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

[AmyAnne]

Our cat food is stored in a plastic container. If the cats can get to the bag (closet door left open) they will tear up the bag to get to the food. Mine are incredibly picky about their food being "fresh". I have one of those feeders you fill up and food drops down into the bowl, they refuse it. Instead I have refill the other food bowl each morning and they wait in a line for their turn to eat from the small bowl. Weirdos.
(I sprinkle a little fresh food into the feeder, but it doesn't always trick them.)

Some cats are more trick-able than others! We have two cats. They are litter-mates but their personalities are very different. One is pretty laid back and will eat whatever food there is in her bowl. The other is a little high-strung (this is the one who needs to be medicated to go to the vet). They are 8 years old and we have had to change their food twice, because the manufacturer stopped making it. The first time I thought I would research other brands to see if I could find a higher-quality food (they have been getting Hill's Science Diet because it's what they got at the shelter; I'm pretty sure Hill's donated it, and if they did, it was a genius move because we have bought it for the past 8 years). Anyway, when I tried to switch the food, cat 1 was fine. Cat 2 was not -- she didn't eat any food for 2 days. I tried transitioning her by putting one piece of the new food in the bowl with the old food, and she would eat a few bites around the new food. Finally I just bought a different kind of Science Diet food, figuring it would be the closest to her old food. Still took about three months for her to not be suspicious of her food. The second time I didn't even think about trying any different brands, just went with another different Science Diet.

 

[alryan]

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[havaneselover]

My AC has been out since early Sunday morning. Fortunately it's been a cooler week here, but even still it was 85 degrees upstairs when I got home from work yesterday. The HVAC guy came out today since he's been swamped with work all week. The good news is he figured out what's wrong with it and my home warranty has now paid for itself because it's covering the $1400 part that has to be replaced. The bad news is the part won't be here until Monday He's going to see if he can get it here by Friday, but said it's more likely Monday. It's supposed to be 88 Sunday and 90 on Monday.

Do you have one unit for both floors? Any chance you could do a spontaneous weekend trip? It's the humidity that kills you in Virginia!

 

[amalone1013]

I gave my insurance a call just to see what they'd say, and they told me that they don't have to pay the higher labor rate if they don't agree with it

Sooooo we get rear ended and have to pay $350 for our vehicle to be repaired. Yay.

 

[AmyAnne]

This place is very dangerous to my wallet. I could spend hours there

Me too! My strategy is to buy a gift card when there's an AmEx offer and then wait for a 25% off coupon. They are a bit pricey but I have found things there that work just perfectly for what I need -- like the pet food container (airtight seal, on wheels) that I use for birdseed. We buy birdseed in bulk so I need a big container, but I also need to be able to move it, so the wheels are perfect.

 

[pinkxray]

Today was opening day for us to book Fall 2020 DCL cruises. I priced out Nov. 2020 and it was actually not horrible for 5 people on DCL. I sent DH a text asking if he wanted to do it and figured he’d shoot it down quick since he hates Disney and vacationing but he must have been in a weak moment bc he said book it!
I booked quick before he could change his mind. I’d like to transfer the booking to Costco travel for the cash back. How do I go about doing that and do I get the full amount back if transferred?

 

[Lain]

Went on the DVC tour and was ready to buy because he said he would check about getting me a room at the Grand Californian for my birthday trip in September. He ran my credit but I could not get the stay at the Grand Californian. Waste of a hard pull. Now I’m moping around the magic kingdom wishing I was a dvc member. One day guys one day...

So no room at the Grand California was the deal breaker?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Great news that your warrantly is covering the part! But a full week with no AC - no thank you! Could you consider temporarily installing a window unit? We've been able to survive a couple of hurricane-related power outages using a unit hooked up to a generator. Held onto the unit & pulled it out of storage when our AC decided to die on an August Sunday, and couldn't get a tech out until Tuesday.

I looked at them, but they're pretty pricey The good news is we have a log cabin and our downstairs stays pretty cool all the time since it's true log. I've just kept the fans going upstairs and the windows open this week when it's cool. I've been trying to keep from running the appliances so that it doesn't heat up the house, but the dishwasher officially stinks and I need some more clothes, so I'm doing a bunch now while there's a good breeze coming in.

Do you have one unit for both floors? Any chance you could do a spontaneous weekend trip? It's the humidity that kills you in Virginia!

Yes, only one unit since our house is only 1200 sq ft. As to the spontaneous weekend trip... I was supposed to go to MA with DH for a horse show and backed out to go to one next weekend instead Too late for me to change my mind now since he flies out tonight. I hope this rain overnight doesn't make it super humid tomorrow. It's actually very pleasant outside right now.

 

[Lain]

I gave my insurance a call just to see what they'd say, and they told me that they don't have to pay the higher labor rate if they don't agree with it

Sooooo we get rear ended and have to pay $350 for our vehicle to be repaired. Yay.

I’m sorry. Between hail damage, accidents, and car loans, it’s like your cars are responsible for more than half your MSRs.

 

[mefordis]

I'm hoping to get some advice from the experts. We are planning a trip to Japan for our family of 4 in August 2020. I want to accumulate enough United miles to fly us roundtrip on United Business Polaris. I will need 560k miles total by October (I still need to earn 275k) to do this (saver awards will go on sale at that time). The saver award is 70k one way per person.

I just noticed United is offering a deal: Buy 40,000+ miles | Get 100% bonus miles. I jumped on that and bought 40k miles which gave me 80k miles (enough for a one way ticket) for $1500. This deal ends in about 30 hours. Should I go ahead and buy another 40k which would be 80k for $1500 which will give me another ticket one way? It seems like such a deal since an economy plus ticket in cash $1300.

Or... I just hope that I can accumulate another 276k miles (what I need) through spending by October. Actually earlier than that because the credit card statements have to close so really September.

So, my question is, what would you do? Spend another $1500 to guarantee another one way business class ticket is secured or take my chances that I'lll earn enough by October? Is this that good a deal?

Thanks for reading this far!

PS: I am unsure what our Chase UR points will be but we are going on a two week trip which means 13 nights in hotel rooms and restaurants, rental car. Still iffy to accumulate 276k by October.

Also, we are going in August and the Olypics are over in mid July so I hope that doesn't affect our chances of grabbing the saver awards.

 

[Calfan]

Well I can’t get squat out of Amex but guess what just showed up in my SW account tonight? 15k bonus points for the 15% bonus offer in feb/mar/April! Guess the bonus miles did work!

I went and checked my dh's account since he had the promo too. He only got 9,112 bonus miles from it. Definitely not 15% since the bonus points were 110k and then 5k MSR, but I am not complaining about a free 9k points!

Yay, Dh got 9,177 points. His personal card points had posted before the promotion started so I knew he would only get 9000 something. Maybe yours also posted before it started.

I got 9,650 bonus points today. I'm pretty sure I had met MSR on the personal before the promotion started and maybe the BIZ statement had cut once. But hey, Im pretty happy to have a higher balance today than yestereday!

DH got 9128. I know one of his bonuses poster before the promo period. I had a moment of, wait hes got 30 more mins in the air for his Chicago flight and that's twice as many points as he should earn for it! Lol

Yay! You guys are right, I was totally not expecting that! I only got 7832, but I'll take it

DH received almost 14000 RR points for the SW promotion!

And I had 15000 RR appear overnight!

When I checked DH's RR account this morning, he had 7,500 extra points. It was just the personal SUB that fell within the promo period. Super happy to get those though! He also had a new promo in his account for a 25% bonus on points earned via cc up to 10k total. I registered him but doubt we will put any spend on his SW ccs.

How long does it take Barclay's to credit American airlines miles? I met spend and paid my bill a couple weeks ago and still have no miles in my account.

It took *forever* (like 2+ months) for the miles to post from the personal Aviator app. I could see the 500 bonus miles from the inflight app post very soon, as well as the base miles from meeting MSR, but no bonus for quite a while. Still nothing from my request for a match to the higher Biz offer.

Quick churning related tidbit regarding Hilton Tokyo Bay. You are forced to buy your tickets cash if you buy them from Hilton Tokyo Bay. However, if you’re a diamond (maybe gold, unsure), they’ll get a manager and allow you to charge them to your room.

So you can either a) use your $250 Aspire resort credit for it and/or b) get that sweet 30x points + any promotion Hilton is currently running (best if double points to raise it to 40x) + any offer AMEX might have. It’s a perk I haven’t ever seen mentioned anywhere and all it took was asking nicely.

I’ll do a full trip report in r/churning after I’m done, but the TLDR is essentially that the Ritz in Kyoto ruined me for all hotels ever again in the future.

Great info! Thanks. Will definitely take advantage of my Diamond status to charge tickets to the room and use the resort credit. Alas, I can't get the calendar to work out for us to be there on a weekend night to use the free night cert, but I should have enough points for the stay and will have the use the free night for another trip.

 

[Lain]

I think DH has turned the corner becoming a willing P2! He grumbled about going through the CIP verification process over the phone, preferring his "CFO" handle those matters. However, he just texted, letting me know about a Marriott Bonvoy Visa email he received, and included the SUB amount! I wonder how many of those he's deleted without a second thought in the past year?

Positive sign!

But don’t waste a 5/24 slot on a Chase Marriott Bonvoy Visa.

 

[AmyAnne]

Today was opening day for us to book Fall 2020 DCL cruises. I priced out Nov. 2020 and it was actually not horrible for 5 people on DCL. I sent DH a text asking if he wanted to do it and figured he’d shoot it down quick since he hates Disney and vacationing but he must have been in a weak moment bc he said book it!
I booked quick before he could change his mind. I’d like to transfer the booking to Costco travel for the cash back. How do I go about doing that and do I get the full amount back if transferred?

It's been a while since I've done this but IIIRC (and if the process is still the same), you call Costco and they send you a transfer form that you complete and send back to them. Also, "cash back" was in the form of a Costco gift card that we received some time after the cruise, I believe.

 

[mefordis]

Should I try for the CIP in December? What should my next steps be? Here are my cards:

Within 24 Months Me:
Chase Sapphire Reserve - auth user on husband's so I can transfer URs from my Freedom cards.
Chase Marriott Pref Business Aug 2018
Chase Marriott Premier Plus upgrade May 2018
Hilton Amex Business (5k min spend) May 2018
1 - Chase Marriott Dec-17
2 - Chase Freedom Dec-17
SPG Amex Business Nov-17
3 - Barclay Jetblue Nov-17
4 - Chase United MPE Nov-17

Beyond 24 mos Me:
Chase Sapphire Preferred Jul-16 — PC to Chase Freedom
Bank of America MC Dec-16

 

[afan]

I gave my insurance a call just to see what they'd say, and they told me that they don't have to pay the higher labor rate if they don't agree with it

Sooooo we get rear ended and have to pay $350 for our vehicle to be repaired. Yay.

Why isn't the repair shop arguing with them? My aunt & uncle used to own a place and she was always arguing with ins, two particularly. When I got rear ended the other ins wanted an after market bumper and she argued and made them pay for stock. The only place my car says the name is on the bumper.

 

[bernina]

I am doing Citi right now. I only had $5000 to let sit in there, so I only did the $200 one. Should get my bonus at the end of the month. I don't know if it helped, but I also had that account about a month before getting approved for the Citi AA Biz when my DH had just got denied for better stats than me. I also just did Chase for $300. Used a real DD for that one, but found out that I can split my paycheck into 3 so only did $50. First DD 5/17, and bonus posted 5/22. I'm thinking of WF later this month when I can move my money out of Citi. I don't have have $3000+ DD though so I would have to try something else and hope it works.

For WF $400 I used transfers from my Fidelity Cash account and Amex Savings and it quickly triggered the bonus. DH used actual employer DD and he’s still waiting for his. He called and they confirmed he would qualify with his next paycheck. I thought it was pretty funny

 

[Lain]

I'm hoping to get some advice from the experts. We are planning a trip to Japan for our family of 4 in August 2020. I want to accumulate enough United miles to fly us roundtrip on United Business Polaris. I will need 560k miles by October to do this (saver awards will go on sale at that time). The saver award is 70k one way per person.

I just noticed United is offering a deal: Buy 40,000+ miles | Get 100% bonus miles. I jumped on that and bought 40k miles which gave me 80k miles (enough for a one way ticket) for $1500. This deal ends in about 30 hours. Should I go ahead and buy another 40k which would be 80k for $1500 which will give me another ticket one way? It seems like such a deal since an economy plus ticket in cash $1300.

Or... I just hope that I can accumulate another 276k miles (what I need) through spending by October. Actually earlier than that because the credit card statements have to close so really September.

So, my question is, what would you do? Spend another $1500 to guarantee another one way business class ticket is secured or take my chances that I'lll earn enough by October? Is this that good a deal?

Thanks for reading this far!

PS: I am unsure what our Chase UR points will be but we are going on a two week trip which means 13 nights in hotel rooms and restaurants, rental car. Still iffy to accumulate 276k by October.

Also, we are going in August and the Olypics are over in mid July so I hope that doesn't affect our chances of grabbing the saver awards.

Are you aware that United recently ended their award charts for flights after November 2019, and will be moving towards dynamic pricing?

I’m assuming you’re planning to fly United Polaris from EWR <> NRT? How many award tickets are you looking for?

You may want to check beforehand whether there are actually any Business Saver awards for the flight and route you’re planning to take, and in the number of seats you require. United’s website and app are known to display “phantom” inventory, 70k miles award seats that aren’t actually there. I had a run-in with this a few months ago when I was stalking Business Saver awards for Polaris from SFO > NRT, and when it came time to book the website kept returning errors and the reservation agents on the phone couldn’t see the award space, then saw it but couldn’t book it. You should call United directly and speak to a reservation agent to do some searches to see if there are any bookable 70k Business Saver awards after November 2019 before buying or accumulating any more United miles. Last time I checked, the everyday awards for US > Japan run 175k miles one-way, which will change your calculations by quite a bit.

How are you planning on accumulating 276k+ miles by just “spending” from now until September-October?

 

[Kawnipi]

I looked at them, but they're pretty pricey The good news is we have a log cabin and our downstairs stays pretty cool all the time since it's true log. I've just kept the fans going upstairs and the windows open this week when it's cool. I've been trying to keep from running the appliances so that it doesn't heat up the house, but the dishwasher officially stinks and I need some more clothes, so I'm doing a bunch now while there's a good breeze coming in.

You might call around to some rental places/home improvement stores as I think you can rent a window air conditioner. Not sure on the price but might be worth a call. Our A/C guy loaned us a windows unit when our AC had to be replaced.

 

[Lain]

Within 24 Months Me:
Chase Sapphire Reserve - auth user on husband's so I can transfer URs from my Freedom cards.

When did this happen? You didn’t have to add yourself as an AU to your husband’s CSR in order to transfer URs from your Freedom to his CSR. You can transfer URs from your Freedom to any other UR-earning card belonging to a member of the same household. That AU counts the same as if you opened a card yourself, and will have added to your 5/24 count.

 

[mefordis]

Are you aware that United recently ended their award charts for flights after November 2019, and will be moving towards dynamic pricing?

I’m assuming you’re planning to fly United Polaris from EWR <> NRT? How many award tickets are you looking for?

You may want to check beforehand whether there are actually any Business Saver awards for the flight and route you’re planning to take, and in the number of seats you require. United’s website and app are known to display “phantom” inventory, 70k miles award seats that aren’t actually there. I had a run-in with this a few months ago when I was stalking Business Saver awards for Polaris from SFO > NRT, and when it came time to book the website kept returning errors and the reservation agents on the phone couldn’t see the award space, then saw it but couldn’t book it. You should call United directly and speak to a reservation agent to do some searches to see if there are any bookable 70k Business Saver awards after November 2019 before buying or accumulating any more United miles. Last time I checked, the everyday awards for US > Japan run 175k miles one-way, which will change your calculations by quite a bit.

How are you planning on accumulating 276k+ miles by just “spending” from now until September-October?

Thanks for the (unfortunate) info!

What is dynamic pricing like? Will they still have saver awards? I've just been going on United and searching 11 months out (May 2020) for saver awards for the flights I want, and I do see 70k one way EWR to NRT / NRT to EWR flights. I have gone as far as put them in my cart but that's it. They are booking through mid-May 2020. I have been checking daily. So, it's possible if I went ahead to pay for these flights I would get an error on the Website? Oh, geez.

We live in NJ and our expenses are quite high and we do accumulate Chase URs at a rapid rate. Just not sure if we can accumulate them that fast. We are going to start paying our property taxes with our credit card, as well. Plus our vacation coming up. it seems like I can't go wrong with accumulating as many United miles as I can since that the airline we usually take since their hub is EWR.