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

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

So when I get home I get to call Chase Travel, because I was trying to book a flight late on the app last night and I BOOKED THE WRONG DAY What was I doing????

Good luck. Atleast you're within 24 hours. We lost the points on 2 flights because 3 days after we booked, my son's team changed where the hockey tournament was from Nashville to Pitts. UGH

 

[smmco]

My parents sent me to Japan unaccompanied when I was 5. FIVE!!!! Granted I had extended family meeting me on the other end but... I don't think I would have done that!

I think of the stuff I did as a young kid compared to what my kids have done..... wow it's just such a different world now.

 

[gottalovepluto]

My parents sent me to Japan unaccompanied when I was 5. FIVE!!!! Granted I had extended family meeting me on the other end but... I don't think I would have done that!

Wow. Can’t imagine!

I have a friend who accidentally put themselves on the US terrorist watch list at like age 11 or 12 (she filled out some piece of entry paperwork coming back from Europe unaccompanied and checked a box that basically said “I’m a terrorist”. It was right after 9/11 so that didn’t help.). Took YEARS of lawyers and working with her congressman to get that fixed.

 

[Haley R]

Hey I know that weekend! I’m gonna be there too! (FYI Sat is Dapper Day at DHS if you weren’t aware. Sun is at EP. I have no idea how that does/doesn’t affect crowds. We kinda set our Sat at DHS in stone before we realized it was Dapper Days so lol, guess we’ll find out!) If you’re interested in a quick meetup lemme know! (Totally ok if you’re not )

Where are you staying at? I'm just not finding a lot for good deals on resorts for almost any weekend around Halloween. If we do decide to go we could try meeting up! I had no idea Dapper Days was that weekend. We won't be dressing up for it lol

 

[StephPlum]

Ooohhh idk I haven’t seen sunrise here. I would just look in the packaging

Mine is a Sunrise one and it says "no value until purchased and activated at checkstand" so I would assume it's activated once you buy it. It also says the PIN is the last 4 digits of the card number

Yeah, my Sunrise say PIN is last 4. Metabank says register and set PIN. I think I'll start with the Sunrise. After those, I'll try Metabank using last 4 as pin and see what happens.

 

[Lain]

Interesting that my refunded FN certs were reset with new expiration dates one year out.

I'd say if you won't be able to use your FN certs before they expire, and you don't want to talk to a human to ask for an extension, use them on a refundable reservation, then cancel to extend the expiration date yourself. But since my FN certs didn't automatically redeposit to my account when I canceled, and I had to call a rep anyway, it might just be more trouble than it's worth.

 

[PolyRob]

SO was kinda upset I used that many points for club level. He was like Coronado springs is nice and that was 55,000 points and did we really need club level. Well, you know what he should answer his phone at work when I call to confirm the plans before I book. Plus, he acts like he is the one earning the miles? I earn them so I pick what we do lol

I remember when you were selecting. You have plans for MNSSHP, right? He won't be regretting that choice when you walk back in less than 10 minutes than wait for a bus, make the trek, and multiple stops within CSR at 1am I look at CL as a way to save $$$ on food and would have used it on a short trip to pretty much cover all meals but maybe 1 QS per person per day? I know you mentioned DH doesn't like the buffets, but he can still benefit from the sealed beverages! Enjoy the points while you can.

Trying to convince my parents to let my 16 year old sister to fly alone and meet SO and I at MCO. (16 is fine to fly alone, right?) I want to go to food and wine to get the AP magnets for a weekend lol This is my sister that I took to Disney last year and she complained about her feet hurting. Why do I torture myself? JK we had fun and she wants to go back so it couldn’t have been that bad. (She really probably just likes to get away from my parents lol)

Never personally did it myself, but I have definitely had unaccompanied minors younger than that on flights. If she is comfortable making the trip I say go for it. The flight attendants always seems very accommodating. You are a very nice sister (plus more CL savings)

 

[elgerber]

My parents divorced when I was 3, so I flew alone frequently. Starting around 7 I think.

 

[PolyRob]

Hawaii 2020 plans are under way and coming along. I wound up scrapping the Alaska companion ticket plan as it wound up costing more money, time and stress than I was willing to undertake for 6 people in order to make it work. On to Plan B.

PlanePrincess and I are well accustomed to long flights but the rest of my family, not so much. Therefore, I am breaking up the flights from the east coast to Hawaii with a stopover at LAX for one night on the way to HNL and then a few days at DLR on the way back. It also allows for easily finding flights with lie flat seats without convoluted positioning.

I found award flights in lie flat seats over and back on each segment between AA 62,500 miles pp and UA (Polaris) at 66,000 miles pp which makes PlanePrincess and my mom very happy. I also secured two rooms at the Embassy Suites near LAX with HH points for the overnight stay. Now, I'm just waiting on return flights from LAX - MIA to be released.

Very nice! Are you using actual United miles for the Polaris seats? Or transferring one to another? I am looking at flying 1st class from East to West coast next spring on United and trying to figure out which points will work the best. I will have a ton of URs and am starting a MR stash.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Where are you staying at? I'm just not finding a lot for good deals on resorts for almost any weekend around Halloween. If we do decide to go we could try meeting up! I had no idea Dapper Days was that weekend. We won't be dressing up for it lol

Yeah I won’t be dressing up either! We’re at BC switching to WL on Sat. CL both stays on AP discount. Worth it to us with 4 people. Dapper Days has standard rooms at a few different hotels fwiw at group rates. If you check their website you’ll find the number to call about availability. Anyone can book. As far as deluxe goes I know they had BC and Poly, don’t recall the mods/values they had.

 

[PolyRob]

That seems like a big difference, but I love both of those resorts lol. Yacht Club has the slight edge since you can walk to Epcot and it has SAB, but I absolutely love POFQ. We never try to stay at the same resort twice, though. YC was an option for our trip in Nov, but I want to try something new so that's why I was thinking BW. It is pretty expensive, though. These are our choices:

• ASMovies-$414
• OKW-$1022
• AoA (Cars Suite)-$1160
• BW-$1558

AoA is cute, but that is way overpriced IMO. I got "upgraded" to a LK suite one time and the theming is fun, but the suite is not necessary for 2 people and I think you would have a MUCH better time at BW for the price difference. Have you tried looking for a "magical" rate for this time period? I have some decent rates for fall/winter that the AP discount hasn't beat.

 

[Haley R]

Yeah I won’t be dressing up either! We’re at BC switching to WL on Sat. CL both stays on AP discount. Worth it to us with 4 people. Dapper Days has standard rooms at a few different hotels fwiw at group rates. If you check their website you’ll find the number to call about availability. Anyone can book. As far as deluxe goes I know they had BC and Poly, don’t recall the mods/values they had.

But I would have to call them..... I don't do phone calls lol

 

[calypso726]

I live on the West Coast and I've done that three times flying back from Europe. We flew business to New York and then spent the night. It's is easier on the kids. I have a PlanePrince that hates flying. I'm so glad we're doing a transatlantic cruise this time. The flight going to Europe never seems that bad. At least as far as jet lag goes. Coming home is a different story.

My PlanePrincess enjoys flying as long as it is in business or first and preferably in a lie flat seat We've done the trip to Hawaii from the east coast a couple of times with no stop overs. It has always been fine on the way over for us. Coming back is definitely brutal.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

For those who book AA Reduced Mileage Saver awards... TLDR; if the rep says no discount because only destination cities, not origin cities, count as being on the list HUCA.

I book these once in a while so I don't have much experience and therefore didn't realize this can be a common HUCA situation if only your origin city is on the list. I know from the travel blogs you can do it with your origin or destination in the qualifying month. I got a rep today who insisted my destination was the only city that qualified for the discount and even consulted with an award booking desk or something to confirm it. (I didn't push him, just stated what I wanted and he put me on hold for like 20 mins and when he came back I got the "destination ONLY" spiel). After a quick q on FT confirming origin or destination would work even on one-ways, I called again. New Rep booked my flight no issues, whole call only took 7 mins.

Yeah, I booked the reduced mileage flights all the time. I've booked them when the NC airports have been on the list, and I've booked them when Detroit was on the list. And if you go to change flights and it's a new "quarter" I was told that I couldn't as the codes weren't the same. So I did the HUCA and got someone who was like of course you can change, LOL. You have to keep the same to/from and the airport has to still be discounted, but you can change.

 

[Haley R]

AoA is cute, but that is way overpriced IMO. I got "upgraded" to a LK suite one time and the theming is fun, but the suite is not necessary for 2 people and I think you would have a MUCH better time at BW for the price difference. Have you tried looking for a "magical" rate for this time period? I have some decent rates for fall/winter that the AP discount hasn't beat.

I actually just looked and they conveniently don't have anything from Nov 13-17

 

[gottalovepluto]

But I would have to call them..... I don't do phone calls lol

Isn’t that what an SO is for?

 

[calypso726]

Very nice! Are you using actual United miles for the Polaris seats? Or transferring one to another? I am looking at flying 1st class from East to West coast next spring on United and trying to figure out which points will work the best. I will have a ton of URs and am starting a MR stash.

Both. Using actual United miles earned mostly from purchases via MPX and then topped off by transferring a few thousand URs to UA.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Yeah, I booked the reduced mileage flights all the time. I've booked them when the NC airports have been on the list, and I've booked them when Detroit was on the list. And if you go to change flights and it's a new "quarter" I was told that I couldn't as the codes weren't the same. So I did the HUCA and got someone who was like of course you can change, LOL. You have to keep the same to/from and the airport has to still be discounted, but you can change.

Sheesh!! Good to know!

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

So my serve card is here, planning to do my first load of the VGCs . I'll stop by Walmart after work tomorrow. I'm trying to find more information to make sure I do it right.

Is there a maximum per day I can load? I've read where some have gone to regular cashier, garden center,money center to load in one trip. I have 4 $200 VGCs. Can I load all of those in one trip (at different registers)? Can I do more than one swipe at a register or is that not smart to do?

I've done 2 $200 loads at Cust Service. The reg cashier refused to do more than one....

 

[Haley R]

Isn’t that what an SO is for?

Yeah like he would call