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

[calypso726]

I understand why/how it is, but I love that this is a budget trip

I know that sounds insane

This morning we were taking advantage of our free breakfast and people watching. You just know that this isn’t the budget friendly vacation that others around us are having. A burger here is $37 and they can’t all be travel hackers.

On that note it looks like we will be shifting some strategies towards racking up Bonvoy points. The Al Maha is a definite “must do again” trip. We’d come back here too but only if we were in the region after an Al Maha trip. This part of the trip is easy enough to repeat without manufacturing points.

 

[calypso726]

LOL! I bet @speedyfishy has me beat. My AmEx run of 8 cards plus a CIC had a total MSR of $41k. If it weren't for having to spread out the AmEx spend, the MSR wouldn't all be at once, lol.

Hilton Biz SUB posted x2 today. Personal Plat yesterday. I'm down to "only" 3 MSRs!

Oh look! Free beer!

Cheers!

I think my highest MSR juggle was only $23k, all organic, between the Hilton Biz, Biz Plat, Marriott Premier Plus, and SPG Lux.

All organic!!

 

[calypso726]

A word to all the lurkers and newbies...you don’t have to tackle $40k in MSR at one time to be a churner!!! LOL!!!

True enough. But if you are Bonvoyed out with Chase and Amex cards $40k MS every couple of months becomes a viable strategy to stay at a cat 8 property. Looks like I finally have to get serious about current MS options.

 

[wanderlust7]

It's only $1000 more than yours.

And I had to go double check if there's an apostrophe in "yours" as I am now paranoid in this thread.

 

[Haley R]

It's only $1000 more than yours.

And I had to go double check if there's an apostrophe in "yours" as I am now paranoid in this thread.

 

[Alexle2007]

What a boring day of March Madness. I basically exclusively root for underdogs all day (regardless of any brackets). I don't really consider 7/10 or 8/9 games an upset as they're virtually a tossup. So under that criteria, there was 1 upset out of 16 games... And VERY few close games (some were single digits but never in doubt near the end really). I think there were only 2 games that really went down to the wire. A lot of it was a snoozefest...and I watched pretty much parts of every game and the end of any game that was remotely close.

Sorry...totally off topic but today is like Christmas day to me...and it kinda fell flat.

Being Terps fans, it was definitely a nail biter at our house and thought for sure at various points that they would be out. Heck, we even had to look up where Belmont is located.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Thanks, that seems like it would be okay. We're leaving for Orlando on 6/7, but won't be checking into the POR until 6/17.

If you go to MDE and click on magicbands and cards, it will give you a deadline to customize your bands. After that date passes, they will ship within a day or two.

 

[speedyfishy]

LOL! I bet @speedyfishy has me beat. My AmEx run of 8 cards plus a CIC had a total MSR of $41k. If it weren't for having to spread out the AmEx spend, the MSR wouldn't all be at once, lol.

Hilton Biz SUB posted x2 today. Personal Plat yesterday. I'm down to "only" 3 MSRs!

My highest I’m pretty sure was in the 30s. Looks like I’ll need to get more cards to beat you lol.

 

[Natgridenergy]

CIP#2 Approved! Come to papa all 105k of those URs!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

CIP#2 Approved! Come to papa all 105k of those URs!

Congrats

 

[Oscar Madison]

Dh and I just saw captain marvel. I thought it looked so stupid and Dh was the one that wanted to see it. I have to say it was so good! I think that might be because my expectations were so low, but I really enjoyed it. The only part I didn’t love was the cat. It was funny, but I thought it was just thrown in there for some laughs without being explained at all

I can relate as well. It exceeded my low expectations. Made me more excited for Avengers: End Game.

 

[miztressuz]

I understand why/how it is, but I love that this is a budget trip

The line "You and I have very different definitions of "budget trip". " popped into my head

But I think it's great! That's a kind of budget trip I can get behind. (versus the flashback of the horseshow hotels discussion that used to be our budget trips...)

 

[nickle831]

AAVacations Disney World "Package" Update:
I made another call to AAVacations tonight and asked about the idea of booking a Disney World Hotel + Dining or Tickets and a Car Rental:

• I confirmed again that your car rental CANNOT have different dates than your hotel. So you have to book a "throwaway" car for your entire trip
• She put me on hold to check what would happen if I never picked up my car. The agent then said that she couldn't absolutely guarantee no issues there, BUT that her and the supervisor saw absolutely no reason that my hotel would be affected if I didn't pick up the car.
• I could tell that she thought it was a pretty strange question
• I got a pretty good sense from the agent though that a "throwaway rental car" would work to allow yourself access to dining and tickets
• It doesn't appear like there is ANY way to just book a hotel and dining. You have to add the car
• From what I can see online, you can say that you are picking the car up at 11:30pm on your first day and dropping it off at midnight on your last day or something like that. That will take a day off of your rental car cost lol.
• @Natgridenergy - to comment on your idea, I think these two websites are completely separate depts and they can't talk to each other. I'd be surprised if your theory works unfortunately. We could enlist @trstno1 to try another experiment, but I feel bad to keep asking, haha! Basically to attempt it you'd have to call AAVacations with an already booked room from useaamiles.com and see what they say...

For now I'm just focused on earning a crap ton of AA Miles. I'm hoping to have enough to cover hotels AND dining. Even if earned enough to cover tickets I'm slightly wary of messing around with their ticket options. I want those puppies in hand well in advance of my trip to book FPs and they scare me, lol. Dining is really what I want access too since using AA miles for that could save me hundreds of dollars (since AA miles are so easy to earn now).

I think I'm over my little club level joke now too. It was always a half-joke...and I looked into what club level gets you...which is basically nothing for me. We eat breakfast in the room, are at the parks all day, enjoy the restaurants and don't drink a drop of alcohol. I'm sure it makes sense for some...but for those of you who like club level, am I missing something? (based on my preferences that is).

That's all for this AA Miles update, lol!

I'm following this adventure with you! This looks like a fun goal I want to try after I get my Alaskan trip goals complete. Thanks for the updates.

 

[miztressuz]

Successful DP for CC funding of $5k: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/b3p7e6/data_points_central_thread_week_of_march_21_2019/ej3e9u1/

Drat, no mention of within or without the footprint. One reply mentioned a comment that someone outside the footprint was denied opening so I'm still on the lookout since I am very much not in that region. But being that an Ink card worked as a purchase is very promising. Single no-fee charge, with no money OOP, to meet a CIP MSR? Yes, please... I'll take two

 

[pillow]

I'm so so behind here. Others may have posted DP's, but I wanted to come on and report that my late night bizarre chat with Citi worked. My first Citibiz statement just closed, and they matched me from 40k to 60k points.

Nothing on the Aviator Biz side yet though (I had asked for an extra 10k there since they bumped up the offer just a couple days after I applied).

@wendow any luck with yours?

 

[Psychodisney]

What a boring day of March Madness. I basically exclusively root for underdogs all day (regardless of any brackets). I don't really consider 7/10 or 8/9 games an upset as they're virtually a tossup. So under that criteria, there was 1 upset out of 16 games... And VERY few close games (some were single digits but never in doubt near the end really). I think there were only 2 games that really went down to the wire. A lot of it was a snoozefest...and I watched pretty much parts of every game and the end of any game that was remotely close.

Sorry...totally off topic but today is like Christmas day to me...and it kinda fell flat.

Thanks for reminding me of the upset. I couldn't even watch the entire second half. Carry on.

 

[Psychodisney]

LOL! I bet @speedyfishy has me beat. My AmEx run of 8 cards plus a CIC had a total MSR of $41k. If it weren't for having to spread out the AmEx spend, the MSR wouldn't all be at once, lol.

Hilton Biz SUB posted x2 today. Personal Plat yesterday. I'm down to "only" 3 MSRs!

Was I the only one who did the Spark? 50k MSR just on one card! I don't MS but I do have to pay large quarterly tax payments. That's the only way I pulled that off.

 

[Psychodisney]

CIP#2 Approved! Come to papa all 105k of those URs!

Me too! Logged in this morning and the beautiful third business card was on my login page!

 

[platamama]

Was contemplating this. I could prepay my mortgage and with the FFD I could keep paying at essentially 1.25%. I already have Plastiq do I need to set up a new account? I believe I got this offer too. Hmmmmm.....

I emailed Plastiq (from another email address I have) to say a "friend" sent me a link with the promo but that I already had a personal account, could I also have a business account and use the promo? Their answer was no. Whether or not they are truly strict about that I don't know, but I didn't want to sink in $250 of fees without a guarantee. And I've already referred DH so that's out. Does your DH have a Plastiq account?

 

[calypso726]

Was I the only one who did the Spark? 50k MSR just on one card! Combined with my DH first AA biz and finishing up on the SW cards for CP. I don't MS but I do have to pay large quarterly tax payments. That's the only way I pulled that off.

We have a winner for highest MSR at once! $50k!