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

[1st*toright]

Spent about 5 days at WDW last week to check out Halloween on a solo trip! Planned last minute-ish. I have an AP this year and wanted to do the Halloween Party for the first time. No regrets! Gosh, the party is great. (Much more fun than disneyland’s was last year imho.) I stayed at Gran Destino in a standard room for one night and club level for the rest both booked at AP rate. WOWZA! Loved it. Would definitely return. It’s beautiful and the rooms feel like a deluxe. I would bring ear plugs because there was a weird background sound coming from the fire alarm in both rooms. The Disney movies on demand was nice but there were only a couple available. Club was good too, will review that on the CL thread later. Paid with Disney Gift Cards gotten on different deals over the last few months.

Points! Points! Points! Ok, ok. So where did points come into play since that’s what we’re all about? Airfare I booked one way with my skypesos and one way with AA miles. Nice to have diversified currencies to grab the routes at prices I wanted! I’m a cardholder for both airlines so free bags. I bookended my trip with Hyatt Place stays using URs to Hyatt points because I left early and arrived late and didn’t want to drive tired. I used Minnie Vans for about half my transport while there because of my Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards and about 75% of my drives ended up covered. I booked CSR but hate buses so I had budgeted for some Minnie Vans ahead of time. I have bad luck with Uber’s and Lyfts in Orlando, Minnie Vans are like 3x more expensive but not one bad experience. (I ventured to Lyft one morning and he raced right past the exit for DHS! Regretted that one. Vacation is not having to think “is this a moment to get ready call 911?” ). Since Minnie Vans bill through Lyft they trigger the 1.5x Real Time Redemption option on the AR.

While not points related this was my first solo Disney trip. I’d done a couple days with friends & then a couple days solo but first time a whole Disney trip was just me. It was so nice. It’s a lot easier to pick up 4th FPs as a solo traveler! Finished my 3 at DHS one day and refreshed a few times & got one for RNR for 10 mins later, as soon as I scanned in I got another for like a minute later and after I scanned in for that I got Slinky Dog at night! (I ended up scoring nighttime SDD as 4th/5th FP on two nights!!). It was a really fun and relaxing time that I sorely needed and was only possible because of The Game

Sounds like a great trip! I've never done a solo trip for that long, but I have enjoyed the 1 or 2 days here and there when I've gone by myself (usually when I'm in town for work I try to tag on a weekend). Sounds like you used your "me" time well!

 

[Haley R]

And watching Tim Tracker?

Lol not tonight. They recently went to DL for free for the Halloween stuff and we don’t really like their free trips as much. Plus I’m not really into watching them walk around the Halloween party

 

[wendow]

I think it's a cat faced spider. The body and legs seem to match and they live in CO. Seems to be ok and one you'd want - The Cat-faced Spider is every gardener's friend, keeping watch over plants and consuming loads of pest insects.

That's definitely the same spider. Hmm, well he is no longer around to watch over the garden and be my friend but I'll keep those things in mind if I run into any of his relatives lol!

Thanks! Good spider sleuthing!

 

[Haley R]

Well... I wasn't going to say it... but since you brought it up:

When all else fails we know @Haley R will inject life back into the thread

I do love your off-topic stuff, it adds color and character to our little group (Plus the off topic chatter certainly throws the rats and moles off our scent)

I was just being honest about why I hadn’t been saying anything lol. Anything to throw off those nasty rats, moles, and cockroaches

 

[wendow]

Wanna see the spiders I find all over the top of our lanai? I kill them with a rock because they freak me out and they’re spiky lol. We have multiple rocks out back with blood on them. Apparently they’re harmless but I don’t want them making webs above my head while I’m swimming. They are kind of cool looking though

No. No. No. That is scary as all get outs. He's like right out of a horror movie

 

[Haley R]

No. No. No. That is scary as all get outs. He's like right out of a horror movie

They’re really small and makes weird webs. I take them down with a brush thing then I smash them with my rock lol

 

[wendow]

They’re really small and makes weird webs. I take them down with a brush thing then I smash them with my rock lol

Good girl. This really is the only option...

 

[afan]

That's definitely the same spider. Hmm, well he is no longer around to watch over the garden and be my friend but I'll keep those things in mind if I run into any of his relatives lol!

Thanks! Good spider sleuthing!

Aww, non poisonous spiders are our friends. I don't like them in the house but spiders outside are a good thing. They eat other stuff we don't like. All bugs are good, as long as their are outside, because they are either someone's food, eat things we don't like or pollinate stuff.

We have the pest people to keep stuff out of the house but typically don't kill things outside. Kill too many of one kind and you may end up with more of something else you don't like. Plus the birds need food. We also generally don't mess with webs unless it's in a doorway, as long as it's somewhere we don't walk there's no reason to mess with it. Plus it's so cool to watch them work.

Now the brown recluse that got into the apt in San Jose eventually died. Tim caught and threw the first one into the front yard, convinced that was one of the two that came back into the apt. They both ended up dead, but that's not a kind I'm going to mess with.

But lady bugs ALWAYS get caught and put back outside. We have a bug cup that we try and catch things with to put back outside, especially if it'll make a bigger mess by killing it. Not about to have to clean a wall or window because a but got splattered dead on it.

Good girl. This really is the only option...

Relocate them somewhere away from the pool? Toss them into the neighbors yard.

 

[disfanforlife]

You can change the date/time/route for no fee as long as your origin and destination remain the same, and travel has to be within 12 months of original booking. You can redeposit miles for a fee - $150 for the 1st pax and $25 for each add'l pax on the PNR. Booking one-ways gives you more flexibility if you only need to change one direction, but your redeposit fees would double as well if you changed both directions so you would need to decide what you value more.

Thanks!

 

[mechteach1]

Thank you so much!!!! I actually found a saver from IAD (Econ)-LAX (Biz)-SYD for 80k. I don’t see any return flights in Biz but there are plenty in ECON SAVERS for 40k.

Now for the international pros- is there a way to book via MRs or do I need to use my URs? It will be sad to deplete my URs but it is $18k in flights for 240k URs.

Also, can someone help me understand this $1067?

I don't know if I'm an international pro, but I do fly UA a lot, and take a lot of international trips on them, and book flights for family. The only time I've seen a charge like that is for biz flights out of places like London that have big surcharges for departures in Biz or First. When I try to replicate your booking, I see only $26.90 total in taxes and fees per person.

My only guess is if you are booking for two adults and an infant under 2? In that case, you are being charged 80k+fees for each adult, and 10% of the full fare for the infant, which would be the $1069 plus taxes of $24.20.

 

[Natgridenergy]

And watching Tim Tracker?

Shes got me onto Tim Tracker now

 

[AmyAnne]

DH has a business dinner and I'm thinking I am going to go home, have Raisin Bran for dinner and start rewatching season 2 of Downton Abbey. I was slightly worried that rewatching it would be disappointing, knowing what would happen, but I find I actually like the characters more the second time around.

 

[mechteach1]

My only guess is if you are booking for two adults and an infant under 2? In that case, you are being charged 80k+fees for each adult, and 10% of the full fare for the infant, which would be the $1069 plus taxes of $24.20.

Also, I forgot to mention - that is for a lap infant, which means he/she won't have a seat, obviously!

 

[Alexle2007]

I don't know if I'm an international pro, but I do fly UA a lot, and take a lot of international trips on them, and book flights for family. The only time I've seen a charge like that is for biz flights out of places like London that have big surcharges for departures in Biz or First. When I try to replicate your booking, I see only $26.90 total in taxes and fees per person.

My only guess is if you are booking for two adults and an infant under 2? In that case, you are being charged 80k+fees for each adult, and 10% of the full fare for the infant, which would be the $1069 plus taxes of $24.20.

Not an infant but I did indicate that DS was 12-14 since he’ll be 13 on the trip. Am I better off just making him an adult?

 

[speedyfishy]

A question for anyone in a position to hire employees - do you care what undergraduate school they went to?

To make this cc related, other than schools that accept CC payments directly without additional fees, what methods are good for paying schools?

not in a position of hiring but I will say my SOs company only recruited at certain schools. when looking at schools I’d look at what companies go to the career fairs and look at alumni connections. a higher endowment is more likely to have an engaged alumni base that prefers to hire their own.

 

[Alexle2007]

I don't know if I'm an international pro, but I do fly UA a lot, and take a lot of international trips on them, and book flights for family. The only time I've seen a charge like that is for biz flights out of places like London that have big surcharges for departures in Biz or First. When I try to replicate your booking, I see only $26.90 total in taxes and fees per person.

My only guess is if you are booking for two adults and an infant under 2? In that case, you are being charged 80k+fees for each adult, and 10% of the full fare for the infant, which would be the $1069 plus taxes of $24.20.

And is there any way to book UA via MRs instead of having to use my URs?

 

[afan]

not in a position of hiring but I will say my SOs company only recruited at certain schools. when looking at schools I’d look at what companies go to the career fairs and look at alumni connections. a higher endowment is more likely to have an engaged alumni base that prefers to hire their own.

He's in IT correct? Which I think as the PP, forget who mentioned silicon valley, is one of the few that do care. I would also guess they care more now than they did 20 years ago when you didn't even need a degree.

 

[Psychodisney]

Over an hour since there's been a post? Is everyone actually working or do we just need a good OT topic to keep things going?

After many years of being a Disney trip planning pro, I’ve begun to plan other destinations. I can’t say I’ve had the same success with my planning.
I’ll share some of my vacation planning from this weekend. I didn’t do a very good job with my Marriott research for Aruba prior to the Sept 14 surge pricing. I realized that I had booked one room in the Marina side of the Renaissance (2 people) and another room at the Ocean Suites (3 people). My fault for not doing enough research. So, I Bonvoyed myself, which cost me an extra 10K points to change one room. My next fail (which ultimately I hope is worth it) was for our stay at the Stellaris Marriott. I was trying to find out if they offer free breakfast for Platinum and from what I can tell, they do not. I did read some reviews about their concierge level called Tradewinds. You can upgrade to that level with cash in addition to points. My fail is that once again, pricing went up by 10K per night. Oh well. So now I need 90k more Marriott points.
I did find a deal on DH’s Platinum for Bonvoy points so I cashed in some there. I’ll earn more Bonvoy points with 4th Q taxes and could transfer some URs...but I don’t want to use those!
I also splurged on the over water cabana at the Renaissance. I’ll erase that with my Capital One Venture card.

 

[mmmears]

A question for anyone in a position to hire employees - do you care what undergraduate school they went to?

To make this cc related, other than schools that accept CC payments directly without additional fees, what methods are good for paying schools?

You can pay most colleges with Plastiq.

I'm not someone who hires people, but I've heard enough from DH (who does) and from my friends who all have recent college graduates. I would say it really depends on the field of interest (IB, consulting, and CS seem to be the most name conscious), the target employers (we know kids who got great jobs at large corps, but couldn't get into certain target companies), and the hiring managers. I will say that all the young graduates I know are doing well and have found positions. I know this is kind of icky (and also kind of confusing) but it really does depend on so many things that there's no one answer that would fit all.

ETA - I also know one graduate from a "top" school who didn't do so well there, and her options were much more limited than those who did well at "lesser" universities. So it also is what you make of the opportunity. If you want a summer internship at a place like GS, Google, or FB, you'd want to make sure you're in one of their preferred schools.

 

[Judique]

It was definitely scaring me. Never seen a roach in my house, and now super glad that I live where I do even if that means I'm a long, long way from WDW.

I'd like to think you are immune, but unfortunately that's not the case. Through no fault of your own they could be introduced into your home. Well, maybe not the palmetto bugs...