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

[mmmears]

No one really knows for sure, it's all speculation, but there are two prevailing ideas:

1) Poly is all studios + a few bungalows. There are no 1/2/3 bedrooms. Studios are popular because points-wise, they are the cheapest. However, lots of people buy DVC without ever staying in a villa and understanding how large (or small) each room type is. So maybe you're a family of 4, and the studio sleeps 5, so that's great! But then you find out you'd really rather have more room. Or maybe you become a family of 5 or 6 in the future and now suddenly a studio won't work. We're now far enough away from direct sales of Poly ending that people have had time to try the resort once or twice and form an opinion on the studios. There's nothing at Poly to move up into, except a bungalow... which is very expensive, and brings me to the next idea.

2) The bungalows are points hogs. These are rough figures from what I remember reading in the past, but approximately 25% of Poly's points are tied up in ultra-expensive bungalows, and less than 10% of Poly owners have enough points to book bungalows on a regular basis. This means that 90% of Poly's owners are gunning for 75% of the resorts units. It's not always immediately apparent that this causes problems - it's still possible to get a Poly studio at 10, 9, 8, and sometimes even 7 months, simply because there are so many - but sometimes, capacity is an issue. This is exacerbated in Copper Creek, where you have a nice selection of room types, plus the cabins acting as points hogs. There are major, major availability problems with studios at Copper Creek. Most people are trying to book studios, which make up less than 40% of the resort's units. This type of thing is happening to a lesser extent at Poly.

Thanks for explaining. It makes sense to me. If I owned I'd likely go for a studio as well.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve had a wonderful experience for many years with Barclays personal cards (Arrival +, former Sallie Mae MC and my everyday when not working on MSR grandfathered 2% Priceline). This Aviator card is enough to make me run for the hills.

DH has the full history log but after 10+ phone calls, 3 email addresses (2 that were wrong and bounced back) and 3 different fax numbers (only 1 of which was actually received) he finally got connected to the fraud or verification department that does the review.

They said his personal taxes were not good enough but the CSR admitted she was a sole prop at one point and agreed what they were asking for did not always apply. So she is attempting to escalate.

To top it off the $95 annual fee is due in a few days and I know if we don’t pay it will incur fees and be a nightmare to deal with.

We’re beyond exhausted and frustrated with this one.

So I feel fortunate that we got the cards and got our bonus.

My new concern now is what if there is fraud on my sock drawered cards. If the website is any indication I can’t imagine they’ll handle that well LOL!

 

[wanderlust7]

That’s what hate about Amex there is no clear cut formula as to what makes them happy. I’d there was I’d gladly follow it!
My original thought was
1. Get a biz plat now
2. Upgrade my BGR to another biz plat. I’d do this to make Amex happy instead of canceling but with the SUB and airline credits I’d come out a bit ahead
3. Cancel biz green when AF is due sometime is September.
4. Hit up Amex for Aspire in August, Schwab plat in September - the August card won’t post until October, right?

Currently I don’t think I’m going to for the biz plat now though. The offer is 50k for fist 10k (no biggie)☺, but another 10K on top of that to get another 25k. I think I’m better off waiting for a better biz plat offer and go for later with the hope the upgrade over doesn’t disappear

Do you want to go for the biz plat 100k for 10k spend call-in offer? PM @Lain or @Albort for the info.

 

[kmc8826]

On the name change issue I changed my name but put my maiden name as middle name. Both our names were too long to do the hyphen thing. I had gone through school and three years of my career under my maiden name before we were married and I changed it. I did not want things complicated for kids, and although he said he did not care I could tell DH did care. While it was maybe a transition at first I am actually really glad I changed it now. Funny part is you can tell people in my profession that I have known for a long time as despite 15 years of being married they sometime forget and call me in court by my maiden name. Of course everyone else is confused. Now I am absolutely glad I changed it. Sad but true; I like my inlaws a lot more than my parents these days.

Ok, last DVC question. SO and I would like to do our trips in September and December mostly December. The best use year would be summerish? March?

For you I would agree September. I have October because realistically I wanted option to go in May (October UY booking deadline end of May) but did not see us going September.

No one really knows for sure, it's all speculation, but there are two prevailing ideas:

1) Poly is all studios + a few bungalows. There are no 1/2/3 bedrooms. Studios are popular because points-wise, they are the cheapest. However, lots of people buy DVC without ever staying in a villa and understanding how large (or small) each room type is. So maybe you're a family of 4, and the studio sleeps 5, so that's great! But then you find out you'd really rather have more room. Or maybe you become a family of 5 or 6 in the future and now suddenly a studio won't work. We're now far enough away from direct sales of Poly ending that people have had time to try the resort once or twice and form an opinion on the studios. There's nothing at Poly to move up into, except a bungalow... which is very expensive, and brings me to the next idea.

2) The bungalows are points hogs. These are rough figures from what I remember reading in the past, but approximately 25% of Poly's points are tied up in ultra-expensive bungalows, and less than 10% of Poly owners have enough points to book bungalows on a regular basis. This means that 90% of Poly's owners are gunning for 75% of the resorts units. It's not always immediately apparent that this causes problems - it's still possible to get a Poly studio at 10, 9, 8, and sometimes even 7 months, simply because there are so many - but sometimes, capacity is an issue. This is exacerbated in Copper Creek, where you have a nice selection of room types, plus the cabins acting as points hogs. There are major, major availability problems with studios at Copper Creek. Most people are trying to book studios, which make up less than 40% of the resort's units. This type of thing is happening to a lesser extent at Poly.

The above is exactly right. I liked the expiration at Poly and the dues but I did not like the only studios option. Even the studios themselves now before a massive reallocation take a lot of points compared to other options. When you get down to doing the math and seeing how many points you have and where you could stay for me Poly is not a great option...one bedrooms are often not a lot more points. Because there are so many studios it is easier to get one there too and the home resort advantage is not as crucial.

Another factor right now with Polynesian is it is going through ROFR fairly easily. Disney is letting stuff pass and not buying them up.

 

[1st*toright]

I totally abandoned my maiden name It was fine, nothing complicated, but myself and my dad were the only people in our nuclear family to have that last name. I liked my middle name and wanted to keep that, so I just took DH's last name. I definitely think it's an each to their own scenario, and I fully understand and respect the many reasons women wouldn't give up their name. Honestly, it was an adjustment period for me when I changed mine and at first I wasn't totally on board with it. But I have to admit that I really like only having to sign our Christmas cards from "The Xs" haha. Plus our last name is kind of "catchy," for lack of a better word. I mainly get called by my last name at work.

DH likes to jokingly say that I had to take his last name so he can see it on the side of a law firm one day Jokes on him, I'll be a government employee for life haha.



What?! So weird...

I had been married for about 5 years and I was on a business trip in the city where my brother was living. He was trying to call me at the hotel (you can tell this was a looooooong time ago because he was actually trying to call me on a hotel room land-line) and the operator kept insisting that I wasn't staying there, and he was getting super annoyed because he had dropped me off there an hour before... then he realized he was asking for me by my maiden name He apologized to the poor operator! Old habits die hard.

 

[miztressuz]

This made me look at mine since I started churning...

08/18 - Amex Platinum 100K
09/18 - CIP #1 80K
11/18 - Hilton Aspire 150K
12/18 - Hilton Biz 125K
12/18 - CSR 50K
02/19 - United Biz 75K
02/19 - Bananaboy Biz 100K
03/19 - Delta Biz 70K
04/19 - Citi AA Biz #1 70K
06/19 - CIP #2 80K + 20K self-referral
06/19 - Barclays Arrival+ 70K

So I'm 4/24 with 11 cards open in 10 months. (Incidentally, my credit score went over 800!) No interest in hitting 5/24 unless it's for something amazing, so I'm staying on the biz train. Notice my AA Biz says "#1"

I like the Bananaboy Biz, that'll stick with me for a while. I had to think about it for a few seconds since you're out of the country and I thought maybe you went for a local card. Was wondering what company decided on that name... (although Marriott probably should have hired them instead)

 

[miztressuz]

Ugh. Southwest is changing my flights. Do they not understand how much I agnozied over all of this?! I had a 9:30a back to Austin and they put us (I'm assuming all 6 of us, I need to check) on a 7:30a flight. That's just too early for me. Six people to pack out of a 2 night stay, having done Grand Canyon the day before. I just can't.

Then it looks like my OAK to PHX flight has new time adding 40 minutes to my layover there. Which I suppose is fine. Doesn't impact too much other than putting us to PHX a little later.

"In the event this new itinerary does not work for you, we are offering the one time opportunity to change your flight date(s) and/or time(s) by up to 14 days from original travel date at no additional cost in accordance with our established reaccommodation practices."

Does this mean I can choose any other flight, regardless of price vs what I originally booked? The 10:20 flight only has 2 seats left so it's either leave early or get home late. I guess 8:55a out isn't too bad, 1.5hr plane swap in ABQ though.

Correct. I assume they are doing it like they did when the Max8 stuff first came out and you could literally change it to any flight and not have to make up the difference. I changed from the cheapest late night flight to a middle cost afternoon flight when it happened to us. When you go in to change the reservation you should see that it doesn't change the price if you're within that 14 day window.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I'll say it. It's because he's the man. It happens to me more often than I want to think about & it drives me crazy.

Ditto from me. It happens to me all the time. I'm usually pretty laissez-faire about old school things like this, but this one really grates on me. I recently had a very pointed discussion with Marriott Grand Residences In London over the purchase of our new timeshare. I am an attorney and this purchase was done completely by me--DH hadn't even seen the property. He literally had nothing to do with it; all he did was sign on the dotted line (the money even came out of a separate property account). When the purchase was completed, guess who's name was listed as "the member" with MY email! I was furious, and the person who I spoke to (in very upper-crust English) admitted it was a completely antiquated system and apologized profusely. I asked that he take the matter up the chain in the hopes that "the system" would change. This happens to me time and time again, and I've started calling people on it. Throwing in words like misogynistic and discriminatory helps get attention

On less irritating subjects, LOL, I have some churning updates.

Due to the new London timeshare and DD19 in her second year at an English "Uni" we have been going back and forth to the UK a ton. I think this year I have 6 RTs! Booking all those flights in business class has been tough, but I've managed. Of course, my last trip was in first and now I'm as bad as plane princess! I just made our March reservations to London and managed to score British Air First from LAX to LHR for about 65,000 URs and $825 each. OMG so excited! Thank you Chase 30% bonus.

CHASE:
We actually have so many UK flights next year that I"m going to go ahead and transfer all our URs by the end of the Chase promotion this weekend. Usually I wouldn't transfer miles without a specific trip planned but I know we'll be using the avios and I'd be pissed if I didn't take advantage of the bonus. Most people don't like British Air for award tickets, but like @calypso, I don't mind paying some cash and miles for first or business. I think of it like buying a one-way First Class ticket for $800 and upgrading with miles (or vice-versa). With United going to dynamic pricing for award tickets (and their crappy availability from SFO to LHR without a stop), they've become largely irrelevant. I'd put them last in terms of product, too (and I've tried 7 or 8 business/first classes to LHR). The other reason I love BA is that you can pool household avios so I don't have to worry about who's account has what. Love it. The other big thing is that by buying award tickets, I have cheap insurance on the need to change my trip. I can cancel/change for a small fee and have my miles redeposited. With cash fares you are screwed if you need to change things around. Award tickets give me flexibility, which comes in handy when I'm booking almost a year out.

AMEX:
My 6 figure MR balance from the payment of my taxes on my platinum (1.5X) credited this week, so it took about 2 months. I'm thrilled though because that means I can have miles in place for our summer 2020 trip to England for DDs graduation with the Virgin transfer 30% bonus. I have to be a little more careful with these to preserve flexibility, but I'll do at least some. VS has a great business product, but how they release is a little more opaque to me. I love that you can put award tickets on hold though.

When Amex platinum announced the Dell credit, I wasn't too excited, but I've ended up loving it. We downsized and I was in the market for lighting--they sell Philips Hue lights and with various Amex promos (and a shopping portal!) I was able to get $196 worth of lighting for $77, almost 400 MRs, and almost 800 avios! We also will be in the market for a new laptop for DH this summer so that second $100 credit will be much appreciated.

FAILS:
I bought furniture at pottery barn and forgot to go throng a portal! UGH. 6000 lost Avios. I also never seem to remember to use my Amex Bus Plat dining credit. I've only used it once in the past four months

PLANS:
We are finally going to jump on the multiple CIP bandwagon once we clear out some of our UR balances with the transfer bonuses. I did the multiple business cards with my CI+ years ago (only keep one of them... bummer), but it makes me nervous for some reason. I think I've had 5 or 6 chase business cards over the years and I only have two now. DH has 3. I worry they'll look at history and flags will go up.

 

[Lain]

Congratulations!

And relatedly, you just missed the heat wave! Cool lower to mid 60s temps and just partly cloudy skies into the weekend. Have a great time!

 

[tink89]

Ignore the eye rolls and do what makes you happy. I haven't had any issues with DD's last name not being the same as mine in terms of medical, signing her up for school or activities, etc. People said I would.

I kept my last name when i got married. DH could care less. I got married young and did think about changing it but never got around to it and then just decided to keep it. Both our last names are long so hyphenating was for sure not an option. DD has DH last name. Given that we are(were) young and have different last names people do make assumptions and think we are not married. I have heard the " oh its a millennial thing" and "why would you not want the same last name as your kids?" and " doesn't your husband have an issue with you not taking his last name?" and " you will probably have issues down the road". I just ignore it because who actually cares that much about what last name others choose to go with. I agree ignore the eye rolls and do you.

 

[PolyRob]

On the name change issue I changed my name but put my maiden name as middle name. Both our names were too long to do the hyphen thing. I had gone through school and three years of my career under my maiden name before we were married and I changed it. I did not want things complicated for kids, and although he said he did not care I could tell DH did care. While it was maybe a transition at first I am actually really glad I changed it now. Funny part is you can tell people in my profession that I have known for a long time as despite 15 years of being married they sometime forget and call me in court by my maiden name. Of course everyone else is confused. Now I am absolutely glad I changed it. Sad but true; I like my inlaws a lot more than my parents these days.




For you I would agree September. I have October because realistically I wanted option to go in May (October UY booking deadline end of May) but did not see us going September.



The above is exactly right. I liked the expiration at Poly and the dues but I did not like the only studios option. Even the studios themselves now before a massive reallocation take a lot of points compared to other options. When you get down to doing the math and seeing how many points you have and where you could stay for me Poly is not a great option...one bedrooms are often not a lot more points. Because there are so many studios it is easier to get one there too and the home resort advantage is not as crucial.

Another factor right now with Polynesian is it is going through ROFR fairly easily. Disney is letting stuff pass and not buying them up.

The DVC FOMO is real and I am actually staying in a Poly studio in two weeks (on cash with AP discount). I am afraid I am going to really like it and be tempted.

 

[snugglebug]

Correct. I assume they are doing it like they did when the Max8 stuff first came out and you could literally change it to any flight and not have to make up the difference. I changed from the cheapest late night flight to a middle cost afternoon flight when it happened to us. When you go in to change the reservation you should see that it doesn't change the price if you're within that 14 day window.

Tks.
And I just realized I can do the 10:20a flight. I was searching one ticket, but at 4 tickets the price just went up a little and the companions won't matter.

 

[miztressuz]

I had been married for about 5 years and I was on a business trip in the city where my brother was living. He was trying to call me at the hotel (you can tell this was a looooooong time ago because he was actually trying to call me on a hotel room land-line) and the operator kept insisting that I wasn't staying there, and he was getting super annoyed because he had dropped me off there an hour before... then he realized he was asking for me by my maiden name He apologized to the poor operator! Old habits die hard.

BIL still wrote out a check to me in my previous name a couple years after. He was actually the first to know just through coincidence and had given me one in "his" name before but like you said, force of habit.

It'd be easier all around if hubby would remember to actually cash checks. After a couple years of him sitting on stuff they just starting making out everything to me. This is when Venmo / PayPal / Zelle anything would be helpful but none of them got on the electronic bandwagon before. Hubby would send electronic checks and they wouldn't click the email to have the money deposited. Although now that most of the kids are older and I'm sure they've had to do something for clubs and trips, maybe we'll try again.

 

[needsomesun]

Which personal Hilton card does everyone have that they've mentioned they receive good email upgrade offers to another card for? It's not the basic, no AF card right?

All the Hilton and Marriott card names are so confusing and change so much I can't keep them straight

I had the no fee hilton for 2 years, then got an upgrade offer for the Ascend. (I may have had it before that, but it wasn't on my radar to do, so didn't pay attention.) Then right after I hit the MSR for the Ascend and received 150K points, I had an offer to upgrade that to the Aspire. 300K in hilton points within a few months. Going to try the same with DH eventually...

 

[Alexle2007]

i just realized my streaming service already codes 5x on the Ink Plus(or CIC). so Freedom card is quite useless to me Q3. :\

Ah, good point. We already have Netflix billed to the CIC.

 

[Lain]

Gemini should be Dole Whip + boozy drink lol

Tangaroa Terrace at the Disneyland Hotel now has a walk-up window where you can order Dole Whip Float with Rum.

 

[happ]

I actually want to just call and cancel these cards now. That website is so terrible, And there is no lack of comments like yours about how ridiculously awful the whole card program is. I remember they were rude to me when I tried to activate the card too. Normally I'd keep something open a year but this one has me wanting to just cancel now and move on.

Their website really is awful. I just spent the longest time trying to find my message from two days ago that they supposedly responded to. You would think it would be under the little envelope icon or the place where it says messages, but no. No messages there. I finally found it under service requests and the response was that I needed to call them! I just wanted to confirm my bonus offer because I received a "welcome to aviator..." email that referenced the 60k offer instead of the 75k. The phone rep verified the 75k offer, so hopefully I'm all set. The jetbluebusiness site is the same set up as aviator. They both need some serious improvements.

 

[striker1064]

The above is exactly right. I liked the expiration at Poly and the dues but I did not like the only studios option. Even the studios themselves now before a massive reallocation take a lot of points compared to other options. When you get down to doing the math and seeing how many points you have and where you could stay for me Poly is not a great option...one bedrooms are often not a lot more points. Because there are so many studios it is easier to get one there too and the home resort advantage is not as crucial.

Another factor right now with Polynesian is it is going through ROFR fairly easily. Disney is letting stuff pass and not buying them up.

The dues are crazy reasonable for Poly considering it's a Magic Kingdom monorail resort. I suspect this lures a lot of prospective buyers as well. It's really kind of surprising. And yeah, the points reallocation is coming, and the studios are already kind of high compared to studios at other resorts. If DVC really wants to adjust the points charts for Poly based on demand, a reallocation has the potential to be a bloodbath. But I don't think they will because they get to rent out unused bungalows for extra cash.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I actually want to just call and cancel these cards now. That website is so terrible, And there is no lack of comments like yours about how ridiculously awful the whole card program is. I remember they were rude to me when I tried to activate the card too. Normally I'd keep something open a year but this one has me wanting to just cancel now and move on.

I get to cancel mine next month and I'm so excited. I feel like I've read several reports of people having better luck canceling a Barclays card and then getting another Barclays card after that, so I'd really like to get the Jetblue Biz when there's a good offer. We'll see.

Boo. I never eat those lollipops. I used to call them unicorn pops but at Disney I feel like they're called something else.

What is Sagittarius? Is there such a thing as a Disney pickle?

My DH is the pickle

I could probably change my name to Gift Card Recipient right now too and not care so could be a good time to take advantage

Let me tell you what... I used to do name changes in my old job (both divorce-related and not) and there are some wild names out there. One guy changed his name to Megatron. No joke. Gift Card Recipient would be on the low end of weird stuff I saw lol.

 

[Mopedmom1]

Awesome! What did you do for your DD? I think we are hyphenating. With mine first lol

I am still five pages behind so I'm not sure if anyone has addressed this yet. I was married 25+ years ago and kept my name and added dh's last name with a hyphen. It is rather a PITA, especially as the computer data world has increased, and even more so after 9/11. Many websites don't recognize the hyphen, my drivers license and passport have a hyphen, as that is my legal last name, but when I book flights my boarding pass doesn't, as their computer system doesn't recognize or allow the symbol. They are not the only ones either. If I could go back and do it all over again I would, just keeping my own last name only. Now, it's been too long and I don't want the hassle of having to change everything again.

Edited to add: I won't even get into the sexism I have endured. You would think by now that would be gone!