I love credit cards so much!

[amalone1013]

Hmmm, oddly I booked over the phone with SPG, so I would consider that directly with Swan, and the confirmation number doesn’t work. I’ll try calling Disney first and then SPG to figure out why it won’t link.

And thank you for the help on the tickets. I mostly was worried about flagging a business account for moving points. I know it’s allowed but I wanted to double check if it was kinda taboo. I figured if it wasn’t needed (like I needed to combine just to buy one hotel reservation for instance), then I’d let it slide.

Now on to figure out what card to get next. We have a fairly large kitchen/first floor remodel starting soon so lots of materials to purchase!

That is odd! Those on the swan/dolphin thread on the resort board mighat have an idea if you run into trouble. Are you using CSR or CSP? If CSR id transfer to use less points. I actually used DHs CIP bonus to buy our tickets. I moved them to his CSR, which I can only get to work by moving them to my CSR then to his. Then I moved them BACK to mine to buy them since I was calling. No issues yet

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Applied for the CSR this morning ....with a referral link of course and was instantly approved for a crazy high credit line...was not expecting instant approval or the high credit limit since my CIP application went pending and the credit line issued was 1/4 of the CSR line....going to reduce the CSR before the first statement closes..

Thanks to everyone here for all the great info and advice as I make my way slowly lol... towards our 2 year plan collecting UR points

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Applied for the CSR this morning ....with a referral link of course and was instantly approved for a crazy high credit line...going to reduce that before the first statement closes..
Thanks to everyone here for all the great info and advice as I make my way slowly lol... towards our 2 year plan collecting UR points

Awesome - congrats! I can’t remember but are you going for a double dip??

 

[speedyfishy]

Back from my weekend in Disney. I really love that this hobby allows us to take short weekend trips. I really enjoyed showing my sister Disney. We had a lot of fun. So glad we didn’t do the after hours event though because she was exhausted Saturday night and complained of sore feet.

Also, we were there for two days and spent $310 on food. Idk how a lot of you spend so little. lol I think we eat too much lol. We did two table service meals because my sister enjoyed resting and that’s what SO and I prefer anyway. We would have probably been better off just doing the deluxe dining plan for an extra $20 and getting an extra table service meal. Plus we only shared desserts and got one appetizer at each sit down meal. And we also just got water with our meals.

 

[kmc8826]

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.

The Delta cards have increased sign up bonuses right now. No statement credit but between gold/platinum offers personal/business that could be a chunk of skymiles. Delta has started doing flash sales for places (no published award chart) which can sometimes help if you are patient and watch for the deals.

 

[MrPTato]

Not sure what you're interested in but I would start at visitphilly.com Lots of info on there about the city. If it's your first time and you like history, definitely check out independence hall and liberty bell (both free but you can reserve tix to IH for a small fee). If you do the LB, get there early since the line gets long quickly. Do you like Benjamin Franklin? On Market street a few block from independence hall, you can visit the first post office (He started it!) and also where his house once stood. There is a small museum on the property about him that take an hour or so to do. There is a great ice cream place (Franklin fountain) a few more blocks down Market. If you're into museums, we have one for whatever you're interested in, I swear! Franklin Institute (since museum), Natural History museum, many art museums (Philly art you can run up the steps like Rocky!, Barnes foundation, Rodin musuem, etc etc etc). The PhillyZoo is the first zoo, you can wander around center city and see the famous LOVE statue, South street still has a fun, unique vibe with lots of shops/restaurants/bars, the riverfront (Penns landing) has been overhauled to have more things to do, and from there you can take a ferry across the river to Camden where there is an aquarium, and also an old ship (I think an aircraft carrier?). Also, there are the traditional boat dinner rides up/down the Delaware.

Whatever you end up doing, have fun!! I love my city and I think it offers so much to do!

ETA: Not sure what your food budget is, but we have some awesome restaurants. My favorite are the Steven Starr restaurants. Amazing food and varied menus. A few to name arr Buddakan (asian fusion), El Vez (mexcan inspired), Parc (french inspired), and the Contintental (2 locations, amazing martinis!)

What are your interests? Historical spots it has in spades, museums, parks, theatres. If you can handle crowds the Reading Terminal Market has all kinds of food; but it's very popular and next to the convention center so every time I've been it's crowded, like wall to wall. Must have's food wise is the soft pretzel and a cheesesteak if you've never been before Otherwise it's been a while since we've eaten in the city so I'm not even sure if some of the places are still around or if they're as good as before. We only go down for dim sum now cuz that's the one place we haven't been able to find in the 'burbs

If it's the first full weekend of the month, and you have either credit or debit from BoA, they have free museum entrance. The art museum (the steps from the Rocky movies) and the Constitution Center are on the list. (https://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/what-guides-us/arts-and-culture/partners.html#fbid=cQMKcBNXIs2) If you have littles still the Please Touch Museum gets really good reviews (and does look fun), for all ages the Franklin Institute (as adults we still go!).

Even if you're not into historical stuff I think everyone should see the Liberty Bell at least once in their life. (yeah it's just a bell, with a crack no less , but it's The bell, ya know?)

Fairmount park is great for nature stuff, trails for walking or biking, plus it's near Boathouse row which is kind of iconic. I think they have a trolley tour or something for the mansions within the park and they have an outdoor concert space.

If you have a general area you planned to stay or particular interests and I can narrow it down. Good place to start looking is the HOHO bus routes, that pretty much hits a lot of the highlights. So even if you don't have the time for the HOHO it at least gives a list of popular attractions you can dive into. We could let you know what's worth it or if there's alternates, but helps to know what interests you about a city.

I've been to Philly 3 times as a tourist (well, always with something else going on like last time DH had a business trip and I tagged along, once was on a college visit, etc.) so I can give you the tourist perspective (bowing of course to those who live there). We have stayed at the Four Seasons (which is no longer a 4S), the Ritz Carleton, and the Aloft (which was really really inexpensive for the center city location).

Things I have seen off the top of my head:
Liberty Bell, Independence Hall
Revolutionary War Museum
Constitution Museum
Hop on Hop off Bus
Philadelphia Art Museum
Science Museum (ack can't remember the name now)
Reading Terminal Market
USS New Jersey (across the river in New Jersey) along with the aquarium next door.

There is so much to see and do there. It's a fun city and quite walkable as well. Have a fantastic trip!

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.

Thanks for all the info guys...should be a fun trip!

 

[havaneselover]

I may have missed this but since when can you only book airline tickets 270 days out on chase ur? I know last year I booked our vancouver tickets more than 300 days out.

 

[GZanta77]

https://www.hotelsbypoints.com/updated-marriott-starwood-map

found this on reddit. very very helpful.

Very helpful indeed - tho perhaps not completely accurate. I already found one hotel that is missing from the map.

Still - an incredibly useful tool.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Awesome - congrats! I can’t remember but are you going for a double dip??

As much as I’d love the additional 50,000 points...No Double dip...too afraid.....have had the SW CP for the last 4 years...and it saves us a lot ...so don't want to risk everything I have with Chase

How soon do,you,think will it be ok to have the credit line reduced ?

 

[Judique]

At Costco this weekend the checker asked if we were paying with our Costco card and when we said yes he proceeded to hold it up to the terminal and the payment processed!! CONTACTLESS CC PAYMENTS HAVE COME TO AMERICA! I am embarrassingly excited but y’all might understand

We have that also and on the gas terminals outside. Great for me as I usually have to put on readers to figure out which side to insert.

 

[disneybirds]

Yeah - CIP should NOT show on your personal credit report.

No worries - you're not the first to "freak" over that. It's weird at first but when you think about it - this standard mailer goes out to all kinds of people, with different bonuses potentially. Glad you're all set!!

Working on our long term strategy and just wanted to offer a DP. We went into a branch during the 100K CIP and my DH was approved. I just checked on Credit Sesame and Chase did a hard pull for that app in May. Do you think it was because we went into the branch? This was his first Chase card so not sure if that was the reason. We have a real business with a tax id. Just frustrating that there was a hard pull for a business account. He also got a new car in June, so he went from 0/24 to 2/24 in a month's time. Losing two slots doesn't really help with the strategy!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Working on our long term strategy and just wanted to offer a DP. We went into a branch during the 100K CIP and my DH was approved. I just checked on Credit Sesame and Chase did a hard pull for that app in May. Do you think it was because we went into the branch? This was his first Chase card so not sure if that was the reason. We have a real business with a tax id. Just frustrating that there was a hard pull for a business account. He also got a new car in June, so he went from 0/24 to 2/24 in a month's time. Losing two slots doesn't really help with the strategy!

I’m pretty sure a hard pull isn’t the same as the CIP using a 0/24 slot....I don’t see the CIP on my personal credit reports

 

[Lain]

Working on our long term strategy and just wanted to offer a DP. We went into a branch during the 100K CIP and my DH was approved. I just checked on Credit Sesame and Chase did a hard pull for that app in May. Do you think it was because we went into the branch? This was his first Chase card so not sure if that was the reason. We have a real business with a tax id. Just frustrating that there was a hard pull for a business account. He also got a new car in June, so he went from 0/24 to 2/24 in a month's time. Losing two slots doesn't really help with the strategy!

Chase will make a hard inquiry of your credit report(s) for both personal and business applications, whether you apply in-branch, on the phone, or online. However, the CIP will not be reported as a new credit card account on the personal credit report. The car loan will show up on the credit report, but will not count against 5/24 for new credit card accounts.

Hard pulls (inquiries) and new accounts reported are two different things.

 

[miztressuz]

Applied for the CSR this morning ....with a referral link of course and was instantly approved for a crazy high credit line...was not expecting instant approval or the high credit limit since my CIP application went pending and the credit line issued was 1/4 of the CSR line....going to reduce the CSR before the first statement closes..

Thanks to everyone here for all the great info and advice as I make my way slowly lol... towards our 2 year plan collecting UR points

Congratulations !

 

[jhoannam]

https://www.hotelsbypoints.com/updated-marriott-starwood-map

found this on reddit. very very helpful.

I love this new map... Very helpful.

 

[1st*toright]

Applied for the CSR this morning ....with a referral link of course and was instantly approved for a crazy high credit line...was not expecting instant approval or the high credit limit since my CIP application went pending and the credit line issued was 1/4 of the CSR line....going to reduce the CSR before the first statement closes..

Thanks to everyone here for all the great info and advice as I make my way slowly lol... towards our 2 year plan collecting UR points

My DH's CIP credit line was WAY lower than any of the personal cards we've gotten. Chase seems to offer much lower biz credit lines than personal - OK with me (I generally reduce the crazy high personal credit lines too).

 

[1st*toright]

https://www.hotelsbypoints.com/updated-marriott-starwood-map

found this on reddit. very very helpful.

I'm in love
Super excited that this is available!

 

[WVMomof3]

I may have missed this, but did anyone notice what they did to SPG biz referrals? I believe it was 7500 per referral up to 55,000 per year. Which seemed odd to me they would not do even number - you could get 7.3 referrals. Now it says 20,000 per referral which makes sense, they upped it 3 times but it still say up to 55,000 points. That stinks. Is that right?

 

[tink1970]

I may have missed this, but did anyone notice what they did to SPG biz referrals? I believe it was 7500 per referral up to 55,000 per year. Which seemed odd to me they would not do even number - you could get 7.3 referrals. Now it says 20,000 per referral which makes sense, they upped it 3 times but it still say up to 55,000 points. That stinks. Is that right?

Likely...many of Amexes referral offers are similar. Basically on the third referral (if it's 20,000 per with a max of 55,000) you're shorted.

 

[hsmamato2]

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.

I think I do too..... I just read the writeup at Dischurners..... but not sure I can utilize this yet since my big MSR will be Amex Biz (5k) and my only recurring payment that's (sort of) big is my mortgage..... other than that I already pay everything with cc anyway