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

[SBWB48]

@SBWB48 - I see you’re back on this thread again!

Can always count on you to bring me out of lurkdom when life gets in the way

This time it was actually a trip to the world! We got back Sunday after 7 wonderful days, despite the heat (thankfully, the humidity was kept in check and made the dry heat tolerable).

It was an eventful trip travel wise. Our departure flight on SW was canceled shortly after we checked in. After frantically trying to find the next flight to hop on (fortunately, BWI is a hub with plenty non-stop flights to MCO), we called and rebooked a slightly earlier flight.

*Note to those who use CP: in the event of a cancellation, rebooking online is NOT an option using the existing confirmation numbers because it will error out and prompt you to call. When an entire flight is cancelled, you can imagine the hold times. Fortunately, I called as soon as I got the text, but this doesn't always work out (read on), and I was able to rebook within 20 min before flights started to sell out quickly from others rebooking.

I tweeted SW and requested compensation since I was told it was a mechanical issue that led to the cancellation apparently. Got two $100 vouchers.

Ironically, our return flights were ALSO cancelled. You can imagine the frustration of getting the dreaded text while in line for Test Track and realizing that due to the CP, I had to call. Wait time for this call was 45 min As I was on hold, I could see some flights starting to sell out, QUICK. The time I originally wanted was available as I kept refreshing while on hold, but knowing that it could sell out at any instance, I chose to use my stash of RR points to secure two spots and let the agent figure out how to move things around afterwards. By the time I was getting ready to book, THAT flight sold out as well, amongst others

Finally, I picked an earlier time (9:35am) and just booked as fast as I could before it sold out as well. I got an agent as we got to the car design room and got everything sorted out (refunded my points, cancelled new ressies, and rebooked us using old confirms) literally seconds before the CM directed us into the Test Track loading lane lol. She said it was a great idea to secure our spots before we got to her .

Tweeted at SW again, this time not knowing the reason, but figured getting cancelled twice in one trip is enough to warranted complaining again. Two more $100 vouchers

TLDR: IF you book with CP and flights get cancel, you MUST call to rebook. Call ASAP and rebook with points if you have them to secure seats on the next flight. They will sell out FAST as you wait on hold. Holding seats with points is a safety net and the agent can easily reshuffle ressies as long as you have secured a seat.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

.

 

[amalone1013]

DH prefers the SW cattle call to Delta, he described both boardings today as similar to taking his grandma and aunt to Costco

 

[bernina]

I would be surprised if this worked because I am quite sure I needed to enter SSNs for my AUs before their cards could be activated. But maybe I could have used the cards without activating? That I do not know.

ETA: Just to be clear - I did get the cards without providing SSNs, but then once they arrived I did whatever the sticker on the cards said to do to activate, which involved entering SSNs.

Thank you for the reply! A few DP’s on Reddit that you have 60 days to provide an SSN. I think I’ll give it a try and worst case I’m not able to activate without providing SSN. I’ll report back. 5k MR is nice but not worth a new open account on the credit report.

Edited to add: Just requested one in my DD’s name (8) and left date of birth and SSN blank. Both indicate they must be provided within 60 days of card being issued or the card will be cancelled. We’ll see if I’m able to activate and use for those 60 days (hopefully I’ll only need it for a few days to meet the $500 MSR).

 

[ten6mom]

The Hilton Biz has been at 125k for some time. So just 5k more, is not a lot in terms of Hilton points. Do you have any Amex cards? If you're a new customer, you're more likely to be targeted for the 100k Membership Rewards (MR) offer on the Amex Platinum card. The platicorn we've been talking about today, lol. Once you have that, you could then support yourself to the Hilton Biz for an additional 15k MRs. It is a personal card though and will add to your x/24. Not sure if you want to dip your toes in MRs yet. And the AF is a whopping $550. But there are ways to recoup that, which may or may not work for you.

Yes I have seen the Platicorn posts! It would be neat to get the offer just so I could say I got it but from what (little) I understand about the ways to recoup the AF, I don’t believe it is right for me, unfortunately.

Thank you for weighing in!

ETA- no, I have no AMEX cards at this time.

 

[AmyAnne]

Thank you for the reply! A few DP’s on Reddit that you have 60 days to provide an SSN. I think I’ll give it a try and worst case I’m not able to activate without providing SSN. I’ll report back. 5k MR is nice but not worth a new open account on the credit report.

Edited to add: Just requested one in my DD’s name (8) and left date of birth and SSN blank. Both indicate they must be provided within 60 days of card being issued or the card will be cancelled. We’ll see if I’m able to activate and use for those 60 days (hopefully I’ll only need it for a few days to meet the $500 MSR).

Interesting. I never thought about trying to use without activating with SSNs. If it works, it's really AmEx's fault, so I can't see how you could get in trouble.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Can always count on you to bring me out of lurkdom when life gets in the way

This time it was actually a trip to the world! We got back Sunday after 7 wonderful days, despite the heat (thankfully, the humidity was kept in check and made the dry heat tolerable).

It was an eventful trip travel wise. Our departure flight on SW was canceled shortly after we checked in. After frantically trying to find the next flight to hop on (fortunately, BWI is a hub with plenty non-stop flights to MCO), we called and rebooked a slightly earlier flight.

*Note to those who use CP: in the event of a cancellation, rebooking online is NOT an option using the existing confirmation numbers because it will error out and prompt you to call. When an entire flight is cancelled, you can imagine the hold times. Fortunately, I called as soon as I got the text, but this doesn't always work out (read on), and I was able to rebook within 20 min before flights started to sell out quickly from others rebooking.

I tweeted SW and requested compensation since I was told it was a mechanical issue that led to the cancellation apparently. Got two $100 vouchers.

Ironically, our return flights were ALSO cancelled. You can imagine the frustration of getting the dreaded text while in line for Test Track and realizing that due to the CP, I had to call. Wait time for this call was 45 min As I was on hold, I could see some flights starting to sell out, QUICK. The time I originally wanted was available as I kept refreshing while on hold, but knowing that it could sell out at any instance, I chose to use my stash of RR points to secure two spots and let the agent figure out how to move things around afterwards. By the time I was getting ready to book, THAT flight sold out as well, amongst others

Finally, I picked an earlier time (9:35am) and just booked as fast as I could before it sold out as well. I got an agent as we got to the car design room and got everything sorted out (refunded my points, cancelled new ressies, and rebooked us using old confirms) literally seconds before the CM directed us into the Test Track loading lane lol. She said it was a great idea to secure our spots before we got to her .

Tweeted at SW again, this time not knowing the reason, but figured getting cancelled twice in one trip is enough to warranted complaining again. Two more $100 vouchers

TLDR: IF you book with CP and flights get cancel, you MUST call to rebook. Call ASAP and rebook with points if you have them to secure seats on the next flight. They will sell out FAST as you wait on hold. Holding seats with points is a safety net and the agent can easily reshuffle ressies as long as you have secured a seat.

glad you were able to get flights and that they gave you vouchers so easily. lately they have been cancelling flights a lot out of BWI for some reason. DH's flights to LAX were canceled in Jan and Feb and no notification. No compensation either which is a bummer

 

[kmc8826]

Help please!

Today I went into card match incognito (following the last posted Doctor of Credit link). Entered DH’s information. Right up popped the 100k Platinum! I clicked on it to apply and it went to a screen where it said log in to your account. Maybe over thinking it I said apply without logging in. I did that and it went to the “offer no longer available.” So then played with it some more and tried again. This time it said log in and I just logged in. Came up again “offer no longer available.” Any ideas? What am I doing wrong? Half the time I do card match I can’t even get Amex offers at all and then when I finally do I still can’t get it!

If I can’t get it to work maybe I will just try to get DH the rose gold. I tried last December and got the pop up but it sounds like people are having a little better luck this time around.

Besides the DVC I need to pay for this week we just got the last bill for DH’s surgery. Right now I have plenty of spend...I just need to get the best cards.

 

[wanderlust7]

Help please!

Today I went into card match incognito (following the last posted Doctor of Credit link). Entered DH’s information. Right up popped the 100k Platinum! I clicked on it to apply and it went to a screen where it said log in to your account. Maybe over thinking it I said apply without logging in. I did that and it went to the “offer no longer available.” So then played with it some more and tried again. This time it said log in and I just logged in. Came up again “offer no longer available.” Any ideas? What am I doing wrong? Half the time I do card match I can’t even get Amex offers at all and then when I finally do I still can’t get it!

If I can’t get it to work maybe I will just try to get DH the rose gold. I tried last December and got the pop up but it sounds like people are having a little better luck this time around.

Besides the DVC I need to pay for this week we just got the last bill for DH’s surgery. Right now I have plenty of spend...I just need to get the best cards.

No idea, but here's a

If you can't get it work and since you have lots of spend, do you want to consider the call-in Biz Plat offer? 100k MRs for 10k spend. Charges 5k+ get 1.5x MRs.

 

[Haley R]

Wow, good to know about the fluctuation. I would be inclined to stay there again only because I am somewhat familiar with it from last trip (I haven't researched anything else... I am a creature of habit for sure).



OK also good to know.

Can you please tell me if I am understanding right- when you booked your flights, you booked both your outbound and inbound for the same date, because that's as far out as their calendar was open at the time, and then after however many necessary days passed, you then paid the $50 change fee to update your inbound to when you really planned to return.

Did you decide your flying dates and then book your hotels afterwards? Or did you book hotels first based off when you hoped to fly and change them around after you had firm flight dates?

Yeah the points for the Hilton changed often. I think at one point it got all the way up to 110k/night which is crazy. We booked the celebrio king room with ocean view though, not standard.

We didn’t book our trip that early so didn’t have to deal with when they put tickets out. I can’t remember exactly when we booked but I know it was under a year away. We just took what we could get at that point because I kept asking about dates I was seeing through United and the guy on the phone kept saying they didn’t have that day available. I’m not sure what the best way to do it would be.

I would book your plane tickets first because it’ll be hard to know until you book them what dates you’ll get and it would be a pain to switch all of your hotels around. We actually didn’t book our hotels until awhile after because we had to save up points. We also stayed at an Airbnb and got discounted gift cards for that but the host knew what dates I wanted and blacked them out so no one else could take them.

Hopefully this all makes sense

 

[ski_mom]

w00t!!!!!

FIVE cars and FIVE drivers?! Omg you are a budgeting boss seeing as you aren’t sure you’ll hit this much MSR! I cannot imagine handling all that

LOL! It's honestly the one expense I feel like I don't do the best job of keeping under control - unfortunately, we've had a few claims and I worry about checking around that we might get dropped if we have one more. Fortunately, DD1 graduated this year, so hopefully she'll be paying her own insurance before too long!!

Go for it. The worst case you can pay your mortgage with plastiq if you are down to the wire on one of the arrivals.

The peer pressure is real lol! I applied for DH and got instant approval for his card too!

I've never used plastiq, but may be figuring it out before too long! I also saw someone mention funding Great Southern Bank with their credit card. I'm not sure if I'm eligible to open an account with them, but I'll probably check into that as well.

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[kmc8826]

No idea, but here's a

If you can't get it work and since you have lots of spend, do you want to consider the call-in Biz Plat offer? 100k MRs for 10k spend. Charges 5k+ get 1.5x MRs.

That’s an idea...except I have the Biz Plat and DH would have to call.

I just pulled it again. This time just put his first initial last name (so it says that instead of full name) and the city that our zip code also shares. If I go through with the application should I still be ok?!?

 

[bernina]

That’s an idea...except I have the Biz Plat and DH would have to call.

I just pulled it again. This time just put his first initial last name (so it says that instead of full name) and the city that our zip code also shares. If I go through with the application should I still be ok?!?

I played the address game to pull DH’s 100k offer and while it did work out it was a bit messy. The address pre-filled on the app and couldn’t be changed. In my case I had used a previous address. Because the card goes to shipment almost immediately they couldn’t change the address. We had to wait until it was delivered at the listed address then call and report it lost (or something like that) and then they were able to initiate an address change and expedite a new card to the correct address.

I’d totally do it again since it worked out but wanted you to have a heads up in case it doesn’t get delivered with the different city.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

If you haven't checked out the JAPAN Tips thread on DISchurners recently, @Lain has started filling it with comments. He's including the text of the comment here AND a link back to this thread! I think the format he chose is simply awesome because it gives you the content of what's here and a way to come back here to that exact comment and see if any discussion followed!

https://www.reddit.com/r/DISchurners/comments/bvqwvn

@Lain - you are simply amazing! We are totally blessed to have him in our community!! I'm not sure how you find the time to do all that you do for everybody here.

 

[amalone1013]

We are officially booked at the Swan for exactly two weeks from now!!



*turning into hotel snob*

 

[kmc8826]

@bernina and @wanderlust7 I ended up bailing on it. If it was my card with the information not quite right I think i would have just done it but dealing with it being his card it didn’t seem worth it. It doesn’t help with his “whatever I totally trust you.” Which is good...except that is a lot of pressure. Despite the long term big picture value the $550 AF card is rough. DH would hear about that and would be like “um what?” So I am stepping away from the computer. Thank you for all the help though!

 

[afan]

@DisneyMandC thought you'd be interested. I got an email from GEDmatch which isn't the site I did my dna testing through but one that let's you upload 2 or 3 of the different tests so they get compared to more. Anyway they've updated their TOS and you opt in to let LE have access or you can remain as is and they won't have access when they search. It also explained that LE doesn't have special access that they do it the same as anyone else. Thought it was interesting because I haven't gotten anything from family tree dna or if I did I missed seeing it. I'll figure out how to opt in tomorrow. I was kind of bummed that the email wasn't actually a match but that's ok, I don't need any unknown family finding me

 

[snugglebug]

To Grand Canyon or not to Grand Canyon.

This Hawaii trip, I just keep wanting to add on to it. So, I have us booked to fly back to Phoenix, overnight there and then fly home the next day. I was looking at hotels and what we could do in the area Saturday morning before our flight, which I have been doing, got distracted and realized GC is 3.5 hours away. If I bump our flight home to Sunday it won't impact anyone's work schedule and we could get up Sat, head up to Grand Canyon for the day. I know we really need more than a day there to experience it all, but i think we'd all be happy just seeing some part of it. It means about $200 in airfare (points actually), a minivan rental which I've been debating anyway, and an extra hotel night.

I think the current adults in the house are on board with it. My son will just be getting back from his year long overseas tour a week before we leave so I do wonder how the time change and constant travel may affect him. Then my daughter's wedding is one week from our return so we'll be getting back and getting those last minute things done.

Am I crazy?! LOL Pass the CIPpy cup!

 

[wanderlust7]

DH's Global Entry conditional approval finally came through! Took almost 3 months. Lots of appointments available at SFO, so I got slots for 4 on a weekend, about 2 weeks before our Iceland/Scotland trip. But I'm not sure it makes sense to make a separate trip instead of just doing Enrollment on Arrival when we get back. We'd spend maybe 2 hours to drive there, park, walk in, etc. Thinking we probably won't "save" 2 hours.

 

[Haley R]

Our 80k URs are pending from dh’s CIP 2 and we should be getting another 80k URs from our mortgage