I love credit cards so much!

[Albort]

What is your guy's strategy when it comes to finding business fares on miles..? I technically have enough for round trip according to the charts but it keeps showing me mixed cabins which is driving me nuts. I don't really want to "waste" miles if I only have business on the short legs... I "need" it for the long ones and I'm not seeing a good way to search.

need more info. destination, origin, and what points do you have?

edit: nvm, i saw your other post... lol still need the rest.

 

[calypso726]

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/5-reasons-to-get-boa-premium-rewards/

50k points ($500) for 3k spend in 3 months. Higher earning rates if you have balances with B Of A.
@calypso726 also has this card & may be able to give more details on how easy to redeem.

can you provide more detail on that? I'm curious

Thanks for tagging me @CyndiLouWho so I could respond to @hsmamato2 - I've been skimming and would have missed it. I already have a BoA checking account and was able to redeem my $500 in change easily. I recall it gave me different options for the redemption and I chose to just add the fund to my checking account so I could pay the credit card since it was faster that way. The money was in my account in about 48 hours or less. The points were available right when my statement closed. I normally don't go for cash back cards but it just so happened I had a few large expenses that also coincided with a dinner at Victoria & Albert's. I saw this as a way to save $500 on the dinner since I was treating my brother and niece for their birthdays on a recent family trip to WDW. I also purchased a $100 AA gift card which triggered the airline credit.

Can you transfer MR points to SW so you can book the flights with points (like with UR)? This is what I found online: To redeem your Membership Reward points for Southwest Airline tickets, simply book your ticket directly with Southwest Airlines and then redeem your points after the charge posts via Your Charges online at: membershiprewards.com/yourcharges or through the American Express App on your mobile device (iPhone and Android platforms only). You have the ability to schedule a point redemption for eligible pending charges through the American Express Mobile App. You must have enough Membership Rewards® points to cover the entire cost of the charge with Your Charges.

No, MR points cannot be transferred to SW as SW is not a transfer partner. Also, keep in mind not all MR points are created equal and depending on the card you have you might only be eligible to be use points to pay for charges. Not all Amex airline partners are 1:1 transfers and not all are instant. Below is the breakdown. You can pay for airfare with your MR points and if you have an Amex Business Platinum card you would get 35% of your points back.

Paging @calypso726 - your plans are more in her league than mine

I'm here Thanks for tagging me.

What is your guy's strategy when it comes to finding business fares on miles..? I technically have enough for round trip according to the charts but it keeps showing me mixed cabins which is driving me nuts. I don't really want to "waste" miles if I only have business on the short legs... I "need" it for the long ones and I'm not seeing a good way to search.

@AquaDame - May I ask where are you flying out of and flying into and what are your approximate dates? Also, what type of points are you wanting to use? Also, which airline are you searching on at the moment? United tends to be the worst when it comes to mixed cabins I've found. Anyhow, I'll seen what I can find and try to help.

**edited to add** Just saw the dates in your other post and the destination. Still need the airports. I'm also in planning stages for a South Africa ABD in 2021.

 

[havaneselover]

Would love some ideas on a summer 2019 trip to London and possibly Paris. Thinking of 7-10 days in August with me and my two teenagers. I can fly out of any of the dc area airports. Based on 2018 prices, it Looks like I might be able to get tickets for $900/person.

I have csr and after CIP bonus posts will have about 130k ur points.

I got chase Marriott personal in June 2016 and SPG Amex personal last March. I do like Marriott/spg but am open to other brands—just want hotel(s) that are clean, in safe areas, that are near transportation and sleep three comfortably. Spg didn’t seem to have hotels in London on points for summer 2018 unless I’m missing something.

I’m at 4/24 plus CIP. Will be at 3/24 in June.

I’m trying to minimize out of pocket costs on airfare and hotels.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

I'm completing the spend on current card and I am open to suggestions for my next card.
My current cards: CSR 10/2016
SW Premier 3/2017
SW Plus 4/2017 CIP 7/2017
Hyatt 9/2017
Marriott 11/2017
DH who does not travel but I'm hopeful. May be selling the dairy cows.
CSR 5/2017 CIP 9/2017

With my travel style, the SW CP is one of the more valuable options for me. I got the 2 hotel cards because I was worried about not finding timeshare rooms for the coming Aruba trip. The Hyatt has been valuable for the park and fly in MSP.
Another piece of the equation is my 38yo Down Syndrome daughter lives at home. I have avoided signing up for any cards for her, but we could maybe look at the SW cards for her at some time for the CP. Right now she is listed under my mother's CP.

I have used some UR for car rental as that is one of the travel expenses I have paid OOP

I was thinking I could sign up DH for the Southwest cards and then just use his points for my flights.

 

[Albort]

I got chase Marriott personal in June 2016 and SPG Amex personal last March. I do like Marriott/spg but am open to other brands—just want hotel(s) that are clean, in safe areas, that are near transportation and sleep three comfortably. Spg didn’t seem to have hotels in London on points for summer 2018 unless I’m missing something.

?

 

[afan]

Thank you for the link and the info on how to transfer my UR to Hyatt, couldn't have been easier! Only needed to move 24k of them. Called and got our 3rd night added. The people on Hyatt's phones are so nice it makes me want to keep using them

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I'm completing the spend on current card and I am open to suggestions for my next card.
My current cards: CSR 10/2016
SW Premier 3/2017
SW Plus 4/2017 CIP 7/2017
Hyatt 9/2017
Marriott 11/2017
DH who does not travel but I'm hopeful. May be selling the dairy cows.
CSR 5/2017 CIP 9/2017

With my travel style, the SW CP is one of the more valuable options for me. I got the 2 hotel cards because I was worried about not finding timeshare rooms for the coming Aruba trip. The Hyatt has been valuable for the park and fly in MSP.
Another piece of the equation is my 38yo Down Syndrome daughter lives at home. I have avoided signing up for any cards for her, but we could maybe look at the SW cards for her at some time for the CP. Right now she is listed under my mother's CP.

I have used some UR for car rental as that is one of the travel expenses I have paid OOP

I was thinking I could sign up DH for the Southwest cards and then just use his points for my flights.

The husband idea is ok BUT if he earns a CP will he be going on the trips so you can use it? Or would it just be for the points (which getting $1,700 worth of Flights isn't necessarily a bad decision).

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Thanks for tagging me @CyndiLouWho so I could respond to @hsmamato2 I also purchased a $100 AA gift card which triggered the airline credit.

This is excellent news. Was trying to figure how to spend that credit. We never have "incidentals" and a gift card is much better.

 

[DaveL]

Not specifically, but my impression is that it is just more difficult and more work on their end, and that it takes a bit of time for it to transfer over.

I called during my lunch break today and spoke to three people who said it was not possible and all I could do is cash out my points, So I asked the last lady to be transferred to @SouthFayetteFan rep Leon's extension... She said okay and put me on hold then after a few mins I got someone else random. So I quickly explained what I wanted to do prepared for another denial and she said she'd be happy to help and all I needed to do was fill out the form she was about to email me and email it back and she'd take care of the rest. It was the standard Disney travel agent transfer form so I signed that and sent it back. She's supposed to call me hopefully tomorrow or whenever Disney successfully transfers it over. So if this works I will have moved my 20% off bounce back offer with dinning over to Chase and used 1.5x points to pay for it all.

 

[mfly]

I called during my lunch break today and spoke to three people who said it was not possible and all I could do is cash out my points, So I asked the last lady to be transferred to @SouthFayetteFan rep Leon's extension... She said okay and put me on hold then after a few mins I got someone else random. So I quickly explained what I wanted to do prepared for another denial and she said she'd be happy to help and all I needed to do was fill out the form she was about to email me and email it back and she'd take care of the rest. It was the standard Disney travel agent transfer form so I signed that and sent it back. She's supposed to call me hopefully tomorrow or whenever Disney successfully transfers it over. So if this works I will have moved my 20% off bounce back offer with dinning over to Chase and used 1.5x points to pay for it all.

How long ago did you book your bounceback? For some reason I was under the impression that you had to transfer reservations within a relatively short window of making the reservation (30 days?). I’d be curious to know how this works out for you.

 

[DaveL]

How long ago did you book your bounceback? For some reason I was under the impression that you had to transfer reservations within a relatively short window of making the reservation (30 days?). I’d be curious to know how this works out for you.

That is correct, it must follow the standard transfer rules... Within 30days of booking and must not be paid off. I booked a little over a week and a half ago.

 

[trenty]

If it was me, I'd have them do it. I don't know how much it will increase your score, since it's so high already, but unless you're worried you would abuse this limit increase and go into debt, why not? It will just lower you utilization ratio. We've picked up over $100k in credit limit on cards in the last two years. If I was worried about my financial behavior, I wouldn't have gotten involved in this. But it's a personal decision

Thanks.

I am not worried about abusing it. I am a little neurotic about paying my balance off daily, so no chance of going into debt.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I called during my lunch break today and spoke to three people who said it was not possible and all I could do is cash out my points, So I asked the last lady to be transferred to @SouthFayetteFan rep Leon's extension... She said okay and put me on hold then after a few mins I got someone else random. So I quickly explained what I wanted to do prepared for another denial and she said she'd be happy to help and all I needed to do was fill out the form she was about to email me and email it back and she'd take care of the rest. It was the standard Disney travel agent transfer form so I signed that and sent it back. She's supposed to call me hopefully tomorrow or whenever Disney successfully transfers it over. So if this works I will have moved my 20% off bounce back offer with dinning over to Chase and used 1.5x points to pay for it all.

Wow we get some phenomenal information here!! You guys are great!

 

[EllinK]

[QUOTE="FYI: there are links available through our DISchurners reddit site where you could get the 80k points and support a fellow DISer!![/QUOTE]

Thanks! Could you send me a link to the site?

 

[vanjust14]

http://pointsyak.com/benefits/priority-pass-restaurants/

Whenever Priority Pass adds a new restaurant, it seems the points and miles blogs will write about it.



Like @wendow posted, both Amex and Chase had eBags promos in the last quarter of 2017. Amex frequently has Amex Offers that are like $25 statement credit when you spend $125 or more. Chase's promo was get 10x UR points when you spend up to $20 on a Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, CSP (and maybe Sapphire?) using Chase Pay.

It used to be that you could buy just a $20 eBags gift card for Chase, or a $125 gift card with each Amex card that had the offer (and not a penny more) to maximize the deal, then ask eBags customer service via chat or email to combine the gift cards for you. eBags won't do that for you anymore.

You can only use 1 gift card per transaction on eBags.

If you have several cards that have an eBags deal, what you can do is (1) use 1 credit card to buy 1 eBags gift card for the minimum required amount to trigger the statement credit (Amex) or the maximum amount that'll qualify for the bonus (Chase), then (2) use that 1 gift card in conjunction with another credit card with the deal to hopefully put enough spend on the second card to trigger a statement credit or earn more bonus points.

eBags frequently offers 12% back and as high as 20% through shopping portals. They also run 20-25% off "site wide" sales often, but with lots of exceptions. (And I love me some Tumi sales!) If all the stars align, you can find some awesome savings on eBags!

The ebags deal was a Chase promo where you spent $20 and got 2000 UR. There has been an Amex offer for ebags on my cards but it's for like $25 off $125.

Thanks Wendow and Lain! I’ll be on the look out for another deal. Sounds like a you can really score a good one with Ebags.

 

[Lain]

Thanks Wendow and Lain! I’ll be on the look out for another deal. Sounds like a you can really score a good one with Ebags.

I forgot to add, if you or anyone else didn’t already know, that eBags has a Rewards program that earns you credit towards future purchases, and also has promotions that multiply the Rewards credit earned. EBags is also constantly adding $10 promo credit to my account to get me to spend!

 

[pillow]

Would love some ideas on a summer 2019 trip to London and possibly Paris. Thinking of 7-10 days in August with me and my two teenagers. I can fly out of any of the dc area airports. Based on 2018 prices, it Looks like I might be able to get tickets for $900/person.

I have csr and after CIP bonus posts will have about 130k ur points.

I got chase Marriott personal in June 2016 and SPG Amex personal last March. I do like Marriott/spg but am open to other brands—just want hotel(s) that are clean, in safe areas, that are near transportation and sleep three comfortably. Spg didn’t seem to have hotels in London on points for summer 2018 unless I’m missing something.

I’m at 4/24 plus CIP. Will be at 3/24 in June.

I’m trying to minimize out of pocket costs on airfare and hotels.

I've looked up London hotel points values so many times - would love to take my DD! You might have an issue putting 3 in a room, but some will let you do a rollaway. Check Hyatt and Marriott. Maybe get a Hyatt card next? Remember 5th night free with Marriott. I checked the Intercontinental at some point too but thought it was too expensive on points.

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lonpl-london-marriott-hotel-park-lane/
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/06/23/london-marriott-park-lane-review/

https://londonchurchill.regency.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

I'll be curious to hear what others say, as I'd like to do this trip too.

 

[Ngwira]

I am currently planning our spring break 2019 trip to California. Plan to use JetBlue points to fly into Long Beach from Philly. Should I fly into LAX instead? Or John Wayne or Burbank? Will rent a car to see Los Angeles and drive down to San Diego. Likely fly out of San Diego. I have some Hyatt and IHG points to use.. plus over 120,000 UR. Plan to buy my Disneyland tickets on last minute travel clubs website to save $$. Has anyone here done this specific trip? Any tips would be great.
I’m thinking about getting Amex’s new Hilton card to burn points at the hotel Coronado.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

The husband idea is ok BUT if he earns a CP will he be going on the trips so you can use it? Or would it just be for the points (which getting $1,700 worth of Flights isn't necessarily a bad decision).

The initial thought would be just for the value of the points. A year ago I would have said there was no way he would leave the farm but IF the cows are gone I would be more hopeful.

 

[marsh0013]

I just applied for and was approved for the Amex spg business. @mhartman09 you we're the lucky winner through the randomizer I used.

Quick question, probably has been addressed before. Should I add this card to my existing Amex account or set it up as a separate login? I'm guessing separate login may make it easier for adding offers to both of my cards, if business cards even get these offers? Ha, I'm clueless on this one.