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

[alryan]

-

 

[Lain]

Earlier today, I posted a new Amex Offer for Caviar - Spend $150+, get 4,000 MR Points. Expires 8/10/19. (There’s probably also a $40 back version.)

Caviar is a food delivery service like Uber Eats, Doordash, or Grubhub, but you should check if they service your area at trycaviar .com.

Anyway, we occasionally order through Caviar so I went ahead to redeem the Amex Offer by buying myself a $150 e-gift card (which triggers the Amex Offer credit). I noticed that Caviar is running a promo on its front page where if you buy a gift card in June (for yourself or anybody else), you’ll get $5 credit deposited into your account. So I ended up getting $155 in Caviar credit and 4,000 MR from my $150 purchase.

Note that as with many of the major food delivery services, Caviar charges delivery and service fees, not including tip; but they also run promos frequently that can help to offset those fees. Food delivered to your door is a luxury, but some days it can also be a necessity. Amex Offers, credits, and promo codes help with that.

 

[Albort]

I’ll add to that a strange DP that perhaps any spend from 6/7 or that range of days has not counted towards MSR:

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/c04fd7/_/er2zu2k

Biz Gold? theres a bit of a shake up with the rewards department right now...

 

[Haley R]

I haven’t really been paying attention to the whole SW phenomenon but since we’re moving to Florida I feel like I should know more about it.

Are they planning to do reservations at wdw? Do you have to stay onsite for that? What happens if you cancel your hotel for a better deal or different hotel? Do the Disney springs hotels count?

 

[bernina]

.

 

[kmc8826]

Yes I’m keeping this in my back pocket. Amex still likes me but I have a few cards that I might cancel soon so I want to make the best of my potential final run.
DH has an SPG biz - spending dropped on this I put 2.2K on it - bill is due 7/6
DH has BBP - was carrying a balance of about $6k I paid it down to 2.8K
Lastly he has green biz - never saw more that 1-2 purchases (small) a month now put $20 on it.
I’m still getting the pop up as of yesterday. I don’t know if I should pay everything down again and then try? Keep spending/paying and try again? I’m at a loss.....

Has your pop up said anything about having the balance on the BBP? Taking advantage of the 0%? Both DH and I will have a balance for the next little bit while I pay off this DVC. I don’t have an answer for you and also at a loss...but trying to gather all information.

SMH that is crazy!

Nice that you got a $150 gift card! Was that a promo on a flyer in your room?

When you sign up for the tour just say a friend got that offer and that is what you want too. I referred my folks and they got an email ahead of time to do the tour and get a $75 gift card per person. Their total was the $150.

I’ll add to that a strange DP that perhaps any spend from 6/7 or that range of days has not counted towards MSR:

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/c04fd7/_/er2zu2k

It is way early to worry but DH met spend just after June 7 on his Delta Biz Gold and no points. Way too early to worry. As I sit here and worry...

 

[orangecuse]

@Haley R no reservations at WDW. They are doing EMH 6-9 every day from open until Nov 2nd so thats the onsite advantage right now. Haven’t seen if Disney Springs would count but I think they are locked into offering all EMH hotels (DS included) the same benefits as onsite in that regard due to the contracts that are good until the end of the year. I haven’t seen anything else being promoted but I have a few friends planning trips so I’ve been trying to pay attention to the SW thread here for them.

 

[bigmochick]

I’ll have to check out the local gas stations for gift cards.

 

[snugglebug]

Bonvoy'd again.

I made a 3 night reservation via UR points for a Courtyard king with sofabed. We arrived just after 10:30. I know I have my Marriott number in my Chase profile. Checkin was fine. Got to the room and it's a King only. Not gonna work. I booked this room for 3 people (intending to put my son on the air mattress as always, I do normally include him in the count however to get this room to show up I need to put 3 down).

I went to the front desk showed her my registration and said I need 2 sleeping surfaces. I know the hotel is booked, as is just about every other hotel here. Big softball tourney, our age group has 100 teams registered. I made it known I didn't care what room or how they do it, I need 2 surfaces.

The ladies were so worried about Platinum elite members. I'm standing there thinking my Silver Elite means nothing. This went on for about an hour while they tried to get us a room for 3 nights. They could find one for the first night, but not the others. She said "if you have status we block the room for you, it shows up on our screen. If you don't have status and you aren't here at 3, you may not get a room." That's when i brought out my SE status (room reservation guarantee). My booking showed as through Expedia (which we all know), but my status did not move over with it.

I asked her what the point of a reservation was because if I make a reservation that's saying I need this room for these nights. I may as well not make reservations if that's how it works.

At that point she decides she's going to make this work (duh!). I wasn't giving up, asked for roll away which they no longer have, asked for another marriott hotel to move to but I know and she knows they're all booked. Somehow, some way they did find us a room. This one has a balcony and seems a little larger so maybe I got a little upgrade. She did ask for my Marriott number so I can get some points for this so we'll see how that works out.

I found it interesting that until I showed my Silver Elite status they weren't willing to work too hard to find a room, but as soon as I brought that up and pointed out the reservation guarantee, magically a room appeared. I did have three ladies working on this, the one that finally fixed it thinks the first lady was only looking for 2 queens so maybe that was the problem.

I wasn't expecting anything more than i booked- a king with a sofabed. That's exactly what I got. I'm so thankful we don't play until 2pm tomorrow. After a 2.5 hour drive, then an hour to get my room I'm exhausted.

So, here's your notice, with Marriott at least, expect to check in AT 3pm or risk not getting your room unless you have status that did transfer over with your reservation.

(Y'all don't post too much tomorrow, I won't have a lot of time to catch up lol Yeah, I know this group, wishful thinking.)

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Bonvoy'd again.

I made a 3 night reservation via UR points for a Courtyard king with sofabed. We arrived just after 10:30. I know I have my Marriott number in my Chase profile. Checkin was fine. Got to the room and it's a King only. Not gonna work. I booked this room for 3 people (intending to put my son on the air mattress as always, I do normally include him in the count however to get this room to show up I need to put 3 down).

I went to the front desk showed her my registration and said I need 2 sleeping surfaces. I know the hotel is booked, as is just about every other hotel here. Big softball tourney, our age group has 100 teams registered. I made it known I didn't care what room or how they do it, I need 2 surfaces.

The ladies were so worried about Platinum elite members. I'm standing there thinking my Silver Elite means nothing. This went on for about an hour while they tried to get us a room for 3 nights. They could find one for the first night, but not the others. She said "if you have status we block the room for you, it shows up on our screen. If you don't have status and you aren't here at 3, you may not get a room." That's when i brought out my SE status (room reservation guarantee). My booking showed as through Expedia (which we all know), but my status did not move over with it.

I asked her what the point of a reservation was because if I make a reservation that's saying I need this room for these nights. I may as well not make reservations if that's how it works.

At that point she decides she's going to make this work (duh!). I wasn't giving up, asked for roll away which they no longer have, asked for another marriott hotel to move to but I know and she knows they're all booked. Somehow, some way they did find us a room. This one has a balcony and seems a little larger so maybe I got a little upgrade. She did ask for my Marriott number so I can get some points for this so we'll see how that works out.

I found it interesting that until I showed my Silver Elite status they weren't willing to work too hard to find a room, but as soon as I brought that up and pointed out the reservation guarantee, magically a room appeared. I did have three ladies working on this, the one that finally fixed it thinks the first lady was only looking for 2 queens so maybe that was the problem.

I wasn't expecting anything more than i booked- a king with a sofabed. That's exactly what I got. I'm so thankful we don't play until 2pm tomorrow. After a 2.5 hour drive, then an hour to get my room I'm exhausted.

So, here's your notice, with Marriott at least, expect to check in AT 3pm or risk not getting your room unless you have status that did transfer over with your reservation.

(Y'all don't post too much tomorrow, I won't have a lot of time to catch up lol Yeah, I know this group, wishful thinking.)

This sounds somewhat familiar...AND almost 1 year to the day...at least you didn't get to experience the "quality" inn haha! I'm VERY glad you guys got a room at the hotel and totally understand the stress of that situation

Thanks for conjuring up these memories...lol! My favorite part of this story that I'm not sure I ever relayed to the group here was asking people in the lobby if they wanted anything from the snack shop since it was "on the house". Perhaps I was the first one to get Bonvoyed before it was even a thing!
(these quotes actually point back to the old thread FYI for those wondering)

Guys...my week has not gotten better. After my basement flood...and my 3 trips to different Home Depots to purchase a sump pump (they sold me a broken one twice...can’t remember if I shared that sorry of wasting 6+ hours)...Tonight takes the cake...

Apparently the Fairfield Inn I was staying at tonight had a glitch where when I checked in on the App it only transferred my name and email but not my phone # or credit card. They sent me an email at 8:30 giving me 30 minutes to respond or they would cancel my room. When I showed up at 9:30...it was cancelled. They DID NOT cancel the room in my wife’s name because she didn’t check in via the app. (That room was for my sister in laws family).

I can’t even begin to type what occurred over the next hour in that lobby...but I can tell you that they DID NOT provide me (a gold elite member with 1.3million pts) a room tonight. The GM spoke to me on the phone and didn’t even apologize...after prodding they found me a room at a “Quality” Inn about 20 miles away (yes it is “Quality” for a reason ). He then told me it was my responsibility to pay for it. I’ll have to provide some addition commentary later on some of the more hilarious portions of this exchange (including the GM saying to me on the phone “I work a 9-5 just like you”...). Also we were told to grab anything from the snack shop by the person at the desk so me and the kids grabbed about $100 worth of stuff LOL! There’s more but it’s late...

I placed a long call to Marriott tonight. I got my free night cert back (good for a year from today) Plus 25,000 points.

The best part is we are going to drive back to the Fairfield tomorrow for breakfast to meet up with sis in law. WOW...Just WOW...what a night, what a week!

Thanks guys!! We had a great trip, many long beach days and fantastic weather...it was very relaxing. I'll still be somewhat sporadic in my posting for the next 7 weeks, lol. This week is obviously 4th of July, we are in Captiva (Florida) the week of the 15th, weekend family reunion trip 27-29, 1st week of Aug bible school at our church, and we have a long weekend to Wash DC Aug 15-19. In between all of that I guess I'm trying to work too haha!

For those interested in if I got a resolution to my whole West Virginia Fairfield Inn debacle... after receiving 25,000 Marriott points and my free night cert back good thru 6/22/19 (and they paid for my night at the "quality" hotel)...the GM of the hotel called me the next day to apologize. He said that he was not made aware that my night (they cancelled) was a points night and if he'd have known that they wouldn't have cancelled it. He was very apologetic and offered me another 40,000 Marriott points. I took them and thanked him - probably won't stay there again though...haha. So for my 2 hours of hassle and driving down the road, etc. we got 65,000 Marriott points and a free Cat1-5 night. This brings our Marriott points balance up to 1,422,508! And we ate breakfast at the "Quality" hotel and continued on our path to Myrtle the next morning and didn't let it mess with our week at all.

 

[mmmears]

We booked the Marriott with URs through the portal. A concierge room with a King bed. We get to the room and it's 2 doubles. Down we go again. They tell us that they "can't see" the details of the room, that it's just a room reservation. I show them my printout. Then I'm told that it's just a request. Really? It's an actual room category. DH pushed hard and they gave us what they said was their last King room on that floor. He has a LUX card and whatever status that gives him. But it sure didn't make us feel like valued customers. A bookable room category should mean you get what you book. I'm sorry @snugglebug that they made it so hard for you to get what you booked.

 

[speedyfishy]

SMH that is crazy!

Nice that you got a $150 gift card! Was that a promo on a flyer in your room?

I went up to a kiosk and asked what offers they were running for the tour. She said they have the three fastpasses and then asked where we were staying. I said the Yatch club and she said if SO and I both did it it would be $150.

 

[Haley R]

@Haley R no reservations at WDW. They are doing EMH 6-9 every day from open until Nov 2nd so thats the onsite advantage right now. Haven’t seen if Disney Springs would count but I think they are locked into offering all EMH hotels (DS included) the same benefits as onsite in that regard due to the contracts that are good until the end of the year. I haven’t seen anything else being promoted but I have a few friends planning trips so I’ve been trying to pay attention to the SW thread here for them.

Thank you for the response. We might not go then since they aren’t doing reservations. I know it’s still gonna be packed even at 6 am and I don’t want to fool with that.

 

[speedyfishy]

Heading back to the yatch club now from the Villains after hours event. I stocked up on water so I managed to get $72 worth of snacks. We had a great time. Only problem is I have a keys to the kingdom tour tomorrow at 8am. Oops lol

 

[Haley R]

Heading back to the yatch club now from the Villains after hours event. I stocked up on water so I managed to get $72 worth of snacks. We had a great time. Only problem is I have a keys to the kingdom tour tomorrow at 8am. Oops lol

Did you think it was worth it? I’m wanting to do it after we move but Dh is on the fence. We’ve always liked the normal dah but didn’t like mnsshp last year

 

[PolyRob]

When you sign up for the tour just say a friend got that offer and that is what you want too. I referred my folks and they got an email ahead of time to do the tour and get a $75 gift card per person. Their total was the $150.

Good idea! All they can do is say no. lol I've received $100 offers in the room and recently a $50 offer in the mail.

I went up to a kiosk and asked what offers they were running for the tour. She said they have the three fastpasses and then asked where we were staying. I said the Yatch club and she said if SO and I both did it it would be $150.

Thanks! I will stop by as soon as I check-in to PVB and see what they can offer me. I am actually splitting my stay with YC. I'll see if it helps

 

[speedyfishy]

Did you think it was worth it? I’m wanting to do it after we move but Dh is on the fence. We’ve always liked the normal dah but didn’t like mnsshp last year

IMO it was definitely worth it. A bit more crowded than when we did it in December. But the atmosphere was better. TBH the crowds at the parties are insane I’d rather do an after hours. When we went in December it was also freezing SO and I only shared one Mickey bar. We definitely got more food this time. I got three ice creams (I just tried the strawberry bar but didn’t like it so really only two) and two popcorns. Like 7 waters some 3 are coming back to the room with me (I drink a lot of water in the middle of the night so I bet it will be gone tomorrow) I felt kinda bad taking a lot but I’ll drink it lol and a soda which I normally hate and don’t drink but the sugar kept me up lol I normally don’t have that much sugar lol SO only got two waters and two ice creams (didn’t pull his weight lol) the rides were like all walk on. We skipped mine train that was a 20 min wait but even Peter Pan was 5 mins.

 

[platamama]

Bonvoy'd again.

I made a 3 night reservation via UR points for a Courtyard king with sofabed. We arrived just after 10:30. I know I have my Marriott number in my Chase profile. Checkin was fine. Got to the room and it's a King only. Not gonna work. I booked this room for 3 people (intending to put my son on the air mattress as always, I do normally include him in the count however to get this room to show up I need to put 3 down).

I went to the front desk showed her my registration and said I need 2 sleeping surfaces. I know the hotel is booked, as is just about every other hotel here. Big softball tourney, our age group has 100 teams registered. I made it known I didn't care what room or how they do it, I need 2 surfaces.

The ladies were so worried about Platinum elite members. I'm standing there thinking my Silver Elite means nothing. This went on for about an hour while they tried to get us a room for 3 nights. They could find one for the first night, but not the others. She said "if you have status we block the room for you, it shows up on our screen. If you don't have status and you aren't here at 3, you may not get a room." That's when i brought out my SE status (room reservation guarantee). My booking showed as through Expedia (which we all know), but my status did not move over with it.

I asked her what the point of a reservation was because if I make a reservation that's saying I need this room for these nights. I may as well not make reservations if that's how it works.

At that point she decides she's going to make this work (duh!). I wasn't giving up, asked for roll away which they no longer have, asked for another marriott hotel to move to but I know and she knows they're all booked. Somehow, some way they did find us a room. This one has a balcony and seems a little larger so maybe I got a little upgrade. She did ask for my Marriott number so I can get some points for this so we'll see how that works out.

I found it interesting that until I showed my Silver Elite status they weren't willing to work too hard to find a room, but as soon as I brought that up and pointed out the reservation guarantee, magically a room appeared. I did have three ladies working on this, the one that finally fixed it thinks the first lady was only looking for 2 queens so maybe that was the problem.

I wasn't expecting anything more than i booked- a king with a sofabed. That's exactly what I got. I'm so thankful we don't play until 2pm tomorrow. After a 2.5 hour drive, then an hour to get my room I'm exhausted.

So, here's your notice, with Marriott at least, expect to check in AT 3pm or risk not getting your room unless you have status that did transfer over with your reservation.

(Y'all don't post too much tomorrow, I won't have a lot of time to catch up lol Yeah, I know this group, wishful thinking.)

Sounds like a pain, but it's good that you stood your ground and got what you booked.

If you book through an 3rd party OTA (like the Chase portal, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels .com, etc.) AFAIK you are not supposed to receive your status perks (points, late checkout, elite night credit, wifi, etc.). I have no idea why this is so, and sometimes the front desk will still treat you as if you had booked directly with them. Hotels are treated differently than airline tickets, because I know if you buy airfare through Chase portal you will earn the qualifying miles and qualifying dollar spend with the airline. So I always book hotels directly through their website if I get some perks for being a member so that I can get the elite night credit and any promotions that I signed up for. All that said, I think you deserve to get the room you reserved no matter what avenue you took to reserve it.

Hope the softball tourney is fun and the weather is good! Good luck to your team. DD played rec for a few years, and I remember those tournament days were L-O-N-G.

 

[orangecuse]

Reminds me of when expedia screwed something up and my (now)BIL ended up missing our wedding because the airline wouldn’t honor his flight. His first time meeting our whole family was running into our reception late haha

Alright Plastiq pros I promised I searched but I think the word car is messing things up here:

Can I use an Amex for car insurance? Saw a lot on car loan payments but not car insurance. If not I’m guessing best bet is to pay my remaining year balance via MCGC?

 

[Haley R]

IMO it was definitely worth it. A bit more crowded than when we did it in December. But the atmosphere was better. TBH the crowds at the parties are insane I’d rather do an after hours. When we went in December it was also freezing SO and I only shared one Mickey bar. We definitely got more food this time. I got three ice creams (I just tried the strawberry bar but didn’t like it so really only two) and two popcorns. Like 7 waters some 3 are coming back to the room with me (I drink a lot of water in the middle of the night so I bet it will be gone tomorrow) I felt kinda bad taking a lot but I’ll drink it lol and a soda which I normally hate and don’t drink but the sugar kept me up lol I normally don’t have that much sugar lol SO only got two waters and two ice creams (didn’t pull his weight lol) the rides were like all walk on. We skipped mine train that was a 20 min wait but even Peter Pan was 5 mins.

Awesome! I’m pretty sure we’ll go but it’ll be a last minute decision based on weather. I haven’t decided if we’ll drive home after to save on a hotel or if we’ll book a last minute hotel. I don’t think I would be going to ride rides but to enjoy the atmosphere and watch the stage show.