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

[AmyAnne]

AmEx confuses me. Not that I would ever do this, but I was looking at the AmEx Bonvoy plain-Jane personal card 100k offer (don't get excited! this is the one where you spend in increments of 25k and they'll give you 25k bonus points up to 100k.) because they emailed me about it a few weeks ago and incessantly remind me about it every time I check that account now. I recalled that the offer was supposed to be exclusive to cardholders before they made the discontinued announcement so since I got mine after that I wasn't expecting it. Since I only got the email a couple weeks ago I thought they expanded it or made a similar offer to the rest of us just to get some spend going on them. But I'm the type to register for anything, however unlikely, because you just never know what'll happen and so I took a look at the terms and it states:

"You are not eligible to register for this offer if your Card Account was opened after January 24, 2019. This is an exclusive offer only for Marriott BonvoyTM American Express® Card Members who receive this email and is not transferable."

Well which is it AmEx? I'm not eligible because I opened my card after 1/24? Or I am eligible because you sent me the email?

AmEx's rules are so convoluted they've confused themselves.

 

[MKTokyo]

We have said a sad goodbye to France & are now at WDW, though we haven't been to any Disney parks yet. Yesterday we went to Universal. I checked our Chase confirmation email & we paid 26K UR (UT price $183 each, so $367 total) for two 1-Day P2P tickets. We also bought the 2-Park Express Unlimited for $128/person (coded as travel on CSR).

Here's what we managed to do...

Hulk 5x
Spider-Man 3x (we got an extra ride because the video failed towards the end, so they let us go back in through child swap)
Dr. Doom 1x
Poseidon 1x
Kong 1x
Forbidden Journey 3x
Hogwarts Express 1x
Gringotts 1x
Men in Black 1x
E.T. 1x
Fast & Furious 1x
Mummy 2x
Jimmy Fallon 1x
Transformers 1x
Shrek 1x
Minions 1x

Forgot to do the Hollywood coaster. Too bad because I like putting in the secret code for Wheel in the Sky & having my own private concert.

We had lunch at Mythos & went to Toothsome for dinner, which I truly thought was called Toothless until DF pointed out that nobody would name a restaurant that. All told we were there 9 am - 11 pm. We were joking that we better have kids before we can't do this anymore & can only wistfully recall the days of running up the stairs in the lines.

Our last ride on Hulk was really not enjoyable. I ended up getting a "modified seat" (which we did not realize existed until we saw the sign in the loading area) because either the TM (who was new) also didn't know that it was there, or nobody needed it & they just wanted to fill the car. The larger harness isn't comfortable for people who don't need it & did not fit me as securely as the regular one. I spent the whole ride getting thrown around with my hips actually coming up off the seat & my head hit the side of the harness hard enough that I had to hold onto DF when leaving because I thought I was going to throw up. We had planned to go again because we still had about 10 minutes before the park closed but I was done at that point. We did end up stopping at Guest Relations just to tell them what happened because I was worried that someone else might get seriously hurt in that seat. I am not a particularly small person at 5'6" & US size 4-6. I can't imagine how a petite person or a kid would do there. They offered to get medical treatment for me but the nausea had passed by then & I was just feeling kind of sore in my neck/shoulders from getting slammed into the harness, so I used telemedicine with my own doctor. We have to watch for further signs of concussion But everything seems fine now. I'm really glad this happened at the end of the day so we weren't thinking about it for long. If you are an average-sized person or riding with your kids, definitely do not let the TM put you or them in a modified seat.

Other than that, we had a great time. It was crowded, hot, etc, but it's (almost) summer in Florida. We also saw a ton of local school groups there & I enjoyed that because the kids were clearly having an awesome time and it reminded me of how much I liked going to theme parks with my friends when I was their age. They were not bothersome in any way.

One thing we did that worked out really well was make use of the free lockers near the big rides. You get two hours for free so we would dump our stuff, set a timer on DF's watch & then go do whatever we wanted stuff-free until we had to go back to pick it up.

The Uber ride out was $20.72 - $15 Amex Plat Uber credits, so $5.72. We took a Lyft back & that was $25.60 - 25% off Lyft promo, so $21.60. Both those prices include tips. $26.72 RT WDW-Universal is pretty awesome.

We're hanging out at the resort today & going out to Nomad Lounge in a bit. We have DAH tonight at MK & tomorrow at HS. We have never done DAH so really looking forward to that

 

[Kawnipi]

We got our flights booked but used an outrageous amount of points for the day before Thanksgiving! And we have to leave at 5:00 AM

Right there with ya 5:10 flight. That is going to be a long long disney day

 

[amalone1013]

Boo, they changed my carpool incentive program and didn't notify us. It went from 10 trips (one way is one trip, so really you can do two a day) to 20 trips. They sent an email asking about April since I'm not at 20, I'm at 16 logged, asking if I forgot any (which was nice of them). I'll double check but since DH was traveling so often I don't know that I have any more to add

 

[Alexle2007]

Ugh, I wish Provident would hurry up and cash the check Plastiq sent for our mortgage payment. I've been the ACH turned on since I don't want to charged a late payment fee. I guess I'll just keep checking daily and hopefully it posts soon. If not, I'll be making two mortgage payments for June.

 

[calypso726]

Sorta

Carry-on luggage---do you prefer hard- or soft-sided? Why?

Favorites that are international size?

Anyone have an Away regular size carry-on?

The wheels on our current spinners are starting to misbehave. We got the set at Costco before traveling to China w dd just about 5 years ago so they have lots of miles and flights on them! I'd like to get new bags for dh and I before we go to Rome in November and, fingers crossed, India in December.

I prefer soft sided. They don't get scratched up and I find them more flexible. I have the Travel Pro Platinum Magna 2 spinners. The wheels and zippers are awesome. I wound up purchasing the domestic and the international carry on sizes as well as a checked bag size. After doing a ton of research on bags, I was between this brand and a Briggs & Riley expandable. I decided to try the Travel Pro since it was less expensive and figured if it didn't hold up, I'd bite the bullet and get a B&R set. I am beyond impressed with how much the bag holds and how well it has held up. I bought them nearly 2 years ago and have used them on all of my travel hacking adventures, cruises and near constant weekend trips to WDW.

 

[Mopedmom1]

Good to know, thanks! Probably what I was remembering was reading that using 2 PPs doesn't work at restaurants.

We successfully used dh's and mine at PDX restaurant. It is probably YMMV and very dependent on your server.

 

[mmmears]

Wow. Between being on the west coast and everyone here not sleeping at all I feel even more behind today than I normally am.

I use the saks credit easily. My problem is the dining credit. Seems like it forces me to shake shack at the end if every month just so it doesn't go to waste

I don't like to do fast food, and I agree that this $10 has created some work for me. Between DH and I we have 2 of them. So far the best use I have found is to do GrubHub for pickup and then time it so I can grab something to take home when I'm close to a restaurant we actually like. Not fun, really, but it's $20/month so I want to use it.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Well got my flights then headed to the school. Now to decide which card next and if we are really going to do HI in Oct 2020. Bc swa will cost us about 250k for 3 tickets and two kids will be companions. If we go. Unless I start checking other airlines

 

[afan]

This SW release makes me so glad that the airlines I fly do rolling loads so you're not competing with hundreds of thousands of people at the same time. So nuts.

Boo, they changed my carpool incentive program and didn't notify us. It went from 10 trips (one way is one trip, so really you can do two a day) to 20 trips. They sent an email asking about April since I'm not at 20, I'm at 16 logged, asking if I forgot any (which was nice of them). I'll double check but since DH was traveling so often I don't know that I have any more to add

Didn't you and Carl commute together a few days you know because his normal person was on vacay

 

[3 DD love princesses]

@LuckyMamaInDE havent been to bwi pp lounge since it’s not open when we go or it’s not enough time. Lately we have been out of gate A and the lounge is in D. Security lines can be long at times even with TSA depending on your day and time. For 1.5 hr I’d skip just because it will take about 15 min walking there and then 15 min back. Plus security 5-40 min we have waited. If you look up where your flight in coming in and next one is going out you might be able to.

 

[KPK02090]

Ugh! We had to have a lot of tree work done and the bill was over $4,000. We're just about done with my CIP#2 MSR, so I tried to convinced DH to apply for a CIP #2 (he's a reluctant player). But he agreed! I sent him the link and he went off and applied. He just told me he got the "being reviewed" message. I thought no big deal, then he told me he "just made up a company name". We have a vacation rental house as our business and he put "Lastname Rentals". Anything I can do at this point? Can I call Chase and have them change the application to just his name as the business name? OR can we cancel the application? and try again? It was just an hour ago that he applied.

 

[Lain]

Ugh! We had to have a lot of tree work done and the bill was over $4,000. We're just about done with my CIP#2 MSR, so I tried to convinced DH to apply for a CIP #2 (he's a reluctant player). But he agreed! I sent him the link and he went off and applied. He just told me he got the "being reviewed" message. I thought no big deal, then he told me he "just made up a company name". We have a vacation rental house as our business and he put "Lastname Rentals". Anything I can do at this point? Can I call Chase and have them change the application to just his name as the business name? OR can we cancel the application? and try again? It was just an hour ago that he applied.

And this is why so many of us just apply for our reluctant spouses once we get the ok. I have seen DPs of calling in, saying you think you made a mistake on the application, and successfully convincing the rep to change the business name on the app. YMMV, but it’s worth a try at this point or else it’ll certainly be denied. If this app gets denied or is canceled, DH will need to wait 30 days to try again. Good luck, fingers crossed!

 

[Judique]

Is it the new one in OC? Maybe new staff in training issues?

Definitely! It was lovely and worth the stay. The staff were so friendly and anxious to please that I don't want to hammer them because of obvious growing pains and this was their first week. The rooms were beautiful with balconies overlooking the Bay. 'I' could have avoided this problem by waiting until my checkout time the next morning to discuss my wants with them, then they would have not tried to 'fix' stuff in advance of a stay.

Of course a more experienced staff would have handled this seamlessly in most situations. Or we could have just checked out and checked back in a few hours later as we were traveling pretty light. Daughter was also miffed because she didn't get any platinum perk or room upgrade, which at most would have been a room with an extra couch. It didn't much matter on this trip and I thought she was way too into her 'perks' versus enjoying a very low room rate (other than my free night cert) in a room that we were the first to sleep in with a staff that was bending over backwards to try to please us. I should note neither of us asked for an upgrade - me because we didn't need one and her because I said 'don't complicate this anymore than it already is', while looking at weird charges mounting on my card, lol.

But I do not want to take away from the new beauty of the hotel and the friendly staff and the homey yet entirely modern atmosphere that has been created here. You do feel as if you are a part of the lobby area with the pool table, Jenga blocks and multiple games available, plus the nice bar area and the 'snack' area. They have separate indoor and outdoor pools with what looks like bar service or snack service outside. It's a short walk to the actual beach and you can see a small slice of ocean from the top (5th?) floor. Nothing worth fighting to get as the Bay view is more delightful.

My angst was in the long wait to get my credit card looking at the correct charges.
And, as far as I can tell, most issues are just from newness and staff needing to learn. Nothing that time won't heal.

 

[Calfan]

I booked SW flights this morning for DS and I to attend two Cal home football games in November. I didn't worry about hitting the release right when it opened and just looked for flights at around 8:45am MT when I got settled at work. No problem getting the BOI to OAK and OAK to BOI flights on WGA fares. The BOI/OAK route has actually dropped a bit in price recently. When we first moved, a round trip was about $350. I was surprised how high it was, but it stayed that way for a couple of years. Now the norm seems to be $295 round trip ($145 for the leg to OAK and $150 for the leg back to BOI), so I'll take it! I was able to book two legs with points and apply remaining funds on DS's travel voucher from our delay in March to cover most of another leg for him. Put the rest on my Amex Plat for 5x. Now I just need DH to decide if he and DD are going to one of these games so I can get DH booked and add DD as his companion.

 

[KPK02090]

And this is why so many of us just apply for our reluctant spouses once we get the ok. I have seen DPs of calling in, saying you think you made a mistake on the application, and successfully convincing the rep to change the business name on the app. YMMV, but it’s worth a try at this point or else it’ll certainly be denied. If this app gets denied or is canceled, DH will need to wait 30 days to try again. Good luck, fingers crossed!

Thanks for the advice Lain. I tried.
I just called and then handed him the phone. Too late! They said they couldn't change it, he'd need to send in documentation for the business. Bummer! At least DH said, "I'll just try again in 30 days" Just would have been nice to finish off the MSR so quickly.

 

[crazymomof4]

Want opinions on the Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard
For years, we have flown almost exclusively with Southwest, but I want to "expand my rewards portfolio" (terminology courtesy of thepointsguy-- not my own- LOL) and American Airlines has many flights out of our "home" airport (PHL). Currently they are giving a 60,000 bonus for signing up after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months.
In reading reviews of the card, of course there are people commenting below the review, with very negative experiences (not getting the bonus points credited, etc).
Just wondering what you all think of it?

 

[Lain]

Any tips for banking the AmEx Gold grubhub/cheesecake factory/etc. credit? It always seems to be the end of the month and I can't decide whether I want the bad Mexican takeout through grubhub or another $10 CF GC . . .

No... I've been trying to lay off the Cheesecake Factory too, so I've been using Grubhub pickup. Fortunately, we have a lot of options here in SF.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I see on DoC that big Delta bonuses are coming June 1....omg someone talk me down. I’m so close to being under 5/24.

Biz cards!!!

 

[gottalovepluto]

That's when you log out of your account, and look at the pictures on your phone of all the memories those points made possible.

I really love that! I was judged on my Safari by a snotty fellow traveler for taking pictures with my iPhone (isn’t the quality really bad?) but dude- I can bust out these photos whenever I randomly want to show someone or just for myself whenever I want. Let me see you do that with your DSLR 5000 Mega Awesome Camera.

I just read that! I saw some people called recon line after denial, and got approved. Maybe I’ll try that after receiving denial letter.......or is this a bad idea?

it works for some so imho it’s worth shot but Barclays recon can be brutal. I failed to recon a personal card and a business card with them, the part where the person listed off every single credit card I had opened with their tone of voice oozing sarcasm was particularly painful. Have your thick skin on before you call.