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

[tink1970]

Amex Platinum airline credits are super helpful when your DD attends college 1361 miles away, just fyi. Checked bag fees? Done and refunded.

Also, I Ubered for the first time ever this week and used the Uber Amex credit...kind of exciting and frankly the only two things that went right, Churning at College-wise. The rest was just a comedy of Bonvoy-ed errors that make me want to cry if I think about it. So instead, going to be excited about being an Uber Amex credit using veteran.

 

[Judique]

So back to points and offers. I redeemed my $40 of $200 Marriott hotel offer to buy a gift card. My $40 posted and also 1200 Marriott points, so if Marriott points are valued at .9cpp, that's $10.80 in value. Next step is to use the gift card, which I will do end of September. I'm Marriott gold and my stay for 1 night will be $193.00. How many points will the stay generate using the gift card to pay? (I realize I won't get points for the gift card itself, but the stay should generate points.) Last time I used a gift card on about $330 worth of hotel bill, daughter got the points credit. She's platinum and the credit went to her.

The reason I'm sort of curious is because I want to add up the whole picture. So far:
Hotel stay = $193
$40 off $200
$25 breakfast credit
$50 casino chips at local casino plus a shuttle ride but I'll drive my own car as I'll bet the whole $50 on one spin and get out of there.
$10.80 in points so far for a total of $125.80 perceived value for the stay. If I win with my spin, more value as I'll still cash out and leave. ($50 in fun.)
So, the points value is the next piece of info I need.

And after fiddling around on the Marriott site I finally got to 10 points per dollar, plus 25% gold bonus plus 500 welcome points for a point value (at .9cpp) of $26.22.

So after all is said and done, the actual room cost is $41. And maybe I'll double my money at the casino, lol.

 

[Alexle2007]

And this is why I couldn't do a thing like this, those rules would drive me mad and I wouldn't want to follow them. I'd push the limit every chance I had. This is why I never would have survived a "typical" sorority chapter but one at commuter heavy SF state and being in the city kept it not crazy and conformist or totally matchy matchy for rush. We have chapters lile that to and great for them but no thank you.

Ha, yeah. Unfortunately, there are definitely lot of new rules to follow.

 

[Alexle2007]

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[platamama]

And after fiddling around on the Marriott site I finally got to 10 points per dollar, plus 25% gold bonus plus 500 welcome points for a point value (at .9cpp) of $26.22.

So after all is said and done, the actual room cost is $41. And maybe I'll double my money at the casino, lol.

Oops, went back to fix my typo!

 

[nickle831]

Can you only buy a Marriott Gift card at the hotel or can it be done online?

 

[Lain]

Can you only buy a Marriott Gift card at the hotel or can it be done online?

You can buy Marriott GCs online, but if you're trying to trigger an Amex offer or credit it won't work. You'd need to find a hotel that sells them at their front desk and buy them there, and fewer and fewer Marriotts are selling physical GCs.

 

[havaneselover]

Nice! DS has asked to do an Alaskan cruise but I really dislike cold weather.

I hear you. That was my big concern last year. Temps were really very mild though and it was so nice escaping the humidity. We’re really not beach people though so Alaska works for us.

 

[DisneyMandC]

We had a change of plans on DH’s 10 day horse in October so I was able to cancel the Marriott reservation and get 100k points back! We are still going to it for 2 days so I booked the same Marriott for that for 25k and then will have a free night through Hotels.com for our road trip on the way home.

 

[smmco]

I'll lyft/uber on Disney even if *just* me lol. Why I feel so comfy there is probably silly but I do lol. We've done it a lot, even just me and 1 kid. But Minnie Vans were only $11 more for the same trip, as I posted, so not budget bursting at all to just do that.

My Lyft experiences have been fine. I’ll never spend 40 something dollars to go a couple of miles again. To each their own. I use Lyft and Uber in all cities I travel to.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Another update on the Barclays AA biz card. Just called to have it expedited and was told by the business dept. that they can't expedite cards. So it looks like I'll have to wait 7 - 10 days . Hopefully it will come faster as my large payment is due in a few days (I have used one card for payment, then called a few days later when new card came and had them reverse payment and use the new card; hate to do it, but gotta do what needs to be done to meet MSR).

 

[NewbieMom]

Question on the Arrival+.... I have about $75 in points left, but the minimum charge has to be $100. If I put a travel charge of $100, can I redeem the $75 in points? Or I would have to accumulate $100 in points to use it?

 

[speedyfishy]

So I think I finalized my 2020 travel plans.

In March we have a week long stay on DVC points in a poly studio. We have APs and will just need to pay for food. I’m budgeting $1500 for this.

In April we have five nights in Rome. No idea how much this will be for food and excursions, but I’ll say $1500 for now.

Summer trip to the lake house. We will do a one day boat rental ($300) and pay for one dinner for everybody ($300) we will pay for some groceries ($100) and $200 for meals out alone and a meal with SOs niece so hopefully about $900 total. I’ll try and use URs for a rental car or we will drive.

November/December ABD $5000. We owe about $4000. I can pay $600 with double dipping the CSR travel credit and I hope this doesn’t sound greedy, but for my bridal shower I asked for household items and since SO and I have a lot of stuff because we have been living together since we were 19/20 I asked for Disney giftcards. I think we will receive a decent amount from family at my bridal shower. We will extend our stay with one extra night at the Grand Californian with our DVC points I expect to spend about $500 out of pocket on this trip for food and souvenirs. I’ll probably go crazy at mickeys of Glendale lol

So looking at about $8000ish out of pocket for travel. I’ll add up flight fees and hotel fees later lol, but I’m happy this is down from my $12,000 estimate. I think it is important to spend on travel and I am hoping to at least get $1000 a month in cash from MSing but I’m hoping to save this so we can do another ABD.

We still have vacation time for the Fourth of July and Labor Day for potential trips as well. Maybe I will use URs and do universal or I have two Hyatt nights and two Marriott free nights to use to go somewhere.

 

[NewbieMom]

I always do minnie vans when it is just me and DD3. I have an irrational fear of ubering alone. Well really, I fear ubering at all, but at least if I have another adult with me I stand a chance of surviving the serial killer uber driver.

This is me!!! It's so common around here. Everyone ubers or Lyft's, but I can't do it. And before rideshare were common, I had the same irrational fear of being alone in taxis.

 

[Ngwira]

That is so weird.

Did I miss your review of the Halloween party?

 

[platamama]

Question on the Arrival+.... I have about $75 in points left, but the minimum charge has to be $100. If I put a travel charge of $100, can I redeem the $75 in points? Or I would have to accumulate $100 in points to use it?

You have to accumulate $100 in points to use it. So you need to spend another $1250 on the card to reach 10,000 pts for redemption. You still lose out on the $5 sitting there after redemption from the 5% rebate on points.

 

[speedyfishy]

Did I miss your review of the Halloween party?

I posted this when I got back.

I need to stop going to these. It was busy all night. Normally we are able to hit all the major attractions. This time we missed pirates, the mine train,space and splash. There just wasn’t enough time and all the waits were crazy. The lines to buy the popcorn buckets were insane too. I like that for the haunted mansion set it was actually a drink, popcorn,and donuts. We only did the teacup overlay attraction and that was cute. The monsters overlay was just a never ending monster show. We stopped in to get candy. They gave out handfuls of candy which was nice last year we would just get two or three pieces at each stop. The new additions to the parade were cute. SO liked the fireworks show and I thought the projections were cute, but it felt like a stage show story and not a fireworks show.


Now being home for awhile it was fun and we had a good time there was just so much we never got the chance to do because of crowds. I think I waited 30 mins in line at Pesco bills for the worms and dirt snack and the sipper.

 

[afan]

Just switched our August 2020 Disney cruise to Alaska! Looking forward to exploring Seattle and seeing Alaska again. I figure I can use my two $300 Marriott gift cards for the first two nights in Seattle. Hoping my 70k aa miles will cover a night in Vancouver and one in Seattle on the way back. Will be flying bwi to Seattle on swa with points and companion pass. And maybe we can catch a mariners game in Seattle.

They released the schedule a coupke weeka ago so you can already see if they are home. Not tjat it'd be an issue getting tickets but they'll probably go on sale in Oct/Nov. But you could probably wait until you get here too. Unless it's a popular giveaway they won't come close to a sell out esp since they aren't expected to me much better next season.

 

[elgerber]

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[amalone1013]

Bought our HHN tickets today so $75 to go on DHs Platinum. I want a new AMEX for organic spend