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

[sinnika]

Did you make separate transactions? I wish my OD would let me make multiple transactions.

My Office Max let me purchase the 6 gift cards in one transaction. They did have to get a supervisor who approved it without question. I wish they had Visa cards in higher denominations than $200. Can’t see paying that extra fee on each card.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

My Barclays AA biz card has turned into a nightmare. I never received a statement, so I called on Saturday and the automated response said my payment was due on Friday. I had to call Barclays again to get their mailing info so I could set them up to be paid from my Chase account. The Barclays CSR agreed to waive the interest charge on the account since I never received a statement.

Today I get a call from Barclays saying that my account is in arrears -- I tell them that it was paid in full on the 20th (and confirmed on the Chase website that I did in fact pay it). Barclays assured me that the payment had not been received. I then called Chase and the CSR tells me that the automated payment that was put through my bank account was rejected by Barclays today (does it really take 3 days in the age of computers for a payment to be rejected?) and that Chase would be issuing a cheque, mailing it today and Barclays should have by the 27th. I'm like, what? How does Chase not know that Barclays doesn't take payments online and why would it take 3 days for them to figure that out? Chase refuses to take any accountability and instead recommends that I set up bills to be paid 14 days in advance of the due date to avoid this happening again or give Barclays access to my bank account so they can take funds when payment is due (no way that's happening as this card was strictly for the SUB, which has been met, plus no one has access to my bank account but me). I'm very frustrated as I never miss a credit card payment (as long as I receive a statement and usually even if I don't). Will Barclays ding my credit score?

I have several barclay cards and I use Chase. I've never had an issue paying my bill. Are you saying you won't add your account number so you can pay your statement? I guess I've never thought about it, as I have my bank linked through every CC (Barclay, BofA, Chase (obv) and Amex).

 

[becauseimnew]

DP:
DH received Chase SW Premier Business SUB 12/3/21
He was approved for the same card today 3/22/23
So less than 24 months since he received the SUB for the same card.

 

[tink1970]

I just remembered (oops) that i have just over 100k avios.

I cannot even remember now why I accrued them!

I have no plans for any sort of travel in the foreseeable future that isn't paid for by work.

Any brilliant ideas? Hate to see things go to waste... *sigh*

You can use Avios to book AA flights-they just have to be sAAver flights. I do this for my DM frequently since she flies to PHX often. It's a bit of a hassle to find sAAver flights but better than wasting Avios.

 

[nalabear]

You can use Avios to book AA flights-they just have to be sAAver flights. I do this for my DM frequently since she flies to PHX often. It's a bit of a hassle to find sAAver flights but better than wasting Avios.

Also Alaska Air too for Avios. The weird thing is Avios availability plays around so much. One day it's there, next it disappears only to reappear a week later.

 

[GZanta77]

So DS moved back to the UK for college and is now working there. Having seen me play the credit card points game, he has just obtained his first card in the UK......but he won't be getting rich on points anytime soon. His SUB is a paltry 5000 BA avios.

Furthermore, Amex has a 1 sub every 24months rule across all varieties - so if you have had any UK issued Amex card in the last 2 years you can't get another. No fun for churners across the pond.

It does strike me as odd that the UK credit card market is so different, but at the same time, just reminds me to be grateful for the opportunities we have to play this game in the US.

 

[Princess Michele]

For Delta at least you have to look round trip, the one way cost is almost as much as round trip. It's really hard to find any low level awards to anywhere in Europe right now. point.me seems to be the best of the bunch for finding out how to use points. Have you looked at Flying Blue? AF and KLM might be able to do better.

Thank you for the information on Delta needing to be round trip. I had not seen that anywhere in my research in how to use miles/points. I have not looked at Flying Blue yet. I need to make an account and look at their options that might work. I'll take a look at point.me.

I remember someone on the board saying you could get free access to point.me by signing up for an Bilt rewards account even if you did not have the Bilt Mastercard

Thank you for the suggestion. I signed up for a Bilt rewards account but point.me is only accessible in their app not on a computer. I need to get a new phone first so maybe this will be helpful later.

 

[georgina]

DP:
DH received Chase SW Premier Business SUB 12/3/21
He was approved for the same card today 3/22/23
So less than 24 months since he received the SUB for the same card.

So, similar to the Ink cards they are not enforcing the 24 month rule?

 

[georgina]

It does strike me as odd that the UK credit card market is so different, but at the same time, just reminds me to be grateful for the opportunities we have to play this game in the US.

I sometimes remind myself the big bonuses and rewards could go away any time here as well.

 

[NewbieMom]

Does anyone have experience filing for trip delay insurance know if my situation qualifies? A couple weeks ago, we had our 1st outbound leg delay by 2 hrs, and due to this delay we missed our connection. The rebooked 2nd leg was 12 hrs later. So the letter from AA only shows 125 mins or so delay, but we had airport meal expenses (and a few incidentals) for the 12 extra hrs we had to spend at the airport. Would this qualify for reimbursement and would the AA letter showing 125 mins delay be sufficient?

 

[EACarlson]

Will Barclays ding my credit score?

Not unless the payment ends up being 30 days or more late. Once it reaches that threshold Barclay's can report that to the credit bureaus which will result in a significant hit.

So DS moved back to the UK for college and is now working there. Having seen me play the credit card points game, he has just obtained his first card in the UK......but he won't be getting rich on points anytime soon. His SUB is a paltry 5000 BA avios.

Furthermore, Amex has a 1 sub every 24months rule across all varieties - so if you have had any UK issued Amex card in the last 2 years you can't get another. No fun for churners across the pond.

It does strike me as odd that the UK credit card market is so different, but at the same time, just reminds me to be grateful for the opportunities we have to play this game in the US.

UK has stricter rules on how much of a fee card issuers can charge merchants, not as much money going to the issuers means much smaller SUBs and rewards for consumers.

Thank you for the information on Delta needing to be round trip. I had not seen that anywhere in my research in how to use miles/points. I have not looked at Flying Blue yet. I need to make an account and look at their options that might work. I'll take a look at point.me.

It doesn't need to be RT, but those are the limitations for the lowest point totals. Delta changed it sometime last year.

Does anyone have experience filing for trip delay insurance know if my situation qualifies? A couple weeks ago, we had our 1st outbound leg delay by 2 hrs, and due to this delay we missed our connection. The rebooked 2nd leg was 12 hrs later. So the letter from AA only shows 125 mins or so delay, but we had airport meal expenses (and a few incidentals) for the 12 extra hrs we had to spend at the airport. Would this qualify for reimbursement and would the AA letter showing 125 mins delay be sufficient?

If both legs were on the same connection it should qualify, but you may need something else from AA showing the total delay between when you were scheduled to get to your final destination to when you actually got there.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I know that I'm late to the TS concert table, but dd has told me that "she'd sell her left kidney" to see a TS concert this summer. I tried to get on a pre-sale list (LOL) and tried to access TM on the day of ticket sales (bigger LOL). Sooo, my questions is this: is there any way to get TS tickets to a weekend concert this summer without selling an internal organ? I looked on StubHub and the cheapest pair of tickets were $700 and change each (in the nosebleed section), then I'd have to pay for hotel (airfare should be possible with points depending on city). We are fairly flexible with cities, would just need to be a weekend since dd will be working M-F. Any advice (I know it's pretty much hopeless at this point, but I'm open to suggestions)?

Not unless the payment ends up being 30 days or more late. Once it reaches that threshold Barclay's can report that to the credit bureaus which will result in a significant hit.

Thank you. This makes me feel better. If Chase had called me and told me that their electronic payment was returned I would've made an exception and given Barclays my Chase bank info because I'm paranoid about taking a credit hit. Now I'm worried about their check getting lost in the mail. I didn't even know that people, let alone businesses, sent paper checks in the mail these days. I'm old-ish and I don't even have a blank check to fill out to send to someone.

 

[ten6mom]

PHX-OGG (Maui) 1 way non-stop 13k Avios in economy on AA. At 26k RT you have enough for almost 4RT tickets. I’m currently obsessed with how affordable Maui is on points from PHX.

Can you show me how to find that? I am on the AA site just looking at their "miles" requirements and not seeing anything close to that.

Am I supposed to be searching elsewhere? These are the things I can never remember.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Can you show me how to find that? I am on the AA site just looking at their "miles" requirements and not seeing anything close to that.

Am I supposed to be searching elsewhere? These are the things I can never remember.

My guess is that you are going to have to be very flexible and book as far out as possible. I find AA is usually good with availability at lower point fares if you play with dates. Usually Tuesdays, but also Wednesdays and Thursdays, are best for finding good redemptions.

 

[ten6mom]

My guess is that you are going to have to be very flexible and book as far out as possible. I find AA is usually good with availability at lower point fares if you play with dates. Usually Tuesdays, but also Wednesdays and Thursdays, are best for finding good redemptions.

OK thank you... and whatever number of AA miles is needed, would be the same number of Avios needed? (I'm sorry for all the questions... as I said I'm not good at this!)

 

[jujubiee4]

Did anyone get the AMEX offer for 1000 points for spending 200 on Amazon? Anyone
know if buying Amazon gift card works? Completely forgot about this.

 

[Princess Michele]

Flights to Greece are expensive, especially the nonstop ones from the US and of course flights in 2023 are very very pricey in terms of points/miles and OOP. It's a good idea to look and get an idea and save/squirrel away more than you need, just in case things cool down but rarely does that happen, frankly. Then, if you want business class you're adding on even more expense, so you're not doing anything wrong, per se, you're just experiencing sticker shock, lol.

I'm always searching 2 years out and keep a notebook with goals and the flexible miles to attain them as well as Plan B and Plan C. For instance, in 2019, I had a goal of traveling to Australia in biz or better with DH and my list included - Plan A- United 400K miles, Plan B AA 220K miles, Plan C Delta 500K miles when an alert came up for 2 seats available one way on Qantas F via AA for 220K AA miles, which I had, so I was able to book those flights (and then booked a cruise around the flight, lol).
ETA- I could have transferred United miles from UR and Delta from MR*

On the bright side, it sounds like you have lots of time to play with dates and your cruise isn't locked in, so you could fly to a cheaper airport like Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon or Paris, spend a night or two there and then fly on to Athens and do the same on the return or do an Athens to Rome cruise and then fly RT FCO and fly more cheaply in and out of Rome (or IST or...).

Thank you for making me feel better. I did not realize that the points/miles were increased for a lot of flights or that flights to Greece were more expensive than other European cities. I will look at the other airports you mentioned to see if there are better options than Athens. We have not decided on what cruise itinerary or dates yet but I do want to spend time before or after in Athens. I know I have a lot of research to do.

Yes I do have time to figure things out and come up with a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. I am looking for a new cc with a SUB that could be used for this trip and I want to make sure that I do not miss a current good offer or pick one that would not be helpful. DH will hopefully be getting an AMEX Gold or Platinum next month from my support which will make him 5/24 so if there is a good Chase card/offer he should get it first. I am planning on another Ink in a couple of months unless there is a better Chase offer first and I am also looking at non-Chase business cards to work towards multiple plans for flights.

 

[ten6mom]

You can use Avios to book AA flights-they just have to be sAAver flights. I do this for my DM frequently since she flies to PHX often. It's a bit of a hassle to find sAAver flights but better than wasting Avios.

Hmm I'll look into that too- thank you. When looking specifically for the sAAver flights, will the sAAver flights just show up in a regular search if there are any to be found? So far, none of the dates I have played around with show anything like that- just the differnt numbers of points for regular/biz/first.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

I have a CIC that I’m about half way through the $6000 spend so I have to figure out where to spend $3000 in the next 10 days as I’ll be leaving for Europe soon and won’t use it there due to foreign transaction fees. I’m heading to my Office max this morning to purchase some gift cards. Can they also be purchased on line and get the 5x points? I usually buy Disney gift cards at Kroger when they’re doing 4x fuel points and I’m getting additional rewards back from AmEx or CF if grocery stores are being bonused. I’ll even consider Visa cards if I can find them in higher amounts so the fee won’t sting as bad. No Staples near me though I can make a trip there if any promotion comes out next week. Open to any suggestions.

Not sure if Kroger is doing the fuel points right now, but if they are, I do Kroger online for my GCs. Huge selection.

Other things to think about- prepaying your utilities, like gas, electric or water. Homeowners or car insurance?

I'd compare the cost of the Visa card fees to the foreign transaction fee and see if it just makes sense to take the card with to Europe.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Hmm I'll look into that too- thank you. When looking specifically for the sAAver flights, will the sAAver flights just show up in a regular search if there are any to be found? So far, none of the dates I have played around with show anything like that- just the differnt numbers of points for regular/biz/first.

Here's what shows when you use the calendar view on American Airlines:



But no, you should be looking at British Airways, for example, and search for some dates. You'll see that same date, say Aug 4, the AA flight is only 13k points vs the 22.5k pts on AA. Here's British Airways: