I love credit cards so much!

[tink1970]

However, I prefer to hedge my bets and would rather travel today and retire tomorrow than not travel and find that tomorrow never came. It has happened to a number of people I know. There's a balance and middle ground to be found between YOLO and early retirement. We found ours.

I totally agree! DH and I travel fairly frequently and every time we're in an overseas airport we tell ourselves (watching folks struggle with walkers, wheelchairs and overall looking exhausted) "this is why we want to get as much traveling in while we are able bodied and healthy." I'm not disparaging anyone who travels with infirmities or limitations by any means; I just don't want to travel that way myself. That said, I retired 6 years ago at 41 (if by retired meaning quit my well paying but stressful and soul sucking job and now mooch off of my husband ) and DH could retire tomorrow but will work through 2019 because he has to collect cases for his recertification boards. Even when I was a single working mother at said soul sucking job, I did use ALL of my vacation time to travel with DD because I value experiences not "stuff." Again, these are my values and priorities not anyone else's. I am extremely fortunate and well aware of that. I do plan on changing how I travel as I age...if I could bring the dogs on cruises, I'd probably live out my golden years on a ship My parents waited until retirement to do a lot of traveling and now their health doesn't allow them to do as much as they had hoped/wanted to.

My point is not the sad story

I'm sorry for your loss.

that while early retirement is great, enjoy life now while saving towards that retirement.

Well said!

 

[mefordis]

Not targeted.

It still may come up. Just login every day and see.

 

[afan]

From DoC Chase changing travel portal to Expedia. Said it's only rolled out to Freedom right now but I wonder if that's part of the issues today.

 

[powelweb]

SPG may have the best program with a ton of airline but its got a really bad earning power. You should see if UR works for u too.

It looks like the SPG has 6/2 points earn for earning power, but if there is a Chase offer that you think would be preferable for us to consider for a new application, please suggest away. We already have the regular Chase sapphire that we just ramped up our spending on this spring after having had. thanks.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Ha- just had some churning (well, sort of) interjected into my reading! I'm currently reading Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan and the main character, Rachel Chu, and her boyfriend are flying to Singapore in an A380 in Suites! I suspect they based it on @calypso726's flight.

 

[snugglebug]

From DoC Chase changing travel portal to Expedia. Said it's only rolled out to Freedom right now but I wonder if that's part of the issues today.

I was trying to transfer points between accounts last night and the entire UR portal was down. For a brief moment I feared the end of transferring points was upon us, but since I haven't read anything about that today I'm glad to see this may be the reason for the down time.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Yeah, if it’s still doing that when my dates are open for booking I will call. Are the Chase reps like travel agents? I’m open to either Delta or American (or any of their partners), whichever has the best price for the best flight times.

Kinda. (Maybe actually?) Cruise & Tours certainly seems to act like they are TAs, we know they have TA level booking privileges with Disney at least. I was once told by a rep at Chase there are 3 different groups for Chase Travel, the general travel line, the group specializing in airfare and the cruise/tour group. Call and work your way to the airfare group, much like cruise/tours they have access to another booking system that sees options you can’t see on the UR portal (like SW flights), I’m not saying they can access those far out flights for sure but I certainly think it’s worth a call to find out.

...However, I prefer to hedge my bets and would rather travel today and retire tomorrow than not travel and find that tomorrow never came. It has happened to a number of people I know. There's a balance and middle ground to be found between YOLO and early retirement. We found ours...

The balance is certainly hard to find, the YOLO part of me and the OMG SAVE ALL THE $$$$$ part of me are equally stubborn. But this hobby, which thankfully I love making it a true hobby, has made it so I don’t have to chose between traveling & saving up for the unknown future. Sometimes I question my choice to spend my bonus money instead of saving it all but the future is too unknown. I’m at a unique place in life where I have no kids, no SO, and a job that is mobile allowing me to travel whenever I want. I know this isn’t going to last forever! I max my retirement, max my HSA, have my emergency fund and have like “general” savings- but beyond that I want experiences because I do not know what tomorrow holds. To each their own!

 

[Albort]

It looks like the SPG has 6/2 points earn for earning power, but if there is a Chase offer that you think would be preferable for us to consider for a new application, please suggest away. We already have the regular Chase sapphire that we just ramped up our spending on this spring after having had. thanks.

I suggest chasing after all the UR cards... ie Chase Sapphire, Chase Freedom, Chase Ink. Those cards can earn quicker, u can redeem for things quicker...

Ha- just had some churning (well, sort of) interjected into my reading! I'm currently reading Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan and the main character, Rachel Chu, and her boyfriend are flying to Singapore in an A380 in Suites! I suspect they based it on @calypso726's flight.

theres actually a way to fly those A380 suites for pretty cheap. like maybe $1500 one way. only hard product though.

 

[amalone1013]

Ha- just had some churning (well, sort of) interjected into my reading! I'm currently reading Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan and the main character, Rachel Chu, and her boyfriend are flying to Singapore in an A380 in Suites! I suspect they based it on @calypso726's flight.

How's the book?

 

[calypso726]

I totally agree! DH and I travel fairly frequently and every time we're in an overseas airport we tell ourselves (watching folks struggle with walkers, wheelchairs and overall looking exhausted) "this is why we want to get as much traveling in while we are able bodied and healthy." I'm not disparaging anyone who travels with infirmities or limitations by any means; I just don't want to travel that way myself. That said, I retired 6 years ago at 41 (if by retired meaning quit my well paying but stressful and soul sucking job and now mooch off of my husband ) and DH could retire tomorrow but will work through 2019 because he has to collect cases for his recertification boards. Even when I was a single working mother at said soul sucking job, I did use ALL of my vacation time to travel with DD because I value experiences not "stuff." Again, these are my values and priorities not anyone else's. I am extremely fortunate and well aware of that. I do plan on changing how I travel as I age...if I could bring the dogs on cruises, I'd probably live out my golden years on a ship My parents waited until retirement to do a lot of traveling and now their health doesn't allow them to do as much as they had hoped/wanted to.

Thinking of the future and what our health may may not look like is another reason we have chosen to focus mostly on international travel experiences now. We figure when we are older we can focus on more domestic travel than we do today. I can rely on most areas in the USA to be ADA friendly and if a serious medical emergency happens, at least we would be be in our country. This of course is assuming we don't decide to retire internationally after all. Still contemplating, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama as an expat some day.

theres actually a way to fly those A380 suites for pretty cheap. like maybe $1500 one way. only hard product though.

Wait. What? Really? Please do tell how and explain why hard product and not soft product. Thanking you in advance for whatever new thing I'm about to learn today

 

[Albort]

Wait. What? Really? Please do tell how and explain why hard product and not soft product. Thanking you in advance for whatever new thing I'm about to learn today

https://samchui.com/2018/08/09/norw...ign-first-class-suite-seat-aboard-hifly-a380/

TLR ~ Due to Norwegians 787's RR engine problems, Norwegian has rented a Hi Fly A380, which is an ex Singapore A380. Configurations is left alone. Pay for premium seat, use $400 at airport(first come first serve) to go to Suites. of course, u wont get the soft products...

 

[DisneyMandC]

How's the book?

Pretty good! I'm still really early on- she hasn't even met the parents yet. I'm a big asian literature fan though, so this is right up my alley.

Reminder that I have a pretty active Goodreads account in case anyone else does

 

[disneymagicgirl]

From DoC Chase changing travel portal to Expedia. Said it's only rolled out to Freedom right now but I wonder if that's part of the issues today.

maybe that will fix the disney resorts issue.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

maybe that will fix the disney resorts issue.

it fixed it!!!!!!

 

[calypso726]

https://samchui.com/2018/08/09/norw...ign-first-class-suite-seat-aboard-hifly-a380/

TLR ~ Due to Norwegians 787's RR engine problems, Norwegian has rented a Hi Fly A380, which is an ex Singapore A380. Configurations is left alone. Pay for premium seat, use $400 at airport(first come first serve) to go to Suites. of course, u wont get the soft products...

Ah, that makes sense. Yikes all the flights have had problems though. On second thought, I think I'll stick with paying $55 - $75 in taxes and fees plus a bunch of Krisflyer miles. I can live without the Dom but it would be kinda hard to give up the Krug champagne on board anyhow. That stuff is awesome!

 

[Alexle2007]

it fixed it!!!!!!

Hmmm...it doesn’t seem to be working for me. I was looking for 9/8-10 and none of the Disney hotels are coming up. Trying to decide if maybe we do WDW instead of SeaWorld/Aquatica.

 

[Alexle2007]

Ok, I have 3 options for WDW tickets for this unplanned trip to WDW on 8/20. 1. Use 2 of 4 1-day parkhoppers I won in a silent auction (they expire next year and were meant for a family day there) 2. Use my Disney GC and buy the 2 day PH but it doesn’t seem like you can do that online so I am still trying to figure out how that works 3. Use URs to purchase the 2-day PH.

I was leaning towards using the tickets I already have but I can’t decide if that is the best route.

 

[Ava]

So planning a quick trip to Philly for a weekend in September...driving from RI to meet friends coming up from WV. What things are there to see in Philly? Food?

Big question...thinking about Airbnb for the first time. I was going to signup but does anyone know if they have referral links that I could help someone out with here? I didn't see any over on our other reddit group.

We did a weekend in Philly last year. One thing we saw that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the US Mint. There’s a self-guided tour where you see actual coins being pressed. We thought it was really neat, and it’s free and not far from the Liberty Bell/Independence Hall area if I’m remembering right. We also went to the Please Touch Museum; our kids were 3 and 7 at the time and they both loved it. The 3-year-old more so, but the 7-year-old had fun too. The Alice in Wonderland area is hands down the coolest section of a children’s museum I’ve ever seen.

The UR portal is Chase's online travel agency. Please let us know the outcome if you run into that and call.

I will. I need to nail down our travel dates first, then figure out 330 days from there. I’m still getting used to committing to travel plans so far in advance. The farthest out I ever used to book was ~6-7months for WDW.

I am sure you know this but I am mentioning it for the newer folks and the lurkers so they understand the difference. You don't need to stick with the Chase transfer partners to pay with points. That is only when transferring points directly to the airline to secure an award booking. When paying with points in the UR portal, you can choose any airline's flight.

I did know that, but it’s good to mention for any newbies reading. I want to get to the point where I have enough miles in one airline program to book 4 tickets but so far paying for flights with UR points is what’s working for me. (And may continue to be what I do for international flights, since the taxes/fees on 4 tickets is often as much as buying another ticket!)

I need to look into Plastique, which was mentioned by so many posters. I just entered this game when I was looking for ways to trim the budget for our London/South Africa trip next July. I have a paltry 3600 Delta skymikes and 1675 AA miles. One points chart I saw shows a ticket to South Africa with AA miles in economy is 80,000 rt/240,000 in first class. I need 4 tickets! Those point #s are not even considering the 3 day stop over in London. I read that some airlines have fuel surcharges on top of the points. The AA card offer DH just got has a 60,000 miles bonus. Hmmmm. I may not be able to get all 4 tickets free but I could maybe get 1 or 2.

Flights in/out of London can have very high taxes/surcharges depending on the airline, so be aware of that when considering if its better to use miles, flexible points like UR/MR, or cash to pay for those flights. British Airways especially imposes very high fuel surcharges. I'm planning a trip to London for next August, and am going to use UR points to pay for our flights. I can get flights from JFK->LHR for ~$700/ticket in economy. AA Saver awards are 30K miles each way for economy so I'd need 240K miles, plus I'd have to pay ~$800 in taxes out of pocket. Paying ~$2,800 through the Chase Travel Portal will only cost me ~187K UR points using my Sapphire Reserve card, and that price includes all the taxes/fees so I'll pay nothing additional out of pocket. In this scenario, for me it's better to use UR points even if I had enough AA miles available.

 

[amalone1013]

Hmmm...it doesn’t seem to be working for me. I was looking for 9/8-10 and none of the Disney hotels are coming up. Trying to decide if maybe we do WDW instead of SeaWorld/Aquatica.

Same here. I still just see the Poly

 

[alryan]

So, I am over half way to my MSR on the CSP and am thinking about my next move. In the past I hadn't really considered the CP because we have 5 in our family, but am now considering doing it for both myself and DH. Other than that I am focusing on UR cards. Hard to believe when I found this thread a few months ago I said I wasn't interested in business cards, and now I think I've convinced DH to do a SW business. My question with that would be the 'business'. He does ref some basketball games and earns about $1000/year. I know about applying sole proprietor, name as business, and SSN as EIN. Any advice as to what categories would work for this 'business'? The only thing that seemed to fit was Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, Spectator Sports, and Sports Teams and Clubs.

Myself: 1/24
CSP: 6/18
Disney: over 2 years old

DH: 1/24
SW Plus: 4/18
CF and Disney: Over 2 years old

Here is my rough plan for the next 6 months or so
Myself:
CSP: 6/18
SW Biz: 10/18
SW Plus: 11/18
CIP: 4/19

DH:
SW Plus: 4/18
SW Biz: 8/18
CIP: 1/19

Of course this is assuming getting approved for business cards. I am also undecided on the double Sapphire dip for DH. Our normal spend is probably around $1500/month so am not sure about the $8000 MSR. But maybe I could time it and pay our taxes in December with it. I know there is a fee, but maybe would be worth it.

Thank you for all your help so far, any advice is appreciated!