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

[LynnTH]

Just wanted to write about booking flights. with points for Europe Cruise. We are going in May 2023. Flying into Rome and flying out of Athens. I started researching last summer what airlines have a lot of flights there. I wanted to try and book most flights with Airline points and then use my UR's to cap off if needed.( I like to hoard my UR points) Decided United would work out (AMEX does not like me so was looking for something that was not AMEX) Ended up with Me, DH, DS and DD all getting the United Biz Card. Each card earned 75,000 points and we also got a few referrals to each other. Ended up with about 370,000 United Points.

There are 7 of us going. I am booking flights for 5 of us. Me, DH, DS, DD and DS's girlfriend.

Flights just recently came out. Booked one way flights.
MSP - Rome - Looked only at flights that were shorter and only had 1 stop instead of 2. Those flights were 70,000 points each plus $5.60 in fees. (There were some flights that were 33,000 points, but they were 2 stops - every single other day except the day we are leaving has award flights for 30,000 points with 1 stop. I will keep an eye on it and if they go down then I will rebook)

Athens - MSP - Got the flights here for 30,000 points plus $57.47 in fees per person. These were for the good flights that were shorter and only 1 stop. So, very happy here.

So, I used 370,000 United Points and Transferred 130,000 UR's. Total cost of these flights would have been close to $15,000. Would not have been going on this trip without these points. It was nice we all were able to get the United Biz Card as it did not add to our 5/24.

I did notice that when flights were released that the award flights were crazy high for the first few days (like 105,000 points per person each way). But about 3 days after the awards flights adjusted and came down. So, don't book any award flights the day they are available.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

All these airline/airport fiascos are having me worried for our upcoming trip! As mentioned, we reworked our entire Yellowstone trip after the extensive flooding, and reports that the North Loop was going to be closed the entire season. (In hindsight, we should have waited because now there are reports that everything will be re-opened in a few weeks. *cry*) Anyways, we are now flying into LAS from CLT nonstop. CLT has had a SLEW of cancellations over the past few weeks. In fact, they were in the top 5 airports for most cancellations last week, which really sucks and has me worried. We're flying AA. The flight to Vegas is what I'm most concerned about. We are leaving in the evening, 6pm. There is ONE other nonstop after, at 8pm. So I'm hoping this leaves some room to work with if anything happens to our flight. Our itinerary is so jam packed from start to finish that any day lost would be a major blow and we'd miss something really great On the way back, our return flight is 6am. It's the ONLY nonstop that day, but I'm hoping the early am will be a benefit. If that gets messed up, at least it's on our way back and I'm in no rush, lol.

Side note: our Utah trip has me SUPER excited! Like, even more than Yellowstone did. And I thought YNP was going to be amazing because of the wildlife. I know the desert is much different experience and not much wildlife, so I don't know why I'm so weirdly excited. Maybe it's because the planning was so last minute (we're leaving in 8 weeks) and so it's almost happening and it's just sinking in. I have several friends that have also been in the past few years, so maybe that contributes to the excitement as well. I know these trips are ENTIRELY different, AND we are going to sweat our butts off, but I'm excited for it, lol.

ETA: Does anyone have any day pack/backpack recs for hiking? This will be our first intensive hiking trip, and we don't really have good backpacks for this. Looking for something big enough to carry lots of water, snacks, change of clothes, but nothing huge. We have our backpacks that we use for traveling as our personal items, but they are like nice Herschel backpacks and not really "hiking" type packs. I was looking at Eddie Bauer site, and they seem to have some good packable stowaway bags.

 

[StephPlum]

ETA: Does anyone have any day pack/backpack recs for hiking? This will be our first intensive hiking trip, and we don't really have good backpacks for this. Looking for something big enough to carry lots of water, snacks, change of clothes, but nothing huge. We have our backpacks that we use for traveling as our personal items, but they are like nice Herschel backpacks and not really "hiking" type packs. I was looking at Eddie Bauer site, and they seem to have some good packable stowaway bags.

we have these backpacks. Good for our hiking levels - packable, holds water bottles, snacks, camera,…. And light weight. https://www.amazon.com/NEEKFOX-Ligh...8&sr=1-1-eef91bd8-9d31-490c-8bb3-80f02876f902

 

[jenmsmith]

This is my first experience with an AmEx retention bonus. I just saw a transaction on my account that says “Amazon Digital Downloads” with a negative amount that is the same amount as my retention bonus. Is this how the bonus codes or is something else going on?

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

we have these backpacks. Good for our hiking levels - packable, holds water bottles, snacks, camera,…. And light weight.

These look perfect, thanks! I’ve never seen a buckle that has a whistle incorporated that’s genius!

 

[570traveler]

Question about IHG card. This is my first year with the card. When does the free night certificate appear (where do I look for it) and what’s the value of it? I need to add a day on to the first and lady day of a trip I have planned for next year and hoping I can use it!

 

[elgerber]

Did something change with being able to prepay Verizon with a CC and keeping the auto-pay discount? I know I was able to do it a few months ago via my account online. Today I get a message that doing a one-time payment will remove my discount.
Update: Nevermind. I think I'm remembering wrong. I must have used a VGC.

Can you partially pay with a card and keep the discount? Amex has a killer Verizon offer right now, but I also have mine on autopay. What about gift cards, do those work to partially pay and keep the discount?

 

[afan]

So excited. Fred Meyer posted as grocery on my surpass. Amex hadn't seen it as grocery so I just stopped using the card. Had some credit I needed to use so I used it last weekend.

 

[tink1970]

Just made it back from my 16 (I think?) day trip to Spain and the Czech Republic. I am so happy to be home after 9 flights, 6 hotel rooms and lots of steps walked . Despite a lot of reported Delta meltdowns, we made it home without incident (thank goodness!).

I had never flown Iberia nor long haul Air France before and although the small Iberia planes were obviously "well loved" the service was good and I'd fly them again if the need arose. Seville was HOT but a dry heat like Arizona and my balcony was very useful for quickly drying swimsuits and sweaty stuff (lol). Prague was beautiful as usual and DD and I had an adventure that ended up with us trying (basically unsuccessfully) to communicate with the train engineer whose mastery of English rivaled my knowledge of Czech (nil/nil). I would, without hesitation recommend my hotel in Seville-Querencia de Sevilla, an Autograph Collection hotel (Marriott). I stayed in Prague at both the Old Town Hilton and across the street at the Marriott and the executive lounge at the Marriott was far superior to Hilton's so if that's important, go with Marriott. I'd love to stay on the other side of the river next time and am looking at the Augustine (Marriott) for my next visit!

I am a diamond with Hilton and titanium with Marriott and neither mattered for upgrades, lol. That said, free breakfast at every hotel and access to the executive lounge was not only nice, did help trim the food budget.

DD was able to get a lot of her research done and I got to know one lovely city (Seville) and reacquaint myself with one of my favorite cities in the world (Prague). It was a good trip and yet I'm happy to be home with my dogs, DH and bed!

 

[Eighty8Keys]

So excited. Fred Meyer posted as grocery on my surpass. Amex hadn't seen it as grocery so I just stopped using the card. Had some credit I needed to use so I used it last weekend.

Excellent! Thanks for posting. I’m going to do a test purchase with my BCP card.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Credit card question....IHG Traveler. I got the card in Jan 2021. I met the SUB and rarely spend on it. I churned the IHG premeir in Aug 2021. I think the new rules state you can't get a SUB for the IHG personal cards now if you hold another IHG personal card. "This product is available to you if you do not have a current IHG® Rewards Credit Card and have not received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Business Card Credit Card products." Is there any reason to keep the Traveler card? If I'm reading this right, if I want to churn the Traveler card I'd need to cancel my Premier. And vice versa. So I can churn both next year. I have the IHG biz card too. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to go about all of this, LOL. I'm thinking to not piss off Chase I'd need to cancel the IHG Traveler and Premier once I'm able to churn the Traveler. But I'd likely need to keep the Traveler open a year before I closed it. Which means perhaps Feb 2023 close both, and get the Traveler again. Then close the Traveler in 2024 and do the Premier again? The Biz and Premier both have the FNC, so it kinda sucks I lose out on one of the FNC in 2023, LOL.

Sorry, this was a little hard to follow the dates of your plans, but you plan to churn an IHG personal card every 24ish months, right? I read the terms to mean that you cannot have received a new Cardmember bonus on any IHG personal card in the last 24 months. Is that your understanding or am I interpreting it incorrectly?
In my experience, the FNC has posted the day after the AF. Will it get clawed back if you cancel after the FNC gets posted?

 

[wanderlust7]

Can you partially pay with a card and keep the discount? Amex has a killer Verizon offer right now, but I also have mine on autopay. What about gift cards, do those work to partially pay and keep the discount?

No, even a partial cc payment gets rid of the discount. If you’re just doing it once, you can probably call to get it put back.

GC does keep the discount, but the issue is they may come inactive. I bought many for the cell phone credit when we still had Verizon. Not a single one came working. I was able to get them fixed by calling, takes awhile though. If you need to do that, key words are “payment investigation ticket”.

 

[elgerber]

No, even a partial cc payment gets rid of the discount. If you’re just doing it once, you can probably call to get it put back.

GC does keep the discount, but the issue is they may come inactive. I bought many for the cell phone credit when we still had Verizon. Not a single one came working. I was able to get them fixed by calling, takes awhile though. If you need to do that, key words are “payment investigation ticket”.

can you buy gift cards in store that are active? I did have that problem myself ordering one online awhile back.

 

[wanderlust7]

can you buy gift cards in store that are active? I did have that problem myself ordering one online awhile back.

I never tried that. Saw on r/churning that you can pay with cc in store at a kiosk and not lose the discount. Not sure how it would code for the Amex offer though.

 

[afan]

I know there's others that use opera to visit the boards since this thread is where I learned about it.

Are you also getting this? I'm only getting it in opera on my phone, chrome works just fine.

Earlier I cleared stuff in opera and restarted my phone since just closing opera after changing the settings didn't do anything. That helped for a few hours and now it's back to this.

 

[happ]

Can you partially pay with a card and keep the discount? Amex has a killer Verizon offer right now, but I also have mine on autopay. What about gift cards, do those work to partially pay and keep the discount?

I used a virtual VGC that I got during one of the giftcards.com promos. That worked to keep the discount.

 

[happ]

This is my first experience with an AmEx retention bonus. I just saw a transaction on my account that says “Amazon Digital Downloads” with a negative amount that is the same amount as my retention bonus. Is this how the bonus codes or is something else going on?

My retention offer a few months ago posted as "statement credit" with some letters/numbers in front of it.

 

[GZanta77]

ETA: Does anyone have any day pack/backpack recs for hiking? This will be our first intensive hiking trip, and we don't really have good backpacks for this. Looking for something big enough to carry lots of water, snacks, change of clothes, but nothing huge. We have our backpacks that we use for traveling as our personal items, but they are like nice Herschel backpacks and not really "hiking" type packs. I was looking at Eddie Bauer site, and they seem to have some good packable stowaway bags.

Having hiked in Southern Utah/Arizona in August several times - I highly recommend you consider hydration backpacks with a 2 or 3 liter water bladder - i.e Camelbak type backpack. We prefer Osprey brand and would not hike without them in the heat.

Osprey/Camelbak are not cheap, but there are plenty of alternatives on Amazon in the $25-30 price range that get good reviews.

Also, the AllTrails app with premium subscription is worth its weight in gold as you can download trail maps on the app which is useful as cellphone service can be spotty in the parks. It also shows many of the lesser frequented trails if you need to escape the crowds.

 

[mmmears]

I know there's others that use opera to visit the boards since this thread is where I learned View attachment 679055about it.

Are you also getting this? I'm only getting it in opera on my phone, chrome works just fine.

Earlier I cleared stuff in opera and restarted my phone since just closing opera after changing the settings didn't do anything. That helped for a few hours and now it's back to this.

I've been getting it off an on for the last 2 days on Safari (on a laptop, not phone though).

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Having hiked in Southern Utah/Arizona in August several times - I highly recommend you consider hydration backpacks with a 2 or 3 liter water bladder - i.e Camelbak type backpack. We prefer Osprey brand and would not hike without them in the heat.

Osprey/Camelbak are not cheap, but there are plenty of alternatives on Amazon in the $25-30 price range that get good reviews.

Also, the AllTrails app with premium subscription is worth its weight in gold as you can download trail maps on the app which is useful as cellphone service can be spotty in the parks. It also shows many of the lesser frequented trails if you need to escape the crowds.

Thanks for the rec! We've never had any of the hydration packs. We just figured we'd pack up several water bottles, but this seems like a more convenient idea. I like this idea in theory, but never having used one I can't speak to if I'll like it or not! Since we have Prime, I just ordered two packs... the one that @StephPlum recommended, and another hydration pack with a 3L bladder (not Camelbak/Osprey, but in the $30 range). I figure, we'll try them on and see which one feels better, can fit what we need, etc. and I'll return whichever doesn't work. DH is super picky about backpacks anyways, so this will give us the chance to see which type works better for both of us! Thanks again!