I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 (see first page for add'l details)

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Ooh! Hard plastic for the passport page, that’s nice! Never would have said that before but Hilton Tahiti put a crease in my passport page when they scanned it and I kept trying to bend it back every time I pulled it out after that.

How long was the processing time?

9 weeks from appt to receipt of passport for expedited processing. I didn't pay extra for expedited shipping.
8 weeks for total processing/printing.

 

[DogCat]

Was it the 7-10 days message, or not that specific?

No it literally says we will let you know "as soon as we can." It then says "our email or letter will include instructions on how to provide additional information or documentation if needed." I did get a "thanks for applying" email from Chase that says we'll be in touch soon. I was also notified that my Experian credit was checked.

It's different than I've seen before. I hope it gets approved. So jealous of those who get instant approvals LOL..

 

[IFlossU]

There's a new question on my latest CIC application. They want my estimated monthly spend. Yikes! I don't know what to put here - A lot at first and then a little lol. What have you all entered here?

I just put my anticipated spend for the first few months. In this case probably something like $2k.

DVC members will appreciate this: they asked me the week before if I could get them a Friday night at Grand Californian. I was 99.999999% sure there would be nothing but I checked anyway. Both are/were used to parents paying for tickets, although my DD has bought a few herself - back when a 7 day might cost $400 or so.

DD had gone in advance of the conference and spent the weekend going to Joshua Tree. She had already spent extra on car rental and used her UR's for a room near JT, so when the 2 tickets became double their budget, it was fairly easy to skip it. In addition there would have been a room and food, plus extra transportation costs. Pricey add on to the end of a trip.

Yeah, Disney has become ridiculously expensive. Very difficult to stomach spending that much for a “quick trip.”

 

[wanderlust7]

I don't currently have a CSR/CSP, so I can't transfer my URs to partners. We've been combining all our URs into DH account since he has the CSP. He doesn't have status with Hyatt so I don't think he can do the guest of honor. Pretty sure I read that's a globalist perk.

He can’t do Guest of Honor, but he can gift the stay to you. He’d have to call Hyatt to change it to your name.

Points transfer will work too, but it’s a paper form and can take awhile. If you go this route, make sure the info for both accounts match the profile info as that can cause issues if it doesn’t. I don’t see a reason to do this in your case unless you have some Hyatt points you want to use up.

 

[ctinct]

There's a new question on my latest CIC application. They want my estimated monthly spend. Yikes! I don't know what to put here - A lot at first and then a little lol. What have you all entered here?

I just submitted my app and no instant approval for me It said we'll let you know our decision in writing as soon as we can. This is sad. I hope it's not a denial, especially after DD just got denied for the cap one student savor card

Don’t give up hope. I just applied for the IHG biz card and got the 7-10 day message. I assumed it was a denial, but I couldn’t fathom why it would be, because I had three ink preapprovals listed in the “just for you” section of my Chase log on site. (I would have a really tough time meeting the spend on those, and I frequently stay at Holiday Inn Express hotels with the grandkids, so that’s why I went with the IHG rather than an Ink.)

To add salt to my wound, I just got a email preapproval for a Flex a few days ago, too.

I never got an approval email like some others have reported after getting the 7-10 day message. I know you didn’t get the 7-10 day message, but I just want to give you a glimmer of hope, because wouldn’t you know it-the card showed up in the mail Thursday. (The very day my auto insurance billed to another card. I had been hoping to put it on the IHG to help meet the spend. Argggh.)

Oh, I was asked the monthly spend question also. I put $500.

Good luck and keep the faith! Let us know how you make out.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Well one way to hit my Amex Hilton Biz spend....my 14yo needed new skates. So $850 later he's grinning ear to ear. Tryouts this year were stressful. My son technically was on 3 teams this spring. He had to make his fall commitment before HS tryouts. He decided to stay w/ his new club for the year. Then he goes on to make the Varsity HS team for the summer. DOH! His goal is now varsity or AAA. A LOT have told him he's ready for AAA. And looks like he might have made Varsity as a freshman. All that to say.....I think a lot of my spend will be on hockey this upcoming year. 4 away tournaments, plus he's outgrown all his gear!

We leave for Cancun on Monday. We had 4 FNC, but we cancelled one night. My poor BF has been flying like crazy the last month and hasn't been home much. Plus it's not -27 degrees in Michigan this time, LOL. But now we have 1 FNC to use between now and August, LOL.

I have to figure out IHG places to use my FNC too. And I have a bunch of free cruise offers. UGH. I need to sit down and figure all this out! I have too much free travel, LOL.

The benefits of any particular card are certainly subjective. Just keep in mind that a grocery bonus also allows you to buy things like Airbnb gift cards, restaurant gift cards and anything else you can find at your particular grocery store to earn bonus points on every day spending. Granted, organic spending in this way will never matter as much as a SUB, but its free points.

If you have enough cards that offer a 5% grocery quarterly bonus during different quarters, then another grocery card won't help you. But, I tend to play more with business cards than personal cards so I'm never over 5/24, so I've never tried that strategy personally.

I normally MS so I hit the FNC on the Surpass. We use them for the Hilton PDC All Inclusive. I'm hoping that I'm earning one right now (trying on my 2nd Hilton Biz card). I'll earn my $15k FNC and then I'm going to have my BF get the free honors card and get the FNC too! We love the FNCs!

 

[DogCat]

Got a denial letter from Cap One and it says they were not able to the validate the phone number provided (through LexisNexis Risk Solutions Inc). Does anyone have insight into this?

 

[calypso726]

Paris and London next year on points is underway! We booked the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile for a couple of nights and used a suite upgrade award certificate. We have friends that have stayed here and they really loved it! We also booked the Hyatt Regency London Churchill for 4 nights and used a suite night upgrade award certificate there as well. Next up will be the flights to deal with. That should be fun. Really glad to have the hotels out of the way for now.

Don’t have a ton of trips going on for next year so planning will be light for once. I’m going to try and leave myself open to do some spontaneous trips or be able to jump on a great points and miles opportunity that shows up out of the blue, like a mistake fare or unicorn availability on something in late 2024 and through 2025. I’m always kicking myself for being all planned out and unable to jump on these types of trips when they come about. So my theme for late next year and 2025 is let’s see which way the wind blows

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

DH got an email from Amex about being pre-approved for an Amex Biz Plat even though he already has one. 200K MRs as follows: 150K MRs for the Biz Plat after spending 15K, 30K MRs for a business checking account with qualifying activities, and 20K MRs if getting both.. Expires at the end of the year. Don't see any lifetime language. This throws a wrench into my plans!

Had been thinking of the Aspire then an Amex Delta Biz, then P1 refers P2 for an Amex Gold personal and then P2 refers P1 to an Amex Biz Gold. Need the MRs for flights to Japan to be booked in about 5 months. But now I'm thinking skip the Aspire as I didn't have a plan for that anyway, just didn't want to pass on the elevated offer. Still get the Delta card mid July as they keep having the best flight times and direct routes for repositioning for us. Then we do the Biz Plat + checking offer and avoid more credit checks and get more MRs.

The annoying part will be trying to squeeze that much spend in 3 months! Will have to prepay certain bills. And of course, finding more use for the Dell credits

 

[hsmamato2]

Does Marriott ever give anyone a hard time about checking in,using points in Dad's name? I used the points from his acct, or should we call first to verify my ds will check in 'earlier'?

 

[Spivey378]

Paris and London next year on points is underway! We booked the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile for a couple of nights and used a suite upgrade award certificate. We have friends that have stayed here and they really loved it! We also booked the Hyatt Regency London Churchill for 4 nights and used a suite night upgrade award certificate there as well. Next up will be the flights to deal with. That should be fun. Really glad to have the hotels out of the way for now.

Don’t have a ton of trips going on for next year so planning will be light for once. I’m going to try and leave myself open to do some spontaneous trips or be able to jump on a great points and miles opportunity that shows up out of the blue, like a mistake fare or unicorn availability on something in late 2024 and through 2025. I’m always kicking myself for being all planned out and unable to jump on these types of trips when they come about. So my theme for late next year and 2025 is let’s see which way the wind blows

I just booked at Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile for next May too!

This is my first time transferring UR points to Hyatt. It was very smooth and I got incredible value for my points!

 

[calypso726]

I just booked at Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile for next May too!

This is my first time transferring UR points to Hyatt. It was very smooth and I got incredible value for my points!

I recall the first time I did and then had that "Aha!" moment and realized why all the points and miles bloggers made such a big deal about Hyatt.

The downside is, I now have a hard time viewing my Chase points as anything other than Hyatt points anymore The value I got on the Paris Etoile, if I factor in the suite upgrade, is 3.5 cpp and the London Churchill is just over 4 cents per point in value. Even without factoring in a suite and getting a regular room it was still a better cpp than going through the UR portal. Deciding to use the UR points via the UR portal at 1.5 cpp is kinda meh after that LOL

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I recall the first time I did and then had that "Aha!" moment and realized why all the points and miles bloggers made such a big deal about Hyatt.

The downside is, I now have a hard time viewing my Chase points as anything other than Hyatt points anymore The value I got on the Paris Etoile, if I factor in the suite upgrade, is 3.5 cpp and the London Churchill is just over 4 cents per point in value. Even without factoring in a suite and getting a regular room it was still a better cpp than going through the UR portal. Deciding to use the UR points via the UR portal at 1.5 cpp is kinda meh after that LOL

I am the same now as well! Pretty much only use Chase points for something other than Hyatt if there's a transfer bonus for an airline I was already planning on using for something.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I had a stay booked at the W Toronto tonight using my soon-to-expire FNC from my (Cdn) Marriott BonBlah card. Got great value: 35K FNC + 8,000 pts for a room that was $415.00. Was going to give it to dd and her boyfriend, who was supposed to fly in today from San Francisco for a week (which includes his uni graduation). Except AC cancelled his flight and he can't get on another until tomorrow . Cancellation window is 48 hours, which is way past. So I called the hotel this morning and spoke to the front desk manager. I told her that my flight from SFO was cancelled this morning by AC and I wouldn't be able to make the stay. She said that was no problem, made a note in the file and told me to call Marriott to get the FNC and points refunded. It took less than 5 mins. Now I have a 35k FNC expiring at the end of September that I need to find a use for.

 

[Psychodisney]

Does Marriott ever give anyone a hard time about checking in,using points in Dad's name? I used the points from his acct, or should we call first to verify my ds will check in 'earlier'?

That's what I did. Just add his name to the reservation.

 

[punkin]

DH got an email from Amex about being pre-approved for an Amex Biz Plat even though he already has one. 200K MRs as follows: 150K MRs for the Biz Plat after spending 15K, 30K MRs for a business checking account with qualifying activities, and 20K MRs if getting both.. Expires at the end of the year. Don't see any lifetime language. This throws a wrench into my plans!

Had been thinking of the Aspire then an Amex Delta Biz, then P1 refers P2 for an Amex Gold personal and then P2 refers P1 to an Amex Biz Gold. Need the MRs for flights to Japan to be booked in about 5 months. But now I'm thinking skip the Aspire as I didn't have a plan for that anyway, just didn't want to pass on the elevated offer. Still get the Delta card mid July as they keep having the best flight times and direct routes for repositioning for us. Then we do the Biz Plat + checking offer and avoid more credit checks and get more MRs.

The annoying part will be trying to squeeze that much spend in 3 months! Will have to prepay certain bills. And of course, finding more use for the Dell credits

I did this amex business offer. I had an unfortunate one time expense that made it feasible. I made spend in one month. It's hard to do 15k in 3 months without a real expense coming up.

 

[IFlossU]

DH got an email from Amex about being pre-approved for an Amex Biz Plat even though he already has one. 200K MRs as follows: 150K MRs for the Biz Plat after spending 15K, 30K MRs for a business checking account with qualifying activities, and 20K MRs if getting both.. Expires at the end of the year. Don't see any lifetime language. This throws a wrench into my plans!

Had been thinking of the Aspire then an Amex Delta Biz, then P1 refers P2 for an Amex Gold personal and then P2 refers P1 to an Amex Biz Gold. Need the MRs for flights to Japan to be booked in about 5 months. But now I'm thinking skip the Aspire as I didn't have a plan for that anyway, just didn't want to pass on the elevated offer. Still get the Delta card mid July as they keep having the best flight times and direct routes for repositioning for us. Then we do the Biz Plat + checking offer and avoid more credit checks and get more MRs.

The annoying part will be trying to squeeze that much spend in 3 months! Will have to prepay certain bills. And of course, finding more use for the Dell credits

Just happy to know I’m not alone in working through these types of decision . I tell my family I feel like I have a whiteboard in my head that I’m always mentally writing on. It’s like one of those super long complicated math equations I’m trying to solve, except with credit cards

 

[hsmamato2]

That's what I did. Just add his name to the reservation.

Arrgh...I made a little bitty mistake while booking this a few months back..... the points are in Dh's name, (I've always just used them no problem) but I booked a 4 person 2 queen room....now it looks like instead of me/ds going, it'll be just ds (young adult) aaaaaand here's the mistake it's booked as 1 person in the room,even tho it can do 4 people. Should I call and request they put ds' name on it also? b/c it says '1 person' it has the main acct name on it only....(siiigggghhh) and hotel is full so if I had to cancel this we;d be up a creek..... what should I do here?

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

He can’t do Guest of Honor, but he can gift the stay to you. He’d have to call Hyatt to change it to your name.

Points transfer will work too, but it’s a paper form and can take awhile. If you go this route, make sure the info for both accounts match the profile info as that can cause issues if it doesn’t. I don’t see a reason to do this in your case unless you have some Hyatt points you want to use up.

So just book it with his points on his account, and then he can call and change the reservation to my name? That's all he would need to do? You know it's like pulling teeth to get him on the phone for anything, lol.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I found a use for my Marriott 35k FNC with an even better value. The STRAF in Milan, where I'll be staying for 2 nights (1 night on dh's points, 1 using my FNC). The cash cost is $610.72, but points was 40,000. Only problem is my Italy trip is in October and the certificate expires at the end of September. So I did a bit of research on the internet to see if / how it's possible to extend the FNC, found a very useful tidbit of info, used it and voila! The Marriott CSR extended my FNC for a year! I am SO glad that I tried because this saves 40k points that can be used elsewhere.