ back on a bunch of purchases than operate in fear of shutdown and earn 1-3% back on most purchases.

I should probably cool it on my freedom as I’ve spent $900so far this quarter in $50 increments at Best Buy. And nothing else as I’m working on my spg biz spend. Probably should use it to buy coffee this weekend at wegmans or something just to mix it up a bit. 18 identical transactions might seem a bit odd lol

 

[platamama]

Your rollover nights won't expire because that goes by calendar year. You'll see all your 2017 rollover nights in it's own line item in your points details. If you got the 2018 elite night credit, that would show in a separate line in the details section. Assuming you didn't use all of them to make Gold in 2017, only 5 of the 15 would rollover to 2018.

Thanks! Can you tell me if this sounds right to you?

13 rollover nights for 2017 (is on the rollover night line item in my account; I'm just a lowly Silver and that's only because of the credit card)
+15 elite credit nights for 2018 (due to post on 6/1/18)
+ 5 SPG personal 2018
+ 5 SPG Biz 2018
38 nights toward elite status as of 6/1/18

Therefore, 12 more nights in either Starwood or Marriott to reach Marriott Gold (50 nights) by 8/1/18, and anyone who is Marriott Gold by then automatically becomes Platinum for the rest of 2018 and all of 2019. This is probably the only time I could ever make this happen since there are no rollover nights going forward and credit card nights will be capped at 15 no matter how many credit cards you have.

If I understand it right, if you hit 50 nights AFTER 8/1/18 you'd only be Gold for 2018-2019, but if you reach 50 BEFORE 8/1/1/8, you'd be Platinum for 2018-2019. Is this right?

ETA: This doesn't sound right.

 

[amalone1013]

Took a friend to dinner for his birthday to Olive Garden tonight. DH was confused why I was digging out the SPG personal cards from the sock drawer...

 

[GlamMistress]

Received two targeted mailers today. One was for Delta Amex Gold 60k points so that offer is still going strong. The other is for Hawaiian airlines 50k points. Low spend on both.

I won't be biting on either at this time.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

I booked a vacation package today, and completely forgot that I have the Disney Visa Rewards Card and can take advantage of the 0% for 6 months financing. I only paid the deposit today with another card that I have. Is it too late to change the payment type on this reservation? Also, even if I can't change the payment type on the $200 I paid today, would I be able to charge the rest of the package amount to the Dis Visa and at least get the 0% Financing on that? I know this isn't a Cash Back ?, but thought maybe one of you CC guru's might know the answer. TIA!

I’d call Disney and see if they can refund the payment and use a different card. If the room is still available then I would tell them you want to cancel and rebook with a different card. I wouldn’t pay your balance till you need to so that you get 6 mo from when you charge it. But I would talk to disney or chase to confirm how they figure the 6 mo 0% interest.

I'm back!!!

Here's the info you suggested I give you so you can provide me with some advice.

1) I've applied for 5 cards in the last 24 months, but maybe it's important for you to know what they are if that makes a difference???
SW Chase - June 2017
CitiBank - April 2016
Another SW Chase - March 2018
JC Penney (I think an authorized user under my husband's name) - October-ish 2017
Mattress Firm (just for mattress financing) - summer 2017

Also, paid off a Chase vehicle lease, but then took out another Chase vehicle lease

2) I do have some additional credit cards. Some I use and some I don't. Maybe another 8 all together because I don't close the accounts. You aren't supposed to close them, right???

3) Not sure - probably not.

4) Mostly looking to take advantage of airline miles and pretty much only fly SW. Once a year trip to Disney, couple more trips a year to Florida because my daughter lives there, maybe one additional non-Disney trip with husband (within the US).

5) I mean...my husband is an electrician and has been known to do side jobs. Not sure I'd be comfortable opening business cards, but ???

Looking forward to hear what you have to say. Like I said when I started out, looks like this is a "thing" and given I have a good credit history, I'm interested in playing the game. Let me know if you need any further info.

Mattress firm showed on my credit as a credit card even though they called it a loan.

I would def try for the CIP first since that won’t count against your 5/24. If you haven’t joined the dischurners group message @SouthFayetteFan or @Albort to join. Once you meet the spend if your DH is willing to apply you can refer him. Then you could double dip the CSR and CSP if you don’t already have those.

 

[WVMomof3]

What browser are you using. I have issues with lots of sites on safari. I default to chrome when issues happen. This happens with SPG alot, but not the amex site.

I have tried both Microsoft Edge and Chrome. I can't login on either.

 

[calypso726]

Hi DISchurner peeps! Got 10 pages to catch up on but thought I'd respond to the posts where I was tagged first.

THIS. Is kind of the kicker.

Many many pages ago, someone wrote about getting Alaska Airlines credit cards for the companion fare (was that you, @calypso726?) in order to not deal with trying to find a bunch of award tickets on AS for a family trip and so they opened up AS credit cards with the companion fare to help with their plans. Just another option, as if there aren't enough options to think about!

That was me. Planning Hawaii last year for just DH and I on points and miles wound up with me utilizing plan A (AA miles), plan B (Citi TYP) and plan C (airline gift cards). Granted, I did have to accommodate the "plane princess" and his preferences for lie flat seats. Here's the thing though, I've planned multi country international flights in first class on points and miles that were far less stressful. After our Hawaii trip, I knew I wanted to take my family to visit Aulani. So, I started to plan out the best way to go about booking flights for all 6 of us. 30 minutes, two Tylenols and the beginning of one ulcer later, I realized life was too short to add that kind of stress to it. I decided DH and I would each just get an Alaska card and call it a day.

@disneymagicgirl, it's really sweet of you to want to plan a Hawaii vacation for your husband's 40th, but I'm sure he wouldn't want you to stress as much as you are to make it happen. This is where I kind of defer to @calypso726's guideline of planning vacations two years out. You've got a lot of points in different programs, but I think there are a few changes in the coming months that really favors putting off Hawaii until next year. As @Albort mentioned, with Marriott finalizing its merger with SPG, you'll probably be able to book the Westin Ka'anapali as part of Marriott's Flight and Hotel package and get a better deal. And with Southwest poised to start flying to Hawaii late this year or early-2019, it'll give you a lot more flight options.

The difficulty is you're in the middle of the country without easy access to a lot of the direct routes to Hawaii, and on top of that you've got to find award seats for 6 people. Three of the airlines that have been discussed -- Alaska, Southwest, and Hawaiian -- have some form of companion discount.

• Southwest's Companion Pass, you know, and is probably the most generous of them all. Unfortunately, Southwest still has yet to announce the details of their Hawaii plans, much less make tickets available for sale.
• Alaska has the Companion Fare, which is offered to their Alaska Airlines Visa consumer and business cards. (The Alaska cards are issued by Bank of America, and DoC confirms they do not report business cards to personal credit reports. However, I don't know how difficult it is to get a "business" card from BofA.) Alaska's Companion Fare offers an annual roundtrip coach companion fare on Alaska for just $99 plus taxes and fees starting from ~$22, when traveling with a paying passenger on the same itinerary, booked at the same time at alaskaair.com. I believe Alaska has a limited time signup bonus where the $99 base fare is waived for the first year.
• Hawaiian has a Companion Discount, which is offered to their Hawaiian Airlines World Elite and Business Mastercard cardholders. (The Hawaiian cards are issued by Barclays, and again I don't know how hard it is to get approved for a "business" card, and there are conflicting reports whether Barclays reports business cards to personal credit reports.) The standard signup bonus for the personal card is 35,000 HawaiianMiles (which is usually enough for one roundtrip from the Mainland to Hawaii, but award availability becomes almost impossible from the week before Christmas until about a week after New Year), but you can do a dummy booking on hawaiianairlines.com and get targeted for a 50,000 HawaiianMiles signup offer (I was able to pull this up two weeks ago). (DoC reported recently that Hawaiian is handing out paper applications with a 60,000 HawaiianMiles offer in flight.) Back to the Companion Discount, new cardholders get a one-time 50% off companion discount for roundtrip coach travel on Hawaiian between Hawaii and the Mainland, and a $100 discount off a roundtrip coach companion ticket upon each account anniversary thereafter. Hawaiian's Companion Discount is only good for companions traveling with the cardholder on a paid ticket, on the same reservation, book through the the cardholder's HawaiianMiles account and using his/her Hawaiian Mastercard.

So if you can't get all 6 travelers on award seats and you have to pay out of pocket for some of the tickets, the above companion discounts could help cut down on your cash cost. Southwest: Companion flies almost free (+taxes and fees). Alaska: Companion flies for $99 +taxes and fees (possibly free + taxes and fees for the first year). Hawaiian: Companion flies for 50% off for the first year, gets a $100 discount after each account anniversary (with even "cheap" roundtrip fares from the West Coast to Hawaii costing ~$400 in the low season/midweek, 50% off still leaves you paying at least $200 for your companion.)

I haven't read the details of your trip planning for Hawaii @disneymagicgirl and I am just responding since I was tagged on the post. I'm still catching up on the thread. That said, I will agree with @Lain here and the advice I see given. Once I get to your post and read the details, I'll see if I can add to the advice. I will state unequivocally the minimal planning time for such a trip is 2 years, if you are in 2 player mode and can move through a slew of cards and MSR fairly quickly. To be honest, that was the minimal time frame I'd advise before Chase 5/24 existed, before hitting Chase too hard could equal a shutdown, before Citi implemented the 1 card per type of card every 24 months, before you couldn't get a Barclay card and an Alaska card every other month, before Amex decided gaming was bad and wrote it into their T&Cs and before MSing your way through your new MSR went on the endangered species list. I am revising my advice on planning a travel hack from 2 years to 2 - 3 years.

 

[calypso726]

@disneymagicgirl - My advice would be the Alaska credit card. If you are in 2 player mode, you'd get 60k+ AS miles for both cards. With a little more spend this should cover you and 1 other passenger on an award flight. Then, you book your other 4 passengers. Two paid, two CP. If you book more than 60 days out, you can book a fully refundable ticket for the amount that you will need to pay for one of the Hawaii tix via UR portal and paid with UR points. The flight you book has to be on AS metal. Wait 24 hours for the fully refundable option to expire. Then cancel the flight on the AS website and get the fare refunded to your "my wallet" on AS. Then book your paid tix using the "my wallet" credit and redeem the CP. Lather. Rinse. Repeat on the other AS account. Now you got all 6 tickets with a combination of AS miles, UR points and the 2 CPs. Travel Codex has written about the method.

https://www.travelcodex.com/double-value-ultimate-rewards-alaska-airlines-companion-fare/

 

[wendow]

We are pretty much sold on Deluxe now (it feels insane to type that FYI, lol) soooo Free Dining just doesn't remotely excite me now. The room only discounts just seem so much better at that level (and even at the mod level)...but I can see getting caught up in the hype and everybody else's excitement, LOL!

Now I will say...Free Dining circa 2013...that was something to get excited about!!!

We typically stay deluxe or mod...only stayed value one night (before we moved to the Poly for a week lol) and I hated the beds so much. I'm not a great sleeper so I just don't do well with the values. We were spoiled by staying at BLT the first three trips to WDW so it's hard to go backwards after that. But as a fam of 6, BLT pricing is just too much. We now tend to do a split stay with a mod for half the nights and a deluxe for the other half. I keep telling myself maybe Pop would be ok now that they are putting in queens but idk really.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

We typically stay deluxe or mod...only stayed value one night (before we moved to the Poly for a week lol) and I hated the beds so much. I'm not a great sleeper so I just don't do well with the values. We were spoiled by staying at BLT the first three trips to WDW so it's hard to go backwards after that. But as a fam of 6, BLT pricing is just too much. We now tend to do a split stay with a mod for half the nights and a deluxe for the other half. I keep telling myself maybe Pop would be ok now that they are putting in queens but idk really.

I was eyeing Pop with the reno also...then we did our split stay trip BC/Poly and...yea we're done with anything but Deluxe lol.

For our trip in January we're going to do Boardwalk 4 nights (Parks = EP, HS, EP, HS those days) then on transfer day go to AK all day. Transfer to Contemporary and then hit MK 3 straight days. 2 bus rides the whole trip and lots of walking to parks and boats I literally said we'd NEVER do deluxe after we magically got upgraded to GF a few years back because I didn't think it was worth it. I guess my tastes have changed (and my improved churning efforts combined with insane savings rate and early retirement focus may also have contributed, lol)

 

[Lain]

@disneymagicgirl - My advice would be the Alaska credit card. If you are in 2 player mode, you'd get 60k+ AS miles for both cards. With a little more spend this should cover you and 1 other passenger on an award flight. Then, you book your other 4 passengers. Two paid, two CP. If you book more than 60 days out, you can book a fully refundable ticket for the amount that you will need to pay for one of the Hawaii tix via UR portal and paid with UR points. The flight you book has to be on AS metal. Wait 24 hours for the fully refundable option to expire. Then cancel the flight on the AS website and get the fare refunded to your "my wallet" on AS. Then book your paid tix using the "my wallet" credit and redeem the CP. Lather. Rinse. Repeat on the other AS account. Now you got all 6 tickets with a combination of AS miles, UR points and the 2 CPs. Travel Codex has written about the method.

https://www.travelcodex.com/double-value-ultimate-rewards-alaska-airlines-companion-fare/

Oh, I totally forgot reading about this trick because I don’t fly Alaska. Brilliant!

 

[Albort]

Oh, I totally forgot reading about this trick because I don’t fly Alaska. Brilliant!

hate to break the news... @calypso726
but they now charge a fee... Source

 

[wendow]

I was eyeing Pop with the reno also...then we did our split stay trip BC/Poly and...yea we're done with anything but Deluxe lol.

For our trip in January we're going to do Boardwalk 4 nights (Parks = EP, HS, EP, HS those days) then on transfer day go to AK all day. Transfer to Contemporary and then hit MK 3 straight days. 2 bus rides the whole trip and lots of walking to parks and boats I literally said we'd NEVER do deluxe after we magically got upgraded to GF a few years back because I didn't think it was worth it. I guess my tastes have changed (and my improved churning efforts combined with insane savings rate and early retirement focus may also have contributed, lol)

Yep, we've done that BC/Poly split stay a few times (it's a fav!) and we do the same...arrange our park days around the resort...This past September, we chose to do a BC/CS split, which was different for us so what we did on the BC days, was do EP and HS but also did lighter days to enjoy the pool. On transfer day, we did the CS pool (which was a 'one-hit wonder' for us) and then did commando touring every other day. It worked great. We used the Minnie Vans quite a bit to get around those days. We've been spoiled by our deluxe stays and the ease of getting around but I honestly could do a mod/deluxe again. We've changed the way we tour and are ok hitting the park from open to close.

 

[wendow]

Oh, I totally forgot reading about this trick because I don’t fly Alaska. Brilliant!

I've been at church all evening with lots of loud and rambunctious kids. What is the trick here?
@calypso726 Can either of you share what I am missing here?

 

[gottalovepluto]

Fwiw I thought I missed out on the Chase Biz Checking bonus, didn't meet the reqs by the required day 60, realized over a week after the deadline and frantically put 5 amazon charges through just in case. No bonus, Chase and my banker said nothing they could do. We downgraded the account to the total checking last week, and the bonus showed up today. So: Chase does have a grace period on bank bonuses and you can receive the Performance bank bonus even after you've downgraded to Total biz checking.
Edit: details

 

[Albort]

@disneymagicgirl - My advice would be the Alaska credit card. If you are in 2 player mode, you'd get 60k+ AS miles for both cards. With a little more spend this should cover you and 1 other passenger on an award flight. Then, you book your other 4 passengers. Two paid, two CP. If you book more than 60 days out, you can book a fully refundable ticket for the amount that you will need to pay for one of the Hawaii tix via UR portal and paid with UR points. The flight you book has to be on AS metal. Wait 24 hours for the fully refundable option to expire. Then cancel the flight on the AS website and get the fare refunded to your "my wallet" on AS. Then book your paid tix using the "my wallet" credit and redeem the CP. Lather. Rinse. Repeat on the other AS account. Now you got all 6 tickets with a combination of AS miles, UR points and the 2 CPs. Travel Codex has written about the method.

https://www.travelcodex.com/double-value-ultimate-rewards-alaska-airlines-companion-fare/

@wendow ^^

 

[Lain]

I've been at church all evening with lots of loud and rambunctious kids. What is the trick here?
@calypso726 Can either of you share what I am missing here?

The idea was to use UR to book paid travel on Alaska, essentially discounted at 1.5 cpp with the CSR, then “cancel” the booking more than 60 days out so the full value of those funds for the published fare are deposited back into your Alaska account. Then apply that credit towards a new booking through Alaska with the companion fare.

But like @Albort posted, Alaska will charge you a change fee now.

 

[wendow]

@wendow ^^

I must have a worse headache than I thought lol. I read @calypso726's post like 5 times trying to make sense, and couldn't quite figure out why you'd do all the bookings/cancelling. I'll start fresh with the blog link tomorrow

 

[wendow]

The idea was to use UR to book paid travel on Alaska, essentially discounted at 1.5 cpp when using CSR, then “cancel” the booking more than 60 days out so the full value of those funds for the published fare are deposited back into your Alaska account. Then apply that credit towards a new booking through Alaska with the companion fare.

But like @Albort posted, Alaska will charge you a change fee now.

Ah, ok, I get it now. The whole using UR points to book on AS completely went over my head

Thanks, Lain!

 

[Lain]

Ah, ok, I get it now. The whole using UR points to book on AS completely went over my head

Thanks, Lain!

Yeah, like I said, I don’t fly Alaska so I filed this away as interesting but not relevant for me.

But to add, basically, UR is worth 1.5 cpp when using CSR to book paid travel, including on Alaska, through the UR Portal. The other piece to this is Alaska offers a companion fare ($99 + fees and taxes, waived first year) for their Visa cardholders that only works when booked directly through Alaska. So the idea was to move UR’s 50% extra value over to Alaska (by canceling a “discounted” booking and getting the “full” fare credited to Alaska) so you can capture those savings when making a booking with the companion fare.