I love credit cards so much!

[kidsfirsttrip]

Thanks for posting this. I am also getting them on the CSR now as well.

However, I still can't order just one child ticket. I guess because you cannot book a child for any activity, you cannot book just one child ticket. Good to know now!

Am on the phone now. Thought things might go my way. The rep was chatting with her supervisor and then asked if she could transfer me so they could help me and then I got disconnected. Trying again. They did say, "we are using the same system you are, if you can't book it neither can we." Well, what is the point, then? Technically, my other tickets are non refundable but I think they are trying to see if they can get around that some how. Fingers crossed.

Ugh. Hope it works out. Weird you can order one child ticket. Maybe just pay the price for another adult ticket worst case scenario? Maybe when you get to universal they can reimburse you?


@amalone1013 i went ahead and ordered all tix with URs. I didn’t want to risk losing them if the site goes wonky again. It cost me 102,000 UR for 3 park PTP for 4 days. I didn’t do the promo and will upgrade these for a small fee to APs. If we get the 3 month bonus great if not we will make it work to get back at least once in the year

 

[DisneyMandC]

@amalone1013 i went ahead and ordered all tix with URs. I didn’t want to risk losing them if the site goes wonky again. It cost me 102,000 UR for 3 park PTP for 4 days. I didn’t do the promo and will upgrade these for a small fee to APs. If we get the 3 month bonus great if not we will make it work to get back at least once in the year

May have missed something... did you purchase your USO tix through Chase recently?

 

[afan]

Thank you for those that gave advice about the job question. You all said what I was thinking so it was the push I needed. I just sent my email off so we'll see what happens. Fingers crossed. I did include not only things I've done but a couple of things I want to do once in the job to improve things.

Back to churning, waiting for our magic bands to get here today, the mail is late...

 

[amalone1013]

May have missed something... did you purchase your USO tix through Chase recently?

No, I'm just curious if upgrades will work for the 3 or 6 mths free on USO's AP promo

 

[amalone1013]

Could someone double check my thoughts here?
Current Starriott card history:

• SPG Personal opened 6/2016, rec'd bonus 7/2016
• Marriott Personal opened 9/2017, rec'd bonus 10/2017; then I matched to 100k offer and rec'd remaining bonus 12/2017
• SPG Biz opened 10/2017, rec'd bonus 1/2018

Right now, I can't get SPG Lux until 1/2020 (to be safe). I can't get a Marriott card until 2/2020.

If I take the upgrade offer on my Marriott, then I can't get SPG Lux until 11/2020 (assuming I upgrade right now, make my one purchase before my statement closes and they aren't delayed - statement closes 10/26, points usually post the 29th).

 

[mmmears]

heh, i have a stockpile... but my schedule is so hard to book anything... once you get a ton, u wonder what to do with it sometimes lol. keep pushin!
#poorcollegestudent #rarevacationtime #do'h

I want a stock pile of them... I didn't pay for that Hilton yet because I'm hoarding the MRs at this point and that just seems wrong somehow.

 

[miztressuz]

I'd be wary of "unlimited" vacation time. It means it doesn't accrue, so you will never be paid out for unused vacation when you leave a job (even if you've never taken a day off). It also often goes hand in hand with high billable hour requirements or other "measurable" productivity goals, which can set up an environment that rewards the people who never take time off and punishes anyone who actually uses any of the "unlimited" vacation time. Depends on the culture of the place, but you would want to know up front how much vacation people in a similar role are actually taking each year on average.

And I second the "paying your dues" comment - seems like lots of the folks who have buku vacation time have been in their jobs for a while - might be helpful to get stats on what someone just starting with your company/organization/governmental entity would expect out of the gate. When I got into my current career, I was happy to get 3 weeks out of the gate (even though I worked a lot more than 40 hours a week and lots of weekends) because when I started in my previous career, you got 2 weeks a year pretty much everywhere (and some places only AFTER a year!)

So far in what I know of unlimited vacation time it's working out as intended, because as you say, the culture was designed for this - word hard, play hard, so you can work hard again when you come back But eventually it'll get a little more mainstream and I suspect some (or most, depends on how cynical you are) corporations will latch onto it as another way to get out of paying vacation time. It already exists, even my position had a use it or lose it policy because they wanted you to take off and recharge (sure sure, yadda yadda) so anything not used at the end of the year was forfeit. (in the beginning they let you bank some of it toward STD, but then they removed that too) However, good luck trying to use it sometimes! It was very service oriented and being exempt meant they expected you to work any and all the time to fulfill a contract (even if it was unreasonable and the client's fault, but I digress ). Trying to bank it into the next year required very special circumstances and the act of an unknown deity to approve them. All done with the employees best interest in mind, mind you

As with everything, know the whole organization going in - very excellent point you make! I'm sure there's orgs out there that implemented the new fangled policies like this but still have the old guard stink eye monitoring how it's used. Like, the lady at hubby's office that gives him the side eye every single day because he got an office and typically his level/title/what-have-you at the company doesn't call for an office. Let's just ignore the fact that half the building is empty and there's offices galore available; and that he's on the phone all day, on speaker as he usually has overlapping conf calls, bugging everyone in the immediate vicinity in order to actually get work done; and that the office he's in was for the head of his department but he's the only one left of the team in this location so he's the head of this location technically ; and the kicker - this lady has absolutely nothing to do with his group. She has no authority over him, his business unit, nor the offices themselves! She's just got a bug up her butt over some crazy office status - this is not the lady I want monitoring the unlimited vacation time policy. (where's the ::shudders:: smiley )

 

[tink1970]

You are in PNS right? We are supposed to do FWB next week. Would you mind keeping me posted on conditions post hurricane and the red tide situation? I have until sat pm to cancel my hotel. Supposed to be arriving tues pm. Stay safe! Will be thinking about you!

Yes, and yes I'll let you know how things are in our neck of the woods. I know P'cola Beach hasn't been affected yet much by the red tide but with the storm who knows. I'll keep an eye/ear out for status of FWB...a lot will depend on whether it falls west or east of the storm.

 

[1st*toright]

So far in what I know of unlimited vacation time it's working out as intended, because as you say, the culture was designed for this - word hard, play hard, so you can work hard again when you come back But eventually it'll get a little more mainstream and I suspect some (or most, depends on how cynical you are) corporations will latch onto it as another way to get out of paying vacation time.

Yes, when an organization that doesn't provide its employees with laptops (not kidding - they were still using desktops!) implements something like this, its generally not because they "get" a newfangled vacation policy and modern workplace culture. Giggling about your DH's office monitor. I think I know that lady!

 

[Limes96]

I need to buy a couple of USO tickets soon too, but just single day single park base tickets. This is for my 2 sons. The rest of us prefer to stay at Disney all week. Looks like the lowest $ ticket on the Chase portal is one day park to park. I’m not sure if it’s better to buy through the USO website, or just get the p2p through Chase, even if they only stay in one park. Are there other options?

 

[disneedee]

Is there any job that gives you a week of vacation time every month? I have also been dying to get to Rome. I have the Marriott points and Delta points but I see no way of being able to squeeze it in in 2019. I was thinking of not honeymooning right after the wedding, but if we don’t do that I feel like it won’t be a honeymoon. SO and I have travelled so much together already and we will continue to do so. Also, I will probably need to take time off before the wedding to get things ready. lol this is giving me anxiety now lol plus SO wants to be at Disneyland on his birthday one year and he says we have to stay at the Grand Californian for Christmas and we need to do the Halloween party there. Oh, and now that we have World APs he can’t see how we went without having them before so I’m sure a bunch of small long weekend getaways will be happening next year lol I begged him to go on our first trip in 2016 and he was like I’m going to hate it, Disney is so stupid etc while we were on the trip he said we can get DVC and go every other year but he couldn’t do Disny ever year. Somehow now he is a bigger fan than me lol. We went in July, August and September this year and we will be back in December. We did Disneyland in January and August. lol

my sister gets 13 wks a year. anesthesiologist in texas.

 

[Haley R]

my sister gets 13 wks a year. anesthesiologist in texas.

Wow that's a lot. Dh gets 4 weeks and I thought that was a lot.

 

[Judique]

Total time on the phone with Marriott Rewards = 2 hours 15 minutes and 8 seconds!

Thankful for speaker button.

Result equals a case number and that the matter should be investigated and resolved within 2-3 business days. The final CSR was very thorough and appeared to understand the issue. She was able to see that all cards were not on the account.

It initially took over 45 minutes before I was able to speak to the first CSR. She seemed totally clueless and kept trying to read me what I could see on my account. I let her do this and then stated my problem again as clearly as I could. Eventually she was going to connect me with the credit card department but my call went back into the queue. I then spoke to another CSR who fairly quickly connected me to Loyalty Rewards. This was an ordeal. Fortunately I'm retired and had no plans other than doing stuff around the house.

 

[Haley R]

Dh had 2 of his RMN cashback deals not go through so I contacted them through their chat today. The person helping me was super helpful. All I had to do was upload the 2 receipts and she automatically posted our $20 we were missing!

 

[Alexle2007]

This is my DH too. He actually has a hard time using up his leave. His credit hours are always overflowing and he forfeits them. He only claims 1/2 hr a day now even though he works much more than that. He just doesn’t have time to use them. He ends up taking about 2 weeks at Christmas every year at use or lose time. He always carries over the 240 max. I think he has well over a year of sick time also. He has also donated hours before to sick coworkers. He starts to get antsy after too much time home and when I bring up early retirement at 57 he is a firm No on it. Lol. He may change his mind, we have 10 years to get there.

It sounds like your DH is right around my age, although I am hoping to retire in 6 years when DS graduates HS and I follow him wherever he goes off to college The only other option is they allow me to telework 100% of my time since I am getting out of the cold! My DH is 6 years older than me and he says he is gone in 3 years. I’ll have 27 years in Dec so 33 seems long enough.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

May have missed something... did you purchase your USO tix through Chase recently?

I got mine this am. They were back up on CSR so I grabbed them. Our plan is to upgrade to APs and universal raised the price but also added an extra 3-6 months onto them if you purchase or renew a current pass by April. I’m not sure if you buy regular tix and upgrade if you’ll get the extension. But after looking at the prices it would cost us $600 more to buy them outright so I bought them with URs

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I don’t have a CF but I have seen DPs from people that Costco.com is not posting as 5% and they had to SM for the 5% bonus. I’d research that more if you have time.

I got 5x for purchase 10/6. I’ll be watching my purchases there though.

 

[mom2elal]

For those of you that have gotten the Amex credit on your ATT Directv/internet bill...Did you click through the business link on the Amex site, or did you go directly to ATT.com? I didn't go through the Amex site and I'm wondering if that's where I went wrong, because the charge is dated 10/4 and I still haven't gotten the credit, so I feel like it's not looking good.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I know it's serious blasphemy to say this...but I'm really considering cashing a bunch out at some point if the Disney option doesn't come back. I literally cannot identify a viable use for these without WDW or Disney Cruise. And I'm probably going to earn another 300k-400k URs in the next year...

Donate them over here. I have no problem using them.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I agree—ur points for me = flights to Europe but my kids are teenagers.

Even without traveling outside the US, I can spend UR. More than I have, sadly. Though my current need for URs is Alaska cruise excursions