I love credit cards so much!

[1GoldenSun]

Its also highly YMMV. Some stores may stop you from buying a Money Order with a visa gift card... you may run into some trouble... I had the manager called on me once. was quite an experience. lol.

Oh my gosh, I wouldn't handle that well! I better stick with my organic spending, haha.

 

[wendow]

WELL...Dh is the proud new owner of a SPG biz card I just went for it, and tried not to overthink it anymore. Now to meet that spend!

 

[wendow]

Oh my gosh, I wouldn't handle that well! I better stick with my organic spending, haha.

Yes, me either!! I like nice and easy ways to meet the spend. Having to talk to a manager or even try to explain to a clerk, really, would just stress me out.

 

[Lain]

So why do you buy them and what do you do with them once you have them?

I buy VGCs from a grocery store or pharmacy with an Amex I'm trying to meet spend on, then use the VGCs at Costco and anywhere else that doesn't accept Amex.

 

[calypso726]

Oh my gosh, I wouldn't handle that well! I better stick with my organic spending, haha.

I used to MS back when options were easier - Amazon Payments, Vanilla reloads from CVS, Blue Bird, Redbird. After Redbird died and I went through 4 Blue Bird Shutdowns on different accounts MSing our way to a BA companion pass, I stopped. I'm going to wade back in the MS waters but will focus on banks that I don't care if I get shutdown.

 

[wendow]

I buy VGCs from a grocery store or pharmacy with an Amex I'm trying to meet spend on, then use the VGCs at Costco and anywhere else that doesn't accept Amex.

Just add something to that VGC??...pack of gum even to change the amount from seeming like a VCG plus 5.95 activation fee? Meant this as a question...
Perfect way to meet spend though I may have to do this with the new spg biz. I've never had to do much other than pay my mortgage with plastiq but I think I may be venturing outside of even that looking for more help to make the MSR.

 

[Lain]

WELL...Dh is the proud new owner of a SPG biz card I just went for it, and tried not to overthink it anymore. Now to meet that spend!

Congratulations! Did you decide on the 25k or the 35k offer?

 

[wendow]

Congratulations! Did you decide on the 25k or the 35k offer?

LOL, I forgot the main detail Kind of like when I sent out the email birth announcement right after my last was born and forgot to tell everyone the gender. And then didn't check email for hours lol!

I did the 35k!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Albort]

LOL, I forgot the main detail Kind of like when I sent out the email birth announcement right after my last was born and forgot to tell everyone the gender. And then didn't check email for hours lol!

I did the 35k!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice! welcome to the exclusive SPG biz club!
no wait a minute...

 

[Lain]

LOL, I forgot the main detail Kind of like when I sent out the email birth announcement right after my last was born and forgot to tell everyone the gender. And then didn't check email for hours lol!

I did the 35k!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go big or stay home!

 

[wendow]

nice! welcome to the exclusive SPG biz club!
no wait a minute...

Not sure what that means...

 

[peel]

Having to talk to a manager or even try to explain to a clerk, really, would just stress me out.

This is me! I think i might be more adventurous if one of my early experiences was the horrible CIP recon call. I never ever want to talk to a credit card rep again, let alone have to explain my actions to a store clerk.

 

[Albort]

Not sure what that means...

haha, was more like, i dont think its exclusive anymore... id say a good 90% of us have an spg biz lol.

 

[wendow]

haha, was more like, i dont think its exclusive anymore... id say a good 90% of us have an spg biz lol.

Oh, yes, I kind of thought that was what you meant but wasn't sure if I was missing something. I agree. Just about everyone has a link for this card on DISchurners!

 

[liloca]

Correct. UR doesn't transfer to AA directly. However, UR does transfer to BA which is an airline partner for AA since both are part of the One World airline alliance. You can actually book your AA flights directly on BA's website for Brazil. That route is searchable on BA. Here is a screenshot.

View attachment 310685


Whenever you want to search for a flight that can be booked with BA but isn't searchable on BA then you do the search on AA for saver award flights. Find the saver award flight, write down the info and call BA to book it.

View attachment 310682

Great! Thank you so much for the info! This can get really confusing.
So any flight that I cannot find on the BA website is bookable if I call in with the info?

 

[Albort]

Great! Thank you so much for the info! This can get really confusing.
So any flight that I cannot find on the BA website is bookable if I call in with the info?

On high demand routes, not much awardspace to start out with. Sometimes the agent can find things hidden on their end though. Its always worth a shot to try. If they do happen to find something, stall for time, transfer miles into the program while having them on the phone and book it immediately.
To know for sure though, u would need one of those programs that can search for award spots. they cost money though.

it also helps to check leg by leg, awards sometimes dont pop up when there is no direct route. ie friend wants a flight from Washington DC --> Nassau, Bahamas. Couldnt generate that flight, but did find from Baltimore to Miami and Miami to Nassau.

 

[liloca]

You mention Disney vacations (plural). If you are like us, and doing a whole lotta Disney vacations then you might want to earn as many UR points as possible on your Disney vacations so you can fly on points and miles and mitigate the OOP cost of other vacations. That's what we do. We use the CF and max it out, sometimes rather creatively on the quarterly bonuses. We use the Chase Ink+ (no longer available but you could use CIC) to purchase Disney Gift cards at 5x. We also purchase other gift cards at 5x with the Ink+ at office supply stores. We use the MPX app to purchase gift cards not found at office supply stores to get the additional UA bonus. We utilize airline shopping portals to beef up the airline points as well and stack by using the gift cards to purchase through the airline portals. We are part of our preferred airline's dining rewards program too. It all adds up.

We spend way too much on Disney vacations to try and do them so that they are cheap or nearly free so we try to earn as many points as possible with our credit card bonus categories, Amex offers etc. This way, we don't pay for airfare beyond taxes and fees. We have 1300 DVC points and the annual dues as well as our WDW APs are paid with Disney gift cards earned at 5x or better. We do at least one Adventures by Disney trip per year and one or two Disney cruises per year. So we average about 100,000 UR points earned each year just by getting our Disney vacations paid with gift cards at 5x.

Yes, we try to go every year but since thevkids came along it has been harder to maintain going to Brazil and Disney every year. So if I can get one trip paid mostly with points we can still do both!
Thank you so much for your help @calypso726 !

 

[Ava]

Wow, I just skipped literally over 100 pages of this thread because I got so far behind! I jumped to page 1000 and read from there. Hopefully I didn’t miss too much!

I’m having a hard time deciding what to do next. I really want the 35K SPG offer, but I’m only ~1/3 of the way into the MSR on my Marriott Biz.

Can I fund a bank account with the Marriott Biz, or is that not advisable with biz cards? If I could knock out the rest of the Marriott spend by funding $2K into a PNC account, I’d feel better about going for the SPG.

Also, is Plastiq still working to meet MSR on AmEx cards? I read the DoC article about the terms changing for earning points but didn’t find if that actually affected Plastiq or not. I’d almost certainly need to use Plastiq to pay my rent to meet the $7K MSR for SPG Biz.

 

[Albort]

Wow, I just skipped literally over 100 pages of this thread because I got so far behind! I jumped to page 1000 and read from there. Hopefully I didn’t miss too much!

I’m having a hard time deciding what to do next. I really want the 35K SPG offer, but I’m only ~1/3 of the way into the MSR on my Marriott Biz.

Can I fund a bank account with the Marriott Biz, or is that not advisable with biz cards? If I could knock out the rest of the Marriott spend by funding $2K into a PNC account, I’d feel better about going for the SPG.

Also, is Plastiq still working to meet MSR on AmEx cards? I read the DoC article about the terms changing for earning points but didn’t find if that actually affected Plastiq or not. I’d almost certainly need to use Plastiq to pay my rent to meet the $7K MSR for SPG Biz.

i think the biggest news u missed is the 50k CIC card.

bank funding with Marriott Biz is a okay. Only card with this issue is amex.
Amex still works with plastiq. if its rent, ur good. I just triggered an SPG promo... $5000 for 5000 points... $3600 of that is through plastiq rent.

 

[Lain]

Wow, I just skipped literally over 100 pages of this thread because I got so far behind! I jumped to page 1000 and read from there. Hopefully I didn’t miss too much!

I’m having a hard time deciding what to do next. I really want the 35K SPG offer, but I’m only ~1/3 of the way into the MSR on my Marriott Biz.

Can I fund a bank account with the Marriott Biz, or is that not advisable with biz cards? If I could knock out the rest of the Marriott spend by funding $2K into a PNC account, I’d feel better about going for the SPG.

Also, is Plastiq still working to meet MSR on AmEx cards? I read the DoC article about the terms changing for earning points but didn’t find if that actually affected Plastiq or not. I’d almost certainly need to use Plastiq to pay my rent to meet the $7K MSR for SPG Biz.

Welcome back! Long time no see!

@Albort 's got you.