I love credit cards so much!

[tink1970]

They do but you can use up to 8 GC per reservation. So, DH and I will book separately and use 8 on each. With AA the credit triggers with $100 GC unlike DL at $50.

That is so much better, thanks! Definitely will have to consider all angles for the next year

 

[wendow]

Does AA limit the number of gc you can apply to a reservation like DL does? I've just been getting my 16 $50 gc and selling them since online only one DL gc can be used (and 3 if phone reservation). It's rather cumbersome so I'm considering a different airline choice for 2019.

Where do you sell them? I have a $50 Delta GC I need to sell somewhere.

 

[Albort]

It's just a domestic flight to NY, not a fancy vacation I'm planning. Looking at how many miles it takes to fly in the US vs. J or First International flights, it seems pretty costly. We will likely just pay for these flights and save the points for the next big trip.

a where to where would help narrow down things... a date would too.
while were on it, awardhacker.com will give u more info as well.

 

[wendow]

Cool mom moment Used the Uber credit from my shiny new Plat to order McD's for my boys tonight! Got them Happy Meals, and they were oh-so-happy. Got my dh a couple breakfast burritos for tomorrow morning, and my dd's got yogurt parfaits and salads. Sept credit spent

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Where do you sell them? I have a $50 Delta GC I need to sell somewhere.

I sold my Delta on Raise. It was pretty easy and user friendly.

 

[tink1970]

I sold my Delta on Raise. It was pretty easy and user friendly.

Me too!

 

[mmmears]

Finally caught up! I set client work aside today to catch up here. We all returned with the lovely Disney cold, ugh.

Alamo at MCO
I will be avoiding this in the future, and likely Alamo all together. I don't care how many UR I save, the frustration was not worth it. I booked using my UR (may have put a few $ on my CSR) and listed DH as driver. When we got the van, the had to have a credit card with his name on it or I had to pay for a second driver. I knew my CSR had rental coverage (as well as USAA), but the guy argued with me and would not back down. He also tried to tell me local gas was $4+/gal, yes local, not them filling, but local and we should prepay for the fillup. It all worked out in the end, DH does have a CSR as well, but was a horrible start to our vacation. For this alone I'm leaning heavily to always having a CSR and to keep my Emerald status. Funny it's the same company, but so different in treatment. I'm becoming spoiled quickly.

We tried Alamo at MCO one time. Never again. It was years ago and they tried to force us to prepay the gas. And tried to bully us into buying their insurance when we said we were covered by our own and our credit cards. Woman said we needed to buy it to prevent them from suing us. I pay more if I have to, but won't ever rent a car through them. It was such a nasty and unpleasant way to start our trip.

a where to where would help narrow down things... a date would too.
while were on it, awardhacker.com will give u more info as well.

Thank you for the reminder. Looks like MR>BA>AA? Here's what I'm thinking: SFO-JFK on 5/11 and PHL-SFO on 5/19.

 

[georgina]

I always use Alamo at MCO. I book through Costco, check in online, skip the counter and go straight to the garage. Never had a problem with them. I pay with my CSP because of the primary insurance coverage, but now that DH has a CSR I guess we will use that. I did have a horrible time with Budget once at their counter.

Can you not skip the counter if you book with UR?

 

[tink1970]

Looks like MR>BA>AA? Here's what I'm thinking: SFO-JFK on 5/11 and PHL-SFO on 5/19.

Because for some reason I'm still awake I just logged into my BA account and ran those dates/flights. Bad news-currently only one award seat from SFo-JFK on AA (with BA avios) and that's in business but 7 economy seats for the flight back from PHL. I don't use AA enough to know whether they'll add more availability but before you transfer lots of MRs, I'd make sure there's award space.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I always use Alamo at MCO. I book through Costco, check in online, skip the counter and go straight to the garage. Never had a problem with them. I pay with my CSP because of the primary insurance coverage, but now that DH has a CSR I guess we will use that. I did have a horrible time with Budget once at their counter.

Cany you not skip the counter if you book with UR?

Strange question here - We're just giving them a card for "incidental" charges. I fully expect to have to use a card with my name on it as the driver when I pickup at Alamo (and my wife has the CSR and CSP so it will not be one of those cards) - BUT since we're booked on URs through my wife's points (CSR @ 1.50x) then I thought the primary insurance coverage still kicked in (regardless of what card we give them at the counter)... Thoughts??

 

[linzjane88]

@disneymagicgirl So I have a happy ending to my Marriott travel package deal. A recap: I booked the 270k mile cat 1-5 nights and flights package w/ 120k SW miles about a month pre-merger because that was the best miles package I had the points for at that time. I intended to upgrade it when my signup points posted to use it at the Residence Inn Maui Wailea--an old cat 8 that would have cost 90k points to upgrade (360 total). Fast forward to the merger where the rumors were that NO upgrades could be made and the best you could do was a 45k refund for the nights portion of the package. That would have cost me a total of 435k points which I didn't have so needless to say I have been stressing about it. Over the past few days on FT I saw some reports of people upgrading their old Cat 1-5 to a new Cat 1-4 then upgrading for 60k points per category. First call I made the guy said they would refund me the 45K miles then I would re-buy the cert for 105k miles which made zero sense but the the next rep I tried (HUCA) not only upgraded me but told me he wasn't charging me since I had booked before the merger and I shouldn't have to pay more due to the category change (I have a feeling he didn't understand I purposely bought a lower category with the intention of upgrading...I didn't correct him ).. He cancelled my old cat 1-5, I am assuming ordered the new cat 6, and didn't touch my 105k points balance. The reservation looks a little odd and it made me paranoid so I called after I hung up and the rep confirmed I am all set, owe no further points, and have the correct cert attached.

So a recap is that for 270k Marriott points I got 120k SW plus 7 nights in Hawaii--the cost of the room for our dates is $3825. I feel kind of bad because I definitely think the rep was incorrect in what he did but I will take a little where I can get it.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Haha - AMEX just gave us 10k MRs for that extended pay option on my wife's BGR. The annual fee will post next month and we will cancel the card, LOL...but thanks for the 10k MRs! I enrolled Friday night and they posted this evening. I received the offer in an email.

I am seriously considering a Schwab Plat as my wife's next card. We have 201k MRs and I've always said we'd eventually get her a Schwab and cash them out. With the AMEX "pop-up" messages now out in full force I don't think it's a good idea for us to have her attempt to run through PRG, ED, EDP, Green, Ameriprise Gold, AND Biz Green. It was a great run for me, but there's no way they'd let us do that now. It seems odd to devote one of our coveted 5/24 slots to an AMEX card BUT $3,300+ in cash (including the 60k + 5k from Schwab) for a $550 AF would be pretty nice (and of course there's ways to mostly offset that AF too)...

I guess I have some time to think about it...so we'll see what we end up doing!

 

[wendow]

@disneymagicgirl So I have a happy ending to my Marriott travel package deal. A recap: I booked the 270k mile cat 1-5 nights and flights package w/ 120k SW miles about a month pre-merger because that was the best miles package I had the points for at that time. I intended to upgrade it when my signup points posted to use it at the Residence Inn Maui Wailea--an old cat 8 that would have cost 90k points to upgrade (360 total). Fast forward to the merger where the rumors were that NO upgrades could be made and the best you could do was a 45k refund for the nights portion of the package. That would have cost me a total of 435k points which I didn't have so needless to say I have been stressing about it. Over the past few days on FT I saw some reports of people upgrading their old Cat 1-5 to a new Cat 1-4 then upgrading for 60k points per category. First call I made the guy said they would refund me the 45K miles then I would re-buy the cert for 105k miles which made zero sense but the the next rep I tried (HUCA) not only upgraded me but told me he wasn't charging me since I had booked before the merger and I shouldn't have to pay more due to the category change (I have a feeling he didn't understand I purposely bought a lower category with the intention of upgrading...I didn't correct him ).. He cancelled my old cat 1-5, I am assuming ordered the new cat 6, and didn't touch my 105k points balance. The reservation looks a little odd and it made me paranoid so I called after I hung up and the rep confirmed I am all set, owe no further points, and have the correct cert attached.

So a recap is that for 270k Marriott points I got 120k SW plus 7 nights in Hawaii--the cost of the room for our dates is $3825. I feel kind of bad because I definitely think the rep was incorrect in what he did but I will take a little where I can get it.

This is the best post (in terms of DP's) I've read in awhile. I also bought a cat 6, only to be given a cat 1-4 (useless!) and I want to upgrade, even for points. I just want to upgrade! Looks like might be possible! Congrats on your deal. That is awesome!! Didn't get a direct number for this guy, right??

 

[mmmears]

Because for some reason I'm still awake I just logged into my BA account and ran those dates/flights. Bad news-currently only one award seat from SFo-JFK on AA (with BA avios) and that's in business but 7 economy seats for the flight back from PHL. I don't use AA enough to know whether they'll add more availability but before you transfer lots of MRs, I'd make sure there's award space.

Thanks for looking. I looked through the AA portal and saw something similar. It seems early, so who knows what might open up. I haven't booked awards travel on AA for several years so I'm not an expert by any means. Thanks for your time. Oh, I definitely don't move points unless I see something available. And in the few minutes it takes when I do, I'm totally stressed they will disappear before my eyes.

 

[snugglebug]

Strange question here - We're just giving them a card for "incidental" charges. I fully expect to have to use a card with my name on it as the driver when I pickup at Alamo (and my wife has the CSR and CSP so it will not be one of those cards) - BUT since we're booked on URs through my wife's points (CSR @ 1.50x) then I thought the primary insurance coverage still kicked in (regardless of what card we give them at the counter)... Thoughts??

Maybe I could have skipped the counter, I didn't know Alamo was like National where I could just walk out there, first time. But I wanted to verify that everything was in order on their end since the booking was on my points and DH was the driver. I agree with you that since I booked on UR the insurance should have been fine, but that guy stressed me and I started to panic, anxiety kicked in. I was on a tight schedule to get to Poly for my Lapu Lapu (and Tambu ran out of pineapples!) and then on to AKL for my Boma ADR.

BTW, does anyone need the fine print for the Southwest in flight offers? I did screen grab them, but I haven't looked them.

 

[Albort]

Because for some reason I'm still awake I just logged into my BA account and ran those dates/flights. Bad news-currently only one award seat from SFo-JFK on AA (with BA avios) and that's in business but 7 economy seats for the flight back from PHL. I don't use AA enough to know whether they'll add more availability but before you transfer lots of MRs, I'd make sure there's award space.

weird, i checked and pulled nothing. expert flyers seems to confirm it.

 

[mmmears]

weird, i checked and pulled nothing. expert flyers seems to confirm it.

They must not have released many (or any) seats... I wouldn't think this would be a popular flight to book this far in advance. I've had better luck booking awards seats on AA to Maui during spring break (and that's when I thought I'd never find them).

 

[wendow]

@snugglebug What a cute avatar! I love putting a face with a name Is that your dd or niece? Glad you had a good trip overall!

 

[Albort]

They must not have released many (or any) seats... I wouldn't think this would be a popular flight to book this far in advance. I've had better luck booking awards seats on AA to Maui during spring break (and that's when I thought I'd never find them).

not sure... there is tons of flights on the 26th though haha.

 

[linzjane88]

This is the best post (in terms of DP's) I've read in awhile. I also bought a cat 6, only to be given a cat 1-4 (useless!) and I want to upgrade, even for points. I just want to upgrade! Looks like might be possible! Congrats on your deal. That is awesome!! Didn't get a direct number for this guy, right??

Haha, unfortunately no. In fact I wasn't even sure I was understanding him correctly when he was talking because he had such a thick accent. Phone calls like that make me sooooo stressed out! LOL! It took about half an hour but I was on hold most of the time. I was quietly mouthing to my best friend sitting next to me "OMG I dont think he's going to charge me the points!" while she was going "Shhhh! They might be listening!". As soon as we hung up from that call she called Chase to get the points manually added for her referral to me that we could never get to work (she SM's and they said to call after approval and they would manually add it) We were like giddy school girls when we got off the phone.

Honestly for all the doom and gloom surrounding those travel packages it seems that for the most part they are still allowing upgrade. I have been stalking the flyer talk thread for days while I waited for my points to post (little did I know I wouldn't need them!). I think the most important thing is to know going in how many points you need to pay to upgrade, along with the points you've paid already, how many the room would cost for 7 nights, etc because it seems like there is a huge variation in the CS reps knowledge and they may try and offer you X so you need to have solid numbers already in front of you so you can not get confused and be confident in saying 'no' and doing a HUCA. I was very confused with the first guy that said he would cancel my cert for 45k and then I would re-buy the nights portion of the package in the category I wanted for 105k. I couldn't figure out where he was getting his numbers from and I had a feeling it wasn't going to work in my favor but felt too on the spot to calculate it out with him on the phone.