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

[trenty]

I believe with United you have to transfer to one of the foreign carriers and use their programs to book. I don't know offhand which ones. Or you can book through the Chase travel portal at 1.25 or 1.5 cpp.

Also, can someone give me tips on how to use URs or MRs to book with United?

URs can transfer to United.

 

[trenty]

I have a 10% shopdisney offer on the CFU. Wonder if it will work with a gift card purchase???

 

[havaneselover]

I have a 10% shopdisney offer on the CFU. Wonder if it will work with a gift card purchase???

In the past it has.

 

[sinnika]

I have 368,000 miles that I earned from my Capital One business Spark card last year. I’ve never redeemed any miles yet but looking at best use for them. Future travel plans will be travel from Houston to Frankfurt, Germany and London next year. Need a hotel stay in London for a few nights before a DCL Cruise in September 2022. Anyone have experience with Capital One miles?

 

[calypso726]

Is there a quick and easy way to find out which domestic flights have lie-flat seats in first?

Also, can someone give me tips on how to use URs or MRs to book with United?

You can look up your flight and plane on Seat Guru dot com. It will show you if the seats are truly lie flat or angle flat.

You can transfer UR to United 1:1.However, I’d advise checking paying through the UR portal especially if you have a CSR which will make your points worth 1.5 cents each. Then compare which way will cost you less points.

If you have a biz Plat Amex you can book through their travel portal and pay with MR points. Then, in a few weeks you would be refunded 35% of your points.

If there is saver award space on the United flight you can also transfer your MR points to Air Canada and book the United flight that way. MMS article here for more details.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/millio.../amex-points-for-united-airlines-flights/amp/

 

[happ]

I have a 10% shopdisney offer on the CFU. Wonder if it will work with a gift card purchase???

I received that offer on BofA today and was thinking the same thing! RMN has 10% back at Disney. That has paid out for some folks on the GC thread.

 

[trenty]

I received that offer on BofA today and was thinking the same thing! RMN has 10% back at Disney. That has paid out for some

I just bought a $50 gc on shopdisney. Went through RMN and used my CFU to pay. I will report back letting you know if I get both (or either) credit.

 

[Psychodisney]

I have 368,000 miles that I earned from my Capital One business Spark card last year. I’ve never redeemed any miles yet but looking at best use for them. Future travel plans will be travel from Houston to Frankfurt, Germany and London next year. Need a hotel stay in London for a few nights before a DCL Cruise in September 2022. Anyone have experience with Capital One miles?

Very easy to use. You have $3680 dollars available. You charge your travel related charges to your Spark card. Then you erase them with your reward dollars. Boom. Done.

 

[wanderlust7]

I have 368,000 miles that I earned from my Capital One business Spark card last year. I’ve never redeemed any miles yet but looking at best use for them. Future travel plans will be travel from Houston to Frankfurt, Germany and London next year. Need a hotel stay in London for a few nights before a DCL Cruise in September 2022. Anyone have experience with Capital One miles?

I've only used the travel eraser at 1 cent per point. They have transfer partners too, which transfer at less than 1:1. You might be able to get more value that way. Here's an article going through each one and what they might be good for:

https://millionmilesecrets.com/guides/capital-one-transfer-partners/

 

[iujen94]

WWYD, credit card experts? I think I'm going to apply for the new United Quest card. 80k United miles after $5k spend, and another 20k when you spend $10k. $250 annual fee. $125 United purchase credit. 5k in bonus miles for up to 2 award bookings after your first anniversary.

I primarily (exclusively) want this card because we will be flying United to Switzerland in July 2022. This is a rescheduled trip from July 2020, and I've got 180k in United miles (transferred from my CSR/CSP) from our cancelled flights (that covered 3 of our 4 flights; the 4th we used an old United credit). I'm thinking the extra 80k (or 100k) miles will cover the 4th ticket and maybe let us upgrade our seats a bit (or cover any increased miles needed to book for next year).

I'm debating if I should apply now or wait until July. If I apply now, I'd have to pay the annual fee twice in order to have the card be active during our trip (to get the free checked bags, priority boarding, and also the 5k bonus miles on award bookings). If i wait until July, I only have to pay the award fee once, but I lose out on the 5k bonus miles on award bookings - I'm not that worried about that piece, because we never fly United, and they offer very few flights from our home airport. My bigger concern, now that I am typing this out and thinking it through, is that this opening offer won't still be available in July.

So WWYD? Roll the dice and wait to apply in July? (Do you think Chase will give a "heads up" as to when the opening offer will be gone, or will it just disappear one day?) Apply now, and suck it up and pay the annual fee twice so that the card will be active next July? Or apply now and cancel it when the annual fee comes around, and not worry about having the card for free checked bags, priority boarding, the bonus miles, etc.?

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I have a 10% shopdisney offer on the CFU. Wonder if it will work with a gift card purchase???

I wonder what constitutes as third party delivery service? That's the only thing not valid for the offer.

 

[tink1970]

Usually you can tell by the configuration of the J cabin, if the seats are straight they aren't lie flat, if they are herringbone they probably are. You may have to look up the equipment list to find out. Going to the specific airline forum on Flyertalk is usually a good way to check also. What is the route?

I believe with United you have to transfer to one of the foreign carriers and use their programs to book. I don't know offhand which ones. Or you can book through the Chase travel portal at 1.25 or 1.5 cpp.

This is true, but @mmmears keep in mind equipment swap outs happen ALL THE TIME so just because you book one configuration doesn't mean you'll board that one. I've benefitted (united Polaris whoo hoo) and been burned (Aer Lingus old biz, boo) with plane changes.

 

[sinnika]

Very easy to use. You have $3680 dollars available. You charge your travel related charges to your Spark card. Then you erase them with your reward dollars. Boom. Done.

Is it complicated to transfer Spark miles to an airline? Looks like if I transfer to Air Canada's Aeroplan program or Avianca LifeMiles, I can get a better value for flights using points. Never used either airline program. Anyone have experience with them?

 

[wanderlust7]

WWYD, credit card experts? I think I'm going to apply for the new United Quest card. 80k United miles after $5k spend, and another 20k when you spend $10k. $250 annual fee. $125 United purchase credit. 5k in bonus miles for up to 2 award bookings after your first anniversary.

I primarily (exclusively) want this card because we will be flying United to Switzerland in July 2022. This is a rescheduled trip from July 2020, and I've got 180k in United miles (transferred from my CSR/CSP) from our cancelled flights (that covered 3 of our 4 flights; the 4th we used an old United credit). I'm thinking the extra 80k (or 100k) miles will cover the 4th ticket and maybe let us upgrade our seats a bit (or cover any increased miles needed to book for next year).

I'm debating if I should apply now or wait until July. If I apply now, I'd have to pay the annual fee twice in order to have the card be active during our trip (to get the free checked bags, priority boarding, and also the 5k bonus miles on award bookings). If i wait until July, I only have to pay the award fee once, but I lose out on the 5k bonus miles on award bookings - I'm not that worried about that piece, because we never fly United, and they offer very few flights from our home airport. My bigger concern, now that I am typing this out and thinking it through, is that this opening offer won't still be available in July.

So WWYD? Roll the dice and wait to apply in July? (Do you think Chase will give a "heads up" as to when the opening offer will be gone, or will it just disappear one day?) Apply now, and suck it up and pay the annual fee twice so that the card will be active next July? Or apply now and cancel it when the annual fee comes around, and not worry about having the card for free checked bags, priority boarding, the bonus miles, etc.?

Thanks for your thoughts!

There was a June 2 end date, but now I don't see it on the application page. Not sure if Chase ever pulls offers early after stating an end date, but that's what I would worry about seeing that.

 

[trenty]

I wonder what constitutes as third party delivery service? That's the only thing not valid for the offer.

I just googled it - Doordash, Postmates, etc are "third party delivery services."

 

[sinnika]

There was a June 2 end date, but now I don't see it on the application page. Not sure if Chase ever pulls offers early after stating an end date, but that's what I would worry about seeing that.

You can call Chase to see if that is still the end date. I spoke with them 2 days ago, and they did verify the end date was June 2. I also asked if the support link for the 100,000 miles would be available in the future but she could not tell me that. I don't have a P2 although DH has a United Explorer so I wanted to support him. I usually go to the reddit page to find a support link for my cards. I'm going back and forth between applying for a CIC now, or the United Quest.

 

[havaneselover]

DS got a job at Kings Dominion for the summer. Hoping it works out. He's making 50% more per hour than DD. I feel like she's going to hear about that.

 

[wanderlust7]

Is it complicated to transfer Spark miles to an airline? Looks like if I transfer to Air Canada's Aeroplan program or Avianca LifeMiles, I can get a better value for flights using points. Never used either airline program. Anyone have experience with them?

Here are instructions on how to transfer. Looks like Air Canada and Avianca should be instant, so you can do it after you know there's availability. I've read that Avianca is a pain to deal with if you need to contact them.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/how-to-transfer-capital-one-miles-to-airline-partners/

 

[platamama]

I just planned our Thanksgiving trip to Costa Rica, and I have hope this will actually happen! Not going to Punta Islita as in the past, trying something new to us.

Hotel: Andaz Papagayo on points, Globalist due to mattress runs. I was hoping to reach the 50 elite night tier by now (for the suite upgrades) but all my spring break plans got canceled so I didn't reach that mark and now it looks like the hotel is sold out that week. Once I actually reach 50, I'll see if there's any way to be waitlisted for a suite.

*Flights: 3 RT tickets using UA miles (3 x 80K miles + $242 taxes), getting about 1.9cpm redemption for those which is pretty good. Interestingly, the options for award flights were very different for me vs DH. I'm just a lowly plain member, and he is Silver due to company travel in the Before Times, and he had so many more options than when I logged into my account. Even so, the award flight itinerary I picked isn't even available to purchase with cash on the United website, and it turned out to be the optimal scheduling for us so yay for points!

DH and I both got our 2nd Pfizer shots this week, DD gets her 2nd in a couple of weeks. Costa Rica requires travel insurance to cover your medical expenses (min $50K) and lodging (min $2K) in case of quarantine being needed. I just need to figure out how to price our trip for insurance purposes since it's almost all covered with points.

*Flights are much more expensive now than when I've gone in the past. All I was finding was ~$1600/ticket in economy, even more if it was on Delta or American, and SW doesn't even have LIR on its travel schedule at all anymore. Last time we went in 2019, I got one way SW fares for about $650/pp (covered with RR and CP) and 22,500 AA miles/pp on the way home.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

I just planned our Thanksgiving trip to Costa Rica, and I have hope this will actually happen! Not going to Punta Islita as in the past, trying something new to us.

Hotel: Andaz Papagayo on points, Globalist due to mattress runs. I was hoping to reach the 50 elite night tier by now (for the suite upgrades) but all my spring break plans got canceled so I didn't reach that mark and now it looks like the hotel is sold out that week. Once I actually reach 50, I'll see if there's any way to be waitlisted for a suite.

*Flights: 3 RT tickets using UA miles (3 x 80K miles + $242 taxes), getting about 1.9cpm redemption for those which is pretty good. Interestingly, the options for award flights were very different for me vs DH. I'm just a lowly plain member, and he is Silver due to company travel in the Before Times, and he had so many more options than when I logged into my account. Even so, the award flight itinerary I picked isn't even available to purchase with cash on the United website, and it turned out to be the optimal scheduling for us so yay for points!

DH and I both got our 2nd Pfizer shots this week, DD gets her 2nd in a couple of weeks. Costa Rica requires travel insurance to cover your medical expenses (min $50K) and lodging (min $2K) in case of quarantine being needed. I just need to figure out how to price our trip for insurance purposes since it's almost all covered with points.

*Flights are much more expensive now than when I've gone in the past. All I was finding was ~$1600/ticket in economy, even more if it was on Delta or American, and SW doesn't even have LIR on its travel schedule at all anymore. Last time we went in 2019, I got one way SW fares for about $650/pp (covered with RR and CP) and 22,500 AA miles/pp on the way home.

Sounds like an amazing trip! I subscribe to Scott’s cheap flights and I consistently get alerts for Costa Rica- in about the $300 RT range for economy. Wonder if it’s your departure airport or Thanksgiving rates that is driving that so high?

I really wish SW would begin offering more international destinations again!!!