I love credit cards so much!

[miztressuz]

As part of the saga of trying to sort out my Marriott/SPG elite nights . . . when I log in to my Marriott account, I can see the total awards night I currently have. When I click on that number (top right hand corner), I see how many come from "Rewards Credit Card." Is there a way to track or see a detail of where those credit card elite nights come from like there is with the points? For example, I currently have 16 nights earned from the credit card. I THINK 15 is from the cc renewal and 1 is from charging $3k on my new business cc. But is there a way to confirm the origin of those nights? I hate that I can't see exactly where those nights came from. I tried calling Marriott, and they were not helpful at all.

No idea, been trying to figure that out myself. But your assumption is logical. Marriott doesn't really breakdown the totals that I've seen, they just magically appear.

We have 21, says 20 are rollover from 2017 and 1 from a reward night redemption this year. Our CC anniversary year is Dec so I'm guessing our 15 nights posted then but now I don't know where.

In 2017 we stayed 12 nights. 7 were cash, 4 points+cash, 1 was the CC free night. I know we didn't put 24k on the CC last year so was having a hard time figuring out what combination makes 20 nights I didn't think the nights earned from the CC rolled over, but I'm guessing they did as that would mean 9k on the card. Which still seems a little high but more in the realm of possible. So it would have been nice if I could see where all the rollover came from, or a yearly statement I could look back on.

Little OT, but have been trying to figure out a way to take advantage of so many rollovers to get to Gold but my oh my is that a leap from Silver to Gold. Need another 28 nights (1 is booked already). Anyway you look at it that's a lot of spend (either points or cash). Even if I could convince hubby to get the Marriott Biz for those 15+spend nights we'd still need over 10. I'm not sure Gold is worth that.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

So I could purchase 30k and then gift 30k to DH and DH could do the same for 120k total?

Yes.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Little OT, but have been trying to figure out a way to take advantage of so many rollovers to get to Gold but my oh my is that a leap from Silver to Gold. Need another 28 nights (1 is booked already). Anyway you look at it that's a lot of spend (either points or cash). Even if I could convince hubby to get the Marriott Biz for those 15+spend nights we'd still need over 10. I'm not sure Gold is worth that.

Gold is probably only worth it if you have big plans at Starriott for next year too and you can get those 10 additional nights without much trouble. It definitely isn’t an easy thing to get there unless you have regular business travel. And even then, it can be tough. I have gotten SPG gold 3 out of the past 6 years and I travel for work pretty regularly.

 

[peel]

DoC renews my shutdown fears

 

[platamama]

So I could purchase 30k and then gift 30k to DH and DH could do the same for 120k total?

Yes.

It's a maximum of 30,000 Starpoints per account per calendar year.

 

[Alexle2007]

It's a maximum of 30,000 Starpoints per account per calendar year.

View attachment 317829

Thank you! Glad I didn't start purchasing them.

 

[Lain]

So I could purchase 30k and then gift 30k to DH and DH could do the same for 120k total?

It's a maximum of 30,000 Starpoints per account per calendar year.

View attachment 317829

Thank you! Glad I didn't start purchasing them.

@platamama is right about the restriction. An account is limited to 30k SPG points whether purchased or gifted (via points.com). However, this restriction apparently doesn't apply to points transfers.

A couple of years ago, some information came out on Flyertalk that seemed to indicate that SPG was no longer allowing point transfers as a way to exceed the 30K per year purchase limit. Since then, I’ve seen evidence that this technique still works, so that seems to have been an unsubstantiated rumor.

So you could purchase 30k, then gift 30k to DH but not if DH already bought or received a gift of SPG points this calendar year. If DH has not bought or received a gift of SPG points this calendar year, then you can gift 30k to DH or DH could buy 30k points for himself then transfer it to you to get around your 30k limit.

 

[platamama]

As part of the saga of trying to sort out my Marriott/SPG elite nights . . . when I log in to my Marriott account, I can see the total awards night I currently have. When I click on that number (top right hand corner), I see how many come from "Rewards Credit Card." Is there a way to track or see a detail of where those credit card elite nights come from like there is with the points? For example, I currently have 16 nights earned from the credit card. I THINK 15 is from the cc renewal and 1 is from charging $3k on my new business cc. But is there a way to confirm the origin of those nights? I hate that I can't see exactly where those nights came from. I tried calling Marriott, and they were not helpful at all.

No idea, been trying to figure that out myself. But your assumption is logical. Marriott doesn't really breakdown the totals that I've seen, they just magically appear.

We have 21, says 20 are rollover from 2017 and 1 from a reward night redemption this year. Our CC anniversary year is Dec so I'm guessing our 15 nights posted then but now I don't know where.

In 2017 we stayed 12 nights. 7 were cash, 4 points+cash, 1 was the CC free night. I know we didn't put 24k on the CC last year so was having a hard time figuring out what combination makes 20 nights I didn't think the nights earned from the CC rolled over, but I'm guessing they did as that would mean 9k on the card. Which still seems a little high but more in the realm of possible. So it would have been nice if I could see where all the rollover came from, or a yearly statement I could look back on.

Little OT, but have been trying to figure out a way to take advantage of so many rollovers to get to Gold but my oh my is that a leap from Silver to Gold. Need another 28 nights (1 is booked already). Anyway you look at it that's a lot of spend (either points or cash). Even if I could convince hubby to get the Marriott Biz for those 15+spend nights we'd still need over 10. I'm not sure Gold is worth that.

I'm having a hard time figuring that out myself, and my issue is compounded (I think) by the fact that I originally was a Ritz Carlton cardholder and even though I "switched" over to Marriott, my user interface always defaults to the RC interface which sucks.

I'm not going to do this myself because I'm trying for a SW CP later this year, but anyone who can get a Ritz Carlton Visa before 8/1 will have automatic Gold status for the $450 annual fee, and that will automatically make you Marriott Platinum (free breakfast) when the combined program really starts. What I'm not clear on is if that makes you Platinum only for 4 months of 2018, or if it goes all through 2019. Sucks that the AMEX Plat card will not give you free breakfast anymore.

 

[platamama]

Ok I think I have my Marriott nights figured out.

I have 13 rollover nights from 2017. Since Silver status (which is where I am now) requires 10 nights, I add 13 + 10 = 23 nights in 2017.

15 came from renewal of my Marriott card in 2017. 23 - 15 = 8 nights

In 2017, I stayed 8 nights on points. Tada!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

It's a maximum of 30,000 Starpoints per account per calendar year.

View attachment 317829

I think this must have changed over the years because this used to be something that I know had happened in the past.

 

[1st*toright]

I'm not going to do this myself because I'm trying for a SW CP later this year, but anyone who can get a Ritz Carlton Visa before 8/1 will have automatic Gold status for the $450 annual fee, and that will automatically make you Marriott Platinum (free breakfast) when the combined program really starts. What I'm not clear on is if that makes you Platinum only for 4 months of 2018, or if it goes all through 2019. Sucks that the AMEX Plat card will not give you free breakfast anymore.

I'm reading it as status match for the last 4 months of 2018, then your status for 2019 will be whatever you earned in 2018 - ie, if I don't hit 50 nights in 2018, I'm back to Silver in 2019 (because my Gold status was earned in 2017). If you earn Gold in 2018, then it converts to Platinum with the new program, I'd expect that to carry through 2019.

 

[1st*toright]

I'm soooooo tempted by the SPG points sale, esp. since I'm working on SPG Biz spend still (although I just looked, and I will have no trouble meeting the spend organically, so no need to spend more money). But I don't have a specific airline transfer trip planned, and it seems expensive if you're just going to use them for hotel nights. But it seems like lots of people are investing in them, so I've got a little FOMO going on...

 

[Albort]

I have. It's been a few years and I called an agent. I flew to Hawaii on a dirt cheap mistake fare and then was like "nope, going first class home." So I went online, found the flight/seat I wanted and called. It wasn't any issue for the agent. I did not pay any extra fees. I had the United Club card at the time (but you get XN availability with Explorer too) so I was able to see few more seats I think. So I was inside the close-in booking window obviously, but the club card waives that.

Remember London has something like 5 or 6 airports. Did you check them all? Heathrow is the worst for fees.

Gatwick is probably the cheapest... the plan is to go to Southampton. Im also worried if i upgrade with UA miles, i might have to pay the fuel surcharge.

DoC renews my shutdown fears

We know how Chase shuts ppl down currently. So its good to prep on how to avoid it. :] no fear!

 

[Lain]

Interesting... Amex to continue issuing SPG Personal cards even after 8/1/18.

question is, who would want them? lol

Maybe they will have an enticing sign up bonus?

Not with the current "up to" $200 statement credit offer!

DoC seems to think that the SPG Personal will see a SPG/Marriott points signup bonus return at some point. DoC, PointsYak and several other comments seem to think Amex and Chase will swap portfolios, with SPG Personal converting to Chase and Marriott Biz converting to Amex.

i doubt the points will come back. Theres gotta be a reason why they dropped both SPG biz and SPG personal to statement credit literally 4 days later. The portfolio swap seems likely, but my guess would be personal cards, amex will try to get ppl to upgrade to their Luxury card.

M2M is also reporting that Amex will continue issuing SPG personal cards after 8/1/18, and that “there will be a very rich sign-up bonus coming in the coming weeks (different than the $200 statement credit you saw today).” Note this doesn’t say the bonus will be points.

https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/personal-amex-spg/

 

[GZanta77]

Gatwick is probably the cheapest... the plan is to go to Southampton. Im also worried if i upgrade with UA miles, i might have to pay the fuel surcharge.

!

Any option to fly United to Dublin and then a cheap flight direct to Southampton? Might get you out of the horrendous London fees.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

DoC renews my shutdown fears

We know how Chase shuts ppl down currently. So its good to prep on how to avoid it. :] no fear!

I'm with @Albort - we have some great comments around here on the shutdown reports and what has caused them. Don't be fearful...just be careful A lot of folks on r/churning think "It can't happen to me"...and WELL if you are 19/24 and try to apply for a Chase Hyatt card, you're asking for trouble. It CAN happen to you buddy, lol!

I believe DoC posted that because he hasn't said a lot about it. Nothing has really changed in what triggers shut downs. I know when that Disney $200 stmt credit deal came around a lot of people in the comments were warning of shut downs and others seemed oblivious to it. Not everybody tracks r/churning so it's responsible of DoC to throw that back out there. He should be protecting his readers in light of all these new offers Chase has circulating (especially on non 5/24 cards).

 

[Calfan]

Has anyone upgraded with United before? looking to buying a economy ticket and using UA miles to upgrade to polaris class.

unfortunately, its to London so all award ticket is basically out the door. :\

I'm not totally current on posts this morning, so you might have gotten what you are looking for, but we upgraded to UA first class on flights from SFO to LHR last summer. I originally used UA miles to book economy saver awards with the hope of getting an upgrade later. I was realistically just hoping for business class saver upgrades. Starting a month or so out from our flight, I started checking our flights on the UA website several times a day. I think it was about 6 days before our departure date that I saw 4 first class saver awards open up and just about lost my mind. I was literally shaking as I called United to secure the upgrades. I transferred UR to my United account to cover the additional miles needed while on the phone with the agent, and she was able to book the saver first awards. Oddly, after I got off the phone, I could see the first class tickets/seats in my United account, but the extra miles hadn't been deducted. In an abundance of caution, I called back a couple of hours later and, sure enough, the first agent hadn't actually completed the process of our upgrade. Luckily, the seats were still available and the second agent completed the upgrade. She ended up charging me $150 per ticket for the upgrade, which in hindsight I don't think was correct (I don't think there should have been a charge), but I was so happy with the upgrade for that 10-hour flight that I honestly didn't care about paying $600. Totally worth it.

ETA: I'm not sure, though, that you can use miles to upgrade a flight paid with cash. Or maybe it's vice versa, and you can't use cash to upgrade a flight paid with miles.

 

[Ava]

I'm not going to do this myself because I'm trying for a SW CP later this year, but anyone who can get a Ritz Carlton Visa before 8/1 will have automatic Gold status for the $450 annual fee, and that will automatically make you Marriott Platinum (free breakfast) when the combined program really starts. What I'm not clear on is if that makes you Platinum only for 4 months of 2018, or if it goes all through 2019. Sucks that the AMEX Plat card will not give you free breakfast anymore.

I'm reading it as status match for the last 4 months of 2018, then your status for 2019 will be whatever you earned in 2018 - ie, if I don't hit 50 nights in 2018, I'm back to Silver in 2019 (because my Gold status was earned in 2017). If you earn Gold in 2018, then it converts to Platinum with the new program, I'd expect that to carry through 2019.

I'm trying to figure this out, too. I don't travel enough to ever earn status beyond whatever comes with a co-branded CC, but with the combining of these programs and the CCs I've signed up for this year, I'm wondering if I can get Starriott Platinum for 2019. We'll definitely be staying with them for our 2019 trips if at all possible (since I will have all these points & free nights) so free breakfast & suite upgrades would be really nice.

As of right now, when my points/nights combine on 8/1, I will have 26 nights (15 + 1 from $3K spend on Marriott Biz, 5 from SPG Biz, and 5 from SPG Personal). It's my understanding that the current Marriott personal card is still crediting 15 nights at sign up. (At least that is still listed on the website as part of the benefits of the card.) IF I sign up for that card prior to 8/1, I'll get another 15 nights + 1 from the $3K spend that will combine with my existing 26 nights, for a total of 42 nights. Then I have a 3-night trip planned for Sept, for which I'll be booking 2 rooms. SPG is still giving credit for multiple rooms through the end of 2018, so that will be another 6 nights bringing my total to 48 nights. I could then spend another $6K on either of the Marriott cards (or make my Sept trip 4 nights instead of 3) to get to 50 nights in 2018.

Is this crazy??? My main hesitation is that I *think* I read on one of the blogs that there will be a one Marriott Personal card rule (similar to the one Sapphire and one SW rules) when the new Premier Plus card launches, so if I get the current card I'd be shut out of the new one with the 100,000 point sign up bonus. I'd also have to sign up for the current Marriott card before May 3rd, since it's supposed to go away when the new one launches. That gives me about 12 days to decide if this is NUTS or a good plan.

 

[wendow]

I'm soooooo tempted by the SPG points sale, esp. since I'm working on SPG Biz spend still (although I just looked, and I will have no trouble meeting the spend organically, so no need to spend more money). But I don't have a specific airline transfer trip planned, and it seems expensive if you're just going to use them for hotel nights. But it seems like lots of people are investing in them, so I've got a little FOMO going on...

I get tempted every time they offer this sale and others here start buying them up...definitely suffering from FOMO...So, I'm right there with you!

However, I think unless you are transferring to airlines, or have a planned use at a hotel that is high $$, it may not make sense. I know in our case, it doesn't.

 

[Calfan]

Gatwick is probably the cheapest... the plan is to go to Southampton. Im also worried if i upgrade with UA miles, i might have to pay the fuel surcharge.

Any option to fly United to Dublin and then a cheap flight direct to Southampton? Might get you out of the horrendous London fees.

Just got caught up and saw these posts. United doesn't impose the high fuel surcharges to London (even LHR) that other airlines do. The fees are a bit more than the $5.60 per person each way, but they were under $100 per person for us if I recall correctly. No additional fees/surcharges were imposed with our upgrade (not counting what I still think is an erroneous change fee, but that was not at all related to fuel surcharges).