Aanna, How many points did you end up using total to get everyone's airfare to Barcelona?? I'm thinking of trying to plan a trip next year for 10 people overseas somewhere. But DEFINETLY need to do it on the cheapy cheapest way possible. Other thing is I'm really the only one that has credit good enough to be applying for multiple cards, or any of the heavy rewards cards really. My though process is this:
CSR = 100,000 sign up (plus $300 travel credit x 2 yrs = $600)
CSP = 50,000 sign up
UA card = 30,000 sign up
Freedom = Just to get points to transfer over to the UA/CSR/CSP to help out
In the meantime, just use the cards as much as possible in their respective categories to rack up as many points as possible. Can we Charge our mortgage to our credit cards? Wonder how that codes or how we go about doing that.
Also, in your one post you mentioned having to transfer points/miles from UA accounts, and having to make son an authorized user... Does each person HAVE to have their own mileage account, or can you have like one 'family' account that you use? And how does it work to transfer miles/points between people? I can make family members AU on my accounts, but they can't get their own accounts (cc, mileage accounts obviously they can each get).
How exciting!
Let me start with the last question first: no, you definitely do *not* need to have points divided up into different mileage accounts. I only did it because my children had each earned almost 7,000 miles from our flights to Japan. It was a pain in the butt, and if you can get all your points into one mileage account instead, life will be MUCH easier.
Second to last, yes, it is possible to pay your mortgage with a credit card through a service such as Plastiq. Service charges run about 2.5%, though, and recently Visa has instituted a policy where payments to new payees are coded as cash advances until that payee has a "relationship" with Plastiq. Not a problem if you're paying Nationstar or Chase mortgage, but a pain if your mortgage is held by a smaller company. Mortgages don't code as anything fun -- just regular base points.
On to the points round up. Make sure to add authorized users to your CSP and UA cards -- first purchases with the AU card will net you an extra 5,000 points. Together with the points you accrue by completing your spend, your numbers then would look something like this:
CSR = 104,000 (minimum with just everyday spend, up to 112,000 if you use your entire spend on travel expenses)
CSP = 59,000 (with minimum spend on everyday stuff and one AU purchase. This could be as high as 63,000 if you use your entire spend on travel expenses)
UA card = 36,000 (with minimum spend and one AU purchase)
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Total = 199,000 miles
United saver rates to Europe start at 30,000 miles each one way, so this would be enough for 3 round trip fares in economy. You might consider having other adults apply for the UA card so that they can purchase a one-way on their own. With your CSP you could also top off
one of these UA cards to 60,000 so their could buy a round trip. That person would need to be an AU on your CSP *and* live at the same address.
Another option would be to find a really good fare to Europe and see if you can purchase it with 1.5 point value through your CSR card on the UR rewards portal. If you can find fares of $600 round trip (lets say), you could pay for nearly 5 round trips that way instead of just three. Other advantages of going through the UR portal when fares are low is that you don't pay any extra fees, the tickets earn miles, and the availability is much better because you're actually buying revenue tickets rather than looking for award space.
Final caveat, I'd only count the travel credits as worth $150 since you'll need to cover the $450 annual fee. Still, that means Global Entry for free
Fun
