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

[trenty]

Approved!
I PC'd my CSP on 4/21 (to the OG CF) and lowered my credit limits.
Today:
Unfroze credit.
Used DHs support an applied for new CSP.
Instant approval and the card is in my apple wallet. $110K+ URs coming soon!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Heading to Staples this morning to stock up on Visa gift cards. Property tax and personal property tax are due in 5 weeks.

Are they fee free this week? If so, I missed that. I've been waiting for it

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

My 40 something was here for Easter. She is constantly 'doing something' on her phone. It is annoying and this from someone who is on Disboards, keeps up via email, texts a lot and generally reads a lot of trash online.

Difference is I don't ignore everyone by focusing on my electronics when I'm 'with' people. Yes, I will quickly look up something to keep up with a conversation sometimes. For most holidays she's here or wherever we are just not 'present' or not interacting.

I'm about ready to do check your phone at the door.

Recently while at Disney back in Feb-March, similar issue. Six of us having dinner at Monsieur Paul's. Nephew in law had requested 'no phones' during dinner. I didn't catch on why for a bit. I had put my phone away. His wife, my niece was the target of the request. She couldn't stop using it. Meanwhile her 21 yo son was social and stayed involved in conversations. He also wisely stayed out of the slightly visible conflict between his parents.

Wow, it's not just teenagers! Being present when having family time is so important. The pandemic really emphasize that for me.

Yeah, I would do check your phone at the door. I think at WDW I'll try figuring out "no-phone" periods of time somehow.

 

[miztressuz]

I currently have a Sapphire Preferred and a Reserve card. I’ve had these cards for about 6 years. My husband has neither. Can he get the Preferred card bonus or is there a limit on how many cards in a household? Also, I know it’s time to downgrade the Reserve card, what card do you recommend down grading to? TIA!

No household limits. If you've had the cards for that long, does that mean you haven't received a bonus for either in the last 48 months and you're eligible again yourself? Are you thinking of getting the CSP again?

I staggered our Sapphire applications so that every 2 years one of us is eligible for a new bonus. If that's a strategy you want to consider. Makes me feel like it's not an eternity to get a new bonus and we can take advantage of good offers when they come up.

But if you're not someone that opens new cards a lot for the bonus, then it might be a strategy to get all that you can when good opportunities come up. (Assuming you can safely meet the MSRs at the same time. For us we're coming into "spend money season", and if I time it right we could spend 10k in 3-4 months. But not everyone would.)
You could refer your husband to the Preferred and collect some extra points that way. Then downgrade both of your Sapphire cards and apply with his referral for the Preferred as well. If you wanted the CSR again, you could then upgrade the previous CSP account into the Reserve (no bonus, just to have. if you get value from it.)

As for what to downgrade to, that will really depend on what will be useful for your points style. Personally I would ask for the "Freedom with Ultimate Rewards" which is the original Visa Freedom card with the 5% rotating quarterly categories; since that was discontinued and only available through a product change. The other Freedom cards are available anytime and you could pick up a bonus for them potentially.
If you do want to downgrade more than one card, or you want to replace the 3x earnings on dining and get the best of both worlds, the Freedom Flex would get you both the better earn rates for dining and pharmacy and the 5% quarterly categories. It is a MasterCard so your card number would change but otherwise has no affect on your account.
The Freedom Unlimited isn't bad but for me I find the extra .5x earning on all other spend not a compelling differentiator. That's really the difference between the Flex and Unlimited. I find myself rarely in a position to put charges on that card as I am either working on a card MSR for a bonus or I have a number of other cards that will get me a better benefit in some way. So the extra partial percentage doesn't add up a lot for me. But it could for someone else! So really, if I were you, I'd look at the Freedom cards and see what works best with your style of spend to get the best return.

 

[Haley R]

I just cancelled our Cabana Bay. Epic Universe opened at 10 this morning and two of the rides are already 80-90 minute waits. We’ll just have to wait until next year and budget for the express pass I guess

 

[danjoealexis3006]

No household limits. If you've had the cards for that long, does that mean you haven't received a bonus for either in the last 48 months and you're eligible again yourself? Are you thinking of getting the CSP again?

I staggered our Sapphire applications so that every 2 years one of us is eligible for a new bonus. If that's a strategy you want to consider. Makes me feel like it's not an eternity to get a new bonus and we can take advantage of good offers when they come up.

But if you're not someone that opens new cards a lot for the bonus, then it might be a strategy to get all that you can when good opportunities come up. (Assuming you can safely meet the MSRs at the same time. For us we're coming into "spend money season", and if I time it right we could spend 10k in 3-4 months. But not everyone would.)
You could refer your husband to the Preferred and collect some extra points that way. Then downgrade both of your Sapphire cards and apply with his referral for the Preferred as well. If you wanted the CSR again, you could then upgrade the previous CSP account into the Reserve (no bonus, just to have. if you get value from it.)

As for what to downgrade to, that will really depend on what will be useful for your points style. Personally I would ask for the "Freedom with Ultimate Rewards" which is the original Visa Freedom card with the 5% rotating quarterly categories; since that was discontinued and only available through a product change. The other Freedom cards are available anytime and you could pick up a bonus for them potentially.
If you do want to downgrade more than one card, or you want to replace the 3x earnings on dining and get the best of both worlds, the Freedom Flex would get you both the better earn rates for dining and pharmacy and the 5% quarterly categories. It is a MasterCard so your card number would change but otherwise has no affect on your account.
The Freedom Unlimited isn't bad but for me I find the extra .5x earning on all other spend not a compelling differentiator. That's really the difference between the Flex and Unlimited. I find myself rarely in a position to put charges on that card as I am either working on a card MSR for a bonus or I have a number of other cards that will get me a better benefit in some way. So the extra partial percentage doesn't add up a lot for me. But it could for someone else! So really, if I were you, I'd look at the Freedom cards and see what works best with your style of spend to get the best return.

So I could down grade my cards and then apply again for the CSP back to back?

 

[gottalovepluto]

Has anyone had any luck getting a Hilton FNC extended a week?

Not quite but I got one extended a few days a few months back. I knew what I wanted to book and there was availability, called diamond desk and the rep was able to extended the cert to make the booking.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I just cancelled our Cabana Bay. Epic Universe opened at 10 this morning and two of the rides are already 80-90 minute waits. We’ll just have to wait until next year and budget for the express pass I guess

Doing the same, oh well.

 

[Haley R]

Doing the same, oh well.

Dh didn’t want to go anyway. We just did legoland this weekend for ds’s 5th birthday and then we’re headed to Gatlinburg in two weeks

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Dh didn’t want to go anyway. We just did legoland this weekend for ds’s 5th birthday and then we’re headed to Gatlinburg in two weeks

Ha, same. I was dragging DH only because of the low crowds but we've traveled a lot lately and were supposed to stay home all of May.
Have fun in Gatlinburg, we'll be there in August

 

[Haley R]

Ha, same. I was dragging DH only because of the low crowds but we've traveled a lot lately and were supposed to stay home all of May.
Have fun in Gatlinburg, we'll be there in August

I’m excited! We’ve never been before and I think ds will love Dollywood.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I told DS he can pick a graduation trip.

DS is 16 and so far not a complainer when it comes to vacations. We tend to book some activities and spend some downtime in the room as well. I just told him this week to start thinking of vacations for next year and graduation but we won’t be leaving the country.

Ugh, p2s original Chase profile, has been linked to my CSP for 5 years, for transferring points. I just tried to transfer his recent bonus to my account, and it wants a phone call. Not even a text. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ya trying to transfer DH points to my CSR this week and first sent a text but then it said system down please call.

 

[miztressuz]

So I could down grade my cards and then apply again for the CSP back to back?

Yes, pretty closely. It's recommended to give about 4 days between downgrading and applying for a new one to give Chase's system time to sync the changes and not accidentally deny you for having a Sapphire already.

A member of the churning subreddit (r/churning) keeps a really good list of answers for Sapphire FAQs that outlines the rules we know about changing and applying for the cards -

https://www.reddit.com/user/garettg/comments/u6ss7u/sapphire_fyis/

 

[havaneselover]

Are they fee free this week? If so, I missed that. I've been waiting for it

Yes

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Was a desire for screen time involved?

2 of my 3 (all adults with their own children) timed out on beach trips, Disney trips just slightly older than yours. Oldest couldn't go anywhere without a friend.

And now I'm seeing my grands come visit with their tablets, but they are much younger and still want trips, but the writing is on the wall.

Meanwhile, I was at my sons and had brought my laptop to go over some stuff. After we were finished 2 and 1/2 year old wanted to watch a video so I pulled up a short nursery rhyme on youtube. Set it down for her to watch and put it in a 360 position so she couldn't delete my stuff. Video ended and I watched her carefully pick what she liked and 'touched' it to get it started. She knew exactly what she was doing.

As for the room, Son loved room service!

I suspect the desire for screen time has a lot to do with it. And in general they are just kids who enjoy downtime on a vacation, but now that they are this age, they seem to gravitate towards more downtime than "uptime."

@wanderlust7 and @IFlossU The "how much complaining can I avoid" is real. They don't really complain, it's more their questions of how long will we be gone and general displeasure if the answer is anything more than a few hours.

I don't even think the type of vacation matters, because we do everything from beach, to hiking/nature to city trips. The only thing that seems to be holding for now is DisneyWorld, but it's so expensive and tougher to do on points.

We have two older kids, so this isn't our first rodeo with teenagers, but I do think the screen time thing has changed things a lot.

My 40 something was here for Easter. She is constantly 'doing something' on her phone. It is annoying and this from someone who is on Disboards, keeps up via email, texts a lot and generally reads a lot of trash online.

I think you and I might be twins. I LOLed at "reads a lot of trash online."

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Has anyone had any luck getting a Hilton FNC extended a week?

Yes. Call Diamond Desk and I don't think you'll have a problem. They may want you to book right away though.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

So I have been planning out an itinerary for a trip to Peru for years to visit Machu Picchu, Cusco and the Sacred Valley. Every time I have planned it, I end up not going through with it due to how complicated it is for a large group. My son and his wife are expecting a baby (yay), so they won't be traveling this year. After this recent trip with the younger kids, I know for sure this isn't the destination for them right now.

DH and I have been talking a lot about prioritizing trips these next 10 years that would be harder to do when we are older. So, I pulled the trigger and booked it for just he and I. And because I have planned this itinerary for years, it only took about an hour to book 9 nights in hotels and flights.

After the Alaska/Hawaii merger, I transferred quite a few MR to Alaska, which turned out to be a great choice. I got excellent flights on American metal via Alaska for 45k in mixed class (coach/domestic biz). Same flights cost 102k American Airlines miles, so I am really happy with that.

Last year both DH and I earned 8 50k FNCs with Marriott and Peru is one of the best places to use these. So I was able to book about $4k of lodging using these certs (I did have to top some off).

We'll be going during the summer, so the winter there. That's our preferred temps for being active. I'd love any advice for those who have done this trip. I still have to book planes, trains and automobiles for in-country.

 

[jujubiee4]

I just checked the wait times and they’re really high. We have until Monday to cancel our hotel so we may end up not going if the waits are showing that high tomorrow. Lots of 50-75 minute waits

Please come back and report how it went if you decide to go. My family has been asking to go in Jan
and I just don't know. I like things to be open a good year to work out any kinks lol

 

[Haley R]

Please come back and report how it went if you decide to go. My family has been asking to go in Jan
and I just don't know. I like things to be open a good year to work out any kinks lol

We cancelled. The wait times this weekend have been horrible

 

[jujubiee4]

We cancelled. The wait times this weekend have been horrible

Is it even officially opened yet? Or is this the "soft" opening? Yikes at the wait times already!