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

[gottalovepluto]

If you are considering upgrading your Pandora account to the $9.99/month to use that $9.99 off $9.99 Amex offer today don't. They're having a technical glitch that is resulting in people being charged for a year's subscription instead. Good news Amex offer works, was notified of use immediately when the $109.89 charge came through

I DM'd them on Twitter immediately and they told they're aware they're having an issue today, so I expect them to fix it but still. Save yourself what might be a headache

 

[RoyalJay]

1) BTDT twice
2) hated every single second of my time there twice

My parents lived in Japan for several years and I was forced to visit. They loved it, my brother loved it but I really didn't.

Ha, and here I was giving you suggestions on what to do in Asia when I've never even been there. Sorry about that! I can totally see why you'd skip it. Just curious, did you do the Disney parks over there? I'm just wondering if it's worth the effort.

 

[tink1970]

Right now, I'm leaning to Italy in early October. DH currently has 180k united miles. Between the two of us, we have 225k American airlines miles. We should have 240k UR points by the time the booking window opens. I also have about 350k MR points and DH has an amex platinum so it might make sense to book directly with points at least one way. I'd like to figure our the cheapest and best way to use points because right now I'm looking at booking through United on Lufthansa or something for 70k per person each way. But you guys are getting much cheaper rates.

United and Luftansa if you can get the saver rates at 70K is a very good deal.

AA miles can be helpful but they usually either have only British Airways flights through LHR at their sAAver rates but that means super expensive taxes. For a regular (non sAAver) business class on AA it could run from 135-180k miles/pp.

I don't know your home airport so flying blue can be helpful if you are near a sky team hub or if you're okay taking a positioning flight.

Avios are a good deal now with transfer from URs but the fees can be still so steep since usually you connect through LHR.

If your DH has an amex biz platinum it might make sense to book with MRs but otherwise there's no real benefit with booking tickets through Amex Travel. If you book with an amex plat business and use MRs then you receive 35% of your MRs back but not with the personal plat.

If you're looking at early Oct then you can start playing with rates/dates in November, so just in a few months.

 

[tink1970]

Ha, and here I was giving you suggestions on what to do in Asia when I've never even been there. Sorry about that! I can totally see why you'd skip it. Just curious, did you do the Disney parks over there? I'm just wondering if it's worth the effort.

LOL, this is where I get sent to the shun corner. I had the opportunity twice to go to Tokyo DL and I didn't.

I've heard it's worth the effort but apparently in my 20s I didn't feel the need.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Wow that’s amazing...I haven’t even earned 1 million points yet

I was pretty surprised myself--I went through it twice, LOL.

 

[afan]

Is the KTN shown on the tickets? If not then you can try to redo, when viewing the reservation details there's a link for "Secure Traveler information" where you can add your KTN to a ticket after you buy it. @afan just did this and seems successful

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...t-page-for-addl-details.3729982/post-60924012
If it is shown, then sometimes you just don't get selected. I think people have called SW to see if there was a mismatch that could be corrected to try again.

Mine was on Alaska though. I don't know if SW is as easy to do.

Thanks. I think I can see the problem. I called them a couple months ago to add my middle name to my SW account since that is how my GE is set up. But looking through my account, my KTN is there but my middle name is not. I’ll just talk to an agent at the airport tomorrow about changing it for future. My kids don’t have GE yet, so not such a big deal for this flight for me to go through security with them.

From what I've read I think you'll need to call SW to get it fixed. At least when I got my pre check and was reading about it that was what I kept reading, if you got pre check after you booked a SW flight you had to call in to add it. But this sounds like a different issue that would still require SW to make the change. I don't think there's anything they can do at the airport, regardless of the airline because it's so close to departure. But again that may have changed in the past few years.

Honestly I wasn't expecting fixing my number to get me pre check for today, I was fully expecting I'd be in line with the peasants.

 

[tink1970]

To answer your question, yes and no. Yes, you can use the RTW and not stay in Asia. But no, you still have to go through asia. East to West or West to East ending in origination country. Only 3 stops in Europe also, so consider that if that's the focus.

You could fly into a great airport like Singapore from Europe and sleep on the plane, grab a massage and meal in lounge, then head back to the states.
Or maybe do a couple days in Singapore at a nice hotel just to hang. Or bounce to Phucket for a couple days on the beach. Just some options if you want to actually do a RTW. Because Europe-->USA going east would be brutal without a couple days somewhere to shake off the jet lag.

Excellent points about jet lag. It's something to consider and play with. After Australia and NZ early next year I suspect I'll be happy with my European adventures for a while. That said, going RTW sounds like so much fun

 

[gottalovepluto]

If you are considering upgrading your Pandora account to the $9.99/month to use that $9.99 off $9.99 Amex offer today don't. They're having a technical glitch that is resulting in people being charged for a year's subscription instead. Good news Amex offer works, was notified of use immediately when the $109.89 charge came through

I DM'd them on Twitter immediately and they told they're aware they're having an issue today, so I expect them to fix it but still. Save yourself what might be a headache

Twitter is the best way to contact Pandora! They processed a full refund already and gave me a week for free while they sort this out. Wonder if Amex will clawback the offer credit and if so if I'll be able to re-use it?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I saw a Tweet recently setting out how one of the miles bloggers went through 1 million miles in a year, and I thought I'd update my spreadsheet and see how many I've gone through so far this year ... wow! So far for travel that took place in 2019 (not when booked) I've used 1,439,388 miles. For travel in the first half of 2020 that I have planned ... another 770,000. I didn't break down by type, but most of them are URs & MRs (transferred to BA or VS) and Southwest RRs with few United miles.

Fun!
I am at 798,835 misc points for 2019 plus 7 round trip SW flights using my CP.
We went to CHS x3, Disney x4, Notre Dame/NHL thing, and misc kid sports travel. Pretty awesome! Looks like $10,243 saved with points usage.

ETA: I'm wishing I had been tracking my random rebate portals cashouts now. I've gotten a decent amount from them too that I just apply to my trips.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Awesome that’s good to know! We wouldn’t plan on going back until 2022 so have some time. I’m conflicted about saving points for that trip or spending them as we go and accruing more down the road.

Were you planning that long trip with the baby that is in progress?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I'm one that's crazy enough.

I actually got J availability for 4 for next year, which is no easy task. Not ideal airlines/routes, but for 4, no complaints.

Dallas-Toronto-London on Air Canada
Venice-Vienna on Austrian
Vienna-Istanbul-Ho Chi Minh City on Turkish
Bangkok-Seoul on Thai
Seoul-Honolulu on Air Asiana

54 Nights and several inter-country small flights not included. London-Paris train (will do Disneyland Paris). Paris-Rome via small flight, Rome-Florence-Vienna train, throughout Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and to Bangkok are small puddle jump flights.

Ended up being 105k MR + ~$600 per person.

You could easily make a Japan-Hong Kong-Shanghai-Paris route though and hit all the parks. Going west to east is a bit tougher for availability but easier for jetlag for most people. East to west is better availability. And with 4, that's what I had to do. Getting to and from Japan will be your hardest leg to find availability for J.

That’s incredible! I can imagine if I asked for 54 days off work.

 

[miztressuz]

Thanks. I think I can see the problem. I called them a couple months ago to add my middle name to my SW account since that is how my GE is set up. But looking through my account, my KTN is there but my middle name is not. I’ll just talk to an agent at the airport tomorrow about changing it for future. My kids don’t have GE yet, so not such a big deal for this flight for me to go through security with them.

Hm, so if that's what really caused it, it brings up a question I was researching back through the thread this week. I recalled a similar discussion going on and found @Calfan 's experience in reply to @snugglebug who was told she'd need to use middle names on the tickets.

I don't want to advise you to ignore what your GE interviewer told you, but our middle names are on all of our passports, and we have taken multiple international trips since we've had GE, and I have never put our middle names on our air bookings. We have never had an issue being able to use GE.

ETA: We have also always gotten precheck for our applicable flights, and I don't put our middle names or initials on our domestic bookings either.

Hubby was also just told this at his interview. We both did our GE applications to match our passports. His passport has his full middle name, but his FF accounts match his DL which is just an initial. I considered having the tickets updated to be his full middle name but then I remembered that I have my SW account with my middle initial (to match my DL, since SW insisted when they setup the account way back when) but my GE/passport has no middle name listed at all and I still get Precheck - as recently as Apr. So doesn't seem like it needs to be an exact match... or at least it hasn't needed to.

But now I'm back to hming and hawing about changing his tickets. If there was a recent change to how they choose I wouldn't think we'd all be grandfathered in but who knows? Since it took so long just to get him approved for this trip, I'd hate to check in the day before and oops! I again have preCheck and he doesn't

 

[DisneyMandC]

Instant approval for the Amex BBP!

I figured we could use it for all non-category spend. I currently don’t have any MRs so this’ll be new to me. I’m thinking I’ll end up cashing them out down the road.

I think I’m going to do the same thing since Amex keeps bugging me to get the card lol. I’ve made tragically fast dents into our MSRs recently.

 

[Haley R]

Were you planning that long trip with the baby that is in progress?

Yeah we’ll have to see what our situation will be at that time but I would consider taking the baby with. We really want to get back to Tokyo and I know people on here have traveled with infants.

 

[Haley R]

I think I’m going to do the same thing since Amex keeps bugging me to get the card lol. I’ve made tragically fast dents into our MSRs recently.

I’m gonna take this month to slow down on our spend and then hopefully in September get the CIC. It may be nice not to have an MSR

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Maybe. Send pics and I'll decide.

Hi! It’s me Cindy!

 

[miztressuz]

Mine was on Alaska though. I don't know if SW is as easy to do.



From what I've read I think you'll need to call SW to get it fixed. At least when I got my pre check and was reading about it that was what I kept reading, if you got pre check after you booked a SW flight you had to call in to add it. But this sounds like a different issue that would still require SW to make the change. I don't think there's anything they can do at the airport, regardless of the airline because it's so close to departure. But again that may have changed in the past few years.

Honestly I wasn't expecting fixing my number to get me pre check for today, I was fully expecting I'd be in line with the peasants.

Ah yes, of course. I was referring to the process of re-checking in to kind of apply the KTN to the ticket again. I should have made that clear. But if that security info link is available after check-in, which I think it is? been a few months, then it should be the same concept for SW and could give it a go without having to call. I was impressed yours came back so quick, I'd have thought you might have to try a couple times being so close to departure. Was happy to see it worked out for you!

But I agree, since the KTN was there (and correct, I assume) it seems like a different issue cropped up and would have to end up calling for that. It's a puzzler and I'm hoping it's one of those random things and not the middle name issue. I prefer to not be the DP I don't want to see...

 

[Psychodisney]

So I'm new to the Ebates game, but I see that is a way to earn extra MRs. I've already signed up and made my first purchase through Saks, so hopefully I'll get the 1500 MR bonus through Rakuten, and then also the Saks credit on my Plat, will be interesting to see if that works.

Question: I travel a lot for work, and stay at Marriotts. I see that Marriott is an option on Rakuten to click through and get 1%, not great but better than nothing. My question is, does that stack with the points I'd already earn through Marriott? I'm Titanium, and wouldn't want to lose the bonus multiplier by choosing Rakuten instead, but if I get the MRs AND the Marriott points, and then get points through whatever card I use to maximize the spend, that would be amazing. Is that how it would work?

I don't do ebates/Rakuten but I do use Topcashback. (i'm assuming they would work similaryly). I have gotten the cash back in addition to the Marriott points and the credit card points. That's the beauty of clicking through the portals and getting the triple dip!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Thanks. I think I can see the problem. I called them a couple months ago to add my middle name to my SW account since that is how my GE is set up. But looking through my account, my KTN is there but my middle name is not. I’ll just talk to an agent at the airport tomorrow about changing it for future. My kids don’t have GE yet, so not such a big deal for this flight for me to go through security with them.

Direct Message TSA on Twitter and they can look into it for you. I say Twitter because it's easy. The handle is @tsa . If you don't have a Twitter make one with your favorite fake name. You put all real info in the DM.

Tweeting at SW may work too. They are quick. DSs middle name was misspelled on his SW ticket and they fixed it in about 5 minutes

 

[RoyalJay]

I don't do ebates/Rakuten but I do use Topcashback. (i'm assuming they would work similaryly). I have gotten the cash back in addition to the Marriott points and the credit card points. That's the beauty of clicking through the portals and getting the triple dip!

Man, if that's the case, how stupid do I feel for just now starting this? Oh well, better late than never