I love credit cards so much! v5.0 - 2022 (see first page for add'l details)

[MarBee]

Hello again! I was wondering which card would you use if you were me? Going to be flying from the East to West Coast soon on points (AA to the west, then SW on the way back). Unfortunately, I have to book routes with a layover. Given all of the horror stories with cancelled and delayed flights, I am extra anxious about the layovers. I want to make sure I’m paying the taxes for the flights on a card that offers trip protection in case I get stranded in my layover city and need to stay overnight whether due to weather, staffing issues, or any reason. I have the following cards in my Arsenal:

Chase Ink Business
Chase Freedom
Chase Sapphire Preferred
AA Citibank Business Card
Marriott Bonvoy Visa
Marriott Amex (formerly the SPG card)
Two SW Visas- premier and plus

Which would you use in my case?

 

[becauseimnew]

Hello again! I was wondering which card would you use if you were me? Going to be flying from the East to West Coast soon on points (AA to the west, then SW on the way back). Unfortunately, I have to book routes with a layover. Given all of the horror stories with cancelled and delayed flights, I am extra anxious about the layovers. I want to make sure I’m paying the taxes for the flights on a card that offers trip protection in case I get stranded in my layover city and need to stay overnight whether due to weather, staffing issues, or any reason. I have the following cards in my Arsenal:

Chase Ink Business
Chase Freedom
Chase Sapphire Preferred
AA Citibank Business Card
Marriott Bonvoy Visa
Marriott Amex (formerly the SPG card)
Two SW Visas- premier and plus

Which would you use in my case?

Always Sapphire Preferred.

 

[hsmamato2]

Ok..... what to do now? I apped for the amz cc deal from chase...forgot I had a credit lock on all my accts (all #) should I unfreeze...and try again? Or call in to ask after I unfreeze,or just wait and see if I can app again in 30 days (I'll unfreeze first) (sigh)

 

[afan]

Ok..... what to do now? I apped for the amz cc deal from chase...forgot I had a credit lock on all my accts (all #) should I unfreeze...and try again? Or call in to ask after I unfreeze,or just wait and see if I can app again in 30 days (I'll unfreeze first) (sigh)

Not a big deal. Just unfreeze and call in and say I had forgotten to unfreeze my credit, I've unfrozen it can you run it again. Happens all the time.

 

[ambgoph]

Not a big deal. Just unfreeze and call in and say I had forgotten to unfreeze my credit, I've unfrozen it can you run it again. Happens all the time.

Happened to me before. I called Chase to ask which bureau they use, that way you don't have to go through the hassle of unfreezing all 3.

 

[Psychodisney]

I somehow missed the earlier post about this--Expedia made 15(!) reservations and charged them to your AmEx? This sounds like a nightmare.

They somehow made 15 reservations through expedia. I got 14 emails on 3/3 (four days prior to my legit reservation) which I called to cancel. Then there was a 15th reservation made on 3/5 that I had no knowledge of. When I checked in a the Dolphin, I mentioned it to make sure there weren't any other reservations in my name. Apparently, she missed that.
So, only one reservation of an extra two nights was charged to my Amex 3 months after the fact! After 3 hours on the phone yesterday, I ended up transferred to fraud. We'll see. I don't think it's over yet.

 

[leeniewdw]

Several locations release new appointments on the first of the month. Example: I'm looking for an appointment at O'hare for November (we have a long layover), on 7/1 they released October appointments. I have a reminder on my calendar for 8/1 to book our November appointment.

That's a great idea. We'll have along layover in BOS so that's an option too. But I'll also mark my calendar for 8/1!

 

[reliev]

They somehow made 15 reservations through expedia. I got 14 emails on 3/3 (four days prior to my legit reservation) which I called to cancel. Then there was a 15th reservation made on 3/5 that I had no knowledge of. When I checked in a the Dolphin, I mentioned it to make sure there weren't any other reservations in my name. Apparently, she missed that.
So, only one reservation of an extra two nights was charged to my Amex 3 months after the fact! After 3 hours on the phone yesterday, I ended up transferred to fraud. We'll see. I don't think it's over yet.

wth, I missed this too makes me never want to use an OTA.

 

[magickingdomprincess]

If I app for a Chase biz card and am denied, I would have to wait 30 days to try again, correct?

 

[Arcades]

If I app for a Chase biz card and am denied, I would have to wait 30 days to try again, correct?

1/30 is more of a strong guideline, rather than a rule (such as 5/24), but I would wait the 30 days, particularly if you were just denied. The only reason to rush it would be an expiring offer on a business card that you *really* want.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Were you still able to change the flight for free?

Yes, it was just a 10 min flight change and it did trigger the change window.

It's just a weekend trip to WDW so we can use our APs one last time. I hadn't planned to take the kids out of school at all, so we are going a Thursday night, returning Sunday night, with Friday being a no-student day for them. It makes me want to leave Thursday morning now, but I'm reluctant to take the kids out of school for Florida. I do take them out a day or two here and there for our international trips because I guarantee the experiences they get through travel outweigh a lost day or two of school. But the school nasty gram form letters don't seem to agree. Funny how when they wouldn't let kids come to school for 1.5 years it was a different story.

I purchased our Japan flights, unfortunately didn't get the departure flight I wanted. I wanted the Saturday flight to Osaka, but someone else grabbed the tickets before I could, we still leave our home airport on Saturday night but we have to spend the night at LAX and depart Sunday. I was going to book our stay at LAX Hyatt House, but my FNC expires just 3 days before I can use it (I already ask to a 3 night extension, no go) I'll get a new FNC next year but by then it will be too late to apply the FNC, I could have Hyatt Concierge book a point advance reservation but I don't think i'll be able to apply the FNC. Any suggestions on what to do?

Miles: AA, 240,000 miles + $44.80
Home-->DFW, AA economy with MCE
DFW-->LAX AA first
LAX-->KIX JAL business

Return: BA, 371,000 + $1,340 (transferred 265,000 MRs during 40% bonus)
HND-->DFW JAL business
I will need to book DFW-->home when AA opens their calendar, but I need advice.
Our JAL flight lands at 8:40AM, our options are 10:15AM or 12:20PM departure. Is 10:15 cutting it way too close? We all have GE & will do carry on only.

That biz class JAL deal is a steal. Congrats again. And those taxes/fees aren't horrible either.

Personally I like a short connection time, so I might be inclined to book the 10:15. But, you might want to consider if your fam will want a little more non-airplane time given how long your flight is. I wonder if flightaware or something like that would give you better info if the arriving flight typically arrives as scheduled, which might influence your decision, as well.

DFW has a Centurion lounge, but by the time you travel they may have done away with their guest access policy.

I need to buy insurance for our Japan trip, but I need something that will be flexible in case Japan isn't open by June 2023.

What are you hoping for with "flexible?" You could check the policies, but I believe there are policies which will refund the premium if you end up not traveling (as in, cancel the policy). Otherwise, most trip insurance does not cover the points portion or FNC, etc., but I believe would cover taxes/change fees, etc. I am of the opinion that it would make sense to secure the trip insurance now, as you never know if a pre-existing condition could pop up between now and the trip. Having said that, I have also waited and booked just before the trip.

 

[DogCat]

If I app for a Chase biz card and am denied, I would have to wait 30 days to try again, correct?

Do you know why you were denied? (I am about to apply for one myself.)

 

[Babars_Wife]

I feel like such a CC newbie. I'm looking to book at the Hyatt Eloundra Gulf Villas for 3 nights the first week of April for our Spring Break trip. I can't figure out whether the hotel isn't available because it's not open to Hyatt points bookings that week (not even an option to pay cash though), if you just can't book that far our yet, or if it's just fully booked. Is there some super simple button that cures all my woes that I'm just not pushing?

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Just wanted to share

Just back from the Cayman Islands. I'll write an official trip report, but wanted to do my PSA for travel medical insurance. I've posted before about the importance of this, and we ended up needing it this trip. My 12 yo daughter was in the pool at our resort and she was doing underwater sommersaults. Well, she caught her head on the pool stairs. She came out of the water and toweled off and realized there was blood on the towel. Our server noticed and immediately alerted for first aid. They came and rendered aid; when it got cleaned out and the site was visible, it was clear that it likely needed sutures. They assisted us to our suite and called the hotel's on-call doctor, who happens to be an FAA Medical Examiner and Canadian immigration physician, and had the ideal bedside manner to calm my nervous daughter. She arrived in about 30 minutes and was able to clean the site, provide local topical anesthesia and suture right there in our hotel suite.

The charge was $649, so very, very reasonable. I paid with my credit card and will submit to our trip insurance. Before departing, just as I was checking out on the trip insurance site, I toggled from a $250 deductible to a $0 deductible, and the cost was like $20 or $30 more TOTAL for the 9 people I was purchasing insurance for. So, while making the claim is always a hassle, again, this is another situation where it should pay off. The cost was about $10 per person for a 5 day trip.

And my daughter is doing great and it happened on our last full day there. It was handled so, so well that it didn't diminish our trip at all. And my daughter has selected "sting ray attack" as her go-to story.

Sharing an update: Purchased trip medical insurance on insure my trip from Atlas/World Trips. My daughter's premium portion was about $6.25. While there was a lot of unnecessary back and forth (re-supplying documentation previously supplied), after about 90 days, I was reimbursed the full $649 in medical costs we incurred. Overall, always a good investment.

For some reason, I have only been able to find "secondary" medical insurance for our last several trips. I have always previously purchased "primary." It actually ended up working out nicely in that we were required by World Trip to submit to our primary health insurance, which we did and it was applied to our deductible. World Trip then paid it as secondary. I do have a lot of medical costs this year, so it's nice to have that $649 applied to our deductible and have it reimbursed! So in this case, secondary happened to work out nicely. Having said that, if anything serious ever happened, and you're on the hook for thousands of dollars, that primary medical policy is really nice, and with our experience in hospital in Mexico, the hospital worked directly with the policy to arrange payment before we left (ie, were allowed to leave and after we'd authorized thousands on our cc before being allowed out of the ambulance). Still there's so many horror stories, I can't encourage medical insurance enough when traveling.

 

[MarBee]

Always Sapphire Preferred.

Just double checking- it covers up to $500/person per night in expenses correct? So if there are 4 of us (2 adults and 2 kids), we get up to $2000/night. Sorry I’m being paranoid!

 

[Albort]

I feel like such a CC newbie. I'm looking to book at the Hyatt Eloundra Gulf Villas for 3 nights the first week of April for our Spring Break trip. I can't figure out whether the hotel isn't available because it's not open to Hyatt points bookings that week (not even an option to pay cash though), if you just can't book that far our yet, or if it's just fully booked. Is there some super simple button that cures all my woes that I'm just not pushing?

sorta played with it, they dont seem to pull up at all on hyatt site.
they do show up directly with Eloundra Gulf Villa's website though. https://www.eloundavillas.com/
although i dont see any for the first week of april, my test booking was oct 2023 and they come up available.

edit: One thing i found with that website is you can check availability easily by making the dates long and it will show u day by day availability. but i see nothing from April 4th-April 27th for 2023

hope that helps.

 

[Babars_Wife]

sorta played with it, they dont seem to pull up at all on hyatt site.
they do show up directly with Eloundra Gulf Villa's website though. https://www.eloundavillas.com/
although i dont see any for the first week of april, my test booking was oct 2023 and they come up available.

edit: One thing i found with that website is you can check availability easily by making the dates long and it will show u day by day availability. but i see nothing from April 4th-April 27th for 2023

hope that helps.

Nooooooooooo and also thank you. At least now I know a) I’m not an idiot and b) my hopes about staying there are officially dashed.

 

[magickingdomprincess]

1/30 is more of a strong guideline, rather than a rule (such as 5/24), but I would wait the 30 days, particularly if you were just denied. The only reason to rush it would be an expiring offer on a business card that you *really* want.

Do you know why you were denied? (I am about to apply for one myself.)

I haven't applied yet, just trying to decide what to apply for. I'd really like to be approved for a CIU, but the last few times I tried for a biz card I was denied. But, I was approved for 2 personal Chase cards in Nov (SW double dip). I'm trying to build up my nerve to app again, and if denied try to come up with plan B. Thanks for the info!

 

[hsmamato2]

Not a big deal. Just unfreeze and call in and say I had forgotten to unfreeze my credit, I've unfrozen it can you run it again. Happens all the time.

so chase, you have to call in right?

 

[becauseimnew]

Yes, it was just a 10 min flight change and it did trigger the change window.

Awesome, I should have booked our october trip earlier thankfully they are relatively inexpensive.

Personally I like a short connection time, so I might be inclined to book the 10:15. But, you might want to consider if your fam will want a little more non-airplane time given how long your flight is. I wonder if flightaware or something like that would give you better info if the arriving flight typically arrives as scheduled, which might influence your decision, as well.

I think that's what I'm going to book, specially since I've noticed they haven't released the 12PM flight to BA I would rather book those short flights with those points.

What are you hoping for with "flexible?"

I know Japan is technically open, but we won't go if we have to use a tour agency so we might have to push back our dates. Although I did just read that Japan only had 1,500 tourist their first official month of being "open" so I hope they open for real soon.

I did manage to get a policy that included "pre-existing condition" for our Paris trip and I purchased that 3 months after our initial deposit. So I might be able to hold off on Japan insurance, DH has a pre-existing condition so I do need a policy that cover him. I'm not worried about recovering the cost of the trip, just medical expenses while we are there, though I probably don't have to worry too much as there are several US military bases there and we have Tricare for Life insurance.