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

[Jax1023]

Gonna go a little off topic for a moment:

I’m not a fan of GoFundMe pages. Is it callous of me to think that way... probably. Who am I to judge what another person feels is worth asking friends to contribute to, but a number of asks that I’ve felt were odd and selfish over the years have jaded my outlook on most campaigns.

However, there is one GoFundMe that pops up that always tears at my heart strings: the untimely death of a young parent. I feel like every few weeks one of these flash across my timeline, mostly friends of friends...distant people who I didn’t know existed until now and are suddenly facing an incredibly tough time. Usually trying to cover funeral expenses or provide some much needed financial relief of some sort...and the amounts raised are almost always far too small to even make a dent (though I’m sure every little bit counts).

Since we like to chat about all things financial here and more than just CCs I’d just like to put my 2 cents in on what I feel is an important topic: If you are Young(-ish) and relatively healthy, prioritize term Life Insurance!! If you have debts or a spouse who partially (or fully) depends on your income, and definitely if you have children - prioritize term Life Insurance!!

Hopefully this message means nothing to you because you already have addressed this. For the young and healthy, term life insurance is insanely inexpensive! A number of people I talk to say things like they have 1year’s salary paid for by work so they’re set. I try to gently nudge them that it’s not enough and they should be considering 10x-20x that amount. Of all the things we waste money on, it is my hope that I waste a lot of money on life insurance. So far so good on that front.

Yup. So important and inexpensive when your young. DH and I have 1 million a piece in life insurance for a 30 year term. But we’re higher income. Honestly, we should get another 1 million 20 year on DH.

But for about $100 bucks a month, both of us can be sure finances won’t be a worry if the unthinkable happens.

I also hate go fund me pages. Your inability to plan for the future is not my responsibility. They especially irk me for things like trips.

 

[IFlossU]

Another fan of life insurance. I unfortunately went through the experience of a friend losing her husband very unexpectedly at the age of 42. Fortunately he had life insurance and she didn’t have to worry about finances, but she remarked on many occasions how much worse it would have been to not only have lost her husband, but then to have to face financial difficulties at the same time. I used to be one of those “it will never happen to me” people, but her experience hit close to home.

 

[havaneselover]

A friend of a friend's husband died in a tragic accident that made national news over the summer. Her go fund me page collected > $300,000. I'm not sure whether or not there was life insurance but I suspect there was. He had a very good job.

Then my DS' high school football coach (who also was a bartender) fell down the stairs and died right before Christmas. There was no life insurance and a fairly young child and a wife. I contributed to his go fund me page (first time I've done so) but it made me sad that his only got $20,000.

ETA: My ex's mom was widowed in her 20s with six kids and no life insurance. My ex and I got life insurance after our second was born but I'm pretty sure he cancelled his policy even though he was supposed to keep it in my name. If something happened to him, I would manage though.

 

[tink1970]

I'm back from our 3 week trip to Australia/New Zealand including an overnight stopover in LAX prior to our flights. I'll try to break it down so I don't overwhelm y'all.

First off-I respectfully request please no commentary about travel during this time. This was paid for months ago, DH and I don't meet any criteria that concerned me and I'd do it again. Everyone has different tolerance levels for risk and mine is likely higher than others.

Okay, moving on...

Positioning flight, day #1.
We flew a positioning flight from Florida to ATL to LAX and spent the night at LAX Hyatt. I received an upgrade and we had Club level (I had paid for that months prior). Flights were on my companion fare from Delta Platinum Amex so $750 which for two from our small airport was reasonable (we pay crazy amounts since we're in a small market). I have gold medallion sky miles status which is the second lowest tier but it earns me sky priority luggage drop off and the occasional upgrade. We were upgraded to Comfort + on the short leg-PNS to ATL and were in the very back on the long leg. I chose the very back because I knew as a gold medallion I'd board after preboarding, diamond/first and comfort + so the overheads would be empty in the way back-I stress about the weirdest things! Anyway, the flight was fine and as usual with Delta, I have no complaints and was treated well.

Positioning night hotel Hyatt Regency LAX

Our room was available upon arrival and it was clearly an upgrade. The upgrade was to a very nice, very large room-seriously the size of a small apartment and more than enough room for us-it had a kitchenette, living area with a couch and chairs and then a king size bed in another area of the room. I had paid for Club lounge access and since it had decent food we didn't have to pay for dinner nor breakfast, although with our late checkout we did order room service for lunch the day of departure. The shuttle to the airport was super efficient and quick so that avoided the stress of LAX freeway traffic, another good thing. I'm an explorist (second highest tier-below globalist) with Hyatt and that might have factored into the upgrade and excellent service we received. I'd definitely stay here again if I had a positioning flight out of LAX. I have the Hyatt Visa and earned the bonus (current bonus of 1500 extra points for weekend stay night on second stay during the promotion) for a Sunday night as well as double points for our stay. Whoo hoo!

Day 2-lounge, flight from LAX-SYD in next post.

 

[tink1970]

A little backstory...I planned this entire trip around having earned enough miles via AA credit cards to book Qantas First seats when the amazing opportunity to do so for 110K AA/pp popped up. Of course, in December the AA folks decided to be petty (yes I'll say it) so I was panicking to the point of having United economy seats as a back up (thanks to URs!) just in case.

Fortunately, although on line said Qantas check in desk wasn't open until 6 pm, it was open at 5:20 when we arrived at the TBIT at LAX after an amazing and speedy shuttle bus ride from the Hyatt Regency LAX. We were checked in without a problem and life was good...

First up, the reportedly best lounge in LAX!

Here's a tpg review with photos:

https://thepointsguy.com/reviews/qantas-first-lounge-lax/
I agreed with almost everything-I didn't understand what the big deal was about the salt and pepper squid-I actually had to season it more! I had the current vegetarian dish made with pumpkin and other things and it was delicious. DH had the burger and it was a-ma-zing. Of course it was an $11K burger so there's that, lol. The fries were good, the dessert, which Katie didn't love as much as I did was super yummy (busy and was basically 3 desserts in one, but hey, that's okay) as well. So good that sadly I was still full when we boarded.

I did somehow have trouble getting out of the lavatory once I found them (they are subtlety signed imho) but clearly I figured my way out of that.

Lounge-very nice, food-excellent, bathrooms-scary if you lock yourself in them but nice.

Qantas 12 LAX-SYD

I was in seat 1A, DH in 2 F (middle aisle). I picked row A because I like being super close to the lavatory with my small bladder and I'd read that A seats all had use of the left toilet whereas F and L used the right hand so I was excited to only share "my" toilet with 4 others. Best laid plans...sadly...

Here's a review with photos since I tend to not take many...

https://thepointsguy.com/reviews/qantas-a380-first-class-mel-lax/
I did NOT have an updated plane which was fine-the stairs will be narrower on the updated plane, the seat covering different and as a result of the narrower stairs, seating on both sides up the lounge. I was the only one who was ever in the lounge (except for the FAs) so I'm not quite sure why they need more space but whatever It was nice to stretch out by walking up and down the stairs every hour or so and I rewarded myself with a snack (coke zero and the occasional candy bar).

The FAs were nice, the bedding was thick and so cozy but sadly too hot for the plane for my comfort so I was only able to sleep for a couple of hours. The pjs were warm as well so that didn't help. The biggest disappointment was the left side F class lav was out of order so I had to share with all other 12 first class (1 empty seat) passenger. The horror! Also, 1A is just behind the FAs closet so they were in and out all night latching it--if you're a light sleeper that's loud enough to disrupt your sleep.

I was so full from the Lounge dinner food fest I had a light meal at night-salad, fruit and gelato. The breakfast, otoh, was hearty and made to order so scrambled eggs, wheat toast, salmon, and a broiled tomato with a smoothie and tomato juice. It was pretty tasty!

In short-an excellent flight in Qantas F for 220K AA miles for 2 people-retail was $22K so I felt it was worth the points for sure. If I had a stash of AA miles I'd do it again, tomorrow.

ETA-I stressed since I didn't know how large the overheads were so I brought my regular sized Away carry on v. my bigger Away carry on-the bigger would have fit easily so over packers rejoice!

Next up...PH Sydney

 

[tink1970]

I'm going to cheat and just repost what I wrote when I was there...

Park Hyatt Sydney
19-21 February 2020
Hyatt Cat 7

I booked this for 2 nights with 60,000 World of Hyatt points.
Since I booked with points I was hoping for but not expecting an upgrade. Since we arrived early, we had a wait but the good news- we had been upgraded “several levels.” We were also given a key which would allow us to use the gym - including the shower and pool area. So while we waited under sunny Australian skies we were clean and had gym apples and bottled water.

Our room was 345, so with a king v. 2 doubles in the following review- everything else, however is the same- and Lucky takes better photos!

https://onemileatatime.com/review-park-hyatt-sydney-2/Breakfast was expensive but excellent and the location is great- part of The Rocks with dining and shopping close by. DH and I also “walked the bridge “ which is very close to the hotel.

US Hyatts are pepsi but this essentially perfect place is coke- and real diet coke not light or zero...it really is wonderful

This is an aspirational property for obvious reasons and is at the top of my Favorite Hotels list!


King bed v. doubles in Lucky’s trip report



View from our balcony as I write this up.

It was an amazing property and spoiled us, likely for any other hotel. It had just the right blend of elegance, service and yet un-stuffiness that I prefer. It was perfect for us!

Well...except the cruise ship was sadly not ported right next to us and we had to take a 25 min cab to the port but...small potatoes!

 

[Judique]

A friend of a friend's husband died in a tragic accident that made national news over the summer. Her go fund me page collected > $300,000. I'm not sure whether or not there was life insurance but I suspect there was. He had a very good job.

Then my DS' high school football coach (who also was a bartender) fell down the stairs and died right before Christmas. There was no life insurance and a fairly young child and a wife. I contributed to his go fund me page (first time I've done so) but it made me sad that his only got $20,000.

ETA: My ex's mom was widowed in her 20s with six kids and no life insurance. My ex and I got life insurance after our second was born but I'm pretty sure he cancelled his policy even though he was supposed to keep it in my name. If something happened to him, I would manage though.

I was able to handle this issue by having my ex make me the policy owner of the insurance on him. He then could not make any changes to the policy. And, that policy is still in effect. I am the beneficiary, although I never expect to collect nor do I want to at the expense of my children losing their father.

Once the children reached legal ages I also started to make the policy payments, as the policy was put in place to help me provide for the children if anything happened to him. In addition, I had policies on myself for the children. Eventually I let those go, but kept this relatively inexpensive policy.

After my divorce there were 2 more wives, the first had been able to get her name added as a beneficiary. The original policy was part of our divorce settlement; the policy owner part was agreed to later when I started paying the premiums and the 2nd wife was removed, eventually they divorced as well.

 

[tink1970]

Viking Orion

Deluxe Verandah 5, approx $15K (used 3 new MSRs and earned multiple URs and MRs)

Here's our itinerary-

https://www.vikingcruises.com/ocean...ia-australia/australia-new-zealand/index.html
I will say crossing the Foveaux Straight was less scenic and more try not to yark but otherwise gives a pretty good idea regarding the itinerary! For about 50 hours from Tasmania to NZ it was rough seas and gray days. I took some OTC meds and stopped doing the elliptical and that helped my nausea quite a bit.

Cruise background-
I sailed Carnival twice when I was young and foolish. Now I would never (personal preference and not meant to insult those who are loyal to them) but DCL after ?20 cruises has gotten sort of less than exciting plus I don't see the value in it as I did. So, since DCL doesn't sail this route I figured I could cheat on DCL while contemplating jumping ship. I'll be short since I know not everyone loves cruising as I do!

Service-excellent. Food- very good (I'm not a foodie though). Cabin-small but thoughtfully functional. Entertainment-apparently limited? but there was some-DH and I are early to bed early to rise though so I'm not the best source. There were port talks, history talks, astronomy talks but the guest lecturers that were taped so I did watch some of the nature and history talks in bed which was nice. Access to diet coke-very good-2 in the mini fridge and replenished daily, plus available at all meals. I'm the girl who when people get snarky on the Cruise thread and ask "is it worth $1000 extra for diet coke, I say heck yes." Spa-oh my--imagine the Rainforest Room with a snow room and all for free! I did pay for a massage (the best of my life) from a Russian lady named Natalia...for those old enough to remember I kept imagining Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle "we half ways to make you talk" and it was the best yet most amusing (in my head) massage ever. Also I ate my weight in gelato since it was available at lunch and dinner...yum...

In short-we booked 3 future cruises with Viking-for 2021, 2022, and 2023. Price wise it was smart to do on board since they have some on board booking benefits-$200 OBC for each cruise booked per cabin so Viking is mailing me a check for my POSITIVE balance; current online promotions apply and then a reduction in fare based on the length of the new cruise booked. It's a lot of numbers but basically I had my DCL TA price out the 11night Norway, Iceland, Scotland cruise in a porthole window for 11 nights and it was $13.7K whereas the Norway and Iceland cruise on Viking in a Deluxe Verandah was $12K--so 2 nights more and with a verandah, yes please.

Things I thought I'd miss-split bathrooms, service and ease of food accessibility. I didn't miss anything except occasionally we'd have to wait between 10-11 for a snack in the am. Otherwise, it was fine-and there is 24/7 room service which is, imho, better than DCL's offerings.

Things I DID miss-happy Disney music in the halls, more drawer storage, bingo, and trivia. DH missed the fancy coffee machine in the concierge lounge (and I missed the hot chocolate from same machine). Otherwise...not much.

Viking definitely isn't for everyone! Most people were in their 60s and 70s and moved very slowly...which was occasionally annoying. There was a 30-ish tech guy there with his parents and a honeymooning couple in their 20s but otherwise I'm pretty sure I was one of the youngest onboard. There were people from Canada, UK and Australia as well as Americans so there was a great deal of accent fluctuations and it was fun to eavesdrop. DH and I are old grumpy people in middle aged bodies so we are easily amused, I'm super happy being alone in the spa with a book and we aren't big kid people so the jump was bound to happen. We still have 2 DCL cruises booked (August and December) but I'm seeing my loyalties transfer pretty easily.

If you have any specific questions please feel free to PM me. I'll answer what I can

up next-Auckland post cruise and flight home

 

[Alexle2007]

Yup. So important and inexpensive when your young. DH and I have 1 million a piece in life insurance for a 30 year term. But we’re higher income. Honestly, we should get another 1 million 20 year on DH.

But for about $100 bucks a month, both of us can be sure finances won’t be a worry if the unthinkable happens.

I also hate go fund me pages. Your inability to plan for the future is not my responsibility. They especially irk me for things like trips.

Agree 100%! I was appalled when one was setup as “college fund” for a co-worker‘s children when her husband passed unexpectedly in his mid 40s. They easily made over $300k a year, have had the 2 kids in a fancy private school since kindergarten at $30k+ a year and you want me to contribute to their college fund? Nope, nope, nope.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Did we cover the new DL waiver? No Change Fees for Customers Scheduled to Travel Mar 1–Apr 30, 2020 International or Domestic, ticket issued on or before 3/9. Online it still says the fee is waived, I've DM'd DL on Twitter about an award flight to ORD I want to cancel hoping this covers award tickets as well...

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I just booked dd's flights for her Vienna internship this summer. I transferred Chase UR to United (30K economy each way) and paid the uncharge for economy plus on the way home. Going there will be nonstop on Austrian (the IAD flight reappeared today!!) and the return will be Austrian to LHR (3.5 hr layover) and United home to EWR.

We're operating under the belief that late May will be ok for travel. She's worked so hard for this opportunity. Keeping our fingers crossed!

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

@tink1970 I really want to take a Viking cruise!

 

[afan]

Agree 100%! I was appalled when one was setup as “college fund” for a co-worker‘s children when her husband passed unexpectedly in his mid 40s. They easily made over $300k a year, have had the 2 kids in a fancy private school since kindergarten at $30k+ a year and you want me to contribute to their college fund? Nope, nope, nope.

The only thing I can hope in a case like that is that someone close to the family set it up but at the same time they should understand the circumstances. But then just because the kids were in private school and they had a high salary doesn't mean they weren't in debt up to their eyeballs. It's hard to know either way so I just scroll past them most of the time.

 

[Alexle2007]

@tink1970 Now I am even more excited for our trip to Australia! Qantas lounge, Qantas F Class, PH Sydney, HR Lax and there other goes astray.

Thank you for the detailed reviews!

 

[MKTokyo]

The only thing I can hope in a case like that is that someone close to the family set it up but at the same time they should understand the circumstances. But then just because the kids were in private school and they had a high salary doesn't mean they weren't in debt up to their eyeballs. It's hard to know either way so I just scroll past them most of the time.

To me, having debt with a $300K salary just implies mismanagement of money & living beyond one’s means It doesn’t sound like a lengthy, expensive illness was a factor. That one would get a hard pass from me.

The most appropriate response to an untimely passing is usually not online panhandling, but that does seem to be the go-to these days. I guess it’s better than “donate to my/my child’s study abroad fund!” Even funnier when they call it something like “spring break ecotourism service trip.” Donate to it yourself.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yup. So important and inexpensive when your young. DH and I have 1 million a piece in life insurance for a 30 year term. But we’re higher income. Honestly, we should get another 1 million 20 year on DH.

But for about $100 bucks a month, both of us can be sure finances won’t be a worry if the unthinkable happens.

I also hate go fund me pages. Your inability to plan for the future is not my responsibility. They especially irk me for things like trips.

Agree 100%! I was appalled when one was setup as “college fund” for a co-worker‘s children when her husband passed unexpectedly in his mid 40s. They easily made over $300k a year, have had the 2 kids in a fancy private school since kindergarten at $30k+ a year and you want me to contribute to their college fund? Nope, nope, nope.

I appreciate these thoughts so much. I hated to feel callous but it makes me somewhat happy to see that other people I’d consider reasonable feel similar to me.

I also like the phrase: “Your inability to plan for the future is not my responsibility.”

 

[disneybirds]

Did we cover the new DL waiver? No Change Fees for Customers Scheduled to Travel Mar 1–Apr 30, 2020 International or Domestic, ticket issued on or before 3/9. Online it still says the fee is waived, I've DM'd DL on Twitter about an award flight to ORD I want to cancel hoping this covers award tickets as well...

I have called Friday and today about various flights and they have given me an ecredit for the full amount. We have so much $$ in ecredits right now! Hopefully we can enjoy our empty nester status in August and use up some of these credits.

 

[tink1970]

Since I'm still up...

Auckland Hilton
1 night 60K HHonors Points

Here's a review since again, why reinvent the wheel?

https://theshutterwhale.com/blog/20...ew-room-fantastic-view-of-the-harbour-and-cbd
We were upgraded to a very nice room with a large deck facing the same general area of the room in this review. We were docked across the water so DH and I could see the hotel when we docked and knew walking was the way to get to the hotel. Unfortunately there was a LOT of road works going on so walking was convoluted but still only about 10-15 minute adventure!

We arrived at the hotel around 9:45 and dropped our bags off. They noted my Diamond Status (thanks no AF Hilton Aspire), provided us drink coupons (which went unused of course) and said our upgraded room wasn't available but they'd get us the first cleaned room possible. So we walked to the Skytower (quite and adventure with the road construction) exchanged something at the gift shop (note-men, ask your wives about sizing if you have questions...just a suggestion--DH bought DD an All Blacks jersey that would have fit DD at age 12 but not 19...).

Our room was ready about 11:30 after sitting in the lounge watching cruise folks check out. I imagine they were annoyed paying for taxis since around 9 pm their cruise ship (aka our former cruise ship) moved docks and was literally in front of our deck. At least we walked, lol.

There were several restaurants near us on the harbor and we actually ate at the same Mexican place for lunch and dinner (I was in withdrawals, lol). There was a crab place, a couple of burger places and a gelato place all right there, as well. I'm sure prices were higher due to location and convenience but since NZ was on sale ($NZD to $USD was 100:67) I didn't care.

Unfortunately we weren't able to take advantage of the free breakfast since we had the concierge get us a taxi at 4:30 am. Another man was savvy enough to know he could get a to go breakfast since we saw him checking out with his bag of food when we were. Oh well, live and learn. That said, we had 2 brekkies and the option of a third that am so no big loss!

The taxi ride was expensive (I knew this from trip advisor) so I budgeted NZ$110 for it and it was about $NZ96. Not having any need for my remaining $NZ, the driver received a nice tip.

Definitely a good place for a one night stay, although I might have stayed at the hotel airport to get another 45 minutes of sleep if I had another early am flight.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I appreciate these thoughts so much. I hated to feel callous but it makes me somewhat happy to see that other people I’d consider reasonable feel similar to me.

I also like the phrase: “Your inability to plan for the future is not my responsibility.”

I used to have a sign in my office that said:
“POOR PLANNING ON YOUR PART DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN EMERGENCY ON MY PART.”

 

[afan]

I used to have a sign in my office that said:
“POOR PLANNING ON YOUR PART DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN EMERGENCY ON MY PART.”

That urgent exclamation point is so annoying too. And if you don't put in the email why you think it's urgent then it's not urgent to me.