I love credit cards so much!

[ski_mom]

You guys seem to have visited everywhere, so I was wondering if anyone knows much about the rail system in Europe? My husband and I are flying into Hamburg, Germany to meet our daughter. The three of us are going from Hamburg to Paris by train. My husband and I are going from Paris to London by train and our daughter is going to Amsterdam to meet up with friends at that point.

She and her friends are getting eurail passes as they are going to continue to visit European countries for the next 6 weeks or so.

From what I can tell, the Eurail passes are not necessarily what my husband and I need for our trip, so I'm thinking that we will just buy tickets for the 3 of us to Paris separate from her Eurail pass, but the more I research, the more confused I get.

If anyone has a source to try to understand their system(s) or has experience with this, I would love some advice!

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Can you explain a bit about how you would do that? Do you schedule a split stay at two different resorts or make more than one reservations at the same resort? Or just request fewer nights on the dining plan when you book the package?

Say we are doing April 1-7, I would do april 1 reg, April 2 deluxe, April 3-4 reg, April 5 deluxe, April 6 reg. 5 reservations sometimes it’s at the same resort, sometimes same resort but different view, sometimes different resorts. As long as you don’t mind moving rooms if you can’t keep you in the same room. I’ve never had to move rooms when we were the same resort and room type. When booking I just tell them I want different dining plans. You can get a new set of mugs if you want with each plan or just don’t get them. We tend to get them and don’t use them and give them as gifts to other guests checking in or bring them home and give them to friends as gifts.

 

[platamama]

You guys seem to have visited everywhere, so I was wondering if anyone knows much about the rail system in Europe? My husband and I are flying into Hamburg, Germany to meet our daughter. The three of us are going from Hamburg to Paris by train. My husband and I are going from Paris to London by train and our daughter is going to Amsterdam to meet up with friends at that point.

She and her friends are getting eurail passes as they are going to continue to visit European countries for the next 6 weeks or so.

From what I can tell, the Eurail passes are not necessarily what my husband and I need for our trip, so I'm thinking that we will just buy tickets for the 3 of us to Paris separate from her Eurail pass, but the more I research, the more confused I get.

If anyone has a source to try to understand their system(s) or has experience with this, I would love some advice!

I think your plan sounds fine.

I haven't used the rail pass in Europe at all, so I can't say anything based on experience. But the most informative site I've seen about rail travel is at www.seat61.com and I've used that guy's information when planning a simple train itinerary. Take this with a large grain of salt since I haven't used a Eurail pass, but my impression is that it really only makes sense if you're going to be using many trains in many countries (like your daughter is doing). Seems to me that Hamburg-Paris-London is pretty straightforward.

 

[Artygal90]

You guys seem to have visited everywhere, so I was wondering if anyone knows much about the rail system in Europe? My husband and I are flying into Hamburg, Germany to meet our daughter. The three of us are going from Hamburg to Paris by train. My husband and I are going from Paris to London by train and our daughter is going to Amsterdam to meet up with friends at that point.

She and her friends are getting eurail passes as they are going to continue to visit European countries for the next 6 weeks or so.

From what I can tell, the Eurail passes are not necessarily what my husband and I need for our trip, so I'm thinking that we will just buy tickets for the 3 of us to Paris separate from her Eurail pass, but the more I research, the more confused I get.

If anyone has a source to try to understand their system(s) or has experience with this, I would love some advice!

So I haven't traveled by train in Europe in a while, but in 2010 I traveled Geneva-Florence-Siena-Venice-Vienna-Prague mostly by train. seat61.com has great information and I'm pretty sure that's the site I used to do all my planning for my last big trip. I've also ridden the Eurostar between Paris and London many times. It gets confusing because there are local trains within one country (say a train between Frankfurt and Hamburg), international trains (the Eurostar, between the UK and France), and trains that travel between different European countries that are covered under the Schengen agreement (so you are technically crossing between countries but there's no passport check or anything. Germany and France are both Schengen countries).

You will want to book 2 one-way tickets on the Eurostar train between London and Paris for yourself and your husband. You will also need to purchase one-way tickets between Hamburg and Paris for yourself and your husband which you can do through the German Railways website. Your daughter will need to carefully double-check the terms of the Eurail pass she has bought, but as long as travel between Germany and France is covered she should be able to accompany you and your husband on the same train without purchasing an extra ticket. She'll need to double-check which fare class she can travel in as well to make sure you can all travel together in the same compartment on the train - it's likely her Eurail pass does not include first-class travel. If her ticket isn't covered by her Eurail pass (if for example she purchased a one-country pass that only covers a certain number of travel days within a single country), then you can just get a one-way ticket for her like you said. Looking at the Eurail pass website it looks like a pass would be expensive and not at all what you and your husband need - just get the one-way tickets you need and you'll be all set.

Sounds like a fun trip! I love Paris and have spent a lot of time there so let me know if you want any itinerary suggestions

 

[DisneyMandC]

Happy second quarter to everyone who's got a Chase Freedom card!!

I'll be heading to Kroger today to take advantage of 5x UR plus 4x gas points

 

[miztressuz]

DISchurners Request
If you have a 35k SPG support link out there, please remove it From HERE Those have expired and we don't want anybody newer wondering why all the SPG links don't work (or not using a link at all because they think they're all broken). If you have a working 25k link you can definitely leave that up

I still can't pull a link from the website BUT doing it from the app seems to work. Website is still saying the card is ineligible for the program
The app gives txt and email options, is one a more reliable option over the other? I picked the txt one cuz it's short but if there's more success from an email link then I'll send myself an email instead and update.

 

[miztressuz]

Happy second quarter to everyone who's got a Chase Freedom card!!

I'll be heading to Kroger today to take advantage of 5x UR plus 4x gas points

I was never so happy to wake up and say, Oooo it's pay bills today! (through PayPal) Something is really wrong with me...

 

[GZanta77]

I was never so happy to wake up and say, Oooo it's pay bills today! (through PayPal) Something is really wrong with me...

You are in good company here - you know things are bad when you have a stash of gift cards you don't want to spend 'cos you won't earn any points.

 

[SBWB48]

I was never so happy to wake up and say, Oooo it's pay bills today! (through PayPal) Something is really wrong with me...

THIS. I guess normally bills are associated with money out and nothing in return, but in the churning world, bills = $$$ = MSR = points = , so the mentality and psyche of paying bills totally flips. Now that it’s a return on expense, bring on the bills

You are in good company here - you know things are bad when you have a stash of gift cards you don't want to spend 'cos you won't earn any points.

And THIS. #firstworldchurningproblems

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I still can't pull a link from the website BUT doing it from the app seems to work. Website is still saying the card is ineligible for the program
The app gives txt and email options, is one a more reliable option over the other? I picked the txt one cuz it's short but if there's more success from an email link then I'll send myself an email instead and update.

As long as it's a working link no worries (yours works when I click it). Basically, we just don't want dead 35k links hanging out over there.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Happy Easter to all!

If I can sell another 2 sewing machines in the next 2 months, then my CIP MSR will be met without any out of pocket spending.

As a sewer I am super curious why you are selling sewing machines on eBay. Are they new or your old ones?

So you must’ve thought the Poly was worth $450 in points though, right? (Or at least the $300 cashout value lol).

I don't know how others look at it, but when I am looking at booking WDW with UR on the portal I look at a room (ie $450 poly/30000 pts) as spending $300 on the room and thus getting a discount I couldn't otherwise get on a stay I want.
Same with transferring to SWA. I'd rather transfer points to them and fly my preferred airline nonstop to CHS, for example, than transfer less points to book another airline with a layover.
But I definitely consider points to be a cash equivalent which kinda annoys people. If I say to my DH that a flight is too $$ he says well it is points. I agree yes it is points but points are currency and I still won't overpay because I have them. I will find a cheaper flight.

I felt pretty smug having made reservations online when I see there is a line out the door. That is, until I discovered I was a week early for dinner Fortunately, the staff was really cool and squeezed us in right away anyhow.

SOOOO I did something similar. For our Oct cruise last year I booked Happy Limo just as I had the year prior. They were to pick us up at 9:30 at the YC. Well they never called to say they were coming so we headed outside. Waited and waited. Finally called them and I had booked the next Saturday. WHHAATT!? We were able to find a uber, thank goodness, but it was quite stressful trying to figure out how to get to port that morning.

 

[Judique]

No, that makes sense as a part of any cost/benefit analysis! I'm just considering the dining plan as another way to spend some of my points and get my food costs covered in addition to my flight, hotel, and ticket costs. The way I look at it, I'm going to be paying for food one way or another - either with "free" points or with cash out of pocket. If I go to California Grill and pay cash, I will probably just split an app with my husband and get the cheapest glass of wine because I don't know that I could bring myself to pay upwards of $35 for an entree. But if I use points to get a dining plan, well then you bet I'm going to go for it and order a martini, steak, and creme brulee, and that way I'm not spending any real money on that experience. I am losing out on the possibility of redeeming those UR later, though, so I need to weigh that as well. But the main reason I asked was just to confirm that the 1.5 multiplier on UR with the CSR does in fact apply to the dining plan as well, which makes it a more appealing purchase to me. I feel like most of us here are probably over-analyzers to some extent or another, whether it's touring plans, calculating the value of the DDP, or churning credit card rewards, so you're not alone )

Although I'm not a fan of paying for the dining plan anymore, in your case, I say Go For It! You can always earn more points!

At least that's what I tell myself each time I spend some of my SPG points.

It's not like you are spending the money out of your bank account or out of your monthly budget. Points are more like 'found' money that can be used extravagantly for experiences that if you were going to use cash for, you would probably deny yourself and be more budget conscious.

I was able to talk my younger daughter into applying for the Disney card and she did it. I made the spend for her - bought my new phone - and a few groceries - and then transferred the cash into her account and used bill pay to pay the bill after the charge posted. I deliberately paid exactly $200 less that the full amount I'd spent of $649. The payment and the statement credit both posted on Friday, leaving a zero balance. But now there are a few Disney dollars hanging loose there - If I spend another $351 I can redeem those 10 Disney dollars.....in one sense that's like getting 3%.

Meanwhile, I transferred cash into daughter's checking account as her reward for doing the card - she says 'it's okay Mom - you can keep it - you did all the work'. But, I didn't keep it - after all, I got my $100 Disney dollar referral fee, so we both won.

The point of this is that I didn't need a new phone - I wanted one! Getting the card put $300 free dollars into our household - almost half the cost of the phone, so an indirect way of looking at how churning helps to pay for luxuries.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I still can't pull a link from the website BUT doing it from the app seems to work. Website is still saying the card is ineligible for the program
The app gives txt and email options, is one a more reliable option over the other? I picked the txt one cuz it's short but if there's more success from an email link then I'll send myself an email instead and update.

Thanks! I downloaded the app and generated a new link!

 

[kmc8826]

Happy Easter!

Happy second quarter to everyone who's got a Chase Freedom card!!

I'll be heading to Kroger today to take advantage of 5x UR plus 4x gas points

And second quarter for those with the Discover as well. My plan is to max out Freedom for paypal and chase pay and then just use Discover for all groceries. What does it say when we are all happy that the quarter has changed? Will need to find time today to switch out the cards (and labels) in DH’s wallet.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I see 2 deals at Publix I may be able to use to get some Disney currency (GC). I just need the pros to help.

$10 off $150 MasterCard gift card- Can I use this at Sams.com to buy Disney GC?

$5/$50 iTunes- I can't think of any way to use this for Disney. Anything creative I need it for?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I don't know how others look at it, but when I am looking at booking WDW with UR on the portal I look at a room (ie $450 poly/30000 pts) as spending $300 on the room and thus getting a discount I couldn't otherwise get on a stay I want.
Same with transferring to SWA. I'd rather transfer points to them and fly my preferred airline nonstop to CHS, for example, than transfer less points to book another airline with a layover.
But I definitely consider points to be a cash equivalent which kinda annoys people. If I say to my DH that a flight is too $$ he says well it is points. I agree yes it is points but points are currency and I still won't overpay because I have them. I will find a cheaper flight.

Yep - I’m with you I drive people crazy on the flights too sometimes - they’re like but it’s free. Umm no they cost money - I just pay in a different currency (RR pts) than you.

 

[Judique]

@calypso726 - glad to see you are enjoying DC! And sorry you probably have to wear a coat, as the weather can't stay the same for 2 days in a row right now!

I cried my way all through Holocaust when I went with my brother and sister in law years ago. It started when I came to the big pile of shoes. (If they still have?) That's when I lost it. I had always avoided that Museum up until then as I knew it would be hard for me to handle. But I'm always glad that I went.

And the magnolia trees - I don't think I remember them so I'll watch for them first chance I get. One of my neighbors had a beautiful tulip magnolia but when they moved and sold their home a speculator came in and bought it and almost immediately cut the tree down, I guess in his eyes for more curb appeal. I will admit they are kind of messy. But beautiful!

 

[hsmamato2]

I was never so happy to wake up and say, Oooo it's pay bills today! (through PayPal) Something is really wrong with me...

this. I just found out my dogsitter takes paypal for our trip in a couple of weeks...it's the small things...

 

[hsmamato2]

Happy Easter!



And second quarter for those with the Discover as well. My plan is to max out Freedom for paypal and chase pay and then just use Discover for all groceries. What does it say when we are all happy that the quarter has changed? Will need to find time today to switch out the cards (and labels) in DH’s wallet.

ooooooo good plan! except for Dh's cards....right now all he gets is the FU every day...it's working for us!

 

[kmc8826]

@calypso726 - glad to see you are enjoying DC! And sorry you probably have to wear a coat, as the weather can't stay the same for 2 days in a row right now!

I cried my way all through Holocaust when I went with my brother and sister in law years ago. It started when I came to the big pile of shoes. (If they still have?) That's when I lost it. I had always avoided that Museum up until then as I knew it would be hard for me to handle. But I'm always glad that I went.

And the magnolia trees - I don't think I remember them so I'll watch for them first chance I get. One of my neighbors had a beautiful tulip magnolia but when they moved and sold their home a speculator came in and bought it and almost immediately cut the tree down, I guess in his eyes for more curb appeal. I will admit they are kind of messy. But beautiful!

The pile of shoes is what got me too! Only thing that saved me from being a complete blubbering mess is that my oldest was 2 and I was pregnant with my second. I had my hands full trying to keep track of D2 and couldn’t read everything.

I got news this week that I get to go to DC for a conference in August. Hotel is the Watergate. Sounds cool but I am a little bummed it isn’t a chain that I can be gathering points for....and I am just crazy enough briefly have considered finding another hotel instead of the conference hotel just for the point angle. I will probably let it go but am going to be sure at least with the flights I get some miles!