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

[mefordis]

Mefordis cards:
11/17 - CHASE United Personal
11/17 - BARCLAYS JetBlue Personal
11/17 - AMEX SPG Business*
12/17 - CHASE Freedom
12/17 - CHASE Marriott Personal
01/18 - CHASE Sapphire Reserve (AU)
05/18 - AMEX Hilton Business*
08/18 - CHASE Marriott Business*

5/24 with one as an AU card (potentially could remove this and dispute it) and 4 cards falling off in Nov/Dec.


Husband cards:
12/17 - BARCLAYS JetBlue Personal
01/18 - CHASE Sapphire Preferred
01/18 - CHASE Sapphire Reserve
03/18 - AMEX SPG Business*
05/18 - CHASE Marriott Personal
08/18 - CHASE Ink Preferred Business*
11/18 - CHASE United Personal

5/24 with 1 card falling off in Dec and 2 falling off in Jan.

Laid out in the proper format, it is far easier to dish out some good advice. There was unfortunately no consistency to how you showed things before.

Wow, it looks so much better. Thanks for doing this!

 

[calypso726]

Since I already have enought miles in my United bank for 4 one way business class EWR to NRT tickets (if they are 70k United miles), I could apply for an AMEX card (suggestions?) to earn a MR bonus and use it while we are on vacation in two weeks to rack up points, if it makes sense. CSR gives 3x on hotels and restaurants so I'd want to find an AMEX that gives at least that. I could use those to fly ANA on our return.

However, I don't think I can book a one way ticket from NRT to EWR on ANA (I think I read you can only book RT award flights), though, but the mileage tickets look low enough that i could just sit on my United miles and book all four ANA tickets with what I accumulate from her on out. Do I have to worry about booking wayyyyyy in advance to get a reasonable award ticket with ANA, like I do with United? Or is there usually award availability, say, 4 months before departure?

Thanks so much for the info, Calypso AND Lain! I was so stuck on getting the Untied miles I didnt' consider anything else. Though Polaris does look pretty good and United makes it so easy to transfer URs and book.

You're welcome. ANA has to be booked RT. Yes, you need to be on it as soon as they are released or have a Plan B in place. I was able to snag 2 seats in first on ANA )using Virgin Atlantic miles transferred from Amex MR) with a return the same day I arrive. I did this just so I could secure my departure date as soon as possible. I never saw my actual return date become available. Therefore, I booked a return that was a few days later than I actually need to return on ANA and paid the change fee which was $50. I put my plan B in motion and booked my actual return date with JAL using AA miles.

I am hoping that ANA will release award space for my return date a few weeks before my real return date. I have read that sometimes they do release more award space a few weeks out. If so, I will pay the change fee and book my return for the real return date. Then, I will change my JAL flight with AA to a later return date. As long as I keep my arrival and departure cities the same I won't incur a fee. I already know I will be returning to Japan again so that's not a big deal. Worst case scenario, I've paid 120K miles to fly Ana in first one way. I'm ok with that.

I’m going to do this as soon as I get home. If both my husband and I are targeted for the AMEX platinum 100k bonus should I apply for both of us at the same time? We can definitely do the minimum spend within three months.

I agree with @Lain and go for the Amex 100K offer. Open up cardmatch in incognito mode. If you see that 100K do not close your browser, do not go think about it. Apply immediately before it disappears and never comes back. There is a reason we call it a Platicorn. Yes, both of you apply.

 

[happ]

Think the limit is three times again?

Last time I did it four times. I just had to leave the site for awhile between attempts for it to work. I only tried twice today.

 

[happ]

Checking in with the experts

Hubby & I have good credit but want 1 card that we start using for almost everything. Previously, that was our Disney card but I don’t feel like we are getting much back on that....

What is the best cash back card? Or do you refer rewards cards? We don’t really fly
Interested in transferring the debt from our other cards over and paying just 1 bill.

The best cash back card is the one that gives you the best bonus in my opinion. Use the card, meet the spending requirement, get the bonus, and move on to the next card. However, this assumes you don't carry a balance. You may want to look into a card that is good for balance transfers and concentrate on eliminating the debt. Rewards can't make up for interest charges.

 

[mmmears]

My afternoon (not in the shower) thoughts:

1 - Thank you all so much. Not only am I sitting on more points than I ever thought I could earn in less than a year, but now you've all helped my DD get a no FTF card and start to build a points bank of her own. I'm so grateful for all the advice, and I'm so thankful I found this thread.

2 - Aspire musings - it seems like many people get an upgrade offer to an Aspire, which I think gives you more points than applying for an Aspire in the first place. Does it make more sense to apply for a lower Hilton card with the hope of getting the offer? Or if we really want the Aspire should we just apply for it? (DH is the one who wants it, and I don't really know why since I'm the one who does all the trip planning. )

 

[calypso726]

My afternoon (not in the shower) thoughts:

1 - Thank you all so much. Not only am I sitting on more points than I ever thought I could earn in less than a year, but now you've all helped my DD get a no FTF card and start to build a points bank of her own. I'm so grateful for all the advice, and I'm so thankful I found this thread.

2 - Aspire musings - it seems like many people get an upgrade offer to an Aspire, which I think gives you more points than applying for an Aspire in the first place. Does it make more sense to apply for a lower Hilton card with the hope of getting the offer? Or if we really want the Aspire should we just apply for it? (DH is the one who wants it, and I don't really know why since I'm the one who does all the trip planning. )

The perfect scenario for number 2 would be.

Apply for no fee card
After one year upgrade offer to the $95 Ascend pops up
Apply for Ascend
After approval, take upgrade offer from no fee card to a second Ascend.
One year later upgrade offer pops up on one of the Ascend cards for the Aspire.
Apply for the Aspire.
After approval, take upgrade offer from Ascend card to the Aspire.
Cancel the other Ascend card.
After one year cancel or downgrade your second Aspire.
Unless you are me. In that case, keep both Aspire cards. Seriously though, there are a number of travel hackers with 2 Aspire cards or trying to upgrade their way to two like I am.

 

[kmc8826]

Went on the DVC tour and was ready to buy because he said he would check about getting me a room at the Grand Californian for my birthday trip in September. He ran my credit but I could not get the stay at the Grand Californian. Waste of a hard pull. Now I’m moping around the magic kingdom wishing I was a dvc member. One day guys one day...

You are exactly right that the past year points you can get make it a good deal to buy direct. I bought direct at OKW last year at this time. October UY so I had 100 2017, 100 2018 points. I have now used 280 of those points and just listed my contract. I bought at 151 a point and sold for 122. But when you add in the fact that I had 3 trips on those 280 points, the ability to renew my Platinum AP to the DVC Gold, the credit card rewards, and a Moonlight Magic I broke even or even came out ahead selling after just one year. I LOVE my BLT resale and won't sell it, but for the points now and the ability to get in you might want to think about a direct contract. Even if points ability I wouldn't pay that for VGC or Poly. OKW ended up being a smart one to buy and basically flip. Extended OKW contracts that are on the small side are not common. I am glad I got it instead of somewhere else. Of course if I had gotten somewhere else I probably would not have wanted to sell so much...

Frustrating I know, but I think you are doing the right thing here. Poly is absurdly expensive direct, and a lot of contracts are popping up via resale for a host of reasons, so you'd get a substantial discount going resale (or more points for the same money). I think if you can really use the direct benefits it's perfectly fine to go direct, but only on certain resorts where the spread between direct and resale isn't as drastic (and also, in the case of Poly, where a trend of more and more contracts are appearing on resale).

Cash inventory - here's how it works. Disney/DVC, by law, holds back at least 2% of each resort's points. Disney is free to do what they want with those points. Usually, they rent them out for cash. Most likely, your guide would have tried to pull from Disney-owned DVC inventory if your dates were available, and would have used the points you purchased to book the reservation. That's the only way they can do the Welcome Home booking, anyway.

My guess is all of the Disney-owned DVC units were already rented out for your dates. I'm not seeing it on Grand Californian's page for some reason, but if you look up the resorts on WDW, any room you see listed as a "Villa" on a cash booking is a Disney-owned DVC unit. They don't always pull cash-side villas for your first booking even if it's available, but if you do a search on your dates on WDW and there isn't a villa type available for your resort, they definitely can't fill it.

This is my understanding of how that first booking works, anyway. Probably everything will have changed by the time you read this.

I bought last June. January was already booking at 7 months and I wanted a standard view one bedroom at BLT. They were able to grab the 2 unavailable nights to add to the other 4 nights I could book and was available. So as of last year you were correct.

 

[alryan]

Unless there’s a reason to hurry I’d just wait until 6/16 to get past the year mark on that CSP. You’re good to go then.

I lost @palhockeymomof2 quote, but thanks to you both. Two yes is all I need, next week it is!!

 

[mmmears]

The perfect scenario for number 2 would be.

Apply for no fee card
After one year upgrade offer to the $95 Ascend pops up
Apply for Ascend
After approval, take upgrade offer from no fee card to a second Ascend.
One year later upgrade offer pops up on one of the Ascend cards for the Aspire.
Apply for the Aspire.
After approval, take upgrade offer from Ascend card to the Aspire.
Cancel the other Ascend card.
After one year cancel or downgrade your second Aspire.
Unless you are me. In that case, keep both Aspire cards. Seriously though, there are a number of travel hackers with 2 Aspire cards or trying to upgrade their way to two like I am.

Wow. That's a fantastic strategy. I'm writing this one down for him. He's at 4/24 and I'm so cautious about letting him get that last card, but I can see us going forward later this year. It would help if I know we could actually use the points/nights on an upcoming trip. Thank you so much.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Checking in with the experts

Hubby & I have good credit but want 1 card that we start using for almost everything. Previously, that was our Disney card but I don’t feel like we are getting much back on that....

What is the best cash back card? Or do you refer rewards cards? We don’t really fly
Interested in transferring the debt from our other cards over and paying just 1 bill.

Not sure if I’m reading your post correctly...but are you looking to transfer balances from other cards to a new card ?
If so I would look for 0 interest rate card balance transfer card to get the balance paid off

 

[afan]

For those that don't venture away from this board or read twitter, since I've only seen it there anyway.

Character Spot at Epcot is now tier 2! Just switched my Crush fp to TT for aug so now I have living with the land, character spit and TT.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

1 card...that’s so sad. I can’t live in a world with 1 card

I sent my BFF a screen shot of my savings via cc/points and she couldn't understand all these cards I have. She asked if that was really better than a 2% cash back card. I said well, our family went on over $20k worth of free travel this year. Did you get that much back with your 2% card?

 

[Lain]

My afternoon (not in the shower) thoughts:

1 - Thank you all so much. Not only am I sitting on more points than I ever thought I could earn in less than a year, but now you've all helped my DD get a no FTF card and start to build a points bank of her own. I'm so grateful for all the advice, and I'm so thankful I found this thread.

I was really really happy to read about your DD's approval, but I just have this nagging feeling that I wasn't around to share that bit of advice about not applying under Educational Services > Colleges, Universities, and Prof Schools. I was worried because I was under the impression that DD is doing a post-grad fellowship and might've used that category to apply. No concerns on your end?

 

[Lain]

I sent my BFF a screen shot of my savings via cc/points and she couldn't understand all these cards I have. She asked if that was really better than a 2% cash back card. I said well, our family went on over $20k worth of free travel this year. Did you get that much back with your 2% card?

I see a new source of support points coming your way!

 

[alryan]

I was scared off by the $450 AF for the CSR when I started this last year, but now I would like to upgrade my CSP when my year is up on 6/15. Even DH agrees that I should upgrade! Crazy how far I've come in just a year. I just wanted to check in with the experts as to the timing before I do it. I recall reading something about upgrading but then not being charged the AF until you would have been charged the original card's AF?! I'm not sure. I am looking to book a cruise for October that is now at a price I can live with, so I'd rather do it sooner rather than later. The only other personal UR we have is DH's Freedom and since you have to call for the cruise I (and DH) would rather not do that...gotta keep my P2 happy! Thanks for any advice.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I was scared off by the $450 AF for the CSR when I started this last year, but now I would like to upgrade my CSP when my year is up on 6/15. Even DH agrees that I should upgrade! Crazy how far I've come in just a year. I just wanted to check in with the experts as to the timing before I do it. I recall reading something about upgrading but then not being charged the AF until you would have been charged the original card's AF?! I'm not sure. I am looking to book a cruise for October that is now at a price I can live with, so I'd rather do it sooner rather than later. The only other personal UR we have is DH's Freedom and since you have to call for the cruise I (and DH) would rather not do that...gotta keep my P2 happy! Thanks for any advice.

You could be another good guinea pig for this... If you applied on June 15th, then wait until after July 1st to do the PC. Then see what happens with the AF... It could work out somehow in your favor.

 

[DisneyMandC]

2 things...
1) I have a bonus tracker for the first time ever w/Chase!
2) They’re showing 3 months to hit the MSR. (not 115 days but also not 90 days - 3 exact calendar months from approval date).

View attachment 408665

Thanks for sharing this!! While I know that I shouldn’t rely on the usual Chase 115 days, I was going to apply for CIP2 like... tomorrow... with plans to finish it off while at Disney in late September. It's good to know that's not a great option now. Can't decide if I want to wait until 7/1 to apply or not... I'm afraid CIPpy cup will get away from me if I wait too long.

Aspire musings - it seems like many people get an upgrade offer to an Aspire, which I think gives you more points than applying for an Aspire in the first place. Does it make more sense to apply for a lower Hilton card with the hope of getting the offer? Or if we really want the Aspire should we just apply for it? (DH is the one who wants it, and I don't really know why since I'm the one who does all the trip planning. )

The perfect scenario for number 2 would be.

Apply for no fee card
After one year upgrade offer to the $95 Ascend pops up
Apply for Ascend
After approval, take upgrade offer from no fee card to a second Ascend.
One year later upgrade offer pops up on one of the Ascend cards for the Aspire.
Apply for the Aspire.
After approval, take upgrade offer from Ascend card to the Aspire.
Cancel the other Ascend card.
After one year cancel or downgrade your second Aspire.
Unless you are me. In that case, keep both Aspire cards. Seriously though, there are a number of travel hackers with 2 Aspire cards or trying to upgrade their way to two like I am.

Thanks for this info!! This is exactly what I was looking for earlier too. I'll plan on the no fee card next month (fingers crossed) once I get my CIP2.

 

[alryan]

You could be another good guinea pig for this... If you applied on June 15th, then wait until after July 1st to do the PC. Then see what happens with the AF... It could work out somehow in your favor.

I would happily be the guinea pig for this!! Waiting until after July 1 was kind of my thought as well, because that's when the AF for the CSP would hit, right? It's not going to kill me waiting two more weeks to book the cruise. And honestly, if I pay the $450 AF that is fine too. It will more than be worth it to save the URs.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

She is much younger than me and takes cash or Venmo. I never have cash so she was the one that introduced me to Venmo.

My younger coworker showed it to me because she didn’t have cash after I offered to pay for a group dinner with my CSR. Sure Venmo me, I’ll take the points.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I would happily be the guinea pig for this!! Waiting until after July 1 was kind of my thought as well, because that's when the AF for the CSP would hit, right? It's not going to kill me waiting two more weeks to book the cruise. And honestly, if I pay the $450 AF that is fine too. It will more than be worth it to save the URs.

Yeah - there's a somewhat interesting theory that once your "AF anniv. date" has passed (i.e. the 1st of the month after your actual anniv date) that perhaps Chase won't charge the AF until the next year. I can tell you that I upgraded a CF card to a CSP back earlier this year and was never charged the AF. I fully expect it to be charged on 12/1 which would have been the cards original "AF anniv date".