I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[Alexle2007]

So where is a good place (Not Disney) to take DD6 to this summer? I wanted to do DC but DW thinks she's too young. Can't come up with anything for some reason.

General area you are looking at?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I think MD falls outside of the change window though

Sunday/Monday would fall in the 2 week extension. Anything earlier is out, you’re right!

 

[Alexle2007]

Sunday/Monday would fall in the 2 week extension. Anything earlier is out, you’re right!

Yep! I should have thought it last round. That’s ok. We’ll just head to Hershey.

 

[Alexle2007]

@DaveL we are doing Philly/hershey/baltimore/OCMD this summer. Its a little jumpy but it surrounds my ILs (they live in rural PA). All of those places have fun stuff for kids and none are too far from the next. Idk where you are located but you could fly into Baltimore as your base and drive to Hershey or Philly or Dc for day trips. I think Baltimore is 1 to 1.5 hours from any of those.

I personally would not advise driving from Baltimore to Hershey and then back in a day, if I was on vacation. I’d fly into BWI, stay at the Inner Harbor area for a night or two (there’s the Aquarium, Science Center, Port Discovery, Ripley’s, pirate cruise, the speed jet, Fort McHenry) then drive to either Hershey or Lancaster (They are about equal) Do Hersheypark, Chocolate World, Hershey Experience, Trolley ride, etc and Lancaster has Dutch Wonderland (which is awesome for 6 year olds), the Amish Farm, Strasburg Railroad, Cherry Crest Farm (one of our favorite things to do) and then head towards Philly (Crayola Factory, Sesame Place, other stuff) and then back to BWI or fly out of Philly.

 

[orangecuse]

@Alexle2007 I almost tagged you haha I thought that was your area! That whole area is awesome.

We are personally doing Philly —> OCMD w/ family —> Baltimore —> Hershey —> ILs —> Philly over a two week period. I’m so excited! We haven’t been to Hershey/DW/Knoebels since we were teens? except a quick stop at chocolate world last time we saw ILs when my son was 18 months.

 

[snugglebug]

MSR Sunday: I'm about $600 away from bonus on a business card. Should hit that later next week when I start paying bills if not sooner with grocery shopping. After that I plan to focus on quarterlies for a bit while I redevelop my CC plans for the year.

 

[DaveL]

General area you are looking at?

Just wanted to get a second trip in. We are doing Disney the first week of June so looking for something maybe mid July thats not extremely hot.

Thanks everyone, I will have to look at Hershey/Dutch Wonderland. We'd be coming from Omaha and of course flying SW. So would have to see if Philadelphia or Baltimore work better for flights.

 

[disfanforlife]

MSR Sunday, currently no MSR. Still thinking about what card to get next.

 

[IFlossU]

Well these Disney ticket price increases have me thinking I need to pull the trigger now and buy tickets through UCT. Our DL trip isn’t until the end of May, and buying tickets this early isn’t exactly what I had in mind. UCT is currently $200 savings over Disney, and if I wait I’m not sure how much the price will increase. That, and I was hoping to put the charge on a CIP (which I was planning on for May) for the extra points. If I buy them now they would go on DH’s Aspire. Not horrible, but again, not part of my plan. Darn you Disney. I had a plan

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Southwest Alternate Redemption Ideas
Some people might be seeing all the hoopla around these increased SW offers that expire on Tuesday but maybe you don’t fly SW. In case you weren’t aware, SW cardholders can use SW RR points for gift cards, hotels, and rental cars!

Full Disclosure: for anybody pursuing business cards, the SW cards don’t hold a candle to other Chase options available to you. This primarily would be for people who are only doing personal cards but find themself running out of viable options.

SW RR points can be redeemed for Target/Amazon/Walmart gift cards at 1cpp. They even can be redeemed for Disney gift cards at 0.83cpp. (Keep in mind that these rates are only available to SW CC holders).

I did a search through their hotels and Disney Resorts ARE an option. However, in all of my searches I never saw a value > 1cpp so I’m not sure that’s a great play for most people.

So my general recommendation, don’t be afraid to think outside the box with a card that might not make sense to you on the surface. However, before pursuing a card for an “alternate redemption” you might want to float your idea past some folks to make sure you aren’t doing something too crazy or missing a better option/idea.

 

[hlhlaw07]

Sunday/Monday would fall in the 2 week extension. Anything earlier is out, you’re right!

THANK YOU so much for saying this!!!! I had a flight already booked for MD but at a horribly early time because the afternoon flight was going to cost $800 more (4 tickets). Since it was booked after the last go around, I thought I was out of luck on changing. But you gave me the idea to a do a double move to take advantage. All said, I got the afternoon flight and ended up with $120 refund! I know you know this, but it can’t be said too much, YOU ROCK!

 

[travelmomof3]

This thread has been very helpful and I’m still in awe of what so many of you have managed to do with your points. I have plans kind of in the works now for our upcoming trips to wdw and cruises. But we’re starting to plan a trip to Europe for 2021 or 2022. We’ve never been before so I’m looking for advice on what points/cards will benefit us the most. Our plans are to fly in to London, with stops afterward in Paris and ending in Rome for a few days with hopefully a day trip/train ride to Venice. It’s the very early stages of planning and I’ve got lots of research to do, but this is where I’ll start. Afterall, for years all of my best research for our wdw trips has been done here on the DIS in the other trip planning forums!
So my biggest questions for now are-
1. Is London the best city for us to start in? I thought I read several pages back that London was tough to fly out of so that’s why I thought we’d start there instead. Also, flying out of Pittsburgh- any recommendations on a particular airline?
2. Is there a hotel brand we should focus on building a stash of points for? Not looking for anything super high end but definitely places with a good reputation (clean and safe).
3. Once in London, what is the best way to get to Paris and then on to Rome?
We hope to take this trip in June of 2022 right after DS graduates from college. Would love to go in May but DD will be playing college softball and we won’t know when her season will end. Second option would be August 2021 before he starts his last year but I heard lots of places close in august in Europe. Is that true and how would it affect our trip? Fyi our travel party will be me, DH, DS22, DD20. Thanks in advance! Europe is a whole new animal for us as we have stuck mostly to the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

1.). I'm not sure why it has been said that LHR is difficult to fly in/out of? It's just like any airport, has it's hassles although busy. It's one of the shortest flight distances from the US so I actually would recommend flying in there. London is always my recommended "first trip to Europe from the US" cities as there isn't a language barrier, yet it definitely feels very European. It's one of my favorite cities!

2.). We are loyal to Marriott. We love the amenities as you climb high in their rewards system - we are highest level at Titanium and get upgrades, free internet, and free nights. Marriott is also in nearly every city we've traveled to so it makes sense for us.

3.). We took the train from London to Paris. It was very easy! It was a 2.5 hour train ride from London's St. Pancras to Paris' Gare du Nord. From there we just Ubered to our Airbnb.

4.). I'd also look into train travel to Rome, as that is our preferred way to travel around Europe. An option if you don't want it to eat up a day is to travel via night train and sleep on it.

 

[elgerber]

I’m in Tennessee checking in on my dad so not online much this weekend. But MSR Sunday, about 2/3 through DH Cap One Venture. And still have property and income tax bills coming up so will get something else soon.

 

[bernina]

1.). I'm not sure why it has been said that LHR is difficult to fly in/out of? It's just like any airport, has it's hassles although busy. It's one of the shortest flight distances from the US so I actually would recommend flying in there. London is always my recommended "first trip to Europe from the US" cities as there isn't a language barrier, yet it definitely feels very European. It's one of my favorite cities!

I think the prior discussion on London was the departure tax they and other UK airports impose. It can make flying out of London or the UK in general very expensive, even on award flights.

I completely agree, London is a great first European city (or second or third or tenth)

 

[Judique]

Just wanted to get a second trip in. We are doing Disney the first week of June so looking for something maybe mid July thats not extremely hot.

Thanks everyone, I will have to look at Hershey/Dutch Wonderland. We'd be coming from Omaha and of course flying SW. So would have to see if Philadelphia or Baltimore work better for flights.

Yikes! Mid July will be hot around Baltimore at least. Of course it won't be as humid as Florida, I hope.

 

[StephPlum]

MSR Sunday
P2 - Biz Green - $111 to go
P2- SW Priority - $2000 to go
P2 - BBP - $4800 to go

P1 - waiting on Amex to like me but will be sipping in 2 weeks. That is ok. I am doing majority of spend on P2's cards which is keeping me busy.

 

[punkin]

Is anyone still applying for citi AA cards (or Barclay's for that matter)? My DD could use some AA miles for a possible trip to Europe in 2021.

 

[spacerangerqueen]

MSR Sunday

P1 - $850 left on Amex Gold
P2 - $9,400 to go on SW!

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

We are personally doing Philly —> OCMD w/ family —> Baltimore —> Hershey —> ILs —> Philly over a two week period. I’m so excited! We haven’t been to Hershey/DW/Knoebels since we were teens? except a quick stop at chocolate world last time we saw ILs when my son was 18 months.

I just had to reply to this cuz, well, I rarely ever hear anyone talk of Knoebels! lol. I basically grew up on going to Knoebels Grove as a kid (born/raised in Bloomsburg, PA), and try to go back as much as possible when we visit family in PA. Even after 30 years I still think it's awesome!

 

[orangecuse]

I just had to reply to this cuz, well, I rarely ever hear anyone talk of Knoebels! lol. I basically grew up on going to Knoebels Grove as a kid (born/raised in Bloomsburg, PA), and try to go back as much as possible when we visit family in PA. Even after 30 years I still think it's awesome!

My ILs both went to Bloomsburg U!