I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 & 2024 (see first page for add'l details)

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Looking for some last minute advice. I have a Hilton FNC expiring this month and another one soon after with no immediate use for them. Looks like we could book some of the AI in Mexico since they're still showing standard room availability even though it's so close. Also have points for airfare through either SW, Delta, or AA. Any recommendations on a good AI? Looking at the one in Riviera Maya because we'd like a more laid back scene and reviews seem to point to that over staying in Cancun. Also any tips on visiting Chichen Itza are welcome. I know it's a long drive but it's probably the only time we'll be that close and DH would love to see it. Wondering if we could rent a car and drive on our own or if that's not safe/practical? We both dislike big tour groups.

ETA: Would also welcome any other suggestions on US resorts to spend maybe 3 nights? Not committed to Mexico. Would prefer one with a spa and not on the west coast. We'll be flying out of Pittsburgh, or driving if close. Thanks!

We love the Riviera Maya area. No recommendations on AI, but we liked the Conrad Hilton, trip report in my signature. Here's some tips on Riviera Maya in general:

• There are a ton of cenotes in the Riviera Maya. Cenotes can be open or closed "caves" where fresh water pools. They are crystal clear and super refreshing. You'll often find people cliff diving or zip lining into the water.
• Tulum ruins, an archeological site set on the beach. Worth a visit.
• Coba, another archeological site, where you can still climb the pyramid to the top. Making it to the top is exhilarating and the view is breathtaking. Ride bikes through the site or be driven by a tuk-tuk.
• Chichen Itza- one of the seven wonders of the world. A full day trip from the Riviera Maya. Definitely worth the visit.
• Akumal- beachside town where you can snorkle with sea turtles. May need a tour guide. Can rent a golf cart and visit La Buena Vida restaurant or Yal-Ku Lagoon for snorkeling.
• Tulum beach- a one-ish lane beachfront lined with restaurants, boutiques, hotels and beach clubs. Lots of great dining options here but traffic is a beast.
• Xel-ha and Xcaret are both "eco waterparks" where you can snorkel, float down rivers, etc. Xel-ha was really fun when we went about four years ago and was perfect when the sargassum was acting up.

We like USA Transfers (who we used for RT private transportation), who is owned by Entertainmet Plus, who will offer all of these tours, shared or private, or customize a day for you with private transportation.

If you are thinking of driving, please read TA forum on things to know. Tulum and the whole Cancun region have seen an increase in crime in the past few years. Our past trip we decided to just do the resort thing, since we were there for such a short time. We've been many other times and have driven and explored on our own. For a first visit, I don't think you can't go wrong with private tours of the couple of things you want to see.

 

[becauseimnew]

@becauseimnew Have an amazing trip. Safari, right? Can't wait to hear about it when you return.

Not for another 2 weeks

 

[georgina]

I got 2 of the $15 off $100 credits, and before end of June the best use for them is on my electric bill.

Thanks for the reminder! We got one offer before we left on a 15 day vacation, forgot all about it.

Currently working on 4 spends, easiest is the $1000/6 months for the AmEx BCP upgrade; also my April Citi AA which should be finished off by DH's dental work tomorrow; my new CSP, which will take a bit more to hit 4000 but he owes $2500 on an upcoming scuba trip; and his new CIU which June estimated taxes will go a long way toward fulfilling!

 

[leeniewdw]

If it's all connected you should be fine to do it online and then go to the gate. But you will need to do a passport check at the gate. I would do it once you're able to. My flight Sun had so many many people the gate agent had to call up for this is was crazy. I know it was that because one guy asked and said he'd checked in online.

Ok, we will check in either at gate or desk once we land. Our itinerary’s are not connected so we’ll do that before hit a lounge. I’m already nervous about a same day positioning but we’ve got about 3-4 hours if we’re on time. Thanks!

 

[Ngwira]

Finally back from Japan. 3 weeks was too long lol. We are very happy to be back in the US. Still not home until tomorrow. We flew into ORD today, used global entry, and only waited behind 2 people so that was nice.

Can’t wait to hear all about your trip.

 

[Haley R]

Can’t wait to hear all about your trip.

I’ve been posting my trip report on this thread:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/japan-trip-report-may-2024.3941234/post-65351708

 

[calypso726]

Thanks for the heads up on the Europe Amex offers @becauseimnew

Speaking of Europe, I was absolutely excited that we were able to snag tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys in London. The least time we were able to experience this was back when you had to send a self addressed stamped (with an international stamp) envelope, date request and £1 then cross your fingers.

Now it’s done online once a month for future bookings. There’s a randomized queue you are put into when bookings open. It was nerve wracking but I’m glad we secured tickets. The limited spots sold out pretty quickly. We also booked Tower of London tickets for the same day to tie everything together.

 

[Haley R]

nevermind

 

[Judique]

Thanks for the reminder! We got one offer before we left on a 15 day vacation, forgot all about it.

Currently working on 4 spends, easiest is the $1000/6 months for the AmEx BCP upgrade; also my April Citi AA which should be finished off by DH's dental work tomorrow; my new CSP, which will take a bit more to hit 4000 but he owes $2500 on an upcoming scuba trip; and his new CIU which June estimated taxes will go a long way toward fulfilling!

I'm halfway to spending the $6000 on my Brilliant upgrade. On Sunday I had to call a plumber as my water main valve in my basement started to drip. Tried closing it to buy time and it dripped faster. Plumber was there within an hour. That cost $539.

Still better than a flooded basement. Just happy I was home and had gone down to check on laundry and noticed water on the floor in the unfinished area. The water was heading to the old sump pump hole that has no sump pump in it because the old one had rusted out from age and I tossed it long ago and never replaced it. I've never worried about flooding but have had minor pipe leaks. Guess I should actually buy a pump and plug it in just in case.

 

[Psychodisney]

Found a new round of Youtube TV offers on a couple cards!

 

[georgina]

I'm halfway to spending the $6000 on my Brilliant upgrade. On Sunday I had to call a plumber as my water main valve in my basement started to drip. Tried closing it to buy time and it dripped faster. Plumber was there within an hour. That cost $539.

Still better than a flooded basement. Just happy I was home and had gone down to check on laundry and noticed water on the floor in the unfinished area. The water was heading to the old sump pump hole that has no sump pump in it because the old one had rusted out from age and I tossed it long ago and never replaced it. I've never worried about flooding but have had minor pipe leaks. Guess I should actually buy a pump and plug it in just in case.

Oh my, very fortunate you were there to notice! We had to replace the water shut off valve after we moved here, we use it when we go away for more than a few days and it just seemed difficult to turn the handle. It was deteriorating inside.

 

[disneylover81]

I'm so sorry to hear about this. I'm sadly dealing with something similar with our 9 year old cat. I dropped $5k on him about 3 weeks ago at the animal ER (inclusive of x rays, ultrasounds, bloodwork and a blood transfusion). Then the animal oncologist that we went to a two days later wanted to "aspirate" his stomache mass, but did not have anyone there until the next week. We decided to do comfort care with steriods. We are NOT ready to let our boy go. He's my daughter's unofficial emotional support cat and when it is his time we are all going to be a total mess. He really is the best boy.

I will say though, that he's been on prednisone for the past 19 days and he's still acting normal, with the exception of seemingly tired more often-- but he is a cat! He has started gaining some weight back. That was my trigger to take him to the vet suddenly and they told told us that he was too anemic to diagnose and treat him and they wanted us to go to the ER immediately. The prednisone has seemingly (I hope)started to put that (what they think is) cancer into remission as they said it would. We are taking him outside several times each day now because he loves going outside with us, and we're giving him any food that he wants (as much as he wants) and loving on him 24/7.

I am thinking about you. You are seen... <3

I am catching up on the last month here so I am very behind, but I am sorry to hear about your cat's health. I completely understand how hard this is. We had to put our 12 year old cat down last week and it was so hard on our whole family. The vet said there was nothing more they could do for her and she was just suffering with every breath so we made the hardest decision. Our cats are such an important part of our lives. It is hard to come home each day and have a piece of our heart missing. Our other two cats seem like they are looking for her all the time. I let them say goodbye to her, but I don't know if they understood. It's just been so awful.

 

[elgerber]

Found a new round of Youtube TV offers on a couple cards!

Ooh which cards?? I need some

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

I'm in the midst of planning 2025 travel. Going to Germany/Austria in summer, and planning on doing Singapore/Cambodia/Vietnam later in the year.

Can anyone recommend places to stay in either Fussen, Germany, or Hallstatt, Austria? In Munich and Salzburg we'll be using IHG points, but Fussen and Hallstatt will need to be cash, as there are no IHG or Hyatt properties.

Also, any recommendations of places to stay in Singapore/Siem Reap/Ho Chi Minh? For Singapore, we were looking at IHG properties (there's a LOT!) and thought HI Exp Clarke Quay looks nice and in an area we like. Or there's many other options with IHG, or even the Andaz Singapore. Tbh, there's TOO many options for Singapore, lol. In Ho Chi Minh, it's either the InterContinental Saigon or Park Hyatt Saigon. And for Siem Reap - Park Hyatt. If you've stayed at any of the above, please share your experience, or any other recommendations would be appreciated as well, especially for any food/restaurants you enjoyed! We're in the very early planning stages, but I need to make sure I have all the points together for flights/hotels. We plan to fly there/back on Singapore Airways nonstop from NYC, 19 hour flight! I thought nonstop 14hr Japan flights were bad, but this is next level!

 

[Haley R]

I'm in the midst of planning 2025 travel. Going to Germany/Austria in summer, and planning on doing Singapore/Cambodia/Vietnam later in the year.

Can anyone recommend places to stay in either Fussen, Germany, or Hallstatt, Austria? In Munich and Salzburg we'll be using IHG points, but Fussen and Hallstatt will need to be cash, as there are no IHG or Hyatt properties.

Also, any recommendations of places to stay in Singapore/Siem Reap/Ho Chi Minh? For Singapore, we were looking at IHG properties (there's a LOT!) and thought HI Exp Clarke Quay looks nice and in an area we like. Or there's many other options with IHG, or even the Andaz Singapore. Tbh, there's TOO many options for Singapore, lol. In Ho Chi Minh, it's either the InterContinental Saigon or Park Hyatt Saigon. And for Siem Reap - Park Hyatt. If you've stayed at any of the above, please share your experience, or any other recommendations would be appreciated as well, especially for any food/restaurants you enjoyed! We're in the very early planning stages, but I need to make sure I have all the points together for flights/hotels. We plan to fly there/back on Singapore Airways nonstop from NYC, 19 hour flight! I thought nonstop 14hr Japan flights were bad, but this is next level!

We stayed at Hotel Schlosskrone in Fussen and liked it

 

[sky13]

I'm in the midst of planning 2025 travel. Going to Germany/Austria in summer, and planning on doing Singapore/Cambodia/Vietnam later in the year.

Can anyone recommend places to stay in either Fussen, Germany, or Hallstatt, Austria? In Munich and Salzburg we'll be using IHG points, but Fussen and Hallstatt will need to be cash, as there are no IHG or Hyatt properties.

Also, any recommendations of places to stay in Singapore/Siem Reap/Ho Chi Minh? For Singapore, we were looking at IHG properties (there's a LOT!) and thought HI Exp Clarke Quay looks nice and in an area we like. Or there's many other options with IHG, or even the Andaz Singapore. Tbh, there's TOO many options for Singapore, lol. In Ho Chi Minh, it's either the InterContinental Saigon or Park Hyatt Saigon. And for Siem Reap - Park Hyatt. If you've stayed at any of the above, please share your experience, or any other recommendations would be appreciated as well, especially for any food/restaurants you enjoyed! We're in the very early planning stages, but I need to make sure I have all the points together for flights/hotels. We plan to fly there/back on Singapore Airways nonstop from NYC, 19 hour flight! I thought nonstop 14hr Japan flights were bad, but this is next level!

I live in Singapore so happy to answer any questions about Singapore!

With Singapore I think it depends on how you want to get around Singapore - are you planning to use public transport (which is cheap and good - coming from someone who takes it every day) or will you just be taking a taxi/Grab (Uber equivalent) everywhere? Because if you're planning on public transport one of the factors that you might want to consider is how close the hotel is to an MRT station.

I just had a quick look at Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay and it's kind of in between 3 MRT stations (Fort Canning, Chinatown, Clarke Quay) which is both good (can walk to multiple stops/train lines) and bad (it's about a 9-10 minute walk to any of them, there might be buses though).

Also had a quick look at Andaz. Don't think I've ever been in it, but if I'm not wrong I've been to the shopping area right next to it (DUO Galleria) and that's directly connected to Bugis MRT station and very convenient. Bugis MRT is in turn connected to a couple of shopping malls (Bugis Junction is one of them). So that will be convenient for things like food/groceries/etc especially if it's raining.

Both locations are pretty much downtown anyway, and Singapore is so small that it's not hard to get around and it doesn't take too long to get anywhere. Also taxis/Grabs are fairly reasonably priced (though still several times the cost of taking the bus/MRT - my commute to work, which goes across about 1/3 of the island, is $2 by MRT and $15-25 by taxi/Grab).

I did the nonstop Singapore/NYC flights with Singapore Airlines earlier this year in Premium Economy - think I wrote a bit about it earlier in this thread! They were pretty good flights and I rather enjoyed the flights, plus cabin crew were amazing. Though if you're using points - Premium Economy on this flight may not be the best use of points - not a great points/price ratio because there are often good cash prices for this route, unless you're flying at super peak times or booking last minute. Business class redemptions should be decent value. As an alternative you could also look at the JFK-FRA-SIN route too.

 

[GZanta77]

I'm in the midst of planning 2025 travel. Going to Germany/Austria in summer, and planning on doing Singapore/Cambodia/Vietnam later in the year.

Can anyone recommend places to stay in either Fussen, Germany, or Hallstatt, Austria? In Munich and Salzburg we'll be using IHG points, but Fussen and Hallstatt will need to be cash, as there are no IHG or Hyatt properties.

Also, any recommendations of places to stay in Singapore/Siem Reap/Ho Chi Minh? For Singapore, we were looking at IHG properties (there's a LOT!) and thought HI Exp Clarke Quay looks nice and in an area we like. Or there's many other options with IHG, or even the Andaz Singapore. Tbh, there's TOO many options for Singapore, lol. In Ho Chi Minh, it's either the InterContinental Saigon or Park Hyatt Saigon. And for Siem Reap - Park Hyatt. If you've stayed at any of the above, please share your experience, or any other recommendations would be appreciated as well, especially for any food/restaurants you enjoyed! We're in the very early planning stages, but I need to make sure I have all the points together for flights/hotels. We plan to fly there/back on Singapore Airways nonstop from NYC, 19 hour flight! I thought nonstop 14hr Japan flights were bad, but this is next level!

We have stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Orchard Road which we thought was really good for a HI Express. Its located in a shopping area and was great over Christmas with all the lights and activities along Orchard Road at that time of year.

We also spent 3 nights at the Andaz which we booked on points prior to last years increase. Loved the hotel, especially the included breakfasts for Globalists. As @sky13 said, it is located above Bugis MRT station and you can take an elevator from the lobby of the Andaz down into the network of tunnels that leads to the station. Public transport is easy in Singapore and it also very walkable.

We also did the non-stop Singapore Airways from Newark in premium economy. I was dreading the flight but it actually wasn't bad at all with possibly the best cabin crew I have ever experienced.

 

[havaneselover]

I'm halfway to spending the $6000 on my Brilliant upgrade. On Sunday I had to call a plumber as my water main valve in my basement started to drip. Tried closing it to buy time and it dripped faster. Plumber was there within an hour. That cost $539.

Still better than a flooded basement. Just happy I was home and had gone down to check on laundry and noticed water on the floor in the unfinished area. The water was heading to the old sump pump hole that has no sump pump in it because the old one had rusted out from age and I tossed it long ago and never replaced it. I've never worried about flooding but have had minor pipe leaks. Guess I should actually buy a pump and plug it in just in case.

I just had a flooded laundry room (second floor). I cleaned the lint trap on my LG front loader and didn't put it back in tight enough. The water went into the hall, guest bedroom and through the garage ceiling. Could have been way worse but now I'm missing baseboards, carpet padding, and drywall in the garage. This is either the third or fourth time it's leaked (each time for a completely different reason). If I ever buy another two story house, I really hope the washer is on the main floor.

 

[havaneselover]

Switched my Chicago hotel reservation to Chicago Athletic Association. DS and I are walkers, so I figure that location puts us walkable to Michigan Avenue on Saturday before the game and to Soldier Field on Sunday. Now I just need to book tickets on SW using points/flight credits.

 

[WinterSolider]

the discover Q3 categories have leaked - Walmart and grocery stores

I was hoping for warehouse clubs so I could exploit the crap out of DGC at Sam’s, but I can still get 10% off going thru Walmart due to the first year bonus

https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/money/discover-5-percent-cash-back-calendar

I have a theory that the purpose of the Warehouse Club category is to get members to express frustration at Costco for not accepting Discover in the first place because Discover wants those Costco swipe fees.