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

[mmmears]

It's working again. New CIU acquired.

 

[calypso726]

How many MRs are folks here speculatively transferring to Hawaiian? We've got ~$800K MRs. I know I want to transfer 100K because of a specific trip need but not sure how much more to do for later. I do know we want to travel to Asia more

I know Greg from Frequent Miler transferred a million during the bonus. If I do it then maybe a couple hundred thousand.

 

[disneylover81]

Is it the time away from home that bothers him or being "stuck" on a boat? Alaska is port heavy with lots of stops in 7 days. We barely had time to explore the ship in 7 days. Loved Alaska and would love another 7 or 10 day cruise.

It’s being away for 7 days. He doesn’t even let me go to WDW for more than 4 nights at a time anymore. I tried to tell him it’ll probably be the best vacation we ever had once we get there. I’m gonna go either way, but I do want him to go too. We’ve never even had a family trip before with both of my sisters. I have one sister that just never participates no matter how many times we have invited her. I mean she didn’t even come to my wedding 22 years ago, even after I offered to buy her plane ticket!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I know Greg from Frequent Miler transferred a million during the bonus. If I do it then maybe a a couple hundred thousand.

I heard that on the podcast today, but he also told Nick to just wait for the next transfer bonus. He seemed to be pretty sure there would be another, but I don't know...

 

[calypso726]

I heard that on the podcast today, but he also told Nick to just wait for the next transfer bonus. He seemed to be pretty sure there would be another, but I don't know...

Yeah, I did listen to their speculations. So I’m going to hold tight and see if a) transfers from Amex continue into next year and Amex doesn’t remove them as a transfer partner once Alaska and Hawaiian points can be transferred from loyalty accounts. B) give it a few months and see if another transfer bonus materializes. It’s a gamble to be sure but I’m not in urgent need of AS miles at the moment.

 

[Psychodisney]

Is it the time away from home that bothers him or being "stuck" on a boat? Alaska is port heavy with lots of stops in 7 days. We barely had time to explore the ship in 7 days. Loved Alaska and would love another 7 or 10 day cruise.

That's interesting you say that. Just got back from Alaska on Princess and felt we didn't have enough ports. We had waaaaaayyyyy to much time at sea which made me not love it so much.

 

[reliev]

I know Greg from Frequent Miler transferred a million during the bonus. If I do it then maybe a couple hundred thousand.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/hawa...-to-alaska-airline-miles-11-later-this-month/

I wouldn't say I like speculative transfers but I missed the mark was a 30% bonus during this hopefully alaska becomes an MR partner.

 

[Nala83]

I went to Taiwan last year and this year and loved it! Though the full disclaimer is that I'm from Singapore which is only a 5 hour flight away, and I speak relatively fluent Mandarin. Although I did make all my bookings (hotels, tours, rail tickets) using English based websites/etc, which is great as I take forever to read things written in Chinese...

In Taipei we stayed at the W both times, which is in the Xinyi district. I really liked the area/location - the W was directly connected to a shopping mall and an MRT station, which made it incredibly easy to get around using public transport. Additionally, a lot of the Xinyi district is connected by underground links and covered overhead bridges, and the W (at City Hall MRT station) was connected all the way to Taipei 101. This is especially amazing if it rains - as there is just no need to go out into the rain because everything is connected!

Xinyi is also really new as an area, so everything there is modern and shiny. Great for me as I love modern and shiny, but may not be what everyone is looking for. It's also full of shopping malls - again, great for me as I love shopping and they had a lot of food I liked, but I know this isn't what everyone wants. It's also a bit further out away from a lot of the typical tourist places like Ximending, but we didn't find it too hard since the MRT was so easy to use.

The other hotel I booked (then cancelled) was the Doubletree Zhongshan, which is a lot closer to the Ximending area.

Otherwise I know quite a lot of people who stayed around the Ximending area, as well as the Taipei Main Station area. Have heard good things about Hotel Resonance (which was also on my shortlist).

Taipei is really convenient to get around with the MRT and even the bus system so wouldn't be too worried about staying at other places too. Uber also works really well within the city area (less so if you are outside the city).

Things to do - can't completely remember all we've done (over a few trips) but what I remember

• Eat - all the food is amazing there. Beef noodles, oyster noodles (we liked the one at Ay Chung), bubble tea everywhere, pineapple tarts (we liked ChiaTe and Little Pan ones and brought back lots, Sunny Hills also gets good reviews), sunny cake (Ruyi sunny cake was great - everyone who walked in automatically got given tea and samples of their snacks and you could ask for more to try with no obligation to buy anything), Addiction Aquatic Development (amazingly good sushi), coffee, tea, gua bao, all sorts of fruit (especially loved the red guava), dried fruit (especially dried red guava), nougat, this snack they have with spring onion biscuit and nougat filling that sounds weird but works so well...
• Night markets are particularly famous so definitely go wander around one at some point...
• Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall
• Ximending - just wandered around the area, ate a bit, saw the red house
• Dihua Street - again just wandered around the area
• National Palace Museum
• Xinyi District - wander around, see Taipei 101 up close
• Maokong - took the gondola up as well, and there are tea plantations at the top
• Jiufen - really lovely little area in the hills where you get really nice views, has a very long/narrow/atmospheric/busy/crowded shopping street with lots of food/souvenirs, and a really lovely tea house (A-Mei) where you can drink tea with very picturesque views. It's rather touristy but still fun provided it's not crazy crowded, try to go earlier in the day if possible as I think a lot of tourists go there for lunch...
• Shifen - two areas, first one is the village and the other is the waterfall, but these two areas are quite close by. The village is where you can buy a giant lantern, write stuff on it, and then release it as a sky lantern - it's really rather fun and not too pricey. The waterfall is a nice waterfall to look at...
• Houtong - lots of cats. And a small mining exhibit.
• Yehliu - though we went on an extremely hot day a long time ago, and I haven't been back for a while.
• Tea area visit

Some of this was done as a day or half day tour from Taipei, there are quite a lot of companies that organise tours that combine Yehliu/Jiufen/Shifen or Jiufen/Shifen/Houtong or similar. We got a private tour for a day (around US$200) to see Jiufen/Shifen/Houtong and a couple of other things that we thought would be a little harder to get to on our own by public transport. We've also done Jiufen/Shifen by public transport, though this is a bit more inconvenient and takes longer to do.

What I would have liked to do but didn't have enough time

• Yangmingshan - massive nature area near Taipei
• Xiangshan (elephant mountain) - this is inside Taipei, apparently you can climb up and get amazing views of Taipei 101
• Going up Taipei 101 to the top
• Beitou hot springs

Wow- thank you! It looks like there's a ton to do. It's good to hear that transportation is easy. That opens up possibilities for hotels.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

That's interesting you say that. Just got back from Alaska on Princess and felt we didn't have enough ports. We had waaaaaayyyyy to much time at sea which made me not love it so much.

We did a DCL Alaska cruise and had 3 ports and a glacier day which left 2 days at sea. It's the only cruise we've ever done but we barely saw the ship. I had a list of things to do on the ship and didn't get to most of them.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/hawa...-to-alaska-airline-miles-11-later-this-month/

I wouldn't say I like speculative transfers but I missed the mark was a 30% bonus during this hopefully alaska becomes an MR partner.

Not sure what you're saying, but I wouldn't bet on Alaska becoming an MR partner. I feel like BoA wouldn't let them. I think the gamble is transfer to Hawaiian now or wait and hope that MRs continue to be transferable and that there will be another transfer bonus.

 

[mmmears]

That's interesting you say that. Just got back from Alaska on Princess and felt we didn't have enough ports. We had waaaaaayyyyy to much time at sea which made me not love it so much.

It's interesting because people really have different opinions regarding the number of sea days. There are those who love them so much they will book the Trans-Atlantic cruises because they are mostly sea days, and those who think it's a waste of a day. I tend to book cruises with fewer sea days because I choose based on the ports (and how cool they look to me) and then later I worry that we won't get enough downtime.

 

[georgina]

It's interesting because people really have different opinions regarding the number of sea days. There are those who love them so much they will book the Trans-Atlantic cruises because they are mostly sea days, and those who think it's a waste of a day. I tend to book cruises with fewer sea days because I choose based on the ports (and how cool they look to me) and then later I worry that we won't get enough downtime.

Agree, everyone is different. We had a 2 week cruise in May that had 3 sea days, and I felt it was too much. We prefer smaller ships though, so not all the crazy entertainments available. This is coming after a previous river cruise with a stop in a port each day, which we liked better.

 

[Psychodisney]

It's interesting because people really have different opinions regarding the number of sea days. There are those who love them so much they will book the Trans-Atlantic cruises because they are mostly sea days, and those who think it's a waste of a day. I tend to book cruises with fewer sea days because I choose based on the ports (and how cool they look to me) and then later I worry that we won't get enough downtime.

So true. I guess in this situation we found there weren't many things to do on sea days. Weather was cold and rainy which limited us to indoor activities.

 

[havaneselover]

Agree, everyone is different. We had a 2 week cruise in May that had 3 sea days, and I felt it was too much. We prefer smaller ships though, so not all the crazy entertainments available. This is coming after a previous river cruise with a stop in a port each day, which we liked better.

I consider Alaska and Europe to be more port-intensive. For some reason I love sea days on a Caribbean cruise (I've seen most of the ports and they are somewhere between meh and okay to me), but in Alaska and Europe I want to see the sites and don't care that much about the ship (which is why I need to stop paying $$$ for DCL).

 

[happ]

We're back from our first trip to London. It was myself and my two young adult sons. We flew AA premium economy there, 47k AA miles pp, and enjoyed the Chase lounge in BOS before departure. I didn't realize the food ordered from our table would be "normal" sized portions, so I requested way too much. Everything was tasty except the risotto. I really enjoyed this lounge. Our flight left almost on time and I liked the premium economy seating, but couldn't sleep overnight. In London, we took the Elizabeth Line from LHR to Paddington Station. It was jam-packed all the way with no seats to be had. Our hotel wasn't far from Paddington Station. I'd booked the Darlington Hyde Park for 3 nights (75,702 URs). Since it was morning and we couldn't get into our room until after 2pm, we left our bags and took the bus to do some sightseeing. Back at the hotel later, I was happy to find that our triple room with 3 single beds was exactly as pictured online. It was small, but not uncomfortably tight, with simple furnishings. Overall, I enjoyed our hotel stay. It was clean with good housekeeping each day. There were some complimentary breakfast items each morning and hot items available for purchase. The only negative was the noise from the street, but I was so tired from all the walking that I slept fine. The second day we went to the Tower of London which proved to be the highlight of the trip. My oldest met up with friends on day 3 and I went shopping/exploring with my youngest. The next day we left London for a flight to Dublin. The Elizabeth Line was much less busy this time. We spent some time in a Plaza Premium Lounge at LHR which was ok but really busy. For this flight I'd booked AerLingus economy LHR to BOS with a one-night stopover in Dublin for 22.5k Alaska miles pp. This was partly to save on taxes/fees out of LHR and partly to explore a new place. This proved to be a poor decision since we basically wasted a day of our short trip with the added travel. By the time we arrived at our hotel, Holiday Inn Express Dublin City Centre, it was late in the day. I'd booked two rooms at the hotel, one with a 40k FNC + 5k points and the other with 45k points, and requested rooms on the same floor. Unfortunately, they supposedly didn't have two rooms on the same floor. This wasn't a big deal, but I was frustrated since I'd messaged the hotel about it ahead of time. The hotel was fine. The breakfast buffet was good, but the hotel is in a noisy area. My room's window looked out onto an outdoor seating area of a neighboring pub and the other room on a busy street. The next morning, our last vacation day, we did The Book of Kells Experience, had some lunch, and then went back to the airport. We missed out on going to a lounge at DUB because I didn't realize it was before preclearance. The only lounge option after preclearance was for business class. Oh well. AerLingus economy was fine on the long flight home, but I had an empty seat next to me and the person in front of me didn't recline his seat so it felt like I had plenty of room. If either of those things were different, it would have felt tight. Overall, our trip was good. It was too short to see much, but it was a memorable experience.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I have a budget cell phone carrier. Visible Wireless. Amex Biz Platinum did not credit for the wireless credit, I enrolled prior to the charge posting. Huge bummer since I really factored that $120 a year into my is it worth the $695 AF decision.

 

[EACarlson]

I have a budget cell phone carrier. Visible Wireless. Amex Biz Platinum did not credit for the wireless credit, I enrolled prior to the charge posting. Huge bummer since I really factored that $120 a year into my is it worth the $695 AF decision.

It doesn't surprise me any. The terms specifically call out that prepaid is not an eligible purchase and that resellers are not an eligible purchase. If you're not already aware, credit card cell phone insurance won't cover you either. Learned that one the hard way with my CFF and Total by Verizon.

 

[VGCgroupie]

It doesn't surprise me any. The terms specifically call out that prepaid is not an eligible purchase and that resellers are not an eligible purchase. If you're not already aware, credit card cell phone insurance won't cover you either. Learned that one the hard way with my CFF and Total by Verizon.

Honestly didn't even think about it being a prepaid service. Darn. Cant give up my unlimited service w/ hot spot for $25 a month so I guess I have to look up a loophole or forfeit it.

 

[Sheree]

somehow I hit the msr on my CIP, Platinum retention and amex bbp early!

I have 5k in spend coming up between 10/15-11/15 in addition to regular


not sure what to do

I am 2/24 on personal an have 3 inks, (sm'd to close the 4th), last one opened 8/24

P2 is 2/24 with 3 inks, last one 4/24

I have csr, surpass and platinum
he downgraded his csr to og freeedom and has marriott and costco that get used

no longer flying sw since they eliminated most non stops and have 100k mi there
have 25k united
450k hilton
200k mr
600k ur
200k klm
180k aa

after our river cruise next month we have nothing planned. i'm sure a few dvc trips will happen and hopefully poland/hungary next summer

thinking i can refer him for an ink, any other suggestion

thanks

 

[mmmears]

I consider Alaska and Europe to be more port-intensive. For some reason I love sea days on a Caribbean cruise (I've seen most of the ports and they are somewhere between meh and okay to me), but in Alaska and Europe I want to see the sites and don't care that much about the ship (which is why I need to stop paying $$$ for DCL).

We cruised in Europe this summer on Celebrity (first time not on a Disney ship) and I'm so glad we were willing to try it. I wasn't sure we'd like it, but we really did. I'm not sure it was any less expensive because we went for a higher category stateroom, but it feels good to know that I am not stuck with just one cruise line and their limited itineraries.