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

[havaneselover]

American changed my flights to NYC for Thanksgiving. I had been arriving at 11 and now it's 1. The earlier flight is probably too early (my daughter needs to swim from 6-8 AM the day after Thanksgiving). There is a Delta flight which gets in an hour earlier--not sure if they would rebook me on that. The return flight was moved two hours later so it sort of comes out in the wash.

And I'm wanting to go for a run but it's 46 degrees here. My body may go into shock!

 

[speedyfishy]

the CSR will earn 3x vs 2x on dining and travel because I have all but sock drawered the card and the extra point earning is irrelevant with the point I am trying to make here.

What are you using for travel? Gold for dining?

 

[Ngwira]

Global Entry saved us this morning from an extremely long TSA and customs line at Montreal airport (YUL).

The Delta flight at the gate next to us was oversold so they were offering 5 people $1200 to take the next flight out.
Sadly, we were not flying to Minnesota or we would have taken it. It started off at $500.

 

[Judique]

My wife donates (what I don't use) to a women's shelter.



Hahaha ... Good Catch!



Even better deal! Wondering if I should just get one, in addition to wife's? (she got hers free, as a member of Charlie's Crab, eventually bought out by Landry's)

I signed up at my table and got my welcome offer, plus credit for the meal. $250 spend gives you a $25 credit to use although I rarely hear people mention this. There are a ton of Landry restaurants in this area but I rarely choose them.

 

[Judique]

If I stayed 2 nights, and have a meal plan, can I buy snacks at a gift shop on the 3rd day (checkout day) with snack tix?

Yes.

 

[Lain]

I've been out of the loop for a month or so..read the news threads but didn't see anything on multiple CIPs lately.
P2 and I both have 2. Has anyone here gone for #3? Any advice?
Thank you

No news is good news. Keep on cipping. Same advice as always, watch your velocity and credit limits.

 

[nickle831]

P2 got his Sw business yesterday. I sent a SM and was able to combine his business and personal accounts. I thought it could only be done over the phone, but wanted to give it a shot and got a nice surprise.

 

[Lain]

 

[disneybirds]

Ok, my wife totally calls me Ross, but I take only the good stuff. If the pen doesn’t feel good in my hand, or write well, or doesn’t have the specific hotel’s name on it (just the hotel brand), I don’t usually bother. Same with toiletries.

You guys would think I have a problem if I took a picture of my Walt Disney Resort pens! I know they aren't fancy, but those are my favorite pens. I pretty much take them from every hotel we stay in and have been know to inadvertently take one from a restaurant. My girls think I am crazy! It is just a nice daily reminder of all the fun and memories we have had over the years.

 

[amalone1013]

P2 got his Sw business yesterday. I sent a SM and was able to combine his business and personal accounts. I thought it could only be done over the phone, but wanted to give it a shot and got a nice surprise.

Hmmm, maybe I will try to get them to combine my 2 biz accounts again...

 

[disfanforlife]

You guys would think I have a problem if I took a picture of my Walt Disney Resort pens! I know they aren't fancy, but those are my favorite pens. I pretty much take them from every hotel we stay in and have been know to inadvertently take one from a restaurant. My girls think I am crazy! It is just a nice daily reminder of all the fun and memories we have had over the years.

Umm, I do the same and my kids laugh at me too. I love those pens!

 

[Lain]

You guys would think I have a problem if I took a picture of my Walt Disney Resort pens! I know they aren't fancy, but those are my favorite pens. I pretty much take them from every hotel we stay in and have been know to inadvertently take one from a restaurant. My girls think I am crazy! It is just a nice daily reminder of all the fun and memories we have had over the years.

Most of Disney's hotel pens aren't very fancy. Check the Disneyland Hotel pen – it's a BIC! (Although we have one from the 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration that has sparkles on it.) The Aulani twist pen feels really nice and writes well. We have a Grand Californian pen like that somewhere that's got a pretty green and gold casing. But I have a special fondness for Disney pens because of all the happy memories they conjure up.

 

[bernina]

Global Entry saved us this morning from an extremely long TSA and customs line at Montreal airport (YUL).

The Delta flight at the gate next to us was oversold so they were offering 5 people $1200 to take the next flight out.
Sadly, we were not flying to Minnesota or we would have taken it. It started off at $500.

To utilize GE in Montreal you needed your physical GE card, right?

 

[Ngwira]

To utilize GE in Montreal you needed your physical GE card, right?

Yes, we did!

 

[smmco]

It's been some time sine I've waxed eloquent on the CSR. A recent conversation got me thinking about this and we've had a number of new people join us, so here we go.

A PSA from the Queen of Annual Fees:

I see quite often where folks can get sticker shock when it comes to the AF of a card, especially one as high as the CSR. I think it is important to look well beyond the bonus and that high AF before passing judgement with a knee jerk reaction as you may wind up paying more for not having it in the long run.

The CSR is $450 and comes with a $300 travel credit that can be triggered for a number of things. Merchants in the travel category like airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares (DVC dues), campgrounds, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, and operators of passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots, garages, Undercover Tourist etc.

If your household spends $300 per year in any combination of these categories then the travel credit will be triggered and the CSR will be a $150 AF per year card. Assuming that you wish to keep either a CIP or CSP for use at .0125 cpp in the UR portal or to transfer to an airline or hotel you are paying $95 per year for that card. The difference between that and the CSR is $55.

I am not even going to go into the fact that the CSR will earn 3x vs 2x on dining and travel because I have all but sock drawered the card and the extra point earning is irrelevant with the point I am trying to make here.

The important thing to look at is what does it cost you per year to redeem your UR points through the travel portal? It is very possible that keeping a CSP or CIP over a CSR is actually costing you more money. This is especially true for those who are redeeming for paid coach seats on flights via the UR portal. More often than not it costs fewer points to redeem coach airfare via the UR portal over transferring points to an airline.

Let's say you are going to redeem a $300 RT flight for a party of 2. That's $600. If you hold a CSP or CIP that should cost you 48,000 UR points. If you hold a CSR those flights would cost you 40,000 points. That is a difference of 8,000 points which is equivalent to $100 in the CSP/CIP UR portal. So holding the CIP or CSP over the CSR just cost you $100 in points. When you factor in the $55 difference then is cost you $45 to keep a card with a "lower AF". That is just one redemption example. How much is it costing a family of 4 to keep the lower AF card?

I regret not getting the CSR. At least your getting something in return for the AF. I tend to make large travel purchases because we cruise two to three times per year. If we spend 10k-15k on cruises a year the extra point is pretty significant not to mention the travel protection that comes with the card. I'll decide in March if I want to cancel or upgrade. I'm not sure how long I have to wait to get the CSR if I cancel. A lot of cards offer 2 points per dollar, but right now I can't think of another card that would offer me 3 points on a cruise or WDW vacation package.

 

[tink1970]

@vanjust14 and other NE peeps- I’m hanging out at the PVD Escape Lounge and if you ignore the people who cannot control the volume on their electronics it’s very very nice!! I really like PVD and am so glad I can fly it versus BOS.

 

[Lain]

@vanjust14 and other NE peeps- I’m hanging out at the PVD Escape Lounge and if you ignore the people who cannot control the volume on their electronics it’s very very nice!! I really like PVD and am so glad I can fly it versus BOS.

How was dropping off your DD at college?

 

[tink1970]

How was dropping off your DD at college?

Thanks for remembering- it was fine, I suppose. I expect I’ll fall apart Sunday night when my parents are back home and DH has left for work and I’m alone in a big house (well, except for the dogs). Fortunately I have the London/Paris ABD to think about and mentoring duties resume or I’d be a mess

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I regret not getting the CSR. At least your getting something in return for the AF. I tend to make large travel purchases because we cruise two to three times per year. If we spend 10k-15k on cruises a year the extra point is pretty significant not to mention the travel protection that comes with the card. I'll decide in March if I want to cancel or upgrade. I'm not sure how long I have to wait to get the CSR if I cancel. A lot of cards offer 2 points per dollar, but right now I can't think of another card that would offer me 3 points on a cruise or WDW vacation package.

For a new Sapphire card you need to wait 48 months from the time you received the bonus

 

[miztressuz]

Finally signed up for Landry's club. If anyone hasn't done so yet and were going to do so, they are giving a $30 welcome bonus instead of $25 through the end of the month.
View attachment 428342

Just remember that the $30 has to be used within 30 days after buying, after that it reverts to the normal $25 reward.

https://www.landrysselect.com/30Welcome/
I was totally going to do this on the off chance we do WDW in the spring. It would coincide with hubby's b-day so we could try out Yak n Yeti (we've only done the quick serve) with the b-day reward if we go, but found out that the Brick House near work that we'd use the welcome offer for doesn't participate We don't have anything else close by that we'd be able to hit within 30 days.

Although now that I think about it again our trip is rapidly approaching and within the 30 day window, I wonder if there are any Landry's in the cities we'll be hitting. I guess one more thing to add to the research list. I'm pretty sure at this point I'm supposed to be checking things off and not adding on