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

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I always book at 180 days. I consider trips I plan under 180 days to be "last minute" because I am crazy HAHA

Besides character/princess-related meals (counting BoG) and 'Ohana, I would say California Grill (especially Sunday brunch), Homecomin', Beaches and Cream, and even Sci-Fi can be a little difficult to get. Places in Epcot with prime nighttime show views like La Hacienda de San Angel and Rose & Crown could also be difficult leading up to the fireworks. Are you interested in Star Wars? The cantina, lightsaber experience, and droid depot are all also taking 180+ reservations.
I always book at 180 days too. But I also cancel or modify them once I get down there because we usually end up changing a few of our plans once we are actually on vacation.
 
How are you using MR's for the trip? Are you transferring MR to Hilton points or are you booking through AMEX and using MR to cover the charge?

I've never had a problem getting a reservation for points if there is a room left to book. I don't believe you can change a revenue reservation to a points reservation but I've never tried.

That is a good question and just shows how silly I am. I believe the Hilton cards acquire points, not MRs, so I would be using Hilton Points. Sorry!

And that is good to know; thank you.


We stayed at Hilton Toyko bay from June 9-15 of this year. We got the Hilton cards last September but had to earn the points. I did book our room early for like 88k points per night. I believe it was sometime early this year the rate went down so I actually cancelled and rebooked under the new rate which was 55k points per night. I guess my point is I wouldn’t be too worried. BUT our dates were sold out completely once it got within a month or so before our trip. I would make your goal to book the hotel by June maybe? So you have plenty of time.

Ok, good to know and I will keep an eye on prices/points even after I book. Thank you! I definitely plan to have the points in hand by June (no matter how I end up earning them).
 
I love the entire concept but have annoyingly narrow feet and can't tell if these run narrow, wide or are just your standard "B" shoe. What do you think?
Hmm, can't help with the narrow part. I will say that they fit so smoothly to your foot because they are made from a very flexible knit.
I missed the handwash part. Still want Rothy flats. Havent pulled the trigger. Last it looked like they were discontinuing the pattern I wanted, I should check again
I've been watching colors and patterns for more than a year. It seems like they get interesting patterns like every other month (or maybe every third month), and colors come in and out of stock. For example, I like reds and their reds vary from season to season, yet there is always a red. Pastels will more of a spring thing. Brights more of a summer thing.
I always book at 180 days. I consider trips I plan under 180 days to be "last minute" because I am crazy HAHA

Besides character/princess-related meals (counting BoG) and 'Ohana, I would say California Grill (especially Sunday brunch), Homecomin', Beaches and Cream, and even Sci-Fi can be a little difficult to get. Places in Epcot with prime nighttime show views like La Hacienda de San Angel and Rose & Crown could also be difficult leading up to the fireworks. Are you interested in Star Wars? The cantina, lightsaber experience, and droid depot are all also taking 180+ reservations.
We're dealing with multiple different food allergies, which makes restaurant choices more difficult :sad1: I really wish we could do Homecomin'! Rose & Crown is a good idea which I might book---thanks for reminding me of that. I'm definitely going to book the Cantina at least once. Our mainly-adult offspring would have to book their own lightsaber and droid reservations:laughing:

Just remembered----I need to get lunch at Be Our Guest!

I guess tomorrow morning I will do a quick which-park-which-day lol
 


I always book at 180 days. I consider trips I plan under 180 days to be "last minute" because I am crazy HA

We’re leaving in less than 2 weeks for a short weekend trip. I booked fast passes today. Obviously didn’t get the big ones, but with these EEMH it sounds like we don’t really need them if we get there early, which won’t be an issue. 6 am is sleeping in in my house.

Haven’t made a single ADR. Have a reservation finder out for Cali grill brunch, but if not, wine bar George on open table. Planning for mostly food and wine and some lounges.

Have a march trip with the kids. 180 days was last week. Haven’t done anything. This reminds me I should at least book the droid Depot as my son won’t stop talking about it .
 
I still have a Thank You Preferred card that I never use. I was afraid to PC it with the old DPs about other Citi TY bonuses. It sits there doing nothing. I doubt anyone here also has a Citi Dividend card, but the Q4 bonus category is ODDLY similar to the Chase Freedom 🤔

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I have the Citi ThankYou Preferred card too. It’s my second oldest account, and I think was PCed a few times from a student card I got in college. It sits in my drawer mostly useless, but it did qualify for the Amazon use 1 TYP, get $15 off $50+ recently. I’m in no rush to PC it since the Preferred is a no AF card and I’m not invested in the TYP system. If I get the Premier or Prestige >5/24 and there’s a good elevated SUB, then I’ll take the opportunity to also PC the Preferred to a Double Cash, assuming the rumors are true.

The Dividend’s 5% categories - Department Stores! And funny thing about Best Buy is If I were to use the CF’s 5x via Chase Pay, it’d be at Best Buy.
 
We’re leaving in less than 2 weeks for a short weekend trip. I booked fast passes today. Obviously didn’t get the big ones, but with these EEMH it sounds like we don’t really need them if we get there early, which won’t be an issue. 6 am is sleeping in in my house.

Haven’t made a single ADR. Have a reservation finder out for Cali grill brunch, but if not, wine bar George on open table. Planning for mostly food and wine and some lounges.

Have a march trip with the kids. 180 days was last week. Haven’t done anything. This reminds me I should at least book the droid Depot as my son won’t stop talking about it .
The EEMH isn’t happening during our trip unless they decide to extend it. That’s great that you are planning to take advantage of it. Hope you have a great time!
 


The EEMH isn’t happening during our trip unless they decide to extend it. That’s great that you are planning to take advantage of it. Hope you have a great time!

It’s an adult only trip. So at first I was upset that the whole 3 days of my life I could sleep in were gone. Now after seeing reports and crowds and wait times, I'm excited to be able to do like everything! In one day! Which is really hard with a 7 and 2 year old as we have to rider swap and that eats up a ton of time.
 
I’m guessing this is the Amex Offer for Air France, spend $1k and get 20k MR? Paid with a Platinum for 5x MR for another 5k MR on the $1k? If so, great rebate for a paid flight!

Yep, as long as it was charged properly. The points cost for an economy flight was high, and this way we get a nice chunk of MRs. It just happened to work out, timing wise, with a flight we needed to book. I really hope it worked, since, annoyingly, this offer came out about a week after we spent almost that much of fees for AF flights booked with points.

It takes 100 points to earn 1 gas reward. Points totaling less than 100 expire at the end of the calendar month in which they were earned. Gas rewards earned during each month can be used through the end of the following calendar month. So you have at most 2 months to use up your gas rewards.

One gas reward gets you $0.10 off per gallon. I don’t think Safeway gas stations have a limit on rewards, but the only ones I’ve ever passed by are in Novato and Vallejo; it looks like there are a couple in Alameda. Unless I’m on those sides of the Bay, the distance and crossing bridges kills the deal. Chevron limits gas rewards to 2, or $0.20 off per gallon, per pump. For our 15 gallon tank, that means we save at most $3 per pump. Gas rewards are subject to a limit of 25 gallons anyway, so at most 2 rewards will get you $5 off per pump. We fill up on average two, maybe 3 times a month. And since gas rewards expire in a month or two, it’s very hard to use them all on gas.

The Safeway app gives you other options to use your gas rewards on, including $ off certain grocery items. But Safeway isn’t always the cheapest for certain items, and I find that I can sometimes do better at Trader Joe’s, Target, or Costco in bulk.

I never even knew that there were Safeway gas stations. We have 2 big tanks but don't drive all that much these days, so the 10% Amex deal won't even get used up before it expires. Novato, Alameda, and Vallejo are not places I go to these days.
 
My Hilton biz hits one year on 9/27. Is it still advised to call for a retention offer or should I just cancel the card?

Also, we need rain here soooo bad!! I’m kind of mad Humberto turned so sharply away from us. We drained our pool some for Dorian and now it’s getting low because we haven’t had rain since then!

Latest I read was Amex was not offering any retention offers on the Hilton Biz. You can try, because retention offers are targeted and change periodically. But I just went ahead and canceled ours in July, since that Hilton Biz is taking up one slot of the 5 Amex credit card you’re allowed to hold at once.
 
I always book at 180 days too. But I also cancel or modify them once I get down there because we usually end up changing a few of our plans once we are actually on vacation.
Yes! I always have my primary ADRs, but am open to change. Sometimes you can get really lucky planning on the fly!
We're dealing with multiple different food allergies, which makes restaurant choices more difficult :sad1: I really wish we could do Homecomin'! Rose & Crown is a good idea which I might book---thanks for reminding me of that. I'm definitely going to book the Cantina at least once. Our mainly-adult offspring would have to book their own lightsaber and droid reservations:laughing:

Just remembered----I need to get lunch at Be Our Guest!

I guess tomorrow morning I will do a quick which-park-which-day lol
It can't hurt! Happy planning :-)
We’re leaving in less than 2 weeks for a short weekend trip. I booked fast passes today. Obviously didn’t get the big ones, but with these EEMH it sounds like we don’t really need them if we get there early, which won’t be an issue. 6 am is sleeping in in my house.

Haven’t made a single ADR. Have a reservation finder out for Cali grill brunch, but if not, wine bar George on open table. Planning for mostly food and wine and some lounges.

Have a march trip with the kids. 180 days was last week. Haven’t done anything. This reminds me I should at least book the droid Depot as my son won’t stop talking about it .
Very impressive! I was actually mulling over my spring trip spreadsheet today in anticipation of dining day HAHA We all have different methods that work for us! I have Topolino's breakfast and dinner, Beaches and Cream, Sci-Fi, Yachtsman, 'Ohana, and Hoop Dee Doo that I need to book right away. The others aren't as important, but I will snag them while I am logged on.
 
We are going to see 'Come from Away' at the Kennedy Center over Xmas holidays. The convenience fee was a cool 30.52 and the KC sells them to you itself!! Plus $20 for advance parking, plus we got 3rd row orchestra seats because daughter paid and she did not want to sit in the $49 seats I picked out. I happily booked it on my card and will take it out of her checking with her permission of course. I want to see a comedy in Nov but I'll wait until I return from Disney to buy as the one I'm going to see won't sell out. Then 'My Fair Lady' is in January and anything to take the dull out of Washington Winter, please! I really love live performance.

Me too! I love theater, especially musicals! We started doing the Broadway show subscriber package a few years ago and haven't looked back. I've seen a fair amount of shows that I probably would not have normally seen and really enjoyed. I am very much looking forward to seeing Come From Away.

Oh you'll love Come from Away! We saw it in Atlanta in June and it was even better than I thought it would be. I laughed and cried in places.

I keep hearing that it is very good. We get to see it in April and are looking forward to it.

I love live performances too! Planning a trip to NYC with my mother towards the end of October. Don’t know what we are going to see yet. Will see what’s available at TKTS.

We went to TKTS for the first time earlier this year and found it was a lot of fun to just see what was available and go with it. We were with friends and PlanePrincess stayed at the hotel while I went to stand in line to get the tix with one of our friends. When we came back and I showed the tix to PlanePrincess, he was like, "Do you mean to tell me you actually bought tickets to see a musical about King Kong?" The look on his face was priceless :rotfl2: By the end of the show we were all crying over a 20 ft tall puppet :sad:
 
I have the Citi ThankYou Preferred card too. It’s my second oldest account, and I think was PCed a few times from a student card I got in college. It sits in my drawer mostly useless, but it did qualify for the Amazon use 1 TYP, get $15 off $50+ recently. I’m in no rush to PC it since the Preferred is a no AF card and I’m not invested in the TYP system. If I get the Premier or Prestige >5/24 and there’s a good elevated SUB, then I’ll take the opportunity to also PC the Preferred to a Double Cash, assuming the rumors are true.

The Dividend’s 5% categories - Department Stores! And funny thing about Best Buy is If I were to use the CF’s 5x via Chase Pay, it’d be at Best Buy.
The TYP is also my second oldest card! It was a forced PC from a Citi Forward card I got back in college too! I tried that offer, but sadly was not targeted. I did get an ApplePay promo on it recently which was nice. I like your plan! If I go for a higher earning TY card, I will PC it to the DC card at the same time. Even if it resets a clock, it won't matter because of the new TY card. This is also far down the line because I don't plan on going over 5/24 anytime soon:rotfl: (still waiting for a nice United card :D )
 
I know, the price is really high. I used birthday money to buy my first pair last August. After I wore them for months, I ordered the points to wear for the awards party in March. I can wear Rothy's Flats here from late March until early November until my feet get too cold, but I think you in Chicagoland (right?) would wear them slightly less.

(shoot, that was supposed to be quoting @CyndiLouWho )
Yes Chicago, so depending on the shoes, here maybe May thru Octoberish. Lol. Although I do wear boots when needed and change at work. I have my go to Merrill clogs and some Skechers that are solid black and ungymshoe-like. I always have to put extra inserts for cushioning and arch support. I do have Clark flip flops which are fabulous and need no arch support. Lived in them all summer when not at work.
 
My dh and I purchased a new Kia Telluride today. We are putting down between $10-15K and financing the rest for 1.9%APR. I have a relatively new CIP that I still need to put on around $4k to get my bonus points. I asked how much I could put on a charge card (thinking she was going to say $1K or so) and she said whatever amount you want to. She said some people put over $10K on their charge card. I was shocked and never heard of this but happy that my 80K points will be appearing soon on my CIP and will put the rest of the down payment on a few other cards to get some bonus points. :thumbsup2
 
Maybe in a light oatmeal color??? :)

As long as he doesn't get the blue one. If @SouthFayetteFan and I went all twinsies, I think we'd be in the midst of an existential crisis. He'd start keeping cards with annual fees, I'd be cashing out points instead transferring them to airlines. Madness and chaos would ensue.
 
I want to order a few more Travelon purses to try :rolleyes1 I've been terrible in my search for a new travel purse. And now I'm kind of thinking of getting two wallets, one for domestic travel and one international that could hold my passport... I have a problem now.

I was looking at the bungees yesterday. What one do you use?
I have a Travelon crossbody that I picked up to sell in eBay but I’ve kept it thinking I should just use it. I just feel the strap might be uncomfortable at my neck.
We are now 5 days out from our WDW Trip!!! I’m asking you all to please keep your fingers crossed for good weather for us. 5 day outlook is showing a 70% chance of a tropical depression forming by the end of the week. I know there are a lot of variables in that and that even if it does happen, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll impact our trip, but I’m so hoping we just get down there without a hitch. I’ve been keeping an eye on the SW nonstop flights to MCO since thats a new route for our airport within the last couple weeks and they have all been on time (or super close anyways). I spent the weekend with my ILs and they are very excited to get down there!
The forecast 5 days out still has it so far away. As a Floridian, I’m not going to check on it again for at least 7-10 days. Have a great trip!!
I was asking my wife for a good movie for my flight once. She said The Great Gatsby was good. Luckily I was in the very last row, but there's still people in/out of bathroom and staff milling around. My first inclination was to hit "Pause". Well that just freezes the nudes on the screen. 😳 Otherwise it was a great movie (and a good use of 2 hours)
On our way back this summer, I watched Deadpool. O. M. G. It was great and so funny but quite adult.
 
Yes Chicago, so depending on the shoes, here maybe May thru Octoberish. Lol. Although I do wear boots when needed and change at work. I have my go to Merrill clogs and some Skechers that are solid black and ungymshoe-like. I always have to put extra inserts for cushioning and arch support. I do have Clark flip flops which are fabulous and need no arch support. Lived in them all summer when not at work.

You all have made me spend non bonused, non portal, non coupon, money!! I guess at least it goes towards MSR on my Hilton Amex. I have a cashmere cardigan (in oat heather to match SFF) on the way. I was on the fence on the wrap so decided to go with something a bit more basic first. That and I seem to manage to look like I’m wearing a down comforter whenever I try to drape a shawl or scarf or wrap around me! And for good measure I threw in a pair of washed black jeans that just looked amazing (of course) on the tall skinny model.

And then while (unsuccessfully) looking for a promo code I fell down a rabbit hole and found stacking bracelets I just had to have.

Oh and on Amazon I finally ordered the Spanish Pons Avarcas (leather sandals) that I’ve been eyeing ever since I saw someone wearing them while we were in Big Sur.

And before you all judge too much (hopefully I don’t accidentally post this in the FIRE thread) these are the first clothing purchases I’ve made all year for myself. I used all of those lovely Amex Plat Saks credits on DD. I’m so generous :)
 
That is a good question and just shows how silly I am. I believe the Hilton cards acquire points, not MRs, so I would be using Hilton Points. Sorry!

And that is good to know; thank you.




Ok, good to know and I will keep an eye on prices/points even after I book. Thank you! I definitely plan to have the points in hand by June (no matter how I end up earning them).
If you have them by June I wouldn’t be worried at all.
 
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