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

[palhockeymomof2]

We did this cruise in 2023 with Viking. We were impressed, and thought we got good value for the price. Really good food.

Best excursions were Cologne (cathedral) and the Black Forest area.

You'll want to schedule late spring or early summer, as the Rhine in late summer can have low water conditions that require the boats to offload and take the passengers around the shallow stretches via bus. Later in the fall, the conditions improve, IIRC.

Thanks for the information, I suggested spring 2027 but they are probably going to Japan then and she wants to go in October around Columbus Day so hopefully the water levels will be okay.
Viking was one we were looking at along with Uniworld and Avalon

 

[becauseimnew]

We used to visit Whistler every year up to and including 2020 and have always stayed at the Westin. The Hilton is right next door and I've been to the lounge there for a get together after heli-skiing (highly recommend if you haven't tried it!). FT gives the rooms (at the Hilton, mind you the Westin rooms sure aren't winning any awards -- they are screaming for an update) lackluster reviews, but you are really staying there for the location, which is second best in the village (the Westin is slightly closer to the gondolas). The lift tickets are pricey, but the village is amazing and the skiing at the top of Whistler & Blackcomb mountains is almost always excellent with a lot of varied terrain.
There are a lot of nighttime activities at Whistler, including tubing, ice skating and of course Apres Ski. There are a plethora of amazing shops and restaurants and the vibe in the village is next level. I have skiied many times at Mount Tremblant and never again (it's waaaay too cold for me -- got frostbite on my nose in less than a minute in January). I'd go back to Whistler in a heartbeat and hope to in 2027.

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Waiting for the helicopter
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wow! sounds like an amazing experience, but we are not that good of skiers. DH can ski black runs, but the girls and I are blue runs only.

I think I found the right place, but unfortunately it isn't a Hilton. It's a Preferred Hotel (Citi & Capital transfer partner), but we only have enough points for one room. If DH applies and is approved for the Citi Strata that would be enough points for a second room, and for the $595 AF, we would get a free 5 night stay at a nice hotel in Italy, which includes breakfast buffet.

And this part of the Dolomites has lots of blue runs.

 

[wanderlust7]

I was denied a SW Biz card. Reasons were:
-Too many requests for credit or opened accounts with us.
-Insufficient business revenue.

I am 4/24 last card was the SW Priority in September 2025 then a CIC in March 2025, an IHG Personal in July 2024, and a CIU in February 2024. CIC and CIU are both open and have been used consistently. Currently have a 0% balance on the CIC of my car down payment.

My question is can I try again with my legit business EIN? I had applied as a sole prop using my eBay business so I had very little revenue. I have only ever opened one biz card (Chase) for my business and it is what I legit use for all my expenses. It was opened exactly 5 years ago.

Are you saying you have 2 Chase biz with SSN open and 1 Chase biz with EIN open? Is the EIN biz a sole prop?

If it's a sole prop, close one biz card and try again in 30 days. If it's some other business structure, you might have better luck applying under that business. I'm not sure if you'd still need to wait 30 days.

 

[reliev]

just a datapoint I called chase to "cancel" my csr they offered me a free CSP for a year but no 400$ annual fee credit I guess I dont spend enough

 

[georgina]

Has anyone done a Rhine river cruise Amsterdam to Basel….friends want to go this fall and I have never done a river cruise so know nothing about the various cruise lines etc. Any advice is appreciated

Also have done it with Viking, spent a few extra nights in Amsterdam before the cruise started. Went in April to see the tulips. We liked Viking, have since done an ocean cruise with them and I did a solo Danube cruise recently.

 

[georgina]

just a datapoint I called chase to "cancel" my csr they offered me a free CSP for a year but no 400$ annual fee credit I guess I dont spend enough

I was just going to have DH downgrade his to a CSP, maybe I should have him call first.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Has anyone done a Rhine river cruise Amsterdam to Basel….friends want to go this fall and I have never done a river cruise so know nothing about the various cruise lines etc. Any advice is appreciated

I did Basel --> Amsterdam with my ds and dd several years ago (with ABD). We sailed on the AMA Christina (I think!) and really enjoyed it. Would def sail them again; I'd also love to try Viking.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

just a datapoint I called chase to "cancel" my csr they offered me a free CSP for a year but no 400$ annual fee credit I guess I dont spend enough

Better than nothing!

 

[Sheree]

Has anyone done a Rhine river cruise Amsterdam to Basel….friends want to go this fall and I have never done a river cruise so know nothing about the various cruise lines etc. Any advice is appreciated

We've done 2 river cruises. 1 with Amadeus (danube) and AMA (Seine) wonderful. Amadeus cabin a bit bigger than AMA, food was incredible on both. they carry less passengers than Viking, include a bit more. For this fall many may have limited availability but there may also be some good sales.

 

[spacerangerqueen]

Are you saying you have 2 Chase biz with SSN open and 1 Chase biz with EIN open? Is the EIN biz a sole prop?

If it's a sole prop, close one biz card and try again in 30 days. If it's some other business structure, you might have better luck applying under that business. I'm not sure if you'd still need to wait 30 days.

I have two open as a sole prop with my SSN and one open (on a separate login) with an EIN as an LLC. Wasn't sure if I could apply right away with the EIN to try again.

 

[mmmears]

Also have done it with Viking, spent a few extra nights in Amsterdam before the cruise started. Went in April to see the tulips. We liked Viking, have since done an ocean cruise with them and I did a solo Danube cruise recently.

I'm curious - did you prefer the Rhine or the Danube? I'm interested in taking a river cruise in the future and they both look really interesting to me.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Thank you for posting this! I was able to close the card and get the annual fee refunded.

I thought the same thing about 30 days from the date it posted. Glad Palhockeymomof2 educated us!

One additional note on cancelling….usually the posted annual fee reverses itself the day after I SM to cancel and they close the card.
This time it didn’t so I sent a SM from DHs account a week later and Chase said it would take 1-2 billing cycles to post. So I waited until the card closed again this time showing the annual fee and a minimum payment due, sent another SM…same response.
So had to call Chase and have DH speak with them(which he just loved )
The next day the AF was gone.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Since we are looking to book a river cruise, decided to apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business since it was showing up for me in the pre approval link. Applied yesterday and got the “we will let you know” message…this morning there was a letter in my account denying it for various reasons, some which conflicted with each other but oh well I tried.
DH applied this morning, with similar stats and no pre approval link….was instantly approved.
glad Chase continues to like one of us, but I’m going to wait until the end of the year for my next Chase application for the SW cards

 

[hsmamato2]

For you, Conrad Orlando vacation people on this thread, a bunch of availability opened up from now until October.

has anyone ever been able to book here on points?

 

[hsmamato2]

Here's a weird thing.... I got a notice from chase 2 days ago in the mail....( I was stressed over what it might say) and it's the denial reason for an app last July.... really? that took awhile -I already knew anyway but why so long?

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

Thanks for the information, I suggested spring 2027 but they are probably going to Japan then and she wants to go in October around Columbus Day so hopefully the water levels will be okay.
Viking was one we were looking at along with Uniworld and Avalon

Let us know what you decide!

 

[calypso726]

has anyone ever been able to book here on points?

We have stayed a few times on points and/or free night certificates.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

December was crazy in trying to use up all the Plat, CSR, Citi Strata Elite, Delta Stays, etc credits! But we did well, didn't leave anything on the table.

Citi $300 hotel gave us 2 nights at a WDW All-Stars resort, which we tacked on to our DVC stay in early December (it was interesting to go from the Grand Floridian to All-Stars, lol). Had used Blacklane and Splurge previously. Used the various Lyft and Uber discounts/statement credits when we didn't want to wait for the bus at WDW.

Used CSR StubHub credit for Neil deGrasse Tyson. He puts on a good show, though a little poignant in our current anti-science environment.

Lots of Resy restaurants near us, especially Indian food, so we used all the Resy credits from the 2 personal Plats. I think DH won't want Indian food for several months! We do have to go back later, though, to use up GCs.

Have 2 Plat Hotel credits that weren't used up yet so on Dec 31, after lots of searching, I booked a holiday weekend in Vegas ($297 from Hotel Collection) and another in Minneapolis ($309 from Hotel Collection). Hopefully we'll take these trips!

The Edit plus my Plats paid for our stay at The Reykjavik Edition over Christmas--pretty nice hotel, good food. We also did a 2-day tour of the Saefellsnes peninsula, which was awesome.

Luckily, in mid December, Chase added a bunch of restaurants to their Tables credit, including several in Raleigh. So we had a nice, overpriced meal. Would have lost out on this one otherwise.

Plus all the normal monthly stuff like Instacart, Uber Eats, Dunkin and Five Guys (Amex Gold), Doordash... It was crazy!

And now it starts all over again! Too many hotel credits. Definitely downsizing this year. Already know don't want the CSR, but will try to use up all the 2026 credits before my AF in June. I think one or two of the Plats will have to go, probably the biz ones. But I'm happy with how much value we're getting out of last year's lower AFs.

I think the easiest premium card we have for credits is the Citi Strata Elite, and I especially like the 4 Admirals Club passes.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

In other CC/travel news, I did make it to Globalist and DH just finished the spend on his SW Performance to earn a CP (love earning CP with 1 SUB once again!). So I guess we're still flying SW since they haven't killed the CP... and we'll be flying to places with Hyatts, lol. I think I can get Globalist benefits at Hyatts booked through Amex to combine FHR/THC with Globalist.

 

[becauseimnew]

has anyone ever been able to book here on points?

We stayed there once, when we stayed there we didn't get on property benefits (early entry). Wouldn't stay there again.