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

[spacerangerqueen]

I can't remember if I posted about my personal plat upgrade. I had downgraded to a Gold in February after I didn't get a retention offer. Almost immediately got an upgrade offer for get 20k MR for $2k spend. I ignored it and eventually it went up to 50k MR. I was just finishing a CIP MSR so I took it.

Didn't want to wait for the new CIP offer so jumped on the IHG card. Still haven't received the card after over a week. Just requested another one.

My Hilton Biz renewed at the $95 so I decided to keep for another year. Using my free night from the SUB this week at the new Conrad Orlando. Gonna use the $60 credit there.

Used my Bonvoy FNC at the Gaylord Palms over The 4th. Had an Amex offer for 40% back at Marriott so got a nice discount on dinner and DS's ride on the Flowrider!

Anyone else having issues with car rental reservations? I have a few booked at Enterprise for next week and none of them are working to be canceled. They are within the cancelation window. I get an error with both Costco and Chase Portal. I'm going to have to call both. Super annoying.

 

[wanderlust7]

I guess I’m using “just posted” loosely - it posted in June, but was due to be paid this week. Since Los Altos is becoming or is now a Hilton property and we’re going in April, might find some use for the gift cards there?
Do you just buy gift cards online and then automatically get a credit on your statement?

Yes, I bought the GC online.

I'm not sure how the Hilton/SLH integration will go, if you'll be able to use Hilton GCs there. Or if Amex will recognize it as a Hilton so you can use that quarter's credit directly.

 

[newski_mom]

Need to buy my travel insurance for my international trip next year. I know I want medical but not sure how to factor in points bookings. My flights were made on points + taxes/fees. Do I put the “cost” as any cancellation fee/points restatement and the taxes/fees? I haven’t booked any tours yet. I assume I can put down a cost now and adjust once I have final costs. I used to have an annual travel insurance plan through work but since I’ll be retired, I’m on my own next year. Thanks for any help.

I don't know much about it, but I purchased an annual plan from Allianz earlier this year. I was able to talk to someone there before purchasing and they were very easy to work with.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I guess I’m using “just posted” loosely - it posted in June, but was due to be paid this week. Since Los Altos is becoming or is now a Hilton property and we’re going in April, might find some use for the gift cards there?

Maybe. I saw on FT using Hilton gc is a maybe situation everywhere. Some properties can process them, some simply cannot no matter what they try- you find out when you try to use them.

 

[gottalovepluto]

New Venture offer of 75k + $250 travel credit… I see 3 hard pulls and a denial in my near future.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Our family is carry-on only for all our travel. I bought this pocket pharmacy from Amazon for about $2 (3 for $6). Downloaded the color labels from Etsy.





I always travel with my prescription medication in their pharmacy bottles but then like to put them in a small pill organizer, bc otherwise five minutes after taking, I’ll be like “did I take those?”

Plan to make a second one for hubby’s bag with more of our motion sickness, emergency meds and his OTC meds. So satisfying!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Our family is carry-on only for all our travel. I bought this pocket pharmacy from Amazon for about $2 (3 for $6). Downloaded the color labels from Etsy.

View attachment 877202

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I always travel with my prescription medication in their pharmacy bottles but then like to put them in a small pill organizer, bc otherwise five minutes after taking, I’ll be like “did I take those?”

Plan to make a second one for hubby’s bag with more of our motion sickness, emergency meds and his OTC meds. So satisfying!

This is great! I wish I do that.

I mean, I feel like I'm a very good packer--very good at packing too much, that is!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

DH just got another Biz Plat offer in the mail. 250K MRs for 15K! Amex loves him much more than they love me.

The funny thing is that we're still working on his previous Biz Plat SUB. Have any $50 left to spend my next week. I'm surprised they would send him another targeted offer so soon! But hey, we'll take it. Property taxes coming up.

ETA: this will be his third open Biz Plat until we close one in August after the AF hits. No issue with having that many open at one time, right?

 

[gottalovepluto]

DH just got another Biz Plat offer in the mail. 250K MRs for 15K! Amex loves him much more than they love me.

The funny thing is that we're still working on his previous Biz Plat SUB. Have any $50 left to spend my next week. I'm surprised they would send him another targeted offer so soon! But hey, we'll take it. Property taxes coming up.

ETA: this will be his third open Biz Plat until we close one in August after the AF hits. No issue with having that many open at one time, right?

Just make sure you have 90 days between apps for the same card, even targeted mailers don't get around that rule.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Just make sure you have 90 days between apps for the same card, even targeted mailers don't get around that rule.

Thanks! I knew that but wasn't thinking about it!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Thanks! I knew that but wasn't thinking about it!

Top of my mind as I just had a player that was in that exact same spot, got denied and asked me what happened. Unfortunately for them the mailer expired before they finished their 90 days so it was worthless.

 

[elgerber]

It’s been 30 hours since I SMd Chase to have my card expedited with no answer. Don’t they know I have stuff I need to buy? I guess I call in the am.

 

[calypso726]

We are back from our niece’s graduation trip. She chose Greece, so we booked a Virgin Voayges cruise for her trip. What she did not know was that we were keeping her an extra week and taking her to Paris and London as a surprise.

We positioned to EWR and used UTB for our positioning flights. Our stay in NYC was at the Chatwal and we used Hyatt points to cover that. Our next flight was on Emirates fifth-freedom flight using from EWR-ATH. We booked the 3 of us in business class for the 9 hour flight. Amex MRs covered those. I had also purchased an Emirates Skyward subscription plan which allowed me to save 50% of the points needed to book for the 3 of us.

We arrived in Athens 2 nights before our cruise. I used 2 free night Marriott certificates to book The Grande Bretagne hotel. We were able to use upgrade awards and were upgraded to the deluxe grande suite which comes with butler service. The check in for this room was in a private reception area and we were given champagne while checking in. The staff and service was amazing. Concierge was able to book us dinner at the Michelin starred rooftop restaurant which was fantastic!

On our Santorini day, I booked a flying dress photo shoot for the niece and me. Judging what time to book something like this is tough in Santorini due to the time it may take to get up the cliff via cable car. It’s anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours. We were traveling with my TA so she booked us a private water taxi and a private car to get us into Oia on time. This was perfect and I’d recommend that route to anyone trying to get to Oia at a particular time.

Post cruise we flew Air France from Athens to Paris. The AF miles were an MR transfer. Then we had 2 nights at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile. I used a suite upgrade award to accommodate a party of 3. Somehow the hotel thought we were a party of 2 and upgraded us to a loft suite which was beautiful but is supposed to be for 2 guests. It’s huge so they set up an extra bed for our niece. The next night they moved us to an Eiffel Tower view suite. We used Hyatt points for our two nights here. We also booked a tour of the Louvre with a Find experience credit received on the way to hitting globalist last year. We also booked an evening cruise in the Seine to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night but up close.

We did one night at the New York Marvel hotel in Disneyland Paris and 2 days of tickets. I rented out DVC points to cover this part.

We took the Eurostar to London and checked into the Hyatt Regency Churchill. This was also booked using Hyatt points and we used a suite upgrade certificate for the stay as well. We had the 9th floor balcony suites. We saw ABBA Voyage (2nd time for me and Planeprincess) and we also went to Warner Bros Harry Potter studios on a VIP tour. This was outstanding! Tower of London was a must do since we managed to get spots for Ceremony of the Keys.

Our flight home was on BA in business class booked with Avios. It was an amazing trip and I am so glad we were able to cover so much of it with points and miles.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I just received my first offer to upgrade to an AmEx Aspire (from the basic AmEx HH card I received last year). Since I have already had the Aspire I have been hoping I'd receive an offer to upgrade. Would LOVE a new FNC, esp with the lux hotels added with SLH. Just a few questions before calling:

• if I were to accept the offer will there be a MSR / HH points to go along with the offer?
• would it count against my 5/24?

Offer says my card number would stay the same, hoping this means it wouldn't count towards my 5/24 count.

 

[GZanta77]

I just received my first offer to upgrade to an AmEx Aspire (from the basic AmEx HH card I received last year). Since I have already had the Aspire I have been hoping I'd receive an offer to upgrade. Would LOVE a new FNC, esp with the lux hotels added with SLH. Just a few questions before calling:

• if I were to accept the offer will there be a MSR / HH points to go along with the offer?
• would it count against my 5/24?

Offer says my card number would stay the same, hoping this means it wouldn't count towards my 5/24 count.

The offer you received should state the MSR/SUB for accepting the offer - and accepting the upgrade will not impact 5/24.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

The offer you received should state the MSR/SUB for accepting the offer - and accepting the upgrade will not impact 5/24.

I just read through the t&cs and no MSR is mentioned. Guess I’ll have to call in the morning and see how much spend is required. If the MSR is decent I’ll go for it since I will likely be staying at Hilton /SLH hotels more frequently (have a few booked for 2025 already).

 

[elgerber]

I just read through the t&cs and no MSR is mentioned. Guess I’ll have to call in the morning and see how much spend is required. If the MSR is decent I’ll go for it since I will likely be staying at Hilton /SLH hotels more frequently (have a few booked for 2025 already).

I got the same offer and I don’t see an MSR either

 

[wanderlust7]

I just read through the t&cs and no MSR is mentioned. Guess I’ll have to call in the morning and see how much spend is required. If the MSR is decent I’ll go for it since I will likely be staying at Hilton /SLH hotels more frequently (have a few booked for 2025 already).

Was this online, e-mail, or mailer? Online, it often says "You may qualify for an upgrade", but there's no bonus. It just means you can upgrade.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Was this online, e-mail, or mailer? Online, it often says "You may qualify for an upgrade", but there's no bonus. It just means you can upgrade.

E-mail and it sounds like a basic upgrade with no SUB, but benefits of having the card (including the AF). Is this worthwhile? I would really really really like more HH points.

 

[afan]

E-mail and it sounds like a basic upgrade with no SUB, but benefits of having the card (including the AF). Is this worthwhile? I would really really really like more HH points.

DoC has nll links for hilton Surpass and I think Aspire. I posted it the other day. They're good offers with a fnc but will affect 5/24 so it depends on what you value. I upgraded my surpass (no offer) to an Aspire and then used the nll for the Surpass. I've still never had the no af.