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

[Jax1023]

How do we feel about an off topic discussion of Turkey Gravy?.... I’m kinda desperate. Costco got rid of my Fra’mani Turkey Gravy (just warm it up and boom! Awesomeness!) and I’m lost because I’m more of a warm it up type cook lol. Basically I want a decent Turkey Gravy that requires warming up or at most adding water or broth from a box- something easy! I’ve got cooked Turkey Breast, just no Gravy for it (this isn’t a Thanksgiving Feast or anything stressful, just average dinner type meal). Favorite easy to do Turkey Gravy anyone?...

Do you live near Trader Joe’s? Their turkey gravy is a box in great.

 

[DisneyMandC]

My husband got the 60,000 offer in the mail but I’m hesitant to have him apply based on my experience. I applied and was denied for too many inquiries. I only have one hard pull on my accounts according to credit karma and I’m 3/24. My credit score is in the 800’s with 1% utilization. Never missed a payment etc. I have never been denied for a credit card so I was shocked when it happened to me. I have read that sometimes Capital One will deny those with excellent credit scores and excellent credit history. It seems weird that my husband would be targeted as he is 4/24 (soon to be 2/24) though. The only other thing different between us that I can think of is that I am a stay at home mom so even though I wrote his income as the household income the application does ask what your job is. Not sure if this was a factor but wanted to include it just in case.

I have almost your exact same stats and was approved earlier this fall for CO Venture. Only difference is my Equifax is in the 780s and I am an authorized user on a CO Quicksilver from 2015. I would actually think that card would hurt me though since my mom hit MSR on it and then never used it again to my knowledge lol. I got instant approval and a 20k credit line. I'm thinking about applying for DH too after I figure out what Chase card I'm going for for him next.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Guys, I might be about to make my first eBags purchase... do we think the prices will go down anymore on Black Friday, or are the current sale prices usually as good as it gets? Also, how fast is shipping? DH said he'd like new luggage before he takes a business trip leaving next Wednesday.

 

[GZanta77]

That’s true about the pressure changes. I had horrible ears as a kid and I’m hoping I don’t pass that on. I had tubes put in my ears and screamed on the planes. We still flew places but I’m sure it wasn’t fun when I was so small that I couldn’t tell them how I felt.

We plan to go back to Iowa next July to visit family so that might be a good gauge for the baby on flights. That would mean we would need to plan for maybe August or September of 2021 (possibly July). My main goal is somewhat warmer temps while in London and Scotland. We won’t have school schedules and dh shouldn’t have any trouble getting work off so I think we’ll be super flexible.

I didn’t realize orlando to London was a popular route. Just looking at flights today it didn’t seem like there were great options but I didn’t look very long. I’m a little hesitant to book one way just because I don’t want to get stuck with a bad returning flight

Well UK school vacation is typically last week of July to 1st week of Sept so I would avoid those dates if at all possible. Seems like half of the UK heads to Disney during those weeks and London to Orlando flights become very hard to get.

I think BA might fly Tampa to London as well so that might be worth considering.

 

[smmco]

Has anyone stayed at the Hilton Anaheim convention center? I'm thinking about going to Disneyland this Spring. I haven't been since 2011. The first week of May the Hilton is 123.00 per night. Other weeks I've checked it's either sold out or over 250.00. I'm guessing there are no conventions that week. I will have Hilton points by this time, but at that price, I wouldn't need them. I have Hyatt points, but the Hyatt options aren't great and I'd rather not use them for that. I don't have Marriot points.

I grew up 20 minutes from DL. I'm familiar with the area, but my hotel experience is limited. Since I've moved away I've stayed at Paradise pier, Grand California and Portofino Suites. I also stayed at the Marriot Fairfield Inn one night when going to a convention at Anaheim Convention center.

The total cost for 4 nights is 595.00 and I have Diamond status with free breakfast and upgrade. I'm thinking that's a pretty good deal.

 

[Haley R]

We flew with my older son from NY to Amsterdam when he was 14 months, wasn’t quite walking yet, it was super easy, had a layover in Dublin, it was good to get off and stretch our legs and have some breakfast. we did not buy him a seat though and he slept on me basically the whole way. Got there, Tried to get him on his usual schedule in a new time zone. Stayed up most of the day, had dinner and in bed at 7. He slept til 9 the next morning, although he ended up in bed with us and nursed a bit overnight. Ended up on a 9p-9am ish sleep schedule which worked well on vacation.

My son is easy going and loves traveling. Now my dd is not that trip would have been awful with her. We went to visit my parents in FL over Easter when she was 9 months and I basically got zero sleep the entire week and it was miserable. She’s two now and finally getting to be easier to travel with. We went to Disney when she was 14 months old and she basically screamed the entire flight due to wanting to get out of her seat and not being able to. She does this in the car too, but there we are not annoying 150 other people.

I would wait to book til the baby is 6ish months old and you get to know their personality. Every kid is different and while yes you can travel with kids, it’s more fun with some kids than with others lol.

If we waited until 6 months it would be too late. The baby will be born at the end of April and we were wanting to book no later than August. That way we would have warmer weather in London. I told Dh it’s possible we’ll have the baby and decide not to go anywhere but he said we’ll make it work lol. I guess he won’t really know until the baby is born and we see how things go.

 

[needsomesun]

I can honestly drink Coke Zero 24/7. It is like 2nd water to my body

OOh, same here. I actually ran out of it this weekend and was going through withdrawals. Managed to buy some more though, so it's all good.

 

[Haley R]

I have to buy a Bj's membership, unless I can add $140.58 in Disney gift cards & $10 membership, will those be charged separate? Should I pay for the membership first? Or how do I do the one day pass?

I just went to the BJs Website and clicked join. Then they had an option for the one day pass. They didn’t ask for any cc info and I couldn’t find a button to cancel before the one day was up

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Do you think flying into LGW would be bad? I have no idea. I looked it up and it said 30 minutes by train. Obviously with a one year old that wouldn’t be ideal but it might be better than a layover somewhere.

I wish we had more Amex points. Dh will get 20k from his BBP that we’re working on now. I’m not sure if we can join points like you can with chase. Do you think it’s realistic to get enough Amex points by next summer to book? If so, we could switch gears to them

Flying into LGW is fine - it is easy to get into central London on the Gatwick Express and really not much quicker from Heathrow.

If it were me, especially travelling with a baby, I would save some UR's and $$$ and look to fly Virgin Premium economy. With a baby in tow, you're not going to get more than a few minutes nap here and there anyway. Babys on airplanes are hugely unpredictable. Our DS refused to sleep on a plane as a baby (and pretty much still does), although long haul he would typically drift off just before landing when he was beyond exhausted.

Also, don't rule out flying from London to Edinburgh. BA short haul reward seats can often be had cheaply with low fees. There really isn't that much to see when going by train.

We’ve never flown premium economy. Is it a huge difference from business on virgin flights?

Dh likes trains that’s why I thought taking the train would be fun. Is it a pretty long ride?

Sure its a huge difference - in both price and experience. I'm cheap though and I find Premium Economy a perfectly acceptable way to travel for anything under 10 hours.

Train ride will be about 4 - 5 hours....but it leaves from central London and delivers you to the centre of Edinburgh. If you fly, you need to get out to heathrow, check-in, wait etc. At the other end, you will probably need to get a cab from Edinburgh airport. So all told, flying might not be much quicker and if DH is into trains, then go for it. I have tended to fly, but I was not based in central London and I have been able to get flights from about $35 plus a small amount of BA Avios.

If you are looking to book the train, the best prices are usually available 8 - 12 weeks before travel.

I agree with pp that LGW is fine-Heathrow is out of the city too-just in a different direction.
I don't think, unless you pull a 125K personal plus a 100K biz that it would be realistic to have enough MRs to book next summer. I think you should stay the course BUT start diversifying and adding to your MR stash so when you need them you'll have them.




Again as @GZanta77 said, it's about 5 hours ish. The nice part is Waverly station is right in the middle of Edinburgh and easy to catch a cab, or if you stay at the fancy Balmoral, walk to the hotel. Trains are nice because you can get up and use the restroom anytime and you can generally move around more freely. You also won't have to worry about pressure and baby's ears on the train (v flying which may or may not be an issue). Every single mile of the ride will be gorgeous once you hit Scotland, too (I kid, but as you know I'm biased ).

Now that that's done I have some new questions after talking with Dh about flying to London.

1. Would you consider a positioning flight with a 1 year old? Something like flying in the night before and staying the night then flying out the next day. In an ideal world, I wouldn't choose this, but I know there are a lot better flight options compared to MCO.
2. Would a 1 stop flight be horrible with a 1 year old? I was aiming for nonstop, but booking with miles doesn't always allow that, especially since we're looking at going out of MCO.
3. What time frame should we be looking at for booking flights? A year in advance or something different?

We've shifted our thinking away from business and are pretty sure we will do premium economy. That way we can get 3 seats together easier and at a cheaper redemption rate.

Sorry for the long list of quotes, but I've been away most of the day and catching up. You've gotten some great advice!

I'm a very frequent traveler to the UK--both London, Edinburgh, and Northern England (where DD has attended Uni for the past few years). I think I've been 6 or 7 times in the last 12 months I fly from SFO and do anything possible to avoid a layover in the US. My son is special needs so the issues are similar as to a baby--basically avoid as much as possible the potential for disaster (i.e. long days, delays, etc.). We've learned to avoid layovers with him whenever possible. I recently decided to do a one stop in Chicago as I was by myself to try out a better business seat and I *deeply* regretted it. I was delayed and with a huge snowstorm the day before, the airport was a mess. With a baby, it would have been much worse.

Since you've now decided to do premium economy I would highly recommend Virgin--which is a transfer parter for both MRs and URs. They have the best PE product out there, and they also have a direct from MCO to LGW. My daughter has done this flight a couple times as we do Run Disney races on her breaks and she'll fly back to school from MCO. She's also flown direct from MCO to Manchester, which is also an easy connection to the train (and to the line that goes to Edinburgh).

My rec would be to fly direct either to LGW or MAN. If you go to LGW, you can do the Gatwick Express into central london to Victoria--it's super easy and I find even more convenient than the Heathrow Express, which has long walks depending on your terminal. We've actually stayed at the hotel right at Victoria station, which is super convenient (ASIDE: we've also stayed at the Paddington Hilton which is super convenient to the Heathrow Express and the Raddison Blu at Manchester airport, which has great family rooms). From Victoria on the Gatwick Express you can then use the tube to connect to King's Cross where you take the train to Edinburgh. It's only a little over 4 hours from London King's Cross to Waverly on the quick train.

MCO to MAN is another option if you want to go straight to Edinburgh. I missed your original post so I'm not sure whether your main destination was London or Edinburgh. There is a train from Manchester Airport that goes directly to Edinburgh--if you time that one right it only takes about 3.5 hours. There are tons of others with one stop that take a little longer.

We've done all these options as Durham University in Northern England is about 1.5 hours before Edinburgh on the same line

I love taking the train, but FYI it is not cheap and as @GZanta77 mentioned it can be much easier and cheaper to just fly on BA if you are going to Edinburgh on the way in or out. Be forewarned though if you add on a SEPARATE flight to EDI to a RT from MCO to LHR, you can't check your bags all the way through. That happened to me recently, and it was a PITA. I had a RT from SFO to LON and added a one way to Newcastle at the beginning of my trip. I had to collect my bags and recheck them. Total hassle, but my flight was really cheap with Avios.

To avoid this, I'd book one way tickets and add EDI on to one of them, taking the train back or from London to Edinburgh one way (i.e. MCO to LHR to EDI on arrival; train from EDI to London; spend time in London and then fly home direct LHR/LGW to MCO. You can actually do BA one way (the part with EDI attached) and Virgin the other to try out the better PE product.

BA doesn't have nearly as good of a PE seat though so my first choice would still be Virgin. We often have this issue come up when my daughter is going back and forth to school. She can either fly to Newcastle via LHR on BA or fly Virgin to LGW or MAN and take the train. If she's going PE, she always chooses Virgin and the train even though it's more of a hassle with the trains/tube/bags. If she's in coach, she just does BA.

As far as finding flights, you will want to be as far out as possible, but in my experience Virgin seems to have more consistent availability in PE than BA. You can find tons of economy in BA, but PE and Business can be difficult unless you are doing it exactly when they release.

 

[mmmears]

I just looked at flights on the chase portal for a week next August for 2 adults and a child (pretending we’re buying the baby a seat). For business class on AA nonstop flights out of MCO it would be 770k points. That’s under a year from now so obviously that plays a part in it being pretty high but it’s still very high. If the baby didn’t have a seat it would be 2/3 of that. I’m just trying to get a general idea so I’m thinking that would be the worst case scenario and hoping we would get something better than that.

I think the train sounds fun! We loved riding them in Japan even though I know that’s a different experience

1. That's an insane number of points to get to London IMHO.

2. AA is notoriously bad about award travel these days. I couldn't find anything from the west coast to either Philadelphia or NY that didn't include 2 stops in the middle, and that was a full year out.

3. It's nice to diversify your points because when you see some crazy redemption like that you can just check other airlines.

4. Sometimes it's really, really hard to find more than 2 decently priced award seats in either J or first. We've done it, but it hasn't always been easy.

 

[Haley R]

Well UK school vacation is typically last week of July to 1st week of Sept so I would avoid those dates if at all possible. Seems like half of the UK heads to Disney during those weeks and London to Orlando flights become very hard to get.

I think BA might fly Tampa to London as well so that might be worth considering.

Well shoot that’s exactly when I was looking at going. I was thinking July or August. How would the weather be in September after the first week?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Has anyone stayed at the Hilton Anaheim convention center? I'm thinking about going to Disneyland this Spring. I haven't been since 2011. The first week of May the Hilton is 123.00 per night. Other weeks I've checked it's either sold out or over 250.00. I'm guessing there are no conventions that week. I will have Hilton points by this time, but at that price, I wouldn't need them. I have Hyatt points, but the Hyatt options aren't great and I'd rather not use them for that. I don't have Marriot points.

I grew up 20 minutes from DL. I'm familiar with the area, but my hotel experience is limited. Since I've moved away I've stayed at Paradise pier, Grand California and Portofino Suites. I also stayed at the Marriot Fairfield Inn one night when going to a convention at Anaheim Convention center.

The total cost for 4 nights is 595.00 and I have Diamond status with free breakfast and upgrade. I'm thinking that's a pretty good deal.

I stayed there last summer. Here's my review. While we had issues with the room AC, it was overall a really nice hotel. It is probably a solid mile walk to the entrance of DL though, so just keep that in mind. It didn't bother us, but if you have kids or don't like a long walk at the end of the day, you may dislike it. I think I paid $124/night when I went in July 2018. The room rates definitely vary wildly.

 

[mmmears]

Do you think there’s any chance we would have enough MRs by next summer to book 3 business class seats?

It took us less than a year to get the MRs needed to get to Norway last month and we are sitting on enough to go back at least 2 more times (that's for 2 seats, not 3). This was practically starting from nothing (well, far less than 50K) because we used all we had stockpiled for the 3 tickets we needed in 2018. So yes, I think you should be able to get enough for the one trip if you plan carefully. DH opened up 2 MR earning cards and I did the same.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I applied for the BA Chase card yesterday and got the "need more time" message. My identity monitoring showed that they'd pulled from Experian. I just got another notice (24 hours later) that they pulled a second report from Equifax. That seemed weird to me ... is that normal?

 

[DaveL]

Quoting myself again... Hey! It's a good drama! So I followed up with a call to their delivery team on Saturday as directed, they didn't know how to handle it and transferred me back to sales, who wanted to transfer me to the delivery team but said since they just keep sending me back he would call and get the details. Back and forth over an hour he said the only option is for them to just refund the transaction, but they cannot do it the delivery team has to, but the delivery team cannot since the order is too old. He said he was going to write up an exception request and see if he could go that route but needed more information, after about 10m more on hold I was hung up on. This made me really mad as now I didn't know where I was transferred to and he had all my information and could have called me back!!! So I figured I would give it a day or two like he said to hear their response via email... Today I got an email saying the transaction is way to old for them to do anything about and asked me to "kindly contact my bank and kindly dispute the transaction." Full 360 here we go! This time I at least have an email from Sears telling me to dispute it, Why do I have the sinking feeling even with that Chase will not side with me?!!?

So its still on-going... I submitted the email from Sears to Chase last Monday as well as transcripts of my conversation with Sears ect.. The next day I noticed that charge was removed from my current bill so I paid the balance of that bill off. The next day I noticed it was still showing in the current balance number but had no charge ect in the current activity. First time I disputed it there was a dispute refund line and then a new recharge line when they only gave me 5mins to call back. So since it has been a week I decided to give them a call to see what was going on. The supervisor informed me that the charge is back in dispute status and I am not responsible for it at this time. However the period to dispute this charge has expired, so they now are doing an internal review of my information to determine how to proceed forward. This really makes me mad because Sears is telling me to dispute it as that is their final resolution, but they just days before countered my dispute saying the charge was valid, doing that they pushed it past the cutoff. I called Sears today to see if now since they are owning up to the problem if they would just send a check and resolve it once and for all but they are stuck on their decision that their final answer was for me to dispute it.

 

[Haley R]

Sorry for the long list of quotes, but I've been away most of the day and catching up. You've gotten some great advice!

I'm a very frequent traveler to the UK--both London, Edinburgh, and Northern England (where DD has attended Uni for the past few years). I think I've been 6 or 7 times in the last 12 months I fly from SFO and do anything possible to avoid a layover in the US. My son is special needs so the issues are similar as to a baby--basically avoid as much as possible the potential for disaster (i.e. long days, delays, etc.). We've learned to avoid layovers with him whenever possible. I recently decided to do a one stop in Chicago as I was by myself to try out a better business seat and I *deeply* regretted it. I was delayed and with a huge snowstorm the day before, the airport was a mess. With a baby, it would have been much worse.

Since you've now decided to do premium economy I would highly recommend Virgin--which is a transfer parter for both MRs and URs. They have the best PE product out there, and they also have a direct from MCO to LGW. My daughter has done this flight a couple times as we do Run Disney races on her breaks and she'll fly back to school from MCO. She's also flown direct from MCO to Manchester, which is also an easy connection to the train (and to the line that goes to Edinburgh).

My rec would be to fly direct either to LGW or MAN. If you go to LGW, you can do the Gatwick Express into central london to Victoria--it's super easy and I find even more convenient than the Heathrow Express, which has long walks depending on your terminal. We've actually stayed at the hotel right at Victoria station, which is super convenient (ASIDE: we've also stayed at the Paddington Hilton which is super convenient to the Heathrow Express and the Raddison Blu at Manchester airport, which has great family rooms). From Victoria on the Gatwick Express you can then use the tube to connect to King's Cross where you take the train to Edinburgh. It's only a little over 4 hours from London King's Cross to Waverly on the quick train.

MCO to MAN is another option if you want to go straight to Edinburgh. I missed your original post so I'm not sure whether your main destination was London or Edinburgh. There is a train from Manchester Airport that goes directly to Edinburgh--if you time that one right it only takes about 3.5 hours. There are tons of others with one stop that take a little longer.

We've done all these options as Durham University in Northern England is about 1.5 hours before Edinburgh on the same line

I love taking the train, but FYI it is not cheap and as @GZanta77 mentioned it can be much easier and cheaper to just fly on BA if you are going to Edinburgh on the way in or out. Be forewarned though if you add on a SEPARATE flight to EDI to a RT from MCO to LHR, you can't check your bags all the way through. That happened to me recently, and it was a PITA. I had a RT from SFO to LON and added a one way to Newcastle at the beginning of my trip. I had to collect my bags and recheck them. Total hassle, but my flight was really cheap with Avios.

To avoid this, I'd book one way tickets and add EDI on to one of them, taking the train back or from London to Edinburgh one way (i.e. MCO to LHR to EDI on arrival; train from EDI to London; spend time in London and then fly home direct LHR/LGW to MCO. You can actually do BA one way (the part with EDI attached) and Virgin the other to try out the better PE product.

BA doesn't have nearly as good of a PE seat though so my first choice would still be Virgin. We often have this issue come up when my daughter is going back and forth to school. She can either fly to Newcastle via LHR on BA or fly Virgin to LGW or MAN and take the train. If she's going PE, she always chooses Virgin and the train even though it's more of a hassle with the trains/tube/bags. If she's in coach, she just does BA.

As far as finding flights, you will want to be as far out as possible, but in my experience Virgin seems to have more consistent availability in PE than BA. You can find tons of economy in BA, but PE and Business can be difficult unless you are doing it exactly when they release.

Wow this is fantastic! Thank you so much! Doing one way flights to London and Edinburgh is a good idea. I want to spend time in both places but probably more time in London. We will for sure do a week but I’d like to do 10 days if possible. That would give us time to settle in and really enjoy it. Would it work to start in London, take the train, then leave from Edinburgh or vice versa?

I know BA has some high fees and charges. Is VA any better? That’s good to know that you recommend them. We went through them for our Japan trip using URs and they booked us a partner flight with ANA. They did spell dh’s name wrong so we’ll have to be extra careful this time lol.

What do you think about when to go? We were thinking July or August but I didn’t realize that’s their school break. Is the weather chilly in September?

 

[needsomesun]

Thanks so much for this info! Looks like my husband shouldn’t apply then either...lol

I was approved with a capital one mailer for the 60000 points with a credit score >800 and no carrying no balances over the past few years. So you never know!

 

[GZanta77]

Well shoot that’s exactly when I was looking at going. I was thinking July or August. How would the weather be in September after the first week?

Beginning of July should be ok as schools in England get out later in the month. Scotland is different though I think - maybe Early July to mid August.

I would probably shoot for late June/Early July in preference to September.

 

[GZanta77]

Sorry for the long list of quotes, but I've been away most of the day and catching up. You've gotten some great advice!


BA doesn't have nearly as good of a PE seat though so my first choice would still be Virgin. We often have this issue come up when my daughter is going back and forth to school. She can either fly to Newcastle via LHR on BA or fly Virgin to LGW or MAN and take the train. If she's going PE, she always chooses Virgin and the train even though it's more of a hassle with the trains/tube/bags. If she's in coach, she just does BA.

As far as finding flights, you will want to be as far out as possible, but in my experience Virgin seems to have more consistent availability in PE than BA. You can find tons of economy in BA, but PE and Business can be difficult unless you are doing it exactly when they release.

Great post.......and pretty much mirrors my thoughts on BA v Virgin in PE. I will take Virgin every time given the choice.

 

[Haley R]

Beginning of July should be ok as schools in England get out later in the month. Scotland is different though I think - maybe Early July to mid August.

I would probably shoot for late June/Early July in preference to September.

The only problem with trying to go earlier like June is we would have to book earlier. The baby would only be about a month or so old next June and idk if that’s enough time to really see how things go. We wouldn’t take the baby on a plane until July. Dh sounds like he wants to go no matter what though.