I love credit cards so much!

[SouthFayetteFan]

It's me lol I'm just confused and mixing up info

No worries - just didn’t want you heading off to the store and not getting the return to thought you would

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I wanted to circle back on this now that I've had a chance to get to my desktop computer.

I went to look at the Marriott Category 6 hotel that I stay at when I visit my daughter at University in England. The week I am planning to go it is 180,000 Marriott points (standard rate) and 967GBP for members or roughly $1311. WOW!!!! Not a bad return on those 5,000 "lost" Alaska miles!!! I will definitely be going for the Marriott hotel/air package with my Starpoints at least once if not twice before August. I/we go visit DD a lot

I was able to book the room for the week on points without having any in my account. So once I get the certificate, I will call and see if they can apply it.

Can someone confirm the steps for my plan so I don't trip up on anything?

1. Pool our household points by transferring DH's Starpoints to my Starwood account. This will take a couple days.
2. Transfer 100,000 Starpoints to my Marriott account. I assume this can be done online. Anything to be cautious of here? This will give me 300,000 Marriott points.
3. Call Marriott and have those 300,000 points converted into a Hotel & Air package. Which will yield me 120,000k Alaska miles (or 132,000 United miles) plus my Category 6 hotel voucher (worth $1311 to me for my Sept. stay).
4. As soon as the hotel certificate appears in my account (instantly?) call back to have the certificate applied to my reservation that is being held on points. Maybe I could do it at the same time as I book the hotel & air package? My thought in doing this right away would be to avoid a negative re-categorization in August, and as I already have my flights, I know when I'll be there.

I now have my booked hotel ($1311) and 120,000/132,000 miles for the original 100,000 Starpoints.

Rinse & Repeat as many times as I can before they change this, LOL.

I’ve never actually done one but this all looks good to me

 

[Albort]

No worries - just didn’t want you heading off to the store and not getting the return to thought you would

uhh, too late? lol
Mistakes were made... move on... :] we all make mistakes... like me buying a gift card with my checking account... rip 200 UR points.

 

[Lain]

How would the crowds be mid-dec?

We’ve never gone in “mid”-December. About 3 years ago, we did go in early December and it was fine since we have a game plan. We always open up the park to get in 2-3 hours of short or no lines in the morning while mixing in Fast Passes (which are more or less still on the legacy system at DLR). We open up the park that does not have Magic Morning/Extra Magic Hour that day, since MM/EMH alternates days between the two parks, and he one that has it that day will have hotel and multi-day ticketed guests already in lines for an hour. We’ve yet to try Max Pass, but for $10 more it’s supposed to make grabbing FPs across the two parks super easy. Have your dining reservations made 60 days in advance if you want a sit down meal, and especially if you want to do a Fantasmic or World of Color dinner package. Generally, I’d look at the AP Blockout Calendar as a general gauge of how crowded it’ll be. I see SoCal APs are blocked out starting 12/12/18, so that should thin out the local crowds. Both parks are fully decorated by December, and looking beautiful!

 

[JC0712]

That sounds like a good plan! I may just pay with CIP to get 5X points. need to sit down and do the math. Thank you!

The Chase Ink Preferred earns 3X UR on travel. The Chase Ink Cash earns 5X UR at office supply stores. They both earn 3 and 5 times UR respectively on cell phone, internet etc. The Ink Cash also earns 2X UR on gas and restaurants.

Both cards also earn 3 or 5 times UR when you buy gift cards through Gyft. You have to pay through PayPal with your credit card to get the bonus earnings.

Some people like to buy Walmart Gift cards through Gyft (earning 5 or 3 times) then use the gift cards at Sam's to buy discounted Disney Cards. I think the discount is a little under 5%. I don't have a Sam's membership so I haven't actually done this, but I have used Gyft to buy gift cards. It's a great way to get 3 or 5 times UR at lots of stores.

The Ink Cash is a great card for earning UR, but it has a smaller bonus, so most people apply for the Ink Preferred first. After one year you can product change your CIP to a CIC if you don't want to apply for the Ink Cash.

 

[linzjane88]

uhh, too late? lol
Mistakes were made... move on... :] we all make mistakes... like me buying a gift card with my checking account... rip 200 UR points.

You still in mourning over that one I see?

 

[Albort]

You still in mourning over that one I see?

oh there is a ton of mistakes i made... i used the wrong card on one of my MS runs, loss of $15.
I was swiping my SPG card the longest time at 7-11, totally forgot my freedom is 5x at gas stations...

when i was trying to find out why/how i made a purchase with my bank account, i accidentally bought another gift card... :|

 

[platamama]

I wanted to circle back on this now that I've had a chance to get to my desktop computer.

I went to look at the Marriott Category 6 hotel that I stay at when I visit my daughter at University in England. The week I am planning to go it is 180,000 Marriott points (standard rate) and 967GBP for members or roughly $1311. WOW!!!! Not a bad return on those 5,000 "lost" Alaska miles!!! I will definitely be going for the Marriott hotel/air package with my Starpoints at least once if not twice before August. I/we go visit DD a lot

I was able to book the room for the week on points without having any in my account. So once I get the certificate, I will call and see if they can apply it.

Can someone confirm the steps for my plan so I don't trip up on anything?

1. Pool our household points by transferring DH's Starpoints to my Starwood account. This will take a couple days.
2. Transfer 100,000 Starpoints to my Marriott account. I assume this can be done online. Anything to be cautious of here? This will give me 300,000 Marriott points.
3. Call Marriott and have those 300,000 points converted into a Hotel & Air package. Which will yield me 120,000k Alaska miles (or 132,000 United miles) plus my Category 6 hotel voucher (worth $1311 to me for my Sept. stay).
4. As soon as the hotel certificate appears in my account (instantly?) call back to have the certificate applied to my reservation that is being held on points. Maybe I could do it at the same time as I book the hotel & air package? My thought in doing this right away would be to avoid a negative re-categorization in August, and as I already have my flights, I know when I'll be there.

I now have my booked hotel ($1311) and 120,000/132,000 miles for the original 100,000 Starpoints.

Rinse & Repeat as many times as I can before they change this, LOL.

1. Does your DH have a Marriott account? If he has one, he can transfer Marriott points to your Marriott account, saving you the SPG to SPG transfer step. Marriott makes an exception to their 50K cap on calendar year transfers for travel packages (and the $10 transfer fee is waived for Gold and higher). [For example, you can have 1000 Marriott points and have DH transfer 299,000 Marriott points to you in order for you to redeem a travel package.] But if you're not in a hurry, then you can proceed with your plan as is since a couple of days isn't going to make a difference.

2. The transfer process online is instant. And you can always transfer back if you want.

3. Right.

4. The certificate should show up instantly, and you can attach it to your reservation at that time if you want. You should be able to do it anytime before 8/1 to avoid a negative re-categorization.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I’ve never actually done one but this all looks good to me

Awesome! Thank you. I should have the points in the next week or two, so I'll report back on my experience. Cross your fingers that it goes smoothly!

 

[elgerber]

That is the assumption. I’ve had no problems with my plastiq payments not counting towards MSR’s.

Nor have I. Have done quite a bit that way for the last few cards.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

1. Does your DH have a Marriott account? If he has one, he can transfer Marriott points to your Marriott account, saving you the SPG to SPG transfer step. Marriott makes an exception to their 50K cap on calendar year transfers for travel packages (and the $10 transfer fee is waived for Gold and higher). [For example, you can have 1000 Marriott points and have DH transfer 299,000 Marriott points to you in order for you to redeem a travel package.] But if you're not in a hurry, then you can proceed with your plan as is since a couple of days isn't going to make a difference.

2. The transfer process online is instant. And you can always transfer back if you want.

3. Right.

4. The certificate should show up instantly, and you can attach it to your reservation at that time if you want. You should be able to do it anytime before 8/1 to avoid a negative re-categorization.

We must have cross-posted. Thank you so much for confirming and for pointing out the Marriott instant go around. DH doesn't have a Marriott account, but he could set one up if needed. I don't think we are in a huge hurry though and the less accounts he has to keep track of the better Thank you!!! So helpful. I didn't realize i could transfer back to Starpoints either. That's a really nice benefit (at least for a couple more months while they are separate).

 

[amalone1013]

So is anyone combining all their SPG/Marriott points into one person's account, if they have two players? Just curious as I've now got 35k in my SPG account and 35k in DHs...

 

[elgerber]

So is anyone combining all their SPG/Marriott points into one person's account, if they have two players? Just curious as I've now got 35k in my SPG account and 35k in DHs...

I put all of our SPG and Marriott points, in my Marriott account.

 

[thevalley]

If I have an SPG card and need to book a hotel, should I stay at a Sheraton or Marriott. Then should I pay with the spg,csr or CiP. Just trying to maximize all possible points.

 

[Alexle2007]

That seems right. It wasn't far at all. I think they were just busy and that is why it took so long. The pharmacy Disney recommended was not a chain. Our insurance is Kaiser which fills 'in house' for meds so nothing outside of Kaiser is covered for us. I had to walk to a Walgreens, pushing my dd in a wheelchair, about a mile down Apopka-Vineland in the early Sept heat. What an experience! We laugh about it now...kind of...

Did you get Kaiser to refund you? I had to take DS to the doctor for strep once while we were in AZ with no Kaiser around and I submitted the bills and Kaiser refunded by cost minus any deductible.

 

[Albort]

If I have an SPG card and need to book a hotel, should I stay at a Sheraton or Marriott. Then should I pay with the spg,csr or CiP. Just trying to maximize all possible points.

the choice between SPG and Marriott should be depends on where your going and location is important. or if ur trying to earn status.
as for what card you use, its best to use the SPG card as it earns u 2x at marriott/SPG which turns into 6x Marriott points.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

So is anyone combining all their SPG/Marriott points into one person's account, if they have two players? Just curious as I've now got 35k in my SPG account and 35k in DHs...

We have all our Marriott points consolidated in my account. (Not so humble brag...all 1.3million of them )

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We have all our Marriott points consolidated in my account. (Not so humble brag...all 1.3million of them )

Ah, the places you will go!

 

[JC0712]

I have officially earned my Southwest Companion Pass! I would never even have know about it if it weren't for all the helpful people on this board.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I have officially earned my Southwest Companion Pass! I would never even have know about it if it weren't for all the helpful people on this board.

That’s one of the best churning feelings there is . CONGRATS!