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

[gottalovepluto]

Ugh...so if she signed up and it says she has no packages coming, this is a very bad sign??

ETA Thanks for explaining how it works

For me the package notifications are rather unreliable. It catches some, but not all.

 

[calypso726]

Hi credit card friends! Thanks for your help a month or so ago, in helping me pick the CIP card for my first foray into the credit card world. I just topped $5k in spending today and can't wait to see those 80k URs!! (And yes, I've got this thread open on 2 different browser windows so I can double-check my acronyms!)

Anyway . . . I started reading up on what I CAN do with my URs, and thinking about what I WANT to do with them, and wanted to get some advice from you experts.

Next summer (2020), my DH turns 50. He's a HUGE WWII buff, and has always wanted to go to Normandy. So for his birthday, our big family trip is going to be London/Paris/Normandy. I'd love to find a way to use my URs to wrangle first-class plane tickets for our family of 4 to London and then back home from Paris. We will most likely fly American on the way to London, and Delta on the way home from Paris (those airlines have non-stop flights to/from our home town). Since there's only one non-stop a day, unfortunately we are really inflexible as to which flights we can take, and I'm guessing those reward flights will get snatched up FAST and/or require a ton of miles. I checked the miles needed to book those flights this summer out of curiosity and was shocked - 200k to 300k miles per one-way flight per person! OUCH. Granted, hopefully the mileage required will be much lower if I jump on it as soon as flights are released for next summer, but still - given that I'm looking 4-5 months out for those sample fares, I was shocked!

So . . . any suggestions?? My current day-to-day card is a Capital One VentureOne card (earning a measly 1.25 points per dollar). My CIP only has a $5k credit limit, and we put EVERYTHING on the credit card, so using that as our day-to-day card isn't feasible. I'm debating getting the Capital One Venture card (earning 2 points per dollar) or the CSP (if URs appear to be the way to go to accomplish my goal) as my new day-to-day card. I really don't want to get an airline-specific card, just in case we change our plans for our trip - I don't want to be stuck with a gazillion airline miles that it'll take us forever to use.

Last potentially relevant tidbit - I got the two Chase SW personal cards and a Chase SW business card early last Spring (I got the last one in February 2018, I believe) to get the SW companion pass. I'm planning on getting a SW personal and business card in February 2020 once my two-year period is up. So I need to leave room in the 5/24 rules to be able to get those. The CIP is the only other new card I've gotten in years and years.

WHEW. So with all of that, I'd love to hear any thoughts y'all may have! Thank you so much!

Ok, don't shoot the messenger. I fly a fair amount internationally each year and only fly in first because I'm married to a "plane princess." Although I am able to talk him into "slumming" in in business class from time to time

I have always advocated and continue to advise that planning two years out is your best bet for meeting travel goals. Generally speaking, you want to have all points in place about a year before you need to book your flight/travel. Therefore, you need to give yourself a year to accumulate them. Many airlines will only release one or two award seats in first class that can be booked with miles. They get taken very quickly, often within minutes of being released. Depending on the airline, you could get stuck with huge taxes and fees. For example, a RT flight from MIA-LHR on a saver award flight in first would be 170,000 AA miles PLUS $1,862.93 in taxes and fees. UR points don't transfer to AA or Delta so paying with UR points for one person can range from $5,891 per person to over $13,000 per person. That means you would need between 471,280 to 1,040,000 UR points to pay for one person via the UR portal. Multi city flights are not much different in terms of pricing and award miles needed and taxes and fees. The award flights are not direct either, they have a connection. It is often difficult to find award flights at a saver level that are direct. Also, the flights I am looking at are for the latest dates bookable in January 2020. January is off peak so that is why I am seeing saver awards still available. Summer is a peak time so it will not likely be lower.

 

[Haley R]

Dh and I just saw how to train your dragon 3 and I LOVED it!!! Such a good ending to the series

 

[Haley R]

I swear I get a discover it mailer every week. I don’t need these! Can I sell them lol? Would anyone even buy them?

 

[pix13dust]

Hi and Welcome..everyone here is super friendly and helpful

If you dont usually stay at Marriotts I’d pass on the offer.there are probably a lot of other credit cards that would help you
Do you usually fly a certain airline..I see you have 2 SW cards...when did you receive the bonus on them....
If you list the date you opened the above cards it can help determine how many cards you’ve opened in the past 24 months....
also how much you can put on a cc in 3 months..since the cards have a minimum spend to get the bonus
Most of us start out applying for Chase cards that earn URs..since they are very versatile...

.A lot of us here also have a side business...selling on eBay, tutoring etc...if you’ve even thought about it you could apply for a business card..the one with the highest bonus offer is the CIP...the bonus is 80k URs after a 5k spend in the first 3 months....if that’s too much there are other cards with lower MSR

Thank you for helping!
I got both southwest cards about 5 or 6 years ago. I did get the bonus points when I signed up- we used those points years ago. We usually fly Southwest but only because they are the cheapest where I live. I haven’t opened any cards in the last 24 months. As far as spending, we’re in the middle of a remodel, so money is just flowing outta here

 

[elgerber]

For me the package notifications are rather unreliable. It catches some, but not all.

Mine has been too lately. I have had two large packages delivered in the last week. Neither showed up in informed delivery until after they were delivered.

 

[elgerber]

Dh and I just saw how to train your dragon 3 and I LOVED it!!! Such a good ending to the series

We saw it Saturday. I cried sooooooo hard. All 3 of us did. This is my absolute favorite animated series that is not Disney. All 3 films were amazing. I am seeing it again on Sunday with my son. He was irked that I went with daughter and a former coworker without him.

 

[pix13dust]

Welcome! Do you know what airline you will be using? It looks like you have the SW cards. Would you be willing to cancel and resign up for one if SW is the way you want to go? You can no longer have more than one personal SW card. There are links on this thread for 50,000 SW points with sign up for a personal card. Would you be willing to get a business card? There is a 60,000point SW biz card. If you get both of those you can have the companion pass. Is that what you did originally, since you have 2 SW cards? Do you have a player 2? How much can you spend in a month? Cards will depend on how much you can spend in 3 months to get the signup bonus. The Chase Ink Preferred business card is also a great one because it has the highest sign up bonus of 80,000 UR points. These you can cash out for $800 or redeem them through the UR portal for travel for a greater redemption. You don't have much time to collect for a November flight though.

Thank you for helping! We do usually fly Southwest, I’m interested to hear more about the companion pass. I have a husband but he is NOT interested in opening any cc’s .
We’re in the middle of a home remodel right now so we’re just throwing money out the window

 

[calypso726]

Is anyone else going through FOMO decisions on the upcoming Marriott category changes on March 5th? Part of me really wants to snag more reservations at an aspirational property for 60k per night with 5th night free before cat 8 comes into play and they go up to 85k per night. The timing that I would need to book it the furthest out that I can won't work realistically for 5 nights and I can't even decide where I'd want to try and book anyhow. I'm still thinking I can make a long weekend work, but where? Ugh.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I should probably plan a swolphin trip to use the uber credit on DH lux, right?

I gotta use my $300 Resort credit and Uber credit on that Lux.

 

[mmmears]

I don't usually like Dooney's but omg that small world design!!!

Same here!

We just attended the welcome party at DS’s new school for the fall which was really nice. We visited the school store while we were there and got him an UnderArmour sweatshirt with the school name on it for the low, low price of $75. They told us where to get the uniform so I looked their website. I am doing to be spending a small fortune on uniforms (short and long sleeve shirts, sleeveless and long sleeve sweaters, button-down oxfords, tie, blazer, etc) and the required UA backpack for $70. Yikes! Upper school will be worse the following year since they have to wear a tie and blazer every day. It’s becoming real and exciting!

Sounds like lots of opportunities to meet SUBs I remember the good old days of school uniforms, sigh. It really streamlines the mornings when there is only one choice of what to wear.

I remember the uniform years. It saved me a ton of money when DD was is high school.

 

[Haley R]

We saw it Saturday. I cried sooooooo hard. All 3 of us did. This is my absolute favorite animated series that is not Disney. All 3 films were amazing. I am seeing it again on Sunday with my son. He was irked that I went with daughter and a former coworker without him.

I almost cried at the end but didn’t. Dh and I both cried during the second movie. I think the reason I like toothless so much is because he acts just like my cat

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Thank you for helping!
I got both southwest cards about 5 or 6 years ago. I did get the bonus points when I signed up- we used those points years ago. We usually fly Southwest but only because they are the cheapest where I live. I haven’t opened any cards in the last 24 months. As far as spending, we’re in the middle of a remodel, so money is just flowing outta here

I love SW too..fly out of ISP which is 10 minutes from my house so perfect...

since you fly SW a lot I’d recommend going for the companion pass...to do so you’d have to close the 2 personal cards you have...since you can no longer have more than one personal card
Apply for the SW business card for 60k RR points ..if you’ve sold anything on eBay or thought of doing so...you qualify.....then at least 31 days after closing your personal cards apply for o e of the personal cards with the in flight 50k RR link...it’s float around on this thread..you get 110k RR points and the companion pass

I’ll add my husband...was not interest at all and thought cc rewards were a scam last May ..but is now fine with me opening any in his name...he will still only carry and use one at a time

 

[pillow]

I think I'm finally over my DCL obsession. It's been replaced by churning.

Oh but I love love love sitting out on my extended verandah with COFFEE as the ship sails into Castaway Cay . . . and then there's the adult beach = LOVE! However, I wouldn't pay 16k for it though - lol.

 

[GusGus16]

My DH loves to take the train from LA to San Diego. It is apparently a beautiful ride along the coast. We flew into San Diego and then drove to Palm Springs several years since the fares into Palm Springs were around $900 each and they were $400 into San Diego. It isn't too bad of a drive. Loved Palm Springs!

Glad to here he likes the train, I still need to do some research to see if it will work for us. Flights can be so funny, currently the palm springs flights are more reasonable than flying out of san diego, which is super strange, even southwest flights are not reasonable for the days I'm looking at.

 

[wendow]

For me the package notifications are rather unreliable. It catches some, but not all.

Mine has been too lately. I have had two large packages delivered in the last week. Neither showed up in informed delivery until after they were delivered.

These posts make me feel lots better that her ID shows no packages on the way to her. Thank you!

 

[kandb]

113 does seem like a big jump. Did you have any high balances on any cards recently? My score dropped about 30 points one week because I was meeting MSR and hitting a new card fast, and I wasn't thinking and also dropped my credit limit on the card. So for a few weeks I had a $3000 balance on a $5000 card. I did pay the card in full at the due date, but they can see the balance at any time so I had super high utilization for a few weeks. It went right back up after I paid the card. Do you have Credit Karma account or Credit Journey through Chase? You can check other scores through them to see if they are closer to the 700 or 800 score. I think you said you also cancelled a card that was less than a year old? I am not sure what that would do to your credit score. But it probably ticked Chase off, hope they are still willing to give you other cards. Always keep cards open at least a full year.

Thanks for the advice. The reason I cancelled one Chase card was because they were both Disney rewards cards. I also cancelled a Chase Freedom card around a month ago as well because I wasn't using it and had it for a while. I just don't want a lot of cards open that I don't use but maybe that isn't the best thing for my score. Thanks for the advice. I am assuming that business cards don't count against your 24 mos period?

 

[GlamMistress]

Wait so WDW might charge for FastPasses at SWGE? Will this code as travel? Can we use the CSR travel credit for this? I highly doubt these will be cheap.

https://wdwnt.com/2019/02/disney-le...galaxys-edge-at-disneyland-walt-disney-world/

DH just grumbled something about "greedy mice" and I'm not even kidding.

 

[GusGus16]

Hi from Sequoia National park area! But I would not try to come here on that trip as I hate driving. Your nearest airport option to Sequoia is FAT. You could do Sequoia instead of PSP and then do a day and see Yosemite and fly home out of FAT if you'd rather tour the forests than the dessert. Gosh, I love the diversity of our geography, really anything you might want to see (fine, we don't have glaciers but we've got the rest of it) but it's spread out.

I'd price out the train to SD vs starting your car rental in Anaheim. It would be easier to start your car rental after your DL trip so you can go SD on your schedule and your partner will need the car anyway to explore SD. I would add on a couple days in SD if there is anything you want to do there. The Zoo is a full day experience and awesome (it's one of the best in the world)- but if you want to feed giraffes biscuits get there before 1pm! Can you tell who arrived at the giraffes at 1:05pm last Sunday? Do the bus at the end of your touring time, short line and you'll want a break from climbing the hills. The Safari Park is also very cool, we did an amazing caravan tour there a couple years ago called the twilight caravan tour where they drive you into the animal areas and we got to feed giraffes leaves on the savanna and also a rhino! We did twilight because animals are more active then, the staff who drove us around were incredible knowledgeable. (The Safari Park is in Escondido which is about 45 mins from SD proper, plan accordingly.) Sorry I don't know much else about SD but I do know there's a lot to do- I just tend to be partial to animals There's also a SeaWorld but it's been ages since I went so no idea what it's like these days.

PSP is incredibly easy to navigate if you can get a flight from there being a baby airport, SO much nicer than LAX in that regard. But you're not going to be enjoying any Starbucks at your gate and the bathrooms are outside instead of in the terminal area which I remember thinking was odd but like I said, baby airport so plan accordingly (there is a big section to the airport but it wasn't open when I was there, maybe it's only used for Coachella and other high traffic times?).

Thanks for the reply! The trip already will be pretty driving intensive so I'm thinking I'm going to need to make another trip for Yosemite and Sequoia and probably a whole other trip for northern California.

 

[pillow]

8 more years for mine!

The GREAT thing about having my 18 and 21 year olds as AU's on my account is that I can see what they're doing while away at school!

The BAD thing about having my 18 and 21 year olds as AU's on my account is that I can see what they're doing while away at school! Really - they are at the point where they need their own cards . . .