I'm so far behind today... I'm still on posts from this morning, but I'm going to reply a bit at a time and hope I can catch up this evening.
Update: In preparation for our Maldives trip I contacted the Conrad Rangali via email and asked if I could make a pre payment on our stay for accounting purposes. I received an email back with a credit card authorization form that also asked for passport information, a scanned copy front and back of the card and some general questions. DH is a network engineer and somewhat paranoid about sending sensitive information via email. So, he filled two forms, one for his Hilton Aspire and one for my Hilton Aspire requesting a pre-payment of $250 on each card. He sent it back in some encrypted fashion and a separate email with a password for them to view the attachments or something of that nature. I received confirmation this morning that they successfully charged both of our credit cards and I can see the pending charge on my Aspire. This should credit as part of the $250 annual resort credit benefit and will go towards paying the $500 per person sea plane transfer. Next year's $250 resort credit benefit will just be charged to the room on the Aspire.
Just going to say that I can totally relate to this. My DH is the same way (and yes he deals with this kind of stuff like tech security for work). It was complicated signing up for things like our Lysefjord cruise online because he could tell their system wasn't secure "and anyone could just get in there and take our credit card information." He did something something to make it more secure, but was still unhappy that a the company didn't have a better system. I do the research, the planning, and all that stuff, but he does the actual online purchases for this reason.
going to have to look into the Schwab cashout option ...thought the last lime I looked most Amex MR cards had annual fees, so I really have to see how much cash I’d have to lay out now vs how much we’d get back later on...also if I’m willing to take a chance that we may just have the MRs if they change the rules or we can’t get approved for the Schwab Platinum
I think another thing to look at is the list of benefits you can get to offset the AF. We have no issue either breaking even or making a bit more than the AF off of our AMEX cards, but of course YMMV. The gold in particular seems to be paying for itself and then some. It's a keeper for us. The Plat we've had for years and between the Hamilton tickets, the lounges, and the airline tickets to Europe it's also become a long term keeper card. I'd look at it all and see if you can do well with them and decide what works for you.
thanks
@miztressuz and
@Lain for the clarity on the Saks credit. Closest saks store is in OKC. Guess that won’t be getting used unless I find something online!
I waited for Clinique bonus time, order the face wash stuff DD and I use, added Shoprunner for free shipping and did pretty well.
The cosmetics stuff is the same everywhere and the carry lots of brands that other shops carry.
I knew they fixed the glitch a while back (*sigh* that was a blow; I remember back in the day when Small Business Saturday was $30 off a $30 purchase and I had it on 6 cards). It must have been the ones that were still allowed to be added to multiple cards that threw me off.
Another thing that is annoying me is that the offers are still showing on multiple cards as if they can be added. It would make it so much simpler if the offers disappeared once you added it to a card.
YES!!! It's so annoying. I can't remember which offers I already added to which card, and keep trying to select ones I've already selected. I really wish those offers would just disappear if I can't add them onto my card at this point. It's just cluttering up my offers page at this point.
And he's my more cautious child! 
Just remember your worth and value does not come from your job. The people who know you and love you know your true worth! (Even your friends on the Disboards count.) Case in point....DH had open heart surgery with complications nine weeks ago. I got more concern and support here than from his employer. The ONLY time they contacted us was three days after he was released from hospital; they needed a report done. 
...checked and yes CIP and CSP links are working again
