I love credit cards so much! v7.0 - 2025 (see first page for add'l details)

[WinterSolider]

Does anyone have experience booking Hawaiian Airlines through Alaska?

We have the following:

• 750,000 HawaiianMiles
• 2 BOGO-$99 Alaska companion fares
• 4 BOGO-50% Hawaiian companion fares
• 2 Alaska credit cards between us
• 4 Hawaiian credit cards between us

We're trying to come up with the optimized booking for a party of 9, round trip from Boston to Honolulu. Redemptions should be around 52,500 round-trip for Economy, which is fine for us. I'm pretty sure we're going to book 4 flights using the BOGO-$99 Alaska fares, let the BOGO-50% Hawaiian fares expire, and using points for 5 flights.

The flight is operated by Hawaiian but bookable through Alaska for the same cost. Is there any tangible benefit to booking through one versus the other (aside from the BOGO, which we obviously have to book through Alaska)?

 

[Arcades]

Quick follow up for those who were dealing with Chase business cards reporting to credit bureaus, I received a letter in the mail this week from Chase confirming they requested all bureaus remove my SW Biz and when I logged into Credit Karma it is no longer showing up. I should be back under 5/24 mid April, so I'll find out soon enough if everything is working as intended.

 

[newski_mom]

My 28yo DD is wanting to start getting cards for travel. She currently has a discover card and a citibank double cash card.

She's wanting to apply for the upcoming increased CSP card and is nervous that she'll get declined. I think she'll be fine because she makes pretty good money, but you just never know. Her credit score is around 785 so pretty good there. She has $2000 outstanding on one of her cards that is at 0% financing - she thinks she is going to pay that off to increase her chances of approval. I guess that's correct thinking?

Also, she is an AU on 2 of our cards - the CF and a citibank card. I assume these can't hurt her in any way??

She said with just her cards, her credit limit available is around $22,000, but with our two cards, her credit report shows her credit limit available is around $55,000. Do you think that is a problem? I basically never use the citibank card and just use the CF card for the bonus categories when they are helpful for us. I could reduce the credit limits on those cards if that would help her in anyway. Or, I could take her off of them, but she has been an AU since she was about 15 years old on the CF and about 19 on the citibank one - so I was thinking they could actually be helping her to have them on there. I'm just definitely not an expert on these things, so thought I'd check for her.

 

[Arcades]

My 28yo DD is wanting to start getting cards for travel. She currently has a discover card and a citibank double cash card.

She's wanting to apply for the upcoming increased CSP card and is nervous that she'll get declined. I think she'll be fine because she makes pretty good money, but you just never know. Her credit score is around 785 so pretty good there. She has $2000 outstanding on one of her cards that is at 0% financing - she thinks she is going to pay that off to increase her chances of approval. I guess that's correct thinking?

Also, she is an AU on 2 of our cards - the CF and a citibank card. I assume these can't hurt her in any way??

She said with just her cards, her credit limit available is around $22,000, but with our two cards, her credit report shows her credit limit available is around $55,000. Do you think that is a problem? I basically never use the citibank card and just use the CF card for the bonus categories when they are helpful for us. I could reduce the credit limits on those cards if that would help her in anyway. Or, I could take her off of them, but she has been an AU since she was about 15 years old on the CF and about 19 on the citibank one - so I was thinking they could actually be helping her to have them on there. I'm just definitely not an expert on these things, so thought I'd check for her.

I'm not certain if being an AU is enough history with Chase to get one of their "premium" cards. Anecdotally, I got my 19 year old son the Chase Freedom Flex when he turned 18 and he is *pre-approved* for the Sapphire Reserve, so if your DD is declined, go for one of the entry level cards and then she should be good to go a year from now. I've never had Chase decline me for carrying a balance on other cards and I'd let that $2,000 ride (in a HYSA or otherwise) until the 0% APR expires.

As an aside, if she gets turned down for the CSP, she might want to consider taking a shot at the Citi Strata Premier as a backup. In my experience, after the GrAAvy train died, Citi got very anti-churner, so getting one of their better cards early in her credit journey may be a good idea. It has great category multipliers and a unique 2:1 transfer (so essentially 6x on groceries/gas/dining) to Choice hotels (not as good as Hyatt redemptions, but a decent chain IMO) and plenty of airline partners.

Some issuers will deny you for having too much unsued overall credit (Citi being one of them), but my educated guess is that's more of an anti-churner part of the algorithms than just shooting down people who responsibly pay their bills. Capital One is the only one I know of who likes you to carry a balance as part of their approval considerations.

 

[Psychodisney]

My 28yo DD is wanting to start getting cards for travel. She currently has a discover card and a citibank double cash card.

She's wanting to apply for the upcoming increased CSP card and is nervous that she'll get declined. I think she'll be fine because she makes pretty good money, but you just never know. Her credit score is around 785 so pretty good there. She has $2000 outstanding on one of her cards that is at 0% financing - she thinks she is going to pay that off to increase her chances of approval. I guess that's correct thinking?

Also, she is an AU on 2 of our cards - the CF and a citibank card. I assume these can't hurt her in any way??

She said with just her cards, her credit limit available is around $22,000, but with our two cards, her credit report shows her credit limit available is around $55,000. Do you think that is a problem? I basically never use the citibank card and just use the CF card for the bonus categories when they are helpful for us. I could reduce the credit limits on those cards if that would help her in anyway. Or, I could take her off of them, but she has been an AU since she was about 15 years old on the CF and about 19 on the citibank one - so I was thinking they could actually be helping her to have them on there. I'm just definitely not an expert on these things, so thought I'd check for her.

I think the fact that she has her own Discover and Citi card will help her get approved. Chase doesn't like to be the first card overall but my DD was approved for a CSP after holding a Discover of her own.

I don't think the AU credit lines will count against her. Glad to hear her balance is 0% interest. Make sure she understands that this game is to be played with no outstanding balances. Otherwise, rewards are worthless.

 

[mmmears]

Quick follow up for those who were dealing with Chase business cards reporting to credit bureaus, I received a letter in the mail this week from Chase confirming they requested all bureaus remove my SW Biz and when I logged into Credit Karma it is no longer showing up. I should be back under 5/24 mid April, so I'll find out soon enough if everything is working as intended.

My daughter was able to get a CSP when she had her first "real" job (not a summer job or part time) but she did have a CFU when she applied (was able to get that one when she worked in the summer). Being an AU generally helps, not hurts. I'd give it a shot since she already has a Discover card.

 

[WinterSolider]

My 28yo DD is wanting to start getting cards for travel. She currently has a discover card and a citibank double cash card.

She's wanting to apply for the upcoming increased CSP card and is nervous that she'll get declined. I think she'll be fine because she makes pretty good money, but you just never know. Her credit score is around 785 so pretty good there. She has $2000 outstanding on one of her cards that is at 0% financing - she thinks she is going to pay that off to increase her chances of approval. I guess that's correct thinking?

Also, she is an AU on 2 of our cards - the CF and a citibank card. I assume these can't hurt her in any way??

She said with just her cards, her credit limit available is around $22,000, but with our two cards, her credit report shows her credit limit available is around $55,000. Do you think that is a problem? I basically never use the citibank card and just use the CF card for the bonus categories when they are helpful for us. I could reduce the credit limits on those cards if that would help her in anyway. Or, I could take her off of them, but she has been an AU since she was about 15 years old on the CF and about 19 on the citibank one - so I was thinking they could actually be helping her to have them on there. I'm just definitely not an expert on these things, so thought I'd check for her.

I would be genuinely shocked if she doesn't get approved.

To answer your question about how being an AU will affect her, the length of time she has been an AU is irrelevant. If an account is 15 years old and someone has been an AU the entire time, it's going to look exactly the same as if you added them as an AU a month ago. The AU "inherits" the full history of the account, not just the duration of time she was an AU.

If you really really really want to optimize to maximize her chance of approval, you would pay all of those accounts (both hers and yours) down to $1 so that utilization is as low as possible, but not exactly zero. But this really shouldn't be necessary, she has a strong profile and CSP isn't a particularly difficult card to get.

But as a piece of unsolicited advice, I personally think CSP sucks unless she wants to go all in on the Chase ecosystem. Chase cards are very good at *redeeming* points, but they're pretty poor at *earning* points outside of the SUBs. I think the best travel card for someone "new to the game" is the Venture X. It's extremely simple and CapitalOne is squirrelly about people who have a ton of accounts, so it's best to get early in your credit card journey lest you risk being locked out once you have a fat credit file.

 

[newski_mom]

I'm not certain if being an AU is enough history with Chase to get one of their "premium" cards. Anecdotally, I got my 19 year old son the Chase Freedom Flex when he turned 18 and he is *pre-approved* for the Sapphire Reserve, so if your DD is declined, go for one of the entry level cards and then she should be good to go a year from now. I've never had Chase decline me for carrying a balance on other cards and I'd let that $2,000 ride (in a HYSA or otherwise) until the 0% APR expires.

As an aside, if she gets turned down for the CSP, she might want to consider taking a shot at the Citi Strata Premier as a backup. In my experience, after the GrAAvy train died, Citi got very anti-churner, so getting one of their better cards early in her credit journey may be a good idea. It has great category multipliers and a unique 2:1 transfer (so essentially 6x on groceries/gas/dining) to Choice hotels (not as good as Hyatt redemptions, but a decent chain IMO) and plenty of airline partners.

Some issuers will deny you for having too much unsued overall credit (Citi being one of them), but my educated guess is that's more of an anti-churner part of the algorithms than just shooting down people who responsibly pay their bills. Capital One is the only one I know of who likes you to carry a balance as part of their approval considerations.

I think the fact that she has her own Discover and Citi card will help her get approved. Chase doesn't like to be the first card overall but my DD was approved for a CSP after holding a Discover of her own.

I don't think the AU credit lines will count against her. Glad to hear her balance is 0% interest. Make sure she understands that this game is to be played with no outstanding balances. Otherwise, rewards are worthless.

Thank you both! She does definitely understand about paying in full every month. Quite honestly, she ran into that right after college when she was making about $13 an hour. She found out quickly how terrible it is and how hard it is to get out of that.

Right now she does have the money in a HYSA for the $2000 at the 0% interest and that's why she's thinking about just paying it off if it would increase her chances of approval.

I'm glad that she learned her lesson early and not over a huge amount of money. I cost her, but could have been worse.

 

[newski_mom]

My daughter was able to get a CSP when she had her first "real" job (not a summer job or part time) but she did have a CFU when she applied (was able to get that one when she worked in the summer). Being an AU generally helps, not hurts. I'd give it a shot since she already has a Discover card.

I would be genuinely shocked if she doesn't get approved.

To answer your question about how being an AU will affect her, the length of time she has been an AU is irrelevant. If an account is 15 years old and someone has been an AU the entire time, it's going to look exactly the same as if you added them as an AU a month ago.

If you really really really want to optimize to maximize her chance of approval, you would pay all of those accounts (both hers and yours) down to $1 so that utilization is as low as possible, but not exactly zero. But this really shouldn't be necessary, she has a strong profile and CSP isn't a particularly difficult card to get.

Thank you guys as well! I'm hopeful that she will get approved - the 100,000 offer is great!

I know the Citibank is at a zero balance (because I never use it), but I will check the CF and pay it down if it has much of a balance on it.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Check your flights. I dont know if people are traveling less due to airline events or what. But I have a DELTA flight next month and our flights went down. This is almost unheard of for Delta!

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

In anticipation of the elevated CSP offer coming, I'm trying to figure out WHEN I last got the bonus, as I didn't note that But I can no longer access the account on Chase, it's completely gone, doesn't appear under the Show/Hide accounts. So I'm unable to pull old statements, and I don't have paper copies... sigh.
I did note on my spreadsheet that I got the card in November 2020. So let's say for arguments sake, it was the absolute END of November, and I used all 3 months to meet MSR, which would put me at end of February... and then maybe bonus posted on a statement in March 2021? Does that sound reasonable, or any way it could have been even April 2021 due to the dates that statements are cut?

 

[wanderlust7]

Does anyone have experience booking Hawaiian Airlines through Alaska?

We have the following:

• 750,000 HawaiianMiles
• 2 BOGO-$99 Alaska companion fares
• 4 BOGO-50% Hawaiian companion fares
• 2 Alaska credit cards between us
• 4 Hawaiian credit cards between us

We're trying to come up with the optimized booking for a party of 9, round trip from Boston to Honolulu. Redemptions should be around 52,500 round-trip for Economy, which is fine for us. I'm pretty sure we're going to book 4 flights using the BOGO-$99 Alaska fares, let the BOGO-50% Hawaiian fares expire, and using points for 5 flights.

The flight is operated by Hawaiian but bookable through Alaska for the same cost. Is there any tangible benefit to booking through one versus the other (aside from the BOGO, which we obviously have to book through Alaska)?

A Hawaiian flight booked through HA with a HA card would get 2 free bags. A HA flight booked through Alaska with a HA or Alaska card would be less clear and maybe will change as the merger is implemented.

Also, the HA card is supposed to give discounted HA award flights, but I don't know how often that comes up.

 

[djmeredith]

My CSP from 5/2020 is still a CSP. P2 cancelled his CSP back in June of 2021. But one of his profiles just got an Ink last week, and I got an ink at the end of January. Any hope for either of us? I don't want to downgrade mine, if I can't get a new one. How long do you have to wait, 30 days? If I do that and cant' get one, can I upgrade back to the CSP if i need it?

I also just got an Ink this month. Not sure if that will affect our chances on a personal Chase. However, I realized am definitely going to miss out on this round of the CSP elevated offer because I didn't receive my SUB pts until August 2021. I doubt there is any chance this offer will stick around that long.

Check your flights. I dont know if people are traveling less due to airline events or what. But I have a DELTA flight next month and our flights went down. This is almost unheard of for Delta!

It is very unusual, but I got lucky last year. One of my international legs on Delta last May dropped A LOT about 3 weeks before our trip. I just happened to check that day and was shocked! Glad you are able to save!

 

[WinterSolider]

A Hawaiian flight booked through HA with a HA card would get 2 free bags. A HA flight booked through Alaska with a HA or Alaska card would be less clear and maybe will change as the merger is implemented.

Hawaiian is two free bags for the primary cardmember only. Alaska is one free bag for every member of the party. And the Alaska benefit should attach to the Hawaiian flights very soon, per their FAQ.

Beginning later in Spring 2025, Alaska Airlines Visa Signature and Alaska Airlines Visa Business cardholders will be eligible for this benefit when traveling on Hawaiian Airlines operated flights that are marketed by Hawaiian Airlines or Alaska Airlines.

Still slightly unclear if this will work properly for someone who books now, but travels after "later in Spring 2025".

Also, the HA card is supposed to give discounted HA award flights, but I don't know how often that comes up.

They're pretty much always discounted. Our 60,000 round trip tickets are 52,500. We've done this itinerary four times and it's always been the same. But they're also discounted on the Alaska site. The redemptions are identical.

 

[elgerber]

I also just got an Ink this month. Not sure if that will affect our chances on a personal Chase. However, I realized am definitely going to miss out on this round of the CSP elevated offer because I didn't receive my SUB pts until August 2021. I doubt there is any chance this offer will stick around that long.

It is very unusual, but I got lucky last year. One of my international legs on Delta last May dropped A LOT about 3 weeks before our trip. I just happened to check that day and was shocked! Glad you are able to save!

I have had many many Delta flights go down in recent years. Using miles they are as good as Southwest currently is. Price goes down, cancel and rebook for lower miles. One of my trips, I rebooked 6 times and was down to 13000 miles by the time we left.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Free free $200 MCGCs at Staples 3/23-3/30

 

[disneybirds]

Check your flights. I dont know if people are traveling less due to airline events or what. But I have a DELTA flight next month and our flights went down. This is almost unheard of for Delta!

Thanks! Only 1 of 6 flights went down, but I will take it!!

 

[VGCgroupie]

Thanks! Only 1 of 6 flights went down, but I will take it!!

Yay!!

 

[EACarlson]

Looking for a little help. Planning a trip to Universal in January and need to figure out how many MR I have to transfer to Hilton for the hotel. Can anyone with 200k Hilton points and at least silver status check on the price for me for two hotels? I'll PM you the dates and the specific hotels, I just need to know what the total points cost is. Hilton won't tell me because I don't have enough Honors points in my account.
Thank you.

 

[afan]

Looking for a little help. Planning a trip to Universal in January and need to figure out how many MR I have to transfer to Hilton for the hotel. Can anyone with 200k Hilton points and at least silver status check on the price for me for two hotels? I'll PM you the dates and the specific hotels, I just need to know what the total points cost is. Hilton won't tell me because I don't have enough Honors points in my account.
Thank you.

Let me know what it is.