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

[calypso726]

Just applied for Barclay’s AA Aviator and got a “reviewing your application” message; applied for Venture X beginning of May and got my first denial ever (as someone here once said - if you aren’t getting denials, you aren’t playing hard enough ). Hoping to use AA rewards to book flights for short WDW trip in November and flights to Fort Lauderdale for DCL in February. Last new card was United card with Chase in January, so I’m feeling the SUB itch.

Related to short WDW trip in November - what are your favorite hotels to book with points close to WDW property? There is a Hyatt Place near Disney Springs but doesn’t get great reviews. Drury can be booked through Chase Portal; also read good things about Springhill Suites at Flamingo Crossing.

We fluctuate between the Hyatt Grand Cypress, Candlewood Suites, The Swan Reserve, The Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, Springhill suites, and the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Marriott village. Whenever DVC has no availability or we have a FN cert that needs to be used, these are the ones we look to now.

 

[calypso726]

I always envy all of you who book short trips just for crazy things like concerts etc. Well I am now one of you LOL!! I booked me, dh and our two adult kids for weekend in NYC in September just to see The Outsiders. I have been obsessed with The Outsiders since I was a kid, and when I found out about the musical, and started seeing clips, buying the recording and then the Tony perfomance, I wanted to see it so bad I wanted to cry. Well we are going!!! Finally a use for my useless AA Miles. Now to find a hotel on points close to the theater. the cost of the tickets however...lets just say good thing the other stuff is on rewards LOL.

Yay you! Welcome to the crazy club I may have to find a weekend to book this as well as & Juliet. There's a show I want to see in London also but I don't see how I'm going to make it work between current vacation planed and Taylor Swift in London.

 

[Haley R]

We were able to get a resort studio at GF in July as a confirmed dvc reservation. We used our Capital One Venture X card to pay for it and then used points to “erase” the cost.

We’ve also done lots of new bank bonuses and a few new ccs but dh has been doing all of that lately so I’m not even sure what we’ve gotten I know we got a CSP and a new Amex but can’t remember which one

 

[elgerber]

Yay you! Welcome to the crazy club I may have to find a weekend to book this as well as & Juliet. There's a show I want to see in London also but I don't see how I'm going to make it work between current vacation planed and Taylor Swift in London.

We have & Juliet in our season here this year, so I will see that. But I NEEDED to see the Outsiders with this original cast, Ponyboy is amazing.

 

[Psychodisney]

If anyone has any trips planned with AA, they are having a decent award trip sale. I had some award trips booked on United but cancelled and rebooked with AA for significant savings.

 

[havaneselover]

Looking for some feedback/ideas. DD turns 21 in September. She's graduating in December and she's got kind of a crappy dorm situation for fall semester so I thought a weekend trip might be nice to celebrate her birthday. She and I still have one day no expiration park hoppers. I also have two Hilton FNCs. I'm thinking about the Waldorf and a day at Disney. But I'm also wondering if we should go see my mom whose birthday is that weekend. I am not really traveling at the moment because my dog is 17.5 and she needs a lot of attention but my son probably can manage for two days. And I do know that going to FL in mid September is completely moronic!

 

[LynnTH]

I was looking at KLM/Air France and Virgin for our flights to Paris next year. Let me know if you are able to book award seats on Virgin.

Ok. Here is my long story... So both options for Virgin and KLM were the exact same flights. Virgin came up as 15,000 points per person plus $28.20 each. KLM was 37,000 points plus $104 each. I could not get the Virgin flights booked online. Kept coming up as not available. So, I googled if you could book with points over the phone and a # came up to call. They said it would be the same points but $240 per person as it was a KLM flight. Not knowing better, I booked it as it was still a good deal. Then the email came and it was from Flightnest not Virgin. So, I googled them and not very good reviews. Sound like it is probably a legit company but scammy. The $ was already pending in my Chase Account. I called them back and said I thought I was dealing with Virgin and I was not, and could they Cancel my booking (Tickets had not come through yet). He voided it and this morning noticed the pending charge was gone.

So, I found the correct # for Virgin (1-800-862-8621) and the guy was able to book all 6 of our flights for 90,000 Virgin Points (which I transferred from Chase) and $169.20 in cash. He then waited until he had the KLM Confirmation # and gave that to me.

Reservation pulls up on both Virgin and KLM. Now I need to go online to KLM and book and pay for seats (about $35 a person in Economy).

So this was a steal. 15,000 Points per person plus $28.20 in Fees and $35 for Seats per person. This is MSP to VIE (Vienna). Am so excited - this was so cheap. Cash price for the 6 tickets $7200.

 

[WaltsMartini]

OMG friends, Barclays rejected me and my spontaneous November WDW trip hangs by a thread!

I applied for and was rejected for Venture X beginning of April, and applied for and was rejected yesterday/today for Barclays.

I received an email from Capital One offering to show me what I’m pre—approved for; completed that and it is showing I’m approved for regular Venture. Should I go for it - are those pre-approvals typically legit once you get to application?

I’m at 5/24 right now; if I apply for Venture, I’ll be at 6/24, won’t be back to 4/24 until early August 2025, and then 5/24 until late Jan 2026. Long term travel plans have me needing to earn a SW companion pass in early 2026, so was planning on personal SW in late fall 2025 and business card same time to early 2026. This feels like I’m pushing it….

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

So I have my CIU on it's way to me....YAY. Maybe I'll do a CIP later before the elevated offer is gone. But if not, the 0% fits my needs better right now than more URs, LOL.

Thanks for mentioning the AA miles! While I didn't get cheaper flights, it did make me go look at our trip to NC 7/9-12. My daughter was sad because she was going to have to miss a concert. But those were the only dates that I could snag the hilton employee rate on the beach. Well looks like July completely opened up. For 3k mile more, I moved us to a week later (which is technically my week w/ the kids). I do have to pay $130 vs $50 for one night at the hotel, but I have all the hilton GCs to use. So I'm hoping I can use those. The rental car is $20 more too, but I'll watch that. As of right now I have both booked, LOL. My son won't miss a week of hockey camp either

If anyone has any trips planned with AA, they are having a decent award trip sale. I had some award trips booked on United but cancelled and rebooked with AA for significant savings.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

OMG friends, Barclays rejected me and my spontaneous November WDW trip hangs by a thread!

I applied for and was rejected for Venture X beginning of April, and applied for and was rejected yesterday/today for Barclays.

I received an email from Capital One offering to show me what I’m pre—approved for; completed that and it is showing I’m approved for regular Venture. Should I go for it - are those pre-approvals typically legit once you get to application?

I’m at 5/24 right now; if I apply for Venture, I’ll be at 6/24, won’t be back to 4/24 until early August 2025, and then 5/24 until late Jan 2026. Long term travel plans have me needing to earn a SW companion pass in early 2026, so was planning on personal SW in late fall 2025 and business card same time to early 2026. This feels like I’m pushing it….

Do you have the Citi AA Biz card? That would be an option to AA miles. Could you do Avios to book instead?

 

[Sheree]

thoughts: My AF will post on my next statement for amex plat. in case I don't get a retention offer thinking of another card to park my MRs. I haven't found good use for them but don't want to lose them. There's BCE and Gold, or I could do a bi card. I've had my surpass for over 20 years, only other amex.

thoughts?

I'm 4/24 for chase and plan to get another Ink when the higher offer starts. I'm good for multiple MSRs unfortunately! Lots of home improvement coming up (MIL/son house, I get reimbursed!) and general spend.

thanks

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Okay cruise people, this will be my first cruise since 1999, LOL. I'm taking the kids on the "free" Carnival cruise in August. We'll non-rev into MCO likely the day before. We leave from Port Canaveral. I'm trying to figure out, how do we get from MCO to a hotel, and then a hotel to Port. I did reserve a rental car from MCO to drop at the port, but it's $160! I'm thinking uber for both would probably be cheaper. But then I'm like what do we do for food? And also thinking I might want a car to get pop and stuff when we get to FL vs doing a check bag filled with everything.

Any tips on the smartest/easiest way to do all this? I used a Bonvoy FNC for the SpringHill Suites right by the port. The room is 2 kings plus a sofabed and trundle. But I could book in MCO if that makes more sense too. Figure we can all enjoy the space before being crammed into a tiny interior room together, LOL. I was likely going to make my kids carryon and not bother with a checked back, but I'm not sure if we can fit everything in just 3 carryon bags. We're doing a 7 day cruise. And the hope would be to non-rev home ASAP once we get off the plane! Heck, I've tried to look and see if we can just disembark our last port and fly back, LOL.

I figured it's time to start actually planning for this. I mean I booked it a year ago, LOL. My head is spinning trying to figure this all out now.

 

[kmc8826]

I am not taking credit for finding it and forgive me if it was posted and I missed it but new Hyatt promo just for Florida! Especially useful for MCO and Grand Cypress if wanting Globalist. Register now and stay between now and end of September.

https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/en/offers/florida-offer.html

 

[kmc8826]

thoughts: My AF will post on my next statement for amex plat. in case I don't get a retention offer thinking of another card to park my MRs. I haven't found good use for them but don't want to lose them. There's BCE and Gold, or I could do a bi card. I've had my surpass for over 20 years, only other amex.

thoughts?

I'm 4/24 for chase and plan to get another Ink when the higher offer starts. I'm good for multiple MSRs unfortunately! Lots of home improvement coming up (MIL/son house, I get reimbursed!) and general spend.

thanks

I might think about downgrading the plat instead of outright closing assuming no retention offer. Then you can always upgrade back to plat. If you haven’t had the gold I might downgrade clear to green and then wait for an upgrade offer to gold (and possibly later plat). I have done that a couple times with different cards.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I am not taking credit for finding it and forgive me if it was posted and I missed it but new Hyatt promo just for Florida! Especially useful for MCO and Grand Cypress if wanting Globalist. Register now and stay between now and end of September.

https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/en/offers/florida-offer.html

I got this in my email. So timely as we have a 3 night stay at the Centric Las Olas Ft. Lauderdale over 4th of July weekend

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

I still haven’t pulled the trigger on Costa Rica flights. My latest question is on taxes and fees - looks like about $82 for taxes and fees for each ticket booked with points. I believe if needed, I can cancel and get the points refunded to my jet blue account, but what about the taxes and fees? Is that refundable if we need to cancel?

FYI, if you book with Southwest using points and cancel, the taxes/fees can get refunded to your method of payment, rather than a travel credit, if you so choose.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Ok. Here is my long story... So both options for Virgin and KLM were the exact same flights. Virgin came up as 15,000 points per person plus $28.20 each. KLM was 37,000 points plus $104 each. I could not get the Virgin flights booked online. Kept coming up as not available. So, I googled if you could book with points over the phone and a # came up to call. They said it would be the same points but $240 per person as it was a KLM flight. Not knowing better, I booked it as it was still a good deal. Then the email came and it was from Flightnest not Virgin. So, I googled them and not very good reviews. Sound like it is probably a legit company but scammy. The $ was already pending in my Chase Account. I called them back and said I thought I was dealing with Virgin and I was not, and could they Cancel my booking (Tickets had not come through yet). He voided it and this morning noticed the pending charge was gone.

So, I found the correct # for Virgin (1-800-862-8621) and the guy was able to book all 6 of our flights for 90,000 Virgin Points (which I transferred from Chase) and $169.20 in cash. He then waited until he had the KLM Confirmation # and gave that to me.

Reservation pulls up on both Virgin and KLM. Now I need to go online to KLM and book and pay for seats (about $35 a person in Economy).

So this was a steal. 15,000 Points per person plus $28.20 in Fees and $35 for Seats per person. This is MSP to VIE (Vienna). Am so excited - this was so cheap. Cash price for the 6 tickets $7200.

This is awesome- congrats. KLM is a great airline- I think you'll really enjoy it. Air France and KLM are sort of sister airlines, known as Flying Blue awards program. Just putting my experience on your radar, but hopefully you don't end up with this issue. I booked economy seats on AF/KLM through Virgin Atlantic, because as you saw, they can be much cheaper. However, maybe four months prior to departure, AF ended up canceling the flight. Because AF/KLM only allocate a certain number of award flights to VS and none were available near my original date, my only option was to take a cancellation, rather than switch to another flight. So then I was stuck rebooking them directly with AF, but the economy rates went way way up. So I paid double or triple AND I had points stranded with VS.

I also had award tickets for that same original flight booked in biz (for different passengers- some were in biz and some economy) directly through Air France. Because I had booked directly with AF, I was able to switch to any AF/KLM flight of my choosing, when they canceled my original flight.

So sometimes it pays to book directly with the airline program you are flying. But for that price, I would have probably jumped on that deal as well!!

 

[happ]

OMG friends, Barclays rejected me and my spontaneous November WDW trip hangs by a thread!

I applied for and was rejected for Venture X beginning of April, and applied for and was rejected yesterday/today for Barclays.

I received an email from Capital One offering to show me what I’m pre—approved for; completed that and it is showing I’m approved for regular Venture. Should I go for it - are those pre-approvals typically legit once you get to application?

I’m at 5/24 right now; if I apply for Venture, I’ll be at 6/24, won’t be back to 4/24 until early August 2025, and then 5/24 until late Jan 2026. Long term travel plans have me needing to earn a SW companion pass in early 2026, so was planning on personal SW in late fall 2025 and business card same time to early 2026. This feels like I’m pushing it….

Did you try calling Barclay? Sometimes they just want some identity verification documents before they'll approve you. I've gone through that a few times. As for Cap One, I've been "pre-approved" and still denied. If you haven't called Barclay, I'd try that first.

 

[hsmamato2]

what's the deal with the Hilton gc's again? Only certain hotels will take them as room payment,and I won;t know till I try to use them at checkout,right? if that's the case it's kind of annoying....

 

[Judique]

what's the deal with the Hilton gc's again? Only certain hotels will take them as room payment,and I won;t know till I try to use them at checkout,right? if that's the case it's kind of annoying....

Umm, I haven't tried to spend any yet, but have had some resistance with Marriott trying to use theirs. My success included calling Marriott and having them coach the desk person on how to use the gift card.

The Marriott ones were at 20% off.

These cost $1.95 for shipping and were a perk in addition to and after I signed up for the card so I will have virtually no loss and possibly a nice gain if I can use them somewhere.