Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[Donald - my hero]

I have the Cobalt and it is a hugely powerful travel points card. So much so that it has replaced most other credit cards in my daily use.

It earns at a 5x rate at grocery stores and restaurants.

The Amex Rewards points transfer 1:1 to Aeroplan, 1:1.2 to Marriott Bonvoy, and many other airlines and hotel chains.

I highly recommend it! But I also recommend signing up for it on your own so you can get a welcome bonus. Would be enough for a return flight to Disney on points. And if you sign up through the Great Canadian Rebates site you get money back.

I'll have to take a closer look at the charts. Not possible for me to sign up though I don't have an income, been on long term CPP disability for over 25 years. We've got a bit of time to think it over thanks for giving me the push to do that

 

[bababear_50]

Today is Dishwasher Day
The old one is on it's last legs.
Anyone make this type of purchase lately and have any thoughts /advice?
Thanks
Hugs Mel

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

No model advice, only that we have a Bosch brand and have never had any issues with it.

 

[cari12]

Today is Dishwasher Day
The old one is on it's last legs.
Anyone make this type of purchase lately and have any thoughts /advice?
Thanks
Hugs MelView attachment 776000

We just bought a Bosch in January from Costco online. So far I really like it. Very quiet. Bought the model with the 3rd rack up top for the cutlery. I love this feature- so much easier than the baskets and it gives more room on the bottom rack because you don’t need a cutlery basket there.

 

[Eveningsong]

Sorry you got stuck paying double taxes and fees Ottawamom.
For me it means cutting down from a longer trip to a shorter one as it has increased the necessary airmiles needed.
Every 100$ in taxes and fees adds up to a 1,000 more Airmiles ,,now in the past that was fine but at the rate I can earn Airmiles now this is never going to happen.
There are also no Universal Orlando resorts turning up at all. (Maybe as time goes on that will change).
Time to rethink this.
Hugs Mel

The universal hotels are available with airmiles at least they are today. I have been checking on and off for a few days. You can also book universal hotels with scene points.
Of course Disney hotels are not available with either airmiles or scene points.

 

[Debbie]

We just bought a Bosch in January from Costco online. So far I really like it. Very quiet. Bought the model with the 3rd rack up top for the cutlery. I love this feature- so much easier than the baskets and it gives more room on the bottom rack because you don’t need a cutlery basket there.

Ours is a GE with that same third rack. It was here when we moved in, in 2021. I loooove that rack! So easy to organize so that it is ready to put all the cutlery away when the cycle is done. My son had this GE one in his old house, and when he bought the family home, he immediately replaced the 32 year old Sears with this same model.

 

[bababear_50]

Thanks for all the dishwasher info everyone.
Hugs Mel

 

[bababear_50]

The universal hotels are available with airmiles at least they are today. I have been checking on and off for a few days. You can also book universal hotels with scene points.
Of course Disney hotels are not available with either airmiles or scene points.

So Happy!
Thanks for sharing!
Hugs Mel

 

[bababear_50]

Bit confused with my attempt with Airmiles Red Tag
It says all taxes & fees are included in the price but when I get to the final payment page it says 2 forms of payment needed and an extra $209.00 for taxes?
Weird and no one picking up their phone line to ask.

OK edited to add ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
now there is this info appearing
* Dream miles cannot be used towards surcharges, fees, activities and port changes,

 

[ElCray]

I'll have to take a closer look at the charts. Not possible for me to sign up though I don't have an income, been on long term CPP disability for over 25 years. We've got a bit of time to think it over thanks for giving me the push to do that

Omg no problem! The card has no income requirement so that might be helpful info! There are a bunch of good articles out there.

 

[bardays]

Hello Airmiles experts!
I usually redeem my more rewards for park tickets but I find myself with a large amount of airmiles at the moment. I see I can book park tickets online through the Airmiles website but the expiry date for the passes is Jan 2024 and we are travelling April 2024. Are there hidden fees like with airfare redemptions? Any advice appreciated!

 

[ElCray]

Today is Dishwasher Day
The old one is on it's last legs.
Anyone make this type of purchase lately and have any thoughts /advice?
Thanks
Hugs MelView attachment 776000

I saw a long thread on RedFlagDeals hot deals about accessing an enormous Bosch discount through Perkopolis.

 

[dancin Disney style]

So I'm catching up again.
Amex..... that is my main card and has been for many years. I haven't received that letter yet. I'm not one that is good with knowing all the perks of any card but that one gave me extra car rental insurance which was actually the secondary reason we got it. This past week though I've been putting every single purchase on my new Aeroplan card. All I want to is to make the threshold to earn the bonus points which should be easy with 2 long weekends in FL coming up. I'm really not sure how to handle this whole thing going forward. I had planned to just charge everything to Aeroplan until I had the spend threshold then go back to Amex. This seems like far too much brain power required to figure out. TBH, I feel like someone will need to pry AM from my cold dead hands....I'm so conditioned to earn, earn earn! Do I sound like I don't accept change all that well?

I got the Shell Pump Up Your Miles email...today is 1/$1 up to 100, then I also have 2 fills for 50 or 3 for 100. So today 2 cars need gas. Then I have 50 miles for a car wash and 10 for every $5 instore purchase. I haven't done the math but it's going to be a GREAT day for earning miles.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Can someone work this out for me please….I think I know the answer.
With this Aeroplane card I get 1.5 points/$1 for grocery store purchases. 1/$1 for other eligible purchases.
Should I go any buy a bunch of Disney gift cards at Metro ( I guess really any grocery store…clearly I’m conditioned) to pay for my hotel and food or do I just charge to the card at WDW.
Do I earn the points on what the dollar amount is in CAD or USD?

I feel like I need a hammer to the head with this. For example if my hotel cost is $500 USD what is my best way forward?

 

[hdrolfe]

Can someone work this out for me please….I think I know the answer.
With this Aeroplane card I get 1.5 points/$1 for grocery store purchases. 1/$1 for other eligible purchases.
Should I go any buy a bunch of Disney gift cards at Metro ( I guess really any grocery store…clearly I’m conditioned) to pay for my hotel and food or do I just charge to the card at WDW.
Do I earn the points on what the dollar amount is in CAD or USD?

I feel like I need a hammer to the head with this. For example if my hotel cost is $500 USD what is my best way forward?

I mean it's all the math, but it would be in CAD. So say you get $130 CAD for every $100 USD charged at the hotel, you would earn 650 points for the hotel. If you purchase $650 CAD GC at Metro you earn 975 points. But of course the exchange rate at the hotel is probably not the same, add on say 4% to that, an extra 26 points for your purchase, approximately.

Personally, I'd rather do the GC but I just like to not spend more $$ than I have to.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Anyone else getting the "something went wrong" when trying to log into your account today? It's happening with both of ours. After I enter the PIN, the message comes up.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I mean it's all the math, but it would be in CAD. So say you get $130 CAD for every $100 USD charged at the hotel, you would earn 650 points for the hotel. If you purchase $650 CAD GC at Metro you earn 975 points. But of course the exchange rate at the hotel is probably not the same, add on say 4% to that, an extra 26 points for your purchase, approximately.

Personally, I'd rather do the GC but I just like to not spend more $$ than I have to.

Thanks…I figured that the gift cards were going to get me the maximum. I know what the hotel costs are and can probably come very close on my estimate for everything else. The only variable is going to be if we go in the parks or not. The plan is to hang out at the pool, a nice dinner or two and some shopping. If it works out that DD is going to a park and we can meet her at the gate then we might go. I’m not counting on that though…she’s likely to be busy with friends. I would really like to see the show her best friend is in.

 

[tinkerone]

I, as well, received the mail about Amex changing from AMs. In the mail today. It is changing to the Amex Green Card. I can't bring myself to read on and figure out what that actually is. I only keep the Amex as a backup card. Twice a year I put $5 into my Amazon account to keep it active. Now I don't know if I want to bother keeping it at all. I have a PC MC which would do fine as a backup.
Can anyone think of a reason to keep the Amex that maybe I'm not thinking of? No need to keep it if it is now just a third backup.

 

[ottawamom]

I used to have an AMEX (with Costco). Gave it up when they switched to M/C. Now I have two M/C. DH has a VISA if we get stuck with a system being down.

 

[Donald - my hero]

So I'm catching up again.
Amex..... that is my main card and has been for many years. I haven't received that letter yet. I'm not one that is good with knowing all the perks of any card but that one gave me extra car rental insurance which was actually the secondary reason we got it. This past week though I've been putting every single purchase on my new Aeroplan card. All I want to is to make the threshold to earn the bonus points which should be easy with 2 long weekends in FL coming up. I'm really not sure how to handle this whole thing going forward. I had planned to just charge everything to Aeroplan until I had the spend threshold then go back to Amex. This seems like far too much brain power required to figure out. TBH, I feel like someone will need to pry AM from my cold dead hands....I'm so conditioned to earn, earn earn! Do I sound like I don't accept change all that well?

I got the Shell Pump Up Your Miles email...today is 1/$1 up to 100, then I also have 2 fills for 50 or 3 for 100. So today 2 cars need gas. Then I have 50 miles for a car wash and 10 for every $5 instore purchase. I haven't done the math but it's going to be a GREAT day for earning miles.

I, as well, received the mail about Amex changing from AMs. In the mail today. It is changing to the Amex Green Card. I can't bring myself to read on and figure out what that actually is. I only keep the Amex as a backup card. Twice a year I put $5 into my Amazon account to keep it active. Now I don't know if I want to bother keeping it at all. I have a PC MC which would do fine as a backup.
Can anyone think of a reason to keep the Amex that maybe I'm not thinking of? No need to keep it if it is now just a third backup.

The only reasons we still have the AMEX are - the high Airmiles return and a sense of loyalty since they were the only company to give us a card the year we got married (at that point it was just a "charge" card you had to pay it in full) Now that the Airmiles rewards will be gone, coupled with the fact that many merchants don't accept it, we're just going to cancel the account.
We spent some time on the weekend crunching numbers and studying the various levels of cards from both AMEX and MasterCard and realized we just don't spend enough to get the value out of ANY of them to pay for having an account. By cancelling the AMEX and keeping the no-fee MasterCard we'll save the $120 annual fee and only lose around $30 worth of Airmiles. No brainer! We earned just over 1600 miles between the 2 cards last month and only 320 were directly connected to our credit cards - I clearly know how to play the game and earn my miles from stacking promos. The shell offers do nothing for us since we rarely fill the car up more than twice a month and with it only having a 35 L tank we have to wait for it to be running on fumes for those to qualify for the offers.

I'm going to spend some time looking at Visa to see what they offer for no-fee cards so we don't get caught with only one form of payment. That combined with the BMO no-fee card is how we're moving forward. I've looked at the other travel cards & programs and Airmiles is still the best fit for US. We use the miles for renting cars & hotel stays with the odd merchandise redemption thrown in for good measure.