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

[amalone1013]

Just need a moment....

Daughter of family friend, who I was always friends with because we were the same age, put flowers on my moms grave this weekend and posted it on social media. Tagging her mom and my sister, but not me.



Ok I'm done now.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Just need a moment....

Daughter of family friend, who I was always friends with because we were the same age, put flowers on my moms grave this weekend and posted it on social media. Tagging her mom and my sister, but not me.



Ok I'm done now.

People are so petty, it's absurd. I'm sorry you had to see someone being so tactless.

 

[calypso726]

I think lots of us have an embarrassing churner beginner story. I got my first CP by following a bunch of arrows from MMS. .....shame to my household LOL!

No shame. It was with the old MMS blog back when Emily and Darius were still a couple that I learned so much. I diligently followed those arrows and screenshots to apply for my first business card. It was the old Ink Plus. DH and I still have the card. The arrows and screenshots did a lot to build my confidence with this hobby and allowed me to dive headfirst. I don’t think I would have even attempted half the things I have done if it weren’t for MMS in the beginning. I don’t follow it anymore since it is completely different now but will always have a soft spot and bit of nostalgia from when I first started.

 

[chattadisser]

I stumbled upon this hobby thanks to a blog like that. Except I think it did recommend an airline card. Started with SPGs and Disney cards. Then found this thread and went for CSR instead of a SW card... and the rest is history!

I stumbled on this hobby through @calypso726 in reading her on the ABD board. The whole "travel hacking" intrigued me, which lead me to google and for the most part I just started reading Mommy Points (pre-TPG) as she was not over the top with crazy deals and was trying to get points for families which is what I was/am interested in. Then I found this thread and I us here!! Prior to all that we used Hilton points but we only accrued points when we stayed then , oh how naive we were!

 

[elgerber]

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[DisneyMandC]

I think I'm about ready to submit my requests for Olympics tickets... if anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it! I'm submitting for 13 total events over the second week, obviously not expecting to get or attend them all. It's tough to tell what you should factor into your submissions since there are no prices yet and there's "categories" (A, B, C, D) of tickets to put in for... but no criteria as to what the category means I assume A would be the highest/best level of tickets as far as price/seating. I put in A for a couple of equestrian events since I'm willing to pay a decent amount of money to get good seats to that. I also put in for events like beach volleyball and swimming, but at lower categories since I'm sure those tickets cost a fortune anyways. If anyone has recommendations of some cool, lesser known events to attend, I would appreciate it! I figure we will buy what we know we absolutely want to see in this round to ensure we get good seats to our favorite events, and then we can look at other tickets for some of the smaller events as we get closer to the games if we're interested in those.

 

[ski_mom]

I'm looking to apply for another card or two. We are in 2 player mode, so I'll list what we both have:

me:
01/19 - Chase - Ink Bus Preferred
08/18 - AmEx - Green Business (to close Gold Business w/o losing points)
08/17 - Citi - TY Premier
03/17 - Chase - CSP (closed 4/18)
01/17 - Chase - CSR (converted to CFU)

So, I'm at 1/24 with the Citi TY.

DH:
03/19 - Chase - Ink Bus Preferred
05/18 - Chase - Ink Bus Preferred
08/17 - Citi - TY Preferred
03/17 - Chase - SW Plus (closed)
03/17 - Chase - SW Premier (closed)
10/16 - Chase - CSR
OLD - CF - DH also has a Chase Freedom card which he's had forever.

DH looks like he is also at 1/24.

We love UR's, but neither are eligible for CSP/CSR.
I just converted 110,000 worth of MR points for Carnival gift cards to use on our cruise this summer, but otherwise, don't really know what to do with MR points (unless I went the Charles Schwab route).
DH received a mailer for 150,000 points for the Hilton Ascend card (which looks a little higher than the standard offer), but don't have an immediate need for Hilton points that I know of.

Looking for suggestions - I'm hoping to keep spot(s) open to go for the SW CP early next year.

Thanks for any suggestions / advice!

You are 4 months past the CIP application...and could apply for CIP2 now......with DHs support link

I’d go for another CIP.

Thank you for the advice! I just applied for another CIP and was instantly approved! I logged into my account and asked for the card to be expedited, so we'll see how that part goes.

Also wondered, with this new layout, is there a way to find where you've been quoted in someone's reply? I was trying to find who had suggested this route, but had to manually go through the posts. I figured there has to be a better way!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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[DisneyMandC]

Looks like I have a letter from Citi in my mail today for DH... I don't know whether to cross my fingers or not for a match at this point lol.

 

[1st*toright]

So, first BIG churning trip airline booking was a mixture of success and failure.

The good news- the 4 of us are going to Austria and Portugal for the dates I wanted next spring. We have nonstops for the long-hauls, and are flying in/out of the same airport stateside (which I didn't think was going to be possible originally, so that's a bonus). It cost 420k in United/UR points plus a little less than $500 in fees. I priced out our itinerary using $ instead of points, and it would be about $2k per ticket if I paid cash (all economy) and about $8k for the mix of economy and business that I actually got!

The not-so-good news is that I wasn't able to get business on the way over (flying right before Easter, not terribly surprising), so no lie-flat seats on the red-eye. The intra-Europe flights I was able to do business for all 4 of us, which is nice because I wasn't able to get direct flights, so it will be nice to be in business on those 2 flights. On the long-haul back, I was only able to get 2 business seats, the other 2 are in economy. It showed 4 business seats available, but I had to book on 2 separate itineraries (because I was using both my account and P2's account), and once one set was booked, the other 2 disappeared (even though I was booking simultaneously online with an agent on the phone). That was kind of a bummer. My sweet DH says he doesn't care at all about sitting in economy (like a peasant) with one of the kids while I ride in style up front. We will probably have the kids take turns sitting with each parent - its a loooooong flight. I will keep checking - maybe those 2 award seats will show up and I can make the change for a fee.

So it wasn't a total slam-dunk, but we are still going to 2 cities in Europe over spring break for $125 per person.

 

[tink1970]

All of this is really just helping me decide that the break from Disney is a good thing

But I'm very aware these days of just how much it costs to take a family vacation there.

What's so sad to me (other than not loving the Magic as I once did) is that on this board, many of us are feeling that a WDW/DL vacation isn't a value proposition...and we know how to save money! Imagine Joe Smith paying rack rate for everything
Prior to our upcoming DCL cruise (paid with discounted gcs and SUBS) WDW wanted $2600 for 2 rooms (granted, one at a deluxe plus a 2 br DVC villa during the most expensive week to stay) v. 48,000 Hyatt points for 4 rooms at Hyatt MCO. Kind of a no brainer for me at this point.

 

[amalone1013]

Whoaaaaaaa.

Just opened the desktop version for the first time.



Thanks @DisneyMandC. Somedays it gets to you more than others, ya know?

 

[wendow]

So, y’all remember how I posted about using some of my AA miles and my $250 to get my dh to TX to help his parents. That was 16.3k AA miles + $287 ($250 travel credit). I thought that was a decent deal considering the flight was $187 cash price and the car would have been $275 cash price. Well, dh got home Sunday night and I realized he was charged an additional $198 from a Budget Did some googling and turns out, when you use AA miles to rent a car, it doesn’t cover any of the taxes or fees! So that was a very bad redemption and I’d have been much better off just booking those separately and paying cash for the car

So now my mind is going to my hotel plus car booking for August. I have two cars booked that I don’t plan to pick up. Am I gonna get charged taxes and fees even if I dont pick up the car

 

[nickle831]

Good Morning! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I am a scrapbooker as well and prefer paper over digital. I do churn out a Shutterfly book more often then I do a paper page nowadays. It makes me feel less guilty about not printing photos often. I remember always going through my parents and grandparents photo albums, and how I don't have any for my kiddo to flip through. I do have a few albums complete, but I only do a few pages a year now.

When I was doing research for our first WDW trip in 2012 I found this board. I followed the gift card deals, and we did the Southwest Chase cards. Only personal cards though. I would of never thought of going for a business card. My husband and I just went back and forth opening and closing the SW card every year. My how the winds have changed. I'm already on my second business card.

Now I just have to convince the husband that business cards are ok. My plan is to get him on the CIPpy cup this summer. We just had a long discussion about all the cards I've opened up this year ( a whopping 3-CSP, Amex Bonvoy Buisness, CIP) and how I'm going to ruin my credit score. And I won't be able to get a house loan if I wanted. Umm we just paid our house off last year and we have no desire to move so not sure what that is about. Probably just years of always being told your credit score dictates your next financial move. I reassured him that I am keeping a close eye on my score which only moves a few points here and there and I am following great sound advice from you all here.

 

[1st*toright]

@Calfan @calypso726 and/or anyone else who is better at the airline redemption thing than I am - is it possible for me to purchase seat assignments for my award flights? The flights I booked with United points are on Austrian, Lufthansa and TAP Portugal, so I wasn't able to choose seats. I'd be willing to pay to pick seats so that we can all sit together (or at least sit 2 and 2) on the long haul flights.

 

[elgerber]

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[hulagirl]

Whoa... leave on a Friday, come back on a Tuesday and everything is all rearranged up in here. Plus, you guys move faaaast! So I will say good morning and then spend some time reading and see if I can figure all this out. Hope you all had a good weekend!

 

[Lain]

Whoa... leave on a Friday, come back on a Tuesday and everything is all rearranged up in here. Plus, you guys move faaaast! So I will say good morning and then spend some time reading and see if I can figure all this out. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Oh, you're gonna have fun catching up!

 

[tink1970]

We just had a long discussion about all the cards I've opened up this year ( a whopping 3-CSP, Amex Bonvoy Buisness, CIP) and how I'm going to ruin my credit score. And I won't be able to get a house loan if I wanted. Umm we just paid our house off last year and we have no desire to move so not sure what that is about. Probably just years of always being told your credit score dictates your next financial move. I reassured him that I am keeping a close eye on my score which only moves a few points here and there and I am following great sound advice from you all here.

My DH is the same way! I cannot for the life of me convince him that this game has a minimal effect on credit scores-mine is actually higher than his since he has a mortgage on the house he bought for his parents. I agree that the importance of your credit score has been emphasized so much that some people (cough, cough, DH) don't realize that a difference of 5 or 10 points when you're in the 800s is that significant. Some minds just can't be changed

 

[WVMomof3]

So, y’all remember how I posted about using some of my AA miles and my $250 to get my dh to TX to help his parents. That was 16.3k AA miles + $287 ($250 travel credit). I thought that was a decent deal considering the flight was $187 cash price and the car would have been $275 cash price. Well, dh got home Sunday night and I realized he was charged an additional $198 from a Budget Did some googling and turns out, when you use AA miles to rent a car, it doesn’t cover any of the taxes or fees! So that was a very bad redemption and I’d have been much better off just booking those separately and paying cash for the car

So now my mind is going to my hotel plus car booking for August. I have two cars booked that I don’t plan to pick up. Am I gonna get charged taxes and fees even if I dont pick up the car

That seems like a lot for taxes and fees! Did he get a receipt? One time I was charged an additional fee when booking with UR. I never did understand why, but it was only like $12 so I didn’t say anything. I would be nervous about the no car pick up also. But usually you don’t get charged if you don’t pick up, so hopefully will be OK.