I love credit cards so much!

[GZanta77]

So, Starwood Lurker says this: Members should make every effort to book and attach these certificates prior to our programs becoming one to to maximize their usage.

That seems to imply go ahead and buy for maximum value of the cert. Or does he mean to actually book the hotel with it?

By 'attach these certificates' he means book the hotel. I think I'm still going to roll the dice though.

 

[wendow]

Correct - you don't have to book a hotel by Aug 1. I bought the Cat 6 package in the knowledge that it was a bit of an unknown - but also knowing that I would not be unhappy with the 120k miles and whatever they give me in conversion for the certificate. If you can do the same, then I would say grab those SW miles - but if you are going to mourn the loss of your 270k marriott, then maybe not.

This is kind of what I told my dh last night...poor guy, he doesn't understand any of this nor does he care but I need to talk it out to help it make sense in my head so he's been getting to listen to all this ...I really want the SW points. Those are one of my fav points to collect. I just picked up the SPG cards for Swolphin but it wouldn't be the end of the world if that didn't work out. I don't think I'd mourn the loss of that at all.

 

[amalone1013]

This is kind of what I told my dh last night...poor guy, he doesn't understand any of this nor does he care but I need to talk it out to help it make sense in my head so he's been getting to listen to all this ...I really want the SW points. Those are one of my fav points to collect. I just picked up the SPG cards for Swolphin but it wouldn't be the end of the world if that didn't work out. I don't think I'd mourn the loss of that at all.

My DH is the same! But I like to talk things out too. That's why you guys get ramble-y posts from me

 

[amalone1013]

I just sold one of my gift cards... Paid $40 for $50 gift card, getting $39.22 for it, plus 5% Discover ($2), $2 from Top Cash Back, and $2.70 in gas. Woooo, $5.92 but it took about 5 minutes to sell, including finding it on the gift card display on my grocery run... That's sort of like $71 an hour, right

 

[DisneyMandC]

I just realized I'm officially a month away from my DL trip! It can't come soon enough! Plus I'll finally get to contribute my first hotel review to the review thread!

 

[miztressuz]

I think that's relative to the size of the university you go to and the program you're in. I got both of my bachelor degrees at Cal State schools and for both I had people that worked in the industry teaching classes. My hospitality law class was taught by a practicing hospitality lawyer. One of my PR classes was taught by the media relations person from the 49ers. Most of the teachers in my hospitality program, if they weren't working in the industry they had before and kept up with trends. On the flip side, the two summer classes I took at the local community college when I was home for summer were like going to high school again. No matter what school you go to you're only going to get out of it what you put into it.

Right, no question. Any school no matter how much or little can be great or meh, it's definitely what you make of it I do agree. At my campus of the university it was about 50/50 for teachers that had experience before teaching and those that had minimal outside interactions (or far removed from it). We also have some comm colleges, from what I've heard, that are just advanced high school classes. I went to a good one that had lots of good, big name colleges and universities willing to transfer credits for almost all classes. That seemed to be a good sign of the caliber of the curriculum, but is also not definitive. But if you're lucky enough to find one that's good I definitely recommend it; but not everyone has that opportunity and there's nothing wrong with that either. I got lucky and got a good education (that I've actually used in work and home and so far has not been incorrect ) for a minimal amount spent. I also went to a State U so for what I spent for my whole BS, I knew some people that spent that in a year.. and worse if they went ivy league it was a semester Looking back it could have turned out differently, but fortunately I shopped wisely.

OT, on the OT, but how'd you feel about the interview?

 

[wendow]

My DH is the same! But I like to talk things out too. That's why you guys get ramble-y posts from me

I'm more of a talker than writer lol...So, while I can put some of my thoughts on here, I really need to ramble in person. And boy can I ramble... I'm sure my dh is just replaying baseball highlights in his mind while I talk but I get some weird kind of clarity through that.

 

[wendow]

I just sold one of my gift cards... Paid $40 for $50 gift card, getting $39.22 for it, plus 5% Discover ($2), $2 from Top Cash Back, and $2.70 in gas. Woooo, $5.92 but it took about 5 minutes to sell, including finding it on the gift card display on my grocery run... That's sort of like $71 an hour, right

Who did you sell it through?

 

[vanjust14]

Thanks - first time @ PBH for us. We have done RPR 2x when the kids were younger - the extra space of PBH (and the lower cost) this time was a compelling factor.

I wanted to try PBH this time but my son wants the sushi at RPR really bad. Plus I think he just doesn't like change. The trip is for his college graduation so I'm letting him have his way, lol.

 

[vanjust14]

I'm more of a talker than writer lol...So, while I can put some of my thoughts on here, I really need to ramble in person. And boy can I ramble... I'm sure my dh is just replaying baseball highlights in his mind while I talk but I get some weird kind of clarity through that.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm more of a talker than writer lol...So, while I can put some of my thoughts on here, I really need to ramble in person. And boy can I ramble... I'm sure my dh is just replaying baseball highlights in his mind while I talk but I get some weird kind of clarity through that.

This is me at work. I'm the only one out of 30 people in my office that works in my practice area. I just show up in coworkers' doorways and word vomit about whatever I'm working on until it makes sense to me and then walk away. None of them understand any of it, but it helps

 

[amalone1013]

Who did you sell it through?

Cardpool

 

[striker1064]

Never realized there was a credit card thread on here, so I'll happily jump in and chat. Nothing much to contribute at this point though with the current Marriott speculation. I burned 66k SPG points on the Dolphin for this Oct - Nov 7 nights back in February before the Dolphin was re-categorized to the same as the Swan. It was only 10k per night, plus a fifth night free, and I did an upgrade adding the extra 1k per night.

It's amazing how much that property has jumped in such a short time.

 

[Alexle2007]

Thanks - first time @ PBH for us. We have done RPR 2x when the kids were younger - the extra space of PBH (and the lower cost) this time was a compelling factor.

PBH is our favorite hotel! My son loves the Pasta Cucina (aka AYCE) at Trattoria del Porto.

 

[wendow]

Never realized there was a credit card thread on here, so I'll happily jump in and chat. Nothing much to contribute at this point though with the current Marriott speculation. I burned 66k SPG points on the Dolphin for this Oct - Nov 7 nights back in February before the Dolphin was re-categorized to the same as the Swan. It was only 10k per night, plus a fifth night free, and I did an upgrade adding the extra 1k per night.

It's amazing how much that property has jumped in such a short time.

 

[amalone1013]

Fidelity deal is dead, if you're a busy slacker like me...

 

[striker1064]

Fidelity deal is dead, if you're a busy slacker like me...

I jumped on that one as soon as I saw it. Too easy to pass up. Even if I do have to leave the money in there for 9 months.

 

[liloca]

So it's not just me that thought that I have a good comm college. When I transferred out as a junior some folks in my major classes thought I was a TA because I had more experience/knowledge of the material than anyone else in class. Almost all the profs at the CC had real world experience so we did more in class than the curriculum required usually. It's not that anyone at the university was bad, there were good profs there too, but the ones at comm college were stellar at making sure the class knew why you wanted to learn this or that... so most people actually learned it. At the university it was a lot of academia and not quite the same enthusiasm. You had to have the drive to learn it yourself and sometimes do outside research to get the full effect of some classes.
For folks that have a good community college with good transfer partners, I always recommend starting there and transferring. That way you get your core requirements for cheap and a foundation in basics to understand the advanced classes later. And look for the CC sign! My comm college also took CC's with no fee, I'm just bummed I was a college student with no credit history so I didn't have any good rewards cards to charge it to. (But at least it helped me get credit.)

That is great to hear that others feel the same! We even had options of scholarships to a few schools around here after we graduated with our Associate degree!

 

[platamama]

Still mulling over the Nights & Flights....I originally opened the SPG cards for Swolphin. We like split stays so my plan was to get enough points for 2 rooms/5 nights and then we move to another resort. I don't like the increase in points and I most likely won't keep trying to earn Starriott points unless they just offer some easy ways to do so.

I really have no other plans to use the 124k SPG points I am sitting on. We need two rooms everywhere so I need to use them somewhere that I can use UR on the other room and it's not terribly $$ (Swolphin is pretty cheap on the UR site for when we typically go).

I could also really use the SW points. We never have enough of those since we need so many booking 6 people.

SO...I think it may make sense to buy a cat 6 package...then I have a 7-night cert that can be used at Swolphin, or any other cat 6 resort, without having to pay more later, right? I don't have to actually book anything by Aug 1, right?

Like others have said, I suspect a current Cat 6 hotel certificate will not become a new Cat 6 after Aug 1, but what that 7nt certificates becomes is anyone's guess until Marriott comes out and says. I would think if you're lucky it becomes a Cat 1-5 certificate and if unlucky a Cat 1-4 certificate in the new system, and then you'd need to pay more points to upgrade (if they still allow that). The current Cat 6 30K/nt points doesn't translate well into their new categories.

If you are looking for 5 nights at Swolphin, that will be 48K SPG per room (5th night free) if you book before 8/1, leaving you with 28K SPG (3x = 84K Marriott points). And then you can use 60K Marriott points to transfer for 25,000 Southwest RRs if you want. Just ball-parking and guessing $200/nt at Swolphin, I think that gets you $2000 in value in hotel rooms + ~$320 Southwest = $2320 value, and 24K leftover Marriott points. But if you can pay less with URs then that alters the math quite a bit, though URs are so much more flexible.

Alternatively, 124K SPG = 372K Marriott. If you get a Cat 1-5 travel package, you'd get 120K Southwest RR (which I estimate to be worth ~ $1540 in airfare; I take the points and divide by 78 to get a value for them), a 7nt 1-5 certificate with an unknown value at this point, and 102K Marriott points leftover. Those points would be good for TWO nights at Swolphin after 8/1, a value of ~$400? So, a total of $1940 in value plus whatever the 7nt hotel certificate is worth. If it's worth $380+ then it's at least break-even with the above scenario, if not then you're better off booking Swolphin before 8/1.

If you used 372K Marriott points strictly for transfers to Southwest RR, you'd get 150K RRs worth $1,923 and 12K leftover Marriott points.

I guess part of the question is, if you like split stays would you want to spend 7 nts at Swolphin? Plus you'd still have to pay for another room, right?

 

[StephPlum]

Even after I funded and had confirmation of the funding, it still shows I have another step and need to fund...!?! Will just let it sit for a few days and see what happens.

I just got the same thing. How did this work out? Did the transfer go through later or are you still waiting?