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

[mom2elal]

Our trip begins 4/1 and they shipped around 3/5.

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.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Ok so I wanted to update this, just so I don't lead you astray.

DW's Premier bonus just posted, so I was poking around the travel portal this morning. Unfortunately, I can't find the Disney resorts anymore. I wonder if they were removed like with Chase? Swan and Dolphin ARE still there, as well as all of the immediate off-site hotels, but the on-site resorts are gone. That's a bummer.

I am 12 pages behind, so I am going to hope an hour from now, when I am all caught up on those 12 pages, that this has been proven a nightmare and you just woke up and saw that it isn't true.

 

[WVMomof3]

DH and I just put the loan in one of our names. I just paid off my loan this month and DH’s will be completed in Aug.

And I guess we are see things differently. When my savings is earning more than the loan interest rate, I much prefer to let my money sit and grow.

Whenever we buy a car..it’s only registered to one of us and the loan is in one name....mortgages, bank accounts we have joint...but the cars only have one name on them

Thanks. DH said he actually did that 3 cars ago and I got mad at him. That would have been about 15 years ago, so I don’t actually remember that. But I think he went car shopping on his own (imagine not wanting to go with 3 little kids. Ha) so probably made sense to just have in his name. I do agree about the loans make sense with the low rates. Though DH does have to remind me when I ask why we don’t put extra on the mortgage. At 2.25% just doesn’t make sense. But I just want it done so I do keep asking. And I think I have beem reading too many FI blogs lately where people actually compete for the lowest outlay of cash on a car with the most miles. Lol More power to them, but that is not for me.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I was afraid that was bad news. I screwed up last night and did DH's CIP app while his credit was still frozen. He unblocked it after, but the status line says he will be notified in writing within 7-10 days. Learned my lesson - no credit card apps after 11 PM!

I’ve never been in this situation....but maybe someone else knows if you have unblocked it...is it’s possible to call chase and have them pull his credit now

 

[disneymagicgirl]

CHUGGA CHUGGA FREAKIN CHOO CHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard®
Congratulations, @SouthFayetteFan
You've been approved for a CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard® with an initial credit limit of $20,000.

80,000 MORE MILES HERE I COME!! (i.e. $800 towards Disney!)

I used to hate that term grAAvy train...I love it now. I get why they said it, it's freaking amazing!!!

AA Miles...Who Knew, Right??

Did you buy a mailer? I am going to need to do that soon...after CIP #2.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Thank you! I knew we wouldn't be able to charge to our room, but I was hoping to be able to use them for tickets and fastpasses. How far in advance will they mail them?

Usually about a month before your stay

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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[SouthFayetteFan]

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[palhockeymomof2]

Thanks. DH said he actually did that 3 cars ago and I got mad at him. That would have been about 15 years ago, so I don’t actually remember that. But I think he went car shopping on his own (imagine not wanting to go with 3 little kids. Ha) so probably made sense to just have in his name. I do agree about the loans make sense with the low rates. Though DH does have to remind me when I ask why we don’t put extra on the mortgage. At 2.25% just doesn’t make sense. But I just want it done so I do keep asking. And I think I have beem reading too many FI blogs lately where people actually compete for the lowest outlay of cash on a car with the most miles. Lol More power to them, but that is not for me.

Lol I’m the one who does the car shopping..last two cars I’ve bought without DH there...he hates shopping for his own..I have to be there and would much rather I buy mine without him there

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Last time I couldn't get an 'Ohana reservation like I wanted (for our first time there)... I ended up getting it two days out, and spent the half hour waiting for Illuminations to start rearranging our FPs/ADRs Truly it worked out better though, as we were doing MK DAH that night and instead of trying to get over there after Fantasmic we did DHS a different day and then got to eat an early dinner at 'Ohana before going into MK.

I was trying to book that the other day and couldn't get a part of two to come up, only four.

I always get everything I want in the 12-36 hours prior to when I want to go. Alot of people drop ADRs to avoid the fee.

 

[georgina]

I’ve never been in this situation....but maybe someone else knows if you have unblocked it...is it’s possible to call chase and have them pull his credit now

Hmmm, maybe I could pull a SouthFayetteFan in reverse and use a really low voice? If they start asking questions about his business app which I filled out it could be bad!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

That is one of our fav breakfasts! We've done it like 3x though so I'm staying away from it for our next trip. I am planning dinner at 1900 PF for my dd's b-day. It's way more than I would normally pay OOP for a meal, even at Disney, but it's my dd16's b-day and Cinderella has always been her fav growing up. She's loved other princesses like Rapunzel and Moana but Cindy is her classic fav.

I love our grown up princess loving girls. DD19 asked for her bday dinner in may to be at Akershus. I thought it was so cute then I added up what it will cost a family of 6, 4 of which are disney "adults" and I told her to pick somewhere else.

 

[WVMomof3]

Lol I’m the one who does the car shopping..last two cars I’ve bought without DH there...he hates shopping for his own..I have to be there and would much rather I buy mine without him there

I detest car shopping! I am horrible at making decisions. I research so much that I just confuse myself. I was just telling friends that it took me over a year to pick out my last vacuum, how can I pick out a car? Lol My last 2 cars were Honda Odysseys. I did buy the 2nd one quickly because the first got totaled so didn’t have a choice. My DH’s last 2 cars were both Honda Accords. We are pretty boring. Lol But this time I want different.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

This might finally be the year I strike out on getting my AF waived on my SW premier card. I got the card in 2016. In 2017 I think I got 6,000 EXTRA points (so 12k total) to keep the card. Last year they waived it. 3rd attempt today and no dice... I know I want to keep at least 1 SW card open because that gets you the better rate on gift cards. If I ever needed to cash out SW points in a pinch I'd want it to be at the better rate. I guess we'll see what happens here...

Also, the minute I cancel this card, I can guarantee you that they'll do a 50k SW support link because that's what happened last year when I cancelled my SPG personal card, LOL!

 

[wendow]

I love our grown up princess loving girls. DD19 asked for her bday dinner in may to be at Akershus. I thought it was so cute then I added up what it will cost a family of 6, 4 of which are disney "adults" and I told her to pick somewhere else.

I hear ya! I'm struggling mentally with the cost. If it is just our 6, we are 5 'adults'. If my mom & stepdad join us, well, we may need to eat somewhere else!! I keep telling myself that I've earned so many free GC's from SB's and we still never really splurge. The one character meal we do each trip is always one of the lower priced ones. I'm not telling dd about it in case dh & I change our minds. He doesn't know the cost but I will have to tell him before

I realized my signature is wrong...dd15 is actually dd16 and will be turning into dd17

No good CM discount for Akershus??

 

[afan]

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!

Since I actually read this (sorry not on the train so I sporadically read the posts about it) and I was in Apple Vacations mode from @amalone1013 earlier post about Hawaii I remembered something

Back in the day when I worked there we couldn't sell just air it had to have either hotel or a car. This was pre most people booking online and lots still using a travel agent and we only dealt with travel agents. We did a fair amount of throwaway rental cars that never got picked up. If you were going to HNL there was a property that made the throw away room the better deal but any other island it was always an economy car. This was widely done by us and I never heard of thing about it causing problems with anything. Granted it was almost 20 years ago so who knows what's changed but the car rental company got their $ and aren't connected with the hotel, so what will they care if you don't actually pick it up. The only one potentially with an issue is AA and I would imagine as long as you don't try and cancel the rental at any point and go in knowing the cost of the rental is the cost of doing business there shouldn't be a problem. Hertz isn't going to tell Disney and I doubt Disney gives a whatever about who picks a car up at Hertz Just go for the economy or cheapest not the

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Hmmm, maybe I could pull a SouthFayetteFan in reverse and use a really low voice? If they start asking questions about his business app which I filled out it could be bad!

Lol go for it

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Soooo... it wouldn't be crazy to take a Thurs night flight to MCO, land at 9pm, then take a redeye home Monday night right? Leave just before midnight get into Denver at 5:30am... I have extra vacation, I can take Tuesday off... Frontier to MCO and United to DEN for $97pp, that's pretty tempting lol

I just went thurs to Monday. We landed early enough thurs (4ish) to get in some good MK park time, and MDE picked me up at 2:50pm Monday for a 6:15 flight (don't get me started, I was ticked off). It was a great trip and we even had some down time.

 

[mmmears]

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 will try to answer this. Of course, as always, it depends on whether or not you can make use of what they have to offer. We don't drink either, but we still love to stay CL. Part of it is having the lounge itself as a to expand to, if we want to just go out of the room and have a quick snack. Part of it is the Nespresso machines (DH can drink a good number in one day). Also, the way the food works really makes it easier for my family. We like the breakfast they have in the lounge, and that we don't all need to go there at the same time, so if someone is running late it doesn't make us all have to eat quickly. We have lunch in the parks, but return for a rest & some pool time - and enjoy the snacks in the lounge. We love the evening appetizers - sometimes it's all we need for dinner, other times we will supplement in the parks, but we rarely have a full sit down meal since we really aren't hungry after the appetizers. I like that they will help with ADRs, since I'm 3 hours behind and won't wake up in the middle of the night anymore. And in some hotels I like that I know where we will be (like Hawaii at the Poly). We have calculated how much we think the food and drinks are worth for us, and are comfortable spending a bit more than that as an upcharge. But as much as I like it I can't justify the $350 daily upcharge at the GCH. We all have our limits.

 

[Andysol]

@Andysol, not churning related, but I'm too curious about these 2 properties to not ask... Have you ever stayed at the Halekulani or the Four Seasons (I know it's not in Waikiki) and if you would you be willing to share your thoughts?

That question goes for anyone else on this thread as well. Just dreaming about Hawaii.

No to four seasons although I’ve eaten there once. I’m assuming you mean the one by Aulani as I don’t know of another.

Yes to Halekulani. I guess I still prefer the Sheraton because of the lounge and the views. It’s so tall and the views to diamond head are uninterrupted.

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).

The one time I got club level it was at Boardwalk for a week. Meh. Outside of the service and quality of the CMs who were over and above helpful getting snacks for the day, waters, etc, I wouldn’t do it. But I’m also DVC.

Funny story, the one time I got club was when I had a boardwalk standard view via DVC. I got a call the day before and it was disney and they said they had trouble with the room and needed me to call back. I did and they asked if they could move me to the Inn/hotel side and in club level because my room was being painted. I, of course, said ok and it was a marginal improvement. But the best thing was, they ended up reimbursing all my points. Maybe due to error or because they “cancelled” the room? I don’t know. Either way, it was my free week at club level at the boardwalk. Unlikely I get that much pixie dust ever again.