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

[leeniewdw]

Alrighty, found the actual fine print! God I hate dealing with the phone company.
“Charge cap: You’ll be charged a maximum of 10 daily fees per line, per monthly bill cycle. After 10 daily fees on a line, that line may continue to use IDP through the end of the bill cycle at no additional charge” Link
$100 it is.

This happened to me exactly while in Ireland. I went the first few days with phone in airplane mode and only using WiFi, but I had to use What's App with a rental host and we were in the country driving. We later had to call a few places to book or change activities we were doing -- anyway, I hit the 10 days and have a $100 charge (Verizon). Somehow my DH has cellular on 1 day and he got hit for $10, but that was a mistake.

We downloaded all the google maps ahead of time and used those offline a number of days. No issues.

I do recommend leaving your phone in airplane mode and just using wifi if at all possible. Once I 'broke the seal' of spending the $10 I tended to use my phone more often (though I did delete some social media off my phone before we left -- don't plan to add it back, it was fine w/o it).

 

[elgerber]

Huh... I didn't even know the reloadable was a thing. I guess it's like giving someone a reloadable visa or something?

I shall think about it. I'm not overly concerned about the x/24 since I am currently low and I generally don't apply for personal cards at all... I am learning that I have a bad habit of accumulating points I end up not being able to use!

I thought I read somewhere, the gift card thread maybe, that you can't get the 40/40 offer on the reloadable anymore. I would very well be wrong thought.

 

[LynnTH]

Yes just the first leg of the flight, unless it’s the same flight number with no change of planes

It covers all flights listed on the same Confirmation #. We always have a layover and change planes and EB is good for both of the flights.

 

[platamama]

Has anyone used SWA travel funds to book a refundable flight and then cancelled and gotten a refund?

Are you asking if you'd get a cash refund for the full refundable flight amount? No. Your refund will come back as SW travel funds with a new travel fund 6-digit code. Any amount you paid in excess of SW travel funds for the flight can be refunded to your original form of payment or combined to your new SW travel fund amount.

It covers all flights listed on the same Confirmation #. We always have a layover and change planes and EB is good for both of the flights.

I think @palhockeymomof2 's answer was to the question specifically for upgraded boarding ($40), not EBCI. I agree with her answer. I'm also glad to hear that EBCI is good for the whole journey!

 

[LynnTH]

Are you asking if you'd get a cash refund for the full refundable flight amount? No. Your refund will come back as SW travel funds with a new travel fund 6-digit code. Any amount you paid in excess of SW travel funds for the flight can be refunded to your original form of payment or combined to your new SW travel fund amount.

I think @palhockeymomof2 's answer was to the question specifically for upgraded boarding ($40), not EBCI. I agree with her answer. I'm also glad to hear that EBCI is good for the whole journey!

Ahhh. Yeah, that kind of stinks that Upgraded Boarding does not cover all the flights in a reservation, if available.

 

[mmmears]

Back from a pretty long (for us) trip to Europe. We flew over on AF Biz (using MRs), stayed a week at the PHPV using Hyatt points plus a suite upgrade - I still love this place and the Globalist breakfast was pretty amazing. We took a train to Barcelona and stayed at the Cotton House (Marriott) through FHR - small room (and we had the largest they offer) but again a great breakfast through FHR and a really lovely breakfast patio and rooftop pool, plus it's in a great location. Took a Disney Dream cruise which was great (used some Disney GCs bought at a discount or at 5x). Then spent a couple days in Rome. Flew home on BA Biz (using MR points) because AF wanted a ridiculous amount of points for the flight home. All in all it was a pretty fantastic vacation with lots of history, art, discovery, visits to new and familiar places, and it was much longer and nicer because of the points game.

Thank you to all of you who share ideas and advice on here. I truly appreciate you all.

 

[newski_mom]

Back from a pretty long (for us) trip to Europe. We flew over on AF Biz (using MRs), stayed a week at the PHPV using Hyatt points plus a suite upgrade - I still love this place and the Globalist breakfast was pretty amazing. We took a train to Barcelona and stayed at the Cotton House (Marriott) through FHR - small room (and we had the largest they offer) but again a great breakfast through FHR and a really lovely breakfast patio and rooftop pool, plus it's in a great location. Took a Disney Dream cruise which was great (used some Disney GCs bought at a discount or at 5x). Then spent a couple days in Rome. Flew home on BA Biz (using MR points) because AF wanted a ridiculous amount of points for the flight home. All in all it was a pretty fantastic vacation with lots of history, art, discovery, visits to new and familiar places, and it was much longer and nicer because of the points game.

Thank you to all of you who share ideas and advice on here. I truly appreciate you all.

Sounds like a great trip!!

 

[elgerber]

will Chase transfer a credit balance to a card that has a balance due? I have a couple of small credits on cards I don't use.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

will Chase transfer a credit balance to a card that has a balance due? I have a couple of small credits on cards I don't use.

Yes they will transfer the credits

 

[CyndiLouWho]

will Chase transfer a credit balance to a card that has a balance due? I have a couple of small credits on cards I don't use.

Yes. You can SM them. It does need to be personal to personal card or biz to biz IIRC.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

It covers all flights listed on the same Confirmation #. We always have a layover and change planes and EB is good for both of the flights.

Agree EB covers all flights on the same confirmation, unfortunately the upgraded boardings don’t

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I thought I read somewhere, the gift card thread maybe, that you can't get the 40/40 offer on the reloadable anymore. I would very well be wrong thought.

I think the on the reloadable card they wouldn’t approved a second one even if you’ve cancelled the first one and it’s been 90 days since application the way the debit cards have worked…..saw something on DOC about it and also that you can’t double dip the $40 online and in store any more

 

[BGparadise]

I'm 2+ weeks behind on reading as we just got back from 14 days in Ireland (and 2 in Boston). I'll write up a little recap of the pts/places but wanted to share this Global Entry interview experience while it's fresh in my mind as a DP.

DH & I both applied LAST July for GE. I was conditionally approved within a week, DH still was not as of our time of travel, & we never bothered to schedule my interview, so we traveled w/o GE.

We departed from Shannon airport on Monday and in Ireland you pre-clear IN Ireland, so I was planning to ask about "apply on 'arrival'". Before I even asked, when they scanned my passport the lady saw I was pending interview and asked if I wanted to complete it now...I did. The person who scanned my DH's didn't mention anything either way, but we asked if he could "try". She hesitated a little, saying they normally don't allow people to do it until they are only pending the interview, but they did let us both go to the office for the "interview".

I was first and it was a quick few questions (validate address, email, had I been arrested ever, had I lived in middle east, employment status), then finger printing and that was it. My DH did the same thing and was approved as well.

Keep in mind that there was literally NO LINE in Pre Clearance or in the CBP office at all so it was PAINLESS!
(edit to add: I think most of the people on our flight had already gone thru based on the crowd a the gate when we were done, so perhaps had we gone thru earlier there would have been a small line.)

Shannon was a nice small airport and I would highly recommend using it unless Dublin is more convenient. We flew into Dublin and it was fine as well actually, but I suspect there would always be more people during the middle of the day. We had biz class (Aer Lingus) going in, and since both you and your bags are let off first, we were at the front of the line for immigration there -- which took < 5 minutes.

Thanks for your info regarding GE. I was curious if your husband is now officially approved. I am in a similar situation where my GE has been pending review for an extended amount of time.

 

[IFlossU]

Back from a pretty long (for us) trip to Europe. We flew over on AF Biz (using MRs), stayed a week at the PHPV using Hyatt points plus a suite upgrade - I still love this place and the Globalist breakfast was pretty amazing. We took a train to Barcelona and stayed at the Cotton House (Marriott) through FHR - small room (and we had the largest they offer) but again a great breakfast through FHR and a really lovely breakfast patio and rooftop pool, plus it's in a great location. Took a Disney Dream cruise which was great (used some Disney GCs bought at a discount or at 5x). Then spent a couple days in Rome. Flew home on BA Biz (using MR points) because AF wanted a ridiculous amount of points for the flight home. All in all it was a pretty fantastic vacation with lots of history, art, discovery, visits to new and familiar places, and it was much longer and nicer because of the points game.

Thank you to all of you who share ideas and advice on here. I truly appreciate you all.

May I ask what US airport you flew in/out of? I’m looking to book flights to Paris, and home from Rome next Summer and curious where you found availability out of. I’m assuming your BA flight was booked with Avios?

I’ve found some availability on AF out of ORD, but my challenge is from Rome back to the US.

 

[platamama]

I had the AF on my vanilla Plat coming up so I chatted with Amex for a retention offer. Got 30K MR/$3K/3 mos. I also had a physical letter from Amex saying there had been a technical issue with my being able to enroll in POT on that same card for 20K MR (I don't recall ever getting that offer on that particular card; I did have a problem with the 20K MR on POT for my Gold card and that just never ended up happening despite my numerous calls to Amex) and I could call in to have it activated. I accepted the retention offer, then called for the 20K MR for POT. Strangely enough, just like my Gold POT offer, the Amex rep couldn't find that offer in my account (I have the Amex letter dated 6/13/23 in my hand ) so they activated POT and sent the request for 20K MR to the "back office." We'll see if that ever shows up. If it does then I'll have gotten 50K MR on this card for the next year and that's good enough for me to hold onto it another year. Fingers crossed.

 

[miztressuz]

New question, for cruise-y types...

I am looking at a cruise for my family of four in 2 cabins (because we would kill each other...) H definitely wants the drink package, so I am listing him and DD21 (will be by then...) as one cabin with the "free drink package" (That costs $400 in tips...) In the other room I am listing myself and DD-will-be-18... she obviously won't be drinking, and I can buy myself a LOT of cash-bar drinks for $400 if I wanted them...

Our cruise has a port call every day, so we won't be on the ship 24/7, and I know that basic beverages are included with meals... but my question for anyone who knows is:

How expensive are sodas and non-alcoholic beverages between mealtimes? Before I turn down the "free" ($400) drink package, I want to be sure it's not $10 per soda...

We're going to be on NCL, if that helps...

For NCL it's not that expensive but it has gone up. Before they used to charge like $2 a can from the bars. BUT that was several cruises ago. I think it's about $3.50 now. Alcoholic beverages are mostly between $10-15 on average. Plus add the automatic gratuity which is 20%.

I'll try to remember to check with a bartender. I'm on the Prima now. A Long Island Ice Tea was $13.20 ($11 with $2.20 auto grat.) I ordered a coke but haven't seen the charge for it yet. No paper receipts; if you have to sign they have an electronic tablet. They didn't make me sign for the coke so I'm living dangerously!

For me I use $5 for a soda and $13 for alcohol as the average when I'm budgeting.

Well, your timing couldn't be better! Target is doing a $40/$40 coupon for new debit/credit red cards (also reloadables) Go to target.com/redcard to see the offer.

Unfortunately, I already have the debit and not gonna burn an x/24 slot for this... but what is a reloadable card about? I read the flyer and I don't really get it...

The Reloadable is the same as a Serve card. You don't have to connect it to a bank account like the debit card, but works like debit where you can only make purchases with the balance on the card. So you load it up first and then use it like the debit RedCard. I haven't seen any reports of being able to use gebits to load at the store. It would be more interesting if you could use something other than cash to load in person. (Anyone know if I'm behind the times? Any good uses for the Reloadable other than getting around random limits imposed on the debits?)

 

[DogCat]

A DP for those interested in getting their Chase biz cards quickly. I SM'd Chase to expedite my CIC. They replied, "Sorry, but NO." Then I called and they said "Sure, we'd be happy to do that."

 

[wanderlust7]

I'm on the Prima now.

How is it? We’ll be on the next sailing. Did you miss Ísafjörður?

Have been reading some reviews on Cruise Critic that has me worried.

 

[miztressuz]

How is it? We’ll be on the next sailing. Did you miss Ísafjörður?

Have been reading some reviews on Cruise Critic that has me worried.

I think the ship is nice, but I can understand the Love / hate camps for the design. I appreciate the smaller but more plentiful venues. Love the cabin! We're balcony snobs and our regular 'ole balcony is like the size of a mini suite. All the seating around the ship in the complimentary areas has the resort feel. Once you get some timing down you can beat or avoid crowds, so halfway through I'm digging it.

We absolutely missed Isafjordor! They informed us like 10 days before they were cancelling and adding an overnight in Akureyri. So mad. Akureyri is cute, and we enjoyed a Friday night in the city center. But I'd have liked to see a different part of Iceland. NCL has become notorious for port cancellations, but we thought we had escaped. If I hadn't arrived a few days early to explore on our own, that's all we would have seen.

But otherwise we're following the itinerary and being cleared within a few minutes of port arrival and departing within a few minutes of schedule. You getting on in Southampton? Will we be ships passing in the night through the cruise terminal? Or you hopping on the next Reykjavik sailing?

 

[afan]

No retention offer on my Hilton surpass so I went ahead and closed it. Almost done with my Marriott spend but think I'll wait until after Japan to get another card. Plus I may be able to ask for a retention offer on my gold in Sept, need to check when my af hits so that would affect it to.

So I'll look to max categories unless some awesome biz card offer comes up.