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

[hsmamato2]

2020
March - 1 week at Joshua Tree NP, Death Valley NP and Valley of Fire SP (SW RR + CP for flights; Free IHG night in Vegas, URs for Death Valley, OOP with a low AAA rate in Joshua Tree)
July - 1.5 weeks at Glacier NP (Delta on points, OOP in park hotels, Free Marriott night + points for Whitefish)
September - 1 week Rocky Mountain NP for the Elk Rut (no reservations yet. Will use SW RR + CP for flights)
October - ? days Seattle (will be there for conference. not sure if I will spend additional leisure days or not. Flights on company dime!)

2021 high level plans
January - finally Hawaii
July or August - Alaskan cruise


That sounds like a great trip - enjoy!

oooooohhhhh now THIS sounds amazing..... I need to start really thinking about something like this,I need more National Parks in my life

 

[hsmamato2]

2020
March - 1 week at Joshua Tree NP, Death Valley NP and Valley of Fire SP (SW RR + CP for flights; Free IHG night in Vegas, URs for Death Valley, OOP with a low AAA rate in Joshua Tree)
July - 1.5 weeks at Glacier NP (Delta on points, OOP in park hotels, Free Marriott night + points for Whitefish)
September - 1 week Rocky Mountain NP for the Elk Rut (no reservations yet. Will use SW RR + CP for flights)
October - ? days Seattle (will be there for conference. not sure if I will spend additional leisure days or not. Flights on company dime!)

2021 high level plans
January - finally Hawaii
July or August - Alaskan cruise


That sounds like a great trip - enjoy!

oooooohhhhh now THIS sounds amazing..... I need to start really thinking about something like this,I need more National Parks in my life

Quick question to make sure I understand my spending timeline correctly & I don't mess up my SW CP...
My statements for the performance Biz card close on the 13th of the month, so as long as I don't hit the MSR on that card until after December 13th, I'm fine, correct? The SUB will post once my January statement closes?

Just be careful not to get too close to MSR,they've been known to award the points for getting close

 

[Lain]

I’m just popping in to report from the Marriott Resort in Fiji. I had been asked to do a review of it, but I really can’t for the life of me figure out where/how to do that, and apparently I already posted once in the wrong place over on Reddit! (Sorry @SouthFayetteFan but I also can’t for the life of me figure out how to fix my wrong post or where to actually put it so that it is correct)

Overall so far a pretty nice hotel/resort. I was just using my 7 night package from ages ago before all of the changes, so quite frankly I went into it with the mindset of just being thankful that I “guessed” the correct way when I bought the package (in terms of category changes) and that I had a cert I could actually use some place I was willing/wanting to go even after the category changes...everything on top of that was a bonus! (Although we did search endlessly for MANY other places to no avail before we decided/settled on this).

I think if I were to come back to Fiji (which is actually somewhat likely since we have family in this general part of the world), I would definitely consider staying here again. Would I travel all of this way from the east coast or middle of the states just to come here? Probably not.

So far it appears to be very family friendly, but also seems to be romantic enough and not overrun with kids so that it could be a great couples destination. Our cert obviously put us in the lowest category room, which I think would have put us near the pool, and which I would guess could be a bit noisy/annoying. Although when I asked if we could be upgraded (Marriott elite) they told me no, I think we did get a slight upgrade to “lagoon front” although we are on the second floor, so I’m not sure if it would still be “lagoon view” since technically we are not directly in front of the lagoon. But please understand that the “lagoon” in this case is the man made lagoon with fish in it, not the sandy lagoon at the center of the resort surrounded by beach that people swim in.

Yes, I have swum in clearer water, but I am also very lucky to have vacationed in some amazing places. The room is definitely on the smaller side, but we are finding the “double” beds here bigger than the “double” beds at Sydney Marriott (those were a nightmare) and very similar to the “double” beds at Weston Brisbane (those were super comfy).

Food is definitely overpriced at the resort, but when we are in Fiji we rent a car and so that we can eat elsewhere and buy groceries (keep in mind that driving here can be challenging and also that the resort is not close to anything so it is a definite drive to find other eating options.) There is only a water boiling “jug”/kettle thing in the room, so Ramen noodles type things are ok, and we also bought a sandwhich maker/heater in Australia so that we can make heated sandwiches (DH is a kiwi and this is a very kiwi thing to eat so we are used to eating this type of thing). Not sure what else to prepare in the room as far as warm meals, but there is a small fridge so cold foods are fine.

We have swum in the lagoon, this afternoon from 5pm onwards my girls literally had the entire lagoon to themselves until I made them get out as it got dark. We have also used the non-motorized water sports, my girls love to SUP and DH and I kayak. The space you are allowed to do this in is slightly small and is in a different part from where you can swim which causes a lot of back and forth, but I think it is a safety thing as there is a channel into the lagoon that boats do use, so I think they don’t want you run over by a boat or sucked out into the less-sheltered more open waters. We haven’t used the pool yet but it is clean and has a swim up bar. There is also a decently sized toddler pool.

As Marriott Platinum, I get 2 free breakfast each morning (or welcome points but clearly breakfast is the better option). Kids under 12 also get free breakfast and also free ice cream in the afternoon, although we haven’t tried that yet to know how that is. Breakfast is HUGE, so we try to fill up and then only do one other meal and some snacks each day.

I hope that isn’t too long or boring, feel free to message me if you have questions or want more info on something specific. For those who remember me from when I was on here slightly more, I am ALWAYS behind and these days pretty much never get a chance to get on here, so messaging me might be better. I just wanted to check in because I know this resort had been talked about!!

Thanks for your review! I hope you're having a great time!

I'm quite shocked, although I shouldn't be surprised, and kind of upset for you that they didn't give you a better upgrade as a Marriott Platinum elite member, and even flat out told you no. Bonvoyed, I guess. Otherwise, the resort sounds lovely.

For those who don't know or remember what we're talking about, TPG did a review of the Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay over the summer.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

2019 / 2020 Plans:
November 23: Hard Rock Guitar hotel: 1 night to check out new hotel
November 26: home to Toronto for Thanksgiving
late December 2019 / early January 2020: Lima / Cusco / Sacred Valley / Macchu Pichu with ABD
February: Whistler ski week (Westin Whister -- hotel on points)
April: Waldorf Astoria Maldives (HH points + free night certificate; airfare on Aeroplan miles going and URs transferred to BA Avios coming home)
Late May / early June: St. Petersburg, Bergen, Alesund, Oslo and Stockhom + Arctic cruise (dd's HS grad trip)
Summer / fall: will be spent in our Toronto home
July 4 long weekend: NYC (St. Regis on points)
late August: taking dd to university....somewhere
October: Madrid, ABD Egypt (and possibly another city in Europe enroute to Egypt)
December: possibly Fairmont Lake Louise or Park Hyatt Sydney for 5 nights

2021:
February: Galapagos on Celebrity Flora (for dd's reading week -- waiting to see where she goes and dates, then will book trip)
March: solo hiking trip in NZ with Backroads? Toying with this idea but not sure
Summer: undecided -- will depend on what dd does for work / university

I'm also toying with the idea of relocating for a few months per year to Europe (possibly Switzerland or Italy). Still working through the logistics regarding how I'd work with the time zone difference and thinking of other far away places that may work.

Time off in 2020 might be a bit tricky, but I'm not worried because as a 'consultant' I can 'shut down' for multiple weeks per year. I negotiated 5 paid weeks into my contract, but can take more based on my productivity.

Love reading all the travel plans!

 

[hsmamato2]

hey, welcome, pdx is my home airport too.
i looked into the british air ways to hawaii a couple of years ago and it just got too complicated for me. however my daughter in law flew her family on british/alaska. she loves her british airways card.
looks like both you and your husband could get an alaska card. i brought up a $200 credit plus 40,000 pts a week ago when checking out on alaska, not bad for alaska. you could get part way there on points or use the companion pass. you can't combine the 2 though.

I have a question about combining....(or did I read somewhere this had changed?) On one of our flights to Hawaii it was an Alaska air flight booked using BA avios....did they end that option? (if it's still viable I was wondering about possibly booking some of the fam using avios and others using AK air points... kind of combining...)

 

[DisneyMandC]

So, we still are not able to log in to our 3-year paid already Disney+ account. I am more than fuming about this but there appears absolutely nothing we can do. A lot of other errors got fixed today but those were ones that were occurring at big universities. Apparently Disney was viewing all the accounts logging in from one university IP address as too many devices trying to connect so they blocked entire universities. They seem to have gotten those fixed. But all the 'little guys' that have an assortment of errors are getting no help. We are small potatoes and it appears Disney could care less. Disney plus help twitter account is posting out that they are trying so hard to help people. Well, I contacted them at close to 60 hours ago. I've received no response.

We created a 7-day trial tonight and have been able to log in through that (thanks @Lain). I am not sure we will keep doing free trials. It feels wrong to me but the way we've been treated is wrong too.

I’d keep doing the 7 day free trials until your subscription works and wouldn’t feel bad about it. I mean, to be fair, you have actually paid for all of those 7 day trials you’ll be using... it’s not your fault Disney won’t get your account working!

 

[Haley R]

Man traffic on the way to Orlando is horrible. I hope that doesn’t say anything about how busy the parks will be

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I’m just popping in to report from the Marriott Resort in Fiji. I had been asked to do a review of it, but I really can’t for the life of me figure out where/how to do that, and apparently I already posted once in the wrong place over on Reddit! (Sorry @SouthFayetteFan but I also can’t for the life of me figure out how to fix my wrong post or where to actually put it so that it is correct)

Overall so far a pretty nice hotel/resort. I was just using my 7 night package from ages ago before all of the changes, so quite frankly I went into it with the mindset of just being thankful that I “guessed” the correct way when I bought the package (in terms of category changes) and that I had a cert I could actually use some place I was willing/wanting to go even after the category changes...everything on top of that was a bonus! (Although we did search endlessly for MANY other places to no avail before we decided/settled on this).

I think if I were to come back to Fiji (which is actually somewhat likely since we have family in this general part of the world), I would definitely consider staying here again. Would I travel all of this way from the east coast or middle of the states just to come here? Probably not.

So far it appears to be very family friendly, but also seems to be romantic enough and not overrun with kids so that it could be a great couples destination. Our cert obviously put us in the lowest category room, which I think would have put us near the pool, and which I would guess could be a bit noisy/annoying. Although when I asked if we could be upgraded (Marriott elite) they told me no, I think we did get a slight upgrade to “lagoon front” although we are on the second floor, so I’m not sure if it would still be “lagoon view” since technically we are not directly in front of the lagoon. But please understand that the “lagoon” in this case is the man made lagoon with fish in it, not the sandy lagoon at the center of the resort surrounded by beach that people swim in.

Yes, I have swum in clearer water, but I am also very lucky to have vacationed in some amazing places. The room is definitely on the smaller side, but we are finding the “double” beds here bigger than the “double” beds at Sydney Marriott (those were a nightmare) and very similar to the “double” beds at Weston Brisbane (those were super comfy).

Food is definitely overpriced at the resort, but when we are in Fiji we rent a car and so that we can eat elsewhere and buy groceries (keep in mind that driving here can be challenging and also that the resort is not close to anything so it is a definite drive to find other eating options.) There is only a water boiling “jug”/kettle thing in the room, so Ramen noodles type things are ok, and we also bought a sandwhich maker/heater in Australia so that we can make heated sandwiches (DH is a kiwi and this is a very kiwi thing to eat so we are used to eating this type of thing). Not sure what else to prepare in the room as far as warm meals, but there is a small fridge so cold foods are fine.

We have swum in the lagoon, this afternoon from 5pm onwards my girls literally had the entire lagoon to themselves until I made them get out as it got dark. We have also used the non-motorized water sports, my girls love to SUP and DH and I kayak. The space you are allowed to do this in is slightly small and is in a different part from where you can swim which causes a lot of back and forth, but I think it is a safety thing as there is a channel into the lagoon that boats do use, so I think they don’t want you run over by a boat or sucked out into the less-sheltered more open waters. We haven’t used the pool yet but it is clean and has a swim up bar. There is also a decently sized toddler pool.

As Marriott Platinum, I get 2 free breakfast each morning (or welcome points but clearly breakfast is the better option). Kids under 12 also get free breakfast and also free ice cream in the afternoon, although we haven’t tried that yet to know how that is. Breakfast is HUGE, so we try to fill up and then only do one other meal and some snacks each day.

I hope that isn’t too long or boring, feel free to message me if you have questions or want more info on something specific. For those who remember me from when I was on here slightly more, I am ALWAYS behind and these days pretty much never get a chance to get on here, so messaging me might be better. I just wanted to check in because I know this resort had been talked about!!

Did you mean this related post on the DIS for reviews?:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...f-i-love-credit-cards-so-much-thread.3680669/

I'm going to have to double check- the AF posted at least 2 weeks ago,I've been looking at the charge, payment due 11/22- last statement closed 10/25.... I'll go dig in deeper to my records,I have the info somewhere.

AFs appear on the 1st if the month. If your statement cut on 10/25 and your AF posted on 11/1 then you do not owe that AF on 11/22...it should be part of your next statement and thus not due until 12/22. Assuming what you’ve said is correct (meaning what I’ve also said is correct), your anniversary points should post on your 11/25 statement and you can then cancel and get the AF refunded.

 

[Judique]

Man traffic on the way to Orlando is horrible. I hope that doesn’t say anything about how busy the parks will be

I found Saturday was the worst for busy park in Epcot. Of course, I made a serious error in judgement.
This was the day I went to Dunedin. Since Dunedin is not that far, I decided to go to Animal Kingdom as they had early entry. That was outstanding...average crowds and I did the Safari a couple times as a walk on, with no wait, plus got a Cheetah picture fairly close and the Lions were standing.

Then decided to take the bus to Epcot and walk through from the front to get my Remy magnet and coasters. BIG mistake! From the bus it was mobbed and a longer walk - it took a half hour to get into the park!!!!! Yikes - I'm used to walking straight in at International Gateway. Or even off the monorail. I could have done it faster by taking a bus to Boardwalk from Animal Kingdom and doing the 10 minute walk.

And, I stopped at Flavors of Fire for a skirt steak and the chocolate dessert. I actually had a small wait here (less than 5 minutes) as it had just opened. Sat to eat and as I was leaving noted the line - huge line to get the food. Then what looked like a huge line for the magnet and coasters but this moved very fast and was maybe 10 minutes. The weekdays are so much calmer. My car was at BW and I don't remember if I took the boat or walked - if the boat is there or in sight I take it, if not I walk.

 

[ten6mom]

Is there a limit to how often Chase allows transfers of URs between cards? I am not sure whether to leave them where they are or move them to the most current (newest) card... assuming all cards redeem at the same rate, of course. Aside from making sure it's a card that is still open, does it matter which one the URs are parked on?

 

[GZanta77]

Any opinions on Icelandair?

Flew them in economy a couple times but not for a few years now. Found them perfectly acceptable. For transatlantic economy experience at that time - I would have ranked them below Virgin, on par with BA and better than American.

Probably would have flown them to UK more often if didn't have to go via Iceland every time.

 

[Artygal90]

What’s the best time of the year to visit DC. I really want to take our girls to the Smithsonian museums. This would be a museum focused trip.

Fall and spring are both really lovely. Spring can get crowded around cherry blossom season. Summer is hot and swampy and has summer vacation crowds, winter is cold and wet. So I would say it depends on the type of weather you can handle best, although my preference would be October-ish.

Which museums are you interested in? There are a BUNCH that technically fall under the “Smithsonian” umbrella.

 

[Lain]

Quick roundup of a few news items and deals that missed the discussion this week:

Amex Business Platinum Card Losing Gogo, WeWork, Premium Roadside Assistance, & Boingo in 2020 - Frequent Miler

Amex Trip Delay, Trip Cancellation and Interruption Benefits Pages Are Live; Changes Effective January 1, 2020 - r/churning

Buy Hilton Points with 100% Bonus (0.5¢ per point) [Expires 11/26/19] - OMAAT

Hyatt: Up To 40% Bonus When Purchasing Points (Points From 1.671¢) [Expires 12/31/19] - DoC

$50 Happy for $40 online at Kroger (+ earn fuel points) [Expires 11/26/19] - Frequent Miler (No Happy Guy, but Happy Student, Happy Her, Happy Lady, and Happy Bride look interesting.)

15x Rewards Points on Restaurant Gift Cards at Safeway / Albertsons / Just for U Stores [Expires 11/17/19] - Frequent Miler (DPs say Starbucks is included.)

Harris Teeter: 4x Fuel Points on Fixed Value Visa/MC and Retailer Gift Cards [Expires 12/10/19] - DoC

 

[DisneyMandC]

I have kind of a weird question that I'm not sure I've seen anyone mention here- Has anyone ever used trip insurance on a Chase card after PCing a card?

I paid the taxes on our flights to Japan on DH's CSP, keeping the included trip insurance in mind. I would like to PC DH's CSP to a CSR next month/January when the AF posts. Do we think I would still be entitled to the trip insurance I had when paying with CSP since I'm actually just moving a better premium card with insurance? I don't know if the specific product of card makes a difference or not. I would think I'd still be entitled to that trip insurance, but I'm not sure. Someone let me know if they've come across this- if not I might actually call the bank (don't shoot the messenger, @Lain!)

 

[CyndiLouWho]

This is awesome! How do you have so much PTO?!?!

Yeah I’m totally jealous of that

So, we still are not able to log in to our 3-year paid already Disney+ account. I am more than fuming about this but there appears absolutely nothing we can do. A lot of other errors got fixed today but those were ones that were occurring at big universities. Apparently Disney was viewing all the accounts logging in from one university IP address as too many devices trying to connect so they blocked entire universities. They seem to have gotten those fixed. But all the 'little guys' that have an assortment of errors are getting no help. We are small potatoes and it appears Disney could care less. Disney plus help twitter account is posting out that they are trying so hard to help people. Well, I contacted them at close to 60 hours ago. I've received no response.

We created a 7-day trial tonight and have been able to log in through that (thanks @Lain). I am not sure we will keep doing free trials. It feels wrong to me but the way we've been treated is wrong too.

I know it feels wrong but you have actually paid for a subscription that should be working now. I’m pretty confident Disney isn’t going to give you a prorated refund of this time that you can’t use it.

Is there a limit to how often Chase allows transfers of URs between cards? I am not sure whether to leave them where they are or move them to the most current (newest) card... assuming all cards redeem at the same rate, of course. Aside from making sure it's a card that is still open, does it matter which one the URs are parked on?

I transfer as soon as points post, never had a limit imposed. We have 6 UR earring cards between DH and myself. I transfer to the card with the highest redemption rate (mine is CSR right now) on the off chance they take away transfers and they would be stuck on different cards.

 

[disfanforlife]

Fall and spring are both really lovely. Spring can get crowded around cherry blossom season. Summer is hot and swampy and has summer vacation crowds, winter is cold and wet. So I would say it depends on the type of weather you can handle best, although my preference would be October-ish.

Which museums are you interested in? There are a BUNCH that technically fall under the “Smithsonian” umbrella.

I was also thinking about going to DC either in January or in March when my son has his spring break from college. He is a history major and has never been there.

 

[disfanforlife]

I found Saturday was the worst for busy park in Epcot. Of course, I made a serious error in judgement.
This was the day I went to Dunedin. Since Dunedin is not that far, I decided to go to Animal Kingdom as they had early entry. That was outstanding...average crowds and I did the Safari a couple times as a walk on, with no wait, plus got a Cheetah picture fairly close and the Lions were standing.

Then decided to take the bus to Epcot and walk through from the front to get my Remy magnet and coasters. BIG mistake! From the bus it was mobbed and a longer walk - it took a half hour to get into the park!!!!! Yikes - I'm used to walking straight in at International Gateway. Or even off the monorail. I could have done it faster by taking a bus to Boardwalk from Animal Kingdom and doing the 10 minute walk.

And, I stopped at Flavors of Fire for a skirt steak and the chocolate dessert. I actually had a small wait here (less than 5 minutes) as it had just opened. Sat to eat and as I was leaving noted the line - huge line to get the food. Then what looked like a huge line for the magnet and coasters but this moved very fast and was maybe 10 minutes. The weekdays are so much calmer. My car was at BW and I don't remember if I took the boat or walked - if the boat is there or in sight I take it, if not I walk.

Yes it is busy. We just had breakfast at chef de France. Staying out of Epcot for the rest of the weekend. Heading to DHS - hoping it’s not as crazy over there.

 

[Alexle2007]

On cruise stops in Roatan, which I super excited about, any suggestions on what to do in port (DH, DS13 and me)? We are not scuba people.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Back from fantastic trip to Rome (report to follow) and catching up

TGIF question:
Do you have travel plans in 2020? If so, to where?

What about farther out-2021 and beyond?

For me:

Feb/Mar-Viking Australia/NZ cruise

July-Scotland, Slovenia and Croatia bday trip

August-DH's Baltic cruise bday trip

Oct-quick Bahamas cruise for DM bday (also her grand slam cruise)

Sadly, nothing planned yet for 2021 or beyond-I suspect we might book another Viking (ocean) cruise in Feb if we enjoy our experience.

very late 2019
Dec--India (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Ranthambore)

2020
March--WDW with our kids and ds's fiancee (her very first Disney trip ever!), split stay between Bay Lake and Kidani
May or June--back to CA to visit my aunties plus some hiking time
Sept--3 weeks in Australia

2021
--at least once to CA to visit my relatives
--a National Parks trip at some point, either Glacier or Utah parks or Death Valley (depends on which month we'd go)
--we are contemplating a choice between Hawaii, Africa (safari plus meeting up with Congolese friends in Mozambique--could be 2022), and a small ship Galapagos cruise with or without additional travel

The Kia Niro was fabulous to drive to Disney and back. Fuel economy was excellent. Used Shell and BP gift cards that I had on hand for the last year or two. I got them at least 20% off, depending on offer. (Anything less and the gas price at their stations ate up the savings versus other gas outlets.) So, I spent $94 on gas for an almost two week trip which included going to Dunedin and the beach also. My normal gas spend would be in the $400 range. This is probably higher than if I sought out the least expensive gas. I'm going to check actual gallons purchased and figure it out that way later on. But I had these cards and they needed to be used. Also, BP is a little disingenuous - they charge you the 'card' price when you use a gift card. Shell didn't do that.

When I got up to leave my South Carolina hotel yesterday, it was in the very low thirties. Heated seats - yes! Heated steering wheel - oh wow!!!! I'd brought a coat but no gloves. The steering wheel was toasty in seconds and at the moment was the feature I can now no longer live without.

Over all, the car is comfortable, drives and handles well, has great pickup and I've learned a few things but still have a way to go with learning how to use all the options, as it is loaded with what I think may be almost everything available at the time of manufacture.

I'm so happy it's a great road trip car!

 

[Alexle2007]

Do you need to push? I hated PNC. Only signed up for the bonus. I ended up pulling money ( initiate transfer from receiving bank) and was able to transfer higher amounts. Here in Nov I will close DH acct and will pull back to our main account.

I did a push from Discover to PNC for $5k DD (iffy DPs) but I have been depositing funds into it but seems to be difficult to transfer the money out. I guess I’ll just got to the ATM and get cash to deposit into my CU account.