I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

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Can any of you savvy travelers Please offer some advice.

Scenario. I was originally planning on going to Japan in 2021 flying JAL with my Chase Ur points.

Next March/April/May Im planning a Hawaii trip because i Have 800 dollar credit from Hawaiian
Air that will have to use. After speaking to Cust service she indicated i can use that credit to
fly from hawaii to Japan (even flying on Jal). The more i think about it the more i like that idea.
So addon to that trip.

Problem is i don't know how to get us back. I would like to take JAL back to So. Cal preferably using
Alaska/JAL but it is 35k oneway. I'm 70k short for the family. I can self refer Dh for Alaska card but total
that will get 45K. Looking at Marriott brilliance because i can transfer 60k= 25k to Alaska. Is this the only way
(besides spending money) to get those last points? Is this even wise? lol I noticed it is hard/more money
for one way awards if it is even allowed. Alaska does though.


UR's 210k
MR 40k
Alaska miles- currently almost deplated due to 10 day Alaska trip this June.

6/24...All 6 opened in 2017 so will fall off within 6 months.

AA is a JAL partner too.

ETA - I posted while playing catch up but see that there are a few of us with the same advice :-)
 
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Are any of our friends here traveling in New Zealand now by chance? Absolutely sickened by what happened. I just don't know what to say anymore, except certain social media platforms have destroyed the world.

I keep on saving my MR points for an eventual trip to Australia and New Zealand. I will get there someday!

No thank goodness. We are en route to Dubai and the Maldives today. I’m heartbroken to see what happened though.
 
Are any of our friends here traveling in New Zealand now by chance? Absolutely sickened by what happened. I just don't know what to say anymore, except certain social media platforms have destroyed the world.

I keep on saving my MR points for an eventual trip to Australia and New Zealand. I will get there someday!
I wish use of social media required proof of IQ & sanity. So sad & tired of “Tragedy of the Day.”
 
Thanks, I have showed him what Marriott states before. He says it does not matter if a company offers it, he is not allowed to show his badge for a personal discount and that is that. After I posted last night I found this other website that talked about it and half the comments were like my DH saying it is absolutely against your code of ethics and the other half said, no it is not. I read him all the comments and he was still in the camp of Yes, it violated the code of ethics. I will look at your Ethic links above and see what they say. I don't think I am changing his mind though.

ETA funny, the first page talks about cell phone discounts and that is what I brought up last night, that we get an employer discount with AT&T and he didn't have a problem with that.

In your husband's case I would leave it alone and pay the best available non government rate. He is obviously uncomfortable with this and the possible few $$ of savings are not worth the anxiety to him. Kudos to him for having a high standard of conduct.

And, you never know what trash can be thrown at a government employee when they are fishing to discredit the employee. I agree wholeheartedly with @striker1064, but at the same time your husband's sense of ethics is encouraging to me that there is a public official out there who still has ethics! (This is not meant to insinuate that anyone using a hotel discount is not ethical!)

I don't think it's wrong to take a gov discount that is clearly indicated can be used on personal time and personal dime, but I respect your husband's stance. It's not worth the few $$ ever to lose your peace of mind. The savings offered today are not much anyway. $4-$8 does not affect whether I will use the hotel or not.
 
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Is this the RI Midtown East? Definitely curious to hear your thoughts after you stay! I'm sure we'll be using it too, since so many other Marriott properties in NYC went up to Cat 6.

Yes! We will be there for one night at the end of June. I’ll post a review. I hope I like it. If so it will be our weekend NYC getaway with FN certs.
 
Any round about way to get MR points to Southwest?

Could send them through Marriott but at that point it'd be better to take the statement credit. MR to Marriott is 1:1, Marriott to SW is 3:1 (witha bonus for increments of 60k) you'd need 60k Marriott to get 25k Southwest. If you send 10k MR you'd end up with only ~3,333k SW.

With a statement credit at least you'd get .6 value. Unless you get a really awesome cpp on the SW flight the best I'm estimating is .4 or .5 on the transfer.
 
In your husband's case I would leave it alone and pay the best available non government rate. He is obviously uncomfortable with this and the possible few $$ of savings are not worth the anxiety to him. Kudos to him for having a high standard of conduct.

And, you never know what trash can be thrown at a government employee when they are fishing to discredit the employee. I agree wholeheartedly with @striker1064, but at the same time your husband's sense of ethics is encouraging to me that there is a public official out there who still has ethics!

I don't think it's wrong to take a gov discount that is clearly indicated can be used on personal time and personal dime, but I respect your husband's stance. It's not worth the few $$ ever to lose your peace of mind. The savings offered today are not much anyway. $4-$8 does not affect whether I will use the hotel or not.

Yes, I feel a little bad bending his moral compass. I can't even remember why we were talking about it last. I am a very frugal (aka cheapskate haha) person, so the thought of us having a discount available that we are not using bothers me. Sometimes he has me look to see what is available at the govt rate when he is going on travel to know what hotel he should book. Sometimes it is not that different than normal rate, have even seen it higher than normal rate! But other times it really can save some $$. But most of our last stays have been on points anyway, so doesn't really matter I guess.
 
Sometimes it is not that different than normal rate, have even seen it higher than normal rate!

I was getting ready to say this!! DH used to be a DoD contractor and I often recall that the government rates were higher than regular rates. May not have been by much, but I always found it odd.
 
I haven't looked at SW for awhile because I'm waiting until next year to get the CP for 2020 & 2021, but my sister just emailed me asking about the 40,000 offer for the SW Plus with the $69 annual fee. Are the non-business card choices right now the 40,000 for the Plus and $69 fee and the 40,000 for the Premier with the $99 fee?

She never asks for advice about this although I'm always babbling about how we never pay for flights or hotels, so I don't want to mess up my advice to her lol!
 
FYI - Southwest extended their schedule this morning for flights through November 2nd, 2019.

Here is my usual Historical Southwest Release Dates (for planning purposes) comment:
  • NEXT RELEASE: 5/23/19 - travel through January 5, 2020
  • 3/15/19 - travel through November 2nd, 2019
  • 1/31/19 - travel through October 1st, 2019
  • 11/15/18 - travel through August 5th, 2019
  • 9/27/18 - travel through June 8th, 2019
  • 8/30/18 - travel through April 7th, 2019
  • 6/28/18 - travel through March 6th, 2019
  • 5/31/18 - travel through January 6th, 2019
  • 3/8/18 - travel through November 3rd, 2018
  • 2/15/18 - travel through October 1st, 2018
  • 11/2/17 - travel through August 6th, 2018
  • 8/28/17 - travel through June 1st, 2018
  • 7/27/17 - travel through April 6th, 2018
  • 6/22/17 - travel through March 7th, 2018
  • 5/18/17 - travel through January 7th, 2018
*The next release may be of particular interest since it covers the holiday season!

This chart could be useful to approximate when your travel time may become available for upcoming releases, however they don't always follow the exact same pattern (as you can see above).


Just booked my flight to MCO on Nov 2. Looks like I need to wait until 5/23 to come home lol
 
I haven't looked at SW for awhile because I'm waiting until next year to get the CP for 2020 & 2021, but my sister just emailed me asking about the 40,000 offer for the SW Plus with the $69 annual fee. Are the non-business card choices right now the 40,000 for the Plus and $69 fee and the 40,000 for the Premier with the $99 fee?

She never asks for advice about this although I'm always babbling about how we never pay for flights or hotels, so I don't want to mess up my advice to her lol!

There is also the Priority card for $149 that gives you $75 in credit. But don't forget we have those 50,000 links floating around here so maybe you could send her one of those.
 
I haven't looked at SW for awhile because I'm waiting until next year to get the CP for 2020 & 2021, but my sister just emailed me asking about the 40,000 offer for the SW Plus with the $69 annual fee. Are the non-business card choices right now the 40,000 for the Plus and $69 fee and the 40,000 for the Premier with the $99 fee?

She never asks for advice about this although I'm always babbling about how we never pay for flights or hotels, so I don't want to mess up my advice to her lol!
Yes, and also the Priority is same 40k with a $149 fee.
If you feel a little naughty you could tell her about the in flight links for 50k but they do come with a higher spend (2k instead of 1k). Not sure what her goals are if that's worth it.
 
Update on my flight change that required me to fly in a day early and find a hotel. I have points with IHG, Hilton and Bonvoy. IHG wanted 60k points which was too high for a bed to crash for a few hours in New York. Hilton wanted 80k points for a $300 something per night room. I know they are generally low value but when I know I can get a $1300 a night over water bungalow in the Maldives for just 95k points there was no way i was pulling the trigger. Imagine my surprise when I found a Residence Inn for 35k points post category changes in NYC! I snagged that and when I get my next FN very, I will see if I can switch for the very and get the points back.
Wow, let us know what you think of that Residence Inn. Have a great trip!
 
any reason to keep our Bonvoy Biz with $95 AF? one of ours just came due and not keeping AF cards that don't give me AF bonus worth it
 
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