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

[Ngwira]

Good to know, thank you. We are currently working on gaining Mosaic status with our Jetblue card, but maybe after we reach $50k we might start a CIP card.

You may want to look at AMEX cards. They transfer to Jetblue. The 100,000 MR Amex Platinum would be a good card for you, if you can get it. Also the Barclay cards have a great bonus now. I got 50,000 trueblue points for me and P2 on the personal card. Turned around and got 60,000 trueblue points on the business card for just me. Love those EWR to MCO direct flights.

 

[wendow]

My wife is at 11 lol. I didn’t even realize that until now. 7 personal and 4 biz.

So maybe 9 is no big deal lol

 

[scottmel]

Thanks for answering my question on the best way to earn ANA (all nappon airlines not American ) - Amex Membership points transferred to ANA ok. Thanks!

May I ask another? From looking around, seems the Sky Club (Virgin Airlines) will allow me to accumulate points HERE and then transfer them to ANA points? Can anyone confirm this? I have random miles on Delta, United, Hawaiian and I am looking to see if I can transfer them to Virigin THEN they transfer to ANA? And in the meantime the Gold Amex looks good 4% on groceries up to 25k a year is awesome considering I am doing a Adventures By Disney this summer funding with gift cards purchased at the grocers and earning fuel perks....

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Can someone talk to me about the airline credit on the Hilton Aspire card? It says $250, but for incidental charges. I think some people were previously buying GCs but it sounds like maybe that's not working on that card anymore? If I can use the $250 to actually book flights then I'll go ahead and get the card, but if it's just for checked bags or things like that then it's not worth it since I rarely ever check a bag. Thanks!

Disregard: I figured it out. Looks like this card isn't the best option for me so I think I'm going to go with the Surpass.

Saw you already got the Surpass (silly name!) but just to add that the Aspire credit can most likely be used at short, cheaper JB flights and I know you fly JB. I just booked BOS-RIC for like $84 one way and it credited. I too am planning on getting the Surpass (for reasons @Lain listed) but hope this JB loophole exists when I (hopefully) get the upgrade off on the Surpass.

I haven’t yet seen anywhere to put “names on tickets”. It’s just a confirmation email right now. Did you do this with URs?

@Artygal90 - did you put names on tickets?

Yes I used URs. God I am fuzzy too on the ticket name thing. I thought I had to put in names when I booked the UR's, but I might be thinking of somewhere else. I can't find our old tickets from Feb as we upgraded to AP's. I think it was a generic ticket and then they did the fingerprint thing upon first use maybe? You could also send your sister a pic of your license if she has issues picking up the tickets. The people at the resort are super helpful and and friendly. I think they'd be fine if she explained the circumstances and had access to your ID. Also, they do put your name on the EP card which is separate from the park ticket so I wouldnt want your sister to get caught up in maiden vs married last name confusion.

Gotcha! Thanks for confirming. I do have a CSR and was thinking it would be a steal to get that promo ticket and upgrade it to an AP in Dec and then have Dec 2019 - Dec 2020 on points and minimal money put out. I don't actually have any Universal plans right now, just FOMO on a great deal

Hopefully the do the deal last year where they extend the AP season - we got 15 months (in Feb) for $30 upgrade each. AND we charged the upgraded AP's to our room and my arrival + erased the purchase so it was such a good deal!! I think if we upgraded on promo tix it was closer to $100 so spending more on 5 day regular tix with the UR CSR discount ended up being less OOP. The FOMO is real on this forum!!!!

What is the value if you cash out for gc? I am open to that idea, but I might save them for flights.

Thanks for the thought. I will consider it, but I'm not digging the fee with nothing much in return for it. Amex's lineup is sort of lame...well for me anyways, since I have no clue how I will use the points. I just thought I'd grab a card since I won't have another MSR until mid September and they likely won't pull my credit.

I would seriously consider calling to get the Biz Plat 100K offer (10K spend in 3 months). I just did it, I can give you the name of the girl I used she was amazingly kind and friendly. Anyways here's why - 100K MR, I value that at 1K which wipes away the $595 AF right there. $200 airline credit. I know you fly SW alot. Now the gc spend isnt working but you fly so much you could buy a throwaway cheap flight to anywhere which would trigger the credit (I think needs to be less than $100). That credit would go on your SW account then you could use that towards your real flight. $200 this year and $200 next. Now you're at $1400. You mentioned DS wants a Nintendo Switch. Dell sells them. $100 credit this year for the switch, next year get him a few games ($50 each), use that credit and put the games away for his bday/xmas. Now your at $1600 value for a $10K spend.

Go to Anna's Brick Oven Pizza on Richmond Rd for dinner in Williamsburg. It was fabulous!
We always go to Captain George's for seafood one night in Williamsburg.
The outlets are better in Williamsburg than Norfolk if you are going shopping.

Get Duck Donuts in Virginia Beach and make sure to eat them while they are fresh.
We ate Dough Boys and Nautilus in Va Beach and they were just ok.
You are fine. The beach refresh is up at 37th to 40's. That area is desperate need of additional sand/beach compared to where your hotel is located.

Interested in hearing about HGI especially the pool since DH likes a nice pool. That's how we ended up at the Courtyard because they have a nice pool.

Awesome! Thanks for the tips! How much further down in HGI? I booked the Marriott originally but got an awesome pricematch from Hilton. I found a cheaper price on Expedia and they discounted the rate to $900 for 3 nighs (friend is paying OOP, we are using UR's of course!)
Any tips for BG? We've never been. Im guessing get there early, do big coasters first?

Good to know, thank you. We are currently working on gaining Mosaic status with our Jetblue card, but maybe after we reach $50k we might start a CIP card.

How many flights are you taking next year with JB. I've thought about trying to MS for Mosaic status but it doesn't make sense unless you are taking many flights and need the flexibility to cancel/rebook. Otherwise you are putting spend towards something that doesnt have all that much value compared to opening other cards with lucrative bonuses.
Read the first page about which cards you have and dates and we can recommend if your interested

That's a really nice offer! I'll keep an eye out on DH's travels to see if he'll be using his day passes, and will offer them up here if anyone is interested. It will probably be closer to Dec.

On that note, does anyone want a Shell $.10off/gal TMobile code?

ME!! I use Shell all the time!

$50k (Actually $48k) spend could get you 636k Ultimate Rewards and 117k Hyatt points. At a minimum that's $5,490 cash in your pocket (I took fees out) + the Hyatt points. Or, if used for travel, over 50% more ($8,670) than that in cash value + the Hyatt points.

And to put those Hyatt points in perspective, that 111k gets you around one of the following: 5 nights all inclusive in Puerto Vallarta, 9 nights at Park Hyatt in Siem Reap, 4 nights Park Hyatt in Paris, etc.

You could actually get/maximize more, I just kept it simple (CIP x4, CSR/CSP x2, Hyatt x2).

Would you trade Mosaic status for that? If so, welcome to the party.

This!!! EXACTLY!!! Shifting your spend this way (or other ways more beneficial the particular travel plans) makes WAY more sense!!!

 

[jhoannam]

.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

You may want to look at AMEX cards. They transfer to Jetblue. The 100,000 MR Amex Platinum would be a good card for you, if you can get it. Also the Barclay cards have a great bonus now. I got 50,000 trueblue points for me and P2 on the personal card. Turned around and got 60,000 trueblue points on the business card for just me. Love those EWR to MCO direct flights.

Chase is also 1:1 UR for JB now too. I think amex is 1:25:1 JB transfer but sometimes they have sales.

 

[Andysol]

All this Japan talk had me looking at flights. My BFF has orders to Japan 2020-2022, we want to visit her but now way could we get enough point for 4 Business class RT tickets. Anyone travel to Japan in economy? I was looking and it's 70K AA miles per ticket, I can totally do that's about 5 Citi AA cards. But first I need to hop on the grAAvy train.

I did economy for the same reason you'll have to: "4 tickets". Good luck finding 4 in J with the exception of AA NonSaaver. I couldn't even get it from Hawaii (and certainly not Dallas). Economy is fine if you're in a nice airbus w/ a good airline.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

@CaliforniaGirl09 --so sorry I forgot you and @Calfan! I usually skim over anything far East/Japan related so that's my only excuse!

LOL, no problem!!

Thanks for answering my question on the best way to earn ANA (all nappon airlines not American ) - Amex Membership points transferred to ANA ok. Thanks!

May I ask another? From looking around, seems the Sky Club (Virgin Airlines) will allow me to accumulate points HERE and then transfer them to ANA points? Can anyone confirm this? I have random miles on Delta, United, Hawaiian and I am looking to see if I can transfer them to Virigin THEN they transfer to ANA? And in the meantime the Gold Amex looks good 4% on groceries up to 25k a year is awesome considering I am doing a Adventures By Disney this summer funding with gift cards purchased at the grocers and earning fuel perks....

Be very careful here. What most of us are suggesting is using Virgin miles to book ANA via a partner redemption. You aren't actually transferring any miles to ANA. What you want to do is collect MRs from Amex to have flexibility. Collecting Virgin miles is fine but that doesn't give you as much flexibility as collecting MRs because it locks you into only one redemption. (Using Virgin to book ANA--I gave you that link yesterday in the other thread so you'll want to read that carefully but it explains the process of how to book a partner redemption). If you focus on collecting MRs you will actually have three options that i can think of off the top of my head:

--Transfering your MRs to Virgin to book an ANA flight through a partner redemption
--Transfering your MRs to British Air to book JAL flights through a partner redemption
--Transfering your MRs to Quantas to book JAL flights through a partner redemption

Hope that helps.

 

[afan]

Has anyone stayed at a Hyatt property in Charlotte? We've got an impromptu weekend scheduled in early September for a surprise 50th bday party

I just booked SW roundtrip from BWI for 7500 RR + CP

Where's it located? Uptown? If it's the one I'm thinking of it's in a decent spot and since you're there on a weekend teaffic shouldn't be too bad. It would still depend on where the party you're going to is.

And for those that haven't been to charlotte, it doesn't have a dowtown, it's called uptown anywhere else it would be downtown. I can't remember exactly why but it seems like on the self guided historic walking tour we did it goes way back, maybe not to the founding but long ago.

 

[NewbieMom]

Pretty sure @NewbieMom put seats on hold and had the award points cost go up.

Fantastic memory, as usual! Yes, I initially put our AA tickets on hold (economy saver) so that I could review the timing with DH. I received a confirmation email with the miles per ticket and confirmation # with link back to purchase. Within the 5 day hold period, I went back to purchase and the miles needed per ticket had gone up. Called AA and CS rep was less than helpful, basically said price fluctuates, that flight was no longer available for that amount of miles. Don't recall anyone else having the same issue when I asked here, but I don't understand what the point of a hold is, if it doesn't hold the same flight, cost, seats for you.

 

[Chris9ty]

I'm having a tough time differentiating between my amex cards right now, why do they all seem to look alike? The Hh are the worst,none of them say the type of card (at least easily visible) on them! and here's question.... so if I upgrade to an Ascned a few weeks back, but NOW they changed the name back to Surpass, are the current 'ascend' cards I'm using about to be replaced with a new Surpass card????

I was wondering about the new Surpass card too. The email didn’t mention a new card mailing. I would like them to tell us so I know to watch for it!

My husbands Hilton Amex has his Hilton number on it and says Ascend. Mine (I’m authorized user) doesn’t- I have to look close at the date on it to make sure I use the right one

 

[jhoannam]

I did economy for the same reason you'll have to: "4 tickets". Good luck finding 4 in J with the exception of AA NonSaaver. I couldn't even get it from Hawaii (and certainly not Dallas). Economy is fine if you're in a nice airbus w/ a good airline.

"J" is business correct?

Were you able to get 4 Saaver flights to Japan?

 

[DisneyMandC]

In addition to what @DisneyMandC and @wendow wrote, what I would caution is to make sure you're aware of the various time-limited deals and have a clear idea of how you'll liquidate the MCGC or VGC.

There was a lot of chatter last week about MCGCs at Staples because they were running a "fee free" deal on $200 denomination MCGCs between 7/21/19-7/27/19. A $200 MCGC will cost you only $200 on your credit card, and you get the spend and reward points. This deal has since expired. If you were to purchase one of these $200 MCGCs now, you'd be paying $200 + a $6.95 activation fee. The way to break even or even come out ahead of the fee is, buy it with no fee or a discounted fee, with a card on which you're working on MSR or earns a high category bonus for purchases at office supply stores. Occasionally there are Chase Offers and Amex Offers to Staples that you can stack. (Folks on the Disney Gift Card Deals thread will also stack shopping apps like Ebates -- which I wouldn't recommend at risk of shutdown -- or RMN.) So you don't want to be using an Amex card to buy gift cards of any type at an office supply store when working on an MSR (not a problem for you). You can use a CIP or Citi AA Biz and put that purchase towards your MSR, but neither card earns more than 1x at an office supply store. The CIC earns a 5x UR bonus at office supply stores, so some people find it worthwhile to use it to buy gift cards ($200 x 5x UR = 1,000 UR, and you still have your $200 in the form of a gift card and at least $10 in rewards). But in this example, you're "floating" $200 in the form of a gift card. If it's a third-party gift card, say to Disney, you'll liquidate it when you go to Disney; or say, a restaurant, you'll liquidate it when you eat at that restaurant. If it's in a VGC or MCGC, there are ways of liquidating and getting the funds back into your bank account to pay your credit card bill. That's MS, and there are some resources about it on our reddit. Or else, you're "floating" that money until you can spend the VGC or MCGC down organically,

Outside of these fee free and $ off deals on VGC/MCGC, Staples/OD/OM are not necessarily the best place to buy a prepaid gift card with the activation fee. In-store, VGC/MCGC top out at only $200 at Staples/OD/OM and come with a $6.95 fee. 6.95% represents a 3.475% fee on $200. By comparison, most grocery stores sell VGC/MCGC in a variable load denomination up to $500 for a $5.95 fee. That's just a 1.19% fee by comparison. Supermarket chains like Kroger frequently run fuel points on fixed denomination gift cards, including VGC/MCGC; and Safeway runs $10 off deals when buying 2x $50 VGC/MCGC or $100+ VGCs, or $15 off 2x $100 VGC/MCGC. Safeway has a deal on $50 and $100 VGC running until 8/2/19, and Kroger has a 4x fuel points deal on fixed denomination gift cards through 8/13/19.

But again, you need to do a little bit of math to see how the fees (if any), discounts, and credit card rewards work out, and always have a plan how to liquidate it!

Also, beware of tampered gift card packaging to avoid buying compromised gift cards that are at risk of getting drained.

This is a big topic, so let me know if there's anything unclear to you.

Need to go by Wal Mart today to load my serve today. I've been buying VGC at Kroger while Dosh is 5% back. Now it's 4x fuel points too so I picked up another $100 today to break in DH's new CIP. I've got a $400 vet bill to put on my CIP2 and that will put me about $50 within MSR. And I need to pay car insurance and that should take me within $100 of DH's Hilton Biz MSR. Then to start on Hilton Surpass... lol.

All this Japan talk had me looking at flights. My BFF has orders to Japan 2020-2022, we want to visit her but now way could we get enough point for 4 Business class RT tickets. Anyone travel to Japan in economy? I was looking and it's 70K AA miles per ticket, I can totally do that's about 5 Citi AA cards. But first I need to hop on the grAAvy train.

Haven't flown it, but look up JAL's premium economy seating reviews. It looks pretty nice, tbh. Obviously not lie flat or anything, but definitely nicer than just your standard economy. I've seen pretty decent availability on that, you should easily be able to find 4 seats unless you're going during peak cherry blossom season or something like that.

 

[scottmel]

LOL, no problem!!



Be very careful here. What most of us are suggesting is using Virgin miles to book ANA via a partner redemption. You aren't actually transferring any miles to ANA. What you want to do is collect MRs from Amex to have flexibility. Collecting Virgin miles is fine but that doesn't give you as much flexibility as collecting MRs because it locks you into only one redemption. (Using Virgin to book ANA--I gave you that link yesterday in the other thread so you'll want to read that carefully but it explains the process of how to book a partner redemption). If you focus on collecting MRs you will actually have three options that i can think of off the top of my head:

--Transfering your MRs to Virgin to book an ANA flight through a partner redemption
--Transfering your MRs to British Air to book JAL flights through a partner redemption
--Transfering your MRs to Quantas to book JAL flights through a partner redemption

Hope that helps.

thanks Caligirl. I just wan to make sure I have this correct. We are set on ANA. I don't care if I pay out of pocket, that is my airline for sure. I HOPE I can get a ticket or two from this point churning, but if not, the trip goes on! As you stated, flying is part of my vacation.
1. I joined the Flying Club with Virgin Atlantlic. Balance ZERO. I am going to see what points I have lying around that I can transfer into this fund. Let's pretend I have 5,000 miles I am able to move into this account.
2. The MR points on Amex - let's pretended I have 100.000.
3. Am I then transferring these 1000.000 miles into the Flying Club account thus giving me 105,000 miles thus enabling me to use this towards a purchase of ANA ticket?

I totally get what you are saying on limiting myself to ANA but I am good with that. But is my thought process correct here on the math above? thank you!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

thanks Caligirl. I just wan to make sure I have this correct. We are set on ANA. I don't care if I pay out of pocket, that is my airline for sure. I HOPE I can get a ticket or two from this point churning, but if not, the trip goes on! As you stated, flying is part of my vacation.
1. I joined the Flying Club with Virgin Atlantlic. Balance ZERO. I am going to see what points I have lying around that I can transfer into this fund. Let's pretend I have 5,000 miles I am able to move into this account.
2. The MR points on Amex - let's pretended I have 100.000.
3. Am I then transferring these 1000.000 miles into the Flying Club account thus giving me 105,000 miles thus enabling me to use this towards a purchase of ANA ticket?

I totally get what you are saying on limiting myself to ANA but I am good with that. But is my thought process correct here on the math above? thank you!

Yes, the math is correct, but in addition to the lack of flexibility, there are a few other things to think about:
--The Virgin/ANA redemption deal could go away between now and the time you are ticketing so you can't count on it until you are ready to ticket
--There might not be any ANA seats available with Virgin miles for the route you want to take (you basically have to track from your city about a year out to see what availability looks like using United's search engine as Virgin doesn't show this information on line--you have to call Virgin to book the ANA tickets but United USUALLY has the same availability. They can sometimes have "Phantom" availability so you have to call Virgin to see if they have the seats before being sure)
--I wouldn't transfer any MRs to Virgin until you are sure of availability; one of the great things about this partner redemption is that Virgin will put the tickets on hold and give you time to transfer your miles. I think I had 24 hours but it could have been longer.
--You should be on the look out for AMEX transfer bonuses to Virgin. You could turn those 100,000 MRs into 130,000 Virgin Miles if they have a transfer going on. That's what I was able to do.

If I think of anything else, I'll update ...

 

[castormom4]

Do you have a P2 to support you....some here have....Amex took self support points back....but Chase has not done so
If you decide not to self support...you can go to our DISchurners group on Reddit and help someone out there

No, P2 was already 5/24 before I realized you couldn't get business cards over 5/24. Working on getting him back down, hopefully by April 2020 or so.

And yes, I'm a member of Dischurners, I just really need Chase points to get our family of 6 out to Vegas for a 2 week road trip, so the referral points would really help. I typically use a referral there though. I just didn't want to self refer if it was a huge red flag for chase.

 

[wendow]

No, P2 was already 5/24 before I realized you couldn't get business cards over 5/24. Working on getting him back down, hopefully by April 2020 or so.

And yes, I'm a member of Dischurners, I just really need Chase points to get our family of 6 out to Vegas for a 2 week road trip, so the referral points would really help. I typically use a referral there though. I just didn't want to self refer if it was a huge red flag for chase.

So far, we only have Amex taking back self-refer points and not from all. Will Chase follow in Amex footsteps and begin taking back? We just don't know. It's not a risk I'm willing to take but others are and have been fine so far.

 

[disfanforlife]

Catching up - got back Saturday night from a week at Disney. Me, DS20 and DD18. Stayed at BWV again. Love it there. Trip was good - lots of rain though. Did the Keys to the Kingdom Tour - of course it rained the entire time. But was very interesting.

Also did a DVC Tour. Because we were staying at BWV we got $150 in Disney Gift Cards plus 4 Anytime Fast Passes (not good on the newer rides). Very low key and easy. Of course kids thought I should buy - they liked the look of the new Riveria. Would be nice but not possible with 2 kids in college and so easy to rent points form a friend right now.

Came home to DH's CIP#3 in the mail. Paid some tuition and the spend is done on that card. Also had DH's AA Citi Business #1 in the mail. Will either use for Mortgage or Tuition.

I applied for the CIP for DS20 yesterday. He was approved today!! Going to pay more tuition with that and that will be done. Going to then transfer his points to my CSR and give him $850 in cash. That will make his car payments for 8 months while he is at college, so that will be nice. He is going to try and get a job at college but I want school to be the 1st priority so his car payments will be one less thing to worry about.

DH got a AMEX Mailer and Email for Delta 70,000 points. In the past he has gotten the pop up. Not sure if the mailer will bypass that or not.

I just want to thank everyone for this forum. So much great info. If I hadn't found this forum I would still just be churning my SW Cards every 2 years and thinking I am really cool doing that. Have come a long way since then and am loving the extra traveling we get to do. Although I think the kids are getting a bit too used to it. They jokingly said that next year they only get to go on 2 vacations (Vegas and Cruise). They are so mistreated. Although they don't know about the trip to Aruba I have booked for January while they are on winter break. Very happy that both kids still love traveling with us and continue as long as I can.

Sounds similar to me. I thought getting the CP was a great deal. Glad I joined in now and looking forward to more trips. Aruba sounds wonderful! I have two kids in college too and have been thinking about a trip somewhere in the carribean in January with them

 

[Lain]

I got one of the Best Buy offers on DH’s card this morning. What do we think the best option is there? Just go straight Disney, or VGC? The Swagbucks deal there is totally dead, right?

Best Buy VGCs are extremely YMMV. I haven't been able to find one locally all last year whenever there was a Best Buy Amex Offer. In addition, I recall they max out at $200 and you'd eat a (I think) $5.95 activation fee even if you could find stock. I just added the $250/$25 or 2,500 MR back and the 1 additional MR point at BestBuy .com offer to the same card, and ordered Disney GCs online. Note that BestBuy .com limits you to 3 of each $25 and $50 denominations, so I'm going to have to put in two orders to get to the $250.

 

[scottmel]

Yes, the math is correct, but in addition to the lack of flexibility, there are a few other things to think about:
--The Virgin/ANA redemption deal could go away between now and the time you are ticketing so you can't count on it until you are ready to ticket
--There might not be any ANA seats available with Virgin miles for the route you want to take (you basically have to track from your city about a year out to see what availability looks like using United's search engine as Virgin doesn't show this information on line--you have to call Virgin to book the ANA tickets but United USUALLY has the same availability. They can sometimes have "Phantom" availability so you have to call Virgin to see if they have the seats before being sure)
--I wouldn't transfer any MRs to Virgin until you are sure of availability; one of the great things about this partner redemption is that Virgin will put the tickets on hold and give you time to transfer your miles. I think I had 24 hours but it could have been longer.
--You should be on the look out for AMEX transfer bonuses to Virgin. You could turn those 100,000 MRs into 130,000 Virgin Miles if they have a transfer going on. That's what I was able to do.

If I think of anything else, I'll update ...

Thanks! I will keep an eye out for the Amex...It would be great it it worked but not a showstopper. If I had one free first class I would be thrilled. That it is like buy 2 get 1 free mentality. I will keep an eye out. thanks again!