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

[ten6mom]

Sorry I didn't see this post before I posted my previous post. At one week out the price is most likely the price. I find the best prices at about 6-8 weeks out.

Good to know for future- thanks!

 

[smmco]

I am still crossing my fingers for you!



I am doing Costco Travel, booking through Enterprise simply because they're the cheapest one in a reasonable distance from my house. I'm in the Phoenix suburbs but on the far edge of the metro area, so there aren't a ton of convenient pickup locations near me. The location I've been using is near a bunch of car dealerships. It would be more convenient (but much more expensive) to use the smaller airport (not PHX) but I'm all about cost!

LOL. I live in Goodyear. The only time I've had to rent a car in Phoenix is back in 2012 when we lost our keys coming back from Orlando. We had to have our car towed to the car dealership for a new key. Then we had to rent a car home. That is a 600 dollar mistake you don't make again.

 

[ten6mom]

LOL. I live in Goodyear. The only time I've had to rent a car in Phoenix is back in 2012 when we lost our keys coming back from Orlando. We had to have our car towed to the car dealership for a new key. Then we had to rent a car home. That is a 600 dollar mistake you don't make again.

I'm in south south south Gilbert, practically on the reservation.

 

[ten6mom]

Anyone know offhand of a specific property within walking distance of Disneyland that has rooms with 2 bathrooms? I guess that's a suite but some of the "suites" I've looked at have only the 1 bathroom and I definitely need 2. Bonus if it's a reasonable cost... in June....

 

[ten6mom]

Sooo I have a Hilton Amex (and a Hilton Honors account).

I have a newly acquired Amex BBP.

I would like to eventually be able to transfer the MRs to Hilton (sometimes... not always).

If I "link" my Amex to my Hilton Honors, will ALL the MRs I ever earn automatically go there??? (I don't want that). I was getting ready to link it and then I stopped because I basically only want them in very specific situations, not all the time.

Please help me before I screw something up! (I don't have any MRs right now since I haven't had a payment post yet).

 

[mmmears]

Sooo I have a Hilton Amex (and a Hilton Honors account).

I have a newly acquired Amex BBP.

I would like to eventually be able to transfer the MRs to Hilton (sometimes... not always).

If I "link" my Amex to my Hilton Honors, will ALL the MRs I ever earn automatically go there??? (I don't want that). I was getting ready to link it and then I stopped because I basically only want them in very specific situations, not all the time.

Please help me before I screw something up! (I don't have any MRs right now since I haven't had a payment post yet).

No they don't go there automatically. You have to go into your AMEX account and tell them to move x number of points over to Hilton (or an airline, etc.)

 

[ten6mom]

No they don't go there automatically. You have to go into your AMEX account and tell them to move x number of points over to Hilton (or an airline, etc.)

Whew! Ok thank you.

And presumably I can "link" more than one loyalty program/card to my Amex account and then just transfer MRs to the appropriate program any time I need them?

 

[Alexle2007]

Whew! Ok thank you.

And presumably I can "link" more than one loyalty program/card to my Amex account and then just transfer MRs to the appropriate program any time I need them?

Yes. It’s just like URs. I have Hyatt, United and SW linked into UR. For MR, I have only used Qantas so far.

 

[Alexle2007]

I read that as pop tart

So did I! We must talk pop tarts way too much!

 

[mmmears]

Whew! Ok thank you.

And presumably I can "link" more than one loyalty program/card to my Amex account and then just transfer MRs to the appropriate program any time I need them?

Yep you can. DH has linked Marriott, Hilton, Flying Blue and British Air to his Amex account. I think I only linked Flying Blue to mine so far. With Chase I've linked Hyatt.

 

[havaneselover]

So while I enjoyed my trip to Cleveland (first class on American--I had salted caramel balls for breakfast, I'm not enjoying my hotel. I'm staying at the Kimpton which I've stayed at twice before. Terrible views but the rooms are nice. I'm on the second floor at the end of the hall next to the service elevator. I'm also next to the alley. So I woke up at 12:30 hearing a walkie talkie thinking someone was in the room. Then between the alley noise (I think garbage was collected) and the elevator beeping it was a nightmare. At least it's not snowing here.

 

[StephPlum]

Do any of you use rental cars fairly regularly? Is it normal for the price to fluctuate quite a bit?

Originally I made a reservation for 5 days for my upcoming trip. Last week my friend, who is splitting the cost with me since we always carpool, asked me how much to PayPal me for the car. When I looked up the reservation I discovered I had made it for pickup on the wrong day!! Yikes! So to pick it up a day earlier now went from $234 to $374. Obviously my fault so I quoted her for half the original dollar amount and I will just have to eat the rest.

But, today on a whim I went back and looked and the same rental is down to $337. Obviously I rebooked that and canceled the higher one.

And I feel like on my first rental a few months ago, when I brought the car back, they ended up charging me a bit less LESS than my original reservation stated (which I wasn't going to complain about).

So are rentals cars just... weird in that respect or am I missing something? This is only the third time in recent years I've rented. It just seems odd to me.

You got a lot of responses but I’ll add on. I rent cars regularly since we drive to the NPs. We put a lot of miles on those cars! Echoing the group.

Book early. As long as you book a refundable rate you can always cancel. For my Seattle trip last year, the first rate was $1000 for a week and a half . But I rebooked probably 5-6 times and ended with a rate of $500.

Costco is great. They usually have the lowest prices. Plus you’ll get the second driver free. And it is easy to compare across all the companies at once.

i also check on the chase portal. If I don’t need a second driver, I will sometimes use URs on my CSR. I normally find the $ price is higher on but with the 1.5 multiplier, the amount of URs at cash out rate comes in close to Costco. Just depends if I want to go “free” all points or not.

If this is your June trip, keep checking periodically and rebook if it goes lower. I haven’t found a sweet spot yet. Just last week, my March rental went down $50. I keep checking up until we leave.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Hi, We haven't gotten a new card in years. I've been phasing out our Barclays card (most of our life is on autopay) in favor of our Disney card to use the points to pay off our DVC.
That's great and all, but I figure we're spending enough we should get getting a better deal for ourselves.
We have a trip in May to universal, and I know they have some perks for using an AMEX card, so I'm wondering if there's an AMEX card that has particularly good bonuses? If not, I just want some better way to either get cash back or pay for travel. Worst case we could charge Universal to our Delta card and get something else for charging the rest of our life to.

Hi and Welcome
if you could go back to the first page...second post on this thread and answer those questions it would help everyone give you the best advice.
But most of us here start with Chase cards due to their 5/24 rule....and versatility of their URs, but to recommend cards it would be good to know if you are willing to open business cards, how much you would put on a card in the first 3 months to get the bonus points etc....

 

[punkin]

Has anyone else noticed that this thread is not secure? I'm getting warnings from my devices. The rest of the dis doesn't show a problem

 

[trenty]

Do any of you use rental cars fairly regularly? Is it normal for the price to fluctuate quite a bit?

Originally I made a reservation for 5 days for my upcoming trip. Last week my friend, who is splitting the cost with me since we always carpool, asked me how much to PayPal me for the car. When I looked up the reservation I discovered I had made it for pickup on the wrong day!! Yikes! So to pick it up a day earlier now went from $234 to $374. Obviously my fault so I quoted her for half the original dollar amount and I will just have to eat the rest.

But, today on a whim I went back and looked and the same rental is down to $337. Obviously I rebooked that and canceled the higher one.

And I feel like on my first rental a few months ago, when I brought the car back, they ended up charging me a bit less LESS than my original reservation stated (which I wasn't going to complain about).

So are rentals cars just... weird in that respect or am I missing something? This is only the third time in recent years I've rented. It just seems odd to me.

I have always gotten good rental car rates by using autoslashDOTcom. I have compared them to Costco rates and have always saved money using autoslash. And yes, I do check back regularly and find that the rates drop in which case I cancel and rebook through autoslash.

 

[trenty]

Hi, We haven't gotten a new card in years. I've been phasing out our Barclays card (most of our life is on autopay) in favor of our Disney card to use the points to pay off our DVC.
That's great and all, but I figure we're spending enough we should get getting a better deal for ourselves.
We have a trip in May to universal, and I know they have some perks for using an AMEX card, so I'm wondering if there's an AMEX card that has particularly good bonuses? If not, I just want some better way to either get cash back or pay for travel. Worst case we could charge Universal to our Delta card and get something else for charging the rest of our life to.

I was like you many years back when we used to go to Disney regularly - exclusively used the Disney card. When one of my DS started to look at out of state schools four years ago, I decided to explore more "general" credit card travel perks to be able to fly him home and back to school. This is what I did (sorry this somewhat of a repeat post; I can't figure out how to link just a single post here):

I do not churn, but I have a set of cards I use to earn travel rewards. I earn URs through three cards which I got in this order:
CSP 3/2016 - the only AF card I currently hold
CF 7/20216
CFU 7/19

DH had the CSP (7/18) for one year on my referral and the CFU mentioned above is actually his. I may at some point get my own CFU on his referral. But I do not have immediate plans to do so.

I also have an AMEX for MRs(very old card) and the Discover IT (1/18) which earns cash back. I use that cash back to pay my CSP annual dues and other travel expense that I do not cover with points.

I did have the Southwest cards (1/17 & 9/17; earned a CP) and DH does have the no-fee United Card, after having the annual fee card for a year (8/18).

Remember you can go as fast or as slow as you want playing this game. I earn slowly, putting just about all of my household expenses on the 5 cards I use. It earns me enough for my travel needs for now. I love reading how others here churn and earn so much, but I do not have it in me to do that.

And most importantly, if you don't pay off the balance in full each month, it is not worth it to play this game. I pay my cards off weekly to avoid credit card bills. It makes it feel as if I am using them as debit cards (almost).

This strategy has allowed me to fly DS for the past 3+ years with the only OOP expense being the $5.60 airline fee each time. And we have been able to take a few family trips as well and still have many points/cash back banked in various programs.

We do own DVC. I pay those dues mostly with free earned cards from sites like Swagbucks.

ETA: I offer this perspective here to show that you do not have to go full force all at once in this game. Start slow. If you find this is for you go for it and churn away. There are many ways to play this game, churn away or just use credit cards wisely to earn what you can on your regular expenses each month.

 

[Limes96]

So did I! We must talk pop tarts way too much!

So many of us! Maybe we’re just skimming along and it’s been so many pages since pop tarts are mentioned that our brains just automatically assume, if it’s close it must be talking about pop tarts! If anybody ever designs thread T-shirt’s for us, better put a pop tart on there.

 

[CODisFan]

I’m sorry I’m so young guys. I’ll try harder to be old next time!!

Just to make you feel better, according to DW, in the book Star Wars, Chewbacca gets a medal given to him by Princess Lela. I’ll let you slide on the title, as I don’t know the difference

 

[DisneyMandC]

I got an email from Cap One this morning that Accor and Wyndham Hotels have been added as transfer partners. It’s usual, Cap One devalues their points in transfers so it’s a 2 to 1 or 2 to 1.5 transfer rate.

 

[CODisFan]

I am cautiously optimistic

It really looks similar to the DL transformation. I love the new sparkly blue enhancement there. I think that will make Cinderella Castle really pop. I also like the gold! The darker gray bottom has me on the fence. Not sure what that will do with the forced perspective. Only time will tell!

As long as it’s not that awful pink, I think it’ll be good! We were there during that time and have photos of it; every so often I look at them and cringe! I didn’t remember what the reason was, only that I thought of Pepto Bismol every time I looked at it