I love credit cards so much!

[calypso726]

Curious, besides me and calypso, did u guys started signing up for credit card after reading this thread? haha. I started reading reddit's churning and learned most of it there.

what about u @calypso726 ? I'm curious how u started. I asked cuz of the recent explaination to my friend and how much she go into it. lol

@Albort Travel hacking began for us back in 2012. Adventures by Disney had always been a bucket list item but we simply couldn't get past the sticker shock which doesn't even include airfare to/from the destinations. So it was always a "some day" sort of thing while I lurked on the ABD forum here on the DIS. Our vacations were mostly within driving distance, like a Disney cruise out of Port Canaveral or week in WDW. In 2012 ABD announced they were adding Scotland to their list of itineraries and the concept was based on the movie Brave. Merida, is my favorite princess. I just adore her character. I had also been dying to visit Scotland, since I am a huge fan of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and felt like I had already been there through her books. So now I am REALLY dying to do this Scotland ABD and excitedly told DH about it, who flatly said it ins't in the budget. My personality is not the type that simply accepts the answer "no" very well. I'm more inclined to think I worded the question incorrectly So, I said to DH, "If I can figure out how to pay for this Adventures by Disney trip to Scotland, including the airfare, are you in?" He said yes. It took me 3 days to figure out how to pay for it. We don't carry balances on credit cards so that was never an option. Along the way I stumbled on to travel hacking as a means to pay for the airfare. Little did I know, my entire life was about to change.

 

[Alice Sr.]

@Albort Travel hacking began for us back in 2012. Adventures by Disney had always been a bucket list item but we simply couldn't get past the sticker shock which doesn't even include airfare to/from the destinations. So it was always a "some day" sort of thing while I lurked on the ABD forum here on the DIS. Our vacations were mostly within driving distance, like a Disney cruise out of Port Canaveral or week in WDW. In 2012 ABD announced they were adding Scotland to their list of itineraries and the concept was based on the movie Brave. Merida, is my favorite princess. I just adore her character. I had also been dying to visit Scotland, since I am a huge fan of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and felt like I had already been there through her books. So now I am REALLY dying to do this Scotland ABD and excitedly told DH about it, who flatly said it ins't in the budget. My personality is not the type that simply accepts the answer "no" very well. I'm more inclined to think I worded the question incorrectly So, I said to DH, "If I can figure out how to pay for this Adventures by Disney trip to Scotland, including the airfare, are you in?" He said yes. It took me 3 days to figure out how to pay for it. We don't carry balances on credit cards so that was never an option. Along the way I stumbled on to travel hacking as a means to pay for the airfare. Little did I know, my entire life was about to change.

Awesome, love it. Mr. calypso is a lucky dude.

 

[kmc8826]

My husband and I went on a trip to Scotland/Ireland in 2006 just before got pregnant with my oldest. Also huge Outlander fan! Since then we went to Iceland for a short trip (awesome package deal with Icelandair) but now that our girls are getting older and thanks to this thread/figuring out the hacking angle I am excited to start finding trips more exotic than WDW. Maybe I better start lurking on the Adventures by Disney thread...

 

[Alice Sr.]

Curious, besides me and calypso, did u guys started signing up for credit card after reading this thread? haha. I started reading reddit's churning and learned most of it there.

what about u @calypso726 ? I'm curious how u started. I asked cuz of the recent explaination to my friend and how much she go into it. lol

Yes, I did. My first post on this thread was 9/5, I had 2 cc's that I had for years (BoA and Cap1). I applied for CSR the next day. I have only used it once (the points that is) for a trip home on Thanksgiving. Lansing, MI to Moline, IL for 17k points through the Chase portal. I have 140k CSR points so far and just got the SW plus and premier so as soon as I satisfy the spend this month I will have 125k points. To be followed by United 70k and hopefully Ink 100k (or United 50k if not approved for Ink). I have started to use and realize the compounding affect of the shopping portals, which is almost as addicting as chasing (no pun intended) the bonus'. My family thinks I am a nutball with this stuff but they are not complaining about free trips. I am so thankful that I stumbled across this thread, it is just as fascinating to me now as when I first started reading in Sept. As if this wasn't enough, my credit score has gone up like 50-60 points since Sept.

 

[Kbmas0n]

@Albort Travel hacking began for us back in 2012. Adventures by Disney had always been a bucket list item but we simply couldn't get past the sticker shock which doesn't even include airfare to/from the destinations. So it was always a "some day" sort of thing while I lurked on the ABD forum here on the DIS. Our vacations were mostly within driving distance, like a Disney cruise out of Port Canaveral or week in WDW. In 2012 ABD announced they were adding Scotland to their list of itineraries and the concept was based on the movie Brave. Merida, is my favorite princess. I just adore her character. I had also been dying to visit Scotland, since I am a huge fan of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and felt like I had already been there through her books. So now I am REALLY dying to do this Scotland ABD and excitedly told DH about it, who flatly said it ins't in the budget. My personality is not the type that simply accepts the answer "no" very well. I'm more inclined to think I worded the question incorrectly So, I said to DH, "If I can figure out how to pay for this Adventures by Disney trip to Scotland, including the airfare, are you in?" He said yes. It took me 3 days to figure out how to pay for it. We don't carry balances on credit cards so that was never an option. Along the way I stumbled on to travel hacking as a means to pay for the airfare. Little did I know, my entire life was about to change.

I love this narrative! I just wish I understood how the actual ABD Was paid for-the airfare I get and pre-post hotel I get. Even some expenses. But even paying with Disney giftcards essentially means paying Out of pocket, right? You generate 5x points from the purchase of the giftcards, but you are still paying then upfront cost of the cards. RIGHT?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Curious, besides me and calypso, did u guys started signing up for credit card after reading this thread? haha. I started reading reddit's churning and learned most of it there.

what about u @calypso726 ? I'm curious how u started. I asked cuz of the recent explaination to my friend and how much she go into it. lol

I got an AA card in 2014 to help with airfare & not paying for luggage on our first trip to WDW. Then in late 2015 I got CSP but we were remodeling our kitchen so I used the bonus points as cashback for our new cabinets. We accumulated some points paying for the remodel & then I grabbed SPG Amex and paid for a trip to WDW. After that I stumbled on The Points Guy and I was hooked, though in a relatively small way. I am on & off disboards when I'm planning a trip to Disney. I discovered this thread when planning for our recent Disneyland trip (we returned a week ago)

I think I'll hang out here awhile. I like the company.

 

[calypso726]

I love this narrative! I just wish I understood how the actual ABD Was paid for-the airfare I get and pre-post hotel I get. Even some expenses. But even paying with Disney giftcards essentially means paying Out of pocket, right? You generate 5x points from the purchase of the giftcards, but you are still paying then upfront cost of the cards. RIGHT?

Ah, I see what you mean. It was the issue of how to cover airfare that led to travel hacking. In about 6 months we were able to accumulate 750,000 points and miles through credit card sign up bonuses, shopping portals, dining rewards network etc. DH was shocked when I told him we'd be flying in first. That wasn't the original plan. But racking up the miles was easy so I figured, why the heck not.

As for the ABD, no that wasn't travel hacking. But I'll share how we managed it that first time. We had budgeted for a week to WDW and a long weekend for the D23 convention with a couple of days in DLR that year. We cancelled those plans and put the money towards the ABD. Chase had an offer to open a checking account with no fees and get a $200 bonus for maintaining a direct deposit or parking $1500 in the account. I gave myself a pay cut from my real job, direct deposited to the new Chase checking account and put that towards the ABD. DH opened up one too and parked the vacation money we had set aside for the trips we had just canceleld in the new account. I held a garage sale and put that money towards the ABD. I used to show and breed champion Golden retrievers, and was still grooming and pet sitting on occasion for some of the grandpuppies. I decided to add any and all money from that side gig that towards the ABD and I picked up another couple of grooming clients. I rented out some of our DVC points and put the cash towards the ABD. I still maintain that pay cut and Chase checking account which help fund the vacation budget.

 

[ski_mom]

Curious, besides me and calypso, did u guys started signing up for credit card after reading this thread? haha. I started reading reddit's churning and learned most of it there.

what about u @calypso726 ? I'm curious how u started. I asked cuz of the recent explaination to my friend and how much she go into it. lol

The first credit card I got was the Southwest RR card about 8 years ago when we flew to Disney. I saw an advertisement for it in the airport, so I knew it wouldn't do me any good for that trip, but I applied while we were staying in bonnet Creek that week. After we got those points, I stumbled upon Million Miles Secrets and learned the idea of DH getting a card too to double up on our points. Then I learned about closing the card and reopening again in each of our names.

We each opened the Southwest cards twice and enjoyed trips we wouldn't have been able to do with a family of 5 since we could fly anywhere now (anywhere that southwest flies). Next was the Bank of America Alaska Airlines cards that we opened to be able to get the companion passes to help save on Hawaii flights. By this time, I knew that there were ways we could do better, but we were going with my mom and sister and I didn't want to make it too complicated or make it so that we had any problems getting 9 tickets together. So, DH, my mom, my sister and myself all applied for the card and got 4 of our 9 flights for $100.

Finally after all that, I decided to start learning more about other cards. Everyone called the Chase cards the "trifecta", so I started with those and have been building off of those now for awhile, but am closer to branching out again, I just haven't decided exactly sure how yet. Still reading and thinking about what will work best for us.

Definitely enjoying this great thread!

 

[wendow]

Curious, besides me and calypso, did u guys started signing up for credit card after reading this thread? haha. I started reading reddit's churning and learned most of it there.

what about u @calypso726 ? I'm curious how u started. I asked cuz of the recent explaination to my friend and how much she go into it. lol

My dh & I started churning SWA cc's (plus and premier) several years ago. We are a family of 6 and have never paid for more than two flights when traveling to Disney (annual trip) since we began with the SWA cards. It wasn't until I began reading on this thread that I began learning what else we could be doing for earning travel money. And here I sit tonight studying my credit report and seeing I am now at 4/24. Once the min spend on my dh's CSR is met, I need to see where I go next. Such an exciting life I lead!!

 

[Alice Sr.]

I have a question about shopping through the portals (United and SW) if anyone has experience with also using ebates. I am shopping through the United portal on Lord & Taylor, United is giving 10 (usually only 2) pnts per $1, and has a special if you spend $350 you get 1000 bonus points, plus L&T has 30% off for their Friends and Family sale, I'm also getting the ebates popup but there is a popup from United when going to L&T that says "Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site. Not eligible on gift cards, gift certificates or any other similar cash equivalents." I take this as the Friends and Family discount is acceptable but think the ebates is not and worried it would negate the United specials. The ebates was an additional 4 or 6%.

 

[Kbmas0n]

Ah, I see what you mean. It was the issue of how to cover airfare that led to travel hacking. In about 6 months we were able to accumulate 750,000 points and miles through credit card sign up bonuses, shopping portals, dining rewards network etc. DH was shocked when I told him we'd be flying in first. That wasn't the original plan. But racking up the miles was easy so I figured, why the heck not.

As for the ABD, no that wasn't travel hacking. But I'll share how we managed it that first time. We had budgeted for a week to WDW and a long weekend for the D23 convention with a couple of days in DLR that year. We cancelled those plans and put the money towards the ABD. Chase had an offer to open a checking account with no fees and get a $200 bonus for maintaining a direct deposit or parking $1500 in the account. I gave myself a pay cut from my real job, direct deposited to the new Chase checking account and put that towards the ABD. DH opened up one too and parked the vacation money we had set aside for the trips we had just canceleld in the new account. I held a garage sale and put that money towards the ABD. I used to show and breed champion Golden retrievers, and was still grooming and pet sitting on occasion for some of the grandpuppies. I decided to add any and all money from that side gig that towards the ABD and I picked up another couple of grooming clients. I rented out some of our DVC points and put the cash towards the ABD. I still maintain that pay cut and Chase checking account which help fund the vacation budget.

Thank you! I appreciate the info. I thought I was missing something!

After our first trip to Disney world where we went on a total shoestring budget, we decided to set aside money each month so we could do a blowout WDW trip when we had another rugrat to take along. We opened up an ING online savings account and auto deposit money each month. So we do have money already set aside...but I am hoping to use CC miles/points to make that money go farther.

I am THRILLED that we will fly for free and even more thrilled to have found this new hobby. It plays nicely to my obsessive planning, which is one reason why I love WDW so much!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I have a question about shopping through the portals (United and SW) if anyone has experience with also using ebates. I am shopping through the United portal on Lord & Taylor, United is giving 10 (usually only 2) pnts per $1, and has a special if you spend $350 you get 1000 bonus points, plus L&T has 30% off for their Friends and Family sale, I'm also getting the ebates popup but there is a popup from United when going to L&T that says "Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site. Not eligible on gift cards, gift certificates or any other similar cash equivalents." I take this as the Friends and Family discount is acceptable but think the ebates is not and worried it would negate the United specials. The ebates was an additional 4 or 6%.

You can't use two shopping portals at the same time. If you activate eBates, it will cancel out the United Portal. The same holds true for United and SW, etc. Either choose the one with the best return or the one that you need the points from the most. I check between eBates, Chase shopping and Swagbucks to determine which is the best offer. For example, I recently booked a Marriott hotel for work and it was giving 16% back through Swagbucks, that was by far the best deal.

 

[Psychodisney]

I have a question about shopping through the portals (United and SW) if anyone has experience with also using ebates. I am shopping through the United portal on Lord & Taylor, United is giving 10 (usually only 2) pnts per $1, and has a special if you spend $350 you get 1000 bonus points, plus L&T has 30% off for their Friends and Family sale, I'm also getting the ebates popup but there is a popup from United when going to L&T that says "Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site. Not eligible on gift cards, gift certificates or any other similar cash equivalents." I take this as the Friends and Family discount is acceptable but think the ebates is not and worried it would negate the United specials. The ebates was an additional 4 or 6%.

I looked on SW and the FF coupon is on the SW shopping site, so it should be eligible. I guess you'd need to do the math on if it's worth it to get the United bonus points vs. the straight up cash discount. For me, I'd take the 30% and the SW points.
I also like to check the cashbackmonitor site to see who gives the most points for my purchase.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Since I travel for work a lot and get to pay with a personal card, a few years ago I started to get interested in maximizing any personal rewards that I could earn. I got really into the SPG rewards program and the Delta miles, since those were the main ways that I would travel for work. I have used these programs to fund large parts of our honeymoon, trips to WDW and DL. I also was very into churning for Disney gift cards (mostly using eBay and Target) and paid for huge chunks of previous trips through this method (plus I have some 5 and 7 days hoppers just waiting for future trips that were paid with GCs).

But once the easy GC churning ended, I realized that I needed to find another way to help maximize our trips. I read about the CSR and decided that this was the perfect card for work travel because I would likely always travel enough to at least break even on the annual fee. Plus it was easy to hit the minimum spend with the big medical bills that I had in November and January. This card really allowed us to take our upcoming Norway cruise and will make the Venice cruise next year much easier as well. Now that I see the opportunity in these cards, I am very focused on achieving certain travel goals and maximizing our trips.

 

[Alice Sr.]

You can't use two shopping portals at the same time. If you activate eBates, it will cancel out the United Portal. The same holds true for United and SW, etc. Either choose the one with the best return or the one that you need the points from the most. I check between eBates, Chase shopping and Swagbucks to determine which is the best offer. For example, I recently booked a Marriott hotel for work and it was giving 16% back through Swagbucks, that was by far the best deal.

That's what I suspected, so I did not activate ebates, thanks for confirming. I will keep Swagbucks in mind, I did use that portal when I booked by DD's honeymoon flight to Aulani last year. Under the category of you snooze you lose. I was concerned too much time had elapsed on the L&T order so I deleted the items from the cart and went back in through the United portal, in the meantime they reduced the points from 10 back to 3, wah, wah.

 

[Alice Sr.]

I looked on SW and the FF coupon is on the SW shopping site, so it should be eligible. I guess you'd need to do the math on if it's worth it to get the United bonus points vs. the straight up cash discount. For me, I'd take the 30% and the SW points.
I also like to check the cashbackmonitor site to see who gives the most points for my purchase.

Sorry for the confusion, just to clarify, the United portal did allow the FF code so I did get the discount and points. But I was getting a popup from ebates and wondered if it was possible to, in essence, triple dip. Jen confirmed that is not possible. I will check out cashbackmonitor, thanks for that source.

 

[WVMomof3]

I think I need to quit reading this thread. lol I have a $2000 spend coming in the next few weeks and I feel like I need to get a new card. My husband in the last year got the CSP (4/16) and the CSR (11/16). Just downgraded the CSP to the Freedom Unlimited this week. I am a AU on CSP (4/16) and Just got both SW cards (1/17) and (3/17). Should I get a new card? I keep looking at the Marriott, but it seems like the points don't go very far when booking hotels, maybe I am looking at it wrong. Maybe I should get the CSP myself or the CSR? We have a trip out west at the beginning of June that I have booked all hotels either with points or cash. But 3 of those nights were prepay, so will have no "travel" expenses coming up with this trip that is not already taken care of. Well, I guess 1 hotel night ($150) and airport parking ($100).

I did start this after reading this thread, I have read and reread and still not 100% sure on which way to go. My husband was not happy with the opening of all the cards recently, but he is excited to see how much I have saved us for our upcoming trip. Have no other trips in the plans, but would love to go to Europe next year.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

You can't use two shopping portals at the same time. If you activate eBates, it will cancel out the United Portal. The same holds true for United and SW, etc. Either choose the one with the best return or the one that you need the points from the most. I check between eBates, Chase shopping and Swagbucks to determine which is the best offer. For example, I recently booked a Marriott hotel for work and it was giving 16% back through Swagbucks, that was by far the best deal.

So if you book Marriott thru ebates or swagbucks, it still counts for Marriott points, right?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I think I need to quit reading this thread. lol I have a $2000 spend coming in the next few weeks and I feel like I need to get a new card. My husband in the last year got the CSP (4/16) and the CSR (11/16). Just downgraded the CSP to the Freedom Unlimited this week. I am a AU on CSP (4/16) and Just got both SW cards (1/17) and (3/17). Should I get a new card? I keep looking at the Marriott, but it seems like the points don't go very far when booking hotels, maybe I am looking at it wrong. Maybe I should get the CSP myself or the CSR? We have a trip out west at the beginning of June that I have booked all hotels either with points or cash. But 3 of those nights were prepay, so will have no "travel" expenses coming up with this trip that is not already taken care of. Well, I guess 1 hotel night ($150) and airport parking ($100).

I did start this after reading this thread, I have read and reread and still not 100% sure on which way to go. My husband was not happy with the opening of all the cards recently, but he is excited to see how much I have saved us for our upcoming trip. Have no other trips in the plans, but would love to go to Europe next year.

I am also not excited about Marriott redemption but got the card recently anyway to transfer points to SPG mostly. Marriott seems to take a lot of points but we already had SPG card. I like the SPG but you just missed the big bonus. Marriott is 100k points for 5k spend right now.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

So if you book Marriott thru ebates or swagbucks, it still counts for Marriott points, right?

I would assume yes. I haven't actually stayed at Marriott using the portal, but I have always gotten SPG points when I book through a portal. The last SPG stay that I had was in Arlington, VA. I got 2% cash back from eBates for that stay, plus 2570 SPG points for a 2 night stay. I also got 360 SPG points from my Delta crossover rewards bonus and 820 Delta miles.