I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[tarak]

My apologies if this has already been posted, but I noticed this morning that my Disney Premier Visa has a $35 cash back if you make two transactions with AT&T wireless before April 9, 2020 (products or services). I already pay by wireless bill by CC to get the cash back, so this is an easy $35 for me.

 

[miztressuz]

Of course it's back now. The only specific card offer I have planned for this year and I'm not eligible yet.

Chase Marriott 100k for 5k in 3 months.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/chase-marriott-bonvoy-boundless-100000-point-offer-returns/
So far support links are still the 3 FNCs for 3k offer.

 

[mhartman09]

Finally caught up on all 146 pages here (I'm perpetually in a state of catch up on this thread anyway..LOL). Happy to get a post in before 150 pages on the new thread. Yay!!

My CSR renewed in Dec, so at least I've got another year before I really have to crunch numbers to decide if it's a keeper again. We spend quite a bit on dining, which all goes to this card. However, we don't use DoorDash AT ALL and barely use Lyft. We live in such a small town so Lyft is only used on vacations and weekends away, but not often enough to make the benefit help. I'll run the numbers later this year to make a decision.

Currently in the midst of planning an Easter/Spring break 2020 trip with family (15 total) and working on a huge family and friends cruise for Feb 2021/Mardi Gras week. We've got 80 people booked on the cruise so far. It's been kinda fun helping some of these folks with figured out how to maximize savings on these trips using Disney gcs, AMEX cruise offers, etc.

 

[MKTokyo]

Finally caught up on all 146 pages here (I'm perpetually in a state of catch up on this thread anyway..LOL). Happy to get a post in before 150 pages on the new thread. Yay!!

My CSR renewed in Dec, so at least I've got another year before I really have to crunch numbers to decide if it's a keeper again. We spend quite a bit on dining, which all goes to this card. However, we don't use DoorDash AT ALL and barely use Lyft. We live in such a small town so Lyft is only used on vacations and weekends away, but not often enough to make the benefit help. I'll run the numbers later this year to make a decision.

Currently in the midst of planning an Easter/Spring break 2020 trip with family (15 total) and working on a huge family and friends cruise for Feb 2021/Mardi Gras week. We've got 80 people booked on the cruise so far. It's been kinda fun helping some of these folks with figured out how to maximize savings on these trips using Disney gcs, AMEX cruise offers, etc.

I feel you. Can't use DoorDash. Can't use Lyft. Hope my parents enjoy the free food.

I'm keeping the card but I have yet to see somebody say, "wow, these benefits really add value for me!"

 

[gottalovepluto]

Happy DIS thoughts worked guys and gals! In a phone call taking a grand total of 2 minutes I got a 10k bonus point retention offer on my Altitude Reserve! Next January this puppy will still be around in my wallet to give my $550 CSR some very serious competition...

ETA: this is the 2nd year I've gotten this retention offer. In general offers vary from 0-15k with 5k and 10k points being the most common. General spend levels on the card don't seem to have much correlation to what retention offers are available to you oddly enough.

 

[MKTokyo]

I know Netflix triggers the 5% cash back on the CIC. What about YouTube TV on the CIC? I know YTTV works for the CF quarterly bonus.

Not sure about YTTV, but YouTube Premium does.

 

[afan]

I feel you. Can't use DoorDash. Can't use Lyft. Hope my parents enjoy the free food.

I'm keeping the card but I have yet to see somebody say, "wow, these benefits really add value for me!"

No value added imo but it'll save me 60 I'd already spend eating at the drive in and dd allows p/u. I maybe spend 5 bucks each visit since I don't get a drink so it'll go far for me which I like.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

I have a confession. I had gotten the HH business card about 14-15 months ago and ended up with 110,000 points. I had a plan for them when I applied for the card but plans change. I cancelled the card when AF posted, and now I had these points with no plans. After poking around the HH website I decided to use the points for a car rental for upcoming trip (Not a great redemption). As I moved through the site and tried booking the car, I kept getting results “Redemption Failed” . I called the numbers I was given and I was passed from one CSR to another. Hilton says it’s Alamo problem—— Alamo says it was Hilton problem. Emailed 3 nights in a row and I was assigned a “case number”. I called again today and the very nice CSR added enough points (for my trouble) so I could book with just points. I tried again and got Redemption Failed.
Well, the points she added (75,000 points) brought up my total to 185,000. With those added points, it was a wayyy better redemption for me to use the points for our Wisconsin Dells trip In June . I now have 4 nights in Wisconsin Dells and I booked my car with UR instead.

 

[chattadisser]

I like to say with little kids it's not vacation - it's just parenting in a new location.

Even at 10 and 14 we don't call them family vacations, they're "family experiences" because there's still not much relaxing going on. We have fun, but there's no laying on the beach drifting off to sleep type of relaxation. I guess that will come when they're out of the house. Maybe???

 

[alryan]

I know Netflix triggers the 5% cash back on the CIC. What about YouTube TV on the CIC? I know YTTV works for the CF quarterly bonus.

Yes YouTube TV triggers 5% on the CIC.

 

[havaneselover]

Even at 10 and 14 we don't call them family vacations, they're "family experiences" because there's still not much relaxing going on. We have fun, but there's no laying on the beach drifting off to sleep type of relaxation. I guess that will come when they're out of the house. Maybe???

Seriously! Mine are almost 15 and 16. My kids are just complaining and whining from a different spot. Wouldn't trade making these memories for anything, though

 

[havaneselover]

Yes YouTube TV triggers 5% on the CIC.

Good to know--I buy google play gift cards but will put CIC as my backup in case I forget to load a card.

 

[alryan]

Good to know--I buy google play gift cards but will put CIC as my backup in case I forget to load a card.

And I forget about the google play option. I remember looking for discounted cards before Christmas but didn’t find any. Sometimes trying to track down gift card deals and do this is just too much, so I’ll just settle for the 5% URs.

 

[Haley R]

We did a trip to Europe with my DD when she had just turned 1. We had a great trip, but oh my goodness we got no sleep. I remember getting up and walking her up and down in the middle of the night in a stroller because she was not going to sleep, under any circumstances at that hour. Trips with kids are just a totally different thing than trips without - there is so much more work involved in meeting their needs for food/sleep/whatever, esp. when you are not home and not set up with all your "usual" supplies. Thank goodness she would eat soup of pretty much any kind - all the foods she ate regularly were not available in Sweden, or tasted really different (like, all the baby food had extra starch in it, so the texture was weird and thick, or it had a bunch of sugar in it, and my DD wouldn't eat it). But we could generally find some kind of soup to give her - just took a little bit more effort. We enjoyed traveling with her, but "vacation" probably wasn't the right word for it for a good few years there at the beginning.

This may be our last international trip for awhile so we really want to make it work. It’s good to hear personal experiences so we know what to expect. I do think it will help that we’ve been there so there isn’t anything we HAVE to do and we can relax a lot.

 

[Haley R]

Oooh I'll have to tell my husband about this. I don't know James May but I know my husband loves Top Gear!


Do we have a new Plane Princess in our midst?

We talked long and hard about which seats to choose for our upcoming trip. We'd rather sit next to each other but ended up going with window seats in the end since even the seats next to each other didn't seem like they'd be easy to communicate. Guess we will find out!

I wonder if the plane has free (and reliable) wifi. Then we'll just text each other the whole trip...

Haha it’s very possible. I wouldn’t really say he’s a plane princess because he’s fine flying allegiant in the states.

We did the two window seats when we went and it worked well. I think we both enjoyed being able to see out the window. Most likely we will get one window seat and two middle seats for this next trip. I really hope we manage to get the new business seats.

I think Dh saw today that first gets free WiFi. We didn’t get it in business

 

[Jax1023]

This may be our last international trip for awhile so we really want to make it work. It’s good to hear personal experiences so we know what to expect. I do think it will help that we’ve been there so there isn’t anything we HAVE to do and we can relax a lot.

It’s also nice with only one kid you can tag team if need be. Take turns going out alone for a bit while the kiddo naps or something. But I’m a big fan of alone time, I know other people find it bizarre that we do this.

 

[WardFam]

Even at 10 and 14 we don't call them family vacations, they're "family experiences" because there's still not much relaxing going on. We have fun, but there's no laying on the beach drifting off to sleep type of relaxation. I guess that will come when they're out of the house. Maybe???

We have a 10, 13 and 16 year old and I like the term family experiences! We brought my BIL who is 26 with us on our Christmas Vacation to Hawaii and DH and I both got a nap on the beach one afternoon! Granted that’s one afternoon out of 12, but it was nice! But I will still remember the hikes, kayaking, surfing, boogie boarding, snorkeling, playing frisbee, volleyball and baseball on the beach longer than I remember that nap!

 

[Haley R]

It’s also nice with only one kid you can tag team if need be. Take turns going out alone for a bit while the kiddo naps or something. But I’m a big fan of alone time, I know other people find it bizarre that we do this.

I think it’ll be a lot harder when we have two little ones. I could see Dh going out for a walk but I wouldn’t do it. I would stay at our Airbnb or whatever if he wants to take the baby out. He already talked about going to 7-11 and getting breakfast or something

 

[calypso726]

Haha it’s very possible. I wouldn’t really say he’s a plane princess because he’s fine flying allegiant in the states.

When he starts telling you that he's not flying in coach if the flight is over 3 hours, then you will know he is a plane princess.

I doubt PlanePrincess even knows that Allegiant is an airline

 

[CyndiLouWho]

And probably most kids would do fine. My little one just hates sleep as a general rule- she’s 2.5 and was up in the middle of the night at last 3 times last week. So I’m a bit traumatized in the sleep area by her and it now colors all of my travel plans lol.

My DS didn’t wake as much but getting him to go to sleep was an issue from day 1. Still is and he’s almost 11.

We watched some videos last night of what to expect and tips for a one year old on plane trips. We watched 3 different videos of 1 year olds on long haul flights (all girls for some reason) and not one was shown crying. Although that could be the parents deciding what to show. One couple said their little girl slept 9 1/2 hours! I’m just hoping he won’t be too much of a bother to others in business class.

I was wanting to wait until 2022 for the expansion but I think we should probably go when we know for sure we can go. Idk how 2022 will look. I would love to dress him up at Duffy or Gelatoni. Idk it that’s something we can buy ahead of time or if we should make it ourselves

My DSs first long trip was 12 hours, China to Chicago, so opposite of yours. He slept 8 hours and cried about 3 hours of the remainder. We brought a car seat which was great (but we were in economy plus, not biz) for sleeping and eating.

Jet lag after getting home was awful, lasted about a week for all of us.

With ANA it kind of depends on if we get a new plane or not. The older design is a little more restrictive and would be harder to see the baby unless he’s in the window seat. The newer design has a partition in between the two middle seats that can be dropped down and would work perfect for us. I’m hoping by next May they would have them on the majority of the routes. Dh is completely against PE for whatever reason (I think he’s spoiled).
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Is he against it enough to say biz or stay home? I mean getting 3 biz seats is not always easy.