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

[disfanforlife]

My DH was my companion on the flight....I called as soon as the text notification came and the hold time was 30 minutes ...

Went online to rebook while on hold
what I had to do was put his confirmation number and name in to cancel his flight first
then put my information in and change to an open flight
Then add my DH back as my companion on the new flight

Thanks, I will do the same if either of our flights gets cancelled.

 

[bernina]

Quick check on reward redemption options for anyone who has a minute:

Looking to book a basic Holiday Inn Express in Livermore, CA (leaving San Francisco early evening after Alcatraz tour and headed to Rush Creek Lodge at Yosemite for the following night).

Cash Price (all taxes): $173
IHG Points: 20,000
IHG Points + Cash: 10,000 + $79
UR using CSR: 11,485

I have enough IHG points to do the max 20,000 booking. That's what I'm leaning towards as IHG points aren't nearly as valuable (to me) as URs. It also provides a fully refundable booking as opposed to the UR option.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

.

 

[MrPTato]

Got a replacement Amex BonVoy card today with the mosaic design...not too shabby looking.

 

[1st*toright]

Report from my kid at USO - Hagrid's motorbike is really cool and they only waited about 2 hours to do it this afternoon. No complaints from her about the lack of EP (but then, she hasn't done USO with EP - we did that with my little one, but the older one was in school), and hanging out with your friends does make lines seem shorter than they would be if you were with your family.

 

[Judique]

They only offered us $75 pp.

Dh said no. He doesn’t want to go in and sit there with them I guess

I can understand that. $75 per person isn't really that much, even with a few fastpasses and if I remember correctly, the FP's are not good on everything. If you are just there for a weekend, unless you can't find anything else to do, since you are not interested in buying, it can wait.

That said, you may find that DVC as a Florida resident has it's perks. @calypso726 takes advantage and books it like a second home, and many people who have it definitely keep it when they move to Florida. Wouldn't hurt to have a few well placed points if it's in the budget, but not a necessity - it is a luxury or a want.

And, it doesn't hurt to learn how it operates. DVC is very low pressure and once you make any kind of inquiry, you get assigned a guide. So, if they are still working and you don't buy until 3 years later, that's your guide. If your guide leaves, you get assigned another. If you are dissatisfied with the one assigned, you can request a change. Mine retired and I now have one that sends me emails and has called my room to check that all is well, even though she's never sold me anything. It's unlike other sales at timeshares where you get the 'you've got to buy before you leave today' stuff and you have to 'break free' to get away.

Whenever they have new rooms, I usually go to take a look. And, if I'm there for any type of presentation or member event, I try to fit it in. I actually miss the 'welcome home Wednesdays' that they used to have - free breakfast and DVC loot and pins! That went away and they started doing something at Atlantic Dance once a week....I have a bunch of free hats and visors from that. Now it seems it sells itself as they don't reward members for bringing sales like they used to.

 

[Judique]

Quick check on reward redemption options for anyone who has a minute:

Looking to book a basic Holiday Inn Express in Livermore, CA (leaving San Francisco early evening after Alcatraz tour and headed to Rush Creek Lodge at Yosemite for the following night).

Cash Price (all taxes): $173
IHG Points: 20,000
IHG Points + Cash: 10,000 + $79
UR using CSR: 11,485

I have enough IHG points to do the max 20,000 booking. That's what I'm leaning towards as IHG points aren't nearly as valuable (to me) as URs. It also provides a fully refundable booking as opposed to the UR option.

I would blow the IHG points. Been using them for many years. You can always get more if you need them. And you could get the 10K for less than $79 if you didn't have enough, probably around $60 these days. The UR's have the ability to be actual cash in hand. Not so with IHG points.

 

[Haley R]

I can understand that. $75 per person isn't really that much, even with a few fastpasses and if I remember correctly, the FP's are not good on everything. If you are just there for a weekend, unless you can't find anything else to do, since you are not interested in buying, it can wait.

That said, you may find that DVC as a Florida resident has it's perks. @calypso726 takes advantage and books it like a second home, and many people who have it definitely keep it when they move to Florida. Wouldn't hurt to have a few well placed points if it's in the budget, but not a necessity - it is a luxury or a want.

And, it doesn't hurt to learn how it operates. DVC is very low pressure and once you make any kind of inquiry, you get assigned a guide. So, if they are still working and you don't buy until 3 years later, that's your guide. If your guide leaves, you get assigned another. If you are dissatisfied with the one assigned, you can request a change. Mine retired and I now have one that sends me emails and has called my room to check that all is well, even though she's never sold me anything. It's unlike other sales at timeshares where you get the 'you've got to buy before you leave today' stuff and you have to 'break free' to get away.

Whenever they have new rooms, I usually go to take a look. And, if I'm there for any type of presentation or member event, I try to fit it in. I actually miss the 'welcome home Wednesdays' that they used to have - free breakfast and DVC loot and pins! That went away and they started doing something at Atlantic Dance once a week....I have a bunch of free hats and visors from that. Now it seems it sells itself as they don't reward members for bringing sales like they used to.

I may have to do a tour by myself one of these days because Dh is absolutely against it

 

[miztressuz]

Got a replacement Amex BonVoy card today with the mosaic design...not too shabby looking.

Wasn't sure if they'd make it, getting down to the wire. I keep getting notice at the top of the page when I log in that new cards will be arriving in June! Um, they've got one more day for me since I see nothing in informed delivery for today. Haven't received my Biz one either. I'm not sure they're gonna make it here. Not that it matters to me what they look like sitting inside the safe

 

[Judique]

I may have to do a tour by myself one of these days because Dh is absolutely against it

Well, leave him alone and maybe he will 'discover' it all by himself and you will let him show it to you! He's now in a different environment at work and at home and in time sometimes things make more sense. He's got a lot going on right now. Not to downplay the changes in your lifestyle, but there's got to be some pressure on him with a new job and all that goes with it.

You can certainly read up on DVC and all but it might be best to wait and do a tour together when he's ready. New job, new house, new community, new state and sooner or later, new family members! Is there room for DVC? Probably, but would not be the most important item on the bucket list.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Raise promo code is SHOP7 for 7% off up to $15. For some reason I can't see anywhere to input the code though...

 

[calypso726]

I can understand that. $75 per person isn't really that much, even with a few fastpasses and if I remember correctly, the FP's are not good on everything. If you are just there for a weekend, unless you can't find anything else to do, since you are not interested in buying, it can wait.

That said, you may find that DVC as a Florida resident has it's perks. @calypso726 takes advantage and books it like a second home, and many people who have it definitely keep it when they move to Florida. Wouldn't hurt to have a few well placed points if it's in the budget, but not a necessity - it is a luxury or a want.

And, it doesn't hurt to learn how it operates. DVC is very low pressure and once you make any kind of inquiry, you get assigned a guide. So, if they are still working and you don't buy until 3 years later, that's your guide. If your guide leaves, you get assigned another. If you are dissatisfied with the one assigned, you can request a change. Mine retired and I now have one that sends me emails and has called my room to check that all is well, even though she's never sold me anything. It's unlike other sales at timeshares where you get the 'you've got to buy before you leave today' stuff and you have to 'break free' to get away.

Whenever they have new rooms, I usually go to take a look. And, if I'm there for any type of presentation or member event, I try to fit it in. I actually miss the 'welcome home Wednesdays' that they used to have - free breakfast and DVC loot and pins! That went away and they started doing something at Atlantic Dance once a week....I have a bunch of free hats and visors from that. Now it seems it sells itself as they don't reward members for bringing sales like they used to.

This is exactly how we use DVC as Florida residents. It’s like a second home. We’ve discussed whether or not we’d keep DVC once we are retired and hopefully much close to central FL. The verdict is we will keep it.

I initially went to a DVC presentation on my own while DH was having a nap. I really didn’t know what exactly DVC was or how it worked and I had some time to kill. When I got back, PlanePrincess didn’t even want to know what it was it how it worked because we weren’t buying it. There’s only one way to win an argument with me and that is with logic. He failed to explain logically, how learning something new would obligate him to purchase anything. So I explained how DVC works. A few months later math won the rest of the argument. Best. Decision. Ever.

To be honest, if it weren’t for DVC, I might not have discovered travel hacking and may have never become part of the churner world.

 

[happ]

It seems that mine was the oddball datapoint

 

[Judique]

I've been refreshing the magic bands and it's different each time. Now I have the castle one, A Minnie -All about the Bow which is cute and 23 other choices. First time around I had 16 choices, 8 of which were the solid colors. They still haven't pried loose my credit card, but they've gotten close!

 

[gottalovepluto]

For those in the Happy Guy churn we have a 2nd DP of HD register spitting out an invalid message on the Disney Gift Card thread. This time a HD cashier even tried to help make the transaction go through. The first DP I was thinking maybe the mag strip was bad or something because their other Happy Guy worked but now that we have 2 DPs I'm concerned there has been an actual change in how some of the gift cards were coded by Happy Cards. The alternative, happier, theory is the mag strips on the cards are bad but they haven't tried to buy anything that wasn't a gift card with the cards using the mag strip yet. Just something to keep an eye on.

 

[MrPTato]

Wasn't sure if they'd make it, getting down to the wire. I keep getting notice at the top of the page when I log in that new cards will be arriving in June! Um, they've got one more day for me since I see nothing in informed delivery for today. Haven't received my Biz one either. I'm not sure they're gonna make it here. Not that it matters to me what they look like sitting inside the safe

I requested as I was ready to get out of the purple...but like you...it went into safe keeping. Numbers are printed on the back as well instead of the raised.

 

[MrPTato]

For those in the Happy Guy churn we have a 2nd DP of HD register spitting out an invalid message on the Disney Gift Card thread. This time a HD cashier even tried to help make the transaction go through. The first DP I was thinking maybe the mag strip was bad or something because their other Happy Guy worked but now that we have 2 DPs I'm concerned there has been an actual change in how some of the gift cards were coded by Happy Cards. The alternative, happier, theory is the mag strips on the cards are bad but they haven't tried to buy anything that wasn't a gift card with the cards using the mag strip yet. Just something to keep an eye on.

I hope it was just a card issue...I got a few last week with the hopes of getting Disney cards...going to try later today.

 

[platamama]

For those in the Happy Guy churn we have a 2nd DP of HD register spitting out an invalid message on the Disney Gift Card thread. This time a HD cashier even tried to help make the transaction go through. The first DP I was thinking maybe the mag strip was bad or something because their other Happy Guy worked but now that we have 2 DPs I'm concerned there has been an actual change in how some of the gift cards were coded by Happy Cards. The alternative, happier, theory is the mag strips on the cards are bad but they haven't tried to buy anything that wasn't a gift card with the cards using the mag strip yet. Just something to keep an eye on.

Probably because of this:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/happy-gift-card-terms-now-exclude-gift-card-purchases/

 

[gottalovepluto]

Probably because of this:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/happy-gift-card-terms-now-exclude-gift-card-purchases/

Yep. Terms are one thing but we were/are hoping it was actually enforceable People have been successfully churning them since the language changed but we certainly got more cautious...

 

[Lain]

Probably because of this:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/happy-gift-card-terms-now-exclude-gift-card-purchases/

Yep. Terms are one thing but we were/are hoping it was actually enforceable People have been successfully churning them since the language changed but we certainly got more cautious...

Shucks. I finally got around to ordering a Happy Guy GC from the Amex Offer.

I guess I could use it to buy a ton of meals at Burger King, or one or two meals at McCormick & Schmick's.