The points credited the day after my statement closed on 2/8, and I had the companion pass email a couple days later. Have a couple of flights coming up in the next month or two so will break it in quickly. Smart thinking- no rush to designate. You've got it exactly right.
You can wait to assign the companion, it usually goes into effect almost immediately once you designate the person. But why don't you remain the companion for the Orlando trip since you already have DS's flight booked? You can change up to 3 times a year.
I also just received my companion pass. This is our third companion pass in a row. I had it 2017-2018 and DH had it 2019 through 2021 (an extra year thanks to the pandemic). I just did one card (priority personal) and took advantage of the deal they had at the end of December for 100,000 miles for $12k of spend. I took care of that too quickly
We have a lot of premium cards between us (2 amex plat, 1 amex bus plat, 2 aspires, 1 amex gold, 2 CSRs), and keeping track of and/or trying to use all the benefits is feeling like it's taking more time than it's worth (i.e. the spending money on something I don't really need to use the credits--I'm looking at you Dell). I think I'm also not loving some of the card changes Amex has made--I miss the pandemic deals! I actually really miss the 10x deals that I had on my platinum for 6 months.
Anyway, my Business Platinum annual fee just posted so I think that will be the first one on the chopping block. I mainly kept it around (5+ years) because I use it to pay our large tax bills for the 1.5x, but I think I can plan estimates better to use my business unlimited and DHs business blue. I'll call retention tomorrow and see what they offer. I thought about downgrading, but the business gold and business green don't have much to offer. I would go for the Blue Business Plus but I don't think that's eligible. Wish me luck and will report back!
But still good for the 1-4 FNC!
Correct. Also, if you use Rakuten, it’s worth clicking through - I’m about 50/50 on GCs tracking there.
RetailMeNot would also be worth a try. I've never had luck with Rakuten tracking GC purchases on shopDisney, but RetailMeNot has paid out 100% of the time for me.
I'm probably over-thinking this, but I was assuming that I'd have DS be his companion on the Orlando trip for two reasons: First because we have two other (younger) children that I booked with my points and I wasn't sure how it would work to have my ticket linked to P2's and all the kids on their own tickets booked with my points (at the time of booking, I had many more RR points than P2 did, although that's changed now that his SUBs have posted).
Also, we have quite a few EBCI and upgraded boarding credits that we might like to make use of. If, for example, we wanted to use upgraded boarding on that flight, we would have to pay for it for both of us if I was the companion, correct? Then that would leave the kids by themselves boarding later which I wouldn't want to do. If DS was his companion, they could get earlier boarding groups, board the plane to get good seats, and then me and the girls could board later to join them. However, we would also be eligible for family boarding which might make this all a moot point anyway!
As I said, probably drastically overthinking!
I promise it will get easier once you physically do this and it will all make much more sense! You have a way better grasp of how all this works than the average person.
In the future, if desired, you can book everyone but the companion on the same ticket. It NEVER matters whose account the points are coming from, if using points. Once we have that first comfirmation #, that trip shows up in our account and then we click the "add companion" button, pay the taxes and it creates a separate confirmation # for only that person.
FYI, you can add EBCI for individuals, rather than the whole party if you add it after you've booked the flight. You just pull the trip up from your account, "add EBCI" and then uncheck any individuals you don't want to pay for EBCI for. FYI, the new hack this year is that the companion recipient does get linked to the primary ticket holder and gets the EBCI benefit then "for free." You stilll have to check the companion in, but they get the seat position before or after the primary ticket holder. From that perspective, I do think it makes more sense to have DS as the companion recipient, because they can always board and maybe hold down the extra seats you'd need.
Upgraded boarding is also done for individuals, not by whole parties on the same confirmation number, and it's done at the airport. It's good for just one leg, if there are multiple legs.
So you can use EBCI and upgraded boarding strategically. Perhaps, as you said, you use EBCI for DH and get it free for DS. Then you check in yourself and the girls exactly 24 hrs in advance. If you don't get great boarding positions, you can upgrade you and the girls at the airport or have DH/DS hold down some seats, or fall back on family boarding.
That is what I always do. That way you can confirm the money is actually on the card.
For the upgraded boarding or if you purchased P2 one of the A1-15 business select seats…the companion cannot board with P2 and will not get assigned a boarding pass right after P2.
I guess I should've just waited a day.. the Serve transfer is showing up today as pending in my bank account.
Thank you! I will go through RetailMeNot because (shhhh) I never even looked at Rakuten lol
