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

[Haley R]

Our Kohl's has a separate kiosk just for Amazon returns.

Ours does too. It’s all in the customer service area but two separate counters

 

[PolyRob]

Boy, those AOL CDs were everywhere.

And it's not just your imagination either. When AOL ramped up their marketing blitz in the 90s, they went for it. For a few weeks, they used the entire world's CD capacity to create CDs. And it's estimated around 50% of the CDs in existence at the time were AOL CDs.

Those things were in cereal boxes!

Bananas.

Those things were everywhere! It was so much easier to upgrade from the CD rather than waiting for the latest version to download over dialup. The irony!!

 

[Haley R]

@amalone1013 @disneymagicgirl new from MCO, good but

https://twitter.com/x/status/1167983415032995840

I’m really worried they’re underestimating this storm. Orlando could still have tropical force winds.

 

[afan]

I’m really worried they’re underestimating this storm. Orlando could still have tropical force winds.

We often get close to or at tropical force winds with our yearly wind storms and our airport doesn't close. The last time I remember there even being a ground stop was when that guy stole the Alaska Air plane a few years back and went for a joy ride. Now granted they'll have lots of delays and cancellations when there's ice/snow etc but there's still some that come and go.

 

[kmc8826]

I think as a Delta hostage it might make sense for me to book another vacation package! We are going to fly Delta anyway and with the requirement of two nights only I think that makes it definitely doable. I am going to wait a couple of days but the fact that the offer was extended to the 6th is rather trouble for me. My poor family...I am looking as far out I can in 2020 and they are like “are you talking about our October trip?” No...I am talking about July 2020!

Yes I read this. My takeaway was get the trip insurance and eat the fee. If the tickets end up being non refundable I come out ahead.
If I get back a voucher or miles redeposited for the rest it doesn’t matter but I’d come out ahead with a voucher as long as I can use it in a year which shouldn’t be a problem for us since DL is an ok option to fly

I think the voucher is not a bad deal. When I buy flights I seldom get the extra insurance, so I figure with the vacation deal I have a little more latitude to cancel and change then I do in a typical Delta flight. I figure that with the trip insurance if I get the value of the voucher I still come out ahead since the miles I used initially were doubled.

Ok great good to know! A lot of uncertainty. If it all worked out it would be a good deal for tickets though right? Is my math fuzzy?

Assuming you value MR at 1cpp, and that everything works out the way we think it will, then your math looks good to me. I looked at bridging to an AP too. I've never done this before, but I guess the biggest uncertainty is what the price of an AP will be when you get to WDW? Because that's the AP price you'll have to bridge to, I think? Others know more about bridging to an AP than I do!

I don't know if this is a good idea either. I agree that the uncertainty makes me nervous - but I'm pretty risk averse. Wish I could be more help!

It has been a while since I bridged to an AP but I used to do it all the time. I think though that it is still the cost of the ticket at the time, so if you buy the most expensive ticket (most days, hoppers) you will have less to bridge. I think it makes sense to do it. I am generally “fuzzy” in math though anyway as it is so not my strong suit too I am not the person to judge.

OT but DD turns 16 in < 2 weeks. I'm getting her a used car. I like Hondas (my last four vehicles have been Hondas--an Accord, a Pilot, and two Odysseys). So I gave her the following criteria: <50,000 miles, <$14,000, 2016 or newer, rated as a good or great deal, no accidents. Everything was going fine then this week her dad started telling me we should get her a Subaru (I'm paying). Now dd is asking for a Ford Escape, Honda Fit, Honda CRV, Ford Focus, etc. Can someone please tell me what the heck is wrong with a Honda Civic?

I am not sure in other parts of the country but here Honda Civics are one of the most frequently stolen cars by gang members. Not sure that is applicable though in your case. How frustrating! And I am someone whose first car was a Chevrolet Chevette that was ANCIENT but drivable. It was my Grandpa’s car and I had to pay my own money ($500). And now I drive a going on 10 year old Toyota Sienna. So it isn’t like I have any car pride. At all.

 

[LB002]

--I also cancelled a couple of my Amex cards this morning. I saw that the AF's had hit on both my Biz Plat and my Biz Green. I called to see about a retention offer on my Biz Plat (although I was leaning strongly toward cancelling unless the offer was really good) and got nothing, so I cancelled both. The rep gave me the spiel about not putting much spend on either of those cards and having a lot of open cards, etc. Couldn't disagree with that, so said to go ahead and cancel. It goes with my new post-Africa mantra to simplify my life. I thought about keeping the Biz Green open for a potential upgrade to another Biz Plat but 50k MR for $10k spend just wasn't attractive enough with that high AF, especially with the airline fee reimbursement getting harder to use. I did tell the rep that was an issue with the card and that Chase's travel credit was so much easier to use....

DH's Bus Amex Plat annual fee just posted and I have been nagging him to cancel. No way are we getting $595 value from the card, especially not with the airline fee not working on GC now. He is going to check for a retention offer. This doesn't make me hopeful! He's very skittish about churning and I think he is afraid to cancel.

 

[wendow]

@wendow AP upgrade question. If I get WDW tickets through Delta and go to upgrade is it best to buy the 10 day tix as that would be the least amount due at upgrading (even though we likely wouldn’t need all 10 days the first trip)? If the tickets are flex do I get that added value to the bridge or do I eat that extra cost (it’s like $500 more but the only option with delta vacations)?

We got the current gate price for our tickets applied to the AP price. Usually the most expensive ticket with the best savings is best. Sounds like you only have one option?

Our example is we had bought 7-day base tickets for $424. Current gate was over $500 so the CM bridged to the current gate price and we paid the remainder. We did our upgrade at DS GR and this CM knew exactly what to do. She even said we'd get a nice bump up from what we had paid for our tix.

 

[mmmears]

Boy, those AOL CDs were everywhere.

And it's not just your imagination either. When AOL ramped up their marketing blitz in the 90s, they went for it. For a few weeks, they used the entire world's CD capacity to create CDs. And it's estimated around 50% of the CDs in existence at the time were AOL CDs.

Those things were in cereal boxes!

Bananas.

I know, right? It was crazy. We used them for coasters at work, hung them in the trees to keep the birds from eating our fruit, etc. It was also so, so wasteful.

 

[amalone1013]

ILs would be so mad... we will probably end up checking in the morning before making a final call. I hope this thing keeps turning for everyone's sake.

 

[StephPlum]

I just got emails from rakuten (ebates) that my offers at Staples tracked. These are the ones from early August and were clearly on the no fee VGCs I got then. Did anyone have any trouble with these, taken back or account shutdown? I remember someone pointed out GCs were excluded. It was so long ago, I just assumed they didn’t track due to gift cards.

 

[Haley R]

We often get close to or at tropical force winds with our yearly wind storms and our airport doesn't close. The last time I remember there even being a ground stop was when that guy stole the Alaska Air plane a few years back and went for a joy ride. Now granted they'll have lots of delays and cancellations when there's ice/snow etc but there's still some that come and go.

We are still at home but I’m pretty darn close to saying forget it and leaving tomorrow. Dh already said he’ll get a go bag ready in the morning but we have a lot to take since we’ll have the cats. Then we need to take food, water, maybe some gas cans. I just don’t want to get stranded and not be able to come back home

 

[wendow]

Our Kohl's has a separate kiosk just for Amazon returns.

That would be so smart. It's ridiculous to go into Kohls to return a pair of jeans and have to stand in line behind 8 people all doing Amazon returns.

 

[LB002]

We decided to use URs to fly nonstop Boston to Honolulu. We are thinking of doing a northern California trip separately next month and will use SW points and CP for that.

I did the same. It was "cheaper" with UR than transferring the miles. Everything available via miles had weird layovers (like overnight in TX), so I decided direct from Boston would be the least painful (or at least I hope so, it will be my 6 & 9yo longest flight)

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

We are still at home but I’m pretty darn close to saying forget it and leaving tomorrow. Dh already said he’ll get a go bag ready in the morning but we have a lot to take since we’ll have the cats. Then we need to take food, water, maybe some gas cans. I just don’t want to get stranded and not be able to come back home

This has been such a roller coaster for you guys. I’m glad things seem to have improved with the more eastern track but there’s still so much unknown. It has to be a lot to process and consider as new Florida residents.

 

[afan]

ILs would be so mad... we will probably end up checking in the morning before making a final call. I hope this thing keeps turning for everyone's sake.

I imagine it'll take that long to get flights loaded in anyway. There should be planes there unless they'd cancelled a bunch for tomorrow already, they'd have to get them out anyway had it done what it was originally going to do. There's some airline people pulling long hours tonight I'm sure unless they can just plug in what they already had. I don't know how things get done with the FAA and if that plays into it either.

We are still at home but I’m pretty darn close to saying forget it and leaving tomorrow. Dh already said he’ll get a go bag ready in the morning but we have a lot to take since we’ll have the cats. Then we need to take food, water, maybe some gas cans. I just don’t want to get stranded and not be able to come back home

Unless the storm does something dramatic in the next 12-24 hours I wouldn't leave. I understand it's your first hurricane but as much as it's moving east it won't be as bad. I understand the wind is scary, I've been through a lot of really bad wind storms here, one of which sent us home early from school, that was a fun run home instead of walk once we saw all the trees that had already fallen. We had several down across the back neighbors driveway that took my dad, stepdad, uncle and I'm not even sure who else a good part of the day to clear away. It's not fun to listen to either especially when it's dark out.

And since you aren't in a flood zone a ton of rain isn't a huge deal imo but I live in Seattle on a hill away from the things that flood here. Though we do always get a mini lake in our driveway due to the underground spring and things not draining well but we have a pump that works its little heart out to pump it up to the ditch. It did almost get into the garage last year though.

 

[afan]

New advisory has tropical storm force winds on the central florida coast tuesday morning. So it's slowed down, still cat 4. The cone at the moment looks like it ends about at Orlando. Off Charleston Wed morning.

Bahama's are going to be dealing with the storm for 3 days.

So there's more time to make decisions but still stay prepared.

 

[disneybirds]

I think as a Delta hostage it might make sense for me to book another vacation package! We are going to fly Delta anyway and with the requirement of two nights only I think that makes it definitely doable. I am going to wait a couple of days but the fact that the offer was extended to the 6th is rather trouble for me. My poor family...I am looking as far out I can in 2020 and they are like “are you talking about our October trip?” No...I am talking about July 2020!

This is me! Both DDs are graduating next May (one from college, one from HS) and we have been talking about going to Europe. I have spent way too much time pricing out different options. I will probably book a trip for at least two of us so that DH can get the miles and any upgrades. Probably book the other 2 through the Delta website since it is easy to change those with his status.

 

[LB002]

Can anyone help an east coaster get to Hawaii using SW CP and or Chase UR'S? The options are endless. Thinking of using URs to fly Hawaiin Airlines direct at 22,000 pts. We will use DVC points to stay at Aulani. Returning home we are thinking of using SW points and the CP to spend 2 nights/ 1 full day in northern California to ease the jet lag. I hate not using SW points and CP to get there though but no direct flights with SW. We are open to an overnight on the way there as well. How do you guys do it? We can take 10 days for this trip.

I'm also an East coaster, and played around a lot with transferring points, SW options, etc. I played with options out of our home airport and Boston (2hr away). For us, everything was very high points redemption, had 2 layovers or a weird overnight in TX. We decided to go direct from Boston and paid with UR through the Chase portal.

We could have gone 10 days but chose to do 9 and have a day to recover at home. I did consider stopping in CA to ease the time difference, but we figured we will probably bot go back to HI for a LONG time (or ever? Who knows!), so we decided to maximize our days in HI and just go cold turkey on the time change. I'll let you know in Feb if that was a good or bad choice!!!

 

[Haley R]

This has been such a roller coaster for you guys. I’m glad things seem to have improved with the more eastern track but there’s still so much unknown. It has to be a lot to process and consider as new Florida residents.

Actually now they’re tracking it coming slightly more west. I have a really bad feeling it’s gonna hit us right at Melbourne. It wasn’t supposed to rain at all today and right now it just started pouring with winds. I’m already scared

 

[Haley R]

I imagine it'll take that long to get flights loaded in anyway. There should be planes there unless they'd cancelled a bunch for tomorrow already, they'd have to get them out anyway had it done what it was originally going to do. There's some airline people pulling long hours tonight I'm sure unless they can just plug in what they already had. I don't know how things get done with the FAA and if that plays into it either.



Unless the storm does something dramatic in the next 12-24 hours I wouldn't leave. I understand it's your first hurricane but as much as it's moving east it won't be as bad. I understand the wind is scary, I've been through a lot of really bad wind storms here, one of which sent us home early from school, that was a fun run home instead of walk once we saw all the trees that had already fallen. We had several down across the back neighbors driveway that took my dad, stepdad, uncle and I'm not even sure who else a good part of the day to clear away. It's not fun to listen to either especially when it's dark out.

And since you aren't in a flood zone a ton of rain isn't a huge deal imo but I live in Seattle on a hill away from the things that flood here. Though we do always get a mini lake in our driveway due to the underground spring and things not draining well but we have a pump that works its little heart out to pump it up to the ditch. It did almost get into the garage last year though.

We’re not in a flood zone but ate pretty close to one so that’s why I’m not thinking we’re in the clear. We don’t have flood insurance either so I sure hope we get no flooding.