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

[disneylover81]

DH applied and was approved for the SWA personal card on Nov. 1st. When can he expect his statement closing date to be? It doesn’t show on Chase website yet.
He will also apply for the SWA biz soon. Would Dec. 1st be a good date to do it or should he wait a little longer? He has no biz cards at all. If he did apply and is approved on Dec. 1st, can he meet the $5k spend immediately or would his statement closing date be before January 1st?
Trying to time out meeting the spend on both cards to earn CP for 2025/2026 as soon as possible, but not wanting to risk messing up at the same time. We have a flight in early Feb that we would like to be able to use it for if we can make it all work out that quick.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

We have never done a flight this long (New York to Singapore, 18+ hours), and I'm trying to get my ducks in a row before the booking window becomes available in about 2 weeks. Would you rather: depart JFK at 10:30pm, and arrive in Singapore at 5:30am? OR depart Newark at 9:35am, and arrive in Singapore at 5:15pm?

I see pros and cons to each. Arriving at 5:30am in a new country obviously is not ideal for checking into hotel, but I seem to think it'd be an easier flight to sleep on, since you're leaving so late in the evening. Also, we could arrive to JFK in the early afternoon, and depart the same day later that evening, with lounge access in between for dinner time, and no hotel needed. Leaving at 9:35am means we need to arrive the night before and stay in a hotel, however I think 5:15pm arrival in Singapore is easier for checking into hotel. Also we'd need to arrive super early to the airport to take advantage of lounge access in the morning pre-flight. But since the flight is almost entirely during the day, I would think you'd be awake for most of it/harder to sleep? We'll be in business class, so I do want to try and sleep/ rest up as much as possible.

For those that have done this flight, or just long haul flights in general, what are your thoughts? Which would you choose? Any pros/cons I'm missing that I should take into further consideration?

 

[VGCgroupie]

Rakuten has 15% back at Lego if you didn’t use your Amex Lego offer yet. Amazing stack for Lego.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

DH applied and was approved for the SWA personal card on Nov. 1st. When can he expect his statement closing date to be? It doesn’t show on Chase website yet.
He will also apply for the SWA biz soon. Would Dec. 1st be a good date to do it or should he wait a little longer? He has no biz cards at all. If he did apply and is approved on Dec. 1st, can he meet the $5k spend immediately or would his statement closing date be before January 1st?
Trying to time out meeting the spend on both cards to earn CP for 2025/2026 as soon as possible, but not wanting to risk messing up at the same time. We have a flight in early Feb that we would like to be able to use it for if we can make it all work out that quick.

For the personal card, you should see a due date. What is the due date? That will help these experts tell you when your closing date is.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

We have never done a flight this long (New York to Singapore, 18+ hours), and I'm trying to get my ducks in a row before the booking window becomes available in about 2 weeks. Would you rather: depart JFK at 10:30pm, and arrive in Singapore at 5:30am? OR depart Newark at 9:35am, and arrive in Singapore at 5:15pm?

I see pros and cons to each. Arriving at 5:30am in a new country obviously is not ideal for checking into hotel, but I seem to think it'd be an easier flight to sleep on, since you're leaving so late in the evening. Also, we could arrive to JFK in the early afternoon, and depart the same day later that evening, with lounge access in between for dinner time, and no hotel needed. Leaving at 9:35am means we need to arrive the night before and stay in a hotel, however I think 5:15pm arrival in Singapore is easier for checking into hotel. Also we'd need to arrive super early to the airport to take advantage of lounge access in the morning pre-flight. But since the flight is almost entirely during the day, I would think you'd be awake for most of it/harder to sleep? We'll be in business class, so I do want to try and sleep/ rest up as much as possible.

For those that have done this flight, or just long haul flights in general, what are your thoughts? Which would you choose? Any pros/cons I'm missing that I should take into further consideration?

The need for a hotel in Newark and not enjoying lounge access definitely have me leaning towards departing JFK at 10:30pm. Plus, because Singapore is about a half a day ahead, 5:30am, will feel more like 6:30pm for you, which isn't terrible, if you get enough sleep on the plane.

However, I have never flown this flight so not sure if the aircraft is different from JFK vs Newark. If so, I might have a different opinion. Like, for example, if you'd miss out on the A380 or a better configuration, shower, bar, etc, I would weigh in differently.

 

[disneylover81]

For the personal card, you should see a due date. What is the due date? That will help these experts tell you when your closing date is.

There’s no due date showing yet either.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

The need for a hotel in Newark and not enjoying lounge access definitely have me leaning towards departing JFK at 10:30pm. Plus, because Singapore is about a half a day ahead, 5:30am, will feel more like 6:30pm for you, which isn't terrible, if you get enough sleep on the plane.

However, I have never flown this flight so not sure if the aircraft is different from JFK vs Newark. If so, I might have a different opinion. Like, for example, if you'd miss out on the A380 or a better configuration, shower, bar, etc, I would weigh in differently.

It’s the same A350 either route, so that doesn’t make any difference, but good point I hadn’t thought of (and did just check as a result)!

For the same reasons you mentioned, I also lean towards leaving JFK at night. My main hangup is with the arrival time at 5:30am. To adjust to local time, I feel like we would need to stay awake for the full day (how much sleep will we ideally get on the flight?), and we would need to find something to do before we can check into the hotel for like 8 hours (will we be miserably tired or find it hard to stay up once we arrive?). I know these are kinda rhetorical/different for every person kind of questions, I’m just thinking out loud here, lol.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

DH applied and was approved for the SWA personal card on Nov. 1st. When can he expect his statement closing date to be? It doesn’t show on Chase website yet.
He will also apply for the SWA biz soon. Would Dec. 1st be a good date to do it or should he wait a little longer? He has no biz cards at all. If he did apply and is approved on Dec. 1st, can he meet the $5k spend immediately or would his statement closing date be before January 1st?
Trying to time out meeting the spend on both cards to earn CP for 2025/2026 as soon as possible, but not wanting to risk messing up at the same time. We have a flight in early Feb that we would like to be able to use it for if we can make it all work out that quick.

I wouldn’t do the spend on the business card immediately if approved on 12/1 the card could close in December…so you wouldn’t achieving what your going for a 2025/26 CP
For the personal card it usually shows online a due date or payment date

 

[GZanta77]

We have never done a flight this long (New York to Singapore, 18+ hours), and I'm trying to get my ducks in a row before the booking window becomes available in about 2 weeks. Would you rather: depart JFK at 10:30pm, and arrive in Singapore at 5:30am? OR depart Newark at 9:35am, and arrive in Singapore at 5:15pm?

I see pros and cons to each. Arriving at 5:30am in a new country obviously is not ideal for checking into hotel, but I seem to think it'd be an easier flight to sleep on, since you're leaving so late in the evening. Also, we could arrive to JFK in the early afternoon, and depart the same day later that evening, with lounge access in between for dinner time, and no hotel needed. Leaving at 9:35am means we need to arrive the night before and stay in a hotel, however I think 5:15pm arrival in Singapore is easier for checking into hotel. Also we'd need to arrive super early to the airport to take advantage of lounge access in the morning pre-flight. But since the flight is almost entirely during the day, I would think you'd be awake for most of it/harder to sleep? We'll be in business class, so I do want to try and sleep/ rest up as much as possible.

For those that have done this flight, or just long haul flights in general, what are your thoughts? Which would you choose? Any pros/cons I'm missing that I should take into further consideration?

I flew the morning flight from Newark last year - slept about 3 hours on the plane, was at the hotel before 7pm then it was fairly easy to take a little wander for a couple of hours, went to bed around 11pm and got a decent nights sleep. Next day I felt good, no real jetlag and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to adjust.

I can't say for sure, but my feeling is that I would have had a harder time adjusting if I had arrived in Singapore early in the morning.

We also just came back from Japan and the same tactic worked just as well. Left BOS 1pm arrived Tokyo 5pm, and also adjusted well to the time change - although we did continuously wake up early during our stay which worked out well for our plans on many days.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

There’s no due date showing yet either.

Would you try clicking around a bit to see if you see one? Since this card was approved on Nov 1, I think you should see one by now. I feel like I usually see one within a few days of the card showing up in my account. (Not that it will be due anytime soon)

 

[hsmamato2]

Travel credit resets on your anniversary. My AF posts in September and my TC resets in October.
You can see when it resets by going to the Card Benefits page. Where mine says in use it should say used and when it resets.
View attachment 914855

thank you! In use means partially used I'm guessing?

 

[StephPlum]

thank you! In use means partially used I'm guessing?

Yes. Mine reset 10/1 and I’ve booked some flights (taxes/fees) and tolls that have used part of it but not the full 300. I’m not pcing or closing my card so I have no rush to use it all at once.

 

[hsmamato2]

We have never done a flight this long (New York to Singapore, 18+ hours), and I'm trying to get my ducks in a row before the booking window becomes available in about 2 weeks. Would you rather: depart JFK at 10:30pm, and arrive in Singapore at 5:30am? OR depart Newark at 9:35am, and arrive in Singapore at 5:15pm?

I see pros and cons to each. Arriving at 5:30am in a new country obviously is not ideal for checking into hotel, but I seem to think it'd be an easier flight to sleep on, since you're leaving so late in the evening. Also, we could arrive to JFK in the early afternoon, and depart the same day later that evening, with lounge access in between for dinner time, and no hotel needed. Leaving at 9:35am means we need to arrive the night before and stay in a hotel, however I think 5:15pm arrival in Singapore is easier for checking into hotel. Also we'd need to arrive super early to the airport to take advantage of lounge access in the morning pre-flight. But since the flight is almost entirely during the day, I would think you'd be awake for most of it/harder to sleep? We'll be in business class, so I do want to try and sleep/ rest up as much as possible.

For those that have done this flight, or just long haul flights in general, what are your thoughts? Which would you choose? Any pros/cons I'm missing that I should take into further consideration?

After traveling to Fiji,I'd vote for the overnight bc I could sleep for a lot of that...

 

[hsmamato2]

Yes. Mine reset 10/1 and I’ve booked some flights (taxes/fees) and tolls that have used part of it but not the full 300. I’m not pcing or closing my card so I have no rush to use it all at once.

Ok....I'm thinking about the purchase timing- if I bought something in the black Friday sale dates range (maybe before Dec), would the purchase sit on acct and I could use TC on the 20th,or does it have to be after the reset?

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

I flew the morning flight from Newark last year - slept about 3 hours on the plane, was at the hotel before 7pm then it was fairly easy to take a little wander for a couple of hours, went to bed around 11pm and got a decent nights sleep. Next day I felt good, no real jetlag and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to adjust.

I can't say for sure, but my feeling is that I would have had a harder time adjusting if I had arrived in Singapore early in the morning.

We also just came back from Japan and the same tactic worked just as well. Left BOS 1pm arrived Tokyo 5pm, and also adjusted well to the time change - although we did continuously wake up early during our stay which worked out well for our plans on many days.

Thanks for your experience! I'll be honest, only 3 hours of sleep during an 18 hour flight sounds awful to me. I was hoping to catch at least somewhere in the realm of 7-10 hours of sleep on this flight, even if it's in multiple napping segments. I think this is one of the reasons I'm leaning towards the overnight flight, because it seems harder to sleep much during the day flight.

We did a very similar flight to Japan last year also. Left from ORD at 1pm, arrived Tokyo 5pm. We did stay awake until around 10pm upon arrival, but it didn't seem to help. I had trouble sleeping the next 3 nights DH was well adjusted the first night. So maybe it's just me, I'm the problem, lol.

After traveling to Fiji,I'd vote for the overnight bc I could sleep for a lot of that...

I spoke to DH last night about it, and he thinks the same thing, that an overnight flight we could sleep a lot longer versus a day flight, maybe even get a full 8+ hours of sleep, since we'd already be tired for the flight since it's late. I just wonder then if it's going to be a miserable first day there, arriving at 5am and trying to stay awake for at least 12+ hours.

 

[StephPlum]

Need some cheap mobile phone plan recommendations. Since I retired, I lost my company discount at Verizon and that porting your phone to a new company hack discount ended. So my bill increased $40 a month - OUCH. We both qualify for senior (55+) discounts. We don't use a lot of data ~2GB a month between us. So I don't need unlimited. We're on iPhones. Thanks for any recommendations.

 

[StephPlum]

Ok....I'm thinking about the purchase timing- if I bought something in the black Friday sale dates range (maybe before Dec), would the purchase sit on acct and I could use TC on the 20th,or does it have to be after the reset?

Not the expert but I suspect it has to be after the reset.

 

[leeniewdw]

Need some cheap mobile phone plan recommendations. Since I retired, I lost my company discount at Verizon and that porting your phone to a new company hack discount ended. So my bill increased $40 a month - OUCH. We both qualify for senior (55+) discounts. We don't use a lot of data ~2GB a month between us. So I don't need unlimited. We're on iPhones. Thanks for any recommendations.

SAME HERE! Lost both my corp discount and the 'please don't port your phone' discount. My bill went up about $70! 3 lines (still have a DS on the plan) + 1 Apple Watch.

Am I correct that if we have Verizon specific phones that moving to something like Mint Mobile would require new phones?

edit: I just reviewed my bill pretty closely and it seems to be JUST the line "don't port" discount, plus I lost some of the autopay from checking account. It seems that this month's bill is higher than it will be next month, I think they added back in a pro-rated "don't port" discount. My bill will go back down $26 next month, but still over $40/month increase.

edit again lol: I just did "change plan" in Verizon and was able to re-select their newer plans (mine was named something like 5G-something and now it's Unlimited) and was able to select plans that were like 10-15 less per month per line. I even selected the lowest plan for my DH since he doesn't need the hotspot option). My monthly bill is back to the same price it was before the lost of the "port line" hack.

 

[Limes96]

I’ve literally checked cash back monitor every day since July 1…and finally Saks is 10% back on Rakuten today.

 

[EACarlson]

Need some cheap mobile phone plan recommendations. Since I retired, I lost my company discount at Verizon and that porting your phone to a new company hack discount ended. So my bill increased $40 a month - OUCH. We both qualify for senior (55+) discounts. We don't use a lot of data ~2GB a month between us. So I don't need unlimited. We're on iPhones. Thanks for any recommendations.

I use Total Wireless. Same Verizon towers and service, just put further down the list when at large events. I pay $100/month for four lines of unlimited. 99% of the time it's not an issue. My mother uses Consumer Cellular through AARP, it's plenty for her, but I don't know what she pays.