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

[Psychodisney]

Before I use a bunch of my URs.....

If I book a flight for myself and SIL (through the Chase portal....SW) and end up needing to cancel it because she can't go....i'll get the points back, right?

Frontier (who cancelled our flights due to Covid back in May and gave use credit plus vouchers when it happened) just cancelled our flight to MCO in February, and moved our return flight up by 4 hours. So they're offering me ANOTHER refund on the flight down PLUS more vouchers (which could potentially pay for my whole family to fly to Florida to see my parents over spring break) but is also leaving us a bit "stuck" for SIL and I to go on our trip in February. It's yet another mess, although I'm a little relieved they cancelled this early and didn't wait until we were 2 weeks out like SW did in August.

The refund won't come back as URs. Most likely will come back as travel credit for SW with Chase as the middle man. I would recommend transferring URs to SW and using RR points to book. (Book one way segments). That way, you retain complete control.
I had booked an AA flight with UR (round trip, stupid) and needed to cancel one way. They had to cancel, give me a credit , and rebook. Now I have a $50 AA credit which I'll probably never use.

 

[Herding_Cats]

uuuuuugh. I knew it sounded too good to be true. She's a teacher, so she's not sure if her school will add to their contract that they HAVE to quarantine for 2 weeks if they travel out of state (which is the deal-breaker for her going) or if they won't require that. I'm am completely OVER booking flights and then having them get cancelled or rescheduled and getting stuck with basically losing a day of vacation or having a credit that I'm unlikely to use.

 

[becauseimnew]

uuuuuugh. I knew it sounded too good to be true. She's a teacher, so she's not sure if her school will add to their contract that they HAVE to quarantine for 2 weeks if they travel out of state (which is the deal-breaker for her going) or if they won't require that. I'm am completely OVER booking flights and then having them get cancelled or rescheduled and getting stuck with basically losing a day of vacation or having a credit that I'm unlikely to use.

Cancelling SW flights is super easy, why are you hesitant to transfer UR's to SW?

 

[havaneselover]

Used my Dell credit (Platinum Biz) to buy a 43" Samsung tv for DS. Also had a 10% Amex offer. The tv at his dad's is old and slow and he's been wanting a new one. Now his birthday is taken care of and it cost me almost nothing

 

[Herding_Cats]

because we rarely fly, so having a SW credit isn't very useful for me. I've taken 3 trips in my entire life that we have flown. i'd rather keep the URs to use on things that i know will happen or can be refunded as URs if we have to cancel (hotels, rental cars, etc.)

 

[Alexle2007]

Before I use a bunch of my URs.....

If I book a flight for myself and SIL (through the Chase portal....SW) and end up needing to cancel it because she can't go....i'll get the points back, right?

Frontier (who cancelled our flights due to Covid back in May and gave use credit plus vouchers when it happened) just cancelled our flight to MCO in February, and moved our return flight up by 4 hours. So they're offering me ANOTHER refund on the flight down PLUS more vouchers (which could potentially pay for my whole family to fly to Florida to see my parents over spring break) but is also leaving us a bit "stuck" for SIL and I to go on our trip in February. It's yet another mess, although I'm a little relieved they cancelled this early and didn't wait until we were 2 weeks out like SW did in August.

I would transfer the URs to your SW RR and book that way to ensure you get your points back. Granted they’ll be SW and not UR. You can’t book SW directly through the portal but need to call in and I think if you canceled, you would end up with a travel voucher in her name. So using SW RR will put the points back into your account for future use.

 

[afan]

I have never used google pay before. Can I link a CC to it? Or does it need to be a bank account?

It's for ccs. It's a mobile pay app. The bank acct part is so you can get the reward money, though you could probably leave it there and use it to buy stuff.

 

[Judique]

Anyone know whether Chase will transfer a credit balance from one card (a CIP if that matters) to another (a CIC)?

They did it for me after they refunded my paid annual fee when I closed my SW card, but it's been a couple of years.

*I realize this may have been answered by now, but if I keep reading I'll forget to answer.

 

[Killer Fish]

I know someone who was told by a Hyatt manager not to tell them they were doing a mattress run. This manager said it was against their policy but I haven’t seen that written anywhere. I’m actually using my mattress run on the weekends. Therefore, I have clothes and toiletries in the room.

This is correct....individual properties may not enforce or do anything about it however this is the truth.

 

[Pooh2]

Any suggestions for a card that would help me pay for a Disney Annual pass with points?

Had our first annual pass in 2019-2020 and lost a lot of the value when our spring trips were cancelled due to closures.
Hoping to give it another whirl in 2022.

 

[DisMommyTX]

Southwest changed my March 4th and 5th flights. Free change banner didn't show initially bc I had companions booked, but the window is still open.

 

[becauseimnew]

Any suggestions for a card that would help me pay for a Disney Annual pass with points?

Had our first annual pass in 2019-2020 and lost a lot of the value when our spring trips were cancelled due to closures.
Hoping to give it another whirl in 2022.

CSR - buy Disney gift cards at grocery stores use PYB. You have until April 30 to use PYB.

 

[Pooh2]

CSR - buy Disney gift cards at grocery stores use PYB. You have until April 30 to use PYB.

Have no idea what a CSR or PYB are..
Can you explain further?

 

[Hoosier John]

Have no idea what a CSR or PYB are..
Can you explain further?

Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) is a $550 Annual Fee (AF) card that earns a 50,000 Ultimate Rewards (URs) Sign Up Bonus (SUB) after you spend $4,000 in the first 90 days. It earns 3x on travel and dining.

The CSR boasts a 1.5x redemption rate of URs (a 50% increase over standard cards). Since travel has been lacking lately, the CSR has offered this Pay Yourself Back (PYB) option at a 1.5x redemption rate on Gas and Groceries, in addition to travel.

So if you got the $550 AF CSR, spent $4k on gas & groceries (Disney gift cards, DGCs) in first 90 days, you would earn 54k URs (the 50k SUB plus your actual spend at 1x, or 3x if travel related). Then you could PYB for the gas and groceries, where the 54k URs would erase $810 ($540 * 1.5x) of your previous bill(s). But the CSR also has a $300 travel credit which is also temporarily being applied to gas and grocery, so you would get an extra $300 automatically erased from your bill. Note the gas and grocery PYB is a limited offer and you can only go back 3 months to PYB on previous bills.

There are other benefits to this high annual fee card, which if at the one year mark (when your next AF posts), you don't feel is worth keeping, you can Product Change (PC) the CSR to a No AF card like the Chase Freedom Flex (CFF) or Chase Freedom Unlimited (CFU), avoiding the cost of the second AF.

This is the basic idea. I may have the numbers slightly off (and someone will help if so), but it's pretty close.

TLDR:
Spend $550 AF + $4,000 on groceries (DGCs) = $4,550.
Get $300 credit + $810 PYB = $1,110
Discount of 24% on DGCs ($1,110 / $4,550)

ETA: Adjusted TLDR numbers
ETAA: Still questioning if I calculated correctly

Should it be: (300 + 810 - 550) / 4,000 = 14%
I didn't sleep well last night!

 

[Judique]

Since I suddenly have 3 free IHG nights with one expiring in 2 weeks, I decided to look and see what was available nearby. Just looking as I doubt I'm going anywhere before next year.

So, for New Year's Eve, I could use a free night at the Willard. Not certain, but I think this is the DC hotel that @calypso726 enjoyed when she came for cherry blossoms.

That made me curious and I checked January 20,2021. Sold out. Only a couple places with no free point nights available and in town a regular room was about $2400. Guess people were thinking of this night long before I got curious.

This was just IHG. Nothing much could get me downtown for either night.

 

[WVMomof3]

Did Chase Biz referrals go away?

I still can't generate my own but I got an email today with my link.

 

[Alexle2007]

I still can't generate my own but I got an email today with my link.

Thank you! So did DH and I got instant approval! So I am all set! Bring on those URs!

 

[Alexle2007]

Since I suddenly have 3 free IHG nights with one expiring in 2 weeks, I decided to look and see what was available nearby. Just looking as I doubt I'm going anywhere before next year.

So, for New Year's Eve, I could use a free night at the Willard. Not certain, but I think this is the DC hotel that @calypso726 enjoyed when she came for cherry blossoms.

That made me curious and I checked January 20,2021. Sold out. Only a couple places with no free point nights available and in town a regular room was about $2400. Guess people were thinking of this night long before I got curious.

This was just IHG. Nothing much could get me downtown for either night.

The parties will still continue...

 

[becauseimnew]

Have no idea what a CSR or PYB are..
Can you explain further?

Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) is a $550 Annual Fee (AF) card that earns a 50,000 Ultimate Rewards (URs) Sign Up Bonus (SUB) after you spend $4,000 in the first 90 days. It earns 3x on travel and dining.

The CSR boasts a 1.5x redemption rate of URs (a 50% increase over standard cards). Since travel has been lacking lately, the CSR has offered this Pay Yourself Back (PYB) option at a 1.5x redemption rate on Gas and Groceries, in addition to travel.

So if you got the $550 AF CSR, spent $4k on gas & groceries (Disney gift cards, DGCs) in first 90 days, you would earn 54k URs (the 50k SUB plus your actual spend at 1x, or 3x if travel related). Then you could PYB for the gas and groceries, where the 54k URs would erase $810 ($540 * 1.5x) of your previous bill(s). But the CSR also has a $300 travel credit which is also temporarily being applied to gas and grocery, so you would get an extra $300 automatically erased from your bill. Note the gas and grocery PYB is a limited offer and you can only go back 3 months to PYB on previous bills.

There are other benefits to this high annual fee card, which if at the one year mark (when your next AF posts), you don't feel is worth keeping, you can Product Change (PC) the CSR to a No AF card like the Chase Freedom Flex (CFF) or Chase Freedom Unlimited (CFU), avoiding the cost of the second AF.

This is the basic idea. I may have the numbers slightly off (and someone will help if so), but it's pretty close.

TLDR:
Spend $550 AF + $4,000 on groceries (DGCs) = $4,550.
Get $300 credit + $810 PYB = $1,110
Discount of 28% on DGCs ($1,110 / $4,000)

Sorry, I thought you were a regular lurker on here - you probably came over from the GC thread. John did a great job at explaining this, but I bet the $550 annual fee (AF) of the Sapphire Reserved (CSR) scared you away.

Another option is the Chase is the Sapphire Preferred (CSP). That card only has an AF of $95 and has a better sign up bonus (SUB) 60,000 Chase URs after spending $4,000 but unlike the CSR the CSP Pay Yourself Back is only 1.25.

Until 4/30/21 Groceries will earn 2pts/$1 with the CSP... So if you buy $4,000 in DGCs at grocery stores, you'll earn 60,000 from the (SUB) + 8,000 from the grocery store purchases you'll have 68,000 Chase points to "erase" those transactions which works out to $850 dollars. (68,000*.0125)

You'll save $755 ($850-$95) on Disney Gift Card. The CSR is a better deal but it took me 3 years of credit churning to be okay with paying $550 for an AF.

The $755 works out to 18% savings.

 

[ep1229]

Anyone have tips/tricks with Alaska Airline Companion certificates that are expiring at the end of the month? I tried asking for an extension and they said no.