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

[speedyfishy]

I feel like I’m way behind lol. I don’t use serve or swagbucks. The main reason we don’t use serve is because we meet our MSRs with organic spend and don’t really need to MS. Is swagbucks similar?

No it’s this online site where you can earn “swagbucks” by watching videos, doing surveys, using the shopping portal, printing coupons etc. swagbucks can then be redeemed for giftcards or cash through PayPal. They had a promotion to buy swagbucks at face value recently so I was doing that and using a credit card to hit minimum spend.

Honestly though MSing is way more profitable for me. I spend awhile trying to qualify for surveys so I gave up. I wanted to make like $50 a month with Swagbucks and it’s impossible I can do that with MS by liquidating $1000 in VGCs lol

 

[havaneselover]

I feel like it is so much work to earn that much with SB. I will do the occasional offer but every time I try surveys it never works. I’d rather just sign up for 2-4 credits cards and earn 2400. I’d love to to learn easy tricks though lol.

It depends. I’ve consistently earned about $1500/year doing sb while I exercise before work.

 

[mmmears]

I feel like I’m way behind lol. I don’t use serve or swagbucks. The main reason we don’t use serve is because we meet our MSRs with organic spend and don’t really need to MS. Is swagbucks similar?

I feel like I'm way behind, too. I don't do either one.

 

[speedyfishy]

It depends. I’ve consistently earned about $1500/year doing sb while I exercise before work.

How? Doing surveys?

 

[wendow]

I feel like I'm way behind, too. I don't do either one.

I don't do Serve either. I'd like to but we have no FD or DG anywhere around us and I avoid WM at all costs. We have the grumpiest people at our WM. I'm terrified to try anything there!

I do SB's. I've been at it since Feb 2016. I've made $3,300. I don't make as much as @havaneselover but I put very little effort into it so I can't complain. My dh and teens have accounts too. My dh has made about $1,900 and my teens almost $1,000. I've slacked off most of this year since a lot of the profitable methods have dried up.

I don't do any surveys. I never qualify and if I actually do, it never seems to credit.

 

[havaneselover]

How? Doing surveys?

It has changed over the 4+ years but surveys (sometimes you get ones that you qualify for that pay out $50), apps, ncraves, videos, money making deals, etc.

 

[afan]

I feel like it is so much work to earn that much with SB. I will do the occasional offer but every time I try surveys it never works. I’d rather just sign up for 2-4 credits cards and earn 2400. I’d love to to learn easy tricks though lol.

Like the others have said, it all depends. And it all goes through cycles. I average $100 a month though this month is only $75 and normally the summer is the good time. It's definitely not as good as it was last year but that's a whole other thing that's been discussed in the SB thread.

For survey's it fluctuates as well. I think everyone has dry spells and then they hit a streak where they qualify for a ton. I've qualified for 2 today but got 200 from them so the others that disqualified me isn't as big of a deal. I'm currently in a slump in the other survey site I do and am not really qualifying for anything so I haven't been doing as much there but even when it's good it's only $10 a week and I can do better on sb.

I would be careful with only buying SB from them and then cashing out though, I'd at least do some stuff through the shopping portal. DoC tweeted yesterday he was banned from SB but hasn't elaborated but he may also not know the reason. Not sure if it's related but since SB wants you doing stuff not just buying SB I'd at least use the portal and maybe download and play the Swagbucks Live trivia at least once a week if you don't want to do any of the other stuff. And don't hoard your points because if they ban you they're gone, though you could do a chargeback at least on what was purchased.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I feel like I'm way behind, too. I don't do either one.

I signed up for swagbucks...but never qualify for the surveys...so gave up
Haven’t tried serve or my form of MS....I’m too chicken

 

[tink1970]

Has anyone used the admirals lounge at DCA, DFW, LAX? I am contemplating getting a personal citi AA. Not sure if I want platinum or the executive. I have until the middle of August before it’s time for the biz. If not then I’m going for the cippy #2.

Not those airports but the Admirals Club at PHL was the BEST part of our AA biz flight. The food was good, there was a lady making guacamole (I guac and made to order! No gross cilantro!!), and cans of diet coke. The chili was excellent and we happily stuffed ourselves silly. It was large, quiet and an excellent club. If I flew AA regularly and/or if DFW/MIA/PHL/CLT was my main airport I would seriously consider it. If it would just be for a flight or two, though, I likely wouldn't (and might just try to get in with paying the fee).

So I think the booking window will open soon for our flights to Europe next July for our cruise out of Barcelona.

I have 224,000 AA miles, 84,000 MR, 84,000 Delta, and 473,000 UR (soon to increase by 105,000 with CIP #2).

We need 3 seats and are fine with economy although business would be pretty cool.

Any suggestions on where I should start looking? I’ve done this only once before and booked Lufthansa via United.

Is it a RT to BCN? I'd say you're probably good with United since they usually have a lot of reasonably priced economy saver fares and sometimes biz savver fares. I'd consider doing 2 1 way legs so you can get the flights you want out and then wait and look again for the ones back. Delta is hard to find any good availability to Europe in the summer (I was looking from EDI->ATL, for instance and they wanted 130,000 skypesoes for 1 econ seat one way.... United releases fares a few days prior to Delta and American and they are up to June 30, July 1 (depending on the itinerary) now whereas Delta is still in June (26th I think?).

You can also play around with redeeming your URs on the CIP travel to get an idea of whether it's smarter to transfer to miles or use their travel portal.

Excited for you and your cruise!

 

[spacerangerqueen]

Wow! How silly. I saw that one night late when there was website maintenance. It is funny because I was browsing the Priceline app for WDW hotels earlier today and it won't search for me. Uninstalled and downloaded again. Nothing. Dead app

Does anyone have an app that works? haha. Going back to what you said about it showing old information, when I first pulled it up today it had some flight info and I saw it said "Now Boarding" I was very confused as I don't have a flight today! I looked closer and the date was March 31. The last time I used the app was for my boarding pass then and the flight info was still there.

 

[Mopedmom1]

My Churning Failure Day....

Fail #1:

DH and I each drive to Safeway to use up our expiring gas points. (First day out after spending a week laid out flat on the floor with my angry back, so still a good bit of discomfort for me.) Kid at the pump says, "I'm sorry, I can only fill one car up. Company policy." We had been successful the end of June. Since my car still had half a tank I had thrown in two empty gas cans instead of one. He COULD fill those for us. Yay.

Backstory:

There seems to be eight DG's in my state. I live fairly rural so imagine my delight when the podunk town that is eight miles from my house actually is one of them! After Fail #1, I drive the backroads to said podunk town to try loading my Serve card with an actual debit card as a test run, at which point I come up against....

Fail #2:

"Uh, what's that? Is it like a Green Dot card, ma'am? We don't do nuthin like that. Too much weird stuff goin' on with those things."

Next closest DG to me, 98 miles....the liquor store, however, had no problem selling me a bottle of vodka. It's 5:00 somewhere, right? Although, after driving around for an hour with two full gas cans in the back of my little SUV, I am probably high enough. Oh, and my gas tank is now almost empty.

 

[PolyRob]

I don't do Serve either. I'd like to but we have no FD or DG anywhere around us and I avoid WM at all costs. We have the grumpiest people at our WM. I'm terrified to try anything there!

I do SB's. I've been at it since Feb 2016. I've made $3,300. I don't make as much as @havaneselover but I put very little effort into it so I can't complain. My dh and teens have accounts too. My dh has made about $1,900 and my teens almost $1,000. I've slacked off most of this year since a lot of the profitable methods have dried up.

I don't do any surveys. I never qualify and if I actually do, it never seems to credit.

I am in the same boat. I am not against MS at all! I just don't have any FD or DG and even my nearest Walmart is 20/25 minutes away. I need to find some alternatives to make free money besides SUBs.

 

[PolyRob]

Does anyone have an app that works? haha. Going back to what you said about it showing old information, when I first pulled it up today it had some flight info and I saw it said "Now Boarding" I was very confused as I don't have a flight today! I looked closer and the date was March 31. The last time I used the app was for my boarding pass then and the flight info was still there.

Seriously. That is crazy. Get it together JetBlue!

 

[afan]

I am in the same boat. I am not against MS at all! I just don't have any FD or DG and even my nearest Walmart is 20/25 minutes away. I need to find some alternatives to make free money besides SUBs.

I don't have FD or DG either and like @wendow I avoid walmart like the plague. If I felt like doing serve there stuck it to WM enough then I'd be ok with it but it doesn't and while it'd be great at this point my sanity is more important.

 

[bernina]

Serve peeps, if I have a BlueBird in my name can I still get Serve? I tried a few months back and it said I wasn’t able to get one (I’ve never had one nor been banned to my knowledge). I was shut down from BlueBird many years ago but was able to get 2 new ones that are working great so far.

 

[spacerangerqueen]

I was going to refer DH to the Hilton biz from my Hilton Biz. However my AF just posted and I am planning to cancel. Will I get the referral points if I cancel? Or should I refer him from my Platinum instead?

 

[bernina]

Is it a RT to BCN? I'd say you're probably good with United since they usually have a lot of reasonably priced economy saver fares and sometimes biz savver fares. I'd consider doing 2 1 way legs so you can get the flights you want out and then wait and look again for the ones back. Delta is hard to find any good availability to Europe in the summer (I was looking from EDI->ATL, for instance and they wanted 130,000 skypesoes for 1 econ seat one way.... United releases fares a few days prior to Delta and American and they are up to June 30, July 1 (depending on the itinerary) now whereas Delta is still in June (26th I think?).

You can also play around with redeeming your URs on the CIP travel to get an idea of whether it's smarter to transfer to miles or use their travel portal.

Excited for you and your cruise!

Thank you for the reply and great info!!

I’m not positive if we’ll hit another city in Europe. Almost certain we’ll fly into BCN A few days before the cruise so I love your suggestion to book 2 one ways. This gives us a bit of time to decide our plans for post cruise (we have friends in central England we may try to meet up with).

The cruise departs July 5 so it’s getting super close to when United will allow booking for July 2-3 range which is probably what we’d do.

I was wondering if any carriers had loopholes with stop overs and open jaws still, will need to search around a bit.

 

[Albort]

Serve peeps, if I have a BlueBird in my name can I still get Serve? I tried a few months back and it said I wasn’t able to get one (I’ve never had one nor been banned to my knowledge). I was shut down from BlueBird many years ago but was able to get 2 new ones that are working great so far.

yes. BlueBird works the same way as Serve, the only exception is that BlueBird only works at WM.
I recall back in the days though, u can only have either a Redbird or a Bluebird. im not sure if this rings true still.

 

[platamama]

So I think the booking window will open soon for our flights to Europe next July for our cruise out of Barcelona.

I have 224,000 AA miles, 84,000 MR, 84,000 Delta, and 473,000 UR (soon to increase by 105,000 with CIP #2).

We need 3 seats and are fine with economy although business would be pretty cool.

Any suggestions on where I should start looking? I’ve done this only once before and booked Lufthansa via United.

It looks like your AA and UR stash are the biggest ones, and and the remaining MRs and Delta are probably not sufficient to get you to BCN.

I poked around a little on AA's website, which is what I've used over the years to get to Europe, but I've always needed a positioning flight to get to an AA hub like ORD, PHL, JFK, etc. I'm seeing Econ tickets 30K each direction per person plus less than $52 in fees for a roundtrip from a hub. Can you do a positioning flight or drive to get from your home airport to one of the hubs? And if you can find a nonstop flight from a hub to BCN, you could also consider using BA Avios (you can transfer MRs and URs for BA Avios 1:1) for the AA flight if the airmile distance would work out to cost less in BA Avios than AA miles. I believe it needs to be a SAAver fare in order to use Avios though, not the AAnytime fares.

 

[ten6mom]

I can't remember. Am I the "owner" of my sole-proprietorship business? For my CIP app?

And then MY total gross annual income is my personal income, right?