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

[afan]

What is a minimum amount of time one would need to enjoy Hawaii? I know we wouldn't be able to as long as we probably should (if we went) but our jobs won't allow us to be gone for 2 weeks, even 10 calendar days is really really difficult.

I would say it dependa on what you want to do and see and how far you have to fly. I did a long weekend in HNL, 3 or 4 nights, and did everything I wanted to do plus some. This was back when I worked for apple vacations so I didn't pay for my rooms and it included the transfer to/from the airport. The transfer would include a free breakfast your first morning because the transfer co wanted to sell you tours but there was no pressure. I ended up meeting two sisters and the one's young son, I think 4, and they invited me to join them the next day cause they'd rented a car. I went with them to the dole plantation and the north shore. It was fun and the little boy was sweet and bought me a small geckco I still have. We didn't keep in touch for long after, this was pre myspace and facebook. The other day I took a city tour that included pearl harbor and a great veteran volunteer tour at the punchbowl cemetery. I think I also went to the mall via the bus.

 

[gottalovepluto]

What is a minimum amount of time one would need to enjoy Hawaii? I know we wouldn't be able to as long as we probably should (if we went) but our jobs won't allow us to be gone for 2 weeks, even 10 calendar days is really really difficult.

I’ve gone for a week. It’s short but still worth it. With just one week though I’d stick to one island.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I just took another look at SW to HNL while eating lunch. There are 3 flights leaving BWI M-F and 1 flight Sat-Sun, connecting through OAK, that would work for us. For this hypothetical Hawaii trip staying on DVC points

Now to figure out the return options. And when we could possibly fit in a trip. And where I'd find the needed DVC points bc we're in a constant state of borrowing

 

[GlamMistress]

Speaking of Hawaii...has anyone stayed at the Hyatt Regency Maui? We're looking to do 5 nights in Maui and then 5 at Aulani. Originally I wanted to stay at the Grand Wailea, but with the Amex bonus issues I'm not sure if we'll be able to get enough Hilton points together to stay there. Hyatt Regency looks nice and doesn't look like it would be too hard to cover with points.

Yep, I have. It was nice. Andaz nicer but neither compare to Grand Hyatt Kauai. But if you're a diamond you get free breakfast, etc and are treated great. We were given a MASSIVE suite upgrade!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Hawaii/Southwest folks: remember there are more routes on the way so don’t be too sad if you can’t find something that works for you right now, you might when the rest of it launches

 

[elgerber]

I would say it dependa on what you want to do and see and how far you have to fly. I did a long weekend in HNL, 3 or 4 nights, and did everything I wanted to do plus some. This was back when I worked for apple vacations so I didn't pay for my rooms and it included the transfer to/from the airport. The transfer would include a free breakfast your first morning because the transfer co wanted to sell you tours but there was no pressure. I ended up meeting two sisters and the one's young son, I think 4, and they invited me to join them the next day cause they'd rented a car. I went with them to the dole plantation and the north shore. It was fun and the little boy was sweet and bought me a small geckco I still have. We didn't keep in touch for long after, this was pre myspace and facebook. The other day I took a city tour that included pearl harbor and a great veteran volunteer tour at the punchbowl cemetery. I think I also went to the mall via the bus.

Thank you. We have a long way to fly, we are in Minnesota :-(

 

[Lain]

So there is a lounge in OAK?

And the PHX lounge is gone as of April?

I need to fly to SEA this summer and if we go Southwest, we'll have a layover most likely at one of those two.

There's an Escape Lounge in OAK that's gratis to Amex Platinum cardmembers +2 guests.

I'm not as familiar with PHX, but I believe The Club (PP) lounge is making way for a Centurion Lounge expected to open in late 2019 or early 2020.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

My dh received notice yesterday that he has flown 2,000,000 miles with Air Canada. Since he spends so much in the air (he uses American or Air Canada almost exclusively), he is okay paying for business class seats (he won't fly in economy class -- he's a plane snob lol). This gives him Lifetime Altitude Elite 75K for life. It also gives me a pretty good sum of Aeroplan miles (I drained AA when we flew return to Buenos Aires in business class over the Christmas holidays -- back at around 450,000 now).

One of the nicest perks is it opens up "Priority" rewards for points bookings. This opens up almost any seat on routes we want to fly for the same level of points. He gets 20 of these rewards per year. I used 2 of them yesterday to book flights to Vancouver on December 26th this year for our ski trip to Whistler (wouldn't have been able to do it w/o Priority rewards).

While he may not be a churner (or willing to participate in churning), at least he contributes to my travel obsession in this way! Meaning that I can focus on collecting hotel points for free stays!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Trying to decide how I want to book hotels for a couple different horse shows...

I only need two more hotels. com nights before I get a free night, so I have a one-night stay booked through them for this weekend. But I could do a 10x UR booking... OR I could book through Choice hotels. But how often am I really going to stay at a Choice hotel this year to make it worth my while for a points booking... and I'd like to have the 10x UR. But I could earn Swagbucks booking through hotels. com or Choice.

Decisions!! I'm wrapped up in how to get the maximum discount lol.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Approval for CIU for DH!! Now we both have 3 Chase business cards each - me (CIP, CIC and SW); DH (CIP, CIC, CIU). I'll be cancelling his CIP on his anniversary. The CIU will probably be his main card. I am not sure I can get him to remember to switch out the CIC on office stores and gas. He never eats out without me so no need to remember restaurants.

Congrats ....the i also have DH carry the CIU as his main card....since he will only carry 2 cards...the other is a CSR...which he sometimes remembers to use​

 

[wanderlust7]

Done!

AUS -> OAK, stay 2 nights (never been to Ca so want to explore a little)
OAK -> HNL staying 5 nights

Return
HNL -> PHX (that's about as far east as I could get without feeling like I'm depleting RR) staying 1 night adding another state to my visited list
PHX -> AUS

Cash equivalent per person = $623.70
x 6 people = $3742.20

RR per person = 37573 + $31.70 tax
x 4 people (+ 2 CP) =
Grand Total: 150292 RR + $190.20

I still need to add my CPs. I'm trying to plan a weekend away before this trip so I would assign me as CP on DHs now, then he'd have to call and switch to the kid. Then I can add the youngest to this trip. I'm debating booking her tix on my RR to hold them just in case. Probably easier to rebook a big kid on my RR, book the youngest on his RR (he's almost out) so when he calls to switch everything is in his account. And we still have RR and 2 CPs for next year

Now I get to spend the day looking for hotel room(s) in Oakland and Phoenix.

Since you've never been, take BART across the bay and stay in San Francisco. I work in Oakland, don't think there's all that much there that would interest a tourist, especially compared to what SF has.

 

[punkin]

What is a minimum amount of time one would need to enjoy Hawaii? I know we wouldn't be able to as long as we probably should (if we went) but our jobs won't allow us to be gone for 2 weeks, even 10 calendar days is really really difficult.

If you only do one island, I think a very bare minimum of 5 days.

 

[Disneyonmymind]

I think the email offer you got is the same as this United Shopping 500-1,000 Bonus Miles for First-Time Portal Users offer, so yeah if $125 in two weeks is too much, then select a different online shopping portal to shop through.

Checking cashbackmonitor .com, I see you can earn 2 UR/$1 spent at PBK through the Chase UR shopping portal that’s available on your CSR cards. That may be a better option if you’d rather earn 2x UR than 1x United miles. See: https://www.cashbackmonitor.com/cashback-store/potterybarnkids.com/ (I see Giving Assistant is paying out 4%, but I don’t use them and try to keep to only 2-3 shopping portals to avoid diluting my spend/rewards.

Go into your CSR’s UR portal, find the Shop Through Chase section, search for PBK, click through, and shop as you normally would but now you’ll earn points on your purchase. (Note that the Chase portal may or may not “track” your purchase if you don’t use a Chase card, but gift card payments should be fine.)

Separately, download the United MileagePlus X app that’s available for iOS and Android. Log in with your United MileagePlus account number. In MPX, you can buy eGift cards to hundreds of merchants under the “MileagePlus eGift Cards” tab, search their catalog for PBK — I’m seeing 3x United miles/$1, click pay now and enter in the exact amount that’s due in your PBK shopping cart. It’ll charge the card of your choice (you can add more cards in at your MileagePlus account online). The eGC is generated almost instantaneously. Once it pops up, type in the eGC code and pin into your shopping cart and submit your order.

Sometimes gift cards to certain merchants may trigger a bonus category on Chase Visa cards, so you’d use those cards when buying that merchant’s gift cards. But PBK does not trigger any additional bonuses that I know of. Relatedly, if you have a Chase United Visa card and you add that to your MPX account, MPX will earn you an additional 25% bonus miles on every purchase, whether you charge the purchase on the United card or not.

You may earn only a few dozen or hundreds of miles here and there, but adding these extra steps to every online purchase really adds up. Last year, I earned about 20k United miles from MPX, and about 10k United miles through MileagePlus Shopping. Enough to buy saver award tickets for my family of 3 from SFO to SNA when we visit Disneyland. That’s even as I split my online shopping between Ebates and Shop Through Chase as my other go-to shopping portals.

Are you saying that you would still get the 2 UR/$1 dollar spent through the Chase UR shopping portal even if you don't pay with a Chase card? In your example, you pay the entire purchase with an eGC?

 

[Albort]

All this hawaii talk seems to hide the story that Swych with CIC is dead... :\

 

[afan]

Super sad that Luke Perry died. I grew up watching 90210 starting in 5th grade when it first started. Used to have to record them on our vcr for the neighbor girl who worked at night so I'd watch it and then take it over when it was done. They didn't have an extra tv to record with.

I didn't get to ask the starbucks ladies about the points cause there was a lady talking with them, which is fine, but she was standing at the register and my drink was done but I needed to pay. No problem with people chatting but at least move away from the register, she already had her drink too.

 

[amalone1013]

Trying to decide how I want to book hotels for a couple different horse shows...

I only need two more hotels. com nights before I get a free night, so I have a one-night stay booked through them for this weekend. But I could do a 10x UR booking... OR I could book through Choice hotels. But how often am I really going to stay at a Choice hotel this year to make it worth my while for a points booking... and I'd like to have the 10x UR. But I could earn Swagbucks booking through hotels. com or Choice.

Decisions!! I'm wrapped up in how to get the maximum discount lol.

I had a moment of excitement/interest about the 10x UR deal... and then I realized, I'm still probably better off with Hotels.com with gift cards at a discount, free night credit, and a shopping portal. I always value my free night credit at 10% before taxes/fees since that's essentially what it is.

 

[amalone1013]

All this hawaii talk seems to hide the story that Swych with CIC is dead... :\

Why you have to ruin my day? On this, the day that I am planning to shop at Sam's Club?

 

[elgerber]

Super sad that Luke Perry died. I grew up watching 90210 starting in 5th grade when it first started. Used to have to record them on our vcr for the neighbor girl who worked at night so I'd watch it and then take it over when it was done. They didn't have an extra tv to record with.

I am completely crushed by this, it's hit me way harder than it should. So sad.

 

[Lain]

All this hawaii talk seems to hide the story that Swych with CIC is dead... :\

I've been thinking that Swych and Gyft 5x can't be far from the chopping block.

ETA: When Gyft finally goes... *gasp* I'll actually have to step foot into an office supply store!

 

[wanderlust7]

All this hawaii talk seems to hide the story that Swych with CIC is dead... :\

Booooo! I only got to use it once!