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

[Princess Michele]

Just checked my saved link on Reddit and it still shows the 50,000 offer so hopefully yours is fine

Our saved link showed the 50,000 offer also. DD applied and was approved. I made a copy of the offer just in case there are any issues. Thank you.

 

[Disneyhanna]

I caved and booked the Maui Hyatt for September by using the 30k SUB from the Hyatt card and transferring UR points. 155k points for a week but cash price is over $6k. We booked one night at the airport Marriott for a whopping $500/night, Maui is sure not cheap! So the UR redemption feels very good. I booked a one way to Maui using miles on Delta a few weeks ago and I’m glad I did because since they announced the 15% off for cardholders the miles are way higher even with the discount.

We are doing Disneyland on the way back to avoid the “mini jet lag” (5hr difference) and I thought about transferring Citi or capital one points to Wyndham for HoJo but I dug around my work benefits website for a corporate rate that gets me a better deal than the 30k/night so cash it is. I haven’t dipped my toes in international redemptions yet so I will save my 200k+ points between those two for a rainy day. Still need to book a flight home so I’ll probably use the C1 portal to book with Delta to use my $300 travel credit that just renewed.

While I’m not a big churner yet averaging only 1-3 cards per year it feels crazy finally redeeming points for travel! I’ve been hoarding so long! Hawaii is a dream for us since we haven’t left the continental US since I was a baby. Cash travel prices are definitely shocking but very thankful for award travel for making this trip possible.

 

[becauseimnew]

I’ve been using my CSR and PYB…so no cash outlay for groceries….really really miss using PYB on dining

I totally forgot that grocery the category changed, I kept charging restaurants, thanks for the reminder

Did you try to do multiple? Seems to be limited to 3 per day.

this is good information. I just ran into the same problem. I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[Maryrachel713]

CSR has medical evacuation, but not CSP.

Amex Platinum also has medical evacuation, no limit and you don't need to charge the trip to the card. Just learned today that it's on the Hilton Aspire and Bonvoy Brilliant too.

I’ll have to check which bonvoy p2 has.

 

[Maryrachel713]

From what I saw online the MSR is $4k in the first 3 months

Yep, DH just told me about it. For a cp I’d say that’s a very reasonable spend

 

[calypso726]

Update on my partially travel hacked trip planning for ABD.

Originally, I intended to fly Qsuites over to Cairo but award seats opened up while I was in the Galapagos and I was still trying to decide if a pre or post trip to Petra was do-able. That hesitation cost me Plan A. Plan B was use UA miles to fly on Egypt air on the way over but I really didn't want to waste pre trip time at home or have the pre trip be in Egypt and there wasn't enough time to do justice to Petra. Plan C was book a night at Giraffe Manor, which I did before looking at logistics of getting there from Egypt since it books out so quickly. That would have involved 60 hours of travel, 4 flights and and 2 hotel stays for a one night experience. Cancelled the Giraffe Manor stay.

On to plan D British Airways on Avios and their ridiculous taxes and fees to fly to London, stop over for 2 nights and spend New Year's Eve there and see the fireworks. I wanted a hotel with a fireworks view in case we aren't in the mood to brave crowds and cold weather. The hotels with the best views are insanely priced from 3,000 GBP and up to 12,000 GBP a night and some require a 3 night stay. Nope. I found one that was 847 GBP per night and probably doesn't have as spectacular a view as the aforementioned but it's a guaranteed fireworks view, comes with a bottle of champagne and canapes just before midnight delivered to the room. That will go on whatever MSR with no FTF we are working on later this year.

I decided while we are in London, we should go see ABBA Voyage even though I was planning to see it when we return in 2024. So we booked tickets to see that and one of our friends on the ABD trip is also doing her pre-stay in London and joining us. We put the cost of the tickets towards an Amex business Plat MSR. I am now equally excited about the pre trip and the ABD in Egypt.

Finally booked return flights SSH-CAI-JFK this morning on Egypt Air using United miles transferred from UR points in business class. The seats are angle flat and the plane is not very noteworthy. The plane from there to IAD is nicer but the times didn't work for me and I didn't want to hop on another plane to fly to NY after 15 hours of travel. The next plan is to book somewhere to stay using FN certs and maybe catch a show while we are there. However, if Qatar drop award flights back home between now and then, I will happily cancel the Egypt Air flights to fly Qsuites with a stop over in Doha. Therefore, I will hold off on show tickets for a bit.

The Egypt ABD is being paid with a new CIC via Disney gift cards purchased at office supply stores for 5x. So, while I am not paying the ABD with points, it is definitely earning me some UR points with the MSR and 5x.

Those of you who have been on this board since the beginning will already know I am a strong advocate of having a Plan A, B, C, D and E when it comes to flights, especially if you plan to book seats up front. So this is for the newer peeps on the thread. In addition to multiple plans, try to plan 2 years out, with one year to accumulate your points and miles and ability to pull the trigger the moment flights drop. The best laid plans can go sideways. As it happens, I checked United a moment ago and see that all award availability in business from Egypt air on United out of Cairo to both JFK and IAD are gone. Up until today there was consistently 4 seats in business open on each flight. I must not be the only travel hacker on this ABD.

 

[eticketplease]

I’ve been using my CSR and PYB…so no cash outlay for groceries….really really miss using PYB on dining

Thanks I didn't realize it had switched.

Any ideas why we are not getting the 1.5% back we used to get when they started the PYB when the pandemic started?

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Thanks I didn't realize it had switched.

Any ideas why we are not getting the 1.5% back we used to get when they started the PYB when the pandemic started?

I don’t think Chase has said, but as you mentioned PYB started when due to the pandemic people weren’t traveling and using URs….the 1.5 gave us a way to redeem them on other things.
Now that travel is back to normal we can book through the Chase travel portal at 1.5, PYB is still 1.5 on Charities or use PYB at 1.25 on the various categories offered

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

For anyone following along with my AA refund saga, I did a bit of digging this morning and found that the ticket number that Lisa, the Customer Relations rep cited in her e-mail yesterday, was for the return leg of my trip on January 20th. I can't believe that AA couldn't even get the date and flight number correct, even though I submitted the ticket and booking ref. nos., date, flight number and departure and destination cities with my complaint (all required fields). Is it possible that someone can be that incompetent? Since one can't call Customer Relations I had to submit another complaint with the same information and the ref. number Lisa assigned to the claim.

 

[djmeredith]

Cash prices for travel = insane.
Points prices for travel = insane.

I broke down and booked my flights to Greece for October. I've been tracking for a few weeks and prices were only getting worse. You may recall I was supposed to take the trip this past October but Virgin Voyages canceled the sailing... so I had redeposited the miles for the flights when that happened. It cost WAY more points today. Plus, limited availability.

Hotel prices for the same place I had originally booked went way up too.

To that end, I did just see this article: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/europe-vacation-booked-solid/index.html

I went to Europe in August and am planning another trip for May. The increase is staggering. However, keep checking. I have still seen some good flight redemptions on United and Flying Blue. A tip for intra Europe travel: check Delta. They offered surprisingly good rates of 10k on both routes I needed (Air France). However, Air France just posted some insanely cheap fares this week. The dates/times didn’t work for me, but it was 3500 pts on some one way routes. I have to pay cash for 3 nights in Paris and 3 in Switzerland. It’s killing me.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

I went to Europe in August and am planning another trip for May. The increase is staggering. However, keep checking. I have still seen some good flight redemptions on United and Flying Blue. A tip for intra Europe travel: check Delta. They offered surprisingly good rates of 10k on both routes I needed (Air France). However, Air France just posted some insanely cheap fares this week. The dates/times didn’t work for me, but it was 3500 pts on some one way routes. I have to pay cash for 3 nights in Paris and 3 in Switzerland. It’s killing me.

And Switzerland is SO expensive. I go there for work and a happy meal is like $20something dollars. It's absurd! I found that hotels aren't insanely expensive, but just about everything else is.

 

[punkin]

Europe is significantly more expensive this year. I went to Italy last year and decided to take my family this year in October. Wow! I had to get 7 seats. I did it across 2 airlines, 2 sets of cities, 2 sets of dates, 2 different FF programs and 1 cash ticket to get anything I considered remotely affordable. These tickets are all economy. Last year I flew in business.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I have 2 flights home from Bangkok booked next January.

• BKK --> Haneda on Japan Air in premium economy, Haneda to JFK on Japan Air first class, both flights on January 28th, booked separately using BA Avios

• BKK --> Singapore in biz class on January 26, SIN --> Narita --> ORD--> YYZ on January 29th using Air Canada AP pts. The leg from SIN to Narita is with ANA in biz class, then first to Chicago.

I have until tonight to cancel the Japan Air flight and get a refund ($526.00 for the first class and $240.00 for premium economy). I'm leaning towards ANA so that I can enjoy a few days in Singapore on my way home. Securing that seat on Japan Air with Avios was an ordeal -- very, very limited availability -- I have been doing practice runs booking the flight for several days. Though I do have a plethora of Avios vs a diminishing supply of AP pts.

 

[hsmamato2]

So weird. I just saved 5-6k points (each) on spring break SW flights. I did DDs flight first and saved 5k then cancelled my CP and changed mine but the price already had changed from what I got on DDs flight, luckily lower by 1k. So for mine I saved 6k. Went back to change DDs for the extra 1k and it isn’t showing any additional difference. I know sometimes they only have so many priced at a level but weird that 5 min difference impacted us.

Still happy as I’ve been checking 2-3 times a week and this is the first time the flights went down since I booked opening day.

Southwest CP question: are they still checking in the companion with the CP holders reservation? I don’t want to buy an additional EB if I don’t need to.

AHH! Thanks for posting this....I went and checked my spring break flight..... if we fly in a day earlier we get a fare of 1860 points ($39!!!) naturally i booked them ,a day extra on my trip does not make me sad! Also I called to cancel SWA biz, no retention offers, I sm'd for the personal...and they CALLED me! WHAT?!? anyway it was to verify I wanted to close but that never happened before.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

@hsmamato2 Are there ever retention offers for SWA biz cards? I thought they only did it for personal so I didn't think to ask. I'm about to close one of my two SWA biz cards.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

SO I just pulled out my passport to check it, thinking it expires in 2024. Nope, it expires in the beginning of Sept 2023. We are doing Japan in mid May, so there will only be a little over 3 months validity left on the passport. I've read online that Japan doesn't require 6 months validity to enter, just that your passport is valid for your entire stay. Can anyone confirm that's true?

I don't think I'll have time to do a mail renewal before we leave (with quoted 11 week turnaround time) since that only leaves 1 week buffer before we leave and that makes me really nervous. And I really don't want to pay to expedite it.

I would then renew by mail as soon as we return (since we're doing Costa Rica in December).

Anyone have thoughts? Should I be able to travel without issue to Japan on a passport that expires approx 3 months later? US doesn't have any passport requirements to return, right?

 

[djmeredith]

And Switzerland is SO expensive. I go there for work and a happy meal is like $20something dollars. It's absurd! I found that hotels aren't insanely expensive, but just about everything else is.

Ugh, that is going to hurt my budget. We are flying from CDG to GVA. The hotels in Geneva for one night were absurdly high. Not sure if something special is going on or what. So I decided to travel on to Montreux that same day. Rates there and Interlaken aren’t too bad. I’m just bummed I don’t have enough points for my Paris hotel. Park Hyatt definitely wasn’t an option this year!

 

[StephPlum]

AHH! Thanks for posting this....I went and checked my spring break flight..... if we fly in a day earlier we get a fare of 1860 points ($39!!!) naturally i booked them ,a day extra on my trip does not make me sad! Also I called to cancel SWA biz, no retention offers, I sm'd for the personal...and they CALLED me! WHAT?!? anyway it was to verify I wanted to close but that never happened before.

They’ve been calling me at least 1/2 of the times I cancel by SM. I usually don’t answer and then they cancel.

 

[LynnTH]

Trying to make a game plan to get lots of points... we are going to be doing some remodeling. My brother is a contractor, so I go to his places but they said I can pay them direct - with Credit Cards. Probably around $50,000 or so.

None of the items are ordered yet - still trying to figure out colors and stuff. Most likely would not get anything until end of May. I may be able to pay some in advance - that way I could open some cards now and then again in 3 months or so.

I am 4/24 with 2 cards dropping off in April. Here is what I am thinking for me:
1. AMEX Plat Biz - 150,000 MRs with 15,000 Spend. AMEX has not liked me much for a while, so not sure if I can even get this card. It does Pop up to apply when I log in to my AMEX Account. Does that mean I would be approved or does it not really mean anything?
2. CIU - Can't go wrong with another of these. Just hoping it sticks around a bit for the higher SUB. I just opened 2 SW Biz cards on 11/7 and 12/28. So need to wait a bit with Chase.
3. BOA Biz Advantage - $1000 with $10,000 Spend. Have had this in the past but latest was opened in 12/20 and closed 7/22. Hoping still eligible for this??

DH is 2/24 and just opened the IGH Personal Card on 1/26.
1. Cap One Venture Personal - $75,000 Points with $4000 Spend.
2. CIC - But again would need to wait a bit for Chase
3. BOA Biz Advantage - $1000 with $10,000 Spend. Last one opened on 3/21 and closed 12/22 so not sure if eligible.
4. AMEX Plat or Gold - But again not sure if we can get since AMEX doesn't like us. He gets the pop up when logged in also.

Anything else I might be missing or any other suggestions. Want to take advantage of the spend and get extra points/$$.

 

[PolyTigger]

See if the pop up for Amex doesn't effect your credit score. When I go it says approved with no effect to credit score until you accept the card.