I love credit cards so much!

[brownhaired_girl]

View attachment 345597

Hello from the CIP, Marriott Biz, Hilton Biz, Aviator Biz, Citi AA Biz, and SPG Biz office. A reminder that it only takes a little imagination to get a business card.

I’ve been wondering how your show went.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sorry if this has been discussed but I can't go through 2200+ pages....

Has anyone ever booked a rental car using Chase UR points and had problems? I was saving all our points to do a trip to Europe but that has been put on the back burner for a while. Our family of 4 (ds21 & ds18) is taking a trip out West in Sept/Oct and while I currently have 2 rental car reservations booked through Costco, one for LAS and one for PHX, I just discovered that I can use points to book the car too. Not so much for seating room but mostly for luggage space, we booked a standard SUV. When I try to book it using UR, it just says 'standard car' on the details but it does state Hyundai Santa Fe or similar. I'm afraid we'll get to the airports and be given a hard time. A 'standard car' with Alamo is a Kia Soul. I don't even think a full size car or premium (Impala) would hold 4 full size suitcases. Not to mention, the SUV is a lot more points in cost than a car. Would you feel ok with this terminology?

Please share your experience or tips if you can. Thanks!

 

[JKalai]

Referred GF to the CSR through the app after the link on the website went down and the pending 10k just showed up as pending!

 

[DisneyMandC]

I’ve been wondering how your show went.

It went ok, thank you for asking! I really have no room to complain since we were finalists in all four of classes, and my horse showed like a million bucks for me. Unfortunately, it was very political and it became pretty clear who the winners were going to be regardless of actual talent. But I was still happy with my horse We did have the nice added bonus of coming home and finding out that we’re top 25 in the nation in our division, so that was great!

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Sorry if this has been discussed but I can't go through 2200+ pages....

Has anyone ever booked a rental car using Chase UR points and had problems? I was saving all our points to do a trip to Europe but that has been put on the back burner for a while. Our family of 4 (ds21 & ds18) is taking a trip out West in Sept/Oct and while I currently have 2 rental car reservations booked through Costco, one for LAS and one for PHX, I just discovered that I can use points to book the car too. Not so much for seating room but mostly for luggage space, we booked a standard SUV. When I try to book it using UR, it just says 'standard car' on the details but it does state Hyundai Santa Fe or similar. I'm afraid we'll get to the airports and be given a hard time. A 'standard car' with Alamo is a Kia Soul. I don't even think a full size car or premium (Impala) would hold 4 full size suitcases. Not to mention, the SUV is a lot more points in cost than a car. Would you feel ok with this terminology?

Please share your experience or tips if you can. Thanks!

I have used UR points for my last 2 car rentals. I have found this to be a good redemption for me. Someone else mentioned the insurance coverage with the CSR recently. My next rental I will use 17,500 UR and pay $13.75 with my CSR for my one week minivan rental. I’ll still watch to see if prices drop, but I haven’t seen better prices on the Alamo website than I was able to get through the UR portal. I was able to choose my car style.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

It went ok, thank you for asking! I really have no room to complain since we were finalists in all four of classes, and my horse showed like a million bucks for me. Unfortunately, it was very political and it became pretty clear who the winners were going to be regardless of actual talent. But I was still happy with my horse We did have the nice added bonus of coming home and finding out that we’re top 25 in the nation in our division, so that was great!

My daughter showed at the AQHA Congress and AQHA World Show in 2003/2004 She ended up 6th in Showmanship at the World show. We also noticed it was political. There were some competitors who seemed to get a pass when they made errors or it seemed as though the judges just didn’t want to see it. You either need too be able to deal with it or be done. Or you need to be so good they just can’t deny you. My daughter showed for a couple more years and then we built our barn and there wasn’t money to show. It’s a great feeling to know that you and your partner did a good job. Congratulations on your placing in the standings. You two will have a wonderful future.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Does anybody else like to obsessively check their point balances? I probably login to Chase, AMEX, Marriott, Southwest 2-3 times a day...

I know nothing is gonna change but it just makes me happy to visit my friends...my points, LOL!

It's gonna be super hard to part with 300,000+ URs when we book our Disney trip...but SO worth it to go for free, LOL!

 

[spacerangerqueen]

Booooo to your husband!

Also I find my small mortgage to be a powerhouse on a different way Hello more free cash and savings LOL!

Haha yes, love my small mortgage payment! Every time we contemplate moving we think about paying more and put it off haha.

My DH took a bit to come around, once I was able to start booking things on points he came around. Now he asks if we should be opening a new card when a big expense is coming So don't give up hope! One thing that helped my DH is I started tracking the redemption value of the points vs AFs paid. He's better if he sees it in front of him.

Hopefully he will come around...my husband is a reluctant P2....his initial concern was his credit score going down...since that hasn’t happened....he’s fine with me applying for cards in his name as long as he does not have to make any phone calls

I had DH sign up for one card in March and he did see that it didn't hurt his score so he was a little more open, but still not quite there.

I'm hoping our Disneyland trip in October helps convince him. So far I have used URs to pay for our flights, hotel, and transportation to/from airport. Total OOP is $126.04 and all that's left to pay for is dining and souvenirs (and I have discounted Disney gift cards for those!)

 

[PolyRob]

So I have been mostly lurking at the Marriott/Starwood posts since I do not have any of the cards and really don't stay at them a lot (really only for work). If a relative of mine has a SPG account number with no online account with 364 Starpoints in it, can I create an account, switch the name to me, and then link it to my Marriott account? I know it isn't much, but still something I could add to my Marriott points.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Haha yes, love my small mortgage payment! Every time we contemplate moving we think about paying more and put it off haha.





I had DH sign up for one card in March and he did see that it didn't hurt his score so he was a little more open, but still not quite there.

I'm hoping our Disneyland trip in October helps convince him. So far I have used URs to pay for our flights, hotel, and transportation to/from airport. Total OOP is $126.04 and all that's left to pay for is dining and souvenirs (and I have discounted Disney gift cards for those!)

Sounds like you have a great trip planned.....my husbands moto is if it’s free it’s for me....so he’s on board with me planning everything out and opening the cards...he just doesn’t want to do any of the work...lol...he’ll carry and use only one card

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Does anybody else like to obsessively check their point balances? I probably login to Chase, AMEX, Marriott, Southwest 2-3 times a day...

I know nothing is gonna change but it just makes me happy to visit my friends...my points, LOL!

It's gonna be super hard to part with 300,000+ URs when we book our Disney trip...but SO worth it to go for free, LOL!

Yes...I’ve been checking to see if my husbands CIP 80,000 points are showing pending since we met the spend...so far no luck

 

[spacerangerqueen]

Sounds like you have a great trip planned.....my husbands moto is if it’s free it’s for me....so he’s on board with me planning everything out and opening the cards...he just doesn’t want to do any of the work...lol...he’ll carry and use only one card

A good motto LOL
I think we can probably get to that point too. He's definitely a one card guy. I actually need to go take the Hilton Biz away from him and have him go back to the CSP for now.

 

[Gwmw1210]

I have used UR points for my last 2 car rentals. I have found this to be a good redemption for me. Someone else mentioned the insurance coverage with the CSR recently. My next rental I will use 17,500 UR and pay $13.75 with my CSR for my one week minivan rental. I’ll still watch to see if prices drop, but I haven’t seen better prices on the Alamo website than I was able to get through the UR portal. I was able to choose my car style.

I've also used UR points for car rentals and never had any problems at all. I've been able to choose my car style as well.

 

[KPK02090]

It's gonna be super hard to part with 300,000+ URs when we book our Disney trip...but SO worth it to go for free, LOL!

I’d love to hear the details of your trip. What are the URs going towards? Which hotel, what kinds of tickets, dining plan? As I plan our trip I love to hear what people can get for x amount of URs.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Does anybody else like to obsessively check their point balances? I probably login to Chase, AMEX, Marriott, Southwest 2-3 times a day...

I know nothing is gonna change but it just makes me happy to visit my friends...my points, LOL!

It's gonna be super hard to part with 300,000+ URs when we book our Disney trip...but SO worth it to go for free, LOL!

Ummm no???? I do obsessively check in here 3-4 times a day, but not points. But thank you for all you do to help others accumulate points and get free travel. I’m sure you will have an amazing trip and you have earned it.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I’d love to hear the details of your trip. What are the URs going towards? Which hotel, what kinds of tickets, dining plan? As I plan our trip I love to hear what people can get for x amount of URs.

What I’ve used my UR points on so far is a Christmas trip to Orlando December 19-24 to visit my son who lives there no parks this trip..we booked a 2 bedroom villa at Wyndham Disney Bonnet Creek for 87,496URs

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I’d love to hear the details of your trip. What are the URs going towards? Which hotel, what kinds of tickets, dining plan? As I plan our trip I love to hear what people can get for x amount of URs.

I just blew my stash on a cruise for Dec. The rate for our family was $8500. I put about 450k in URs towards it which is roughly $6700. The balance I just canceled another cruise we are no longer doing and put that deposit to pay off the dec cruise. We will fly free on SW points that I got from a marriott travel package (obtained from SPG cards). I have bank bonuses and have accumulated more URs to use towards pre/post hotel and park time. It is sad to look at our UR portals now, but hey, free cruise for a family of 6!

ETA: Even sweetening the deal further is that cruise was a special discounted, restricted fare. The original cost for our crew was $12,500....so we saved $4k off the top making the whole thing possible.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I’d love to hear the details of your trip. What are the URs going towards? Which hotel, what kinds of tickets, dining plan? As I plan our trip I love to hear what people can get for x amount of URs.

We are going to go on an 8 day, 7 night trip in late January. We have a family of 4; 2 adults and 2 children ages 5 and 8 at time of travel.

It will be a split stay:
4 Nights @ Disney's Boardwalk Resort in a Standard Room
3 Nights @ Disney's Contemporary Resort in a Theme Park View Room

We will not rent a car and will use DME and Disney Transportation (primarily we'll be walking to most parks).
- We will go to Epcot, HS, Epcot, HS the first 4 days. (walk or boat)
- We will take a bus to MK on our resort transfer day and then walk back to Contemporary that evening to checkin
- We will bus to AK and back on the 6th day
- We will walk to MK on day 7 and 8.

We are flying roundtrip nonstop on Southwest Airlines. 3 of the tickets are on SW RR points @ 18,399 each (55,197 SW RR points total). The 4th ticket is booked on a companion pass which I have through the end of 2019. The cash cost would have been $1,128. We do have to pay the $44.80 in Taxes/Fees on the flights but that will be covered with some misc CC cashback I earned so the flights in my accounting books is 100% free.

The rooms are rack rate $4,233 and my spreadsheet assumes we will get a 20% discount for a net cost of $3,386.40. Our tickets are $1,767.92. TOTAL Disney package cost will be $5,154.32 - requiring 343,621 URs (which we have). If the 20% discount doesn't come through it will require another 56k URs which we would have by the time I book it...but I'm pretty confident in getting some hotel savings.

Our dining and souven'ear budget is assumed to be about $1,400. That includes 7 table service meals and the rest quick service (with breakfast being cereal in our room each morning). I have the $1,400 fully covered with Disney Rewards dollars. I was very fortunate to max out fully referrals on 3 Disney credit cards via DoctorOfCredit and r/churning earlier this year when they released that new $200 offer. So the $1,400 is fully covered via those rewards.

So in total we are taking an $8,500 trip rack rate fully loaded. It will cost us nothing - FREE - and it's all thanks to this hobby! It's crazy to type all of this out...it's just insane, LOL!

EDIT: For anybody new to our thread reading this - this is not bragging. This is what we do here! Anybody can do this with some pre-planning. Sure the Disney Rewards is a little bit of a fluke, but put that aside...fully covering flights, hotel and tickets (and maybe dining) is possible with 6-8 credit cards, meticulously planned. If 2 spouses are willing to play the game you can earn that amount of points in a year pretty easily!

 

[AmyAnne]

I used for Target GCs

I think if I had more, they would be easier to use. But I have used the card very little compared to Chase and AmEx and even Discover.

 

[trstno1]

How did you transfer UR to Alaska?

@calypso726 ,@afan
Sorry, but I must apologize about an error in my earlier post. I completely forgot that my "transfer" of Chase UR points to Alaska required a hack that significantly changed on 6/5/18. I learned about this technique after the ending date had been announced, so I never shared it here or anywhere else. Feel free to read on for details, but understand that this hack doesn't work the same way any longer. I also updated my earlier post.

Prior to 6/5/18, if you booked an Alaska Airlines flight directly from AlaskaAir, then cancelled the flight on the Alaska Air website more than 36 hours after purchase *and* more than 60 days from the scheduled flight, you were given the option to refund the entire cost of the flight to Alaska's, "My Wallet," without any penalty. You could then use those funds to purchase a different ticket on any Alaska Airlines flight or any partner flight, including IcelandAir. I used Chase UR points to purchase dummy tickets on Alaska in approximately the amount needed for my IcelandAir flights (at 1.5 cents/point), then cancelled the dummy bookings, then purchased our IcelandAir tickets. It was pretty slick.

As of 6/15/18, you can still do this, but there is a $125 fee unless you have gold status with Alaska. I guess it might still be worthwhile if you have a companion pass on Alaska, but I haven't tried that personally, and I haven't read about it either.

********Edit********
OK, I haven't tried this but I read that you can still use this strategy if you purchase a higher priced refundable ticket rather than a nonrefundable ticket, and it should work with a companion pass, making this a really good deal. It seems like there was a reddit thread about this at the time, but I can't find it now. Here's a short thread on flyer talk: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ala...nes-companion-fare-ur-points-book-cancel.html

********One last edit.********
I really want to make sure that I am not misleading anyone here. I know this strategy worked for me when I purchased tickets in April or May. However, when I read the terms on the Alaska website, it states that "My Wallet" funds can be used on flights operated by Alaska, not on partner airlines. I'm not sure if something changed or if you can still use funds for IcelandAir.