I love credit cards so much!

[amalone1013]

I was going to try and double dip my last 5/24 spot with Marriott and CSP... any recommendations now that that won't work? My Chase cards are CSR, Disney, Sw Plus, and Sw Biz. Biggest goal currently is minimizing OOP expenses for travel next year, with things like WDW, DLR/SoCal, and a few weekend trips, not sure where those will be yet - any suggestions? We've got 1 CSR travel credit to use, 2 if I keep mine another year, SW CP and points for flights, and about 150k UR points right now. I know everyone's situation is personal, but any thoughts on trying for CF vs the Hyatt, that kind of thing?

Next I'd like to start collecting towards a Europe trip, but I've got to get this whole wedding/honeymoon thing wrapped up before I move on to that

 

[gottalovepluto]

Thanks yeah I saw that too but I was just wondering if the room charges would be rolled into the package charge upon check out...just wondering not that big of a deal.

Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in but don't packages have to be paid off 30 days before your trip? Therefore any charges during your stay wouldn't code as part of the package because you already completed that transaction. (Just don't miss paying chase Visa before your 6 months are up as the 0% goes to 16%+ APR levels.)

 

[gottalovepluto]

I was going to try and double dip my last 5/24 spot with Marriott and CSP... any recommendations now that that won't work? My Chase cards are CSR, Disney, Sw Plus, and Sw Biz. Biggest goal currently is minimizing OOP expenses for travel next year, with things like WDW, DLR/SoCal, and a few weekend trips, not sure where those will be yet - any suggestions? We've got 1 CSR travel credit to use, 2 if I keep mine another year, SW CP and points for flights, and about 150k UR points right now. I know everyone's situation is personal, but any thoughts on trying for CF vs the Hyatt, that kind of thing?

Next I'd like to start collecting towards a Europe trip, but I've got to get this whole wedding/honeymoon thing wrapped up before I move on to that

I hope your fiancé has major respect for your I Travel Free skills

 

[LYSE]

Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in but don't packages have to be paid off 30 days before your trip? Therefore any charges during your stay wouldn't code as part of the package because you already completed that transaction. (Just don't miss paying chase Visa before your 6 months are up as the 0% goes to 16%+ APR levels.)

For DLR within 30 days you pay half at time of booking and the rest will be paid at the front desk, normally I see the final charge all lumped into one with room charges but the Disney card seems to get pretty granular with what is interest free and what isn't so maybe it's not that easy.

And yeah I would be paying it within the 6 months, normally I don't go those 0 percent deals but I can actually put that money to use during the 0 percent period so hanging onto it for as long as possible after I enjoyed my vacation is beneficial to me right now.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in but don't packages have to be paid off 30 days before your trip? Therefore any charges during your stay wouldn't code as part of the package because you already completed that transaction. (Just don't miss paying chase Visa before your 6 months are up as the 0% goes to 16%+ APR levels.)

This is exactly my understanding. You book the package with a deposit and get 6 months 0% for the initial payment. Each additional payment that you make towards the package also gets 6 months 0% from the payment date. You must complete payment on your entire package 30 days before arrival, so that final payment would get 6 months 0% (which basically gives you 5 months from the start of your trip to pay off the final balance for that package). Anything that you spend at Disney (shops, restaurants, etc.) or charge to your room is not included in the package and therefore would not quality for the 6 months 0% promotion.

 

[gottalovepluto]

For DLR within 30 days you pay half at time of booking and the rest will be paid at the front desk, normally I see the final charge all lumped into one with room charges but the Disney card seems to get pretty granular with what is interest free and what isn't so maybe it's not that easy.

Interesting. I helped someone with a DLR package this year and payment was due 30 days prior to travel.

 

[LYSE]

This is exactly my understanding. You book the package with a deposit and get 6 months 0% for the initial payment. Each additional payment that you make towards the package also gets 6 months 0% from the payment date. You must complete payment on your entire package 30 days before arrival, so that final payment would get 6 months 0% (which basically gives you 5 months from the start of your trip to pay off the final balance for that package). Anything that you spend at Disney (shops, restaurants, etc.) or book to your room is not included in the package and therefore would not quality for the 6 months 0% promotion.

Thank you

Interesting. I helped someone with a DLR package this year and payment was due 30 days prior to travel.

The 30 day thing is weird..check this out...

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Thank you


The 30 day thing is weird..check this out...

This seems to be a room only reservation, not a vacation package. I read through the package terms for Disneyland and it is the same as WDW. What you are showing wouldn't count towards the 6 months 0% promotion.

 

[LYSE]

This seems to be a room only reservation, not a vacation package. I read through the package terms for Disneyland and it is the same as WDW. What you are showing wouldn't count towards the 6 months 0% promotion.

Yeah I just realized that's what I must have been recalling (room only)

thanks...that answers that

 

[amalone1013]

I hope your fiancé has major respect for your I Travel Free skills

He was pretty hesitant going into it, but I talked him into the SPG and Disney cards to start. And kept going from there. We had all of the cash saved up for our wedding, so that's what we've used mostly for minimum spends. Back in January I posted my recap of what we'd saved so far... here's an update on it:

7 free nights at the Dolphin (costing $197 for resort fees), 1 free night in Canaveral on UR points, saved $550 off our 5 night DVC rental with my Barclay Arrival, and 3 nights at Universal RPR for $325 - I got a daily getaways deal that was basically 2 for 1 pricing, and the third night is covered by his Barclay Arrival. Saving about $1500 from what I budgeted for a DVC rental, but really more because it's my first time renting points and I didn't realize how hard it would be to get a Boardwalk studio We're also going on a longer trip now.
Flights are ~$80 because we did early bird check-in. So that's about $720 less than budgeted, and $450 under retail. We would have done early bird this time around no matter what.
We got $600 from the Disney Visa signups, and with AMEX offers saved around $250 on gift cards, plus over $200 on other things like cell phone bill, luggage we needed for the trip, etc. And you've seen me on the SB/gift card threads
We also went down in January to see wedding places in person. I used my CSR credit (double dip) and a SW fare credit to cover flights down and 5 nights at Pop, so that covered about 90% of those costs.

And then we've got that points stash. DLR/SoCal trip is for his brother's wedding in April, so we were definitely taking that trip, and we got WDW APs, so now we don't feel bad about going once more before they expire... plus a stash of points for more trips!

He is quite impressed

 

[Angrose]

I was going to try and double dip my last 5/24 spot with Marriott and CSP... any recommendations now that that won't work? My Chase cards are CSR, Disney, Sw Plus, and Sw Biz. Biggest goal currently is minimizing OOP expenses for travel next year, with things like WDW, DLR/SoCal, and a few weekend trips, not sure where those will be yet - any suggestions? We've got 1 CSR travel credit to use, 2 if I keep mine another year, SW CP and points for flights, and about 150k UR points right now. I know everyone's situation is personal, but any thoughts on trying for CF vs the Hyatt, that kind of thing?

Next I'd like to start collecting towards a Europe trip, but I've got to get this whole wedding/honeymoon thing wrapped up before I move on to that

I would go for the Marriott and one of the Freedom cards, since those are both affected by the 5/24 rule. Hyatt is not under 5/24 so you could pick that one up later. your wedding/honeymoon plans sound amazing!

 

[eeyoresmom]

CSP can be directly PCed to Freedom after the first year. I just did two last month.

I want to pc my CSP which I opened in Feb 2017 and was charged the AF before I even received the card. Do I have to wait until Feb 2018 to pc this and effectively pay 2 years of AF?

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

I want to pc my CSP which I opened in Feb 2017 and was charged the AF before I even received the card. Do I have to wait until Feb 2018 to pc this and effectively pay 2 years of AF?

Although it's definitely YMMV, many have been able to PC the CSP to a Sapphire and then to a Freedom or Freedom Unlimited within the first year of ownership. It's not uncommon for Chase to make you wait 30 days after the first PC to Sapphire before going to one of the Freedoms and in addition, Chase sometimes dictates which Freedom card you can PC to and you may not be able to choose; it seems to be somewhat random regarding Freedom or FU and I haven't seen any data points as to why they sometimes only offer one option over the other. If you choose to keep the CSP for one year, you can PC it at that point and receive a full refund of the AF if it's done within 30 days of the fee posting (I did this myself within the last few months). No need to pay 2 years of AF with either option you choose.

 

[platamama]

I was going to try and double dip my last 5/24 spot with Marriott and CSP... any recommendations now that that won't work? My Chase cards are CSR, Disney, Sw Plus, and Sw Biz. Biggest goal currently is minimizing OOP expenses for travel next year, with things like WDW, DLR/SoCal, and a few weekend trips, not sure where those will be yet - any suggestions? We've got 1 CSR travel credit to use, 2 if I keep mine another year, SW CP and points for flights, and about 150k UR points right now. I know everyone's situation is personal, but any thoughts on trying for CF vs the Hyatt, that kind of thing?

Next I'd like to start collecting towards a Europe trip, but I've got to get this whole wedding/honeymoon thing wrapped up before I move on to that

I'd go for a Freedom as the first app, or consider an airline card to help get you over the pond for your future Europe plans.

Also for Europe, check out the locations of Marriotts and Hyatts before you apply for those cards. They may not be located where you want to be...

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I wouldn't product change! You could sign up for the basic card & bag the $200 bonus there as well, with no fee!

There's a no AF Disney card with $200 bonus? I can find the no AF card with $50 bonus.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I want to pc my CSP which I opened in Feb 2017 and was charged the AF before I even received the card. Do I have to wait until Feb 2018 to pc this and effectively pay 2 years of AF?

Interesting that you were charged AF right away since CSP has had waived AF first year for the past few years. Do you have the info from when you opened it? Maybe you can get them to refund AF.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Anyone try the chase pay 10x UR points at walmart.com on e-gift cards with other items in the order? I just purchased that way, and received the card immediately, then turned around and used it at sams.com for WDW gift cards. I have one more chase card I can do the promo on for 10x UR but don't really need anything else, so I don't want to do it for the e-gift card if it may not get me the points. Mine won't post for a few days for me to see and it will be too late.

 

[MrsAlexis]

Anyone try the chase pay 10x UR points at walmart.com on e-gift cards with other items in the order? I just purchased that way, and received the card immediately, then turned around and used it at sams.com for WDW gift cards. I have one more chase card I can do the promo on for 10x UR but don't really need anything else, so I don't want to do it for the e-gift card if it may not get me the points. Mine won't post for a few days for me to see and it will be too late.

I purchased only GCs with Chase and got 10X UR. I first purchased $50 just to see if it would go through. When it did, I bought another $200. Went this weekend and turned into Disney GC, without any issues.

 

[amcc]

Was just playing around with our hotel for Venice in October 2018. I had booked us for 2 nights at the Gritti Palace for a whopping 70k SPG points (~210k Marriott points). Gritti Palace looks amazing and is right on the canal, but I have been struggling with the points cost. Our entire 5 nights stay at Sheraton Park Disneyland cost us just 40k SPG points. When I booked Gritti Palace, the Four Points by Sheraton Venice Mestre, which is a 15 minute taxi ride to the Venice city center, wasn't available to book. Well, now it is and it is just 4k points for weeknights and 3k points for weekends. I talked with DH and he said that we should book the Four Points and save the other points for another trip, since it would cover a lot. Not as glamorous, but our goal is mainly to travel more rather than the fanciest.

I'm in the camp of more travel instead of fancier travel as well but staying in Mestre vs staying in Venice is not something I would save on. The difference is huge and there is no way to take a taxi to the Venice city center - you will need to take a train or bus that may or may not be convenient then the "taxi boat" into the center. Plus, Venice at night is at its most magical and the Gritti Palace is one of Venice's best hotels. Sorry, I know this is none of my business!!! But Mestre vs Gritti Palace is not even apples and oranges. Are there any other Marriott properties in Venice proper?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I purchased only GCs with Chase and got 10X UR. I first purchased $50 just to see if it would go through. When it did, I bought another $200. Went this weekend and turned into Disney GC, without any issues.

Awesome! Were they e-cards or did you have plastic cards mailed to u?