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

[SouthFayetteFan]

Does your offer not have this language??

Yeah...I totally missed that one!

Has anybody had a Chase bonus post recently? How did that look on your SW account? Will they be able to call that out separately?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

If I’m PCing to avoid the $95 AF don‘t I get slapped with the $450 for the CSR?

I’m a little confused. Are you PCing to CF or CSR? I saw you saying you don’t want the AF, but are you just speculating on the CSR? It’s possible to double dip the CSR travel credit ($300 x2) and effectively not pay an AF.
Anyway, if you never transfer URs to airline or hotel partners and don’t use the UR portal, essentially you use URs for cashback and you don’t need a CSR or CSP.

We’ve been hitting the biz cards so are ok on the 5/24. Thank You !

Do you have a CIP? You do know you can transfer URs from Chase Biz cards to personal, and vice versa, right? CIP is like CSP as far as utilizing URs.

 

[misse336]

We've never done much traveling since we had kids, just long weekends on the east coast where we could drive. We are hoping to do a west coast trip this summer which would involve flying (3 kids -15, 13, 10). Thinking about how to make all of this happen and how to get the best deals. I think that opening a credit card with an airline would help us with the $2K+ in flights from the east coast to the west coast. Not to mention the rental car and hotels we will need. I read some of the first page of this thread and it says that you can loose a lot of points/$ if you don't open your credit card at the right time. How do you know when the best time to open it is? It seems like many people like SW on this thread - do they offer the most bonuses? I would love any help that people who take the most advantage of the offers are able to give me. The whole thread and figuring everything out seems very overwhelming right now. We only have a Discover and Chase CC right now.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Yeah...I totally missed that one!

Has anybody had a Chase bonus post recently? How did that look on your SW account? Will they be able to call that out separately?

It’s not listed as SUB here but I’m thinking they’ll know
.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Yeah...I totally missed that one!

Has anybody had a Chase bonus post recently? How did that look on your SW account? Will they be able to call that out separately?

Looked back mine posted as credit card in one post with regular spend

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

It’s not listed as SUB here but I’m thinking they’ll know
.View attachment 450804

Looked back mine posted as credit card in one post with regular spend

I’m not sure they’ll actually differentiate then... it will be interesting to see what happens there. I definitely wouldn’t count on it working but it might...

 

[CyndiLouWho]

We've never done much traveling since we had kids, just long weekends on the east coast where we could drive. We are hoping to do a west coast trip this summer which would involve flying (3 kids -15, 13, 10). Thinking about how to make all of this happen and how to get the best deals. I think that opening a credit card with an airline would help us with the $2K+ in flights from the east coast to the west coast. Not to mention the rental car and hotels we will need. I read some of the first page of this thread and it says that you can loose a lot of points/$ if you don't open your credit card at the right time. How do you know when the best time to open it is? It seems like many people like SW on this thread - do they offer the most bonuses? I would love any help that people who take the most advantage of the offers are able to give me. The whole thread and figuring everything out seems very overwhelming right now. We only have a Discover and Chase CC right now.

Lots of people like SW if they fly from your local airport because they have something called a Companion Pass. Basically if you accrue 125,000 miles with SW, they give you a pass which allows you to take another person with for free every time you fly for the rest of that year and the following year. If you time it right it can be close to 2 years. Getting a couple credit cards can allow you to get those points, and thus the Companion Pass, quickly.
Most of us plan a year or 2 out to accrue enough points to cover most if not all or our vacation expenses.
If you list the cards you have, and when you got them as well as where you’ll fly, whether you have another adult to get cards, etc, as it shows on the first page of this thread, people here can give tailored advice.

 

[misse336]

Lots of people like SW if they fly from your local airport because they have something called a Companion Pass. Basically if you accrue 125,000 miles with SW, they give you a pass which allows you to take another person with for free every time you fly for the rest of that year and the following year. If you time it right it can be close to 2 years. Getting a couple credit cards can allow you to get those points, and thus the Companion Pass, quickly.
Most of us plan a year or 2 out to accrue enough points to cover most if not all or our vacation expenses.
If you list the cards you have, and when you got them as well as where you’ll fly, whether you have another adult to get cards, etc, as it shows on the first page of this thread, people here can give tailored advice.

Credit Cards (we've had both 15+ years):
Discover
Chase

Party:
Myself, DH, Kids (15, 13, 10)

We probably put about $1,000-$1,500 on credit cards each month (groceries, gas, routine bills) and pay the balance off fully each month.

SW does service our local airport. We're mainly looking to earn rewards for travel now that our kids are older. CA ideally this summer, HI and other points of interest later on.

I really don't know much about how to go about this in the best possible manner to earn points/rewards and appreciate all help.

 

[orangecuse]

Credit Cards (we've had both 15+ years):
Discover
Chase

Party:
Myself, DH, Kids (15, 13, 10)

We probably put about $1,000-$1,500 on credit cards each month (groceries, gas, routine bills) and pay the balance off fully each month.

SW does service our local airport. We're mainly looking to earn rewards for travel now that our kids are older. CA ideally this summer, HI and other points of interest later on.

I really don't know much about how to go about this in the best possible manner to earn points/rewards and appreciate all help.

Message @SouthFayetteFan to join the dischurners reddit group and read this post

From the producers who brought you Churning Shower Thoughts by SouthFayetteFan comes another edition of the spectacular series: A Fireside Chat with SouthFayetteFan...

I've added a lengthy comment on the Advanced Strategies & Loophole Discussion Thread entitled: A Fireside Chat with SouthFayetteFan on the Southwest Companion Pass.

Companion Pass season is almost upon us and I implore anybody who is thinking of pursuing a 2020/2021 SW CP to read these thoughts. Hopefully some of you will find this useful (or else I just wasted a bunch of time this morning, lol!)

EDIT: The CP is not something we are trying to move exclusively to DISchurners...but I posted my little guide there anyways since it will be easier to reference back to in the future.

Basically, if you open 2 SW cards (both biz) then you can hit 125,000 pts and earn a companion pass. Thus would let one of your travel party fly free. That plus the 125,000 points should cover all of your flights or close to it. Whats your preferred hotel chain? Marriot, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG - all have cards you can sign up for to obtain points. Because Hilton, IHG, and Marriot have 4th or 5th night free you can extend those points further on longer bookings. Hyatt has low point cost per night at some hotels but a smallerfootprint. With 5 you may find Hilton your best bet since you could use points at Embassy Suites or Doubletree Suites or Homewood Suites to get a larger room.

Eta- a quick note, we don’t recommend more than 1 Chase issued card every 3 months (but you and your husband are considered separate so you could stagger there- DONT make each other AUs). Also if you are unsure of your preferred flights or hotels, or don’t want a tie in to one chain, you could consider a UR (ultimate rewards) card that earns Chase points good for transfer to certain partners or redeemed at up to 1.5x through their portal (expedia basically). The recommended card there would be a Chase Ink Preffered if you can do a biz card. ANY biz (selling ebay/fb/babysitting ect) can count.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Credit Cards (we've had both 15+ years):
Discover
Chase

Party:
Myself, DH, Kids (15, 13, 10)

We probably put about $1,000-$1,500 on credit cards each month (groceries, gas, routine bills) and pay the balance off fully each month.

SW does service our local airport. We're mainly looking to earn rewards for travel now that our kids are older. CA ideally this summer, HI and other points of interest later on.

I really don't know much about how to go about this in the best possible manner to earn points/rewards and appreciate all help.

Will your DH apply for cards or just you?
Which Chase card do you have ? Do you have any rewards/miles already?
Do you have anything you could call a business? Could be babysitting, selling cookies, tutoring, selling on eBay or Facebook, etc. Doesn’t need to be a big business or have a tax ID number etc.
Hotel preferences? Have you looked at the cities in CA where you would be traveling?

 

[amalone1013]

DH is officially booked. He will be slumming it on Frontier OOP. BIL is so close to Ontario that any better flight times were negated by the thought of driving across LA. And pricing whether points or cash was the same. Did URs for a midsize rental, about $100 or 6800 URs. Debated Bonblech points vs URs for hotel and ended up with URs, 18k for 2 nights. I just couldn't bring myself to use 37.5k Bonblahs when the cash rates were around $100/night before tax. URs are easier to earn.

I think if DH does end up at KBF I will try to get his ticket on the UR portal

DHs BIL in Cali, the one with GB syndrome, has been extra tired/not as great after another round of a different treatment last month, so DH a little bit ago...

DH: Can you do me a favor? Can you see if we could pull of a trip for me to see BIL this weekend?
Me: Yup
DH: If it's not a big hit, if we can do it cheaply, can I go?
Me: We have lots of points, it should be fine
DH: He's been sleeping in a lot, if he is I'm going to go to Knott's Berry Farm Saturday morning and then spend time with him that afternoon.



Guys, I think I've been scammed

 

[disneedee]

AS free priority boarding 11/7-11/10 if you have a Starbucks Holiday cup in your hands. Odd ball promo for sure but as someone who often rolls up to a gate with Starbucks in hand I’m jealous I’m not flying AS this weekend https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/starbucks-red-cup/
Also, free reusable Holiday cups being given out at Starbucks tomorrow.

I’m flying this weekend on AS wish I’d gone to get that free cup this morning.

 

[smmco]

Credit Cards (we've had both 15+ years):
Discover
Chase

Party:
Myself, DH, Kids (15, 13, 10)

We probably put about $1,000-$1,500 on credit cards each month (groceries, gas, routine bills) and pay the balance off fully each month.

SW does service our local airport. We're mainly looking to earn rewards for travel now that our kids are older. CA ideally this summer, HI and other points of interest later on.

I really don't know much about how to go about this in the best possible manner to earn points/rewards and appreciate all help.

You should be able to meet a minimum spending requirement easily with that amount of spend. Are you looking for hotel points or airline miles or both? In my opinion, Hyatt points are the best hotel points to have. The Hyatt place always offers 2 queens or doubles and sofa bed which would fit your family of 5. Point redemptions are generally 8-12k a night. I would start with the chase cards. Your points can be transferred to Hyatt or Southwest. If your thinking Disneyland Marriott would be my choice. There are some nice Marriotts near Disneyland that have rooms for larger families. We're a family of four, but my kids won't share a bed. Hotels with three beds are my biggest challenge when traveling. Some cities are easy, but when traveling to Europe or a city like New York it's next to impossible.

I'm sure you'll get some input from others.

 

[ten6mom]

So my husband (no AP) was only supposed to have one day in one park (DL) for our ornament shopping trip in early December but then this came out...

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...ays-2019-at-disney-california-adventure-park/
So we might have to rethink that!

 

[alryan]

Southwest Airlines & Chase Promotion
To find out if you are eligible, login to your Southwest account, go to "My Account" and click on "Promotions". I see the following promo:

Earn a 25% bonus - Register to earn up to 25,000 bonus points this year.
When you have at least 35,000 points post to your Rapid Rewards® account between 12/1/19 and 2/29/20 under the category of “Credit Card,” you’ll be eligible for a 25% bonus (up to 25,000 bonus points). For example, if you have 12,000 points from your Rapid Rewards Credit Card post to your account each month during December, January, and February, you’ll earn 9.000 bonus points from Southwest. Those 9,000 bonus points will count towards Companion Pass, too!

The "minimum amount" may vary. Mine says 35,000 but I know somebody else said there's was 25,000. If you're eligible, share what your "Terms and Conditions" were so we can compare! 35k points sounds like a lot BUT if I were to sign-up for the SW Performance Biz card now I would earn 75k points there between the bonus and base spend. That would then qualify me for a 25% bonus of 18,750 points! So that would mean almost 94k points from one sign-up. Aside from somebody earning a signup bonus during that time frame, I'm not sure there's any other realistic way to earn 35k SW points that makes sense unless you spammed facebook with your support link, lol!

At any rate - check to see if you're eligible and share details if you are!

That was exactly the kind of promo I was hoping for when I was mapping out my CP plans. I got so excited...but no promotion for DH or me It really would have been nice for me. Oh, well. Thanks for sharing.

ETA: Now I'm reading backwards so apologize if that not what you're talking about, but they had a similar promo the first quarter last year and it said sign up bonuses were excluded, but many people here still got the bonus. No guarantee, but I would think it would still work this time. Which makes me think that getting a CP by credit card sign ups can't be on SW's radar or you wouldn't think they'd have a promo right when people are trying to go for a CP. They also had one July, August, and September, but it wasn't talked about too much.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

That was exactly the kind of promo I was hoping for when I was mapping out my CP plans. I got so excited...but no promotion for DH or me It really would have nice for me. Oh, well. Thanks for sharing.

ETA: Now I'm reading backwards so apologize if that not what you're talking about, but they had a similar promo the first quarter last year and it said sign up bonuses were excluded, but many people here still got the bonus. No guarantee, but I would think it would still work this time. Which makes me think that getting a CP by credit card sign ups can't be on SW's radar or you wouldn't think they'd have a promo right when people are trying to go for a CP. They also had one July, August, and September, but it wasn't talked about too much.

I was completely thinking about you when I posted that earlier today! (I almost tagged you but then figured you’d see it anyways). Sorry you didn’t get targeted

 

[gottalovepluto]

I’m flying this weekend on AS wish I’d gone to get that free cup this morning.

It’s tomorrow morning and holiday drinks only apparently. Stupid fine print. As far as AS goes as long as you have Holiday Starbucks cup in hand priority boarding is yours.

 

[alryan]

I was completely thinking about you when I posted that earlier today! (I almost tagged you but then figured you’d see it anyways). Sorry you didn’t get targeted

Thanks, I saw it on break at work and couldn't wait to get home to see. Oh, well. Good thing I have a plan B

 

[platamama]

Don't know if anyone has the Amex 10% off your cable/satellite TV bill up to $10, but I used it for our Comcast internet (we don't have cable or satellite, we just use Hulu Live) and it credited.

 

[Angrose]

So my husband (no AP) was only supposed to have one day in one park (DL) for our ornament shopping trip in early December but then this came out...

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...ays-2019-at-disney-california-adventure-park/
So we might have to rethink that!

I’ll be there Nov 23-24, can’t wait to try all the goodies!