I love credit cards so much!

[afan]

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

I think it went well. I had an exercise to do before the interview, stuff to write/create and then the interview. They had really good questions which I appreciate. None of the what's your strength, what's your weakness stuff. It was situations and how you would handle it, what you would bring to the role type of stuff. I go in on Tuesday for a clerical test. There were two people before me and I'm not sure how many after. I'd guess they are meeting with 5-6 which is more than I thought. I can't imagine it's just 3.

 

[wendow]

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

It went through about an hour later.

 

[wendow]

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?

Wow, thanks for all the math and scenarios worked out for me! My brain just shuts down trying to think it all through.

Yes, the 7-nights at one place is what I don't like. We only wanted 5 nights there and we do need two rooms.

Looking at your scenarios, I guess I could book the 5 nights before 8/1 for dates in 2019 and cross all my fingers and toes the dates work. We haven't figured out what we will do for 2019. I will have a full-time college kid so going in Sept isn't gonna work for us anymore

I assume if I book dates and it doesn't work, to move to different dates, I have to cancel and re-book?

Thank you again for helping me understand all this better. I appreciate it!!

 

[miztressuz]

I think it went well. I had an exercise to do before the interview, stuff to write/create and then the interview. They had really good questions which I appreciate. None of the what's your strength, what's your weakness stuff. It was situations and how you would handle it, what you would bring to the role type of stuff. I go in on Tuesday for a clerical test. There were two people before me and I'm not sure how many after. I'd guess they are meeting with 5-6 which is more than I thought. I can't imagine it's just 3.

Glad it went well. Interviews work both ways So it seems promising that they actually came prepared with what they wanted to see and asked engaging questions. Good luck on the rest and I'll keep my fingers crossed!

 

[miztressuz]

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

Wow, that was quicker than I thought. In the terms it looks like it started last week, so relatively new; thought we'd get a couple days out of it at least. Glad I didn't procrastinate like usual.

There wasn't an end date, maybe it comes back around after it cools off?

 

[tink1970]

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'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.

LOL! I'm driving DH, DD AND DM crazy trying to figure out how to get us to Europe next June (points? klm/af Amex deal with cash? something else?). I think even the dogs are tired of hearing me work through it...

And for anyone old enough to remember Airplane! (movie)...looks like I picked the wrong time to not have an MSR. Our a/c died today (yep, Florida in June almost July). So $8822 spent on my American Express Delta Platinum (I can hear the screams now). It's only 1 mile/$ BUT...it will put me over the MQD waiver threshold (again...status). It's the very very faint silver lining to sweating all weekend until the new unit is installed Monday. I have a feeling DH and I will be spending lots of time at the movies and in the pool!

 

[platamama]

"a busy slacker"

Sounds like an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp.

 

[miztressuz]

LOL! I'm driving DH, DD AND DM crazy trying to figure out how to get us to Europe next June (points? klm/af Amex deal with cash? something else?). I think even the dogs are tired of hearing me work through it...

And for anyone old enough to remember Airplane! (movie)...looks like I picked the wrong time to not have an MSR. Our a/c died today (yep, Florida in June almost July). So $8822 spent on my American Express Delta Platinum (I can hear the screams now). It's only 1 mile/$ BUT...it will put me over the MQD waiver threshold (again...status). It's the very very faint silver lining to sweating all weekend until the new unit is installed Monday. I have a feeling DH and I will be spending lots of time at the movies and in the pool!

Shirley you can't be serious? That sux heading into the heat. But as long as you don't have a drinking problem too it should be ok... although if you drink ice water that could be cooling and work to your advantage for the weekend!

 

[wendow]

Wow, that was quicker than I thought. In the terms it looks like it started last week, so relatively new; thought we'd get a couple days out of it at least. Glad I didn't procrastinate like usual.

There wasn't an end date, maybe it comes back around after it cools off?

Me too! I am the QUEEN of procrastination so it was completely not my norm to go ahead and open both the Fidelity accounts yesterday. Wow, I can't even believe I acted on it so quickly really!

 

[wendow]

LOL! I'm driving DH, DD AND DM crazy trying to figure out how to get us to Europe next June (points? klm/af Amex deal with cash? something else?). I think even the dogs are tired of hearing me work through it...

And for anyone old enough to remember Airplane! (movie)...looks like I picked the wrong time to not have an MSR. Our a/c died today (yep, Florida in June almost July). So $8822 spent on my American Express Delta Platinum (I can hear the screams now). It's only 1 mile/$ BUT...it will put me over the MQD waiver threshold (again...status). It's the very very faint silver lining to sweating all weekend until the new unit is installed Monday. I have a feeling DH and I will be spending lots of time at the movies and in the pool!

Can you hear me screaming all the way in CO?!? This is why you can never be without a MSR. I am at about 2 weeks without one and it's driving me crazy. My dh wants to buy some exercise thing that is like $300 and I told him he had to wait for the new CIC to arrive lol. He sent me the link again today and asked if I ordered it. Told him nope, waiting for new card. He was like 'oh yeah' and I'm sure rolling his eyes behind my back

 

[tink1970]

Shirley you can't be serious?

Sadly, I am...and please don't call me Shirley

 

[tink1970]

Can you hear me screaming all the way in CO?

I know, I was like 13,233 UR (CFU)? 13,233 MR (Amex Plat 50% bonus over $5000)? 8844 SPG at the "old" rate (ugh what WAS I thinking??!!)? Okay now I'm going to go beat my head against a wall. At least I'll get upgrades seats on DL for my bonehead move

 

[Ngwira]

Currently on the phone with Melissa at Cruise and Tour. Funny how I keep getting her without even asking. I saw room discounts released for our November stay and I decided to switch to Coronado Springs. I can get our first night discounted for $211 and the second night for $227 at the standard rate since we're traveling over a holiday weekend. I'm on hold right now while Melissa pulls up the rooms, but I should get about $89 back from my original booking at CBR. Never stayed at CSR so that will be nice! I know there is construction there, but it doesn't look as all consuming as the CBR construction does. I normally wouldn't want to stay at such a large resort, but since we'll be driving down and will have our car, I figure we can just park near our room and drive to TTC for MVMCP and to HS the next day. I booked our original trip before parking fees started, so we're squared away with that still even though I've changed my reservation twice now!

I need to PM you. We are at Port Orleans FQ for $180 a night-November 5-10.

 

[wendow]

I need to PM you. We are at Port Orleans FQ for $180 a night-November 5-10.

Is that a 'magical' deal?

 

[1st*toright]

I got my cat 1-5 nights and flights yesterday (the day before?) At the last minute I went with British Airways for the Avios instead of United - better redemption to visit family in Europe. So I'm just waiting for the Avios to show up so I can book my DH's trip to visit family next spring. I haven't attached the cert to the hotel he's planning to use, but it is holding steady at a Cat 4 in the new plan, so I figure the cert should be just as good after Aug 1 as it is now. And depending on other travel plans, it may make more sense to use the cert for a "peak" redemption and just pay points out of pocket for his trip to visit family, so I'm dithering about how to use the cert.

 

[Ngwira]

Is that a 'magical' deal?

Yeppers.

 

[Ngwira]

Is that a 'magical' deal?

Grand Floridian rate is $300 a night in August.

 

[Judique]

So you got the last one of the batch
Hubby's still hasn't arrived and he was approved last Wed. When I checked the USPS delivery email it doesn't look like it's arriving today either so I asked if he'd call about it. The rep told him there's been a large volume cards recently and they had a delay in manufacturing so it had only just been shipped yesterday (darn you churning community for hopping on this now, haha)
It was shipped priority mail so we may still get it tomorrow but they were nice and expedited one anyway that should come UPS in 1-2 days. So we'll probably get two... of the one card we don't plan to use very much. This is really a sock drawer card, we have one charge that will hit MSR and we only planned to do periodic charges to it just so it didn't look like a sock drawer card

On good news the 15 nights posted the other day. So at least a week after approval. (I forgot to obsessively check daily so I don't know the exact date) So we'll be converted to Gold on Aug 1 and then hit platinum in Dec when the anniversary nights from the personal card post. I checked the Starriott awards chart and there's many properties in Vancouver we can look at so I think we'll figure out how to stay there pre-cruise since this'll be the highest status benefits we'll have... I think.

I'm now happy I got mine in a few days early - thanks @Lain and anyone else who encouraged me!

I've got 3 cards and a few nights so 40 towards platinum. That's 10 nights I have no plans to spend at either brand. I may have to look at some ways to get my daughter to use my account since she's already platinum and then some. I may have to get creative.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Something like 530 days. I'm thinking November.

ETA: for clarification, you can book through December. I'm personally thinking of doing November. (this was the research I was doing all last night, haha)

hmmnnn isn't SWL opening 2019? So we could reserve Swolphin at the current rates and likely see SWL late next year...my gears are turning.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

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?

Sounds to me like "book your hotel certs now or forever hold your peace b/c you aren't going to be happy with the changes post aug 1."