I love credit cards so much! v5.0 - 2022 (see first page for add'l details)

[lsutigers03]

DW and I are flying to London in September on American. Is the main cabin extra worth it for the extra legroom and do you get unlimited complementary beer, wine, and spirits or are you limited? The upgrade would be $206 for charlotte to London and the same for London back to Charlotte. I do have two cards that I know of that will give us $300 in airline credit. The original plan was to not upgrade the seats and use the credits for the flights there and back for a checked bag and drinks on the plane. So I can either upgrade our seats for one leg between Charlotte and London or go without the extra leg room and probably pay for our bags and drinks both ways.

 

[cookiecar]

Great point about the CP, P2 did that back in 2019 but I had totally forgotten about it!
Yes - I will be using support links when I apply.
We are flying on April so I am concerned that the flights I want (direct) would no longer be available in January since booking should be opening soon.
Maybe I will just focus on collecting URs for now!

You could book the flights for the individual(s) earning the CP now. Then add on the companions in January after the CP is earned. We did that to make sure we got the flights we wanted. And actually, I would usually wait to add the companion until we were within a month of traveling so I could still check for price reductions.

 

[georgina]

DW and I are flying to London in September on American. Is the main cabin extra worth it for the extra legroom and do you get unlimited complementary beer, wine, and spirits or are you limited? The upgrade would be $206 for charlotte to London and the same for London back to Charlotte. I do have two cards that I know of that will give us $300 in airline credit. The original plan was to not upgrade the seats and use the credits for the flights there and back for a checked bag and drinks on the plane. So I can either upgrade our seats for one leg between Charlotte and London or go without the extra leg room and probably pay for our bags and drinks both ways.

So this was on United, but I suspect they are similar. The extra legroom was definitely worth it, and came with an earlier boarding group. Neither of our flights were red eyes, perhaps if you are planning to sleep might not need it. United gives a free checked bag to Europe to everyone, are you sure American doesn't? Or are you checking more than 1 per person. Also beer and wine were free to everyone also, but not mixed drinks. I don't remember a limit, but I only had 2.

It was not hard to convince myself that sparkling wine at 9 AM was fine because it was 2 PM in London.

 

[becauseimnew]

Great point about the CP, P2 did that back in 2019 but I had totally forgotten about it!
Yes - I will be using support links when I apply.
We are flying on April so I am concerned that the flights I want (direct) would no longer be available in January since booking should be opening soon.
Maybe I will just focus on collecting URs for now!

What you could do is have P2 get one SW card now to book at least a couple of seats, then when the time comes you can use their support link for the CP later this year.

 

[becauseimnew]

finally signed up for premium thrifty traveler if anyone is interested 40% off code is FORTY

Is this for paid tickets? or award tickets too?

 

[reliev]

Is this for paid tickets? or award tickets too?

both

 

[TexasErin]

If you have a freedom you could just upgrade that to the CSR, which you should be playing the upgrade/downgrade game if you can.

Can you explain this to me, like I’m five? How and what are the benefits?

DH has had a Freedom for years now which we never use. We also each have a SW RR card. He has a Disney Chase card that is our daily driver that we pay off each month. He also has a Chase Sapphire and I was just approved for one last weekend since I want that sweet bonus to use UR points for flights. Everything has a zero balance, except the Chase Disney card.

 

[Albort]

there are some rumors of Japan opening in the coming days...
stupid rules u need to jump through though. but i guess we will have to wait and see...

 

[afan]

there are some rumors of Japan opening in the coming days...
stupid rules u need to jump through though. but i guess we will have to wait and see...

Still not helpful for anyone here. Have to do it through a TA but can be on your own, guided tours aren't required. Unless a TA wants to sell access and let you book.on points/on your own I don't see it helping a ton. Esp for those that already have stuff booked fpr the fall.

Guessing that also means they'll still require a visa so there's a way to track that people are following the rules.

 

[becauseimnew]

Can you explain this to me, like I’m five? How and what are the benefits?

DH has had a Freedom for years now which we never use. We also each have a SW RR card. He has a Disney Chase card that is our daily driver that we pay off each month. He also has a Chase Sapphire and I was just approved for one last weekend since I want that sweet bonus to use UR points for flights. Everything has a zero balance, except the Chase Disney card.

This works if you have a Freedom and a sapphire, or 2 freedoms and you aren’t eligible for the Sapphire SUB.
This is what we just did.
DH has CSR. Paid annual fee the first year +$550, used the -$300 travel credit, net fee $250.
Year 2, travel credit reset in August after the statement closed. Bought $304 refundable Southwest flight, got -$300 travel credit, cancelled refundable flight. So now we have a $300 credit on his statement. Net annual fee +$50, so you made money off the card.
We will downgrade the CSR to a freedom in September when the AF post.
I just upgraded my CF to CSR so we still have a CSR in the family and he has a CSP which we keep for support links.

 

[becauseimnew]

there are some rumors of Japan opening in the coming days...
stupid rules u need to jump through though. but i guess we will have to wait and see...

Never mind, found it. I hope this doesn’t increase the number of visitors and they fully open.

 

[lsutigers03]

So this was on United, but I suspect they are similar. The extra legroom was definitely worth it, and came with an earlier boarding group. Neither of our flights were red eyes, perhaps if you are planning to sleep might not need it. United gives a free checked bag to Europe to everyone, are you sure American doesn't? Or are you checking more than 1 per person. Also beer and wine were free to everyone also, but not mixed drinks. I don't remember a limit, but I only had 2.

It was not hard to convince myself that sparkling wine at 9 AM was fine because it was 2 PM in London.

The wording on American's website is wine, beer, and spirits. Spirits isn't beer and wine so I assumed that it meant mixed drinks. I haven't seen anything conclusive that with main cabin extra you get a free checked bag. Mainly it has come with certain statuses with the airline but I'll look into it more. DW said she wanted the upgrade so I think I'm good. Also if they don't limit you I can drink enough to make the cost worth it for both of us.

 

[djmeredith]

Just a DP for anyone who needs to do a GE interview on arrival. My 19 yo nephew just did his at DTW and he said it only took a couple of minutes. He landed 45 minutes ago and is already in the lounge. I was worried about him navigating the interview and customs for the first time by himself, but he had no problems.

They almost didn't let him in the Sky Club because he is only 19. They said there is a working bar tender so he could go in, but they do not allow guests under 21 if there is no bar tender. I just checked the website and it does say that you have to be 21 or over if it is a self-service bar. That makes sense, but I just didn't think about it since I was with him when we traveled to Europe.

 

[Judique]

I am globalist but don’t have 10 nights. I have 3. I guess I’ll wait until it expires and see if my sob story of a fracture sways them

I don’t have anyone to gift it to. I hate to see it go to waste.

all of this is why I don’t try To talk about my redemptions. I use my FNCs around my travel and don’t try to plan travel around my FNCs to maximize their redemption. As long as a room is less than the AF, I use the FNC even if it isn’t maximizing the value ( ie on IHG sometimes the room is less than 40k points). For me that is better than having these expire unused.

As for Hyatt, it just doesn’t play nice with my travel locations. I’m going to drop the card once the AF hits.

Aww, sorry!

And, my FNC that is good now expires on November 3rd, before I go to Florida this fall. I then tried to book another night next month but that didn't work so I'm in the same boat again. Might actually give it to my ex husband and wife when they come to see our new grandchild. Due date is tomorrow but son says things seem to be moving along as we speak.

 

[lsutigers03]

Just a DP for anyone who needs to do a GE interview on arrival. My 19 yo nephew just did his at DTW and he said it only took a couple of minutes. He landed 45 minutes ago and is already in the lounge. I was worried about him navigating the interview and customs for the first time by himself, but he had no problems.

They almost didn't let him in the Sky Club because he is only 19. They said there is a working bar tender so he could go in, but they do not allow guests under 21 if there is no bar tender. I just checked the website and it does say that you have to be 21 or over if it is a self-service bar. That makes sense, but I just didn't think about it since I was with him when we traveled to Europe.

It’s good to hear that the GE interview is very quick. My DW and I will fly into Charlotte from London and will need to do the interview. We have a 3 1/2 layover so with a quick interview we’ll be able to spend most of that relaxing in one of the lounges.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

You could book the flights for the individual(s) earning the CP now. Then add on the companions in January after the CP is earned. We did that to make sure we got the flights we wanted. And actually, I would usually wait to add the companion until we were within a month of traveling so I could still check for price reductions.

What I do with the companion is add when I book my flight with points to make sure DH has a seat…then if the number of points goes down..I cancel his ticket….change my flight to get the point difference back…then add him back on as my companion

 

[djmeredith]

It’s good to hear that the GE interview is very quick. My DW and I will fly into Charlotte from London and will need to do the interview. We have a 3 1/2 layover so with a quick interview we’ll be able to spend most of that relaxing in one of the lounges.

Yes, you should have plenty of time in the lounge!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

The wording on American's website is wine, beer, and spirits. Spirits isn't beer and wine so I assumed that it meant mixed drinks. I haven't seen anything conclusive that with main cabin extra you get a free checked bag. Mainly it has come with certain statuses with the airline but I'll look into it more. DW said she wanted the upgrade so I think I'm good. Also if they don't limit you I can drink enough to make the cost worth it for both of us.

Transatlantic is 1 free bag. Except basic economy. But for that length of flight I'd upgrade for sure.
https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/baggage/checked-baggage-policy.jsp

 

[CyndiLouWho]

DH has only 1 AMEX. Last week I downgraded his BCP to BCE. A few months ago he got the popup for a Hilton card.
Today he has 2 email offers for Gold (90k MR for $4k MSR) and Plat (125k MR for $6k MSR). So odd.

 

[cookiecar]

What I do with the companion is add when I book my flight with points to make sure DH has a seat…then if the number of points goes down..I cancel his ticket….change my flight to get the point difference back…then add him back on as my companion

I did that a few times but didn't like the hassle of canceling and adding back. I always made sure to lock it in when we were getting close, especially if it looked like the flight was getting full.