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

[Ngwira]

I booked our trip to Rome this morning. We are going in April 2020. We are flying Delta comfort from JFK-FCO 66,000 miles per person round trip. We are staying at the palazzo naiadi for five nights using 240,000 Marriott points.

We will also be in Italy in April. We're flying Emirates JFK to Milan then taking the high speed train to Rome the next day. We booked an Airbnb that my coworker uses all the time in Rome since we are a family of 4 and need two rooms to use hotel points.

Do you plan to visit any other Italian cities besides Rome?

We are doing an Amalfi Coast day trip with a stop in Pompeii. Finally, on the way back to Milan, we have two nights in Venice.

Your hotel in Rome looks gorgeous!

 

[DrFacilier]

If it's not close to your gate I wouldn't bother with a family, not because of crowds but because The Club just isn't worth it. Personally I like The Clubs for a place to relax, grab a glass of wine or bubbly, and some crudites. But I don't tend to like the rest of their food. If you have remotely pick eaters you can forget about making a meal off of their offerings. (I also tend to look at those finger sandwiches and wonder just how many children have touched them?)

I hear you. (Now I'm going to think twice about eating those sandwiches lol.) I think we will at least give it a try once and see how it goes. We hit lounges with the kids for the first time to and from Spain a couple of months ago and we all agreed that it was better than hanging out in the terminal. If we don't have a good experience we may leave and never try it again.

 

[Lain]

Okay so I’m new to MRs because I’m just now getting my first card that will earn them: BBP. Should I be doing this on my Ebates account too? If so, how do I do it

So the decision to do cash back or MR on Ebates is entirely up to you, how you want to receive your rewards, and how you plan to use them.

Cash back is straightforward cash in your PayPal or bank account every 3 months. Like @miztressuz said, if you’re factoring in a % rebate from a shopping portal when deciding where to shop and what/when to buy, that’s money back and straight up savings.

If you select to earn MR, you’ll get your rebate back in MR points on the same 3 month schedule as cash back, but you’ll get them in the form of points. But unlike cash back with a fixed value of 1% = 1 cent, points have only potential value until you decide what to do with them. Points sitting in your MR account don’t earn interest, aren’t going to pay bills, or redeem towards vacations unless you either cash them out via a Charles Schwab Plat, gift cards, or redeem them towards flights or FHR. And some of these redemption methods require another card to give you the best redemption rate, like the Biz Plat for airline redemptions, any Plat for FHR, and the Charles Schwab Plat for a 1.25 cpp cash out.

You’ll need to assess your goals for points or cash back from your shopping.

Anyway, here’s DoC’s post about signing up for the MR earning version of Ebates:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ebat...s-cashback-into-membership-rewards-points-11/And I know several DISchurners have their support links up on reddit, so here’s DoC’s method for signing up for the MR version of Ebates via support (read the most recent update):
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/how-...to-the-new-ebates-membership-rewards-program/

 

[DisneyMandC]

Staples is at 4% on ebates in store cash back

Can you only link that offer to one card at a time? I've never done an in-store offer and just want to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

I don’t have them yet because I’m planning on keeping them as keeper cards and I want to use my five slots to get the bonuses on the other cards first. But a personal and the Biz each have a free night after you spend 15,000 the Biz has an additional free night for 60,000. I’ll probably skip that but I think the 15,000 is worth doing.

I'm going to try to do the 15k on mine too since I'm already 3k down with meeting MSR. If I can do that plus get the free weekend night with the Hilton Surpass card on the new offer, then I can stay at the Conrad Osaka for free since we're planning on doing Saturday and Sunday night stays there in Japan next year.

 

[speedyfishy]

Do you plan to visit any other Italian cities besides Rome?

Idk I’m just starting to research now. We are in Rome for five nights but maybe we will do a day trip to Venice? I kinda wanted to do the rest of Italy another time. Maybe even doing an ABD like the Italy and Switzerland one? I don’t even know what I want to do in Italy. I’m not into museums lol

Can you only link that offer to one card at a time? I've never done an in-store offer and just want to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

I have it linked to four cards right now

 

[Haley R]

Idk I’m just starting to research now. We are in Rome for five nights but maybe we will do a day trip to Venice? I kinda wanted to do the rest of Italy another time. Maybe even doing an ABD like the Italy and Switzerland one? I don’t even know what I want to do in Italy. I’m not into museums lol




I have it linked to four cards right now

Do you know why I can only see a 2% cashback for staples?

 

[speedyfishy]

Do you know why I can only see a 2% cashback for staples?

Idk I didn’t think it was targeted but maybe it is. Mine says 4% was 2%

 

[amalone1013]

And I know several DISchurners have their support links up on reddit, so here’s DoC’s method for signing up for the MR version of Ebates via support (read the most recent update):

There's a way to support people to the MR version?

And this is why I'm Queen of the Shun Corner...

 

[1st*toright]

@speedyfishy is special. Mine still says 2% too.

 

[Lain]

There's a way to support people to the MR version?

And this is why I'm Queen of the Shun Corner...

Mother Superior of the Shunnery.

 

[speedyfishy]

@speedyfishy is special. Mine still says 2% too.

Oh weird, is anyone else seeing 4%?

 

[Haley R]

Idk I didn’t think it was targeted but maybe it is. Mine says 4% was 2%

Yeah mine only says 2% so it must be targeted. Oh well.

I just got my serve card in the mail and I’m gonna try going to Walmart today. Once the money is on my serve how do I get it into my bank account?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Oh weird, is anyone else seeing 4%?

Me! 2% online but when I scroll down it says 4% in store.

 

[StephPlum]

@speedyfishy is special. Mine still says 2% too.

I am at 2% as well. Just looked and it does say 4% in store, was 2%. I made 2 trips to staples this week, got the email saying I used an offer. The first cashback showed up today - about 4 days later. $0.23. I am not sure VGCs are tracking. I did buy the $200 VGC and a charging cable. I think I only got the 2% on the charging cable. Would love to hear other DPs on this.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

100% pull your 6th grader. It is not that much time and whatever is missed can definitely be made up! Just my opinion lol

I agree, my kids missed 3-5 days of school for trips to Disney for years. Never had any trouble from it, although they rarely missed school for any other reason.

Definitely considering it. I was planning to pull him in Oct or Dec to go though, so all these days add up quickly.

 

[amalone1013]

I want my Serve card

On that note, we stopped by Staples yesterday to check for VGCs... All gone off the rack. I feel weird about trying to look in it myself because at this store the spinner is directly in front of the CS desk so there's always someone there watching you and it's also where all of the employees congregate when not helping customers... This time they were all checking someone out so DH was trying to open it nonchalantly and couldn't figure it out I was like, there is a hinge on this side so logic says it must open over there! I really just need to ask someone, like 'last time there were more in there... could you check?'

 

[Ngwira]

double post

 

[Haley R]

I want my Serve card

On that note, we stopped by Staples yesterday to check for VGCs... All gone off the rack. I feel weird about trying to look in it myself because at this store the spinner is directly in front of the CS desk so there's always someone there watching you and it's also where all of the employees congregate when not helping customers... This time they were all checking someone out so DH was trying to open it nonchalantly and couldn't figure it out I was like, there is a hinge on this side so logic says it must open over there! I really just need to ask someone, like 'last time there were more in there... could you check?'

I just got my serve card today!

 

[Ngwira]

Idk I’m just starting to research now. We are in Rome for five nights but maybe we will do a day trip to Venice? I kinda wanted to do the rest of Italy another time. Maybe even doing an ABD like the Italy and Switzerland one? I don’t even know what I want to do in Italy. I’m not into museums lol




I have it linked to four cards right now

Maybe pick up the Rick Steves guide to Italy to see what you want to do. 5 days is enough for you to at least see Florence (2 hour train from Rome) and a day trip to Venice. What do you like to do?

Northern Italy has Lake Como and the Dolomite Mountain Region, then you have central Italy which has Tuscany and Florence, finally Southern Italy, which has Rome, Naples , the Amalfi Coast, Sicily and Sardinia.

We have 8 nights there so not a ton of time but enough. Our rough itinerary is:
Fly into Milan
Rome for 4 nights
Venice for 2 nights
Milan to fly home.



In Rome, we plan to do the Colosseum underground tour, a food tour (make pasta like an Italian) and a free walking tour to see the sights including the Forum, Palatine Hill and Spanish Steps. One day we will do the Amalfi Coast tour which covers Pompeii.

In Venice we will do a food tour and maybe a tour to see the other islands.

I think that's enough for our trip. We are skipping Florence, the Vatican and the City of Milan on this trip.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Good luck. Atleast you're within 24 hours. We lost the points on 2 flights because 3 days after we booked, my son's team changed where the hockey tournament was from Nashville to Pitts. UGH

Whats the deal with these hockey teams?! It is like they don't understand travel...AT ALL. We have a tourney in December in S Florida. That is an expensive time to fly to S Florida. They won't tell us what weekend or anything. It is making me nuts. Do they not realize this is August already!?