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

[palhockeymomof2]

Just wondering what everyone is doing here.. but if my last CIP was 4/5, are people applying 7/1 or waiting until 7/6? It didn't cross my mind with DHs, his last was March so I was just thinking March to June, 3 months, but it was 3/18

I have been waiting 90 days ish

 

[miztressuz]

Just wondering what everyone is doing here.. but if my last CIP was 4/5, are people applying 7/1 or waiting until 7/6? It didn't cross my mind with DHs, his last was March so I was just thinking March to June, 3 months, but it was 3/18

My personal opinion is the 3 month thing is just a rough outline for spacing. Personally I didn't time it down to the dates, but then again, my profile is fairly clean and I'm not going for a 2nd CIP for awhile. I went "hard" beginning of 2018 and then P2 did the majority of apps at the end of it. So my last card inquires were from Oct, and a huge gap in cards opened.

This is what my report would have looked like plus some inquiries for biz cards thrown in there but Chase isn't overly sensitive to those.
11/17 Discover
4/18 CSR
4/18 CSP

2/11/19 SPG personal (didn't show on report until after Apr)
2/18/19 SW Biz
5/13/19 CIP
6/8/19 SW Priority

Given the crazy velocities I see on r/churning where people are picking up a biz card every 30 days I don't think a week here or there is going to make much of a difference.

 

[disneybirds]

Thank you. That was helpful. Mount Pleasant had much cheaper hotel prices but DH is spoiled and wants to be in the historic district. We probably will mostly walk around and eat, do one plantation tour and maybe hit the beach. It's going to be a "take it easy" vacation, so I agreed to splurge on the hotel. Still haven't decided on which one.

We have visited Charleston several times. We haven't stayed at the two you mentioned in your first post, but we loved the French Quarter Inn. It is right off the market and walkable to everywhere in the historic district. When we stayed they had a free breakfast and a nice evening appetizer/drink offering. We booked through the UR portal and had an amazing room.

Last time we stayed at the Hyatt House which is closer to the interstate. It was really nice and was 12K points a night. It is a long walk into the historic area, so we usually either walked into the area and ubered back or vice versa. There are lots of places to eat around there at night. They had a great breakfast in the morning. It is attached to Hyatt Place and they have slightly different offerings for breakfast so I would check out both.

We have also stayed at the Doubletree right off the market. While it was in a great location, the place was not very nice. It is undergoing a renovation, so maybe it will be better in the future.

Hope you have a great trip! All we do is walk around to burn a few calories before the next delicious meal. We love going to Charleston!!

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Australia planning (copied from what I posted over on dischurners)

Check pricing on domestic Australia flights on the UR portal. I have found both roundtrips and one-ways on Virgin Australia that are cheaper using UR through the portal than transferring to Virgin Atlantic and using on Virgin Australia.

For example, Perth->AYQ (Uluru area/Yulara resort) is 20K UR through the portal and 34300 UR transferred for the same flights on the same day. (Virgin Australia uses a miles-based chart).

Jetstar flights and Qantas/Qantas Link also show on the UR portal but for my purposes, VA flights had better times.

 

[tink1970]

Admittedly I lived in Stockton, CA for a few years so it takes a bit more than normal to scare me safety wise but that also means it’s no big deal to me to enact extra safety precautions others might not think about.

Oh wow, this made me ! I have heard so many horrible things about Stockton that when we were there in March for MILs bday I was shocked that it wasn't a knife and gun club. "Oh, it's not as horrible as I thought it was going to be" were my oh so complimentary words.

teen is a Slytherin, DH is a Hufflepuff, LO is a Gryffindor and (apparenlty) I'm a Ravenclaw.

Just like my family, sans an LO. Cool!

 

[Calfan]

I finally had some time to sit down and complete all of my Amex Plat stuff. Marriott and Hilton linked (already upgraded to gold), placed a $55.38 order from Saks, and reset my Uber account that I haven't used since 2016 and linked the card ($15 credit already showing for June).

I didn't pick an airline yet because I have to decide between SW/JetBlue.

Is there any reason I should sign up for Priority Pass through the Plat if I already have it through my CSR? Would it allow me to bring more guests if I was traveling with more than 2 people?

I also feel really wasteful that I have 2 TSA Pre/GE credits doing nothing. I guess I could always bite the bullet and go for GE, but I have no need for it right now. I foolishly paid for my TSA Pre in 2016/2017 before I found you lovely people

I have two PP memberships: one through my CSR and one through my Amex Platinum. I have used the two memberships multiple times to get all four of my family members into a PP lounge.

About to cancel P1 CIP 1. Can someone remind me if I should be able to do this through SM? Also, might they bring up the fact that I have more than one CIP open? This is my first time closing one and I want to be prepared.

I cancelled my CIP1 via SM...the drop down menu let’s you select CIP1
I then asked them to close my card ending in xxxx

Just confirming this is my experience too. I SM'd to close DH's CIP #1 and did it via the drop down menu to select the correct card based on last 4. Chase closed the correct card and didn't ask at all about DH's CIP #2 being open.

 

[afan]

I'm slow to the party but this part is spot on and something I'm still working on when it comes to stuff at a job.

While Taurus has an intense internal drive, they sometimes have trouble respecting authority, especially if asked to do something they think is pointless or should be done differently. Learning to be flexible and go with the flow can be an advantage to Taurus.

There wasn't a ton that I felt fit with this one but I also looked at Gemini because that's what I should have been if I hadn't been born a few weeks early. And some of it fit but not all. My bday is nowhere near the cusp so I always just go with taurus and normally definitions of them are fairly accurate so it's interesting that only parts of both did.

 

[miztressuz]

I'm shocked but it appears we survived calling into Marriott Bonblah to get our Fairbanks hotel booked. Only 2 calls but if the first rep hadn't abruptly hung up on us at the end of the first one so we had to call back to confirm, it would have been an even more impressive DP I think.

We booked 5 nights at the SpringHill Suites - the only Marriott property in Fairbanks so easy decision - to take advantage of the 5th night free for booking with points. It's a Cat 4 hotel so a total of 100k for stay. Our only issue is I have the 100k but hubby has the status so I wanted the nights to be credited to his account to keep it up. There had been a policy prior to the merger that you could use family or household points to book a stay under your account which got around the transfer points limit and fees and allowed you to use the full amount of the points needed - it wasn't limited to just the balance needed. This is what we were hoping to do and then they finalized and rolled out the merged rewards program so I wasn't sure if it still could be done. Last bit of research I did into it was a while ago and jury was still out then.

I had him call since he's Platinum and I'm only Silver, and technically there had been a fee for a Silver to transfer points to another member. Was hoping they wouldn't think about it if they were talking with a Plat. The rep said she'd have to transfer the points from my account to his first and then she could apply them to the reservation, but it could be done. No fees were mentioned when she said she had to do the transfer and she zipped them out of the account in a few seconds.

Of course after I made hubby do this I'm poking around the site and I don't see the transfer fee listed anywhere now. It had been $10 so even if we had to pay it, I'm ok with a 5 night stay for $10. But after a bit of research it looks like the transfer fee was removed sometime this year so I could have called to transfer my points and then just booked it online, and AwardWallet reports that the one-time points sharing exception for award bookings has been removed.

Since we only needed 100k for the reservation I don't know if that's actually true and hardcoded as they claim or not.

 

[Rusty45398]

Thanks.. this is great info!

 

[LynnTH]

I opened US Bank Platinum account in April for $300 Bonus after 2 Direct Deposits totaling $2000 or more. Use Cap 1 and just got the bonus yesterday.

We received another offer in the mail for US Bank Platinum Account again for $300 Bonus for 2 Direct Deposits totaling $1000 or more. So I waited to make sure I got my bonus and then I went a applied DH up for this one. I logged into the web address it gave me and put in the Promo Code but it switched me to Easy Checking, which is not what I signed up for and pretty sure no bonus attached to that. Has anyone had this happen to them.

Was hoping I could just chat with someone but looks like DH will have to call (he will love that...)

 

[1st*toright]

I'm shocked but it appears we survived calling into Marriott Bonblah to get our Fairbanks hotel booked. Only 2 calls but if the first rep hadn't abruptly hung up on us at the end of the first one so we had to call back to confirm, it would have been an even more impressive DP I think.

We booked 5 nights at the SpringHill Suites - the only Marriott property in Fairbanks so easy decision - to take advantage of the 5th night free for booking with points. It's a Cat 4 hotel so a total of 100k for stay. Our only issue is I have the 100k but hubby has the status so I wanted the nights to be credited to his account to keep it up. There had been a policy prior to the merger that you could use family or household points to book a stay under your account which got around the transfer points limit and fees and allowed you to use the full amount of the points needed - it wasn't limited to just the balance needed. This is what we were hoping to do and then they finalized and rolled out the merged rewards program so I wasn't sure if it still could be done. Last bit of research I did into it was a while ago and jury was still out then.

I had him call since he's Platinum and I'm only Silver, and technically there had been a fee for a Silver to transfer points to another member. Was hoping they wouldn't think about it if they were talking with a Plat. The rep said she'd have to transfer the points from my account to his first and then she could apply them to the reservation, but it could be done. No fees were mentioned when she said she had to do the transfer and she zipped them out of the account in a few seconds.

Of course after I made hubby do this I'm poking around the site and I don't see the transfer fee listed anywhere now. It had been $10 so even if we had to pay it, I'm ok with a 5 night stay for $10. But after a bit of research it looks like the transfer fee was removed sometime this year so I could have called to transfer my points and then just booked it online, and AwardWallet reports that the one-time points sharing exception for award bookings has been removed.

Since we only needed 100k for the reservation I don't know if that's actually true and hardcoded as they claim or not.

Thanks- this is really good to know! Was thinking of getting DH a bonblech to snag some more points, but I'm the one with status. I didn't know you could transfer to get the points to align with the status holder. At the moment DH doesn't even have a Bonblech account!

 

[havaneselover]

My Amex platinum self referral offer is back down to 60k MR. Makes me more likely to call in for the business platinum.

NM-went incognito and got the 75K offer back.

Applied and approved!

 

[LynnTH]

I figured you were deep in it, but I my spreadsheet did not account for 22 biz cards!

Yeah - I didn't know we had that many either until I just counted them. Crazy... Some of them are AMEX ones that I used to get a referral bonus but will not get SUB because AMEX does not like us anymore. You better update your spreadsheet...

 

[miztressuz]

Thanks- this is really good to know! Was thinking of getting DH a bonblech to snag some more points, but I'm the one with status. I didn't know you could transfer to get the points to align with the status holder. At the moment DH doesn't even have a Bonblech account!

As part of the new program changes they raised the max transfer limit to 100k and you can transfer that to anyone. The transferrer is limited to 100k per year but a receiver is limited to 500k per year. So DH and 4 generous friends or family could transfer the max into your account each year. Both accounts just have to be open for at least 30 days (with Qualifying activity otherwise it's 90 but, for a new account transferring out most likely it has qualifying points activity).

It's an interesting mix of the old SPG and Marriot programs. In some respects it's not as generous as there had been no limits between spouses (or household members I think) in the old SPG program, but I think that was restricted strictly to household members, whereas Marriott had theirs opened to everyone. As for the old Marriott program, they had that one-time exception policy for award bookings which removed the caps which was also generous as it essentially could do the same thing. So I guess since they kept the points sharing open to everyone they kept the Marriott caps but upped them to be a little more reasonable and make the process straight forward, but then removed the one-time exception to prevent abuse and really limited the program.

 

[amalone1013]

As part of the new program changes they raised the max transfer limit to 100k and you can transfer that to anyone. The transferrer is limited to 100k per year but a receiver is limited to 500k per year. So DH and 4 generous friends or family could transfer the max into your account each year. Both accounts just have to be open for at least 30 days (with Qualifying activity otherwise it's 90 but, for a new account transferring out most likely it has qualifying points activity).

It's an interesting mix of the old SPG and Marriot programs. In some respects it's not as generous as there had been no limits between spouses (or household members I think) in the old SPG program, but I think that was restricted strictly to household members, whereas Marriott had theirs opened to everyone. As for the old Marriott program, they had that one-time exception policy for award bookings which removed the caps which was also generous as it essentially could do the same thing. So I guess since they kept the points sharing open to everyone they kept the Marriott caps but upped them to be a little more reasonable and make the process straight forward, but then removed the one-time exception to prevent abuse and really limited the program.

So no spouse/household restriction... so theoretically we could send some of DHs into each of the ILs accounts to pick up their now orphaned Bonvoy points and then send them on again to pool everything in my account? Going with the assumption you must transfer in even 1000 increments. ILs have like 3k and 5k points currently.

 

[WVMomof3]

"DD21" just applied for CIP with her Poshmark selling and it is at 2 weeks!

 

[miztressuz]

So no spouse/household restriction... so theoretically we could send some of DHs into each of the ILs accounts to pick up their now orphaned Bonvoy points and then send them on again to pool everything in my account? Going with the assumption you must transfer in even 1000 increments. ILs have like 3k and 5k points currently.

That seems plausible and yes, still the 1000 point increments. I guess DH has more than 100k you want to transfer? Otherwise, you could just go from IL's right into yours. The bummer is you have to call to do it. Wonder if you could get a cool rep that'd do it all at once on a group phone call

 

[gottalovepluto]

--

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'm shocked but it appears we survived calling into Marriott Bonblah to get our Fairbanks hotel booked. Only 2 calls but if the first rep hadn't abruptly hung up on us at the end of the first one so we had to call back to confirm, it would have been an even more impressive DP I think.

We booked 5 nights at the SpringHill Suites - the only Marriott property in Fairbanks so easy decision - to take advantage of the 5th night free for booking with points. It's a Cat 4 hotel so a total of 100k for stay. Our only issue is I have the 100k but hubby has the status so I wanted the nights to be credited to his account to keep it up. There had been a policy prior to the merger that you could use family or household points to book a stay under your account which got around the transfer points limit and fees and allowed you to use the full amount of the points needed - it wasn't limited to just the balance needed. This is what we were hoping to do and then they finalized and rolled out the merged rewards program so I wasn't sure if it still could be done. Last bit of research I did into it was a while ago and jury was still out then.

I had him call since he's Platinum and I'm only Silver, and technically there had been a fee for a Silver to transfer points to another member. Was hoping they wouldn't think about it if they were talking with a Plat. The rep said she'd have to transfer the points from my account to his first and then she could apply them to the reservation, but it could be done. No fees were mentioned when she said she had to do the transfer and she zipped them out of the account in a few seconds.

Of course after I made hubby do this I'm poking around the site and I don't see the transfer fee listed anywhere now. It had been $10 so even if we had to pay it, I'm ok with a 5 night stay for $10. But after a bit of research it looks like the transfer fee was removed sometime this year so I could have called to transfer my points and then just booked it online, and AwardWallet reports that the one-time points sharing exception for award bookings has been removed.

Since we only needed 100k for the reservation I don't know if that's actually true and hardcoded as they claim or not.

The fact that is par for the course with Bonblah is just so, so sad. So is the fact that I just added Bonblah to my spell check dictionary because that term is gonna be around a long time!

 

[Lain]

Just want to double check that I am thinking straight. If I am looking at a @$1200 ticket so 80,000+ points via CSR or I can book 2 one ways directly with United at 40,000 points each plus some cash, I should do via CSR because it will earn miles with that ticket. Correct? Anything else different about them? And Grrrrr for not booking the other day when they were $900.

Also, I have United lounge passes with my CC. Can I give them to my DD? Or is it just connected to my CC and I need to use them?

Not sure if you got an answer, but yes, I always compare the points required for a United flight on the UR portal vs. an award flight directly with United. If I have to transfer UR to UA, then it becomes a 1:1 comparison. And if booking through the UR portal costs about the same or fewer points, I'll book with UR points because, as you already know, it's treated as a revenue flight and you'll earn miles on it. Transferring UR>UA, then redeeming UA miles for award flights won't earn you any more miles, and you'll be on the hook for the $5.60 security fee and any close in booking fees.

And yes, you can let your DD use your passes.