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

[Ngwira]

I’m in the same boat! We paid a ton for our NY seats. Good luck with the tickets. We will be back in June and I’ll be going for last minute tickets

Excited to be seeing the NYC production of "Hamilton" in April at the Richard Rodgers Theater in Times Square. Paid about $200 pp for them last May.

 

[FloridaNative8]

I found myself on a last-minute flight on American yesterday, and I got an in-flight offer for a Barclays personal Aviator with a 60k bonus after one purchase. Even though I don't intend to jump on the grAAvy train, I'm actually tempted to use this offer since I've found myself booking on American more than I thought I would from BOI. 60k after one purchase seems like a pretty good deal! I have a flyer with a code to be able to use the in-flight offer after-the-fact. I have two cards falling off my 5/24 in April, so applying for this personal would only set me back about 2 weeks from my next Chase app.

I also had some unexpected pixie dust from American. I needed to get to Miami at the last minute to meet my mother and father who had been hospitalized in Havana after coming down with pneumonia on a cruise and was moved to Ft. Lauderdale by air ambulance yesterday. It was clear my mother was at her breaking point and needed some help and support. When I booked Friday night, there was literally one available coach seat available on each flight (I had to fly through Phoenix) which of course was a random middle seat. But when I went to check in yesterday morning, I was asked to choose a seat in First Class for my flight to Phoenix, and then was able to select an aisle exit row seat for my flight from Phoenix to Miami. No charge or miles deducted from my AA account. Both flights were oversold, so I think I just lucked out and got bumped up on both flights. It certainly made a stressful situation a little better. My dad is critical but stable and showing some improvement, so we are cautiously optimistic about his recovery. Very scary to see your 82-year old father sedated and on a ventilator, but hoping for the best.

Adding my thoughts and prayers for your family - I'm so glad he's showing improvement, but what a scary situation.

My mom had a collapsed lung about 4 years ago, and she was unconscious on a ventilator for 4 days - thankfully she lives close by so I could be there every day, but it was scary, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Praying for a speedy recovery.

 

[striker1064]

Picked up the 40k/$2k Citi AA Biz this morning to give DW more airline points. Just to verify, do AA GCs trigger the $200 statement credit?

 

[amalone1013]

@disneymagicgirl I didn't forget you and the DT DS! I would definitely do it for a short trip again, especially to have free hotel. I don't think the bus transportation was too bad really, even though it shared with the other DS hotels our bus was only 1/3 or 1/2 full going to MK and Epcot. They double up on buses to MK/Epcot and then to AK/DHS. MK/Epcot drops you at the TTC, it tooks us just under an hour from hotel room to main street between bus wait, monorail, security, park entrance. I imagine Epcot would have been similar from there. We didn't use the AK/DHS bus, we ubered to AK for ~$12 before tip. It was nice, clean, lots of space being a suite. ~10min walk to DS for two adults.

 

[WVMomof3]

Catching up on the ebook conversation
I can return ebooks early through Libby. I can not return ebooks early through Overdrive. To return Kindle books early without Libby, I need to go to my amazon account, to Your Content and Devices, and then select the book I want to return. There is an option in the small menu to "return library book." You do not see the book as returned on your kindle until you turn wifi on. Sometimes I deliberately do not turn on my kindle's wifi when I haven't yet finished a book that was automatically returned I'll read my other library ebooks on Libby until I finish it

I turn off my wifi to keep books also. At least I did on my old Kindle, I think I have on my new Kindle Paperwhite, but not sure. But DH has a Fire and he insists that he can not do this. He says even in airplane mode the book is disabled at the correct time. Does anyone else have a Fire? Is he right? lol Cause I just assumed he was Kindle illiterate. I actually have a bunch of books that I borrowed that never fell off. I can still access them. I had wondered If I broke them by keeping them so long.

 

[Ngwira]

Picked up the 40k/$2k Citi AA Biz this morning to give DW more airline points. Just to verify, do AA GCs trigger the $200 statement credit?

Yes, they do. Any purchase on AA.com does, the rep informed me.

 

[schmass]

For those of you with upcoming Disney trips:

1) If you are a March FP booking window (May trip) you might want to check and see if your FP window opened early. Things are a bit glitchy right now

2) if you have a split stay, make sure you’re aware of the FP booking issues (split stays are not considered continuous for FP booking any more). Sorry to spread bad news there.

Thank you for posting this! I tried yesterday when I read your comment and couldn't book anything. Then I tried again last night and it worked!! It took forever because 75% of the time I'd get an error and would have to start over, but I now have all of my FPs booked for my May trip! Hopefully they don't disappear...

 

[elgerber]

.

 

[amalone1013]

Sometimes I deliberately do not turn on my kindle's wifi when I haven't yet finished a book that was automatically returned I'll read my other library ebooks on Libby until I finish it

I wish I could do this! Unfortunately I use a cheap android tablet and pay $5 a month to have it on Verizon's data - great for downloading at work or when I'm having trouble with wifi (either a new book or to read the boards), but not for trying to keep a book lol

 

[Natgridenergy]

Picked up the 40k/$2k Citi AA Biz this morning to give DW more airline points. Just to verify, do AA GCs trigger the $200 statement credit?

Ill tell you in a couple days lol

I was going to go the gift card route, but I could buy miles on my dh's AA account and trigger the $200 credit? That would give me another 18 months to figure out what to do with his miles, and up his balance enough for an additional $50 Disney gift card if I decide to cash out his account that way.

or you could sell it for 150 on raise and get a 150 Disney gift card

 

[alryan]

-

 

[Ngwira]

I was going to go the gift card route, but I could buy miles on my dh's AA account and trigger the $200 credit? That would give me another 18 months to figure out what to do with his miles, and up his balance enough for an additional $50 Disney gift card if I decide to cash out his account that way.

Yes it should trigger the credit. Speaking of purchasing AA miles, I just bought 5,000 for $150 or so to top off my account for 4 one way award seats PHL to Rome. The cash price for these tickets is $3,619 EACH but only 22,500 miles off peak pp or 30,000 miles pp Peak.

 

[Ngwira]

Yes, they do. Any purchase on AA.com does, the rep informed me.

I bought a $250 gift card that credited when I purchased an AA gift card on 2/4/19. I got the 40,000 miles for 2k spend and a $250 gift card deal which was matched to 60,000 AA miles for 2k spend.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Picked up the 40k/$2k Citi AA Biz this morning to give DW more airline points. Just to verify, do AA GCs trigger the $200 statement credit?

I can also confirm this works. It’s nice that it’s any AA purchase so you aren’t “playing any games”, lol! I assume you’re also looking for some backdoor match action.

Thank you for posting this! I tried yesterday when I read your comment and couldn't book anything. Then I tried again last night and it worked!! It took forever because 75% of the time I'd get an error and would have to start over, but I now have all of my FPs booked for my May trip! Hopefully they don't disappear...

Awesome! I hope it works out for you.

 

[thevalley]

I should know this but..... the Barclays biz card:::::does it count against a ?/24 slot. I plan on applying for it but don’t need it to hurt my precious chase count. Also does it report to personal credit? I do have a Barclays card from the Upromise account. So just curious how it will affect my status.

 

[Ngwira]

So with my recent AMEX HH honors personal application, I won't be under 5/24 until November! Looks like I will be paying cash for some Hyatt properties in California although I have about 55,000 UR that I could use . I will use them to book the Hyatt House in Anaheim and my free night cert for the Manchester Hyatt in San Diego.

 

[miztressuz]

Oh, see, when you were asking the "Amex experts," there's no way you could've meant me. But I'll chime in anyway.

Since DoC posted the rumor that the Amex Green might be getting a refresh over a month ago, we haven't heard any new news. I'm not saying DoC is wrong, but the refresh may be further down the pipeline. I seem to recall he predicted changes to the BGR around the same time he picked up on changes to the PRG, but those took another month after the refresh on the personal Gold. So there's no telling the timeline on these rumored changes -- a month? half a year?

Meanwhile, your DH's Green is up for renewal next month. With Amex, you have 30 days from the date of the statement on which the AF is billed to close the card for a full refund. After that, there's no refund. That gives you guys a little time to see if there are any worthwhile changes to the Green in the next month (or two?), and if so whether DH's card is upgraded to the new benefits.

If there isn't a refresh by the time you need to cancel the card for a full refund, would you mind closing an old card and eventually taking a hit on DH's AAoA?

If DH cancels his Green, I don't think he'd be eligible for a bonus on another Green. My thought is, DH is grandfathered into the old $55 fee, but the card is still the same product as the current Green, and I think Amex would consider DH's card to be the same product as a refreshed Green. Amex treats the PRG as the same product as the refreshed Gold, and the BGR as the same product as the refreshed Biz Gold. Whether DH's Green will be automatically upgraded to any refreshed benefits is unclear. Because, as you know, the PRG was automatically upgraded to the Gold's new benefits, but the BGR was not upgraded to the Biz Gold benefits. I wonder if it has to do with one being a consumer card vs. the other being a business card. If I had to guess, DH's Green would be automatically upgraded to any new benefits, but I don't know if his annual fee would then go up at some point.

If DH cancels his Green, he may not get a bonus on another Green, but could you guys get a referral bonus? The best SUB for the Green is via incognito for 25k MR. I think the best SUB when using a referral link is 15k MR points. However, a referral from an Amex Gold or BBP is worth 10k MR; Platinum links are worth 15k MR; and BGR/Biz Gold links are worth 20k MR. Since there's some doubt whether DH's Green would be considered the same product as a refreshed Green, I'd try applying anyway to see if he gets the pop up that says he's ineligible for the bonus because he has or has had the same card.

Canceling the Green potentially means giving up the grandfathered $55 fee. However, we don't know if Amex would raise that fee anyway if they automatically upgrade DH's card benefits upon a refresh. A new Green will come with a higher fee -- $95 per year, with the first year waived. However, DoC's rumor is the refreshed Green might include Amazon Prime, which is $119, and he thinks the AF will be raised to at least that. If that happens, there might be a small window, like with the PRG and BGR, to apply under the current AF terms and lock those in for the next two years, so $0 in Y1 and $95 in Y2 for the Green, then raised to whatever is the increased AF in Y3. But if DoC is right, then the refreshed Green would pay for itself with the AF covering the cost of Amazon Prime.

TL;DR: I don't know. There are too many uncertainties. I gamed out some of the possibilities, but who knows if my assumptions are wrong, what might actually happen and when.

Ok, so it's not just me that's confused on AmEx

I can't figure out how his card is different than the new card. I mean it must be if he doesn't get the same referral offer and has had the same AF for the last 20 years. Maybe he doesn't get the 2x points on AmExtravel .com purchases? When I had my Gold card they made changes a couple times to it and one of the changes had a fee increase, so whatever they did to the current product, they did to my existing product too. It was great to find out he hasn't been paying that crazy $95 fee, but I have no idea how come my Gold increased with the AF changes but his didn't. Was hoping there was a rhyme or reason to it so we could figure it out.

I was kinda hoping AmEx would release the details at least around March, per the rumor, so we know if it was worth chancing it. We'd most likely be paying for Amazon Prime anyway so if we could get it discounted, great, even if the AF raised to the same price we'd use the category spend offers. I suspect it won't be the same price, but I'm hoping it's not more than $125 ish.

Good point about the waived AF on a new application. Those terms would apply if he "upgraded" too, right? Like if we keep the Green, find out he won't get the new perks for the old AF, he could PC to the current Green for the waived first year so we wouldn't be out any more in AFs this year?

I also had thought about just forgetting about it all, canceling it and then re-apply next year sometime if the Amazon Prime benefit was real. Even if he didn't get a bonus on top we'd have the referral points at least. While potentially getting Amazon Prime for $55 would be awesome, not sure it's worth all this thought Was hoping we'd have some historical data on how this usually works from the experts, but I guess we're all in the same boat. Thanks for trying!

 

[vanjust14]

I should know this but..... the Barclays biz card:::::does it count against a ?/24 slot. I plan on applying for it but don’t need it to hurt my precious chase count. Also does it report to personal credit? I do have a Barclays card from the Upromise account. So just curious how it will affect my status.

I was just looking into this...DOC says it does not report to personal credit bureaus.

 

[Ngwira]

I should know this but..... the Barclays biz card:::::does it count against a ?/24 slot. I plan on applying for it but don’t need it to hurt my precious chase count. Also does it report to personal credit? I do have a Barclays card from the Upromise account. So just curious how it will affect my status.

You will get a "hard pull" or inquiry on your PERSONAL credit report but no new open account which is what Chase looks at when deciding 5/24 status.

 

[miztressuz]

I should know this but..... the Barclays biz card:::::does it count against a ?/24 slot. I plan on applying for it but don’t need it to hurt my precious chase count. Also does it report to personal credit? I do have a Barclays card from the Upromise account. So just curious how it will affect my status.

It does not report to your personal credit report and therefore it will not count towards your 5/24 with Chase. I don't know exactly how Barclays does their "6/24" count, if they include their own cards or just what's on the CR like Chase, but Barclays also seems kinda random when they enforce that "rule". It's mostly for the Arrival+ applications IIRC, but it can come up for any app or not at all.

The one thing that seems consistent is ongoing spend on any existing Barclay cards. If you're not using the credit they already gave you they seem less inclined to give you more.