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

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See I would totally rule out a cruise because to me there isn’t much to do on sea days other than sitting on the deck and Sunning and using the pool. And it gets crowded. I’d do something a bit more active l. I guess it depends on the itinerary

I think everyone's different. We hit the ground running each port day, and did as much as we could do, so the three sea days were excellent for relaxing and recovering. I don't get bored though and don't want to sail on one of the larger ships that has the ice rink, rock wall, or go kart track, but everyone has their own preferences. I was never bored, not for one moment, but I know people who can't stand a sea day. We had so many things to do on those days it was hard to carve out some down time sometimes. :)
 
I don't think our thread will die because of the community aspect we have here. I bet if churning completely died tomorrow (i.e. so many rules were put in that it was impossible to churn more than 1 card a year) this group would still continue to exist because we just all like chatting about travel...and babies...and cars...and pop tarts...and whole bunch of other topics! r/churning doesn't have a community feel to it, that's for sure.
I hope churning doesn't die! 2020 will be my start year. Had to shed the debt first.
This is a great point. I think for a lot of people the excitement is gone. And I’m not sure it’s because we’ve been doing it for so long but rather what you said about there being no “sweet spots” worth my excitement. Maybe something new and exciting will come along that will bring us out of our churning rut :D (we can all hope at least)
Well, I guess it's a good time for people like me to jump in. We don't have the hindsight of 100k awards. They are the legends of old. I look at Swagbucks with the same reasoning: I didn't get into it until this year. I earned $200 in giftcards and then hit a slump. So, I'll churn while I can in 2020!
 
I don't think our thread will die because of the community aspect we have here. I bet if churning completely died tomorrow (i.e. so many rules were put in that it was impossible to churn more than 1 card a year) this group would still continue to exist because we just all like chatting about travel...and babies...and cars...and pop tarts...and whole bunch of other topics! r/churning doesn't have a community feel to it, that's for sure.

I'm still here and posting. We are slowing down (yeah, I keep saying it but the card count number disagrees with me) a bit, so I took on some Amex promos (Plat retention, plus just something they offered me on my Gold that isn't worth as much but is nice) to carry us through for a while. DH wants the Aspire at some point, but we have no Hilton stays coming up and he's at 4/24 until August so he's going to try to wait in case something too good to pass on comes up in the meantime. I'm in the same boat, but won't drop a card until next September. I still have about $300 spend to finish up the CIP I got a few weeks ago (and that scary we don't have your application thing is making me reluctant to push Chase any more for now).

I toyed with SW CP (because, FOMO) but I really don't think we need it for 2020 so I'm going to pass. We may end up doing more category spend for a while, too. We do have a decent amount of MRs and URs right now and our 2020 trip is all booked (yeah we are weird and plan just one big trip a year LOL).
 
Has anyone used Serve to make a deposit into a Bank of America checking account? When I try to add the bank as a payee, I have 11 different Bank of America choices and I'm not sure which to pick.
 


Needing some tips for an upcoming WDW Delta package......after speaking to a Delta CSR supervisor, I have been told that if I cancel my package, the tix included WILL be cancelled. There is no way to "pop them out". The rub here, is that I DID pay insurance on the trip, BUT....I KNOW I did NOT pay insurance on the park ticket portion of the trip. The original CSR told me that the insurance could NOT be applied to the tickets, only the hotel and airfare. So, if I DID cancel, I fear that the voucher would only be for the flights/hotel and the outlay for the tickets would be lost. Which would NOT be cool since the tickets were the biggest chunk of the package to begin with!

After reading several data points here, it seems that the best course of action is to just throw away the flight (cheap) and two nights at hotel. (My original goal was to get a voucher for the hotel and flights, and KEEP the tickets for use at a later TBD date.) Since that no longer seems possible, does anyone know if I need to check in online for the "flight" (that I will be "flying" on) or the hotel stay (that I will be "staying" in)? If I DO check in for the hotel, it won't trigger the park tickets, correct?
I did this same thing minus buying the insurance. CSR told me the tickets would be cancelled and no swapping out hotel dates without booking new flights. So flights and hotel will go unused. Still got a good deal on Park tickets using delta points.
 
To add to the bank bonus talk yesterday, I am currently doing the Chase (personal checking). Looking at data points, I see that others bonus posted just a few days after their DD. We did a legit DD from DH's paycheck on October 10 and nada yet. Should I be concerned? It was just one DD and the bonus should post, correct?
With the holiday last week I would not be concerned yet. Normally I'd have expected it last Tuesday, but because of the bank holiday I'll cross my fingers you get it tomorrow.
 


This is a great point. I think for a lot of people the excitement is gone. And I’m not sure it’s because we’ve been doing it for so long but rather what you said about there being no “sweet spots” worth my excitement. Maybe something new and exciting will come along that will bring us out of our churning rut :D (we can all hope at least)

I guess I came to the part far too late, so I didn't have all those great options. In all honestly I'm thrilled with what we've been able to accomplish in the past 14 months since joining - one trip to Europe last month and another one booked (air and land on points) for next summer, and a nice amount sitting there for whatever we decide to do next. I also think there have been some good loopholes lately, but I won't post about it here.
 
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Infants are great on the ship. Toddlers are good on the newer ships with nemos reef if they aren’t potty trained and any ship once they are. We had a toddler on the magic once who was not yet potty trained (he was 15 mths) and that was torture for 7 days. There wasn’t enough to keep him busy.


There's a toddler splash pad on the Magic now. It's not as extensive as the one on the larger ships, but it does exist at least. :)
 
So true! My mom has always had a strained relationship with her sisters. It only got worse when Memaw passed away. I have 3 siblings. I'm kind of close to one of my sisters, but my other sister and brother just don't seem to care. Which really sucks because I wanted to be a wonderful aunt to my nephews, but my sister doesn't allow that to happen. At least I have my youngest sister's kids (my only niece is in my profile photo). It sucks for my kids though, I wanted them to have close relationships with all of their cousins. I tried for several years and now I've just given up. It takes 2 to make any kind of relationship and if the other party is out, it's not worth it.

Same here. I'm an only, DH isn't close to his sister, and she doesn't have kids anyway. So much for first cousins. I'm very close to a couple of my cousins, though. The one who had a DD a few months after mine was born? Nope. I tried and tried. They were the same age. We only live an hour apart, with lots of stuff to do in the middle. As you mentioned, it takes 2 and at a certain point I decided it just wasn't worth it. They would either stall or book and then cancel at the last moment, then say how much they wanted to get together. At some point I just started visibly rolling my eyes at those comments...
 
Same here. I'm an only, DH isn't close to his sister, and she doesn't have kids anyway. So much for first cousins. I'm very close to a couple of my cousins, though. The one who had a DD a few months after mine was born? Nope. I tried and tried. They were the same age. We only live an hour apart, with lots of stuff to do in the middle. As you mentioned, it takes 2 and at a certain point I decided it just wasn't worth it. They would either stall or book and then cancel at the last moment, then say how much they wanted to get together. At some point I just started visibly rolling my eyes at those comments...

I was the youngest on both sides of my family for awhile. Always was on my mom's side and my ccousins babysat me. The other side when I was in 6th grade my older cousins were in or done with college and the younger two were toddlers. Having cousins is overrated 😁 This is coming from a sorority girl that learned to tolerate those I didn't like but I'm not a fan of forced friendships.

I'm also of the, your family is who you make it and friends can be and are family. Family can be great but they can also be a bad word we can't use here which I have first hand experience with. But the friends I've chosen as my family throughout the years b even if it was just for that period and now we aren't as close, mean more to me than any family experience I had outside of my parents and grandparents.

You all know more about me than most of my extended family, some by my choice but mostly by theirs. As others have mentioned people dying sure changes things.
 
Anyone flown economy international and not hated every minute? Any airlines that are better than others? I put in all this work to find us business class flights to Scotland and got it down to 280K UR + $600 and DH is all meh because he says he’d rather save the UR and fly coach 🙄. You know, the UR that I’ve helped us earn while he plays the stock market. *sigh*
 
Anyone flown economy international and not hated every minute? Any airlines that are better than others? I put in all this work to find us business class flights to Scotland and got it down to 280K UR + $600 and DH is all meh because he says he’d rather save the UR and fly coach 🙄. You know, the UR that I’ve helped us earn while he plays the stock market. *sigh*

I don’t have a ton of experience but all of our international flights (heck all but 1 of our domestic flights too) have been economy. We flew Lufthansa (via United Miles) to Frankfurt then Barcelona. Solid economy class, food and alcohol were free. We did Virgin Atlantic (using MRs) to LHR and it was fine but the seats had very little padding.

12+ years ago we flew I think American (maybe even US Air?!) to Glasgow. Don’t have strong memories of the flight so it must have been fine.
 
I hope churning doesn't die! 2020 will be my start year. Had to shed the debt first.

Well, I guess it's a good time for people like me to jump in. We don't have the hindsight of 100k awards. They are the legends of old. I look at Swagbucks with the same reasoning: I didn't get into it until this year. I earned $200 in giftcards and then hit a slump. So, I'll churn while I can in 2020!

Your good apps are still ahead of you. That's how I feel! I don't have any of the 'good' Chase cards - no CIP, CSR, CSP, etc. Waiting to start those apps next year.
 
For those wondering if we're experiencing a slow-down in activity here on the thread... The r/churning daily discussion thread is discussing the same issue today.

Duff, A moderator over there shared this:
In the last year, we haven't had much positive news to comment on - no new earth-shattering card introductions, no major program mergers, stuff like that. What has been newsworthy is all negative - 1099s for referrals (which mostly only affects vets), Amex self-refer clawbacks, Serve shutdown, etc. Without new things to comment on, it's all just generally variations on the same questions like "If my P2 is an AU on my CSP can they get a CSP bonus for themselves?". Less novel content leads to fewer contents. And people are more likely to downvote because we have much better search tools now than we did a couple years ago - if you can't use the tools provided here, how good at this hobby are you going to be? And searching eliminates questions because people found their answer by searching.

Churning is definitely in a lull right now. We're in an era of simple strategies for those still playing the game. We are over 3 years removed from the introduction of the CSR and 2 1/2+ years since the 100k bonus went away. This was a major "needle mover" for churning. It attracted many new people to the game. I'd venture to guess that since that time we have seen more people fall away from this hobby than join it. Reasons for why I'd think that:
  • Concern over credit score and myths that churning hurts it: It was nice to earn a few bonuses but being a "real churner" is scary to many people
  • Fees and Interest: We all assume nobody is paying any fees or interest in the game but the truth of the matter is that some people are not paying their cards off in full every month. It's possible that there are even some among our group here that are incurring these "costs of the game" and just masking it to play along.
  • Lack of Organization: Churning typically requires a high degree of organization. You have to keep track of when you signed up for cards, the MSR, did the bonus post, multiple payment dates, etc. It would be interesting to know the average shelf life of a churner. They always say the average career of an NFL player is less than 3 years. I wonder if the same might be true of churners?
  • Scarcity of Opportunity: going along with my last bullet point, I also wonder if people hit 5/24, run into an Amex popup or 2 and just start to think this isn't worth the hassle anymore.
  • Perhaps one more reason is what Duff spoke to: a generally negative news cycle. Perhaps the plethora of bad news events has just resonated with people and they just don’t find churning to be worth it any more with so many rules and issues.
So a fun discussion topic for US here today: Do you think CC Churning is in a lull? Do you agree with my reasons? Do you have any other reasons? And why are YOU still here and any other thoughts?

EDIT: Should I take the lack of responses to this in the first 20 minutes as an indication that our thread is dying too? 🤣 🤣 🤣
EDIT2: I've been told my discussion topic is not "fun" so I will strike that word, LOL!

It’s definitely at a lull and I do believe your reasons are sound.

But like I always say, the one constant in this hobby is change. It always changes and you either adapt and roll with the punches or you don’t and move on to something else.

I wasn’t in the game during the glory days of the mint when everyone was purchasing $1 coins at face value and no shipping, depositing it into their bank and paying their credit card.

I've earned and burned millions of miles but never did it by purchasing pudding and earning lifetime AA gold in the process.

I never paid rice farmers in Thailand to take short surrogate flights and earn millions of miles.

I started after the hey days of those churners who were able to implement the aforementioned examples and I've done ok. I’ve been playing the game since before 5/24 was a thing, before BarCray Cray stopped allowing you to have 10 of the same card, before BoA implemented their limits and before Citi did their limitations and before Amex had lifetime language on their business cards.

I’m still here and still playing the game and still doing ok. Granted some of the previous strategies I've enjoyed in the past are no more. The game isn't as easy as it once was. I adapt and keep playing. I never expect anything other than change.

I'm definitely in the not paying interest camp because that would eat up the value of my points. Now, we all know I have no issues being the Queen of AFs but all AFs must be justifiable and provide a value greater than said AF.

I've seen my credit score go up over the years and the number of vacations I take increase. The types of vacations I have been able to experience are enough to keep me playing the game and just roll with it when the inevitable changes come.

Why am I still here? My bucket list is long and grows longer every time I cross something off. There is so much I still have not experienced. There is also much that I have not yet discovered I want to experience.

I haven't seen the Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland or the Giant's Causeway. I haven't spent days languishing at Ashford Castle. These are on the books for next September though.
I haven't hit my 7th continent (Africa) yet. I haven't stayed at Giraffe Manor. That will be next year too.
I have not seen Victoria Falls but can hopefully squeeze that into next year's Africa trip.
I've been to the Maldives, but not to Bora Bora ... yet.
I haven't seen Iguazu Falls from a helicopter.
I've been to Norway but did not climb Pulpit Rock when I was there.
I haven't seen the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
I have not been to the Galapagos Islands
I have not seen the Taj Mahal
I have not been to Bali or Thailand (does this mean I'm not a real churner)
I've heard Croatia is lovely but have not see in yet.
I would like to visit New Zealand and Fiji
Santorini and Mykonos are also on my list
The real Matterhorn would be nice to see as well
I would like to experience a rail train vacation

These are just a few of the reasons I'm still here but there are oh so many more. This hobby has led me to discover that very little, in terms of travel, is out of reach. Points and miles allow me to go just about anywhere and do just about anything. All I need to do is figure out which points and miles and give myself the time to accumulate them.
 
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For anyone else keeping an eye on the AmEx Green refresh, leaked details from u/Not_posting on r/churning but DoC consolidated the details from that discussion in his update:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amer...-accepting-new-applications-refresh-incoming/
No mention whatsoever of Amazon or streaming, which was the direction earlier this year. AmEx is doubling down on the travel crowd with this card too. Credit for CLEAR and Loungebuddy, with special welcome offer of $100 credit to Away (luggage). Doing 3x MR points for travel, transit, and dining categories.

Can't decide if it was a waste of AF to keep our long running Green this year. Was hoping they'd release before our Prime subscription came up for renewal, and they should since ads are expected to start on Thursday, but seems like a moo point now :p
 
I was the youngest on both sides of my family for awhile. Always was on my mom's side and my ccousins babysat me. The other side when I was in 6th grade my older cousins were in or done with college and the younger two were toddlers. Having cousins is overrated 😁 This is coming from a sorority girl that learned to tolerate those I didn't like but I'm not a fan of forced friendships.

I'm also of the, your family is who you make it and friends can be and are family. Family can be great but they can also be a bad word we can't use here which I have first hand experience with. But the friends I've chosen as my family throughout the years b even if it was just for that period and now we aren't as close, mean more to me than any family experience I had outside of my parents and grandparents.

You all know more about me than most of my extended family, some by my choice but mostly by theirs. As others have mentioned people dying sure changes things.

I totally agree, and you said it really well. I've picked and chosen family and they aren't all related to me, either. :goodvibes Coming from another ex-sorority girl who isn't a joiner (but one of those chosen family members is from that group).
 
Anyone flown economy international and not hated every minute? Any airlines that are better than others? I put in all this work to find us business class flights to Scotland and got it down to 280K UR + $600 and DH is all meh because he says he’d rather save the UR and fly coach 🙄. You know, the UR that I’ve helped us earn while he plays the stock market. *sigh*

My DD has a done that a few times in the last year and says it's fine. I did it when I was younger and it was ok. It also makes a big difference where you are flying from. From NY/East Coast I'd do it. From CA, not anymore. But I know lots of people who do. Over 8 hours, though, and it gets to be really miserable for me.

ETA - maybe you can compromise and book yourself in biz and your DH in coach!!!
 
Anyone flown economy international and not hated every minute? Any airlines that are better than others? I put in all this work to find us business class flights to Scotland and got it down to 280K UR + $600 and DH is all meh because he says he’d rather save the UR and fly coach 🙄. You know, the UR that I’ve helped us earn while he plays the stock market. *sigh*
How long is the flight? Our trips to London from the East coast were fine. Our longest flight was 8 hours non-stop to Rome and it was bearable. I think that's our limit though, I can't imagine sitting coach longer than that. Even my cheapskate company would pay for biz if it was longer than that.

Don't suppose you could send him coach and take Biz for yourself? You know, to compare and contrast? ;)
 
I would say Amtrak is a lot smarter choice, but there were six of us plus 2 strollers. I priced out Amtrak and would have used up too many of my points. They are better used on the Auto train. Can't do the buses - not a big bus to NY fan. Amtrak would have been over $500 for all of us. Bus much cheaper. Driving about $220 - there are about $50 worth of tolls, plus parking. Gas was relatively inexpensive with fuel points and stacked deal.
That makes sense with a bigger group of people . Last time I just went with my mother, so definitely easier and cheaper for us to go by Amtrak.
 
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