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

[hsmamato2]

With the performance card you are reimbursed for 4 upgraded boardings…the A1-A15 slots each card year …if they are available for your flight. When you get to the gate you can ask if one is available….they charge your card and when it hits you are automatically reimbursed.

Awesome, thanks! I guess it's worth a try when we get there

 

[punkin]

@hsmamato2 - yes, just be aware that it’s possible the A1-15 slots may already be taken by others, in which case you’d be stuck with the boarding position you got during checkin (although I think it’s pretty rare that those “sell out” or are otherwise fully filled).

This happened to me once. I needed 2 slots and only one was available. I took the one and my DH boarded with the original (C something) position. He was able to sit next to me in the middle seat. I was prepared to lie and say he was in the bathroom, but no one wanted a middle seat near the front apparently so I didn't have to.

 

[reliev]

I know some of you are interested in this property after the deal that was posted maybe i need to convince the DW to go.
https://frequentmiler.com/hyatts-royal-palms-resort-and-spa-scottsdale-bottom-line-review/

 

[XoxoAmy]

Hi - I love this group (I used to be alon86). Back in 2019 y'all introduced me to the CIB churn and that worked so well for a while! Until it didn't But I got over $5000 of free travel from it, so no complaints!

P2 and I have some Chase cards (details below) but we are big time AmEx people. We love flying Delta, using the lounges, etc. I only convert MRs to Delta points. We also are loyal to Marriott but I don't think MR to Marriot conversion is as valuable. We are getting close to having all of the AmEx cards, and I'm aware of the 1 per lifetime rule, so I have been thinking of slowing down on new AmEx for a while. At some point I will slowly close some of our open AmEx to cut back on our AFs, but will go very slow on that because if we lost our AmEx cards, we would be devastated (and yes, I'll convert as many as I can to $0 AF cards). We don't just churn with Amex - we have a very high organic monthly spend and have for years ($8-12k month). When I'm not working towards a MSR, I default to my AmEx BIZ Blue Plus card as it gives 2 MRs on ALL purchases up to $50k per year.

My parents recently moved to San Fran so we will be flying there often (or buying tix for them to visit us) and United is a huge SFO hub. I'd like to start piling up Chase URs to convert to United miles, but Chase has been SO difficult lately! (See P2 below). P2 has the CSR and I have the CSP and we use those as our go to Visa when a merchant doesn't take AmEx. And we love the 1.5x on travel booked with CSR. We don't have any of the Freedom cards, but I don't know if that would be smart to get now or not. (P2 has a "you are already approved" alert for the Chase Freedom).

Today I'm in the market for a new card. We have 2 trips on the horizon: WDW trip on Feb 18-28 (10 days!), and a to-be-booked trip to visit family in CA in April (probably on United). I can easily hit a high MSR with our Feb Disney trip spending and booking the April trip.

Here is our 24m history - generally I have been opening new personal (non-BIZ) cards in my name, and keeping P2 clean for when we jump back into the Chase pool.

P1 (me) - I'm 7/24:
02/20 - AmEx Marriot BIZ (75k MRs bonus)
04/20 - AmEx Blue BIZ Cash ($500 bonus + P2 20k MRs referral)
10/20 - Chase Sapphire Preferred (80k after $4000 in 3 months)
12/20 - Apple card
03/21 - TJ Maxx Mastercard
05/21 - AmEx Delta Reserve (125k Delta miles)
06/21 - AmEx Platinum (100k MRs + 10x groceries & gas for 6 months)
07/21 - AmEx Delta Gold BIZ (75k Delta miles; 15k P2 referral)
11/21 - AmEx Gold (60k MRs; 25k P2 referral)
12/21 - Wayfair MC (0% for 12 months - we bought a 2nd house in Nov and used this card for LOTs of furnishings)

P2 - he is 0/24:
03/20 - Chase Ink BIZ #3 (last one we were able to get before rules changed - 1000k URs)
06/02/20 - DENIED Chase Ink Biz #4
06/23/20 - DENIED Chase Sapphire Preferred
06/30/20 - Amex Delta Gold BIZ (75k Delta miles)
12/21 - Amex BIZ Platinum (150k MRs + 10k additional cardholder (P1))
01/22 - DENIED Chase United BIZ (would have been 150k United miles)

I'm really bummed that P2 wasn't approved for the United BIZ card this month. The explanation given was "business too new" - this is a sole proprietorship that has been open since 2003! But we apply in P2's name and use his SSN.

I am considering the Capital One Biz Spark Plus Card - with $3000 bonus on $50k spend in 6 months. We will hit the spend, esp. if I can put some of our taxes on there. But I have no Capital One cards to date.

Thoughts/advice? Thank you in advance!

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Here in southeastern MA, we’ve gotten a decent amount so far. My dog is tunneling through the snow drift on our deck. It’s pretty high since she’s a golden.

 

[Sheree]

the snow cancelled my flight to Orlando.
the chase biz cl so low is a pain! need to spend $7500 in 3 months with a 3k cl. had some high bills to pay and split them between mine and p2's new ciu. so $4500 on each to go.

oncew they're done, I'll look into a mdd for myself for csp and csr.

 

[wanderlust7]

Hi - I love this group (I used to be alon86). Back in 2019 y'all introduced me to the CIB churn and that worked so well for a while! Until it didn't But I got over $5000 of free travel from it, so no complaints!

P2 and I have some Chase cards (details below) but we are big time AmEx people. We love flying Delta, using the lounges, etc. I only convert MRs to Delta points. We also are loyal to Marriott but I don't think MR to Marriot conversion is as valuable. We are getting close to having all of the AmEx cards, and I'm aware of the 1 per lifetime rule, so I have been thinking of slowing down on new AmEx for a while. At some point I will slowly close some of our open AmEx to cut back on our AFs, but will go very slow on that because if we lost our AmEx cards, we would be devastated (and yes, I'll convert as many as I can to $0 AF cards). We don't just churn with Amex - we have a very high organic monthly spend and have for years ($8-12k month). When I'm not working towards a MSR, I default to my AmEx BIZ Blue Plus card as it gives 2 MRs on ALL purchases up to $50k per year.

My parents recently moved to San Fran so we will be flying there often (or buying tix for them to visit us) and United is a huge SFO hub. I'd like to start piling up Chase URs to convert to United miles, but Chase has been SO difficult lately! (See P2 below). P2 has the CSR and I have the CSP and we use those as our go to Visa when a merchant doesn't take AmEx. And we love the 1.5x on travel booked with CSR. We don't have any of the Freedom cards, but I don't know if that would be smart to get now or not. (P2 has a "you are already approved" alert for the Chase Freedom).

Today I'm in the market for a new card. We have 2 trips on the horizon: WDW trip on Feb 18-28 (10 days!), and a to-be-booked trip to visit family in CA in April (probably on United). I can easily hit a high MSR with our Feb Disney trip spending and booking the April trip.

Here is our 24m history - generally I have been opening new personal (non-BIZ) cards in my name, and keeping P2 clean for when we jump back into the Chase pool.

P1 (me) - I'm 7/24:
02/20 - AmEx Marriot BIZ (75k MRs bonus)
04/20 - AmEx Blue BIZ Cash ($500 bonus + P2 20k MRs referral)
10/20 - Chase Sapphire Preferred (80k after $4000 in 3 months)
12/20 - Apple card
03/21 - TJ Maxx Mastercard
05/21 - AmEx Delta Reserve (125k Delta miles)
06/21 - AmEx Platinum (100k MRs + 10x groceries & gas for 6 months)
07/21 - AmEx Delta Gold BIZ (75k Delta miles; 15k P2 referral)
11/21 - AmEx Gold (60k MRs; 25k P2 referral)
12/21 - Wayfair MC (0% for 12 months - we bought a 2nd house in Nov and used this card for LOTs of furnishings)

P2 - he is 0/24:
03/20 - Chase Ink BIZ #3 (last one we were able to get before rules changed - 1000k URs)
06/02/20 - DENIED Chase Ink Biz #4
06/23/20 - DENIED Chase Sapphire Preferred
06/30/20 - Amex Delta Gold BIZ (75k Delta miles)
12/21 - Amex BIZ Platinum (150k MRs + 10k additional cardholder (P1))
01/22 - DENIED Chase United BIZ (would have been 150k United miles)

I'm really bummed that P2 wasn't approved for the United BIZ card this month. The explanation given was "business too new" - this is a sole proprietorship that has been open since 2003! But we apply in P2's name and use his SSN.

I am considering the Capital One Biz Spark Plus Card - with $3000 bonus on $50k spend in 6 months. We will hit the spend, esp. if I can put some of our taxes on there. But I have no Capital One cards to date.

Thoughts/advice? Thank you in advance!

What business category did P2 use? After the pandemic started, Chase didn't seem to like the real estate category. I'm not sure if that's still the case.

CSP was denied for holding a Sapphire?

Capital One approval is . Don't know until you try. They pull all 3 credit bureaus. You can try freezing EX if you don't mind potentially having to call.

 

[Judique]

the snow cancelled my flight to Orlando.
the chase biz cl so low is a pain! need to spend $7500 in 3 months with a 3k cl. had some high bills to pay and split them between mine and p2's new ciu. so $4500 on each to go.

oncew they're done, I'll look into a mdd for myself for csp and csr.

Sorry about your flight. Are you still trying to get out?

 

[XoxoAmy]

What business category did P2 use? After the pandemic started, Chase didn't seem to like the real estate category. I'm not sure if that's still the case.

CSP was denied for holding a Sapphire?

Capital One approval is . Don't know until you try. They pull all 3 credit bureaus. You can try freezing EX if you don't mind potentially having to call.

Yep - it was the real estate category for the Chase United Biz card. That's interesting. He also has an insurance agency business, and I wish I used that! How long before he can reapply?

CSP was denied because he had CSR. I didn't realized you couldn't hold both.

Still looking at the CapOne Spark Plus if Chase is a dead end right now?

 

[Sheree]

Sorry about your flight. Are you still trying to get out?

thanks, I rescheduled to March. Hopefully not as cold there either!

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Plans to use my Aspire credits in Dubai have been dashed I saw online that the Habtoor Palace LXR in Dubai listed an experience bookable with the hotel. The experience included getting whisked out to the desert in a Bentley limousine. From there, one would transfer to vintage Land Rovers and drive through the desert to a go on a hot air balloon before sunrise. Aboard the hot air balloon you are accompanied by an experienced falconer and you would fly with falcons while watching the sunrise from the hot air balloon. Afterwards, you have breakfast at a Bedouin camp. So, I reached out to the hotel concierge to book this experience. I was informed that it is not being offered at this time. No Bentley limo, no falcons and falconer in the hot air balloon anymore. I was so excited for this and had no problem blowing 4 Aspire resort credits on it. Now it's just the vintage Land Rovers, sunrise hot air balloon ride, breakfast at the Bedouin camp with a falconry demonstration and camel ride. The latter two of those I can do as part of my included activities at the Al Maha. Sigh. Back to square one. #firstworldproblems

When are you going? Is there a chance they will offer it again in the next few months? It does sound like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

There is this experience on Viatour that you can book on your own (though obv you couldn't use the Aspire credit).

 

[wanderlust7]

Yep - it was the real estate category for the Chase United Biz card. That's interesting. He also has an insurance agency business, and I wish I used that! How long before he can reapply?

CSP was denied because he had CSR. I didn't realized you couldn't hold both.

Still looking at the CapOne Spark Plus if Chase is a dead end right now?

He can try again in 30 days.

If you have a United card (personal or business), you can support him for an additional 10k points. The support offer recently changed to match the public offer.

 

[lsutigers03]

I just booked a hotel through Capital One Travel and paid with my Venture X. Will I get the 10x for booking a hotel in addition to the $300 credit? I’m just wondering if the 10x will be affected by the credit.

 

[KPK02090]

Yep. Right in the middle of the 24+ inches zone just outside Boston.

Stay safe.

We are in southeastern MA and are looking at 18-24+ inches of snow. I am so not looking forward to cleaning off my dog when she comes inside.

I'm in MA and they're saying 18-22 inches for our area. I just hope we don't lose power because it's also supposed to be windy. ❄

Good luck! My mom was a nurse for almost 50 years. Back in 1993 she got snowed in at work for 4 days. My dad also got snowed in at work for 3 days at the GE factory back in 1978. He still talks about how the men were jealous when they discovered that the women's bathroom had a couch in it during that snow in, lol. They took turns sleeping on that couch. Hope you stay safe and warm!

Add me to the predicted 24+ club, just outside (south) of Boston. DH has done one run with the snow blower and the snow was up to the top of the opening part.

I was 7 during the blizzard of ‘78 and my uncle’s car got stuck on route 128, along with tons of others. Emergency vehicles had them leave their cars and brought them to a movie theater for safety. He was stuck there for 3 days! As a kid I thought it was awesome and envisioned eating popcorn watching movies all day. As an adult I realize they didn’t have power, or beds, or tooth brushes or showers and it would have actually been awful.

 

[elgerber]

I just booked a hotel through Capital One Travel and paid with my Venture X. Will I get the 10x for booking a hotel in addition to the $300 credit? I’m just wondering if the 10x will be affected by the credit.

I just got 1493 miles for my $299 flight I booked to use the credit for. So yes.

 

[amcc]

I have a balance on a 0% that expires on 3/1. I plan to pay it off. The statement close is 2/5. Do I need to pay it before 2/5 so the statement including 3/1 is at $0 or do I just need to pay it before 3/1? I know it's not a material difference but all these months when I've been planning my payoff, I wondered.

 

[GZanta77]

Add me to the predicted 24+ club, just outside (south) of Boston. DH has done one run with the snow blower and the snow was up to the top of the opening part.

I was 7 during the blizzard of ‘78 and my uncle’s car got stuck on route 128, along with tons of others. Emergency vehicles had them leave their cars and brought them to a movie theater for safety. He was stuck there for 3 days! As a kid I thought it was awesome and envisioned eating popcorn watching movies all day. As an adult I realize they didn’t have power, or beds, or tooth brushes or showers and it would have actually been awful.

Well, the sweet spot seemed to stay a bit closer to the coast, so we didn't fare as badly as predicted. Hard to say how much we got as the wind was blowing it around so much, but I'd guess we ended up with something close to 16 inches.

Our canceled performance of Jesus Christ Superstar will be refunded to the original form of payment - of course, as this was originally supposed to be a 2020 show, the tickets were purchased 2.5 years ago, and yep, I no longer have that credit card. Any idea how easy to deal with Bank of America is with situations like this? I have no current relationship with them.

 

[afan]

Just looking at the nascar schedule and saw that they are in Phoenix the same weekend as me. I didn't even think to look at that schedule. But I'm now less hopeful of my rental car going below 400 for the 4 days. On the flip side if there's no baseball it gives me an option just not sure I want to deal with the traffic after. I was 15 to 20 min from charlotte and only went to 1 all star race because it took well over an hour to get home and the only way to avoid it is to leave early and then I might as well have just watched on tv

 

[calypso726]

When are you going? Is there a chance they will offer it again in the next few months? It does sound like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

There is this experience on Viatour that you can book on your own (though obv you couldn't use the Aspire credit).

November was when I found availability and could squeeze in the trip. Oh, I certainly hope so. If they do offer it back, I will absolutely book it.

That one on Viator sounds a lot like the current experience you can book through the hotel. But, without the flying with falcons in the hot air balloon, I'm not as enthused. I may do it anyhow but I'm more likely to book something else with falcons while we are there since I can't talk PlanePrincess into skydiving over the Palms.

 

[elgerber]

Just looking at the nascar schedule and saw that they are in Phoenix the same weekend as me. I didn't even think to look at that schedule. But I'm now less hopeful of my rental car going below 400 for the 4 days. On the flip side if there's no baseball it gives me an option just not sure I want to deal with the traffic after. I was 15 to 20 min from charlotte and only went to 1 all star race because it took well over an hour to get home and the only way to avoid it is to leave early and then I might as well have just watched on tv

My guys went to Phoenix for the NASCAR Championship and the full size rental never got under $580 and went up as high as $900. We are going in two weeks, no race, and I still can’t get it under $500