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

[GusGus16]

I would respectfully disagree. If somebody is earning points specifically to use on SW, there is nothing that provides a better return than going for the SW cards. CSP and other UR earning cards can be a strategy to later pad your Southwest balance but the actual SW cards with their lower MSRs in my opinion are a much better first choice.

Agree with @SouthFayetteFan on this, if main goal is to pay for flights through SW, a SW card is the way to go, they can easily pay for their flights with much less spend. Then can look into a CIP/CSR/CSP as next step, they will need to determine what they can prepay to ensure they can meet these MSR's.

 

[wendow]

Lol Dh wouldn’t actually go for buying nursery stuff already. It could easily be a year or more before we get to that point

Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today

 

[wendow]

Ours are too which is a bit nutty. I think the last time I bought them they were $3 so I missed the $4's.

I feel like I missed the $4's too. Pretty sure when I bought them last year they were $3.75/box. I bought 6 boxes. I just cannot bring myself to pay $5/box.

 

[Laurawill]

Yeah - that would absolutely qualify you as a sole proprietor! Let’s assume for a minute you have 4x$450 flights to split the difference. I’d do this:

• SW Business card - spend $3k - earn 60k Points +3k base pts
• (About 2 months later) SW personal in flight link card - spend $2k - earn 50k points + 2k base pts
• Keep in mind that the SAME person needs to get both of these cards and earn all the points for the companion pass to work

You’d end up with 115k SW pts AND a companion pass. Although you said you probably won't fly again...a companion pass would get you 1 free round trip flight, and that means $400-$500 to you!

If your flight were $450 they'll cost approx. 30k SW pts each. You could use 90k of your SW pts for the flights and the CP for the 4th one. You'd have 25k SW pts leftover and you could use them for a future flight or you could cash them out for a $250 gift card. All-in, 2 CC signup bonuses would get you all your flights for free!

That is the math I like. Those minimum spends shouldn't be too hard to hit at all as that is generally around what our monthly minimum spend is anyway.

 

[punkin]

Interesting email from Amex. Apparently I'm preapproved for 2 business cards: simply cash plus or blue business plus. No AF and either 20,000MR or $200 after a 3k spend.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

That is the math I like. Those minimum spends shouldn't be too hard to hit at all as that is generally around what our monthly minimum spend is anyway.

Yes! Being able to hit those spends quickly will help. If you can have all of those points within 3-4 months you’ll be in great shape to snag your flights. I will warn you though...once you have a CP (companion pass) it can be very tempting to take more trips I’m sure MANY people here can attest to that LOL!!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Someone on Reddit went to book a Marriott certificate stay today at a property changing categories and got hit with a cancellation date of Mar 9, 2019 despite the booking being for Sept. (Not linking due to language there- including my own lol.)

 

[platamama]

Please tell it to stop snowing because I wanted to make one more Kroger run for 4x fuel points on gift cards...

I went out at 5pm to do a run to load my Serve (first time! success!) then to Krogers to get the fixed value vgcs. It's a little slippery but there's not much traffic out there so that's a bonus. Oh, and check your digital coupons for the gift cards that give you 200 fuel points - I got a $25 Red Robin gc and got 200 points, so now we're set for $1/gal off our next fill up. And now I have USB vgcs to try loading onto Serve (the ones from Safeway were Metas).

They've got me confused. I got the 35K night, probably because I upgraded a week or so before my anniversary.

DH upgraded 1 mo before his anniversary, got the 35K night in his anniversary month, but no AF has posted yet either. I just cannot figure out Chase's system; I thought I had and then things like this happen.

ETA: My AF just posted on my upgraded Marriott on 3/1. Upgraded in October, and have been carrying a negative balance ever since then. Card originally opened in May.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Someone on Reddit went to book a Marriott certificate stay today at a property changing categories and got hit with a cancellation date of Mar 9, 2019 despite the booking being for Sept. (Not linking due to language there- including my own lol.)

 

[gottalovepluto]

I feel like I missed the $4's too. Pretty sure when I bought them last year they were $3.75/box. I bought 6 boxes. I just cannot bring myself to pay $5/box.

I can! My Girl Scout cookie addiction is real. Thankfully I took advantage of the Amex/FedEx 25% off to ship a few boxes of my Bestie’s favorite cookies to her from my bakery in exchange for my favorites from her Scout’s bakery. I will embrace my 25% off shipping but I refuse to acknowledge how much those Savannah Smiles are going to cost me on a per box bases when we’re done!

 

[WVMomof3]

Lol Dh wouldn’t actually go for buying nursery stuff already. It could easily be a year or more before we get to that point

I don’t think we have had a dischurner baby yet. The race is on. Who will be the first? @Haley R, @amalone1013, @speedyfishy, @DisneyMandC?? Did I miss any youngins? Lol maybe @Lain because he needs another AUer.

 

[elgerber]

I don’t think we have had a dischurner baby yet. The race is on. Who will be the first? @Haley R, @amalone1013, @speedyfishy, @DisneyMandC?? Did I miss any youngins? Lol maybe @Lain because he needs another AUer.

It sure as heck won’t be me!!!

 

[Haley R]

Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today

I’m not sure if you’re talking about buying nursery decor or other things....

 

[Haley R]

I don’t think we have had a dischurner baby yet. The race is on. Who will be the first? @Haley R, @amalone1013, @speedyfishy, @DisneyMandC?? Did I miss any youngins? Lol maybe @Lain because he needs another AUer.

Lol I’m okay losing that race although Dh and I were planning on it last year until we decided Japan sounded more fun

 

[WVMomof3]

Lol I’m okay losing that race although Dh and I were planning on it last year until we decided Japan sounded more fun

Souvenir?

 

[Haley R]

Souvenir?

Omg that’d be quite the souvenir to bring home....lol

 

[platamama]

Someone on Reddit went to book a Marriott certificate stay today at a property changing categories and got hit with a cancellation date of Mar 9, 2019 despite the booking being for Sept. (Not linking due to language there- including my own lol.)

Is it just the properties changing categories that people are seeing this on? I just made an award booking at a Westin, and the cancellation policy is the same now-standard 48 hour policy it's been for a while.

 

[Artygal90]

I don’t think we have had a dischurner baby yet. The race is on. Who will be the first? @Haley R, @amalone1013, @speedyfishy, @DisneyMandC?? Did I miss any youngins? Lol maybe @Lain because he needs another AUer.

I mean, we were planning to wait a couple more years but that Pottery Barn Harry Potter nursery collection is just tooooo cute...and doctor's bills would be super-helpful to hit an Amex Biz Plat MSR...hm, maybe I'll have to work it into my late 2019 churning plans after all

 

[kmc8826]

@afan and @havaneselover Tagalongs are our favorite. My husband is actually not a big dessert/sweet person but he could eat those all day. I am slightly embarrassed to report that my 2 cases (24 boxes) were all Tagalongs. Purchased at $4 a box. But on CIP/Venmo before the change so at least that.

Citi Biz Mailer "pricing" Update:

There are currently 3 people listing on r/churningmarketplace listing biz AA mailers. All of the mailers listed are the 75k/$5k MSR offer. (EDIT: actually the one poster has that offer AND also the 50k/$3k+15k/$7k offers as well)

Prices/Requests are as follows:

• $75 Cash
• $50 Cash
• Delta Companion Fare expiring after 11/3 (this one seems interesting to me - not sure what that's actually worth)

The guy conducting the "auction" for his mailers sold them at $132 and $95. The $132 is utterly ridiculous! He also said that somebody offered a $125 AA gift card (which if sold on a Raise would be worth about $100). This poster seems to claim that a going rate of close to $100 will be established but others feel he may be delusional and capitalizing on the general fear that AA biz mailers will be scarce.

At any rate...it appears you can get your hands on one of these if you're willing to step up to the $50-$100 level currently. I'll continue to follow this and provide updates since we have a lot of people looking for these. I'll be in the market for one in about 2 weeks personally.

I agree that is interesting about the companion certificate. Between DH and I we have 4. The actual value depends on the flight. I use them to get the 5 of us to MCO so it is the round trip cost which is around $300 but can be as high as $500. The value of it makes up for the AF. Of course I am at this point scared of the RAT team and also don’t want to cancel. The companion certificate makes the Platinum more “worth it.” Tagging @EACarlson and his question about Delta Gold card.

 

[MKTokyo]

I don’t think we have had a dischurner baby yet. The race is on. Who will be the first? @Haley R, @amalone1013, @speedyfishy, @DisneyMandC?? Did I miss any youngins? Lol maybe @Lain because he needs another AUer.

I refuse to enter this race for at least another 2-3 years May the best person (who is not me) win.