I love credit cards so much!

[Ava]

u pay for prime though no for the metal card? If you ever get a Ink Cash Card, it makes 5x on amazon too(need an extra step + no protection). :]

Yes, we pay for Prime. Is it only Prime members that get the 5% back? I guess I didn't really pay attention to specifics, just know we are now getting 5% back at Amazon.

 

[jhoannam]

You can get the Disney card if you are over 5/24, but it still counts toward 5/24.
So, if you were at 7/24, you can still get the Disney card, but you'd then be at 8/24. In your case, you'd both be at 3/24 if you each got the card.

Thank you! I guess we better get up to 5/24 before we pull the trigger.

 

[laceltris3]

I know this is not as exciting as everyone else's exploits, but I was excited that I just used my UR points, transferred to United, to get 4 of our family of 5 to Ireland round trip next year for our Tauck Bridges trip. I know economy isn't the most effective use of miles, but getting for Saver awards on the exact flights I wanted seems like a win!

I bought the bundle for economy plus, premier and lounge access, etc., for $300 per person, but given the pricing on the flights, I got about 2.5 cents per mile. I am going to wait to get the Aer Lingus segments confirmed before I pay cash for my husband's flight.


A little sad we couldn't make it work on BA, as we had a great experience with them going to Copenhagen for the Baltic cruise this year, but we fly back out of Shannon, and it was all American flights. We won't fly American because my youngest son has food allergies and American are big jerks about it.

 

[AmyAnne]

A question for those familiar with using Barclay miles to pay for a travel purchase. I am about to pay for a deposit on a room reservation at Disney for Feb. 2018. A travel agent has by far the best prices (like half of booking through Chase or WDW directly), so it seems like my best option (since I can't use UR points) is to use Barclay miles. I will be charging the deposit now and paying the rest by Jan. 2018. My question is, what happens if for some reason I need to cancel all or part of the reservation? I'm booking 2 rooms now but it's possible I'll only need one, depending on kids' schedules, which for Feb. 2018 are uncertain at the moment. According to the Barclay site, I can use miles to pay for travel purchases made within the past 120 days, so I would pay for today's purchase (the deposit) now -- would I get those points back, or just get the refund from the TA, or something else, if I cancel?

Thanks for any help with this -- I got the Barclay card earlier this year for just this purpose, but paying more than 120 days before actually using the reservation has me confused.

 

[peel]

I know this is not as exciting as everyone else's exploits, but I was excited that I just used my UR points, transferred to United, to get 4 of our family of 5 to Ireland round trip next year for our Tauck Bridges trip. I know economy isn't the most effective use of miles, but getting for Saver awards on the exact flights I wanted seems like a win!

I bought the bundle for economy plus, premier and lounge access, etc., for $300 per person, but given the pricing on the flights, I got about 2.5 cents per mile. I am going to wait to get the Aer Lingus segments confirmed before I pay cash for my husband's flight.


A little sad we couldn't make it work on BA, as we had a great experience with them going to Copenhagen for the Baltic cruise this year, but we fly back out of Shannon, and it was all American flights. We won't fly American because my youngest son has food allergies and American are big jerks about it.

Excellent! Ireland is absolutely beautiful!

 

[calypso726]

I know this is not as exciting as everyone else's exploits, but I was excited that I just used my UR points, transferred to United, to get 4 of our family of 5 to Ireland round trip next year for our Tauck Bridges trip. I know economy isn't the most effective use of miles, but getting for Saver awards on the exact flights I wanted seems like a win!

I bought the bundle for economy plus, premier and lounge access, etc., for $300 per person, but given the pricing on the flights, I got about 2.5 cents per mile. I am going to wait to get the Aer Lingus segments confirmed before I pay cash for my husband's flight.


A little sad we couldn't make it work on BA, as we had a great experience with them going to Copenhagen for the Baltic cruise this year, but we fly back out of Shannon, and it was all American flights. We won't fly American because my youngest son has food allergies and American are big jerks about it.

Congrats on finding saver miles on UA! We fly BA fairly often for Europe trips because they always have decent award availability. The downside is that it is nearly impossible to find a flight without connecting through London. BA charges astronomical taxes and fees when connecting through London. RT flights in regular economy run over $400 in taxes and fees and would not include lunge access. Business and first would are over $1100 in taxes and fees. When booking with BA for Europe, I always look at it like I'm paying a bit less than an average economy ticket and using the miles to upgrade to first. Also keep in mind that BA's program is distance based so depending on where you are flying from it could possible you wind up using more UR points for a BA transfer than for a different airline.

Last year, we saw the Tauck group at Dromoland Castle when we checked in for our one night stay. Adventures by Disney had just left the day before. Love Ireland and am looking forward to going back!

 

[AmyAnne]

I know this is not as exciting as everyone else's exploits, but I was excited that I just used my UR points, transferred to United, to get 4 of our family of 5 to Ireland round trip next year for our Tauck Bridges trip. I know economy isn't the most effective use of miles, but getting for Saver awards on the exact flights I wanted seems like a win!

I bought the bundle for economy plus, premier and lounge access, etc., for $300 per person, but given the pricing on the flights, I got about 2.5 cents per mile. I am going to wait to get the Aer Lingus segments confirmed before I pay cash for my husband's flight.


A little sad we couldn't make it work on BA, as we had a great experience with them going to Copenhagen for the Baltic cruise this year, but we fly back out of Shannon, and it was all American flights. We won't fly American because my youngest son has food allergies and American are big jerks about it.

Not Ireland, but I booked hotels for our Feb. Orlando trip -- two rooms for two nights at Port Orleans and one night at Universal, worth about $2000 total, all covered in one way or another by CC rewards

 

[jujubiee4]

Barclay is weird. I have the Arrival+ and was just recently denied for their Hawaiian Airlines card. ***? Really? I've had no problems getting approved by any other bank while holding more than one card. Very strange company.

I would call. I recently got this only because i was applying for Chase Hyatt and Alaska Air card. I didn't want to "waste"
pulls on my credit so i did all three at the same time. I just threw Barclays Hawaiian in there. They were the only
ones that INSTANTLY approved with some ridiculously high limit. Chase and Alaska i had to call and answer questions
before they would approve.

Call Barclays...maybe some glitch in your application.

 

[wendow]

I'll share my latest use of UR points but I must give a bit of backstory....Some of you know this but for those who don't, my oldest dd is pretty sick and has been for just over two years. Our medical bills (while trying to figure out what was wrong with her and now, getting her treatment) have been about $1k a month. We were only able to go to WDW last year because of GC churning. I made enough money on that to completely pay for last year's trip as well as cover another set of tickets for our family of 6. But I thought I'd have to hold those tickets until 2018 when my oldest dd will graduate high school. We want to celebrate her graduation with a Disney trip.

HOWEVER, thanks to all of you and all I have learned, I had enough UR rewards to cover the SSR 2-br villa 100%! Flights were paid for with SW points. I already had the park tickets. So, I am just saving now for food & souvenirs. We leave in 45 days! The best part?? I still will have enough UR points to do it all again to go to WDW or pay for an offsite stay at DLR (kind of leaning that way). Also, enough SW points to fly us all to either coast again. None of this would be possible without this thread and all of you sharing your knowledge and experience. As I have said before, I don't read reddit or really too many other places about this stuff. This thread is my 'go to'.

Not sure if that is considered a great use of points but for our family, it's the best use for where we are right now!

 

[calypso726]

I'll share my latest use of UR points but I must give a bit of backstory....Some of you know this but for those who don't, my oldest dd is pretty sick and has been for just over two years. Our medical bills (while trying to figure out what was wrong with her and now, getting her treatment) have been about $1k a month. We were only able to go to WDW last year because of GC churning. I made enough money on that to completely pay for last year's trip as well as cover another set of tickets for our family of 6. But I thought I'd have to hold those tickets until 2018 when my oldest dd will graduate high school. We want to celebrate her graduation with a Disney trip.

HOWEVER, thanks to all of you and all I have learned, I had enough UR rewards to cover the SSR 2-br villa 100%! Flights were paid for with SW points. I already had the park tickets. So, I am just saving now for food & souvenirs. We leave in 45 days! The best part?? I still will have enough UR points to do it all again to go to WDW or pay for an offsite stay at DLR (kind of leaning that way). Also, enough SW points to fly us all to either coast again. None of this would be possible without this thread and all of you sharing your knowledge and experience. As I have said before, I don't read reddit or really too many other places about this stuff. This thread is my 'go to'.

Not sure if that is considered a great use of points but for our family, it's the best use for where we are right now!

I didn't know the back story but I am glad to know that she is getting treatment. Not knowing what is wrong and how to treat something must have been agonizing. I think that is a wonderful use of points. Like you, we started this hobby with a specific goal in mind. The best part is that moment when you realize that not only have you reached your goal but you can do it again and much sooner than you might have expected.

 

[Ava]

I know this is not as exciting as everyone else's exploits, but I was excited that I just used my UR points, transferred to United, to get 4 of our family of 5 to Ireland round trip next year for our Tauck Bridges trip. I know economy isn't the most effective use of miles, but getting for Saver awards on the exact flights I wanted seems like a win!

I bought the bundle for economy plus, premier and lounge access, etc., for $300 per person, but given the pricing on the flights, I got about 2.5 cents per mile. I am going to wait to get the Aer Lingus segments confirmed before I pay cash for my husband's flight.


A little sad we couldn't make it work on BA, as we had a great experience with them going to Copenhagen for the Baltic cruise this year, but we fly back out of Shannon, and it was all American flights. We won't fly American because my youngest son has food allergies and American are big jerks about it.

That's exciting to me! As a parent of two young kids, the first class suites flights and $1000+/night island bungalows that many of the points & miles travel bloggers post about are not even on my radar. That's why I like this thread (and Mommy Points). Flying a family of 4 anywhere takes a good amount of points, so I'm impressed by your redemption for 4 tickets to Ireland! I feel it'd take me a long time to earn that many points.

I'll share my latest use of UR points but I must give a bit of backstory....Some of you know this but for those who don't, my oldest dd is pretty sick and has been for just over two years. Our medical bills (while trying to figure out what was wrong with her and now, getting her treatment) have been about $1k a month. We were only able to go to WDW last year because of GC churning. I made enough money on that to completely pay for last year's trip as well as cover another set of tickets for our family of 6. But I thought I'd have to hold those tickets until 2018 when my oldest dd will graduate high school. We want to celebrate her graduation with a Disney trip.

HOWEVER, thanks to all of you and all I have learned, I had enough UR rewards to cover the SSR 2-br villa 100%! Flights were paid for with SW points. I already had the park tickets. So, I am just saving now for food & souvenirs. We leave in 45 days! The best part?? I still will have enough UR points to do it all again to go to WDW or pay for an offsite stay at DLR (kind of leaning that way). Also, enough SW points to fly us all to either coast again. None of this would be possible without this thread and all of you sharing your knowledge and experience. As I have said before, I don't read reddit or really too many other places about this stuff. This thread is my 'go to'.

Not sure if that is considered a great use of points but for our family, it's the best use for where we are right now!

I didn't know the backstory either but am also glad your DD is getting treatment. Best wishes to her & to your whole family.

My first foray into the points game was using the sign up bonus on the IHG card for 6 nights at a Holiday Inn Express in small town Pennsylvania so my wife could visit her extended family. Then I got into UR points; my first redemption of those was using the Chase portal to pay for our Jet Blue flights to Orlando this summer. Probably not the "best" use of points but it's getting us to Disney.

 

[Alice Sr.]

I'll share my latest use of UR points but I must give a bit of backstory....Some of you know this but for those who don't, my oldest dd is pretty sick and has been for just over two years. Our medical bills (while trying to figure out what was wrong with her and now, getting her treatment) have been about $1k a month. We were only able to go to WDW last year because of GC churning. I made enough money on that to completely pay for last year's trip as well as cover another set of tickets for our family of 6. But I thought I'd have to hold those tickets until 2018 when my oldest dd will graduate high school. We want to celebrate her graduation with a Disney trip.

HOWEVER, thanks to all of you and all I have learned, I had enough UR rewards to cover the SSR 2-br villa 100%! Flights were paid for with SW points. I already had the park tickets. So, I am just saving now for food & souvenirs. We leave in 45 days! The best part?? I still will have enough UR points to do it all again to go to WDW or pay for an offsite stay at DLR (kind of leaning that way). Also, enough SW points to fly us all to either coast again. None of this would be possible without this thread and all of you sharing your knowledge and experience. As I have said before, I don't read reddit or really too many other places about this stuff. This thread is my 'go to'.

Not sure if that is considered a great use of points but for our family, it's the best use for where we are right now!

Awesome! So happy you will be staying in a 2 bdr. Since you are going next year also have you looked into cashing in your park tickets for Annual Passes?

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

So I got an offer in the mail for a Delta Gold card, with a 50,000 miles bonus if I spend $1000 in the first three months. Since we have two flights coming up to Orlando and we usually do fly Delta, I went for it. They approved me instantly with a ridiculous limit and now I'm just waiting for the card to show up. Plan is to spend the money to get the points, then basically only use it to book flights to get more points. It's probably not the best deal around for a card, but that bonus seemed nice and I thought, why not?

 

[Alexle2007]

Yay, DH was approved for the CIP! Thank you for the advice of not calling!! Hopefully the card arrives before I have to pay my real estate taxes and I can knock it out all at once.

 

[ZellyB]

Just got our 100K award for the new personal platinum AmEx. Going to use that to book tickets for our January trip to Disney. Flights are insanely expensive since we fly out right after the new year, so I'm happy to have the points!

 

[hsmamato2]

if a person has a business (for real) and a few chase cards, but looking to do a big disney trip next year,what are some good steps? They already did SWA and have flight points, they already did SPGx2 for dolphin, so their flights and hotel are covered- now they're looking at tickets and food. (family of 5) what's theire next best option for points that canbe used for those things? I'm not sure if they have the inclination to go through gift cards for that small discount..... but they're asking me for help....

 

[SBWB48]

on top of the 2 other suggestion, the last suggestion is to open bank accounts. You do however need money to sit there for a few month(for good measures). PNC(only certain states have this bank) does a 2k max funding. i think thats only per account too, so u might be able to do 4k credit card funding for both savings and checkings. Ive done one with Consumer Credit Union, $1000.

Instead of bank accounts for CC funding to meet the MSR, I've just been essentially replicating the formula for CCs with bank account bonuses now. In some ways, this almost requires somewhat less work (apart from making sure you meet the requirements to avoid monthly fees, but M&T for example has been ridiculously lucrative and makes it almost stupid easy to avoid fees) and offers a higher return for my time since it's just a matter of applying and making sure the deposits trigger the bonus by moving money around between banks, all of which probably is 15-30 min of work and no net cash outlay. In 2-player mode and almost over 1K (which actually compared to redditors is nothing), all in less than a month

Combined with CCs, this helps accelerate many travel goals

 

[nhgirl]

I'm not sure if it's the best use of points but I booked a Disney Cruise for my family of 3 out of NYC (no flights needed) and paid $3000 out of the $4800 with credit card rewards and Swagbucks. Our limo ride to and from our hotel was paid for with Barclay Arrival Plus.

 

[hsmamato2]

I'm not sure if it's the best use of points but I booked a Disney Cruise for my family of 3 out of NYC (no flights needed) and paid $3000 out of the $4800 with credit card rewards and Swagbucks. Our limo ride to and from our hotel was paid for with Barclay Arrival Plus.

Nice which cc rewards?

 

[jhoannam]

Travel goals: I was hoping to fly SW to Hawaii in 2018 since the rumor is they will start flying next year, but if that's not the case we will do 2 weeks in California. Family of 4 - we will need; flights (SW), Anaheim hotel for 4 nights, car rental for 2 weeks, 2 nights in San Fran. and a few nights close to Yosemite.

I have:
Southwest x2: applied 6/18. Already met the MS for one of the cards, should complete the MS for the second card this month.
Will have SW CP next month + 120K Miles
DH has CSP: 110K UR

I have a 70K United Signup bonus promotion when I login to United (ends 7/31).... Is that a good promotion? Should I try for that next? I was going to wait until October to apply for the CSP, holiday spending should make it easy to meet the $4K MS. But is the united a better offer?

Also,
Mommy Points has a Amex Hilton Honors 100K Points banner ($3K MS), but when I click it's only for 75K. I need to read up on how many nights 75K would get.

Or should I stick to my original plan to get the CSP?