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

[Oscar Madison]

Do you mind sharing the phone number? I flaked on doing this offer before but definitely will now.

877-246-1125 Since this is tied a particular agent that gave me a phone tour before for $40, I'm not sure if will work for you. It lists a unique code that I must present when I call.

 

[liloca]

My mom hasn't blown anything up so I have confidence you'll do fine. She even did the first test all on her own. Our biggest issue is the timing, you read the directions and then say well we have x pounds of meat so we'll cook it for this long and then it's not long enough. Or it doesn't get started early enough so we eat an hour later than normal. The other thing is cooking the beef with the potatoes, it's fine if you also want your potatoes to taste like the beef. I need to find a steamer thing that fits in on top of the meat that we can put the potatoes in. Hard boiled eggs are super easy and would be great if you needed to do a lot for deviled eggs or something. I've been checking books out from the library to get recipes from.

The other issue, and I think it was just the cut we picked, the roast (not pot, might've been rump, not chuck, probably the other I can't remember) we cooked in taco seasoning with water so we could do shredded beef tacos. I've done this in the slow cooker with chuck and that's probably what we should have used. The roast we had was good and it shredded but it didn't taste like taco meat until the next day when I had it for leftovers and it had been in the liquid for over 12 hours.

I want to try meatloaf and meatballs, I have recipes for both. And chocolate pudding but there's only 2 of use so I've been holding off on that one.

You should marinate the meat overnight before cooking, since it cooks so fast (opposite of the slow cooker) there is no time to really get the flavors into the meat.
I use my at least 1-2 times a week in the fall winter. We eat a lot beans a home and the instapot is great for that.

Oh, rice on the stove is one of my specialties. We eat a ton of rice with DH being Asian.

Equal parts rice and water, toss in an extra 1/2 of cup of water, bring to boil. Once the majority of the water has evaporated, cover with a lid, turn to Low and steam for 20 min. Fluff with a fork and partake.

I then freeze the leftovers to make fried rice since it is supposed to be better to use frozen rice than fresh for fried rice. No idea why though.

I am Japanese/Brazilian so I grow up eating rice for lunch dinner Everyday and totally recomend a Rice cooker!

I cooked rice on the stovetop for years, no problem. Then someone gave me a rice cooker, which I thought was silly. When we remodeled our kitchen, I had no choice & used nothing but small electric appliances for 6 weeks. Slow cooker, rice cooker, electric frying pan, toaster oven. Once our kitchen was done, never went back to making rice on stovetop. It frees up an extra burner and I’m frequently using 2-3 burners or using 2 large sauté pans that block the rear burners, making them useless. I can tell DS9 to make the rice while I cook dinner, easy peasy.

Well CindyLou beat me to the rice cooker!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I glanced over your plans to buy a laptop. My above advice is more aimed at buying $100 Disney GCs for a ~10%+ discount. I'm not sure about a laptop that may cost ~$1k, and not sure if buying Best Buy GCs $100 at a time will work with SBs. Even if you could buy GCs at a discount to buy a laptop, I'd actually prefer putting an expensive prone to break laptop purchase on a credit card with a good extended warranty.

Yes I saw that it applied more to GCs. If I get it at BB, I would use my Citi AA card (extra warranty, etc) If I Buy at Costco they add warranty so I would use my CIC. Either way, I’m buying a cheap $300-400 laptop. I literally use it a few times a year. I use my iPad for almost everything.

 

[liloca]

After reading all the Legoland comments I think I need to hold of another year or two before going. My DS is 5 and DD is 2, so maybe when they are 7 and 4 would be a better fit for us!

 

[NewbieMom]

I'm sure a lot of you seasoned award redeemers probably know this already, but I want to share my rookie redemption failure for any newbies (1st redemption trip). Don't assume holding a reservation will retain the original price! On Friday, I saw 20k miles award flights for our return from Hawaii this Christmas. I put the tickets on hold and received the email confirmation that it's 20k per ticket and I have 5 days to purchase. After discussing the flight times with DH, I went in to purchase today and it jumped to 40k miles per ticket. After calling in, I was told that "on hold" reservations don't guarantee the price. Unfortunately with the bump up in miles required, I no longer have enough miles. So things are open ended now for how we will be returning. Anyone with experience booking award tickets (AA and in general) know if airlines usually open up more award space? Or I'll have to just try to accumulate more miles in the meantime and hope that award flights are available when I have enough?

 

[miztressuz]

If it helps anyone I saw a different incognito offer for the AmEx Blue Cash Preferred ($95 AF) for $350, tiered offer. The $250 for 1k in spend within 3 months like normal but an additional $100 for another 1k in spend within 6 months.

I don't recall seeing that offer before so I think it's new. I of course pulled up nearly all the incognito offers when checking out my support links but I really don't want another AmEx card right now. I know when I'm in the market for one I'll get bubkis.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I'm sure a lot of you seasoned award redeemers probably know this already, but I want to share my rookie redemption failure for any newbies (1st redemption trip). Don't assume holding a reservation will retain the original price! On Friday, I saw 20k miles award flights for our return from Hawaii this Christmas. I put the tickets on hold and received the email confirmation that it's 20k per ticket and I have 5 days to purchase. After discussing the flight times with DH, I went in to purchase today and it jumped to 40k miles per ticket. After calling in, I was told that "on hold" reservations don't guarantee the price. Unfortunately with the bump up in miles required, I no longer have enough miles. So things are open ended now for how we will be returning. Anyone with experience booking award tickets (AA and in general) know if airlines usually open up more award space? Or I'll have to just try to accumulate more miles in the meantime and hope that award flights are available when I have enough?

With AA? That doesn’t sound right. I usually put awards tix on hold and then wait to see if anything better opens up in the next 5 days. I have always gotten the original redemption. Did you purchase the ones on hold (is there a link in your email or log in to your AA account) or were you getting a new search? What would be the point of holding if it didn’t retain your price? If it no longer does, this is new.

 

[hsmamato2]

How long do you cook them? And how much beans/water? I like to make beans for chili or soup, but using the IP I often get beans mushy and over cooked on the bottom and a bit undercooked at the top.


KitchenAid on the counter.

I have a small kitchen with good storage,if that makes sense.so IP goes in the cabinet(I wouldn't use it much if I had to drag it from the basement all the time) and my counters are quite small, with no enough clearance from the upper cabinets to fit a kitchenaid underneath....
For beans? I don't do much measuring (for most things) I pour in a few handfuls of dry beans, cover with water by about 3 inches,and set for about 20 minutes(this replaces overnight soak etc)
If I want 'refried' I then QR, pour off all excess liquid except to barely cover,and another 20 minutes or so(after adding chopped onion and spices to taste) when that's done, I scoop up a bean,if you blow on it,and skin peels back,it's done. Then stick in the stick blender and it's done!

 

[punkin]

Catching up before checking out of SSR, but thought I’d share our travel hacking success for this weekend. We decided to go see the Hamilton exhibit in Chicago and the show too while we are at it. There is a cat 5, 35k point per night Marriott property we are staying at with the free night cert. The Blackstone, an Autograph collection hotel. The rate is $259 per night for the room we got so that is an awesome return on the AF. One more reason I won’t be cancelling the Marriott or SPG cards. I’m pretty stoked about staying at this hotel. The architecture and history are what sold me. I was all prepared to just pay using URs and then imagine my shock when I discovered it is bookable with a free 35k night cert. We booked flights via the Chase portal which finally allowed me to book flights I actually wanted so I am somewhat mollified and will refrain from my usual disparaging remarks about the Expedia platform ... for now. I will do a review on the hotel either during or after our stay and add it to the hotel thread.

Off to the parks before heading back to the real world. Happy Sunday Dischurner friends!

The Blackstone is amazing! It has so much history and charm. You will love it. Also, the tapas place in the hotel (Merkat?) is worth every penny .

 

[Albort]

Yes I saw that it applied more to GCs. If I get it at BB, I would use my Citi AA card (extra warranty, etc) If I Buy at Costco they add warranty so I would use my CIC. Either way, I’m buying a cheap $300-400 laptop. I literally use it a few times a year. I use my iPad for almost everything.

depends on your card line. I would check out Dell.com too if u have an amex card with dell ao. dell is also on a bunch of portals too.

 

[mmmears]

It's your husband's account, and his field so I'll let him make his own decisions.

I didn't think too much of it, because how else would Ebates deposit the earned MR points into my Amex account? They can't exactly mail one of their Big Fat Checks.

I've used Ebates for years, and similarly I've given it access to our PayPal account because that's where my cashback payments get deposited automatically every quarter. I just found that much easier to deal with, faster, and safer than having a check mailed to me.

Again, I'm not trying to start an argument. Just my experience.

Oh, I do appreciate your take on things, as always. We made a deal when we started down this path that we would do it as long as it was fun, so anything that causes stress or worry is something we are trying to avoid. And yeah, since he knows more than I do about this stuff I trust what he says. In any case, I could see why they would want an AMEX account number, but not the password. RMN needed my PayPal account number, but not my password. I just don't see any legitimate reason for this, and I agree with him that there are serious security concerns that go along with it. It's ok. We will pass on this one, like we passed on SB (for now anyway). We still have so many points thanks to all the tips and advice we get here that it's ok if we don't maximize every last thing we do.

ETA - Ebates makes it look like you are logging into your AMEX account (it's blue and everything) but it's super scammy since it's not AMEX at all but their own website. This is a red flag for people who are concerned about internet security (says the guy who does this sort of stuff for a living).

I also get my ebates sent right to my paypal but I think I just gave them my email address associated with my paypal. I don’t think I ever gave them my password. I’m not sure if I’d be comfortable with that.

Yeah, that's my take on it, too. I kept thinking he was misunderstanding, but I saw the link where they were asking for AMEX log in info and it was both user name and password.

I will let you know. I called the number, which was tied a particular agent I worked with in the past and he was out of the office until Tuesday. I wonder if I'm getting multiple offers because I signed up for multiple disneyworld.com accounts years ago to up my chances to receive pin code mailers.

Did they multiple accounts work? And if so, any advice as to how to set that up? I got lots of PINS in the past, and then one year they all just stopped. And I have never received one since. Ironically, DD gets them all the time now, based off trips that I planned and paid for. And she doesn't have the time or interest to go at this point. So there they sit, just taunting me.

After reading all the Legoland comments I think I need to hold of another year or two before going. My DS is 5 and DD is 2, so maybe when they are 7 and 4 would be a better fit for us!

We went to the one in San Diego back when it was pretty new. Our DD was 5 and 6 on those two trips and we had a great time. I think you'd be ok now, but also perfectly ok waiting 2 years.

 

[Calfan]

Tried out the EBates MR thing yesterday with good success. I needed to replenish some cosmetics, and Neiman was at 10% on EBates. I made a $125 purchase, and received email confirmation from EBates that I had earned $12.50. In my EBates account, it shows I earned 1,250 MR plus a bonus 1,500 MR for making my first purchase, for a total of 2,750 MR that will automatically be transferred to my Amex account on May 15. Three months is much longer than the United or Chase portals, but faster than TopCashBack, and I love the option of an MR shopping portal earner.

 

[bettymae1121]

I’m hoping some of you are willing to help a newbie in the churning game. I’m a long time DISer (first joined in ’03 under a different name) but I haven’t been around in a while, other than briefly posting again last year on some of the trip boards prior to our 2018 WDW vacation.

I’m looking for suggestions on the best cards to get/use to reach our goals for future travel. My main interest is to churn to get the big sign up bonuses, with less interest in using certain cards for certain categories for 2x or 3x points (use credit card A for groceries and B for gas, and C for restaurants). I’d much rather put all our purchases on one or maybe two cards at any given time. I don’t want to make it too complex because I just don’t have the mental energy to keep it all straight, and my DH even less so. I realize we might be leaving points on the table this way, but that’s ok – simplicity trumps optimization for us.

I don’t have the time to read the whole thread (although I will be going back as time permits), but I did read the sticky. So here goes!

Family info: Family of 3 – Me, DH and DD7 – we’re the only ones traveling.

Travel Goals: Two future Disney trips

Trip 1: DLR June of 2020. Plan to pay cash for airfare (1st class if I can find a good deal but economy otherwise – will fly either AA or UA) but use Marriott points for Courtyard Inn Anaheim (50k points per night for 8 nights, 1 night free so 350k points – which I pretty much have on hand already). Because I already have the hotel points and plan to pay cash for the flights, my main concern is with trip 2, however if anyone suggests changing up how we approach trip 1 in order to assist with trip 2, I’m all ears.

Trip 2: WDW May of 2022. Original plan was to use airline miles for flights (economy) and Marriott points for Swan/Dolphin for 10 nights (50k points per night, 2 nights free so 400k points). THAT SAID – also open to cash back/travel statement redemption credit cards (or any other strategy you might suggest) to cover cost of ANY on-property Disney moderate/deluxe or villa – open to renting points for DVC (actually really interested in this idea since it’s such a long trip – although I have no experience in renting points so yet another thing I’ll be researching!). Zero interest in staying off property, and strong preference NOT to change resorts mid-stay, although would consider one resort hop if necessary.

Important Note: With the Marriott merger with Starwood being so new, one big concern I have is, assuming I manage to earn the 400k points needed for a 10 night Swan/Dolphin stay, that I might not be able to actually get 10 nights. Starwood’s old rule was as long as a single hotel room was available for sale, you could use points to reserve it. I have no idea how Marriott’s program works in practice, or how it may work 3 years from now (and even under Starwood, 10 nights might have been a tall order at Swan/Dolphin). So my fear is that I’ll be sitting on 400k of points that I can’t actually use, when I could have been earning cash back or other useable rewards another way all along. It’s the big reason I’m thinking of just going to straight up cash back rewards and/or travel statement redemptions, no worries about blackout dates or other restrictions. I just book the lowest rate I can find and use my cash back/travel redemptions to cover the cost. I’m not quite as worried about the DLR stay as I can book that as soon as July of ’19 before they can mess with the program too much (plus the BonVoy points I need for the DLR trip have already been earned in any case so too late now!).

Home Airport is O’Hare. As I mentioned the plan is to pay cash for flights for Trip 1 and miles/points for flights for Trip 2. Really only want non-stop flights so we’re looking at UA or AA.

Credit Scores – high 700’s/low 800’s for both of us. No plans for needing loans anytime in the near future so no fear of churning negatively affecting our scores/ability to get credit. I mean I hope it doesn’t but we won’t be affected if it did.

Average monthly credit card spend (last 24 months) $3860

We don’t own a business so I don’t think we qualify for any of the business cards, unless there is something about them I’m not aware of where non-business owners can get them?


Current open cards in both our names:

• 8/14? Chase Slate - could be longer. Haven’t used it in ages but too lazy to close it since it has no annual fee – happy to close it.
  
• 4/16 Chase Freedom - don’t currently use it, just too lazy to close it since it has no annual fee – happy to close it.
  
• 8/18 Chase United Airlines, earned 65k mileage bonus. Hope to keep open until mid-June ‘19 to get free checked bags for upcoming trip but not a deal breaker if you suggest I need to close it sooner. After trip will close to avoid annual fee.
  
• 8/11 AMEX Marriott BonVoy (formerly Starwood). Earned some sort of bonus back when we opened it. This is how I earned all of our past and current Starwood/Marriott points. With the Marriott merger my current AMEX really isn’t the best way to keep earning points I feel, but not sure if I should get the new AMEX BonVoy Brilliant (except holy heck that annual fee!) or go another route, plus again my fear of the future ability to redeem points with the BonVoy program.

In my name only 7/18 Blain’s Farm and Fleet – used to get a 10% off your current purchase (bought a riding lawn mower). Never use it so happy to close if needed

In DH’s name only – nothing new in the last 2 years


Current Reward Programs

• Marriott BonVoy current point balance 339,981
  
• United Airlines miles current balance 99 (not a typo, just booked 3 free tickets for summer 2019 travel a few days ago!)
  
• Chase Ultimate Rewards is at about 1700 points I think, I don’t go out of my way to earn many and I cashed a bunch in a while back for some reason or another.

Other than vacations (which are mostly booked with points), we don’t travel so won’t earn hotel points or airline miles in that manner (with the exception of airline miles for Trip 1).

So that’s it! I figure getting an AA Citi Platinum card for the 60k sign up bonus would be in play for the 2022 WDW trip, but not sure how to proceed beyond that. THANK YOU in advance for any advice you can offer!!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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[SouthFayetteFan]

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[palhockeymomof2]

I’m hoping some of you are willing to help a newbie in the churning game. I’m a long time DISer (first joined in ’03 under a different name) but I haven’t been around in a while, other than briefly posting again last year on some of the trip boards prior to our 2018 WDW vacation.

I’m looking for suggestions on the best cards to get/use to reach our goals for future travel. My main interest is to churn to get the big sign up bonuses, with less interest in using certain cards for certain categories for 2x or 3x points (use credit card A for groceries and B for gas, and C for restaurants). I’d much rather put all our purchases on one or maybe two cards at any given time. I don’t want to make it too complex because I just don’t have the mental energy to keep it all straight, and my DH even less so. I realize we might be leaving points on the table this way, but that’s ok – simplicity trumps optimization for us.

I don’t have the time to read the whole thread (although I will be going back as time permits), but I did read the sticky. So here goes!

Family info: Family of 3 – Me, DH and DD7 – we’re the only ones traveling.

Travel Goals: Two future Disney trips

Trip 1: DLR June of 2020. Plan to pay cash for airfare (1st class if I can find a good deal but economy otherwise – will fly either AA or UA) but use Marriott points for Courtyard Inn Anaheim (50k points per night for 8 nights, 1 night free so 350k points – which I pretty much have on hand already). Because I already have the hotel points and plan to pay cash for the flights, my main concern is with trip 2, however if anyone suggests changing up how we approach trip 1 in order to assist with trip 2, I’m all ears.

Trip 2: WDW May of 2022. Original plan was to use airline miles for flights (economy) and Marriott points for Swan/Dolphin for 10 nights (50k points per night, 2 nights free so 400k points). THAT SAID – also open to cash back/travel statement redemption credit cards (or any other strategy you might suggest) to cover cost of ANY on-property Disney moderate/deluxe or villa – open to renting points for DVC (actually really interested in this idea since it’s such a long trip – although I have no experience in renting points so yet another thing I’ll be researching!). Zero interest in staying off property, and strong preference NOT to change resorts mid-stay, although would consider one resort hop if necessary.

Important Note: With the Marriott merger with Starwood being so new, one big concern I have is, assuming I manage to earn the 400k points needed for a 10 night Swan/Dolphin stay, that I might not be able to actually get 10 nights. Starwood’s old rule was as long as a single hotel room was available for sale, you could use points to reserve it. I have no idea how Marriott’s program works in practice, or how it may work 3 years from now (and even under Starwood, 10 nights might have been a tall order at Swan/Dolphin). So my fear is that I’ll be sitting on 400k of points that I can’t actually use, when I could have been earning cash back or other useable rewards another way all along. It’s the big reason I’m thinking of just going to straight up cash back rewards and/or travel statement redemptions, no worries about blackout dates or other restrictions. I just book the lowest rate I can find and use my cash back/travel redemptions to cover the cost. I’m not quite as worried about the DLR stay as I can book that as soon as July of ’19 before they can mess with the program too much (plus the BonVoy points I need for the DLR trip have already been earned in any case so too late now!).

Home Airport is O’Hare. As I mentioned the plan is to pay cash for flights for Trip 1 and miles/points for flights for Trip 2. Really only want non-stop flights so we’re looking at UA or AA.

Credit Scores – high 700’s/low 800’s for both of us. No plans for needing loans anytime in the near future so no fear of churning negatively affecting our scores/ability to get credit. I mean I hope it doesn’t but we won’t be affected if it did.

Average monthly credit card spend (last 24 months) $3860

We don’t own a business so I don’t think we qualify for any of the business cards, unless there is something about them I’m not aware of where non-business owners can get them?


Current open cards in both our names:

• 8/14? Chase Slate - could be longer. Haven’t used it in ages but too lazy to close it since it has no annual fee – happy to close it.
  
• 4/16 Chase Freedom - don’t currently use it, just too lazy to close it since it has no annual fee – happy to close it.
  
• 8/18 Chase United Airlines, earned 65k mileage bonus. Hope to keep open until mid-June ‘19 to get free checked bags for upcoming trip but not a deal breaker if you suggest I need to close it sooner. After trip will close to avoid annual fee.
  
• 8/11 AMEX Marriott BonVoy (formerly Starwood). Earned some sort of bonus back when we opened it. This is how I earned all of our past and current Starwood/Marriott points. With the Marriott merger my current AMEX really isn’t the best way to keep earning points I feel, but not sure if I should get the new AMEX BonVoy Brilliant (except holy heck that annual fee!) or go another route, plus again my fear of the future ability to redeem points with the BonVoy program.

In my name only 7/18 Blain’s Farm and Fleet – used to get a 10% off your current purchase (bought a riding lawn mower). Never use it so happy to close if needed

In DH’s name only – nothing new in the last 2 years


Current Reward Programs

• Marriott BonVoy current point balance 339,981
  
• United Airlines miles current balance 99 (not a typo, just booked 3 free tickets for summer 2019 travel a few days ago!)
  
• Chase Ultimate Rewards is at about 1700 points I think, I don’t go out of my way to earn many and I cashed a bunch in a while back for some reason or another.

Other than vacations (which are mostly booked with points), we don’t travel so won’t earn hotel points or airline miles in that manner (with the exception of airline miles for Trip 1).

So that’s it! I figure getting an AA Citi Platinum card for the 60k sign up bonus would be in play for the 2022 WDW trip, but not sure how to proceed beyond that. THANK YOU in advance for any advice you can offer!!!

Hi...I wouldn’t close any of the cards you currently hold....most of us here start with Chase cards due to their 5/24 rule...on personal cards if your okay with opening their business cards a lot of Chases best UR bonuses are available with them...and you could turn the USs into cash if you didn’t want to use them to book flights or hotels

 

[Albort]

I’m hoping some of you are willing to help a newbie in the churning game. I’m a long time DISer (first joined in ’03 under a different name) but I haven’t been around in a while, other than briefly posting again last year on some of the trip boards prior to our 2018 WDW vacation.

I’m looking for suggestions on the best cards to get/use to reach our goals for future travel. My main interest is to churn to get the big sign up bonuses, with less interest in using certain cards for certain categories for 2x or 3x points (use credit card A for groceries and B for gas, and C for restaurants). I’d much rather put all our purchases on one or maybe two cards at any given time. I don’t want to make it too complex because I just don’t have the mental energy to keep it all straight, and my DH even less so. I realize we might be leaving points on the table this way, but that’s ok – simplicity trumps optimization for us.

I don’t have the time to read the whole thread (although I will be going back as time permits), but I did read the sticky. So here goes!

Family info: Family of 3 – Me, DH and DD7 – we’re the only ones traveling.

Travel Goals: Two future Disney trips

Trip 1: DLR June of 2020. Plan to pay cash for airfare (1st class if I can find a good deal but economy otherwise – will fly either AA or UA) but use Marriott points for Courtyard Inn Anaheim (50k points per night for 8 nights, 1 night free so 350k points – which I pretty much have on hand already). Because I already have the hotel points and plan to pay cash for the flights, my main concern is with trip 2, however if anyone suggests changing up how we approach trip 1 in order to assist with trip 2, I’m all ears.

Trip 2: WDW May of 2022. Original plan was to use airline miles for flights (economy) and Marriott points for Swan/Dolphin for 10 nights (50k points per night, 2 nights free so 400k points). THAT SAID – also open to cash back/travel statement redemption credit cards (or any other strategy you might suggest) to cover cost of ANY on-property Disney moderate/deluxe or villa – open to renting points for DVC (actually really interested in this idea since it’s such a long trip – although I have no experience in renting points so yet another thing I’ll be researching!). Zero interest in staying off property, and strong preference NOT to change resorts mid-stay, although would consider one resort hop if necessary.

Important Note: With the Marriott merger with Starwood being so new, one big concern I have is, assuming I manage to earn the 400k points needed for a 10 night Swan/Dolphin stay, that I might not be able to actually get 10 nights. Starwood’s old rule was as long as a single hotel room was available for sale, you could use points to reserve it. I have no idea how Marriott’s program works in practice, or how it may work 3 years from now (and even under Starwood, 10 nights might have been a tall order at Swan/Dolphin). So my fear is that I’ll be sitting on 400k of points that I can’t actually use, when I could have been earning cash back or other useable rewards another way all along. It’s the big reason I’m thinking of just going to straight up cash back rewards and/or travel statement redemptions, no worries about blackout dates or other restrictions. I just book the lowest rate I can find and use my cash back/travel redemptions to cover the cost. I’m not quite as worried about the DLR stay as I can book that as soon as July of ’19 before they can mess with the program too much (plus the BonVoy points I need for the DLR trip have already been earned in any case so too late now!).

Home Airport is O’Hare. As I mentioned the plan is to pay cash for flights for Trip 1 and miles/points for flights for Trip 2. Really only want non-stop flights so we’re looking at UA or AA.

Credit Scores – high 700’s/low 800’s for both of us. No plans for needing loans anytime in the near future so no fear of churning negatively affecting our scores/ability to get credit. I mean I hope it doesn’t but we won’t be affected if it did.

Average monthly credit card spend (last 24 months) $3860

We don’t own a business so I don’t think we qualify for any of the business cards, unless there is something about them I’m not aware of where non-business owners can get them?


Current open cards in both our names:

• 8/14? Chase Slate - could be longer. Haven’t used it in ages but too lazy to close it since it has no annual fee – happy to close it.
  
• 4/16 Chase Freedom - don’t currently use it, just too lazy to close it since it has no annual fee – happy to close it.
  
• 8/18 Chase United Airlines, earned 65k mileage bonus. Hope to keep open until mid-June ‘19 to get free checked bags for upcoming trip but not a deal breaker if you suggest I need to close it sooner. After trip will close to avoid annual fee.
  
• 8/11 AMEX Marriott BonVoy (formerly Starwood). Earned some sort of bonus back when we opened it. This is how I earned all of our past and current Starwood/Marriott points. With the Marriott merger my current AMEX really isn’t the best way to keep earning points I feel, but not sure if I should get the new AMEX BonVoy Brilliant (except holy heck that annual fee!) or go another route, plus again my fear of the future ability to redeem points with the BonVoy program.

In my name only 7/18 Blain’s Farm and Fleet – used to get a 10% off your current purchase (bought a riding lawn mower). Never use it so happy to close if needed

In DH’s name only – nothing new in the last 2 years


Current Reward Programs

• Marriott BonVoy current point balance 339,981
  
• United Airlines miles current balance 99 (not a typo, just booked 3 free tickets for summer 2019 travel a few days ago!)
  
• Chase Ultimate Rewards is at about 1700 points I think, I don’t go out of my way to earn many and I cashed a bunch in a while back for some reason or another.

Other than vacations (which are mostly booked with points), we don’t travel so won’t earn hotel points or airline miles in that manner (with the exception of airline miles for Trip 1).

So that’s it! I figure getting an AA Citi Platinum card for the 60k sign up bonus would be in play for the 2022 WDW trip, but not sure how to proceed beyond that. THANK YOU in advance for any advice you can offer!!!

Great info! this will help make some choices.
i think u can benefit off southwest CPs... at the end, be paying for only 2 tickets instead of 3. u should go for SW biz card, then a personal card. if biz cards are not in the mind, u can also do both personal cards(ask us how to do this if this is the way u want to do).
I see one flight MDW --> LAX nonstop
i see a couple of flights from MDW --> MCO nonstop
not sure if thats ohare or not...

As for Marriott hotels, keep in mind if u book 4 days, u get the 5th day free! so u only need to plan for 4 nights of points instead of 5!

 

[NewbieMom]

With AA? That doesn’t sound right. I usually put awards tix on hold and then wait to see if anything better opens up in the next 5 days. I have always gotten the original redemption. Did you purchase the ones on hold (is there a link in your email or log in to your AA account) or were you getting a new search? What would be the point of holding if it didn’t retain your price? If it no longer does, this is new.

Yes, AA. I thought the same - the point of a hold should have retained the original price. I tried to purchase the hold tickets through the link in my email confirmation. Once I logged on, instead of the 80k miles (4 tickets), it says 160k miles. I also tried accessing the record locator, and purchasing from the reservation in my account. Both bumped up to 160k miles.

 

[Haley R]

I feel like I haven't posted on here in forever about actual credit card related topics. Dh and I are working on my Capital One MSR. We are about halfway there with 2 months left to hit it. I'm not worried at all. We plan to just cash out the points for cash to help offset our Japan rail pass tickets. I'm thinking after this card I might actually get myself a CSR. Dh has one, but I don't. I think I'm only at 1 personal card right now because the rest have all been business cards. Dh has like 2 or 3 personal cards. I'm too lazy to check my spreadsheet lol.

Dh and I deep cleaned our entire basement today which wasn't fun, but it felt SO GOOD when we were finished. I hate cleaning the basement because of the spiders and bugs we always find. We also went through all of our basement stuff to get rid of, send to Goodwill, or things to turn in at Game Stop.

 

[spacerangerqueen]

I just noticed Pei/Dosh double dipped for me for Dunkin Donuts. This pei app is suh-weeeet! I am racking up on the thing and it has only been a couple days. Seems like everywhere is on it!


ETA: I just tried going in to link more of my cards to pei. I tried one of my amex accounts. It logged in but when I hit continue it told me it is a duplicate account and I can only link it once. I double checked my list of cards and only visas were showing...as I have only linked chase so far. So I closed out and tried linking to my other amex account. Same error. Anyone else have trouble linking amex?

I got the same error when I added my Target redcard account and then again several hours later when I tried my Amex account. Both my Chase accounts added fine. I'm hoping/guessing there is something up with their system today.