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

[reliev]

This one hurts the most, that's our most frequented Hyatt. We always take a late flight out, stay at MCO then head to Disney at 8am.

yeah i do it for early flights for the same reason.

 

[wanderlust7]

in japan too (i try to get 2cpp) I noticed the taxes can make it make or break it for rooms, I just texted my buddy whos coming with asked how bad he wants to do Kyoto because if not ill do it next trip. With wanting to go to both Disney parks (ofc) it may be too much for a first trip. @Wander I think you have done it correctly? too much for 8-day trip? it's all i can do next year. If only i didn't have to work..

If your friend really wants to go to Kyoto, you can probably make it work with 8 days. Say 2 days TDR, 2 days Tokyo, 1 travel day, 3 days in Kyoto. The shinkansen is kind of an experience in itself (get a bento for the ride). It would help save some time and money if you can fly in or out of Osaka. But that adds another piece to your puzzle!

For Kyoto, things are spread out and not always convenient by train. You might have to rely on the bus or a taxi. Don't try to see all the temples because they'll just start to blend lol. Highlights for me were Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu-dera, and Kinkakuji (in decreasing order ).

 

[jujubiee4]

These Hyatt changes are definitely disheartening. Next year want to travel more and every
hotel we are thinking about booking has gone up.

 

[Arcades]

These Hyatt changes are definitely disheartening. Next year want to travel more and every
hotel we are thinking about booking has gone up.

On the plus side, this being a group that includes Orlando enthusiasts, the Hyatt Places at both Lake Buena Vista and Across from Universal dropped back down to a category 2. Both are in very convenient locations depending on whether you're going to Disney or Universal.

 

[calypso726]

yep agreed.
Does anyone ever booked hotels without an airplane ticket? trying to do japan spring next year but I also wanna do ana or jal first but at the same time 35k more points may make me try and do it early without a ticket.

Yup. All the time. Did that with the Al Maha. Did the same for the Grand Hyatt in Kauai later this year. I have the Miraval Berkshires booked and still haven’t looked at flights yet. If it’s a particular resort I want to experience, then that’s the part of the trip I book first, since they are normally open for booking a year out. I can always figure out how to get there afterwards since flights tend to open up 331 or so days out.

 

[reliev]

Yup. All the time. Did that with the Al Maha. Did the same for the Grand Hyatt in Kauai later this year. I have the Miraval Berkshires booked and still haven’t looked at flights yet. If it’s a particular resort I want to experience, then that’s the part of the trip I book first, since they are normally open for booking a year out. I can always figure out how to get there afterwards since flights tend to open up 331 or so days out.

yea i think japan airlines is 300 days same with ana i have to look again its been to long.

 

[ctinct]

On the plus side, this being a group that includes Orlando enthusiasts, the Hyatt Places at both Lake Buena Vista and Across from Universal dropped back down to a category 2. Both are in very convenient locations depending on whether you're going to Disney or Universal.

Woohoo! Yay! Booking these soon for a trip with the grands.

 

[ctinct]

Looking for some advice on which cards to keep open and what to apply for next for some upcoming expenses.

I am currently at 3/24 (assuming that a biz card does not count. If it does, I'd be at 4/24):

-Chase SW Priority - before 2015 (not sure of exact date, but 2015 is as far back as statements go on my app). Just submitted for upgrade to get 5k points - not a lot, but I just need a few more for flights I'm looking at.
-Chase Slate - 12/2016 - don't use often, unless there is a promotion or offer on the account that is useful to me, so possibly close?
-Chase Sapphire - 6/2019 - my primary card, to buildup URs - want to keep for now to use global entry credit for one of my kids & to keep building URs
-Chase SW Performance Biz: 5/2021
-Amex Platinum: 1/2021 - want to keep for now, as I am renewing my passport & then want to use the global entry credit
-Amex Rose Gold 3/2021 - possibly close once my anniversary hits. We generally use the uber credits & dining credits which mostly offset the annual fee, but otherwise nothing special here.
-BOA Amtrak - 10/2021
-BOA CT Bar Association - I've had this since around 1998. Seldom use it, but I've held it for so long I worry about the hit to my credit if I close it, since it will greatly reduce the average age of my accounts

I'm going to owe taxes (which will have to be paid by 4/15) and also have a long weekend to WDW planned in late March to visit DD who is doing the DCP this semester, so I can probably manage to hit $7,000 - $9,000 in spend easily in the short term, and would love to be able to hit a good sub with those expenses. Can't go with CSR until 2023 (at which point I'm thinking I'll PC my CSP then do a MDD if it still works then).

My main goal is points for travel. I like the flexibility of URs since I have the option to transfer to a number of providers, or book on the portal. Hoping to plan a couple of big trips in the next couple of years, but no definitive time frame yet - I was supposed to take oldest DD to Italy & Greece in 2020 for her high school graduation, and had to scrap it due to covid, so we still want to do that, although time frame is a bit up in the air due to her schedule. Younger DD is graduating high school this year and has said she'd like to go to Bora Bora (which I've warned her may be a pipe dream ). Our primary airport is Bradley (Hartford), although Providence is a pretty easy alternative, and for a bigger trip I'd be willing to consider flying out of NYC (JFK or LGA) or Boston. I have a few Marriott points, but not many (around 20,000)

From the small amount of research I've doe so far, I'm think maybe the CIC - $7500 spend for 75,000 URs makes sense for a new card. I don't think I'd have enough spend for the CIP.

TIA for any advice!

Just a thought on the Slate. I had an ancient one that I would use a couple of times a year just to keep it active. We are talking 30+ years, so I didn’t want to lose the history. I product changed to a Freedom. That way you can use it to earn more URs, particularly in the 5x quarterly categories, and then move them to your Sapphire.

 

[havaneselover]

70,000 RRs? Have you checked thru your Biz Plat to see what flights would cost with MRs, especially if you pick that airline for your incidentals since you get 35% MRs back?

I need to figure this out but I don't have many MRs at the moment. Will have them once I pay my auto insurance bill (I'll get my Biz Gold bonus). But I should figure this out because I still need to buy tickets from Barcelona to London (although those will probably be on international carriers).

And yes, 70k rr points (return trip is not available for WGA). And my original nonstop back to DCA was canceled today. I think I'm just going to skip this trip and save my vacation time for a trip to Michigan this summer.

 

[punkin]

How are we moving points between chase cards nowadays? None of my linked cards work anymore.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my Hotel CC 101 questions

I would never chase Marriott points for any reason, but especially not now with the changes supposed to go into effect next month. If I were going to start chasing hotel points I'd go with Hyatt and then Hilton. I say this as a Hilton Diamond and no status with Hyatt. The only downside to Hyatt is that they aren't everywhere, but they are a lot more places than they used to be. Hilton is pretty much everywhere. If you're looking at the Aspire card, it gives you Diamond status, which can make a big difference in some places. No resort fees on award stays and 5th night free if booking entirely on points.

Thank you so much! The Aspire does look very tempting---I think dh and I would need to coordinate apps so that we'd have FNs on the same schedule.

I looked at the Big Island when we were planning our Hawaii trip, ended up cutting it out, but I would use the Chase travel portal to book small hotels right outside VNP.

Yeah, there's really not that much available on the Big Island that isn't really $$$. I hope that my cousin's wedding date will be firmed up soon so that dh and I can book inside VNP. Right now it has open availability for the fall. The Chase portal didn't look very promising when I put in a few dates yesterday, which is a big bummer.

I think Hyatt is the least stressful to deal with, then Hilton, then Marriott. But I like Hilton FNC the best (well, I'd probably like a Hyatt Cat 7 FNC the best, but I haven't gotten one of those yet lol).

For the Hilton FNC, as long as you can find a standard award night, there are no caps. They used to be a little more restricted in that you can only use them on weekends, but they've paused that requirement on FNC issued through this year. If you open an Aspire, you'll get an FNC about 2 months after opening the card, as well as about 2 months after each anniversary. I haven't had any issues using multiple FNCs. Our stay at the Grand Wailea on Maui was 2 FNC from DH and 1 from me. On our Fairfield Anaheim stay, we did have to re-swipe our cc each day.

We've stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club Kings' Land twice on timeshare exchange. We like it a lot. Cash rate is usually reasonable, but point value is often high. I'm not sure if there are standard awards there since they might all be suites.

Have also stayed at the Westin Hapuna for one night. It's a beautiful place. That was 50k Bonvoy points, which is the regular rate. If dates go to peak, then it would be 60k. Who knows what will happen after March though. If we don't get Bonvoy'd hopefully most will stay between non-peak and peak at least for this year.

Thanks for the great Hilton details!

Another vote for Hyatt first (you can always get one for yourself in addition to your DH's card), then Hilton, then Marriott. We haven't found great value with Marriott and it looks like it will only be getting worse in the future.

It's looking like I'll be applying for my own Hyatt card soon!

Add me to the recommendation for Hyatt first and then Hilton. For utilizing FN certs DH and I like the strategy of we each get the same hotel card at the same time or very soon after one of us does. This way our FN certs drop and are available at or about the same time each year. I prefer not having to wait several months to piece together a 2 night stay with FN certs.

Chase drops the FN certs right about the same time your AF hits during your cardmember anniversary month. Amex will drop the FN certs 8-12 weeks after. So if you are trying to time when you will get your FN cert each year, get an Amex about 2-3 months before the month you’d like your FN cert to drop.

We each have 2 Aspire cards now and have had no issues using FN certs. You do have to call to book using those. I just booked 3 nights in Dubai at the Habtoor Palace LXR using 2 of my FN certs and one of DH’s. I emailed concierge and they confirmed they will keep us in the same room.

When we each had only had one Aspire, we’d make a one night reservation for each of us with the same room type. They can add a note to keep you in the same room. On check in we would just reconfirm that with the hotel. Same with Hyatt and Marriott FN certs.

Hope this helps

Thank you for the excellent info! I think I'll go for a Hyatt this month--I'll be off from dh's FN cycle but I would be sure to have everything in hand for the fall and for next October in Australia. And then I think that dh and I will start with Hilton cards in the summer so that we're on the same schedule. I appreciate the details about combining FN certs.

I'm probably the person who has been to Australia most recently (lol Feb 2020) and opened a WoH credit card just for the opportunity to stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney...and it was an amazing hotel and definitely worth the 5/24 slot. DH and I agree that it's our favorite hotel of all times...so my vote for Australia (there's a PH in Sydney and Melbourne) would be Hyatt. Can't help you with HI but there are plenty of others who have opinions on that.

Ha, dh got his Hyatt card specifically for our planned-and-then-cancelled Sept 2020 Australia trip! We are definitely going to stay at the PH Sydney (even thought it's going up a category, ugh) for at least 2 nights, and are planning on the Hyatt Regency Perth right before or after the transcontinental train trip (depending on which direction we go).

Add me to the IHG fans. I'd say for me, IHG - Hilton - Marriott. I have 5 FNC w/ Marriott and no idea when/how I'll use them. I have a friends/family hook up now w/ Hilton, so I find I'm staying with them the most. But I love IHG since the 4th night is free!

Thanks! I think we've stayed in an IHG property only once in the past 4-5 years?
I missed quoting someone else who recommended IHG---I'm so sorry!

On your Sep 2020 trip, did you stay in chain hotels at all or just airbnb + np lodging? This is what I envision for us in a year or 2 (retirement pending at end of this year). While we'd love to have an RV of some sort, I don't want to work another year to make the expense palatable (it also seemed like it's a 6-8 break even point on using hotels instead). We're tent campers but don't think we'd want to do that on a long road trip (or in colder climate or bear territory). We were thinking a combo of chain hotels + NP lodging (which really can't be beat for location/experience) would be a great happy medium. Bringing along our camp stove makes perfect sense!

Aside from SW and Bonvoy, we've been just accumulating URs, Avios, C1 points to use later. While luxury flights/accommodations sounds wonderful, I think for us, defraying some travel costs in early retirement makes the most sense -- we'd rather travel more than travel fancy at this stage. We don't "churn" but do open cards as we encounter large expenses (hello upcoming bathroom renovations).

I had difficulty finding decent airbnbs on our way west from Delaware. We stayed in a Hyatt Place outside of Cleveland the first night and some place I can't remember in Wisconsin the second night. For Theodore Roosevelt NP we stayed at the Rough Rider Hotel in Medora--great location, nice newer section of the hotel. Because East Glacier was closed for the 2020 season we stayed the whole time at the Apgar Village Lodge in a 2 room cabin with kitchen---so perfect, the cabin faced the water. We will probably stay there for part of our next trip to Glacier! We stayed in 3 different places in Yellowstone to cut down on driving Between Yellowstone and Custer State Park, we stayed at an airbnb in order to do laundry. We had a cabin with kitchen again at Custer State Park for a break from the camp stove. The cabin at Badlands NP, at Cedar Pass Lodge, was really, really nice--no kitchen but so much space and a very nice bathroom and a great front porch. Highly recommend that location---can't beat staying in the park and hiking early and late in the day! And then we stayed at airbnbs on the way back east---a tiny house in Nebraska when seeing friends, a restored Victorian in the Quad Cities area, and another tiny house in Bloomington IN as we stopped by IU to visit College Kid (the Hyatt we normally stay at was booked up).

We tried to use airbnbs as much as possible during the Sept 2020 trip primarily because of covid, as it was pre-vaccine. I booked places that were not booked the day immediately before our date(s). On future driving-from-home road trips (as opposed to flying and then driving), my ideal would be to stay in chain hotels on points on the way to in-park NP lodging.

My tent camping days are behind me However, I'm not averse to sleeping-in-a-vehicle camping, if it means we can see some cool parts of the country.

(Let's hope this gigantic multi-quote post that I just worked on over parts of 2 hours posts properly)

 

[mfly]

Is anyone experienced with the WDW Park Pass reservation system?

We just found out that friends will be at Disney this weekend too, so we’re trying to swap park passes to match theirs. Unfortunately, the park passes that they/we selected are the *only* ones that aren’t available right now.

I know that the real-time availability isn’t always reflected in the park pass calendar; there are sometimes a few straggler spots that you can luck into, even though that park is listed as fully booked.

Is the only way to test that for me to drop our current park pass reservations, attempt to pick up new ones, and then hope I can get ours back if not?

Ultimately, we have park hopper so we can just meet them later. It would just be nice to match.

 

[wanderlust7]

Southwest changed my flight to a bad connection. When I went to change it I saw that prices had dropped. I used the one time change and picked a lower priced flight thinking that it would automatically refund me the points, but it didn't. Is that the way it's supposed to work?

When I went back into the reservation after the change to try to change to the same flight to get the difference, it did show a refund, but a lessor amount than it should be. So I ended up canceling and rebooking. Saved almost 14k points each!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Southwest changed my flight to a bad connection. When I went to change it I saw that prices had dropped. I used the one time change and picked a lower priced flight thinking that it would automatically refund me the points, but it didn't. Is that the way it's supposed to work?

When I went back into the reservation after the change to try to change to the same flight to get the difference, it did show a refund, but a lessor amount than it should be. So I ended up canceling and rebooking. Saved almost 14k points each!

With the one time change I’ve found it does not change the points needed either way..up or down…..when was this flight…trying to decide if I should book some spec flights with stops to/from ISP/MCO since SW isn’t changing the direct flights anymore

 

[palhockeymomof2]

How are we moving points between chase cards nowadays? None of my linked cards work anymore.

I haven’t had to do it but I’ve read here people are either sending Chase a SM or calling to move points.

 

[EACarlson]

Southwest changed my flight to a bad connection. When I went to change it I saw that prices had dropped. I used the one time change and picked a lower priced flight thinking that it would automatically refund me the points, but it didn't. Is that the way it's supposed to work?

The system worked as intended. The programming is written to ignore any price difference so that you aren't charged extra when changing due to a change on their end. If you would have called in the CSR should have been able to do that for you and get the points refunded as well.

 

[hsmamato2]

What about 10 years of Amazon Prime?
https://eyeoftheflyer.com/2022/02/1...om&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=MilesFeed.com

ten years???? I still haven't decided if I want to use gift of prime for even another year.....I just don't feel like buying it upfront (I have like 8 months left. This may be it for me and prime

 

[leeniewdw]

I had difficulty finding decent airbnbs on our way west from Delaware. We stayed in a Hyatt Place outside of Cleveland the first night and some place I can't remember in Wisconsin the second night. For Theodore Roosevelt NP we stayed at the Rough Rider Hotel in Medora--great location, nice newer section of the hotel. Because East Glacier was closed for the 2020 season we stayed the whole time at the Apgar Village Lodge in a 2 room cabin with kitchen---so perfect, the cabin faced the water. We will probably stay there for part of our next trip to Glacier! We stayed in 3 different places in Yellowstone to cut down on driving Between Yellowstone and Custer State Park, we stayed at an airbnb in order to do laundry. We had a cabin with kitchen again at Custer State Park for a break from the camp stove. The cabin at Badlands NP, at Cedar Pass Lodge, was really, really nice--no kitchen but so much space and a very nice bathroom and a great front porch. Highly recommend that location---can't beat staying in the park and hiking early and late in the day! And then we stayed at airbnbs on the way back east---a tiny house in Nebraska when seeing friends, a restored Victorian in the Quad Cities area, and another tiny house in Bloomington IN as we stopped by IU to visit College Kid (the Hyatt we normally stay at was booked up).

We tried to use airbnbs as much as possible during the Sept 2020 trip primarily because of covid, as it was pre-vaccine. I booked places that were not booked the day immediately before our date(s). On future driving-from-home road trips (as opposed to flying and then driving), my ideal would be to stay in chain hotels on points on the way to in-park NP lodging.

My tent camping days are behind me However, I'm not averse to sleeping-in-a-vehicle camping, if it means we can see some cool parts of the country.

(Let's hope this gigantic multi-quote post that I just worked on over parts of 2 hours posts properly)

Using Airbnb in pre-vax 2020 makes sense. I think my first hotel stay was in April of 2021 right between my first 2 vax dates and it was still a little weird. I'm not sure when we'll head out on a great American road trip post retirement....our aging dog might have a say in that! But the hotels on points + NP Lodges is what we envision too.

We stayed in the Apgar Village Inn (I think that was the name) in our '17 trip to Glacier with a room that faced the lake. Loved it and would return. The Many Glacier area is definitely worth a repeat visit! We loved it. So nice to hike right from your cabin. We head to Yellowstone/GTNP this June and are doing our standard "3 nights at Roosevelt Lodge + 3 nights at Signal Mtn + 1 night back in Bozeman". Was definitely harder to get the room types this trip and the rental car is twice from 2019!

We're grabbing Airbnb gift cards each month in prep for a 2 week trip to Ireland in 2023. We're staying 3 nights each in 3 places and then will be in hotels/BnBs for some single overnights. Can't figure out a great way to use points for Airbnbs, so grabbing them when they are discounted or we get bonus fuel points at our grocery store.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

We're grabbing Airbnb gift cards each month in prep for a 2 week trip to Ireland in 2023. We're staying 3 nights each in 3 places and then will be in hotels/BnBs for some single overnights. Can't figure out a great way to use points for Airbnbs, so grabbing them when they are discounted or we get bonus fuel points at our grocery store.

Gathering airbnb gift cards is such a great idea---thanks for mentioning it because I hadn't thought about that before. I paid for past stays with a CSR but I could get a better deal with the GCs (discounted or 5x office store or even just meeting a SUB).

 

[elgerber]

I haven’t had to do it but I’ve read here people are either sending Chase a SM or calling to move points.

I combined my Chase Biz and personal accounts and now I can move my points between all of my accounts. To get P2 to my account though I had to SM