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

[Ngwira]

Found a possible use for some Marriott points - as many of you know, my wife is terrified of flying so I'm trying to book drive-able trips. I also am generally opposed to long drives...some would say we're a match made in heaven with 3million travel points and opposing transportation preferences . Since mine is a preference and her's is a bona-fide anxiety laden fear...I will concede (if I want to travel multiple times a year).

So I'm looking to visit my sister in Philadelphia this summer and then make a short trip over to Bethany Beach. There's a nice (and new) Residence Inn there right on the beach: https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/rehri-bethany-beach-ocean-suites-residence-inn/

The cpp is insane...It's 50k Marriott points a night but you're getting 1.7cpp! This is where "valuing cpp" falls apart...there's NO way I'd pay $850 a night after taxes to stay at this place. (If you did the 5th night free you could get over 2cpp even)... At any rate, I digress...

The only issue is we have one 7-8 day span in August where this trip will work and we'd prefer to be in Philly over the weekend to see my Brother In Law who can't be off work on weekdays at that time. We'd prefer a partial oceanview room...and of course those are sold out on Thursday... ONLY Thursday. Gah!! It messes with the whole plan...so I could do 2 nights (instead of 3) after the Philly weekend, OR I could do 3 nights in advance but book a City View, OR I could visit Philly on weekdays and miss out on visiting as much with my Brother In Law. So I did what anybody with over a million Marriott points would do...I booked Wed-Sat City View, Sat-Tues Ocean View, Sun-Tues Ocean View...And now I can take my time deciding without worrying that even more nights will sell out. LOL!

You’ll be in my neck of the woods. I live 12 miles from Philly. We did Rehoboth and Dewey last summer. It’s a two hour drive from here. Let me know if you need any tips on things to do.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

This was the hotel. I booked it through a blind Hotwire booking. I'd like to book it through the Chase portal but maybe that isn't best. Just book through an owner and cash out UR's to cover. Who do you book through? I saw some different companies mentioned years ago but I've not looked at who people are using now.

I’d compare booking with URs vs cash...when we booked for last December it was better to book with my CSR vs cash

 

[elgerber]

View attachment 382718
Do you want this instead?

I am so tired of that LOL! It can get better anyway now. But yeah, again with the white stuff tomorrow. There is no place to put it anymore!

 

[Natgridenergy]

That was a good offer, I kinda thought it was gone. Thanks, figured I'd hop aboard!

Ok great, I'll do the dummy booking offer. I remember you trying to get that match.. at least it worked finally!

I just got approved for the dummy booking offer. We will be in the same car!

 

[Alexle2007]

Found a possible use for some Marriott points - as many of you know, my wife is terrified of flying so I'm trying to book drive-able trips. I also am generally opposed to long drives...some would say we're a match made in heaven with 3million travel points and opposing transportation preferences . Since mine is a preference and her's is a bona-fide anxiety laden fear...I will concede (if I want to travel multiple times a year).

So I'm looking to visit my sister in Philadelphia this summer and then make a short trip over to Bethany Beach. There's a nice (and new) Residence Inn there right on the beach: https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/rehri-bethany-beach-ocean-suites-residence-inn/

The cpp is insane...It's 50k Marriott points a night but you're getting 1.7cpp! This is where "valuing cpp" falls apart...there's NO way I'd pay $850 a night after taxes to stay at this place. (If you did the 5th night free you could get over 2cpp even)... At any rate, I digress...

The only issue is we have one 7-8 day span in August where this trip will work and we'd prefer to be in Philly over the weekend to see my Brother In Law who can't be off work on weekdays at that time. We'd prefer a partial oceanview room...and of course those are sold out on Thursday... ONLY Thursday. Gah!! It messes with the whole plan...so I could do 2 nights (instead of 3) after the Philly weekend, OR I could do 3 nights in advance but book a City View, OR I could visit Philly on weekdays and miss out on visiting as much with my Brother In Law. So I did what anybody with over a million Marriott points would do...I booked Wed-Sat City View, Sat-Tues Ocean View, Sun-Tues Ocean View...And now I can take my time deciding without worrying that even more nights will sell out. LOL!

We were supposed to stay there last summer but ended up just extending our stay in Virginia Beach since we didn’t feel like the extra drive to get there. It’s one of the very few hotels on the beach there.

 

[hsmamato2]

I did the same exact thing! Using my points for flights though. I’m now waiting for my aviator biz points to post. I got in on the 50,000 AA points for a $95 annual fee after ONE purchase.

I thought the offer was 60k? (which we got) ETA it was 60k for our offer....

 

[elgerber]

Delta strikes again. They have changed the time of my departing flight from home by 30 minutes (later), but my booked flight still shows the original time. My return flight has not only changed times, but also planes and flight numbers, yet my booked flight still shows the original flight. But my assigned seat is gone and I cant' select a new one. Way to be up to date Delta. They are so annoying, I cannot remember the last time I flew them where they did not change my flight times. Guess that's what I get for putting my magical express reservation in yesterday.

 

[alryan]

This was the hotel. I booked it through a blind Hotwire booking. I'd like to book it through the Chase portal but maybe that isn't best. Just book through an owner and cash out UR's to cover. Who do you book through? I saw some different companies mentioned years ago but I've not looked at who people are using now.

I'd definitely compare the Chase portal, but I've yet to see where that is the best price. I also have used skyauction a few times, but lately ebay has worked better for me. If you are nervous renting from an individual owner maybe skyauction would be a better fit. I just checked the Chase portal for 7 nights starting April 5 and it was 152,430 points plus $23 (because that's all the points I have) plus $98 cleaning fee due on arrival. The same week on skyauction is $975, everything included.

 

[Alexle2007]

Well DS knows how to help me meet MSRs. I was supposed to take his BF and another friend to iFly today but his BF got sick during the night so he can’t go. So he asked if I could still take his friend and him today and book another outing for him and his BF. Of course, I said yes Plus it’s his last year at school with his BF so I want them to be able to spend as much time together as possible.

 

[GlamMistress]

Remember to check and see if you were part of the Marriott breach:

https://privacyportal-cdn.onetrust....0e0/5626bb0f-e894-4197-8083-b9f5cfda6662.html

 

[Psychodisney]

I have several friends with twins and all I know is, God knew what I could handle. One baby at a time was plenty for me

True True! My mom had my twin brothers when I was 11yo. I was old enough to realize how hard that was! I was very happy with my children 1 at a time!

 

[pillow]

Awesome - love a first person report! Was the partial view decent? Reports online seemed mixed.

It wasn't great cause our room was closer to the street vs the ocean. The room was huge. Our weather was terrible (June), so we spent LOTS of time in there unfortunately.

 

[Judique]

Nice! If I wasn’t taking DS and a couple of friends to iFly tomorrow for his early birthday party (his birthday is in March but I got awesome BF price so we are celebrating early), we might have made a spontaneous trip down there since we have a long weekend.

We typically stay at the Comfort Inn Boardwalk at 5th St. I’ll have to look at Courtyard. We stayed at the Courtyard when we went to VA Beach last summer.

Did you go up to Rehobeth to the outlets or just to the ones outside of OC?

I keep confusing Comfort Inn and Courtyard (just the names!) We were at Courtyard on 15th Street and I was surprised at how good the restaurant was because it is not always easy to get a decent meal in Ocean City, although this is improving.

We went to Rehoboth. We were pretty much lolly gagging around because it is hard to do anything with someone who can't walk very far and who tires easily. Husband was invited but preferred to stay home - probably peace and quiet from the babies and could watch all the sports he wanted.

I'm going back to take advantage of the new Hyatt promo - 1500 points per stay after your second stay probably at the end of the month. I think I'll alternate nights at Courtyard and Hyatt to get elite nights and points at each. I need 4840 more Hyatt points for another 3 night summer redemption so 2 more nights (4152) with the promo will get me pretty close to that and I could top up by buying 1000 points for $24 or spending $700 on the credit card. Right now they have $64 rates (plus you get breakfast) and Marriott has a senior $59 rate, plus indoor pool and hot tubs and virtually empty hotels.

 

[pillow]

Delta strikes again. They have changed the time of my departing flight from home by 30 minutes (later), but my booked flight still shows the original time. My return flight has not only changed times, but also planes and flight numbers, yet my booked flight still shows the original flight. But my assigned seat is gone and I cant' select a new one. Way to be up to date Delta. They are so annoying, I cannot remember the last time I flew them where they did not change my flight times. Guess that's what I get for putting my magical express reservation in yesterday.

No kidding. I can't recall the last time they DIDN'T change my flight. However, it gives you an excuse to call and have them move you to something better. I've ended up on flights that were so much better schedule-wise that I didn't book initially due to the high price. I've found their customer service to be pretty accommodating.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

CitiBiz AA Miles posted With the 10k miles I started with, I now have 73,320 total AA Miles (good for $733 towards Disney )

I don't believe the offer I used is currently available (probably a similar offer out there) but here's a quick summary of what I did:

• Signed up for "dummy booking" offer of 40k miles + $250 stmt credit for $2,000 MSR
• Spend $2,002.95 PLUS $250 for an AA eGC that was reimbursed
• Asked for "Match" via backdoor SM for 20,000 additional miles
• Received 2,253 base Miles + 194 add'l miles for a cable purchase + 250 add'l miles for the eGC
• Earned the Bonus of 40k + the 20k Match
• Selling the Gift Card on Raise for another $200 Cash
• Bonus Summary: 62,697 Miles ($626 towards Disney) + $200 cash for $2,000 MSR (>41% return on my spend!)

Obviously I haven't booked a Disney hotel to be certain how this all works. It seems pretty straightforward though, so I'm happy with this move thus far. If I can get approved the Barclay Biz Aviator and Pickup a Biz Mailer from r/churningmarketplace for a 2nd Citi AA card I should have enough AA Miles for 5 nights at an Epcot Area hotel. Then I'm going to have my wife pickup a one of each card to earn enough for 2 nights at a MK area resort and our hotels for our next trip in January 2020 are covered

As a reminder, the Walt Disney World Tips thread on DISchurners has a section on AA Miles (as well as a lot of other great info supplied by people here): https://www.reddit.com/r/DISchurners/comments/ai6lq0/dischurners_walt_disney_world_tips/

That is interesting that 2 diff companies hold biz cards for American. I just activated my 1st Citi aa biz this morning and paid my 6 mth insurance premium. I did the $5k/75k thing. I hope to knock out the spend by the first statement. So maybe I will copy your plan and do the Barclays next. I don't have any Barclays cards...are they difficult?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I thought the offer was 60k? (which we got) ETA it was 60k for our offer....

The personal offer is 60k. There used to be a biz offer for 50k after 1 purchase but it’s now 50k after $1,000 MSR.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

That is interesting that 2 diff companies hold biz cards for American. I just activated my 1st Citi aa biz this morning and paid my 6 mth insurance premium. I did the $5k/75k thing. I hope to knock out the spend by the first statement. So maybe I will copy your plan and do the Barclays next. I don't have any Barclays cards...are they difficult?

We seem to have a number of people who for that aviator biz so it must be pretty straightforward

 

[Judique]

Lol that is exactly how I felt after my second came along.

This was in reply to the 1 plus 1 equals 3 kids.

I can validate this after spending 3 days 2 nights with the 2 year old and 3 year old. My own children were really spaced out - 5 years between the first 2 and then 8 years for the 3rd.

I took the two year old by herself for a few days and it was so much fun and virtually no stress. Take her home and instantly it is fussing and crying and whatever between the 2 of them. They do play nice together but will always want the toy the other has. If I buy two toys, one will want both. (Ie the ponies from our trip.) If one sits on my lap, both want to sit with me. Or share my chair. Or eat my food or whatever. But as a pair they get a lot of attention because it is twice as cute when they are being adorable - but this can vary such as at check in at the hotel - after being released from the car and into the hotel they just wanted to run and scream - not my style - but fortunately no one was in the lobby! And the pool - thankfully there are heavy doors that they can't open as we had to pass the pool each time we left the room - and it was I want to go to the pool! And then there is the ipad issue. The pediatrician says no more than 2 hours of screen time per day. The 3 year old has her own Ipad and it does keep her enthralled but try taking it away. Now we set a timer for when she gets it. But they also know how to do youtube on the smart tv. So it takes them seconds to go from 0-60. I'm glad I'm just grandmother now and not a mom with little ones....my time seems as though it was much quieter.

 

[elgerber]

No kidding. I can't recall the last time they DIDN'T change my flight. However, it gives you an excuse to call and have them move you to something better. I've ended up on flights that were so much better schedule-wise that I didn't book initially due to the high price. I've found their customer service to be pretty accommodating.

Ha, I usually do that, but this time I'm not sure I can take an earlier flight. I have never had them change a flight number on me though, that's a new one. I just checked my DD's flights in May, and they changed the flight number on her return flight also. Hers is the same exact time, but new flight number and they lost their seat assignments and are not able to make new ones right now either. We will both have to update our magical express.
It's so weird though, that they haven't changed my reservation yet, I only know because I am a glutton for punishment and always check to see what the points are for what I booked to make sure I did good LOL.

 

[Judique]

Well, it is raining right now...actually it never stops. It rains and it is cold...forever. If it isn't raining it is gray. The sun hibernates all winter. Winter is cold and wet so I hibernate and summer is super hot and humid and there is no beach. I am landlocked. And my family is not here. And the school system makes me crazy.

I have retired friends who moved there a few years ago and they love it and have told me I should come get a place there. I've considered investigating it, but my family is here, and I like beaches also.

I am going to go visit them as soon as I can get away for a couple of weeks with our current situation. They also like to come to Disney with me and may come this fall.