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

[DaveL]

DD is taking the kids on a Disney cruise and then doing a few nights at Disney afterwards.

I'm planning on suggesting Legoland to her as it may be more fun for the girls right now.

I looked at Disney Cruises but DD loves the rides more than the shows/characters. Last trip (Now 4yrs ago! WOW!) Everest was her go to ride, with FP+ and people holding ROL FPs we just played the 4th FP game and would just go back to back four or five times in a row... Now I hear with G+ its only one per ride so that ends that process now. That was our goto end of the evening process. It's been almost 12 years since I've been to Universal and DD never has so I am thinking of checking that out next summer since she is more into the larger rollercoasters now.

 

[Haley R]

@HaleyR- I saw your posts of your trip. Sorry to hear it wasn’t the best time. How did you like the Poly studio?
I am planning a trip next fall and choosing between Poly and Fort Wilderness cabins. Am I remembering correctly that you stayed at the cabins this year?
Or I might just scrap Disney altogether and use Chase points to stay at Hard Rock at Universal. I am so over Disney’s crowds. I’m thinking we might do more of a staycation at Disney and hit Universal and Legoland for rides.

I loved the poly studio! The double bathrooms were fantastic and I really like the new Murphy bed. Ds loved all of the little lilo and stitch touches.

We did stay at the cabins last year and we’ve been wanting to go back so bad but the price is too high for us. We rented points for the poly. We actually haven’t booked a stay through Disney in a long time because their prices are too much.

 

[Haley R]

I know I should really not think this going into it, but I've pretty much decided this summer trip will be the last Disney trip, and its really only on because I have gift cards from a June 2020 trip that was canceled... I am going to start looking into Universal for DD and I next year. At least there I don't yet know the 50+ things they now charge for that were free...

I read tons of bad reviews before our trip and thought we would be fine by showing up early to the parks (which is what we did in December) but it just didn’t work this trip. Dumbo was a 30 minute wait right after the park opened. Ds can’t wait in anything longer than about 5-10 minutes which limited us a lot. I don’t find any enjoyment in standing in line for things I’ve ridden a hundred times either.

 

[platamama]

I could have sworn that (somewhat) recently I read on this thread that there was somehow a way to extend SW travel credits, and I could have sworn I bookmarked or took a screenshot of the post, but now I can't find it. I went back and looked through 10 pages of posts, and tried the search function but can't find it. Does anyone remember that discussion or did I make it up? I'll admit my memory's not the best. Thanks!

My plan with leftover credits is to combine them into one reservation that's as expensive as I can get it to be, let it expire, and call within six months of expiration to get a luv voucher (that will be good for six months from then). That way the $100 fee will come out of the largest amount possible instead of paying $100 for each travel fund. I read about it on flyer talk - search for "fistful" under the Southwest forum.

 

[snugglebug]

I know I should really not think this going into it, but I've pretty much decided this summer trip will be the last Disney trip, and its really only on because I have gift cards from a June 2020 trip that was canceled... I am going to start looking into Universal for DD and I next year. At least there I don't yet know the 50+ things they now charge for that were free...

I read tons of bad reviews before our trip and thought we would be fine by showing up early to the parks (which is what we did in December) but it just didn’t work this trip. Dumbo was a 30 minute wait right after the park opened. Ds can’t wait in anything longer than about 5-10 minutes which limited us a lot. I don’t find any enjoyment in standing in line for things I’ve ridden a hundred times either.

I actually enjoyed our trip 2 weeks ago. I went in knowing we weren't doing any fast passes except maybe paying for RotR, which we ended doing standby. We prioritized sleeping in and closing down the parks. Deluxe extended hours are the best. It was cold, but I was prepared for it this year. We didn't feel the need to do everything, we just hit up our favorites as we felt like it. We found most wait times to be exaggerated by anything from 10 to even 30 minutes so we really stopped putting a lot into what the wait time said. Space Mountain said 25 or 30 and it was a walk on. Most of the lines felt like they continually moved for a bit, stopped for a few minutes, then a continual move again. That said, my kids are older so I'm not juggling naptime or restless toddler. The hardest part for me was at the end of the night trying to fit in several things when the wait times stopped moving completely. We spent about an hour waiting to get in line for RotR (to see if wait dropped and taking in scenery so not all lost) while we could have possibly, maybe snuck in MMRR or Slinky, but I wasn't going to gamble on those wait times I saw and getting back over to RotR before closing time.

We also did Universal this trip. Those lines were long and felt it. We didn't do some of the things we wanted to do, but did get in Hagrid's Motorbike. I felt like I spent more on food over there and my gluten free options were not quite as plentiful. At Disney I have various gf options, and several are there for mobile ordering. At Universal it felt like salad or burger if I was mobile ordering or I needed to visit the place to see what they might have. Some of that I'm sure is due to our not being as familiar with Universal. We did get year long passes so there is a possibility we might go back to Universal later this year.

I was telling my husband as much as I'm not liking all the little fees at Disney, the one thing they have perfected and I love is mobile ordering my food. We get in line, decide where we're eating and place the order. It's so easy and such a time saver. We spent 2 nights at Shades of Green and I was ready to put in a mobile order for dinner at Poly just because it was close and easy. We ended up actually going to an offsite restaurant though.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

I could have sworn that (somewhat) recently I read on this thread that there was somehow a way to extend SW travel credits, and I could have sworn I bookmarked or took a screenshot of the post, but now I can't find it. I went back and looked through 10 pages of posts, and tried the search function but can't find it. Does anyone remember that discussion or did I make it up? I'll admit my memory's not the best. Thanks!

This might be the post you are thinking of. If you have multiple credits expiring for the same person, you want to combine them all together first. Let us know if you need help with how to do that. There was another post on that.

 

[Haley R]

I actually enjoyed our trip 2 weeks ago. I went in knowing we weren't doing any fast passes except maybe paying for RotR, which we ended doing standby. We prioritized sleeping in and closing down the parks. Deluxe extended hours are the best. It was cold, but I was prepared for it this year. We didn't feel the need to do everything, we just hit up our favorites as we felt like it. We found most wait times to be exaggerated by anything from 10 to even 30 minutes so we really stopped putting a lot into what the wait time said. Space Mountain said 25 or 30 and it was a walk on. Most of the lines felt like they continually moved for a bit, stopped for a few minutes, then a continual move again. That said, my kids are older so I'm not juggling naptime or restless toddler. The hardest part for me was at the end of the night trying to fit in several things when the wait times stopped moving completely. We spent about an hour waiting to get in line for RotR (to see if wait dropped and taking in scenery so not all lost) while we could have possibly, maybe snuck in MMRR or Slinky, but I wasn't going to gamble on those wait times I saw and getting back over to RotR before closing time.

We also did Universal this trip. Those lines were long and felt it. We didn't do some of the things we wanted to do, but did get in Hagrid's Motorbike. I felt like I spent more on food over there and my gluten free options were not quite as plentiful. At Disney I have various gf options, and several are there for mobile ordering. At Universal it felt like salad or burger if I was mobile ordering or I needed to visit the place to see what they might have. Some of that I'm sure is due to our not being as familiar with Universal. We did get year long passes so there is a possibility we might go back to Universal later this year.

I was telling my husband as much as I'm not liking all the little fees at Disney, the one thing they have perfected and I love is mobile ordering my food. We get in line, decide where we're eating and place the order. It's so easy and such a time saver. We spent 2 nights at Shades of Green and I was ready to put in a mobile order for dinner at Poly just because it was close and easy. We ended up actually going to an offsite restaurant though.

I’m glad you had a good time. I would’ve loved to take advantage of the evening hours but ds went to bed around 7-8 pm each night.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Looking for someone’s thoughts on our situation! I’ve been playing around with it and I’ve hit a wall.

Currently have (all in the past 3 years):
Barclay Arrival +
CSR (me)
CSR (husband)

I also have a Chase Freedom I’ve had for at least 5 years.

I just had a baby in December (yay!) and have the medical bills coming up (boo!). I just realized this morning this is a great opportunity to meet a new minimum spend! I’m looking at approx 2500-3000 still to pay.

We are going to Disney this November, so I would love to rack up some more points to get the bill down more. We currently have a total of $3474 in points between the above mentioned cards. We are driving our van so we don’t need plane tickets or rental cars, and we are staying on Disney property.

I can also use this card for all purchases until we go - we spend around 2000-2500 a month on our cards. Neither of us own a business so we can’t do business cards.

Thank you to anyone who reads all this! I’ve learned so much from this community.

Given your spend, another vote for Venture X.

@HaleyR- I saw your posts of your trip. Sorry to hear it wasn’t the best time. How did you like the Poly studio?
I am planning a trip next fall and choosing between Poly and Fort Wilderness cabins. Am I remembering correctly that you stayed at the cabins this year?
Or I might just scrap Disney altogether and use Chase points to stay at Hard Rock at Universal. I am so over Disney’s crowds. I’m thinking we might do more of a staycation at Disney and hit Universal and Legoland for rides.

We've stayed at both. If considering a staycation, especially, I'd recommend the Poly. Love the resort's shopping, the restaurants, the pools, the ability to watch fireworks and the electrical water pageant from the beach, etc. We've stayed at the Cabins as well, and my personal opinion was that it felt isolating- we didn't feel part of the Disney bubble at all.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

DP - My CIC was approved for biz #2 after calling the recon line and then being transferred over to fraud dept, as expected. It took FOREVER, over an hour what with the hold and having to talk to 2 reps.

I am STILL on the phone after asking for cards to be expedited. The rep from Fraud had to put me on hold to see what she could do. From what I remember, the fraud dept did not have that capability. Last time I had to contact regular customer service and they canceled the first set sent and then expedited new cards to me. Let's see if she could pull it off.

I did NOT have to moved any of the previous CL over, so now have an obscene amount on the cards. Too bad we can't buy a car with credit cards. That would be sooooooo sweet! Lol.

My next biz card will be the CIU (again) as suggested but NOT looking forward to this torturous phone call again.

Congratulations

 

[becauseimnew]

FYI for people doing the casino to hotel partner status matching, MGM (fka Mlife) changed their status year from September to January. So your MGM status reset yesterday (2/1/2022) and you'll want to rematch to Hyatt before the end of the month when Hyatt status expires.

The dates I have marked on my calendar are now:
Jan 1 Update Wyndham from Caesar's
Feb 1 Update MGM from Hyatt
Feb 1 Update Caesar's from Wyndham
Mar 1 Update Hyatt from MGM

For this year Wyndham had automatically extended everyone's status as of 12/31/2021 until 12/31/2022 so we didn't need that step this year. But all the rest will be expiring as normal. Between yesterday and today I got our casinos updated since they both expire 1/31 now. Have one more reminder set for Hyatt in a month when it expires on 2/28.

And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's an overview. https://milestalk.com/the-status-ma...o-status-match-opportunities-year-after-year/
(Just one of several blogs that cover this. I just selected this one for the seemingly comprehensive outline of the many programs out there, to give a starting point.)

Wyndham challenge status match is not active still, so it's not as easy to get started as when I did it. But once you get into one program other opportunities may present themselves later. Even if you never stay at some of the programs, they may get you discounts or give an entry point into something you do care about. Both MGM and Caesar's have partnerships with cruise lines. If you have no other avenue for a cruise discount, this might be one way to get it. Stuff like that.

I am having trouble linking my Hyatt and new MGM account, the main goal would be for me to keep my Hyatt Globalist. Is that possible?

 

[calypso726]

I am having trouble linking my Hyatt and new MGM account, the main goal would be for me to keep my Hyatt Globalist. Is that possible?

Not without 60 nights. MGM gold will match you to Explorist when your Globalist expires.
Click here https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/en/rewards/other-partnerships.html
Then click learn more. Log in to your Hyatt account. Then click opt in. Then log in to your M Life account

 

[IFlossU]

You can check online, under reward dashboard, it will tell you when the fee will reset and once it does the tracker will move to zero. I didn't even think to look before I made those purchases :headbang:.
I've read that buying GC on SW will count toward the credit, I haven't done it. I too was using the credit to pay for the 911 fee, until we got stranded and realized that it offered zero travel protection. Cost us about $500 in hotel nights. Don't do it, use a card that has travel protection. (CSR/CSP/Amex Plat).

The fees always post on the 1st of the month, your credits reset after your statement closes. And you have 30 days to cancel the card.

Just wanted to confirm the $75 gift works perfectly. I bought one last year. Credited right away.

 

[miztressuz]

I am having trouble linking my Hyatt and new MGM account, the main goal would be for me to keep my Hyatt Globalist. Is that possible?

Hyatt keeps Globalist pretty exclusive, there's no way to match to it. Even top tier MGM status, which takes serious effort and is by invitation only, only gets Explorist.

 

[LynnTH]

Should not. It's issued by Barclays and they don't report biz cards to personal reports. I haven't seen any DPs of it being an exception.

Great. Thanks. Will apply and see what happens!!

 

[magickingdomprincess]

My plan with leftover credits is to combine them into one reservation that's as expensive as I can get it to be, let it expire, and call within six months of expiration to get a luv voucher (that will be good for six months from then). That way the $100 fee will come out of the largest amount possible instead of paying $100 for each travel fund. I read about it on flyer talk - search for "fistful" under the Southwest forum.

Thank you!

This might be the post you are thinking of. If you have multiple credits expiring for the same person, you want to combine them all together first. Let us know if you need help with how to do that. There was another post on that.

Yes, thank you! That's the post I was thinking of!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

All of my and DH’s personal Chase UR earning cards had a 10% back up to $5.00 offer for Shop Disney on them is morning….

 

[calypso726]

All of my and DH’s personal Chase UR earning cards had a 10% back up to $5.00 offer for Shop Disney on them is morning….

Thanks for the heads up! I got them on my Freedom, CFU and Hyatt personal. Also have the 10% back from Best Buy 10% back up to $25 on the Hyatt biz, IHG and Ritz cards. That should turn into $900 in Disney GCs for $810. Yay!

 

[chattadisser]

All of my and DH’s personal Chase UR earning cards had a 10% back up to $5.00 offer for Shop Disney on them is morning….

Any disadvantage to getting the GC emailed? Or should I get the physical GC's? I usually get most of my GC's either at the grocery or Staples. I then combine all of my Disney GC's online and I am just wondering if the emailed cards make that problematic?

 

[iujen94]

Any disadvantage to getting the GC emailed? Or should I get the physical GC's? I usually get most of my GC's either at the grocery or Staples. I then combine all of my Disney GC's online and I am just wondering if the emailed cards make that problematic?

Emailed GCs can be combined with and/or onto physical cards, just like physical GCs. Much faster to get and easier (no annoying silver sticker thing to scratch or peel off!)

 

[calypso726]

Any disadvantage to getting the GC emailed? Or should I get the physical GC's? I usually get most of my GC's either at the grocery or Staples. I then combine all of my Disney GC's online and I am just wondering if the emailed cards make that problematic?

I combine my Disney ecards on to a physical card that is already loaded online. When it hits $1000 I just go to another physical card and start the combo process again.