I love credit cards so much!

[Lain]

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

Tried to find more information about when Alaska will start imposing change fees and how much, but I couldn’t find anything concrete and DoC expects it later this year.

 

[Albort]

Tried to find more information about when Alaska will start imposing change fees and how much, but I couldn’t find anything concrete and DoC expects it later this year.

from article posted...

Alaska Airlines is also going to implement several new product and policy changes between now and June. Changes include offering exit row seats for sales, dynamic pricing for premium seatings, implementing new technology to better manage revenue, and the elimination of fee waivers for reservation changes made more than 60 days before a trip.

edit: worth mentioning though, it seems like this only applies to non status people. If you earn status, u should still be able to do it for free.

 

[Lain]

from article posted...


edit: worth mentioning though, it seems like this only applies to non status people. If you earn status, u should still be able to do it for free.

How am I supposed to “like” your posts if you’re the bearer of bad news?

 

[Albort]

How am I supposed to “like” your posts if you’re the bearer of bad news?

easy, u click on like and then insert angry mad face at me in the next post. :]

 

[calypso726]

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

Well that just stinks. It seems that trick will only last a little while longer. Boo.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Ok just updating about our experience at mco pp lounge. Used the one by gate 89. Arrived Tuesday evening and could get on the monorail to the gate without having to exit and go through security. Monday night when we arrived had to exit and go back through security to get to our gate at 120. FYI we left at 10 pm when they closed the club and TSA pre check was no longer open. Luckily the line wasn’t too long to get back through.

As for food they had soups, hummus, veggies, sandwiches, chips, granola bars and cookies. Hope this helps for those planing to use it.

BTW now my princesses think it’s the norm to get to go to the lounge. They were asking others in the elevators to get to ticketing are you going to the lounge. They just looked at them like they were crazy. Thanks to all here for being enablers

 

[magickingdomprincess]

Ok just updating about our experience at mco pp lounge. Used the one by gate 89. Arrived Tuesday evening and could get on the monorail to the gate without having to exit and go through security. Monday night when we arrived had to exit and go back through security to get to our gate at 120. FYI we left at 10 pm when they closed the club and TSA pre check was no longer open. Luckily the line wasn’t too long to get back through.

As for food they had soups, hummus, veggies, sandwiches, chips, granola bars and cookies. Hope this helps for those planing to use it.

BTW now my princesses think it’s the norm to get to go to the lounge. They were asking others in the elevators to get to ticketing are you going to the lounge. They just looked at them like they were crazy. Thanks to all here for being enablers

How do you get access to the lounge?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

@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/

Thanks so much calypso!

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.

Of course...because I was going to use it. Seems to be how it goes...I jump on board and the gravy train ends.
Maybe the savings will still be greater than the fee.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

How do you get access to the lounge?

Numerous credit cards give various lounge access.
For example, the CSR provides access for the traveler and his/her companions to the pp lounges.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

So my one question with the Alaska trick, assuming (being optimistic) it is still worthwhile after the fee, is what if the flight isn’t showing on the UR site? I ask because the flights I wanted yesterday wouldn’t show up on where for me. I wonder if it was because they were like 30 hour flights with the overnight layover and following evening departure for 2nd leg. Seems awful for most people but would be great for us with the toddler.

 

[shairpdrh]

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)

I wish I had started with Mods or Values, but my friend and I booked a deluxe on our first adult WDW trip and I have never looked back. I have stayed at POFQ twice (it was fine) and will have my first stay at POP in June. I am traveling solo and only on property 24 hours after a work trip (so I will just be in the room to sleep for 7-8 hours) so I couldn't justify a deluxe. I will report back on the beds from a deluxe resort addict perspective!

 

[Lain]

So my one question with the Alaska trick, assuming (being optimistic) it is still worthwhile after the fee, is what if the flight isn’t showing on the UR site? I ask because the flights I wanted yesterday wouldn’t show up on where for me. I wonder if it was because they were like 30 hour flights with the overnight layover and following evening departure for 2nd leg. Seems awful for most people but would be great for us with the toddler.

I don't think it matters what flight you book with points through the UR portal, as long as it's more than 61 days out. You won't be taking that flight anyway because you'd be cancelling it to credit the full value of that fare to your Alaska wallet to use on the flight you actually want to take. So since the point of this trick is to move the full value out of discounted points from UR>Alaska, you'll probably want to book the most expensive flight you can find (I'd imagine this would help offset the cost of a change fee too).

P.S. @Albort and @calypso726 please check me if I'm wrong, I just woke up and haven't had my coffee.

 

[gottalovepluto]

A Redditor is claiming the rumored 100,000 UR offer for all businesses on CIP is now live IN BRANCH: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8eseme/comment/dxxvqjw

 

[DisneyMandC]

I wish I had started with Mods or Values, but my friend and I booked a deluxe on our first adult WDW trip and I have never looked back. I have stayed at POFQ twice (it was fine) and will have my first stay at POP in June. I am traveling solo and only on property 24 hours after a work trip (so I will just be in the room to sleep for 7-8 hours) so I couldn't justify a deluxe. I will report back on the beds from a deluxe resort addict perspective!

We've always done deluxe but stayed at Pop on a 2 night/3 day trip last August. Really liked it! Cute hotel and we had a preferred room very close to the bus stop. We didn't stay in one of the refurbished rooms but I'm looking forward to seeing those on a future trip.

 

[Lain]

BTW now my princesses think it’s the norm to get to go to the lounge. They were asking others in the elevators to get to ticketing are you going to the lounge. They just looked at them like they were crazy. Thanks to all here for being enablers

Oh, your DDs are such darlings. The last time I took my DD to the Centurion Lounge, she wouldn't eat anything there (menu by award-winning chef Daniel Patterson!). (Alright, she tried a few things but declared she didn't like them and started nomming on only cookies.) We ended up having to spend $10 at the food court for some bad Chinese food for her.

 

[Lain]

A Redditor is claiming the rumored 100,000 UR offer for all businesses on CIP is now live IN BRANCH: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8eseme/comment/dxxvqjw

So the only difference is you don't have to go through a BRM but you still have to apply in branch.

P.S. I want to see people who don't have any Chase branches in state (or the closest one is hours drive away) to see if they can get matched via SM if you've been approved for the CIP in the past 90 days.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Oh, your DDs are such darlings. The last time I took my DD to the Centurion Lounge, she wouldn't eat anything there (menu by award-winning chef Daniel Patterson!). (Alright, she tried a few things but declared she didn't like them and started nomming on only cookies.) We ended up having to spend $10 at the food court for some bad Chinese food for her.

She’s a genius. Really just wanted to eat cookies for dinner!

 

[speedyfishy]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/kohl...-small-appliances-free-after-rebate-stacking/

Has anyone done this or thinking about this? I don’t need 40 appliances but it would help with my SPG minimum spend. I just don’t know if it’s worth my time.

 

[gottalovepluto]

So the only difference is you don't have to go through a BRM but you still have to apply in branch.

P.S. I want to see people who don't have any Chase branches in state (or the closest one is hours drive away) to see if they can get matched via SM if you've been approved for the CIP in the past 90 days.

Oooh- great thought! That would be especially awesome if there is an overlapping group that applied under a referral offer from an SO and at the end walk away with 120k UR!

Yeah, the offer as it appears is really only for those getting a CIP but not being referred by an SO and not afraid to talk to a banker about their “business”.

 

[pillow]

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.

I think you can hit the 50 nights at any time for Platinum status - doesn't have to be before 8/1. Frequent Miler just did an article on this - https://frequentmiler.boardingarea....m=email&utm_campaign=Frequent Miler (Instant)

This is all very confusing to me though, so I could be wrong. I'll be at 41 nights after combining. Trying to figure out the best/cheapest way to add another 9 nights. Really not sure if its worth it. Missing GOC cards at Toys R Us . . .