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

[disneymagicgirl]

I wish this was the other way around...LOL! Take my MRs as 1cpp cash out. (Yes I know it’s ridiculous to suggest hahaha)

yyeeeessssss

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Ebates is my favorite portal, even if it doesn't always have the highest payout. It tracks my purchases a lot more accurately than other portals (which means I don't have to go tracking down my shopping trips and emailing support where's my mon-neeey?), and lets me use promo codes regardless of where I find them (which a lot of other portals exclude).

I also have a fondness for all the money Ebates paid me from the eBay-Target churning days.

Completely agree and I tend to use it more often b/c of this as well.

 

[amalone1013]

I haven't directly done anything but No. 2 - the $5.60 taxes will be covered by your $75 travel credit...and you earn 2xRR on them!

I didnt realize the taxes would count. Now I might have to cancel and rebook all my tickets lol

 

[Judique]

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 are right, the cpp is insane. This is also the Residence Inn that @Alexle2007 either stayed at or considered staying at earlier this year. I used to stay in Bethany a lot back 15 years ago or so, but now I find more value in OC.

But - you will be close to all the Rehoboth outlets and no sales tax, so your wife can do some shopping.

You can also watch for your preferred night to come back into the system. Sometimes it happens.

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I need some advice from the experts here!

I just downgraded my husband's Capital One Venture card to the Venture One to avoid the annual fee. I wanted to keep it open because this is the first credit card he has had in his name. He is an authorized user on my Disney Visa and Discover cards both of which are 8-10 years old. It looks like I can transfer my Capital One Venture miles to his card and then close my account before the annual fee hits. Is there a disadvantage to doing this?

We are relatively new to churning. We have accumulated enough miles for a five night stay at Royal Pacific in October as well as flights with Southwest and the majority of our park ticket expense for that trip. Yay!

Heis at 1/24 (C1V). I am at 3/24 (C1V, SW Visa, and currently working on the minimum spend for Barclay Arrival +). What would you suggest for our next move to earn points for a 2021 Disney vacation? I am dying to run a half marathon at Disney World!

If you read all this, thank you!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

View attachment 382718
Do you want this instead?

No. I want none of it.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

You are right, the cpp is insane. This is also the Residence Inn that @Alexle2007 either stayed at or considered staying at earlier this year. I used to stay in Bethany a lot back 15 years ago or so, but now I find more value in OC.

But - you will be close to all the Rehoboth outlets and no sales tax, so your wife can do some shopping.

You can also watch for your preferred night to come back into the system. Sometimes it happens.

That is definitely the plan - I will be doing a daily check, haha!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

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.

Our suburb is a very nice, lots of new construction (business and residential alike which I do like), high income area. Of course we get what we call the "willco tax" which is named after our county where we get charged extra for everything from contractors, to gas stations, etc b/c of the high average income. We rarely go into Nashville except to go to the hockey rink for practice.
Load of people are moving here...I believe I read 90 people a day. It is rare to meet someone who is actually from here. The downside is people move out alot too...lots of work transfers in and out. The no state tax tax is a nice perk.
I just can't deal with the weather and being landlocked. I grew up around water and I miss it and I want my kids to have that too. And most importantly I grew up around my extended family and that is super important to me too.

But I can see where moving here would be a huge upgrade for people from alot of other places.

 

[Judique]

Unfortunately full ocean view isn't available with points But they do have "Partial Ocean View" which sounds like on a high floor you'd at least see the ocean - so that's what I'm shooting for. I'm also hoping that as a Platinum Elite member with Over a million points they'll upgrade a Hot Shot like me, lol!

Get there early in the day for that upgrade!

 

[afan]

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.

DL always changes my flight times. Alaska changed both of my non stop flights in aug to/from mco including flight numbers. They didn't email I only sae and accepted because I was in the app looking at my mileage balance. Get an extra 30 min at wdw though.

 

[kmc8826]

Because it took forever for the Hyatt to arrive (so no MSR to meet), DH has had a decent amount of spending on his Amex cards this last month. He has had the pop up issues plus. In theory I would want the Bonvoy Biz for him, but I don’t want to apply without the referral points at least and am worried that even if he did not get a pop up he would not get the sign up bonus. Any thoughts? I am also thinking maybe I just try for the BBP so at least I could get the 20k referral bonus from my BGR.

I have the BGR and Biz Plat. It seems that only business Amex cards that earn MR’s I am missing right now are the green and the BBP. Should I apply for one of them right now? Any thoughts which one? I am super paranoid because I don’t want to get the pop up by getting too many but at the same time it feels like if I go to slow with it that risks the pop up too. I know no one reallly knows with Amex but I just want to get what I can out of them before our inevitable divorce.

 

[kmc8826]

I need some advice from the experts here!

I just downgraded my husband's Capital One Venture card to the Venture One to avoid the annual fee. I wanted to keep it open because this is the first credit card he has had in his name. He is an authorized user on my Disney Visa and Discover cards both of which are 8-10 years old. It looks like I can transfer my Capital One Venture miles to his card and then close my account before the annual fee hits. Is there a disadvantage to doing this?

We are relatively new to churning. We have accumulated enough miles for a five night stay at Royal Pacific in October as well as flights with Southwest and the majority of our park ticket expense for that trip. Yay!

Heis at 1/24 (C1V). I am at 3/24 (C1V, SW Visa, and currently working on the minimum spend for Barclay Arrival +). What would you suggest for our next move to earn points for a 2021 Disney vacation? I am dying to run a half marathon at Disney World!

If you read all this, thank you!

How long have you had your Capital One? That answer might determine your next step.

For Disney you could look at the UR’s for cash back to pay for Disney. It probably depends...the Arrival Plus was a good choice as the bonus is high right now. Maybe you should get one for him too?

 

[brownhaired_girl]

That is definitely the plan - I will be doing a daily check, haha!

With your Platinum Elite, did you go to the Marriott website and choose your "gift" With the 5 suite night awards, perhaps you could get oceanfront unless those are just already booked.

 

[DisneyMandC]

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?

Not hard to get your first Barclays card, but can be tough to get a second if you don't put some consistent spend on the first card. Only thing that was a pain for me getting the Aviator biz for both of us was identity verification. I had to MAIL in front and back copies of social security card, driver's license, and a bank statement. No fax, no email. It made me pretty nervous, but I haven't had any issues.

 

[pillow]

This is quite possibly irrational . . . we are thinking of going back to Costa Rica sooner rather than later. I really want to stay at the Andaz Papagayo before I lose the ability to use a free night there and before they increase the points price. So, of course, we need Southwest miles (and a companion pass?) before they release Dec 28th (ish) flights. So I'm guesstimating we'll need to hit MSR prior to mid-May.

I'd like to get both the business card (60K) for DH + personal (50K - hoping the link floating around actually works). He is only at 2/24. Most recent card apps were:

11/18/18 Ink Unlimited
1/1/19 Ink Cash

Can I and/or should I apply for both apps on the same day? Thinking of applying on 3/1.

Thoughts?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

With your Platinum Elite, did you go to the Marriott website and choose your "gift" With the 5 suite night awards, perhaps you could get oceanfront unless those are just already booked.

I honestly paid no attention to that whole thing, lol. I never selected any benefit - did I default to something?

 

[pillow]

I honestly paid no attention to that whole thing, lol. I never selected any benefit - did I default to something?

Default is the 5 suite night awards.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Default is the 5 suite night awards.

Ok now I sound like the newb...and how do I use these? Lol!

 

[Judique]

I honestly paid no attention to that whole thing, lol. I never selected any benefit - did I default to something?

Probably to the suite night awards. They are not as easy to use as they sound though. To use them from what I understand (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) all your nights on your reservation have to be available for the award. I guess you could get around this by booking separate nights, but that could mean changing rooms.

DD had to cancel her Cayman vacation because of the accident and is really upset about it as the price is going up and rebooking is difficult due to her already in place other vacations and her schedule. She had been trying to do suite nights there but beforehand had not been successful.

Seems to me they work best with one or two night reservations versus week long trips.

 

[blakefamily]

Thanks everyone for your help in deciding on which card to sign up for. I was just approved for CSR !! I also called and requested a rush on the card as we leave for WDW next weekend. Should be here in time