I love credit cards so much!

[SouthFayetteFan]

The holidays with no MSR sounds rough tbh but I’m glad you’re trying to find contentment in it

You never know on the Amex pop-up, there were reports on DoC of the pop up disappearing for some who put no spend on Amex cards so all hop might not be lost there!

Holiday spend...in December?? BLASPHEMY in my house. We bought gift cards and took advantage of deals from Aug-Nov to handle all of that HAHA! Seriously...on paper we had spent 90% of the money we would spend on the Holidays by Halloween. My wife then used all the gift cards and such Black Friday weekend to pick up the actual gifts.

 

[gottalovepluto]

But Josh...I swear I was at the Friendship Boat dock by 8:55am for the 9am opening...how did this possibly backfire???

Because this isn’t freaking DISNEYLAND!!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Holiday spend...in December?? BLASPHEMY in my house. We bought gift cards and took advantage of deals from Aug-Nov to handle all of that HAHA! Seriously...on paper we had spent 90% of the money we would spend on the Holidays by Halloween. My wife then used all the gift cards and such Black Friday weekend to pick up the actual gifts.

Mad props!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Mad props!!

I struggle to identify with a normal human when it comes to money. As churners and deal-searchers ...we spend so far in advance it's like I live in the future.

When we travel people are always like, "oh yeah gonna be paying that off for awhile, huh?" and I'm like...no we paid for this trip with points, gift cards, etc. like 6+ months ago. People talk about "paying the bills"...and I'm lost. We pay most of our Utilities 12 months at a time while on a large MSR. I often pay our cable bill with VGCs acquired months prior and sometimes I'll just pay it ahead by 4-6 months to hit an MSR too. We try to acquire Walmart gift cards on Raise for all expenses there so we typically have 3-6 months of that sitting on hand.

I have realized I'm so out of touch that I just mimic and mirror people when I get in one of these conversations. A lot of head nods and agreement. If I even try to start explaining to them what I do they either a) think I'm crazy, b) think I'm super rich, or c) BOTH.

shhh...perhaps I am crazy AND super rich...

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Instant approval for CIC so i thought wth I’ll go for Rose Gold. Another instant approval!!! Woohoo!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Instant approval for CIC so i thought wth I’ll go for Rose Gold. Another instant approval!!! Woohoo!!

You are on FIRE!!!!!

 

[gottalovepluto]

UA fliers: their Twitter team actually worked for me today, it took an hour but they resolved my problem. They’ve been useless to me in the past (I don’t fly very often though). Today my separately ticketed UA flight to LAX to catch my international departure next year was cancelled and I was booked on a later flight. No good so I DM’d them the new flight I needed and they rebooked me only needing to double confirm my name since I obviously use a fake one on Twitter
Upside: 7 hours should be enough time to make my connection
Downside: 7 hours. At LAX.

 

[mmmears]

Weren't you going to be getting Apple Care? Doesn't that cover problems, so that it doesn't matter what card you use to pay for it?

I've even bought used Apple products that came with Apple Care from the original owner, and I still got coverage for the product for the remainder of the Apple Care protection period.

Yes, I'm pretty sure it will have Apple Care so not sure it matters but the details haven't been decided yet. We're buying it in a couple of days. We still have a lot of MSRs to hit in the next month, but I think we have a plan for all of that. The laptop is an unplanned (but not entirely unexpected) expense.

Instant approval for CIC so i thought wth I’ll go for Rose Gold. Another instant approval!!! Woohoo!!

WOW! Congratulations!!!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Wait, arriving at park opening isn't the best rope drop plan?

For anyone out there that’s made this mistake- you aren’t alone I feel in the spirit of full disclosure I should say I totally did this on my first day at WDW. Epcot. We waited 45 mins for Soarin after being pushed and shoved by tons of people from bagcheck to the Soarin line. WDW is not Disneyland. Who knew? We slept in after that...

 

[gottalovepluto]

Instant approval for CIC so i thought wth I’ll go for Rose Gold. Another instant approval!!! Woohoo!!

Have you considered a Barclay Arrival+? It’s a hard one to snag these days but you’re hot tonight!

 

[mmmears]

Ok - so this is WAY OFF TOPIC but I just have to share this with you guys... I assume some of you here are fans of EasyWDW and Josh (I think he's amazing personally).

Check out this exchange on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/easywdw/status/1069464862705766400

And then read all the comments if you go to his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pg/easywdw/posts/?ref=page_internal

I know that we have a number of Disney Touring gurus here in our midst...With people like this still on the prowl, I don't think we have to worry about everybody figuring out our secrets HAHA!

People don't like to get there early. I explained to a friend about rope drop, but they complained that it took so long to get into the park (like an hour). Finally she admitted that they pulled into the parking lot around the time the park opened. People don't want to wake up early. And I'm ok with that. I wish it remained our little secret.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Have you considered a Barclay Arrival+? It’s a hard one to snag these days but you’re hot tonight!

Haha! I have! I’m at 5/24 now with the Amex and my hubby would kill me if I open another card. I’d like to get chase Hyatt when I fall under 5/24 in March. But I’m going to convince hubby to get it soon I think!!!!

 

[mmmears]

Haha! I have! I’m at 5/24 now with the Amex and my hubby would kill me if I open another card. I’d like to get chase Hyatt when I fall under 5/24 in March. But I’m going to convince hubby to get it soon I think!!!!

From what I've been told on here (plus a bit of personal experience in the last month) the AMEX won't show up yet, so you could still get it if you apply before the AMEX hits your credit report. DH has FOMO about that Hyatt card but has to wait until April I think.

 

[wanderlust7]

Got around to doing the AmEx offer for Boxed, spend $75 get $20. First time with Boxed and first time with Ibotta. Checked dischurners first (@SouthFayetteFan @wendow ).
So bought about $100 worth (with tax) of a boatload of toilet paper and tissue, lol.

Should be getting:
-$20 AmEx
-$15 first time Boxed
-$10 first time Ibotta
-$18 Ibotta cashback (although I have no idea how they got this amount)
-$5 Ibotta cashback bonus on $80+ Boxed

Paying effectively $32.

 

[wendow]

Congrats @kidsfirsttrip! What a great night!!

 

[wendow]

Got around to doing the AmEx offer for Boxed, spend $75 get $20. First time with Boxed and first time with Ibotta. Checked dischurners first (@SouthFayetteFan @wendow ).
So bought about $100 worth (with tax) of a boatload of toilet paper and tissue, lol.

Should be getting:
-$20 AmEx
-$15 first time Boxed
-$10 first time Ibotta
-$18 Ibotta cashback (although I have no idea how they got this amount)
-$5 Ibotta cashback bonus on $80+ Boxed

Paying effectively $32.

Amazing deal!! Wowzers!

 

[wendow]

People don't like to get there early. I explained to a friend about rope drop, but they complained that it took so long to get into the park (like an hour). Finally she admitted that they pulled into the parking lot around the time the park opened. People don't want to wake up early. And I'm ok with that. I wish it remained our little secret.

I miss the days when RD was truly an advantage. It's been touted and pushed so much on the boards, and I am guessing all over social media, that many are getting there early now. It feels so much more crowded than it used to. However, I don't see us ever not being RD people. It isn't so much to beat the crowds as that we just do not like to think that fun is going on and we are missing out lol!

 

[wendow]

Hmm, I applied (and was hoping to churn) for the Barclay Arrival+. I first had the card a little over a year ago and PC'ed it about 6 weeks ago to a different Barclay card. Here is the message I got:

We appreciate your interest in the Barclaycard Arrival Plus Mastercard.

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide you with an immediate decision on the application you just submitted.
Your application requires further review, which can take up to 10 days.

We will notify you in writing in no more than 30 days (and often sooner) about the status of your application.

You can also visit our website to check the status at www.myapplicationstatus.com

Click HOME to return to the Barclays Homepage

Thoughts?? I have NO idea what this kind of message means on a Barclay app.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Hmm, I applied (and was hoping to churn) for the Barclay Arrival+. I first had the card a little over a year ago and PC'ed it about 6 weeks ago to a different Barclay card. Here is the message I got:

We appreciate your interest in the Barclaycard Arrival Plus Mastercard.

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide you with an immediate decision on the application you just submitted.
Your application requires further review, which can take up to 10 days.

We will notify you in writing in no more than 30 days (and often sooner) about the status of your application.

You can also visit our website to check the status at www.myapplicationstatus.com

Click HOME to return to the Barclays Homepage

Thoughts?? I have NO idea what this kind of message means on a Barclay app.

Fwiw... Did you get a hard hit? Barclays has enforced the window on some A+ apps starting around July. I was one & eventually got a follow up letter saying I’d already had the product so I didn’t qualify so they didn’t pull my credit. I applied a few weeks after closing my previous one. I don’t have access to the initial decision right now so can’t compare that language for you

 

[calypso726]

Sort of off topic question but not really...

Trying to find a flight from US to NZ that is on Air NZ and can be purchased with UA points. I assume I am not missing anything, is there a trick that anyone knows of? We have done this many times in the past but I believe that they have changed things a bit. I just want to make sure I am not missing anything before I go ahead and book United for it, which I was actually sort of fine with until I read the seat guru reviews!! I think we used to fly United for that trip ages ago, but we usually fly Air NZ. If I recall correctly, I think last year I booked us on UA but they cancelled/changed it and they put us on Air NZ, so I guess I could hope for that again??!!

(extra info: we are actually going to NZ and Aust and Fiji and the order doesn't really matter, so really any combination of flights will work, but no matter how I try I can't get that NZ-US leg covered on Air NZ using UA points. Currently I have us on UA: SFO to AKL, then AA/Qantas/Fiji Air: AKL to Australia, Australia to Fiji and Fiji to US. We're going for about 5 weeks Oct-Nov so we are pretty flexible with dates/times. To keep it credit card related, I plan to spend very little, if any, OOP for flights/accommodation/rental car and will be using UA/AA miles, UR, IHG and Marriott points.)

Thank you for any suggestions or even a direction to somewhere better to look for advice!

Just a few tings to consider. Is Air New Zealand still flying out of the current US gateway cities you are searching and also on the days of the week you are searching? Sometimes airlines change their gateways cities or only fly in and out of them certain days per week. It is possible you may have to position yourself to a gateway city. If that isn't the issue, do you hold a UA credit card. Card holders are often shown award availability that is not open to non card holders. Is the UA site still searchable for Air New Zealand's partner availability. Sometimes you need to search another airline's site to find partner availability. Are you searching as a complete route or segment by segment? Sometimes searching segment by segment will produce results that searching as a whole will not. My best suggestion after making sure that Air New Zealand is currently flying out of the US gateway city you are searching and on the day of the week you are searching is to check on Air New Zealand's own website. I am not familiar with their mileage program but generally speaking if an airline shows a saver award on their website then it is bookable as a partner award with another airline's miles. The same tends to hold true if you can find the flight with a partner airline then you can book it with a different partner. For example, I can book JAL with AA miles but I can't search for the award on AA's website as AA never displays partner availability for JAL. So, I search for it on BA, another partner, then call AA with the JAL flight info I found on BA.

I didn't read the following articles but did a quick search to see who may have written anything about booking Air New Zealand as an award flight which may help.


https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/new-air-new-zealand-chicago-route/

https://www.travelcodex.com/using-united-miles-to-get-to-australia-and-new-zealand/

https://thepointsguy.com/2016/10/air-new-zealand-airpoints-program/

https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2016/02/08/air-new-zealand-business-class-award-space/

Hope this helps