I love credit cards so much! v4.0 - 2021 (see first page for add'l details)

[becauseimnew]

We didn’t stay in Manuela Antonio, but we loved our air bnb in La Fortuna - it’s called Casa Del Rio. The grounds are beautiful, it’s quiet and secluded but really close to town, the hot tub and water slide area was so much fun and the pool was great also.

Thanks for the recommendation, I had picked out a hotel that someone else had recommended but this place looks awesome! It's even on the chase travel portal.

 

[staceychev]

I'm looking at retrying a spring break trip canceled last year to visit school campuses (self-guided) in the Philly/Baltimore area for my HS junior year DD, and using the weekends to see areas we've never been to before. I'm confused about tolls in a rental car, has anyone done this? Autoslash had an article suggesting buying a EZ Pass transponder from MA (I guess there's no fees for purchase in that state) but I'm not 100% sure this trip is going to happen especially since PA has a requirement for a negative covid test within 72 hours of entry though I don't know how this is enforced. We're flying into PHL, and quarantining for 10 days would negate the purpose of the trip. And is this far enough in advance to get one mailed to me anyway? We have some toll roads in CO, but not many, and I don't use them.

The toll route in particular that would save me a lot of time driving is going from UMD-College Park to Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort which is what I've planned for the tail end of our trip to relax. We'll be flying out of BWI.

Any input is appreciated!

I don't think PA is enforcing but I'm not sure how it works with flights. I live on the Jersey side of the river from Philly, and cross the bridge into the city with no problem.

 

[platamama]

DH and I both have accounts. Different emails but same mailing addresses.

Same here, @elgerber.

 

[wanderlust7]

Hotel Costa Verde!! Very cool hotel, stayed here in 2012 and LOVED it. Monkeys right outside the bungalow and all that. No points option that I'm aware of, but reasonable OOP rates.

Airplane room! (Picks jaw off floor.) ❤

 

[Judique]

I'm looking at retrying a spring break trip canceled last year to visit school campuses (self-guided) in the Philly/Baltimore area for my HS junior year DD, and using the weekends to see areas we've never been to before. I'm confused about tolls in a rental car, has anyone done this? Autoslash had an article suggesting buying a EZ Pass transponder from MA (I guess there's no fees for purchase in that state) but I'm not 100% sure this trip is going to happen especially since PA has a requirement for a negative covid test within 72 hours of entry though I don't know how this is enforced. We're flying into PHL, and quarantining for 10 days would negate the purpose of the trip. And is this far enough in advance to get one mailed to me anyway? We have some toll roads in CO, but not many, and I don't use them.

The toll route in particular that would save me a lot of time driving is going from UMD-College Park to Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort which is what I've planned for the tail end of our trip to relax. We'll be flying out of BWI.

Any input is appreciated!

In Maryland we have an option of Video toll. This is used by various rental agencies. I looked up Enterprise Rent a car as an example and copied this from their policy page:

The charge for TollPasstm Service under options 1 and 2 above is $3.95 per usage day, not to exceed $19.75 per rental period, plus the amount of each toll. There is no TollPasstm Service charge on rental days that you don’t use a toll road. The TollPasstm Service charge and the amount of each toll will be charged to the debit or credit card on file with your Rental Agreement and will appear separately from Rental Agreement charges on your credit or debit card statement. (See Additional Terms and Conditions below).

So, video toll on the Bay Bridge (4 and 1/2 miles long and scares me to death) is $6. eastbound and they only collect one way, so you would pay 3.95 plus $6 for the bridge crossing. Enterprise has options for installed transponders as well.

If you leave from College Park, UMD, the logical path would be to get on route 50 east and head for the bridge. No other tolls on this route. Not sure what other routes you may take that might also have tolls - I-95 between Philly and College Park has a number of tolls but some are northbound only and I haven't been 'into' Philly in quite a while.

This assumes a rental in Maryland, but since you are landing in Philly, you may want to check the options with whatever rental agency you would use there.

Anyway, what I would do is decide what rental agency you are going to use and check the rental for the toll policy.

 

[Judique]

Not snugglebug but I’m in Houston. At one point 60% of the city was without power. Most of us still don’t have water. We got power back last night at 1 am after being out since Monday morning. We went to BIL’s Tuesday to try and warm up and then the power went out there too It ending up being 65 hours or so without. Still no water but we slept warm and have Internet and fully charged devices again! We are hoping it sticks and that Austin, DFW, and San Antonio warm up soon so they don’t have to deal with ice/snow on top of everything else.

@Artygal90 - didn't realize you were in Houston! So sorry the state is going through this and having lived there for 4 years in the 70ties, sort of relate to the power failure.

Thanks for the response and keep warm and safe!

 

[elgerber]

My Rakuten issue is fine, I told they they are separate and they were good with it. Now...can I have my support bonuses for both accounts please?

The mail is here, so I need to find a minute to trudge down the street in the snow to go get it.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Dh found out the week of April 25 is going to be a busy work week so now we’re looking at either the week of April 19 or May 10. I don’t think anything is going on that week of April but the may week is Mother’s Day. Which one would you guys pick?

I’m trying to convince him to go for 4 nights instead of just 3. The checkout day we’ll go straight home so I don’t count that one. I was hoping to do check in day and another full day at the fort, one day at mk, and then another trying to do the skyliner and boardwalk. He doesn’t want to do MK at all

Not sure if anyone has responded yet but the week of April 19th is school vacation week for most of the states in the Northeast. A lot of peeps would be heading down to Disney. I was originally suppose to be in Disney that week but due to slow vaccine rollout, now pushed out to August.

 

[Haley R]

Not sure if anyone has responded yet but the week of April 19th is school vacation week for most of the states in the Northeast. A lot of peeps would be heading down to Disney. I was originally suppose to be in Disney that week but due to slow vaccine rollout, now pushed out to August.

Thanks for letting me know! I kind of figured there would be some school breaks at that time so we were leaning towards may. We will most likely go the second week of may

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Dh found out the week of April 25 is going to be a busy work week so now we’re looking at either the week of April 19 or May 10. I don’t think anything is going on that week of April but the may week is Mother’s Day. Which one would you guys pick?

I’m trying to convince him to go for 4 nights instead of just 3. The checkout day we’ll go straight home so I don’t count that one. I was hoping to do check in day and another full day at the fort, one day at mk, and then another trying to do the skyliner and boardwalk. He doesn’t want to do MK at all

If crowds are the primary motivation, on the surface, I'd say May vs. April. April could still be in some of that spring break time. By May, you're near the end of the school year and you could hit the pre-Memorial Day lull where people don't want to pull their kids from school that near to the end of the year.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Nothing to strike terror into your day, like seeing an envelope from the IRS in your informed delivery!! Now I am totally freaked out, and our mail doesn't come until late afternoon. I cannot even imagine what could be wrong. I have claimed every tax form I ever got, with no adjustments.

Also, with Rakuten, can you only have one account per household or can each spouse have one? In the terms it says you must sign up with an email, and only one per person. I signed up P2 with an email similar to mine, but a different email, and they emailed his email that I used saying that he can't have two accounts, and they need to merge them.

Portillos finally posted to my card, now to see how long Amex takes to give me the $10 credit.

I had this happen last week... and it was just some stupid letter about the "Stimulus" money they already gave me 6 weeks or so prior... Ugh! HAHA!

(And I totally understand the reaction because it sort of ruined my day until our mail showed up!)

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Ok....more questions re: PC'ing the CSR....
1)right now I have a bunch of $ available to PYB.... wwyd? I need to PC within the next week or so- but when I do I know I lose all the PYB options from the last 90 days still sitting on it.... (this is a $ saving move, I have to cut down on AF spending while we're not traveling right now) -I can maybe buy some grocery gc to use ,or just leave my points alone for now...
2) and if I'm not traveling, wwyd with the UR? I have CFF,CF, FU,etc etc. already. My plan was to get P2 the CSP and pool them all on that card for us. But I'd rather hold off app'ing for that for a while till I know I have some bills due (really low household spend right now) -any drawback to keeping UR on that lower tier card for a while till we get the other app going?
3) also- any possible benefit to PC'ing a CIU to a CIP (if it's possible to do) since that's an easy place to store the UR?
With the above 3 questions, I think I'd mainly just be missing out on PYB for now, did I miss anything? Please and thank you for any advice.

You can easily fix this by just playing games with your downgrade/upgrade.

1) Downgrade your current CSR to a CFU after using the travel credit for this year (if you haven't already done so).

2) Upgrade your current CFU to a CSR and boom, now you have a CSR again and you can double dip the TCs on that in the next year which makes it a money maker for you. And you still have access to PYB at the 1.5x as a result.

 

[AndreaDM]

If they saved all that paper, printing and postage, the stimulus could have been bigger lol!

 

[WVMomof3]

Full flights still spook me, even though I believe there is little evidence of in-flight transmission.

Can I ask what it was about the HP near the airport that you didn't like - I was contemplating staying there for a pre-cruise night later this year (if it happens).

The hotel itself was fine. Just a regular HP. It’s in a little cluster of other hotels but nothing else close. We arrived hungry and the lady at the front desk said there was a good food truck outside. So we put bags in room and went back outside to find about 5 cop cars and loads of people shouting out front. They were mostly in front of the Hampton next door and completely blocking way to food truck. DHsays I think we can just cut through the parking lot and go around. Dude, I am not moving from this spot. So as we were trying to spy on what was going on some person from our hotel comes over to spy with us and tells us he tried to check in the night before and there were like 30 cops out front. Lol. So we just went back inside and DoorDashed and didn’t go back out. Isolated incidents? Maybe. But I should have known something was up when we had to be buzzed in at 3:00 because front door locked 24/7. I can’t remember if I said this was Miami HP east. We flew into Miami and are flying out FLL

 

[elgerber]

I had this happen last week... and it was just some stupid letter about the "Stimulus" money they already gave me 6 weeks or so prior... Ugh! HAHA!

(And I totally understand the reaction because it sort of ruined my day until our mail showed up!)

I think, based on three people getting this, I will just have dh grab it on the way in, it's a long walk and I am cold and lazy, and my dogs go NUTS when I walk out there.

 

[Minnie368]

I'm looking at retrying a spring break trip canceled last year to visit school campuses (self-guided) in the Philly/Baltimore area for my HS junior year DD, and using the weekends to see areas we've never been to before. I'm confused about tolls in a rental car, has anyone done this? Autoslash had an article suggesting buying a EZ Pass transponder from MA (I guess there's no fees for purchase in that state) but I'm not 100% sure this trip is going to happen especially since PA has a requirement for a negative covid test within 72 hours of entry though I don't know how this is enforced. We're flying into PHL, and quarantining for 10 days would negate the purpose of the trip. And is this far enough in advance to get one mailed to me anyway? We have some toll roads in CO, but not many, and I don't use them.

The toll route in particular that would save me a lot of time driving is going from UMD-College Park to Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort which is what I've planned for the tail end of our trip to relax. We'll be flying out of BWI.

Any input is appreciated!

PA is not doing anything to enforce the testing requirement. As far as tolls go, you pay less in PA if you have an ez pass transponder. I think it’s 30-35% off the regular toll cost. I would just check in to the minimum you have to load it with so you don’t waste money with left over. I know if you buy it here in pa you have to load it with $35 and when it dips below I think $10 it automatically charges $35 to your cc to replenish it. I think there’s a cash option but I’m not familiar with it.

ETA: The fee for purchasing the transponder in PA is $3

 

[Minnie368]

If I PC my CSP to a CSR will I lose my available PYB transactions? I have about $2000 of charges I can apply UR to and I’d like to do it after PC to get the 1.5x but will I still be able to redeem it on those transactions or will I be starting from scratch?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

If I PC my CSP to a CSR will I lose my available PYB transactions? I have about $2000 of charges I can apply UR to and I’d like to do it after PC to get the 1.5x but will I still be able to redeem it on those transactions or will I be starting from scratch?

It is a good question - My best guess is, that you'll still be able to redeem against those transactions and that 1.5x will work. I'm not sure this is something that anybody has actually tested in practice though.

 

[GZanta77]

The hotel itself was fine. Just a regular HP. It’s in a little cluster of other hotels but nothing else close. We arrived hungry and the lady at the front desk said there was a good food truck outside. So we put bags in room and went back outside to find about 5 cop cars and loads of people shouting out front. They were mostly in front of the Hampton next door and completely blocking way to food truck. DHsays I think we can just cut through the parking lot and go around. Dude, I am not moving from this spot. So as we were trying to spy on what was going on some person from our hotel comes over to spy with us and tells us he tried to check in the night before and there were like 30 cops out front. Lol. So we just went back inside and DoorDashed and didn’t go back out. Isolated incidents? Maybe. But I should have known something was up when we had to be buzzed in at 3:00 because front door locked 24/7. I can’t remember if I said this was Miami HP east. We flew into Miami and are flying out FLL

Thanks - actually we stayed at that Hampton Inn the second last time we flew into Miami, but was wanting to try the Hyatt this time. Not the nicest of areas but we usually fly in late, sleep and head to cruise ship mid-morning so as long as it is clean and comfortable, it will meet the requirements.

 

[disneybirds]

Dh found out the week of April 25 is going to be a busy work week so now we’re looking at either the week of April 19 or May 10. I don’t think anything is going on that week of April but the may week is Mother’s Day. Which one would you guys pick?

I’m trying to convince him to go for 4 nights instead of just 3. The checkout day we’ll go straight home so I don’t count that one. I was hoping to do check in day and another full day at the fort, one day at mk, and then another trying to do the skyliner and boardwalk. He doesn’t want to do MK at all

We went on Mother's Day years ago and it was pretty empty then, but who knows now. They handed out carnations that morning in MK which was nice, but they probably aren't doing that anymore. We used to go the first or second week of May years ago and loved it. I would vote for May since it is farther away from the spring breaks.