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

[chattadisser]

Looking for recommendations for a hotel near the Atlanta airport--I looked at tripadvisor and am overwhelmed by the number of what seem to be okay but not excellent choices. I have Hyatt, UR, and AmEx points (also Hilton points but from what I can tell, there are no good points options for next week, but I could book through Chase and use UR points).

We fly in and out of ATL a lot and usually stay at the Hilton if we stay overnight there. It's really close to the airport. The area around the airport looks worse than it really is but we stayed at the Residence Inn near there one time and I felt like I was sleeping at the end of the runway. It was so loud there and all you could hear was planes all night. The Hilton is situated so that you can't hear the take offs and landings but it's only a 5 minute drive over to the airport. I think you may be able to park there and shuttle over to the airport if you wanted to.

 

[calypso726]

Just got back from seeing Taylor Swift in London. We really enjoyed our two nights at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris. The Hilton London in Wembley was perfect for our concert night. Literally walked to the stadium as it is right next door. That was convenient. I was so glad I snagged it on points. When I last looked there were no point options left and rooms were over 2,000 GBP.

While we were leaving the PHV and heading to catch the Eurostar to London I was able to book the JW Masai Mara for 5 nights next year using 600,000 Bon-Blah points. While on the train I got our flights there booked on Qatar! I am so excited that we will finally get to fly Q-Suites! It was 170,000 Avios per person and $205 in taxes. Since Amex is running a 30% bonus transfer to British Airways Avios we were able to transfer 131,000 MRs each to BA and get the requisite amount needed. Sadly there were no business class seats available for the return on Qatar. So British Airways was the Plan B. Our return flights didn't open for booking until 1 am after the concert fortunately PlanePrincess stayed up so I could sleep and booked our BA flights back home. They were a whopping 400,000 Avios and $668 in taxes to cover the both of us. Thanks to the transfer bonus it was 308,000 MRs that we had to transfer. We should also get a $200 statement credit for the taxes since we paid them with the Chase BA card. Still a few more loose ends to tie up for this trip next year but I'm glad the framework is in place finally!

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Sharing a DP.
A new CIP arrived while I was traveling in Portugal. My sister picked up the package and provided me with the card info. I was able to activate the card by calling into the automated line (from P2's phone even). I was then able to add the card to ApplePay on both P1 and P2 phones and successfully use in Portugal without any issues.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Just got back from seeing Taylor Swift in London. We really enjoyed our two nights at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris. The Hilton London in Wembley was perfect for our concert night. Literally walked to the stadium as it is right next door. That was convenient. I was so glad I snagged it on points. When I last looked there were no point options left and rooms were over 2,000 GBP.

While we were leaving the PHV and heading to catch the Eurostar to London I was able to book the JW Masai Mara for 5 nights next year using 600,000 Bon-Blah points. While on the train I got our flights there booked on Qatar! I am so excited that we will finally get to fly Q-Suites! It was 170,000 Avios per person and $205 in taxes. Since Amex is running a 30% bonus transfer to British Airways Avios we were able to transfer 131,000 MRs each to BA and get the requisite amount needed. Sadly there were no business class seats available for the return on Qatar. So British Airways was the Plan B. Our return flights didn't open for booking until 1 am after the concert fortunately PlanePrincess stayed up so I could sleep and booked our BA flights back home. They were a whopping 400,000 Avios and $668 in taxes to cover the both of us. Thanks to the transfer bonus it was 308,000 MRs that we had to transfer. We should also get a $200 statement credit for the taxes since we paid them with the Chase BA card. Still a few more loose ends to tie up for this trip next year but I'm glad the framework is in place finally!

Who doesn't love booking a vacay while on vacay? Can't wait to see the TR.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

Has anyone checked their information on this website: https://npd.pentester.com/search

I saw the link on a reddit post about the recent identity data breach. It is scary how much information I saw on it for me, my husband, and both my parents available on the darkweb that I see through that link. In fact, under my Mom's name there was an unknown address listed that uses her same DOB and last 2 digits of her SS.

In fact, Mom got a call from "Bank of America" earlier this week that they declined her credit card for a fraudulent charge that they deemed as illegal. Of course, she didn't have a BOA card. The "rep" said that it was a BOA Red Card ending in xxxx opened on 7/xx/2024. Obviously, we denied she had opened such a card. He said that he would need to transfer us to the fraud dept of BOA and to please hold. We told him that we would check and call the fraud dept ourselves and asked for the direct number. He gave us the number but kept insisting on transferring us because of the urgency of taking care of this potential fraud but we just thanked him for the alert and declined to be transferred on the phone. Of course he cited confidentiality when when we asked for the address or even the zipcode used on Mom's new credit card.

We immediately checked 2 of the 3 credit reports online and there was nothing suspicious on it at all. Experian would not let us check online because they could not verify her identity and she will have to submit her request by mail with a copy of her ID and proof of address.

I googled BOA fraud number and it was the number he provided but I went ahead and went to the BOA website and called the customer service number listed there and had them transfer us to the fraud dept. They were not able to find anything under her name, addresses, or SS number for any new or previous cards. So, I guess that is good and it was definitely a phishing call.

It is a pain to lock or freeze credit with each of the individual credit reports. Is there a (paid) service where we can manage all 3 at once? We will need to do it for 6 people. Might as well start protecting our adult kids as well.

I think people have mentioned CreditKarma? Any recommendations? And how that works when we play the SUB game?

 

[afan]

It is a pain to lock or freeze credit with each of the individual credit reports. Is there a (paid) service where we can manage all 3 at once? We will need to do it for 6 people. Might as well start protecting our adult kids as well

It's not a pain, it's easy to set up and easy to temporarily unfreeze. I did it to everything, including chex, when someone tried opening an Amazon card with my info. Thankfully chase caught it and sent me a letter.

I wouldn't pay for something I can easily manage for free that keeps them from being able to open a card vs having to deal with sorting it out when the fraud is found.

 

[ambgoph]

It is a pain to lock or freeze credit with each of the individual credit reports.

Make sure you do a freeze, not a lock. It's very easy to do, I'll make it even easier by providing the direct links:

Experian
Equifax
TransUnion

It's also easy to temporarily lift the freeze when you need to.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Trip report: Lisbon, Portugal and Sao Miguel, Azores

Thought I’d share a travel hacking/points based trip report for our recent trip to mainland Portugal, as well as the Azore islands in the Atlantic ocean. We paid points for flights and hotels using points or FNCs, while also working towards MSRs.

Travel party of 8: Myself and husband, 47, and our four kids aged 11-26 and two of their SOs

Trip Insurance. I always buy trip medical insurance and this time did a comprehensive plan due to some OOP costs (about 4k). $100,000 primary medical insurance pp, $0 deductible and $500k med evac, + more coverage. My husband and niece were once hospitalized in Mexico and during our hospital stay we met many American and Canadian families without insurance coverage who were facing bills in the tens of thousands of dollars. Over the years, I’ve filed 4 claims with various travel insurance companies and it is ALWAYS a hassle, but I’ve always been glad to have the coverage. Cost= $41/pp

Lisbon, post #1


Airfare and Lounges.

It’s not easy scoring biz class tickets so to have scored 8 is pretty awesome. We did fly out a day apart, so 4 and 4. We really like KLM’s vibe and their cute delft houses and delft house chocolates. I think they are kind and quirky.

KLM ORD-AMS-LIS biz class for 8: 41.25k MRs/pp + $250 taxes/fees/pp, transferred during a 25% bonus, also 25% discount on one child fare

Also had (2) 20k offers for spending $1,000 with AF/KLM, so earned 40k MR= so essentially a free ticket in biz class!

Delta Lounge in ORD. I think this might be our fave lounge of everywhere we’ve traveled. It’s just solidly good and comfy.

Cell service: AT&T $12 daily for those who used it.

Transportation. Uber from airport. So, so cheap in Lisbon- maybe €20ish for 4 peeps.

Accommodations.

Because the rest of the group was arriving a day later, we burned 2 35k FNCs +9k topoff per room at Memmo Principe Real in Lisbon, booked through Marriott.

We really liked this hotel and this area a lot. It was high on a hill and near the top of the Gloria funicular and São Pedro de Alcântara viewpoint, a garden with a panoramic view across the city to St. George’s Castle and central Lisbon. So many cute restaurants in walking distance and so many restaurant windows, where you could just order a cocktail or guacamole or whatever. We really liked the vibe of this area A LOT.

• Included breakfast with pasteis de nada
• Outdoor Pool overlooking the city
• Complimentary port tonic cocktail in room
• Complimentary glass of champagne from bar
• Rooms had cute balconies with fireplace and blankets (unneeded in the summer)
• Afternoon complimentary walking tour (we weren’t able to do this but wish we could have)

Cash rate per room was €360, so we essentially paid our $95 Chase Marriott Boundless AF + 9k points.





The next two nights we stayed at Convent Square Lisbon, a Vignette Collection through IHG. Since we had four rooms, this was a messy combination of FNCs, points and some cash bookings. This was a renovated convent from 1242 with a central cloister, which served as a beautiful courtyard, perfect for drinks or meeting up. Just off Rossio Square, this area was more centrally located, but just busy busy busy and not really our vibe. The cloister was a beautiful respite from busy Lisbon and we always loved retreating back to the hotel. Hotel also had an indoor pool.

Duh, but Lisbon is so hilly. It was such a workout. In this area of Lisbon we visited Carmo Convent, Pink Street (trashy), Time Out Market (hot and crowded) and the Alfama neighborhood with picturesque Miradouro de Santa Luzia (beautiful). Overall, we felt that dining, groceries and shopping were relatively inexpensive in Portugal compared to many other European countries. In the peak summer, lodging prices were up there at €300-400/nt for hotel rooms that slept 2.






Took a day trip to the beachside town of Cascais. We really loved this day and got our lunch on at Kul (big portions, so share), souvenir shopping at stores and open air market and beach time and pineapple drinks (the drink we didn’t know we needed). It was the quintessential packed European beach, but so picturesque with tide pools and that cove feeling. 10/10





After 3 nights in Lisbon (plenty for us), we hopped on over to the Azores.



Continued here and here.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

It's not a pain, it's easy to set up and easy to temporarily unfreeze. I did it to everything, including chex, when someone tried opening an Amazon card with my info. Thankfully chase caught it and sent me a letter.

I wouldn't pay for something I can easily manage for free that keeps them from being able to open a card vs having to deal with sorting it out when the fraud is found.

Make sure you do a freeze, not a lock. It's very easy to do, I'll make it even easier by providing the direct links:

Experian
Equifax
TransUnion

It's also easy to temporarily lift the freeze when you need to.

Thanks for the tips and the push. I guess you set up accounts with each of the credit bureaus?

I don't think we needed to register for an account when accessing our own reports? And we always ran into problems with just trying to access one of our own reports. I guess that's why I thought it was a pain to do 18 times (6 people x 3).

It is needed and maybe it will be easier than I thought. But I thought just checking out credit reports was a PITA for me...

Thanks again for the encouragement.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Azores, post #2

I’ve wanted to visit the Azores because it seemed similar to Iceland (which we love) with it’s natural diversity, from hot springs to volcanic craters to beaches, etc. It visually reminded us of a mix of Hawaii, Ireland and the Pacific Northwest.


Flights

LIS-PDL: SATA Azores Airlines, booked through Chase portal for 20k UR/pp including checked luggage allowance. 2 hr flight

Transportation

This was the best choice- booked through Azores Easy Rent, automatic cars, delivered to us in the airport parking lot, new cars with less than 10k miles. 5 days= €600-650 per car with full insurance, no deductible

Lodging

Stayed at this AirBNB in Ponta Delgada. Centrally located. $600/nt, pd with discounted gcs.

Outings and Experiences.

Miradouro da Boca do Inferno- if you google the Azores, this is probably the image you will see. It can be hard to get a clear day and we didn’t but it was actually magical- like being in a cloud forest.




Cete Sidades- this quaint little town was setting up for a festival for Saint Nicolas that evening. This is a carpet of flowers, plants and shrubs leading up to the church, which the townspeople had just laid.



Ponta da Ferraria- a geothermal hot spring located on the ocean. The tide comes in and cools you off, but it’s sort of sketch safety wise if anyone in your party isn’t the best of swimmers. There is a lifeguard on duty. We went at low tide.



Gorreana Tea Plantation- supposed Europe’s only. Free to walk the grounds and sample the tea. Looked like we were in Asia.


Canyoning with Azorean Active Blueberry- a mix of cliff jumping (optional), rappelling/abseiling/ziplining along waterfalls, lots of scrambling over rocks. Small sections reminiscent of via ferrata, clipping in and out. Great safety- great team who made us feel super comfortable. Described as easy on their site. Was not easy for me- I struggled a lot. I underestimated the amount of rocks involved in canyoning. As a short person, it was like doing 8,000 squats. My kids absolutely loved it and it really pushed them out of their comfort zones.

Overall, glad we visited the Azores. It was a completely diverse landscape and very beautiful. And you could strongly feel the Azorean culture. The driving was intense, just due to the level of alertness needed and difficulty parking. Lots of viewpoints were closed off in the peak summer or required shuttling to, which is new this year, I understand. If you are coming from the East Coast, I’d definitely recommend visiting, because there are some nonstop options from New York and Boston. But, for us, not sure we loved taking mid vacay flights. We for sure think we’ll return to Portugal, though would prefer to try Porto, the Duoro Valley, Obidos and the Azores.

Area Dining

We cooked in a lot, which I really like on vacation. Groceries were super cheap, surprising for an island. But we went to Ta Gente, tapas and craft cocktails bar, twice. Go.

Flights. I’d scored 8 biz class tickets on KLM from AMS-ORD, so we just had to make our way to Amsterdam. Flew Tui, which was the only nonstop from PDL-AMS, €200/pp including checked luggage. 4 hr flight.

Quick overnight in Amsterdam at Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport for 6.5k Hyatt pts, then back to the airport to enjoy the KLM flagship lounge and fly back home, all 8 of us in one business class section. It was so fun. 16 delft houses in total between our flights!!!

We hadn’t originally booked going home in biz class (55k Flying Blue + $332 taxes/fees/pp), but it really made the end of the trip shine, whereas, it could have been a slog.

Lastly- if you aren’t using a travel itinerary app, like TripIt, start using one asap. I could have never kept travel for 8 organized without it. TripIt even has an iPhone widget, so it will display the next item on your itinerary, right on your homescreen.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Just some pics

 

[KPK02090]

I finally booked my flights to Costa Rica to and from MCO for April '25.
I booked the flights with Jet Blue points (Blue) and it says non-refundable. But since I used points it's refundable right? And the taxes/fees would become a credit if I have to cancel. I was pretty confident about this before booking, but then started second guessing when I saw "non-refundable" specifically written out. Anyone know for sure?

 

[ambgoph]

Thanks for the tips and the push. I guess you set up accounts with each of the credit bureaus?

I don't think we needed to register for an account when accessing our own reports? And we always ran into problems with just trying to access one of our own reports. I guess that's why I thought it was a pain to do 18 times (6 people x 3).

It is needed and maybe it will be easier than I thought. But I thought just checking out credit reports was a PITA for me...

Thanks again for the encouragement.

Yes, make an account at each credit bureau. While on each site, you should be able to look at your credit report right there.

 

[trenty]

Any tips on hotels in San Diego if we don't plan to rent a car? Or is renting a car necessary?

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Any tips on hotels in San Diego if we don't plan to rent a car? Or is renting a car necessary?

We've stayed at the Manchester Grand Hyatt before and liked it, will be staying there again in November for our reposition on our way to Japan. You can always use ride-share for anything that's too far to walk

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Any tips on hotels in San Diego if we don't plan to rent a car? Or is renting a car necessary?

Really depends on what you’re planning. We hit the zoo, safari park, whale watching. The safari park absolutely needs a car, it’s well outside the city.

 

[trenty]

Really depends on what you’re planning. We hit the zoo, safari park, whale watching. The safari park absolutely needs a car, it’s well outside the city.

at the beginning stages of planning. So not really sure what we are planning. We do like to walk and not opposed to ride share for longer distances (over 30 min walk).

 

[trenty]

We've stayed at the Manchester Grand Hyatt before and liked it, will be staying there again in November for our reposition on our way to Japan. You can always use ride-share for anything that's too far to walk

I actually looked at that last night. Will look again. Is it near lots of walkable places? Within an hour driving if we use ride-share? We just started planning this trip and have never been so still in the dark, but doing research.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I actually looked at that last night. Will look again. Is it near lots of walkable places? Within an hour driving if we use ride-share? We just started planning this trip and have never been so still in the dark, but doing research.

It's walkable to the Gaslamp Quarter, the historic neighborhood in Downtown San Diego which has lots of restaurants. Also to the USS Midway Museum at the pier. For the Zoo and Balboa Park, you will want to ride share, but it's only about 15 min ride

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

So, I know I’ve seen a lot of chatter about the best card to get teenagers starting out, but what about a new resident to the US? My mother in law is a green card holder, has a full time job, but has never had any sort of credit in this country. Any first-timer cards that’ll be easier to get in her situation? Or is her best bet to go to her bank (BOA) and get a secured card to start out?

Bumping this to see if anyone has any advice on best CC for her to apply for?