I love credit cards so much!

[wendow]

She did!

(Wasn’t the old avatar in front of the Diamond Head sign?)

I don't know where they were...I just remembered the four of them with marathon numbers on (right??) but I didn't remember her in green (@pillow,what a great color on you, btw!!).

 

[jhoannam]

I actually was able to see the 35K on the returning flight. I must not have looked hard enough for the departing flight lol. I was backwards on the airports, too. I thought HND was closer to Disney and NRT closer to the city, but by train HND is actually closer to both. It would be nice if we could fly in and out of HND to save the hassle of trying to get used to two different airports. I think for the most part I understand how it works. I was a little confused by the difference between using UA vs UR, but I think I get it now. We basically will just need to see which one is cheaper when we are able to book tickets for our dates.

Is 35K a pretty good deal? It seems way cheaper, like you said, than the 80K. I'm not sure if I should be waiting for an even cheaper one or if I should try to book them when we have enough points. The problem is we just started our CIP so I hope the flights will still be available when we have enough UR to book.

I looks like there plenty of saver awards so you shouldn’t have problem booking them, specially if you do get the MPE card.
I’ve been stalking United award availability to Hawaii and there is always saver awards available, not so much on weekend but as long as jts ‘free’ I don’t mind flying during the week.

And I don’t you’ll find anything less than 35k points one way. That’s a great deal.

 

[SBWB48]

So trying to see if this is feasible since @disneymagicgirl reminded me with her SW dilemma that flights in the next few weeks qualify for double RR points, which has me thinking. For example, our flight into SNA from SFO is the cheapest it’s been since I originally booked. DH has the CP and I’m the CP. I have the CSR, DH doesn’t. Could I in theory, cancel the existing booking with RR, book the SW flight for DH with UR at 1.5 cpp, then readd myself as a companion? I can’t seem to find much researching this as far as whether I can add a CP to a flight booked with UR for someone else. If I could pull this off, then it’s a real win win to get the double RR AND have our flights be even cheaper redeeming them at a 1.5 cpp through Chase.

 

[snugglebug]

Travel day for me so while we're driving through what seems to be the middle of nowhere Missouri, I'll share my highlights.

Austin airport, absolutely no wait at TSA. The pre-check line was quite long though. Since we were running late due to construction traffic that was much appreciated. Also, I haven't been into a lot if airports, but we do have great food options.

Kansas City airport was pretty empty. Took longer than expected to get to rental car counters because you have to wait on a shuttle.

DP Alert: A perk of CSR is executive status with National, or maybe just Emerald club, I don' recall the details and can't easily check right now, but basically you book a standard car then you can choose any car in the aisle. I couldn't find any DPs in regards to booking with UR so I took a chance because we don't rent cars often and this was a good opportunity. I did finally find some this morning where people were not allowed status with points bookings. I booked full-size on UR site which by cars listed was equivalent to National's standard. If we didn' get to choose, I'd be fine. We had to stop at the counter, the reservation did not carry over to my National acct, but we did get to choose any car on the Emerald Aisle. We took a pretty new VW Atlas, a car I'm pretty interested in so it's nice to test it out.

 

[Budzooka]

So trying to see if this is feasible since @disneymagicgirl reminded me with her SW dilemma that flights in the next few weeks qualify for double RR points, which has me thinking. For example, our flight into SNA from SFO is the cheapest it’s been since I originally booked. DH has the CP and I’m the CP. I have the CSR, DH doesn’t. Could I in theory, cancel the existing booking with RR, book the SW flight for DH with UR at 1.5 cpp, then readd myself as a companion? I can’t seem to find much researching this as far as whether I can add a CP to a flight booked with UR for someone else. If I could pull this off, then it’s a real win win to get the double RR AND have our flights be even cheaper redeeming them at a 1.5 cpp through Chase.

My understanding is that the CP can be added to an existing reservation, regardless of how it is paid for. I haven't tried this exact scenario before, but think it would work.

 

[Ngwira]

We’re staying there in 3 weeks. I’ll take pics and do a review on the hotel thread. Really looking forward to it!

We’re at the Intercontinental Times Square next April for our spring break NYC trip to see “Hamilton”. We also used 15,000 Wyndham points to book The New Yorker - a Wyndham hotel.

 

[Budzooka]

I decided to call Chase back last night to push hard for more information on why they closed my CIP. I got the same song and dance, in that they don’t have any information other than it has been closed and I will receive a letter with an explanation. But closing an account is an action they don’t take lightly.

I told her that while maybe she didn’t have the information, someone there did, and I need to get to the bottom of this. I have an 800+ credit score with a 1% utilization of my open credit lines, and am very concerned this might be related to fraudulent activity because there is no reason for this to have happened.

She ended up providing me a fax number for the Executive Office so I can write a letter pleading my case. As hard as I tried, she would not provide me a phone number of someone I can talk to. She also confirmed again that my personal credit cards have not been closed, only the CIP.

I think I am going to hold off on faxing into the Executive Office until I receive the letter and have a better understanding of the reasoning why. I’m expecting it to be too many cards/inquiries opened recently, but it’s really not that many. I pulled an updated Experian report last night and I am at 1/12 (doesn’t include my Amex business cards thankfully), but have 8 hard inquiries in the last 12 months mostly due to me refinancing my student loans (3 hard pulls from that alone). I was declined by Chase twice earlier this year because I misunderstood that AU was included in the 5/24 count in February. I got those removed and then applied again in March only to be declined again because they included my Target card in the 5/24 count and wasn’t expecting that. I fell to 4/24 in April and applied for the CIP in May, being approved after talking to recon.

Maybe I didn’t space out enough time between applications and that is what caused this, but that seems extreme, particularly when I can easily explain. And maybe my call with recon put eyes onto my account that prompted a review. I just don’t understand why they approved me in the first place. Would seem like if this was a problem, it would have been a problem when I applied.

Anyways, I’ll provide an update when I have more information. I hope the letter gets here by tomorrow because we are leaving Friday for a week. My takeaway at this point is Chase is being super aggressive and I hope to get it reversed.

Tread lightly out there....this ain’t fun.

 

[amalone1013]

A few weeks ago DH and I were double checking account balances with YNAB, and he forgot about one of my Ally accounts. Originally I opened it and had a little direct deposited from each paycheck, which I was going to use for a surprise thing for him for our wedding... then they took that surprise option away so I just ended up with $600 in it. So after the wedding I told him about it, added it to YNAB, and put that money into our travel fund. But when we were checking he'd forgotten about it. I really only use it to send Paypal money there now, I don't DD to it anymore.

So a week or so ago he's joking to his parents about my secret account, and he was like what, you have 4 accounts? (checking/savings with Chase, then 2 Ally savings accts)... And I go, well 5 now... because I'd just opened the Discover acct

So last night I told him, hey I made $200. His response: by opening a bank account in my name? Not yet! That will be the next $200!

 

[amalone1013]

Just had a realization... thought I might have to wait until after DHs Discover account to do the Chase bonuses for him... but he'll get a check from his parents for the car, which will make it very easy to use it to open the Chase savings account, and that will be 75% of the required amount. Move the last little bit from our savings to hit that. Then since the car payments are on the cards via Plastiq, I'll have more than enough time to move money back and forth to trigger the Discover bonus before paying off the credit card bills. And don't worry, I'm not overextending us... we've got plenty in cash to cover both bonuses anyways. This way just requires less money transfers if I delay paying the cards until Discover is done

 

[littlestar]

I met the minimum spend on my new Hyatt card the end of May a few days before the statement closed. Does anyone know approximately when the 40,000 bonus points post for the sign up bonus? The 5,000 bonus points for adding my husband to the account have already posted.

 

[1st*toright]

I just applied for and was approved for CSR for DH. Someone suggested if I wanted to have a card, I should ask to have the mailing of the card expedited and odds are good I'll receive the expedited card and the regular mail card. Is that what I ask for? That the card be expedited? How soon do you recommend I do that and can I do it via message as DH is one that doesn't want to deal with this stuff. (I know some of you know the feeling.)

Congrats!

I'm not sure if anyone's called for the CSR, so far it seems to be coming within a few days anyway so not sure if anyone's called to expedite it. You could try SM but there could be a couple hours for a response.

I'm pretty sure that expediting the CSR is standard procedure- we didn't ask for it to be expedited, but it showed up via fedex the next day. The other half of the double dip (the CSP) showed up via regular mail in a few days.

 

[Haley R]

The Saver award is United's lowest "cost" mileage award, so 35k UA miles is as good as you'll get one way to or from Japan. You're not going to find a cheaper award seat than Saver, and Saver awards are capacity controlled so there's limited inventory per flight, then you'll be paying the standard award miles or cash. Your flights could get "cheaper" if the cash fare goes down, which will mean less points when booking through the Chase travel portal.

Okay that makes sense. Thanks! We will probably end up having to book through the Chase travel portal since we just started earning points.

 

[Haley R]

@Haley R There is a 3rd option if you do not want to to get the MPE. awardhacker doesnt show it for some unknown reason. But you can also transfer to Virgin Atlantic which i think requires 70k RT for ANA. This of course, may require you to find your flight to/from ANA destinations... so perhaps you can do a double trip or something. Go to Disneyland?

I don't think we would want to do a double trip because we will already be spending 16 days away from home and that is almost too long for me already. Thanks for another option, though!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I just applied for and was approved for CSR for DH. Someone suggested if I wanted to have a card, I should ask to have the mailing of the card expedited and odds are good I'll receive the expedited card and the regular mail card. Is that what I ask for? That the card be expedited? How soon do you recommend I do that and can I do it via message as DH is one that doesn't want to deal with this stuff. (I know some of you know the feeling.)

Not the CSR..but I had my CIP expedited and only received the card that way...didn’t receive another one regular mail

 

[Haley R]

I looks like there plenty of saver awards so you shouldn’t have problem booking them, specially if you do get the MPE card.
I’ve been stalking United award availability to Hawaii and there is always saver awards available, not so much on weekend but as long as jts ‘free’ I don’t mind flying during the week.

And I don’t you’ll find anything less than 35k points one way. That’s a great deal.

That's good to know that we might not have to worry about the availability. If it does happen that nothing is left we can always book through the Chase travel portal when we have enough points. Thanks!

 

[Lain]

Okay that makes sense. Thanks! We will probably end up having to book through the Chase travel portal since we just started earning points.

Don't foreclose your options so far in advance. See where you are in about six months. There's more award availability in economy than in business or first and you may still be able to book saver awards then.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

A few weeks ago DH and I were double checking account balances with YNAB, and he forgot about one of my Ally accounts. Originally I opened it and had a little direct deposited from each paycheck, which I was going to use for a surprise thing for him for our wedding... then they took that surprise option away so I just ended up with $600 in it. So after the wedding I told him about it, added it to YNAB, and put that money into our travel fund. But when we were checking he'd forgotten about it. I really only use it to send Paypal money there now, I don't DD to it anymore.

So a week or so ago he's joking to his parents about my secret account, and he was like what, you have 4 accounts? (checking/savings with Chase, then 2 Ally savings accts)... And I go, well 5 now... because I'd just opened the Discover acct

So last night I told him, hey I made $200. His response: by opening a bank account in my name? Not yet! That will be the next $200!

I opened the discover savings in DH's name yesterday. He walked through the room when I was setting it up and I said "I"ll need that security code you are about to get texted." He says, "I'm getting sick of this credit cards stuff all the time." "I replied that most of it in the last 2 weeks was you having fraud on your CSR followed by you leaving the new CSR in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere TN, none of which was my fault. Furthermore, I am not doing anything in regards to a credit card right now. I've moved onto something new. It is a savings account."

I am pretty sure he thinks I am nuts. I didn't explain why I was opening it (bonuses) as I am trying to save money up from the bonuses for a nice 40th bday gift for him, that he doesn't have to "buy" himself since I don't work.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

My understanding is that the CP can be added to an existing reservation, regardless of how it is paid for. I haven't tried this exact scenario before, but think it would work.

I agree. You can book a flight for DH using your URs, no problem. Then add the conf number to his SW account and add the companion. Shouldn't be an issue. I was actually doing the same thing, but DH didn't get home early enough for me to call UR and book those SW flights Monday night, and by Tues morning they had gone up. So now I am debating whether to pay the increased rate or not. Delta is actually a better deal at this point, even with the CP, but has layovers. yuck.

 

[Albort]

I decided to call Chase back last night to push hard for more information on why they closed my CIP. I got the same song and dance, in that they don’t have any information other than it has been closed and I will receive a letter with an explanation. But closing an account is an action they don’t take lightly.

I told her that while maybe she didn’t have the information, someone there did, and I need to get to the bottom of this. I have an 800+ credit score with a 1% utilization of my open credit lines, and am very concerned this might be related to fraudulent activity because there is no reason for this to have happened.

She ended up providing me a fax number for the Executive Office so I can write a letter pleading my case. As hard as I tried, she would not provide me a phone number of someone I can talk to. She also confirmed again that my personal credit cards have not been closed, only the CIP.

I think I am going to hold off on faxing into the Executive Office until I receive the letter and have a better understanding of the reasoning why. I’m expecting it to be too many cards/inquiries opened recently, but it’s really not that many. I pulled an updated Experian report last night and I am at 1/12 (doesn’t include my Amex business cards thankfully), but have 8 hard inquiries in the last 12 months mostly due to me refinancing my student loans (3 hard pulls from that alone). I was declined by Chase twice earlier this year because I misunderstood that AU was included in the 5/24 count in February. I got those removed and then applied again in March only to be declined again because they included my Target card in the 5/24 count and wasn’t expecting that. I fell to 4/24 in April and applied for the CIP in May, being approved after talking to recon.

Maybe I didn’t space out enough time between applications and that is what caused this, but that seems extreme, particularly when I can easily explain. And maybe my call with recon put eyes onto my account that prompted a review. I just don’t understand why they approved me in the first place. Would seem like if this was a problem, it would have been a problem when I applied.

Anyways, I’ll provide an update when I have more information. I hope the letter gets here by tomorrow because we are leaving Friday for a week. My takeaway at this point is Chase is being super aggressive and I hope to get it reversed.

Tread lightly out there....this ain’t fun.

That cant be it. If that was it, you personal cards would also be closed as well. I know they also will tell you that reason if you called with a letter confirming it. Somehow this is only effected by the business side of your account which is why we dont know why you were shut down.

its something else IMO.

 

[Duck143]

I convinced my DH to get AP's for 2019-2020, so now I want to go 2x in May both years. I want to try to get free (or as discounted as I can) flights for the 4 of us for the 2020 flight. So it gives me a year and a half to earn enough points to buy the flights. Does anyone have any tricks or have the best credit card for travel points?