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

[becauseimnew]

Go to insure my trip dot com - there you can compare different companies and rates. I always get my trip insurance from them. I too always narrow it down to the ones that sell the "cancel for any reason' insurance, even though I might pay a bit more. And I make sure the medical has a decent amount on it.

We have had to use Trip Insurance twice on cruises. Once when I got sick and had to see the ships doctor. The other when my son broke his wrist playing basketball. Had to see the ships doctor and they also brought us to a hospital in Cozumel, where they had to rebreak the wrist and then put in a cast. Had to pay that bill on the spot, but submitted the bills when we got home. Everything was paid for.

You just never know what can happen. Any time we are out of the country - I will spend the money for trip insurance. Nice to have just in case...

At what point do you buy insurance?

 

[catsinawindow]

We just got back from our first family trip to WDW, covered in part with rewards that I collected on this thread as well as a lot of advice from the Disney Gift Card thread. We had a great time and are combatting the post-trip blues by starting to think about our next trip. We're tentatively thinking of going to Universal Orlando next Summer (2023) with the goal of paying for flights, tickets, and lodging entirely using credit card points! Would love any tips, tricks, and experiences the folks on this board have with booking a Universal vacation using CC rewards.

Here's a few details (all subject to change as nothing is finalized yet):
- Likely flying Southwest as we have a bunch of RR points and DH has a companion pass.
- Hoping to stay at one of the Premium resorts (probably Portofino Bay or Royal Pacific). We're a family of 5, so the express passes that come with the room would be a big plus for us!
- Thinking of doing 2-3 days at the parks with multi-park tickets so we can travel between the parks. Not sure about whether we will do Volcano Bay or not.
- Interested in possibly switching to another hotel at a nearby beach for a few days at the beach.

Rewards points we currently have:
~300,000 Chase UR between my and my husband's accounts. We both hold CSP (will likely downgrade DH's once his annual fee hits) and I have CIC/CIU cards as well.
~113,000 Capital One Rewards points (I hold a Venture X card)

Any tips on how to best plan to use my available points for a Universal vacation? Any issues with using the Chase Travel Portal for booking rooms at Universal resorts? For future cards, is it worthwhile to stick with the Ink cards every few months to keep racking up the URs or is there a benefit in looking into starting with Amex (I currently only hold one Amex card, a Cash Magnet)? I'd have to double-check, but I believe I am currently at 3/24. It's been ~3 months since I opened my last card.

 

[IFlossU]

Anyone have any recent DPs about how much Amex is offering for retention on vanilla platinum cards?

DH just got 40kMR/3k spend offer in June. First year open. Limited spend after hitting MSR.

 

[punkin]

DH just got 40kMR/3k spend offer in June. First year open. Limited spend after hitting MSR.

That's perfect. Thanks. I may not be canceling my card then. Lol.

 

[leeniewdw]

Okay I'm trying to plan Ireland. I figure it's time I stop delaying. My daughter's one request was at least business class, LOL. We're leaving from DTW. In looking at google flights, we either need to position here (on the east coast) or we need to connect in Europe. Aer Lingus is looking like a decent option as they have a flight from PHL that would work. I likely need 3 seats, but my searching is coming up w/ 2 seats in biz. Is there a chance other Biz seats might open? My mom might be open to sitting in economy. She's done it before to Europe, LOL. The trip is March 2023. I've been dragging my feet on figuring out the booking.

W/ the Chase transfer to BA, I'm assuming I can use the transferred BA avios w/ Aer Lingus still?

Also I know quite a few people have booked to Ireland recently. Are there other airlines to look at? I'm willing to go from DTW to wherever to position. Or I'm open to connecting if needed. Per google flights the options into Dublin are Aer Lingus, KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, Delta and United.

Another reason I'm open to positioning here, is I'm not springing for Biz class on all legs, LOL. My daughter can do peasant class on a short flight, then upgraded on the longer one.

My head is flipping spinning planning this trip. And for some reason the Avios website keeps blocking me from searching reward flights! I get like 2 or 3 searches before it kicks me out and tells me to clear cookies. I've tried that and it still isn't working. But the good news is, I think I've figured out the dates, I just need to check which airport to go out of, BOS or ORD.

Anyways, what do you think is easier? Should I transfer URs to book all 3 flights, and then have my mom transfer URs to me? We're not officially the "same household" but she does have me on her bank accounts so I'm thinking maybe they would transfer them. Or should I have my mom transfer her own URs to BA (she just created her acct) and then to EI? I would be booking myself and my DD no matter what.



I mean there's likely some meaning. Spirit is NK, LOL. Jet Blue is B6, Frontier is F9. I know the reason behind NK

I know you posted a few more times about this trip, I'm just so curious what you ended up doing? Or what you are planning.

I booked my June '23 trip this month using Avios and had the same problem you did with 3 searches and then errors. I would have to alternate my work and home PC and browsers, ,etc. What a pain! I got a Chase Aer Lingus card in Nov with a 100k SUB. I used that for our Biz tickets from BOS->DUB (I also found that BOS had the most availability for any award seats). I transferred some UR for our economy flights back since it's flying during the day. (And I accidentally xferred 2k more than I needed due to a typo - ugh). I'd heard BA offered lower fees, but then read differently and then just said screw it and booked thru Avios. I think our fees were like $127 per leg per person?

At this point I have everything booked except our positioning flights to BOS and a hotel there if we decide to go a day early. I bought AirBnB cards at my Harris-Teeter about 1-2 a month and earned 4x Fuel Points and our AirBnBs are covered (9 days) and used Cap1 points for our single nights here and there. We're going for 14 nights since we'll be retired.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Was anyone able to figure out what exactly at WDW counts for the live entertainment category on the CFF? I know someone said a travel package and hotel charges didn't work. I'm just wondering if renewing our APs will work.

 

[newski_mom]

Question booking Hyatt. DH has a bunch of Hyatt points because I transferred them from his UR points and then our plans ended up changing, so they are still sitting there. I have a reward (2 actually) for an upgrade to club access. We are looking at a Hyatt in Miami. Is there anyway to book the room using DH's points and my club upgrade certificate? I feel like we transferred points one time but it was a real pain and took a lot of time. Just checking if there's an easier way to do this. Thanks!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Question booking Hyatt. DH has a bunch of Hyatt points because I transferred them from his UR points and then our plans ended up changing, so they are still sitting there. I have a reward (2 actually) for an upgrade to club access. We are looking at a Hyatt in Miami. Is there anyway to book the room using DH's points and my club upgrade certificate? I feel like we transferred points one time but it was a real pain and took a lot of time. Just checking if there's an easier way to do this. Thanks!

I can't answer the main question but triple-check on club amenities before burning a pass. I paid for a club level room at a Sheraton recently and they were more than happy to charge me full price for watered-down service "because of COVID."

 

[pinkxray]

Is it possible to move credit for a chase card that earns UR’s to my Disney visa? I am really considering adding 50 dvc points on our next trip. I would like to use my Disney visa to pay and then pay it off once I sell our old dvc contract. Unfortunately, my limit is only $5000 so I would need it higher.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Is it possible to move credit for a chase card that earns UR’s to my Disney visa? I am really considering adding 50 dvc points on our next trip. I would like to use my Disney visa to pay and then pay it off once I sell our old dvc contract. Unfortunately, my limit is only $5000 so I would need it higher.

Yes it’s possible…I usually SM chase asking them to please move xx of the CL on my card ending in 1234 to my card ending in 5678

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Was anyone able to figure out what exactly at WDW counts for the live entertainment category on the CFF? I know someone said a travel package and hotel charges didn't work. I'm just wondering if renewing our APs will work.

My daughter renewed her APs on Monday using her CF and told me today she got the 5x

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Okay so I THINK I've got all my points moved around, but does it take awhile to transfer between Avios? I moved what I needed from Chase to BA. I then tried to transfer from BA to Avios, but i got an error saying they couldn't be moved at this time. My BA account shows the 200k transferred. My Avios account shows 0! AHHHHH! So I'm hoping maybe it's not an instant transfer?!?!?

Looking for suggestions to burn a couple Hilton FNC that will expire in the next few months. We have a cruise out of Miami the last week of September and we’re thinking of staying two nights pre-cruise either in Fort Lauderdale or Miami. We want to get there a couple days early for a cushion in case we have issues with our flight. So besides being somewhere we can book with Hilton FNC it would be nice to be right on the beach. DH is diamond if that makes a difference as I know some hotels are more likely to upgrade although it honestly seems like everyone is diamond anymore.

I stayed at the Diplomat in Hollywood beach in Feb. You get a $30 credit as diamond and they put me in a $5k/nt suite I was very happy. It was maybe 10 min from FLL airport.

I know you posted a few more times about this trip, I'm just so curious what you ended up doing? Or what you are planning.

I booked my June '23 trip this month using Avios and had the same problem you did with 3 searches and then errors. I would have to alternate my work and home PC and browsers, ,etc. What a pain! I got a Chase Aer Lingus card in Nov with a 100k SUB. I used that for our Biz tickets from BOS->DUB (I also found that BOS had the most availability for any award seats). I transferred some UR for our economy flights back since it's flying during the day. (And I accidentally xferred 2k more than I needed due to a typo - ugh). I'd heard BA offered lower fees, but then read differently and then just said screw it and booked thru Avios. I think our fees were like $127 per leg per person?

At this point I have everything booked except our positioning flights to BOS and a hotel there if we decide to go a day early. I bought AirBnB cards at my Harris-Teeter about 1-2 a month and earned 4x Fuel Points and our AirBnBs are covered (9 days) and used Cap1 points for our single nights here and there. We're going for 14 nights since we'll be retired.

WE're doing business class so I think the fees via Aer Lingus is like $280/ea (RT). It's cheaper through Aer Lingus. The fees on BA are showing $700/ea one way!!! I ended up doing all my searching using points.me. I paid for 24 hours since searching on avios was a pain in the ***! I haven't done flights to BOS yet either. I'll likely be trying to teach part of that day. UGH. I can only really sneak away for 3 school days. So we're flying out Weds night and back on Monday. I've got to figure out if you can book a hotel for the night before we land in Dublin. We land at 5am, but that will be like midnight at home. So if we could get a few more hours of sleep, LOL.

 

[amcc]

For those of you with loyalty to IHG, check your Amex Offers, I just found spend $200 get $40 on my Amex plat. And I just noticed how obnoxious they are with their points sometimes - I paid $1000 towards a cruise using an offer and they clawed back the 250 points from the offer. I don't think Chase deducts the UR from redeemed offers.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

DH needs to renew his passport. What/where do you guys recommend for passport photos? I see all these online options, I’m wondering if they are any good or should he just go to Walgreens or CVS?

We use the local post office for DS's renewal. They usually do pics but their camera was down so they sent everyone to Walgreen's. It was a couple bucks.

You don't need a post office appointment for renewal, it can all be done by mail. DH takes and prints ours at home, he did one for infant grandson recently, that was fun.

How do you renew an infant by mail? We've always had to do DS in person.

Any issues with using the Chase Travel Portal for booking rooms at Universal resorts?

If you see rooms, there shouldn't be a problem. We've done it twice, once Royal Pacific, once Hard Rock club level.

Question booking Hyatt. DH has a bunch of Hyatt points because I transferred them from his UR points and then our plans ended up changing, so they are still sitting there. I have a reward (2 actually) for an upgrade to club access. We are looking at a Hyatt in Miami. Is there anyway to book the room using DH's points and my club upgrade certificate? I feel like we transferred points one time but it was a real pain and took a lot of time. Just checking if there's an easier way to do this. Thanks!

You probably have to call and ask. I booked a room with a free night reward last night. I asked to add my sister to the res and was told if I didn't show up, she'd be charged the full room rate. I was then told I could gift the FNC to my sister and let her check in herself. In reality I won't be using the FNC, so I was trying to let my sister use it. In the past, gifting a FNC wasn't an option when I asked but seems it is now. So maybe you can gift the club upgrade to your DH if you call.

 

[reliev]

My daughter renewed her APs on Monday using her CF and told me today she got the 5x

its such a pita to do this for APs that are monthly but for 3 passes this may be worth it.

 

[Albort]

Okay so I THINK I've got all my points moved around, but does it take awhile to transfer between Avios? I moved what I needed from Chase to BA. I then tried to transfer from BA to Avios, but i got an error saying they couldn't be moved at this time. My BA account shows the 200k transferred. My Avios account shows 0! AHHHHH! So I'm hoping maybe it's not an instant transfer?!?!?

did you log off then log back in?

 

[georgina]

How do you renew an infant by mail? We've always had to do DS in person.

Sorry to include 2 examples in one post. The original question was just about renewals in general, I added the infant one as an extra example of photos taken at home. They haven't renewed his passport yet, he's only 5 months but yes kids have to go in person to apply. I wonder how the post office would do taking photos of a 2 month old for a passport, the guidelines were to lay him down on a blanket and take it from above.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

did you log off then log back in?

I did....they are showing as gone in my BA account, not in my AL account. I decided to test it with the extra 100 points I have and the IMMEDIATELY transferred! So now I have the fun of trying to get someone to help me find them. I spent over an hour on hold for the AerClub number. I've also messaged on FB and Twitter. BA got back to me on Twitter w/ a number to call tomorrow. UGH. I'm sure w/ the mess that Europe is right now, I'll get through to someone. I emailed, tweeted, and tried to fill out a form for the missing avios. I'm hoping by some luck they magically show up or I get a human. I'm going to try the 24/7 AerClub number in a few hours when it's 2am there. Luckily I did take a photo of the error I got and it has a "transaction number" so hopefully they can trace this!

 

[punkin]

DH just got 40kMR/3k spend offer in June. First year open. Limited spend after hitting MSR.

I'm replying again... they offered 30kMR or $300 statement credit/3k spend. I took the points. I really hope to be able to do a nice trip next year, so I'm collecting points. When things settle with DH's job (hopefully early next year) I will start spending them.

 

[mmmears]

Thank you. The hotels are cancelable until 2 days prior so I'm not so worried about that. I'm more worried about trip interruption and getting stuck somewhere.
I'm thinking medical and evacuation as well.
Do you have a company to recommend?

I also use insure my trip online. In the past we bought Allianz and it worked well, but they aren't offering cancel-for-any-reason insurance right now so I went with a different company that did offer what we wanted and seemed to have good reviews. I can't remember the name of it, but I can look for it if you want me to (but I can't comment on whether or not it's good since we haven't taken the trip yet). If you go to that website and tell it what you are looking for, you can get a list of companies that offer something close. I also had a million questions so I called and the agent I spoke with was really helpful.

DH needs to renew his passport. What/where do you guys recommend for passport photos? I see all these online options, I’m wondering if they are any good or should he just go to Walgreens or CVS?

DD just went to Walgreens and it took 5 minutes and no need for an appointment. Our PO requires appointments and is a mess. During the shutdown, DH and I did DIY photos, so you can absolutely do it on your own if you prefer. White wall, iPhone camera, and photo paper in our standard ink jet printed and the photos were accepted and passports renewed online.

At what point do you buy insurance?

If you have a pre-existing condition then it usually needs to be purchased 2-3 weeks after the first payment of the trip is made. If you don't have to worry about that, then you can purchase insurance much closer to the trip itself. I think (but I'm not 100% sure about this) that a pre-existing condition can also apply to a family member who is not traveling if they are the reason you don't take the trip of have to cut it short.