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

[ten6mom]

I don't really have "end of month" stats to report yet but here's what I have done, with all your help, since I first clicked on this thread in late May

• Met the spend and got the SUB for CIP#1
• Met the spend (still waiting on the statement to close/SUB miles to post) on Citi AA
• Opened and am about 60% done meeting the spend on CIP#2
• Decided that my flight goal for Japan is ANA as opposed to JAL and will concentrate my efforts on those Chase URs instead of AA miles.

In about a month, maybe less dependent on timing, see if I can get my husband approved for a CIP since the timing won't be right for a third attempt for myself.

Just wanted to thank you all AGAIN for your patience and advice. I will need lots more coming up!

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I changed one yesterday and paid actual money by credit card. When I cancelled this morning, the portion I put on a credit card yesterday was refunded to the card.

I cancelled speculative flights for October and got the $5.60 portions refunded to my CSR.

No tax for me.... I'll take it. View attachment 430903

No tax here either!

I just spent 2 weeks traveling through Italy with my DS 16, DSIL 18, and DMIL. I used my arrival + to erase cheap flights to Paris, URs for short/cheap flights to Italy and a free night at hotels .com for our last night in Paris. The rest of the time we stayed in the most magical air bnbs paid for with cash. As I was working on my scrapbook I started thinking about all the time I had spent into planning this trip and then I kept hearing everyone say “I can’t believe we just keep running into these beautiful places” not knowing that I was navigating us the entire time. I usually like to plan more time to just wander the streets without a destination, but with this travel party it just wasn’t a good idea. I figure most people on this board are planners like me so I thought I would ask - do you feel like being the person who does all of the planning takes away some of the magic of discovery on vacation and what do you do to help that not happen? The planning is a big part of what I enjoy about vacations so I would never want to let that go, but I’m wondering if I sometimes do too much research which leaves me without that element of surprise.

I am the planner for all vacations. I love it! I love seeing the family have fun I do more planning when it's a trip for more than the two of us, because I have to figure out all the food/dining options. Dh has a dairy intolerance and a couple allergies that are easy to work around, but all the "kids" and ds's fiancee require the use of a spreadsheet

During driving trips, I choose overnight stops and things to see along the way. During stay-in-one-hotel trips, I plan one or two main activities per day.

The India trip is being planned by someone else. I am going

Frantically trying to get homeschool planning finished.

I remember those days! All the best to you this coming school year

My oldest is in 8th this year and I'm having a bit of a freak out that high school is next year. Like it's SERIOUS now. I may have to get some high school advice from you at some point.

I only homeschooled our youngest, from fifth grade through hs graduation. I was a HUGE outlier in the homeschooling community here in that I did not use an umbrella school/homeschooling center/whatever for her high school classes. She did take all her English classes online (including APLang) and she took Arabic and Chinese at the U of DE which is within walking distance of our house. I planned and taught everything else, including 6 other AP classes (my syllabi were approved by the College Board so they could be listed on her transcript as AP classes).
It was hard! Major props to you and @wendow and everyone else who homeschools more than one kid at a time

 

[ten6mom]

MDE =

View attachment 431064

@SouthFayetteFan gave a great overview! I only joke because the website and app can be very buggy sometimes

I gotta say that is one thing I am really not looking forward to if I ever get to WDW. Being so close to DL and not ever having a plan and still getting to do anything I want to do... well that's pretty important. So we shall see!

 

[Haley R]

Don’t run the generator until after the storm is over. And be careful, people give them selves carbon monoxide poising every winter here running generators too close to the house or in an enclosed porch or something.


We run ours out the side of our house, and run an extension cord through the basement window where we have our furnace and sump pump and a small fridge/ freezer we move essential stuff to. We also run a cord through an upstairs window for a few lamps and a phone charger.

Yeah we’ll have to be extra careful about where we place the generator and watch where the exhaust will come out.

When you put the cords through the window, what do you use to insulate the rest of the opening?

 

[miztressuz]

SWA experts...those who have spreadsheets or keep track of SWA cc bonus offer cycles..... right now the offers aren't great..... any idea on the usual cycle of good offers? I know we had a great offer in June, and a lot of people like to jump in for CP season in October or so.... I have a reluctant fam member/player who is going to NEED those points sooner than they will get them (sigh, why do I even give advice sometimes) and now is wanting to go for the 40k/1k offer.... it feels so dismally low, but I guess 40k in the hand is better than waiting for the bigger offers to pop back up? the next round of booking openings is going to catch them by surprise,this I know already....advice?

Here's a site that has historic charts - https://www.uscreditcardguide.com/chase-southwest-plus-credit-card/

SW cards lately are typically 40k/1k, with brief interludes of 50k/2k. The 60k/2k a couple months ago is rare. I guess you could try to see if the in-flight links for 50k/2k are still functional but is the extra 1k of spend going to be worth it for them? Will 40k do what they need? How often do they fly SW? If it's not a lot then the extra 10k miles might not be as interesting. Fortunately, Chase isn't AmEx yet so not getting an all-time-high offer isn't as catastrophic. They could give it a go again in 2 years.

 

[Haley R]

I have some Amazon items to return since I wasn't sure on DS's shoe size. I went to Amazon to do returns and I didn't see Kohl's drop-off as an option. Has anyone used the Kohl's option? Should I see it on the Amazon return order list like I do UPS Drop-off or UPS Pick-up? If not, how does it work? I did have an option to just drop at UPS and they will package and ship for me.

I’ve used kohl’s a bunch for returns but it only works on certain returns. Some of them we had to drop off at ups instead. Our kohl’s is great for returns. There’s never a line and they’re super fast at it

 

[PolyRob]

I gotta say that is one thing I am really not looking forward to if I ever get to WDW. Being so close to DL and not ever having a plan and still getting to do anything I want to do... well that's pretty important. So we shall see!

Ahh yes. The east coast park is a little more "type a," but I love the planning aspect! It gets me psyched for trips 180+ days out... so basically the whole year. For example, I just booked my October FP+, I am planning out my December FP+ on that trip's spreadsheet, and I have all my March dining plans on another spreadsheet!

 

[Jax1023]

Yeah we’ll have to be extra careful about where we place the generator and watch where the exhaust will come out.

When you put the cords through the window, what do you use to insulate the rest of the opening?

Usually just a piece of cardboard or something. It’s not perfect, but it works. Cords are skinny so you can close the window like 95% of the way. And then we usually just duct tape some cardboard Over and cut a slit for the cord in it.

 

[Judique]

Safeway experts. If an offer is still showing in my list does that mean I can use again? Or does it just take awhile for it to catch up in the app that I used the offer. Also is it store dependent? I’ll only do this when I travel since no Safeway’s near me at home. So do I need to change to a store near my travels anytime I want to use offers?

I've been changing the 'my store' to the store I'm shopping in.
But, yesterday I got a $100 Happy Guy and forgot to change stores. My 800 points/8 rewards credited in about an hour or so. The app always gives the warning that some stores may not have the same offers but it appears to me that if they have the offer you will get the credit.
Only 12 pages behind right now....

 

[bernina]

Get $1000 in value from bank bonuse

What banks are you looking at?

 

[AmyAnne]

Called Amex for a retention offer on my Plat & they gave me 50K MR. No spend requirement. The gentleman I spoke to said it was the highest offer they ever do.

Wow that's excellent. I have a Plat that'll have to decide what to do with in October. I'd keep it if I got a retention offer but I'm a little afraid to call and have the customer service person asking why I need to keep the Plat when I have so many other cards . . . Do you have many other AmEx cards?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Yes 2:1 until tonight (expires 8/30)

Call to book online 2 night hotel minimum not sure if it’s 3 for Hawaii. They can hold the reservation too. 1-800-800-1504

Ok, cool! I better get moving if this will work! So to estimate before I call, I can take the cost of the flight and divide by 2? Then I just have to add in whatever the 2 nights of hotel is when I call, and that should be my total, right?

And for the points transfer, they are DH amex MRs, so I need to transfer to a delta account for him and have him call to reserve?

 

[Haley R]

Usually just a piece of cardboard or something. It’s not perfect, but it works. Cords are skinny so you can close the window like 95% of the way. And then we usually just duct tape some cardboard Over and cut a slit for the cord in it.

Okay thanks! We can handle that. Some of dh’s coworkers said they use towels and blankets. Dh just started putting some of our shutters up. He said he’d rather have it done early so he doesn’t have to worry about it.

I went to the gym this morning and no one is leaving. They all said evacuating is almost always worse. I feel a lot better knowing so many people in my area are staying. One mom said she’s taking her kids to michaels for crafts and games lol. Dh and I are gonna go to target and buy a new board game just to make something positive out of this.

 

[Jax1023]

Okay thanks! We can handle that. Some of dh’s coworkers said they use towels and blankets. Dh just started putting some of our shutters up. He said he’d rather have it done early so he doesn’t have to worry about it.

I went to the gym this morning and no one is leaving. They all said evacuating is almost always worse. I feel a lot better knowing so many people in my area are staying. One mom said she’s taking her kids to michaels for crafts and games lol. Dh and I are gonna go to target and buy a new board game just to make something positive out of this.

You just have to live without power until the worst of the rain stops that way. But honestly you wouldn’t want to be outside tending to a generator anyway. Ours needs to be refilled with gas like every 3-4 hours.

 

[Haley R]

You just have to live without power until the worst of the rain stops that way. But honestly you wouldn’t want to be outside tending to a generator anyway. Ours needs to be refilled with gas like every 3-4 hours.

I’m just not really sure what to expect. They’re acting like this storm is going to move so slow. If it’s moving that slow we could be without power for awhile before we’re able to hook the generator up. It’s gonna get toasty in our house if that’s true.

I’m not sure how often our generator will need to be filled

 

[hsmamato2]

Odd question for a friends CIP app.... so he apped in early June thru my link, he said at time of app he got a 'we'll let you know' page... but he's not 100% sure he did (sigh) so over the past two months I *think* he called the status line twice. (it's hard to get lots of info from him) he said the auto line told him 'we'll notify you in writing in like 7 or 30 days or something'. Today he called me,told me he finally got curious about what happened to the app (after two months!) b/c he never got a letter in the mail,or an email,or a cc approval. The rep on the line told him since it's been over 30 days since the app they have no info on record to provide as to what happened.... how can this be? should HUCA for a clearer answer,or just app again since it's been so long? (He does admit that he may have hit the submit button twice while app'ing too) I'm just curious as to how there's no info on this at all? I told him if he decides to try again to screenshot each step as he goes....

 

[hsmamato2]

Here's a site that has historic charts - https://www.uscreditcardguide.com/chase-southwest-plus-credit-card/

SW cards lately are typically 40k/1k, with brief interludes of 50k/2k. The 60k/2k a couple months ago is rare. I guess you could try to see if the in-flight links for 50k/2k are still functional but is the extra 1k of spend going to be worth it for them? Will 40k do what they need? How often do they fly SW? If it's not a lot then the extra 10k miles might not be as interesting. Fortunately, Chase isn't AmEx yet so not getting an all-time-high offer isn't as catastrophic. They could give it a go again in 2 years.

thanks for the replies to you and @SouthFayetteFan ... yeah, I guess they should just go for it and I'll stop worrying about saving them $$$ since they seem to be happier with just doing it and not worrying about it,even tho they'll have to pay oop for some of their airfare.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Ok, cool! I better get moving if this will work! So to estimate before I call, I can take the cost of the flight and divide by 2? Then I just have to add in whatever the 2 nights of hotel is when I call, and that should be my total, right?

And for the points transfer, they are DH amex MRs, so I need to transfer to a delta account for him and have him call to reserve?

Go to deltavacations.com and build the package with the flights and hotel for the whole duration. Then check like Expedia for the nightly hotel rate and subtract that from the number of nights your not doing. Should give you a ballpark.
You can transfer DHs MRs to your Delta account if you want just got online and Amex will give you the option of what cardholders or AUs account you are transferring to. If DH is sitting on some miles add to his. No idea if you can call and book for him - I used my SkyMiles account but you could certainly try!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I'd say you all are on to me but I was freezing my butt off this morning lol

Under 10 mins for us this morning. We cut through the food court but were almost as far as we cannbe, red dot

View attachment 431063

Thank you! Looks so far on the map, but I can do under 10 for sure.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Called AAvacations this morning to obtain my Disney Reservation number to add my stay to MDE. That process could not have been easier - they knew what I needed, it was a brief hold, the number worked. That was great because part of me worried they'd be like "you need what???" HAHA!

Did you add the kids initially or do you plan to call and do that? I can't recall if the price is higher with them added or not. Seems like you maybe mentioned yesterday there was no bogus kid charge.

 

[tink1970]

I gotta say that is one thing I am really not looking forward to if I ever get to WDW. Being so close to DL and not ever having a plan and still getting to do anything I want to do... well that's pretty important. So we shall see!

I speak from having too many to count trips to WDW but all the fast pass plus scheduling and annoying magic bands (the waste-between the bands themselves and the packaging) is what put off this Floridian from returning ever if I can help it, frankly.

DL is so much more manageable and spontaneous behavior friendly-I see myself not returning to any parks after DL-Paris in October but if I do, it would be to DL. TBH if you're a go with the flow, see how you feel person (which is sometimes good on vacation) then WDW might not be a good fit. Then again, you might want to do the whole stress planning, horrible IT MDE, anticipate what you want to eat 6 months in advance thing once...and realize it is (or isn't) for you. Either way, no judgment here