I love credit cards so much!

[gottalovepluto]

Hello gurus-- help,please! We just found out our planned spring break trip to Puerto Rico can't happen because of a school field trip our son REALLY wants to go on that overlaps the only dates where flights are a reasonable amount of points on SW (we were going to leave a couple days early to get better point prices). Since we will have AP's, have been wanting to visit my dad in Sarasota, and are moderately insane, we thought--why not go to Disney during peak crowds?! I can get magical pricing at the Pop (that is still INSANELY high for a value) but I'd much rather book on points. I have a ton of UR I can use, but the portal doesn't seem to show any Disney properties. Do they only show up at off times? Is there any other way to book on property with points? (I'm saving our starpoints for future stays, so want to stick with UR.). This is my first time using UR, so I'm not entirely sure how it works? I also have 90k Marriott points I could transfer to Starwood, but I was hoping to bank those for a trip to Hawaii in 2019.

For UR bookings I can't find I double check on expedia. Expedia is their back-end supplier so if Expedia has availability UR does, if they don't UR doesn't. If Expedia has availability I go back to UR and sort by name, by price, all sorts of different things until I get the hotel to pop up. If it doesn't I call the number on my CSR and book through their travel team. (UR website hotel searching is crap for some reason.)

 

[Pooh2]

I have a question for the people who have an understanding of Hyatt points. I am planning a trip to Aruba this winter. I am beginning to think I want to just stay at the Hyatt there. My 80 yo mother travels with me and I want to be right on the beach so she can go up to the room easily if she needs or wants to. Mom will be getting the Hyatt card also and I understand we can combine the two cards. My question is, if my husband also gets the Hyatt card can we combine that card also?

I assume by "combine the card" you mean combine the points?

I don't know about combining the points but we each have a hyatt card and just book a few nights on my husbands and book the other nights with my points.

I would be interested to know as well if spouses can combine points. I have never seen any indication that it is possible but that sure would be handy.

 

[wendow]

Hello gurus-- help,please! We just found out our planned spring break trip to Puerto Rico can't happen because of a school field trip our son REALLY wants to go on that overlaps the only dates where flights are a reasonable amount of points on SW (we were going to leave a couple days early to get better point prices). Since we will have AP's, have been wanting to visit my dad in Sarasota, and are moderately insane, we thought--why not go to Disney during peak crowds?! I can get magical pricing at the Pop (that is still INSANELY high for a value) but I'd much rather book on points. I have a ton of UR I can use, but the portal doesn't seem to show any Disney properties. Do they only show up at off times? Is there any other way to book on property with points? (I'm saving our starpoints for future stays, so want to stick with UR.). This is my first time using UR, so I'm not entirely sure how it works? I also have 90k Marriott points I could transfer to Starwood, but I was hoping to bank those for a trip to Hawaii in 2019.

I have noticed that the availability really comes and goes for Disney resorts on the UR site. If you are planning a Spring Break trip, that also may be a time that Disney thinks they can book the rooms through their regular reservations and they may not be releasing many rooms to the wholesale market.

 

[havaneselover]

Does UR charge if you call and book plane tickets through them? I know Amex Platinum concierge does. Needing to book my tickets to Vancouver next month and I wasn't sure if there might be better options if I called.

 

[peel]

Make sure you're booking a refundable reservation on the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, then check back periodically for the points price on your resort and others for your date. If you see a significant drop, cancel your existing reservation on the travel portal -- your points are returned to your account almost immediately -- and rebook. You can do this all online; no need to call Chase or Disney. You do have to call Disney to get a confirmation number that will work with MDE and to add guests (kids) to your room.

Question...what does this do to MDE if you've already booked FP and ME? Would those get wiped out of the system if you cancel and book an entirely new reservation?

 

[Alexle2007]

My Marriott tweets seem to finally be working since I have received 50 points yesterday and today shortly after the tweet went off. (Although I haven't made any changes to it.) I don't seem to be getting points for re-tweets though

 

[wendow]

Question...what does this do to MDE if you've already booked FP and ME? Would those get wiped out of the system if you cancel and book an entirely new reservation?

I booked a new reservation and the system kept my FP's but I was within 30 days. Not sure what would happen if only within 60 days. I was a little scared to find out lol.

We did have to contact DME to change our departure resort. We did a split stay and I only changed the second resort and our luggage tags were still valid. My guess is if it is too close for them to send you new luggage tags, you'd just need to grab your own luggage which is a hassle but could be worth it if saving enough.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

My Marriott tweets seem to finally be working since I have received 50 points yesterday and today shortly after the tweet went off. (Although I haven't made any changes to it.) I don't seem to be getting points for re-tweets though

Only certain re-tweets count for bonus points, not all of them.

 

[Alexle2007]

Only certain re-tweets count for bonus points, not all of them.

Thanks. I guess I should have looked. It did post 100 points reply yesterday just didn't send an email notification of new points like the 50 point tweet did.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

My Marriott tweets seem to finally be working since I have received 50 points yesterday and today shortly after the tweet went off. (Although I haven't made any changes to it.) I don't seem to be getting points for re-tweets though

Mine started working for the first time yesterday too. Received a total of 150 points. My regular daily tweet is scheduled for 3:15pm today so I'll see if I get the 50 points.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

I did try to do a referral, but no email from them at this time. I was going to ask if I needed to complete my spend and get my bonus before the "offer" would show up somewhere. Am I doing something wrong???

The link appeared last night. It seems that I had to complete the spend on my card for the link to appear

Awesome that your hay man takes credit cards! I'd have millions of points/miles by now if mine did! LOL!

My hay man is going to set up a pay pal account and I will pay him the fee which i think is 2.9%.

One note from our experience: if you need to combine your points with your DH or mom for a night, you will have to fill out and return a form to Hyatt that specifies exactly how many points you want to transfer. I mention this because it was obnoxious to find out while we were on the phone with Hyatt booking our stay - we had to put that night as a cash reservation (we had 4 free nights it was attached to) and then do their paperwork and hope we'd still be able to convert it to points when things went through (it worked - whew!) I guess I got spoiled because Hilton just lets you go online and pool points with others to your heart's content - so much better. In the end, though, we have 5 free nights in Paris at the Hyatt Regency, so I can't complain too much.

I assume by "combine the card" you mean combine the points?

It is Points that I am planning to combine. I have seen the form and done some reading. the TOS says you may combine points with one other person when needed to do a booking. I'm wondering if we split the trip into 2 bookings if I can do two separate combinations.

I don't know about combining the points but we each have a hyatt card and just book a few nights on my husbands and book the other nights with my points.

I don't think I will get the free night until my card's anniversary, but I will definitely make use of it at some time.

I would be interested to know as well if spouses can combine points. I have never seen any indication that it is possible but that sure would be handy.

There is a form on the Hyatt website.

I want to thank everyone for all their help.

 

[Ngwira]

Anyone else receive an email from American Express which states that they made an error and forgot to add points to your account? The email said they added the extra points and I just need to log in to see them. The email referenced my PRG. I also have a Platinum and Blue Cash.

I also got 20,000 extra UR from chase and $122 of my $450 annual fee refunded for the CSR since the rep changed the wrong card. It's finally been reverted back to a CSR from a FU.

BOA sent me a targeted offer for a Business Reward card with a $200 statement credit after spending $500. Thinking about buying $500 worth of Southwest gift cards with it.

 

[Lain]

My hay man is going to set up a pay pal account and I will pay him the fee which i think is 2.9%.

I wonder if he'd set up a Venmo account, which is also owned by PayPal and I believe codes as 3x with CIP. I think the fee is comparable. Not sure how PayPal codes. I should look into how these p2p payment systems code...

ETA: looked into this quickly and it seems recent DPs say payments through Venmo using CIP still code as 3x. There's a 3% transaction fee for credit cards. PayPal has a 2.9% fee + $0.30 per transaction, and I believe only codes as 1x.

 

[Lain]

Anyone else receive an email from American Express which states that they made an error and forgot to add points to your account? The email said they added the extra points and I just need to log in to see them. The email referenced my PRG. I also have a Platinum and Blue Cash.

I also got 20,000 extra UR from chase and $122 of my $450 annual fee refunded for the CSR since the rep changed the wrong card. It's finally been reverted back to a CSR from a FU.

BOA sent me a targeted offer for a Business Reward card with a $200 statement credit after spending $500. Thinking about buying $500 worth of Southwest gift cards with it.

I did, but I didn't really see anything different.

 

[mousehappync]

For UR bookings I can't find I double check on expedia. Expedia is their back-end supplier so if Expedia has availability UR does, if they don't UR doesn't. If Expedia has availability I go back to UR and sort by name, by price, all sorts of different things until I get the hotel to pop up. If it doesn't I call the number on my CSR and book through their travel team. (UR website hotel searching is crap for some reason.)

If I were just to book a room, can I use UR to reimburse from it (i.e.: it codes as travel?). Sorry if that's a dumb question-- I am totally new to these points. Does anybody know if the travel agency that we can't name that has magical prices codes as travel?

 

[Ngwira]

I did, but I didn't really see anything different.

Me neither. It was very confusing. I may give Amex a call.

 

[gottalovepluto]

If I were just to book a room, can I use UR to reimburse from it (i.e.: it codes as travel?). Sorry if that's a dumb question-- I am totally new to these points. Does anybody know if the travel agency that we can't name that has magical prices codes as travel?

Idk if the (other) place that shall not be named codes as travel. As for UR: you can always turn them into cash back. If your room cost $300 you could use 30,000 UR points for a statement credit or redeem 30,000 UR points for $300 cash to your bank account. Do you have a CSR or CSP? Because if so you need to run the math on 1.25x/1.50x redemption rates if booked through Chase to determine where you are getting the best deal.

 

[georgina]

We did have to contact DME to change our departure resort. We did a split stay and I only changed the second resort and our luggage tags were still valid. My guess is if it is too close for them to send you new luggage tags, you'd just need to grab your own luggage which is a hassle but could be worth it if saving enough.

Actually, your old luggage tags will work just fine for ME. You just cross out the name of the resort and write the new one in. Just to be safe, I also crossed out the large 2 letter code in the middle of the Mickey head (I was going to Coronado Springs initially so it said AK for mine but I switched to Pop which is a Wide World of Sports area one) Luggage got to the right place. BUT I had modified my reservation so it still had the same number. I don't think this will work if the reservation number is changed, as in a cancel and rebook as the original question was worded.

 

[peel]

I booked a new reservation and the system kept my FP's but I was within 30 days. Not sure what would happen if only within 60 days. I was a little scared to find out lol.

We did have to contact DME to change our departure resort. We did a split stay and I only changed the second resort and our luggage tags were still valid. My guess is if it is too close for them to send you new luggage tags, you'd just need to grab your own luggage which is a hassle but could be worth it if saving enough.

I would be keeping everything the same as far as dates and hotel, I'm just hoping to see a price drop. It would be a little nerve wracking in terms of booked FPs, but if the difference in price was big enough I'd probably take the risk.

 

[peel]

Actually, your old luggage tags will work just fine for ME. You just cross out the name of the resort and write the new one in. Just to be safe, I also crossed out the large 2 letter code in the middle of the Mickey head (I was going to Coronado Springs initially so it said AK for mine but I switched to Pop which is a Wide World of Sports area one) Luggage got to the right place.

Good thinking! Most of the time we bypass the luggage service and bring our bags on the ME bus with us anyway.