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

[elgerber]

Any chatter on if the SW support links are going to increase to match the public offer?

They told me ds to message again when he met the spend.

 

[tink89]

So I'm thinking you want to address this with 2 steps.

#1) I'd try to refer her to a Chase Freedom card to start building her credit. It's worth a shot, If approved, you'd get 5,000 URs, she'd get 15,000 URs - win/win! This would be a good card for her to use to start building good credit and earning URs at the same time.

#2) I don't know if any of your cards offer no forex fees but I'd check on that. If any do, You could add her as an AU to that card for her trip. If not, I'd look into getting a CSP card and add her as an AU there. Back in July of last year I notice you said you were 4/24 and your husband was 2/24. Not sure what's changed since then but if either of you are still under 5/24 that could be a good option. If you end up going for this, please consider using a DISchurners link

Hopefully this helps a bit

EDIT: Wait...I glossed over that you have a CIP...that should have 0 Foreign Transaction fees...add her as an AU on that card for the trip!

I think the chase freedom will be good option for her since she already banks there and it will be a start to her building some credit. I have been a bit away from the cc/points game. DH has not applied for any other cards since i last posted on here. I do not think i have either because i have not seen any good offers. Ill look into the CSP and yes DH has CIP so i will look adding her as an AU.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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[SouthFayetteFan]

I think the chase freedom will be good option for her since she already banks there and it will be a start to her building some credit. I have been a bit away from the cc/points game. DH has not applied for any other cards since i last posted on here. I do not think i have either because i have not seen any good offers. Ill look into the CSP and yes DH has CIP so i will look adding her as an AU.

Sometimes I just come up with a gem of a comment, lol! It seems that you liked everything I had to say LOL!

 

[amalone1013]

What a nice haul you guys have there and yet still are both at 3/24!! I'm sure if you shared this on r/churning they'd call you a terrible churner and downvote you HAHA! Yet here you are like a churning hero

Obviously need to go LOL/24 ASAP and get shutdown by everyone!

ETA: Also it felt super strange to list all of that out and realize it is still technically 3/24!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Any chatter on if the SW support links are going to increase to match the public offer?

I'm thinking no - the increased offer has been out for almost 2 weeks and no movement on those links unfortunately.

 

[DisneyMandC]

PSA for those lurking or new to the game...You can never start planning and/or earning points too soon!

I have been assisting a co-worker on some general planning for a trip. I mentioned their ability to offset some costs with a CC bonus or 2 and they seemed interested but never moved forward. Now today they suddenly are interested in using SW for flights for their November trip. We've been talking about this trip for over 6 months and it just now triggered that they could earn points to offset these flights. Meanwhile, SW is going to release this schedule in less than 6 weeks. There are 4 adults on this trip and they could already have enough points to fully cover all flights but now, because of their hesitancy, they are scrambling.

• I know @wendow has shared some of her struggles with AA miles and Disney lately. Now, her August trip was scheduled before we knew you could use AA miles for Disney so it's not her fault she's in this scenario. BUT I bet she would also say that she wishes she had started earning points for this sooner (if she had known) and I'm sure she would advise anybody else to start earning well in advance if at all possible.
• @calypso726 often talks about thinking 2 years out when you're looking at a major international trip.

If the trip you are planning is less than 12 months from now and you haven't started earning points towards it yet, it's ok, but it's TIME TO MOVE! Don't hesitate, don't think it over, start earning points NOW With all the anti-churning rules in place with the various issuers and recommended pacing, you can truly only earn so many points in 6-12 months even in the almighty 2 player mode. Time until your trip will become your enemy and you could be faced with tough choices of paying for a portion OOP or cutting costs from your budget.

Also keep in mind, if you have a trip scheduled for June of next year, you may think that you have a whole year to earn points. BUT, you need to book that trip in advance...possibly 4-6 months in advance to make sure you get what you want. You might need to start booking pieces of that trip as soon as 7 months from now! That seems like a long time, but it goes by super fast when you're trying to space cards out by 2-3 months.

TL/DR: It's never too early to start earning points for your trip!

Totally agree! I started in September 2017 for this year's WDW trip. Granted, I am getting three rooms and paying for 6 adults, so I needed to accrue A LOT of points and GCs, but I am perfectly on track to have the vast majority of the trip paid for in points by the due date (actually would've been almost totally paid for if Chase hadn't scrapped Disney... but I digress).

Started last July accumulating for Tokyo for next July. Even with that far of a lead, I still feel like I'm scrambling to get the Marriott and Hilton points I need! Thought I would be in better shape, but you never know how Amex is going to treat you now... Regardless, I should be all set to book flights at least.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

They told me ds to message again when he met the spend.

I think you're talking about matching to the higher offer - not whether support links were going to increase, right? @wendow was asking regarding support links.

Now, somebody could pull the risky move of using the 40k offer via support and then try to match to 60k with the add'l $1k spend...but if they say no then you end up short 20k points (really 10k if you factor in the support pts).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Thank you! I didn't think about possibly pro-rating the AF.

Is it worth applying without messing with the CL? In the past they have just automatically lowered another card but it took a while. We have about 4,000 in wiggle room before we hit 50% of our income.

I have seen different things about how long it takes for the CL change to go into effect. Is this something we don't really know? Is is immediate or takes a month or so?

I don't think we actually have a firm answer on how quickly a CL decrease takes affect. Ideally you'd give it a few weeks (or past when your next statement closes) but if you don't have that luxury of time, I'd still move forward.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Wondering if I totally messed up with our companion pass. Last 2 years I had pass. Twice I went on a business trip with DH and bought my ticket, DH had ticket through work and I felt like we wasted opportunity and wouldn’t it be great if he had pass and I could accompany for free! So yay, he now has pass. Went to finally add me to his Clearwater trip and I may possibly go to Houston. But the SW site will not let me add myself. I can see his ticket and it has the add companion, but when I click on it it goes to an Error page. It says I can not access his flight information because he went through a TA. I will have him call SW to see if I can be added, but just wondered if anyone has experience with this. He is out of town through Thursday so I don’t think he will call till he is back. He has to get ticket through his Govt site, so I really am thinking now this will be a no go for companion. wahhhhhh. I don’t go with him often on business, and he rarely flys SW anyway, but thought it would be a good way to add a trip or 2 for me.

Make sure you are listed as his companion. If so then you can call swa and add your companion flight if his is already booked. You mentioned its done through a govt site, is his ticket actually ticketed or is it a hold and hasn't been ticketed? DH gets a confirmation once its actually ticketed. govt gets the seat at the price when they book but until they actually pay its not ticketed. This happened to us before. Once the flights was actually ticketed I called and was able to pay the 5.60 fee to add my ticket.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

uggg the waiting game with chase to see if you are approved. applied today and waited 3 hours before I checked the status line. think thats a record for me come on chase approve me so I can have my card overnighted

 

[1st*toright]

Totally agree! I started in September 2017 for this year's WDW trip. Granted, I am getting three rooms and paying for 6 adults, so I needed to accrue A LOT of points and GCs, but I am perfectly on track to have the vast majority of the trip paid for in points by the due date (actually would've been almost totally paid for if Chase hadn't scrapped Disney... but I digress).

Started last July accumulating for Tokyo for next July. Even with that far of a lead, I still feel like I'm scrambling to get the Marriott and Hilton points I need! Thought I would be in better shape, but you never know how Amex is going to treat you now... Regardless, I should be all set to book flights at least.

Yes, time is definitely a factor here. I started working on our Europe trip semi-officially last Memorial Day weekend (when I sat down my sweet P2 and told him what we could accomplish if he was ok with getting cards). I've got the united points/URs to transfer to united in place to book our flights - counting the days until our booking window opens (so, just about 11 months away from the trip). I've got about half the hotel points/UR points/MR points I need to book hotels (two rooms), but most of the hotels aren't available for booking yet anyway (and we are going semi-off season) and I have plans in the works (or rather, MSRs in the works) that will get us pretty much where we need to be to get the hotel rooms.

The best part is that as soon as I get this trip booked (should be done, hotels and all, by mid-July, I think), I can start plotting our next "big" trip and accumulating points towards wherever that may be! I've been reluctant to burn a lot of points because this Europe trip is pretty point-pricey (mostly because I'm doing business class flights and upscale hotels), so I've been hoarding all currencies to give myself flexibility. I'm guessing the next "big" trip won't be quite so point-y.

 

[PartyOfSe7en]

I'm new to this thread and you guys are in pretty deep to the topic. I have the Costco card, the Bank of America 123 card. Looking for the best offers out there right now to open a new card or 2. We usually do cash rewards instead of points but interested in best return either points or cash. Thanks for the guidance

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I'm new to this thread and you guys are in pretty deep to the topic. I have the Costco card, the Bank of America 123 card. Looking for the best offers out there right now to open a new card or 2. We usually do cash rewards instead of points but interested in best return either points or cash. Thanks for the guidance

Hey there - Welcome and thanks for jumping in! There are truthfully some fantastic offers out there right now, even if you're just looking for a card or 2. What many of us are doing here however is jumping from card to card, earning multiple "new card-member bonuses" along the way to supercharge our earnings. While most cards earn 1-5% on everyday purchases and certain categories, our goal can be to earn between 10 and 40% back on our purchases!

Have you checked out the stickied comments on page 1? It gives a little more background.

Regarding the cards you currently have - are both of those older than 2 years? Do you have a spouse that also might be interested in getting a card or 2 (or 7 ) to participate as well?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yes, time is definitely a factor here. I started working on our Europe trip semi-officially last Memorial Day weekend (when I sat down my sweet P2 and told him what we could accomplish if he was ok with getting cards). I've got the united points/URs to transfer to united in place to book our flights - counting the days until our booking window opens (so, just about 11 months away from the trip). I've got about half the hotel points/UR points/MR points I need to book hotels (two rooms), but most of the hotels aren't available for booking yet anyway (and we are going semi-off season) and I have plans in the works (or rather, MSRs in the works) that will get us pretty much where we need to be to get the hotel rooms.

The best part is that as soon as I get this trip booked (should be done, hotels and all, by mid-July, I think), I can start plotting our next "big" trip and accumulating points towards wherever that may be! I've been reluctant to burn a lot of points because this Europe trip is pretty point-pricey (mostly because I'm doing business class flights and upscale hotels), so I've been hoarding all currencies to give myself flexibility. I'm guessing the next "big" trip won't be quite so point-y.

I think it really speaks to the psychology behind what we do and typical vacation planners.

The biggest (saddest) problem is there's probably a whole group of people who want to go on vacation but have no idea how to afford it. They're primary concern is coordinating work schedules, school schedules and saving enough money to pay for it. By the time they figure it all out they're booking too late to take advantage of some deals. This is sad - but for some reason they can't understand how CC points could alleviate a lot of this stress.

There are also people that think it's crazy to plan vacations out 12 months. My boss looks at me super weird when I start requesting time 12-18 months out. Sorry...but I like to plan ahead for these things!! Even my wife's family is frustrated when I want to lock in summer vaca dates before Thanksgiving of the prior year. It's only 6-9 months away people...let's go!!!

For these people who can't plan a vacation more than 6 months out, there's no way they can fathom earning points. They don't even know where they want to go! I try to tell them to earn flexible points that also have a cash value - ummmm hello URs?? Then when they finally figure it out, the points will be there. But again, that seems to require way too much planning. Is it really this hard to hand people free bags of cash??? I guess so!

Oh well...their loss is my gain...but I guess not really. I don't gain anything by them losing anything and they don't lose anything by me gaining anything. So uhhh their loss is their loss?? HAHA! It does frustrate me though sometimes and I just have to bite my tongue and let them spend more.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

I'm new to this thread and you guys are in pretty deep to the topic. I have the Costco card, the Bank of America 123 card. Looking for the best offers out there right now to open a new card or 2. We usually do cash rewards instead of points but interested in best return either points or cash. Thanks for the guidance

What are your goals for points? that greatly depends on what gets recommended. Also need more background info to recommend any cards

 

[DisneyMandC]

The best part is that as soon as I get this trip booked (should be done, hotels and all, by mid-July, I think), I can start plotting our next "big" trip and accumulating points towards wherever that may be! I've been reluctant to burn a lot of points because this Europe trip is pretty point-pricey (mostly because I'm doing business class flights and upscale hotels), so I've been hoarding all currencies to give myself flexibility. I'm guessing the next "big" trip won't be quite so point-y.

So true! I don't even know what I want our big trip to be next... We (meaning, I) have been talking about Dubai. DH and I would also love to see all 50 states though. So maybe we'll take 2021 and do the Kentucky Derby (DH's recent request) and then travel out west somewhere too. I went to Yellowstone and Glacier National almost 10 years ago and would love to go again.

 

[PartyOfSe7en]

Hey there - Welcome and thanks for jumping in! There are truthfully some fantastic offers out there right now, even if you're just looking for a card or 2. What many of us are doing here however is jumping from card to card, earning multiple "new card-member bonuses" along the way to supercharge our earnings. While most cards earn 1-5% on everyday purchases and certain categories, our goal can be to earn between 10 and 40% back on our purchases!

Have you checked out the stickied comments on page 1? It gives a little more background.

Regarding the cards you currently have - are both of those older than 2 years? Do you have a spouse that also might be interested in getting a card or 2 (or 7 ) to participate as well?

I read the sticky and am interested without screwing up my great credit. Spouse is open to 2 new cards and I am as well. Both cards are old. We shop costco a ton so will probably keep that one

 

[punkin]

Just paid 3k when I have no card with required spend. So sad.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

I think it really speaks to the psychology behind what we do and typical vacation planners.

The biggest (saddest) problem is there's probably a whole group of people who want to go on vacation but have no idea how to afford it. They're primary concern is coordinating work schedules, school schedules and saving enough money to pay for it. By the time they figure it all out they're booking too late to take advantage of some deals. This is sad - but for some reason they can't understand how CC points could alleviate a lot of this stress.

There are also people that think it's crazy to plan vacations out 12 months. My boss looks at me super weird when I start requesting time 12-18 months out. Sorry...but I like to plan ahead for these things!! Even my wife's family is frustrated when I want to lock in summer vaca dates before Thanksgiving of the prior year. It's only 6-9 months away people...let's go!!!

For these people who can't plan a vacation more than 6 months out, there's no way they can fathom earning points. They don't even know where they want to go! I try to tell them to earn flexible points that also have a cash value - ummmm hello URs?? Then when they finally figure it out, the points will be there. But again, that seems to require way too much planning. Is it really this hard to hand people free bags of cash??? I guess so!

Oh well...there loss is my gain...but I guess not really. I don't gain anything by them losing anything and they don't lose anything by me gaining anything. So uhhh their loss is their loss?? HAHA! It does frustrate me though sometimes and I just have to bite my tongue and let them spend more.

I agree I book a lot of our vacations 18+ mo out otherwise I dont get the sites I want. disney I book 11 mo out but I have my dates planned 2-3 years out. I always get the you plan so far out but then I explain I get my sites and get some of the best deals by booking in advance