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

[CyndiLouWho]

I tried to board and was denied

Same for DH.

 

[afan]

So I guess my little personal TP tirade won't get any likes from you... LOL! There is definitely love for TP on the DIS too - most of the threads here about crowd calendars and crowd levels turn into a showdown of TP vs. EasyWDW lovers until they get shutdown, lol! I actually enjoy most of TP's content. I just find their crowd calendars absolutely terrible in recent years and their excuses for why things are so wrong to be a bit patronizing. I'd rather they just say, we were stupid and were using 2011 data and forgot to adjust for when Easter was in the calendar...LOL! There have been numerous days this year where you'd have just been better off looking at what happened last year vs. trusting the almightly TP algorithm.

EDIT: I should also say, that if you like them and they work for you - I don't have an issue with that I just won't be giving them my money or recommending them to my friends. (Although I also feel the days of crowd calendars are in the past anyways...)

I like them for their lines app and comparing it to mde. I look at the predictions but not for planning. We hop so it's no biggie to me. And it doesn't change that much imo.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Ok maybe a dumb question... but where do I find the Crowd Calendars on EasyWDW? I was trying to look this morning but when I click Crowd Calendars on the website it only pulls up stuff from 2016 and 2017.

 

[vanjust14]

Ok maybe a dumb question... but where do I find the Crowd Calendars on EasyWDW? I was trying to look this morning but when I click Crowd Calendars on the website it only pulls up stuff from 2016 and 2017.

Josh doesn't do them anymore. If you are against using TP crowd calendars, you can try Shannon's at WDW Prep School. They are free.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Ok maybe a dumb question... but where do I find the Crowd Calendars on EasyWDW? I was trying to look this morning but when I click Crowd Calendars on the website it only pulls up stuff from 2016 and 2017.

He stopped doing them a while back. I think he got tired of people complaining when the crowds were heavier than predicted

 

[GusGus16]

Ok maybe a dumb question... but where do I find the Crowd Calendars on EasyWDW? I was trying to look this morning but when I click Crowd Calendars on the website it only pulls up stuff from 2016 and 2017.

Josh stopped making crowd calendars, with the start of fastpass+ he felt he could not accurately predict day to day crowds.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Thanks all!! I must've misread the earlier posts. I've usually looked at UT's calendars in the past, but I have no real input into how good they are

 

[Haley R]

Oh, I feel really stupid now. Thanks for the information. Do you know if you can do the room search with the pics w/o an account? Then I'll probably be gone.

Idk if anyone answered yet but yes you can look at the rooms without a subscription too. I’ve never paid for a subscription because I can see crowd numbers, use the reservation finder, and look at rooms all for free

 

[Haley R]

Josh doesn't do them anymore. If you are against using TP crowd calendars, you can try Shannon's at WDW Prep School. They are free.

I use undercover tourist too

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

For anyone that registered for the SWA promotion for 15% bonus miles on credit card miles earned in Feb/Mar/April, has anyone had any bonus miles credit?

None here. When I did the shopping portal bonus it took forever to post, like 6-8 weeks I think. Wonder if this will be similar.

None for me either.

Nothing for me.

Safeway gave me rewards on a third party giftcard purchase.

I just checked DoC----the fine print on the promotion said to please allow up to 8 weeks for the bonus miles to post

 

[DisneyMandC]

So just thought I'd share an update on my payments towards my September trip...

My total trip cost is $7994.12.

Details:
- 8 days/7 nights
- 6 adults
- 3 standard rooms at Pop Century
- Disney Dining Plan (got the free dining offer, upgraded from quick service to regular plan)
- 6 day Park Hopper tickets
- 18,400 URs transferred to SW for flights for DH and I (everyone else paid their own way)
- Magical Express

I paid $600 for the three deposits with no cash back/discounts as I was working on MSR for a card and needed to finish it off.

I've paid an additional $4500 towards the trip since then, all of which I've paid myself back for with cashed out URs. All payments were made on either CIP for 3x or CSP for 2x on travel while I was meeting MSR on those cards.

I'm getting ready (like, today) to make a $2000 GC payment with GCs I've accumulated through discounts. I've paid $1531.64 for $2200 worth of GCs for a savings of 31%. This does not include any points earned like 5x URs at drug stores or SPG/AA/Hilton points.

So far I've spent $2131.64 OOP for this trip. I currently still have 50k URs and $200 worth of GCs in my accounts. By my calculations, so far I have a 73.4% savings on this trip

I still need to buy MNSSHP tickets and then of course we will have tips/souvenirs/etc. I've asked everyone to cover their own souvenirs and tips.

ETA: Still need to buy trip insurance too for hurricane coverage.

 

[wintotty]

Me and DH applied and auto approved for Citi Biz AA cards on Friday. Now today we both received a call stating "Citi", that there are some fraudulent activities on the card, so call them back with account number ready. We clearly still haven't received physical cards, and when I googled both numbers, I got mixed reviews. Some says it is scam, others say it is legit. Have anyone got a call like this immediately after being approved by Citi cards?

 

[Lain]

Wow!! Busy chatter this weekend!

Loved the HELOC idea. Tried it out - mines with Santander I’ll report back.

DH got the dreaded pop up for Hilton biz. I wasn’t shocked since his cards haven’t seen much love since I beefed them up for his February BBP. He only has the Green biz (sees no spend), spg biz, and the BBP. I’m going to go back to some spending and try again. @Lain i know you wrote it all out but remind me when you reapplied for DW - I think they were in similar scenarios.
I still need to keep Amex happy with me - I want the Schwab plat to cash out MRs. But wanted to wait until late summer so I can sneak in 1-2 more Chase biz cards.

DW got the pop up when trying to apply for the Amex Gold just before the refresh in October. She had only ever had 2 Amex cards in her own name, the SPG Biz and Hilton Biz, both opened in 2018. I began putting more regular spend on her two Amex cards, taking advantage of gas and dining categories and Amex Offers, amounting to a few (low) hundreds on average every month. I never did try applying for the Gold again, as we decided it wasn't a good fit for her to use continually, since she's still holding a CSR for dining and I do most of the grocery shopping.

When the upcoming changes to the Starriott cards were announced in January, I tried applying for the SPG Personal for her out of FOMO but got the pop up. After that pop up, I maxed out the Staples Amex Offer with $500 in MCGCs, made a $2.6k payment and a few miscellaneous small transactions on my wife's Hilton Biz, pumped several tanks of California-priced premium gas and ate/ordered out several times on her SPG Biz.

No pop up on the SPG Personal after almost $4k in spend across the two cards in the month before, and she got the SUB after hitting MSR (no surprise no pop up bonus denial).

 

[FloridaNative8]

That would be the best part for me! Of course I sit outside by my pool and watch the Blue Angels practice and am fond of Navy jet noise

I grew up listening to F-15s in my back yard (Eglin AFB), and LOVE LOVE LOVE the sound!! We only get air shows every other year here, but I go just to hear the jets

We have a lot of friends in Pensacola, and I love seeing their videos of the Blue Angels coming home over the beach!

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

DW got the pop up when trying to apply for the Amex Gold just before the refresh in October. She had only ever had 2 Amex cards in her own name, the SPG Biz and Hilton Biz, both opened in 2018. I began putting more regular spend on her two Amex cards, taking advantage of gas and dining categories and Amex Offers, amounting to a few (low) hundreds on average every month. I never did try applying for the Gold again, as we decided it wasn't a good fit for her to use continually, since she's still holding a CSR for dining and I do most of the grocery shopping.

When the upcoming changes to the Starriott cards were announced in January, I tried applying for the SPG Personal for her out of FOMO but got the pop up. After that pop up, I maxed out the Staples Amex Offer with $500 in MCGCs, made a $2.6k payment and a few miscellaneous small transactions on my wife's Hilton Biz, pumped several tanks of California-priced premium gas and ate/ordered out several times on her SPG Biz.

No pop up on the SPG Personal after almost $4k in spend across the two cards in the month before, and she got the SUB after hitting MSR (no surprise no pop up bonus denial).

So you spent like hell and reapplied about 1 month later? I can totally do that!!!!!

 

[tink1970]

Just a question - do you sleep? You're on the left coast, right? Its really early for you to be posting, my friend.

I'm convinced he's a vampire...it would explain a lot

We have a lot of friends in Pensacola, and I love seeing their videos of the Blue Angels coming home over the beach!

DH and I got married on the beach and it was the Monday before the show so as we were saying our vows---whoosh! It was SO AWESOME.

 

[havaneselover]

So I'm driving myself crazy looking at aavacations dot com for a trip next August. I'm wanting to do a few days at UO and a few days at WDW before a cruise on DCL. These deals seem too good to be true--it has the Swan at 27,300 miles for two nights (I don't see additional fees although I know they are there on useaamiles dot com) and 63,700 for two nights at Royal Pacific. So 4 nights for about 91 K miles. What am I missing?

 

[DrFacilier]

I was excited that TPs dropped the crowd levels for our week (8/13-8/21) but I'm not counting on those numbers being totally accurate. They have WDW levels ranging from 1-4 during our stay. It is right before SWGE opens so I wouldn't be surprised if the crowds are low but these numbers seem extremely low. I typically combine crowd calendars from WDW Prep, UT, KTP and TPs into a chart and try to average out the "best park" for each day. Just started doing this during our last couple of trips and it has worked well for us.

 

[elgerber]

I was excited that TPs dropped the crowd levels for our week (8/13-8/21) but I'm not counting on those numbers being totally accurate. They have WDW levels ranging from 1-4 during our stay. It is right before SWGE opens so I wouldn't be surprised if the crowds are low but these numbers seem extremely low. I typically combine crowd calendars from WDW Prep, UT, KTP and TPs into a chart and try to average out the "best park" for each day. Just started doing this during our last couple of trips and it has worked well for us.

Mine were dropped for early August too. It kinda makes sense, that a lot of people decided to wait. I am hoping they are correct, but not counting on it.

 

[snugglebug]

Do I need to register MCGC before using on Plastiq?