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

[georgina]

Hi all, new here. I have a lot of reading to do but wanted to comment on staying in the Marriott village. I just made a one night reservation for end of January for $100 with AAA discount. Free breakfast but $15/day for parking. Still can’t beat the price. Are landing late evening at MCO and didn’t want to use my DVC points.

Just throwing out randomly that the Flamingo Crossing Springhill and Fairfield don't charge for parking.

Sorry for the loss of your FIL.
We’re heading to Aruba in 7 weeks! Staying at the same resorts you did. Any recommendations on food? We’re a group of 5 adults. We are staying Tradewinds level at the Stellaris so we will have the lounge for breakfast, snacks and light lunches. Looking mostly for dinner recommendations. We booked a cabana for our day at Flamingo Beach. Thanks for the reminder about the lounge in AUA.

We enjoyed Quinta del Carmen for dinner. If you go and eat outside in the garden, be sure to use bug spray though! They have it there.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Just throwing out randomly that the Flamingo Crossing Springhill and Fairfield don't charge for parking.

I just stayed at the Springhill suites at Flamingo crossing this weekend. Will post a review on the dischurners hotel thread. I liked it but it wasn't a park trip.

 

[calypso726]

Here is a question for @calypso726 or anyone else who might have noticed something similar.... @Haley R was telling me about how she had to get her husband's name spelling corrected on his ticket to Japan.

Obviously my passport has my name like this: FIRST MIDDLE LAST

When I set up my ANA mileage club account, it ran my first and middle names together like this: FIRSTMIDDLE LAST

After I got off the phone with Virgin and made the reservations, my reservation (on the ANA website) looks like this: FIRSTM LAST

Nothing is spelled wrong - it's just that they ran things together oddly.

My husband does NOT have an ANA account. His passport of course is FIRST MIDDLE LAST. His reservation is under FIRST LAST.

Anyone think or know whether this will be an issue?

it may not be but if you call them up to get it corrected it could save some time and stress. I’ve had some of my tickets from other airlines issues firtsmiddle last and it wasn’t a problem. But I don’t think that happened with ANA. I’d call.

 

[alryan]

You can spend another $14,280.

($1,250- $536)*20

The $536 would equal 53,600 URs.
Not sure how it’s shown but .....if it represents the entire 5% earned you’ve spent $10,720 so far so can spend another $14,280
If it represents only the additional 4% you have spent $13,400 and can spend another $11,600

I think it's cool how math is. Two different ways to get there..same answer. My DH always makes fun of me because when I'm doing calculations like that I always seem to add a few extra steps. We always get the same answer, I just have to do it my way

 

[calypso726]

@LynnTH - so sorry for your loss

 

[calypso726]

Trying to determine which cards I need to make sure to take with me to Japan.

I used CIP to pay for the fees on my award tickets, so that needs to go with me.
I used the Amex Hilton Biz to earn the points for the 1 night I am spending at the Hilton Narita before we fly back home, so I imagine that needs to go with me, too.
I'll have the new Amex BBP in hand by then.

Between these three options, do you all think any one is better than the other for a daily spender while IN Japan, or should I wait and see whether I have anything more interesting by then? I haven't decided yet which card I will put my Japan Rail passes on and the plan right now is to earn more Chase URs for the hotel rooms... do I need to have the Chase card I earned the URs with, too?

Make sure the card you bring doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. I know when we used the rail way system we couldn’t use a credit card. It was either cash or a suica card. We were able to get a suica card at the Park Hyatt Tokyo and load it by charging to the room. That gave us 3x since we used the CSR for incidentals at the hotel.

 

[CastAStone]

Just throwing out randomly that the Flamingo Crossing Springhill and Fairfield don't charge for parking.

Neither does the Fairfield LBV, where my wife and I had a nice stay several years ago. Tiny pool if that matters.

 

[kmc8826]

DH approved for Amex Green! 45k MR's with $150 Away credit and only a $2000 spend. Only card I could get that offer to come up was with my Green and its small measly 5000 MR support bonus. But it is a card that for once DH is excited to get...I ordered my Away luggage with the credit and he really liked it and wants one of his own. So now we can both be fancy and boujee!

Today is the last day to apply with the Away credit if anyone is on the fence. It will take a personal spot but it has some other benefits as well as the travel category, so is easily used at Disney (i.e. I booked HDDR for our March trip and it coded as 3 times MR).

 

[tink1970]

DH approved for Amex Green! 45k MR's with $150 Away credit and only a $2000 spend. Only card I could get that offer to come up was with my Green and its small measly 5000 MR support bonus. But it is a card that for once DH is excited to get...I ordered my Away luggage with the credit and he really liked it and wants one of his own. So now we can both be fancy and boujee!

Today is the last day to apply with the Away credit if anyone is on the fence. It will take a personal spot but it has some other benefits as well as the travel category, so is easily used at Disney (i.e. I booked HDDR for our March trip and it coded as 3 times MR).

Congrats to DH!!! Now the most important question-will his Away match yours or will he go for something more green/gray/black?

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Been a busy couple of weeks for me. FIL was put in hospice shortly before our Aruba trip on January 4th. Wasn’t sure if we would still go but DH was at peace with it. We got back the 10th and FIL passed away this morning. So we all got to spend more time with him even though he was not really there. But would squeeze your hand when talking to him. Glad we made it back before he passed.

On to lighter topics. Aruba trip was good. Had flights booked for 7 of us with AA reward flights. I knew my shutdown rate was low but you just didn’t know what could happen. Everything was fine. No issues at all. Stayed at the Marriott Renaissance and Marriott Stellaris with Marriott points. Liked both places very much. But boy Aruba is not cheap. Weather was great!!

So I had upgraded last April to the Amex Brilliant card and paid the $450 fee. I thought that the fee would not be due again until then but I just got hit with the annual fee again. Not sure if I should keep it. This year we have trips to Vegas/Disneyland and then an Alaskan Cruise and Caribbean Cruise. So not sure when I would get to take advantage of all the extras. Would love others input. Can I downgrade the card and the upgrade again if needed?

CSR annual fee was just paid in November so have a bit to think about that. But we normally book cruises with the points so will probably keep it. Unless they come up with a new SUB. DH may be eligible for that. Have to look at my spreadsheet but our internet has been down at work since yesterday afternoon. Cant get anything done. Everything is online!!

LynnTH, Sincerely sorry for your loss.
I’m glad you were able to spend some time before he passed.

 

[ep1229]

Hi Everyone, I was wondering if I could get advice on using credit cards for buying a used car. I'm about to my teens a used car. I just started looking but I was wondering if it was possible to use credit cards to pay for it. (I have the cash to pay for it in full but I was thinking maybe I could earn points if I use a credit card) Also, any particular card to use? Thanks in advance!

 

[havaneselover]

Sometimes being my ex-husband's ex-wife is a pain in the butt. I told him I was going to FL to visit my parents in March and he booked tickets to go to Atlanta to visit his inlaws. Basically there's a day when neither of us would be here. He thought it would be okay to leave the kids for a night alone. I vetoed that. He did feel bad and offered up some other options (have the neighbor check on them or have his sister stay but I'm not comfortable with those options). Plus the day neither of us would be here is the day my son's French tutor comes, etc. Anyway, I'm not sure what to do now. Maybe plan a trip to MI this summer. Unfortunately I can't fly SW to Northern Michigan

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I know this is triggering for some (so fair warning, LOL), but I found this article really helpful to link up my Delta and Hilton accounts for Lyft. The CSR part was a breeze. https://thepointsguy.com/guide/lyft...&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=thepointsguy

In other news ... total churning fail. This is the second time I've made this same mistake. I constantly confuse myself on the differences between the business platinum and personal platinum. For some reason I had it in my head that hotels booked directly with the personal plat get 5x. They don't. The difference is that airlines booked directly with the airline on the personal platinum get 5x points whereas it's only through the portal with the business. So for the second time I paid a hotel directly with my husband's platinum thinking I'd be getting 5x. Banging head. I even have a spreadsheet, but I didn't bother looking because I *thought* I knew what I was doing.

 

[DaveL]

In related news, there has been no movement on the Southwest front yet. The page that typically indicates things are in motion has not changed yet. Their last adjustment was through 4/13 so I'd expect the next window to cover parts of April and May.

I'm hoping though the first week of June.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Hi Everyone, I was wondering if I could get advice on using credit cards for buying a used car. I'm about to my teens a used car. I just started looking but I was wondering if it was possible to use credit cards to pay for it. (I have the cash to pay for it in full but I was thinking maybe I could earn points if I use a credit card) Also, any particular card to use? Thanks in advance!

Not sure if it being a used car makes a difference, but I tried buying two new cars (from the Hyundai dealer, two different locations) on a credit card, and I was willing to use absolutely any card to get them to say yes, but unfortunately it was a no go. It may depend on the place you’re buying from as well.

 

[havaneselover]

Hi Everyone, I was wondering if I could get advice on using credit cards for buying a used car. I'm about to my teens a used car. I just started looking but I was wondering if it was possible to use credit cards to pay for it. (I have the cash to pay for it in full but I was thinking maybe I could earn points if I use a credit card) Also, any particular card to use? Thanks in advance!

Our Honda dealer lets you put $3500 on a credit card. I assume it doesn't matter if it's new or used.

 

[tink1970]

I know this is triggering for some (so fair warning, LOL), but I found this article really helpful to link up my Delta and Hilton accounts for Lyft. The CSR part was a breeze. https://thepointsguy.com/guide/lyft...&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=thepointsguy

In other news ... total churning fail. This is the second time I've made this same mistake. I constantly confuse myself on the differences between the business platinum and personal platinum. For some reason I had it in my head that hotels booked directly with the personal plat get 5x. They don't. The difference is that airlines booked directly with the airline on the personal platinum get 5x points whereas it's only through the portal with the business. So for the second time I paid a hotel directly with my husband's platinum thinking I'd be getting 5x. Banging head. I even have a spreadsheet, but I didn't bother looking because I *thought* I knew what I was doing.

I feel you-I booked one if not 2 flights with my biz plat forgetting that the only way it earns 5X MRs on airlfare is through their travel portal. So it can happen to all of us! On a happier note (perhaps)-how did the half go?

 

[Psychodisney]

That will be nice being at Tradewinds level. We ended up just walking into town each night. Lots of different restaurants. We ate at Iguana Joes and Smokey Joes and some Italian/French combo restaurant. That was really good. Had the wood fired oven for pizzas.
At Renaissance we ate at 5 o’clock somewhere which is in the little mall next to the hotel. Also at a BBQ place and had lunch on their private island. Had lots of fun but boy do those drinks and food add up.
We took a taxi from one hotel to the other an he stopped at a grocery store. We got some beer, captain and coke. Saved alot of money buying drinks. We brought a collapsible cooler from home and brought those to the beach at Stellaris. Also both hotels have beach towels so you dont need to bring any. And watch for the service charge/tip that they add on to most bills so you dont tip twice. We usually gave a little more. And lots of sunscreen. We were really good about reapplying but still ended up sunburned.

Great idea about the cooler. We have a couple of those. Sounds like it will be easier to pick up supplies there than it was in the Bahamas. I’m ok with spending money on dinner and drinks after getting airfare and hotel on points. We are paying cash for the Tradewinds up grade. It’s our 30th anniversary and time spent with our 3 kids that we don’t get to see enough of. Hopefully they’ll spring for some dinner and drinks. Lol

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I feel you-I booked one if not 2 flights with my biz plat forgetting that the only way it earns 5X MRs on airlfare is through their travel portal. So it can happen to all of us! On a happier note (perhaps)-how did the half go?

The portal requirement on the AMEX card really bugs me, but thanks for the commiserating.

The half went well--thanks for asking. @Calfan and I had a great time despite the not so great course. There was really limited park time this go around compared to previous courses. Easily the worst of the 10 I've done. But I always feels so exhilarated after finishing--and then there's the bling

 

[becauseimnew]

Hi Everyone, I was wondering if I could get advice on using credit cards for buying a used car. I'm about to my teens a used car. I just started looking but I was wondering if it was possible to use credit cards to pay for it. (I have the cash to pay for it in full but I was thinking maybe I could earn points if I use a credit card) Also, any particular card to use? Thanks in advance!

Like others have replied, it depends on the dealer whether they allow credit cards. I would get a new card since you should meet the minimum spend requirement (MSR) pretty quick. Are you new to the thread? We usually recommend you start with Chase cards.