I love credit cards so much!

[hsmamato2]

OR maybe we are both crazy...hmmmmmmm!

I'll add an opposing viewpoint on the point purchasing - I feel like I'd be very hesitant to ever buy points. I've looked into it before and the math has never made sense to me. I know many here have done so and don't appear to regret it...maybe I'm just not recognizing that I'm spoiled with our stash so I can't see the true economics of it.

well,every time I've compared the price per night with taxes to the cost of the points bought divided by my nights,it's always cheaper to buy the points...maybe it's the time of year we travel etc but rooms are never cheaper than $300 a night (over the years of looking)

 

[platamama]

I'll add an opposing viewpoint on the point purchasing - I feel like I'd be very hesitant to ever buy points. I've looked into it before and the math has never made sense to me. I know many here have done so and don't appear to regret it...maybe I'm just not recognizing that I'm spoiled with our stash so I can't see the true economics of it.

I've talked about Marriott travel packages before, and for me that's where I get value from buying points.

For example, last year I transferred 60,000 UR points to Marriott to have enough for a Marriott travel package that I redeemed for SW miles and a Cat 6 property. I could (should!!!) have bought SPG points to transfer over and it would have only cost me $455 for 20K Starpoints = 60K Marriott points. Instead I gave up 60K UR points worth at least $600 cash or $900 thru the CSR UR portal.

So determined not to make that mistake again, I bought Starpoints on sale last year for both DH and me for another Marriott travel package, cost me $1365 for 60K Starpoints = 180K Marriott points...with no concrete plan for them. (Went thru points . com and put it on my SPG AX to max out what I could receive for my spend.)

I searched for Marriott places where I'd want to spend a week, and decided on a Marriott in Costa Rica over Thanksgiving break which costs $2400 OOP or 240K Marriott points. I've booked that reward stay even though I don't have enough Marriott points in my account yet. Marriott lets you do this, which is awesome. I plan on redeeming for 120K SW miles as the miles part of that travel package and that's worth $1700 to me (actually more than $1700 since I have a SW CP [which I got from my travel package redemption last year - RIP hotel transfers counting toward CP ]). So for $1365 in points purchased, I'm getting at least $4100 in value. Granted, between DH and me, we have other URs and MRs to transfer the remaining 180K over to Marriott to redeem for a 360,000 Marriott travel package, so at this point I don't NEED to buy Starpoints...but I probably will. Because 1) it will help me reach my SPG Biz MSR, and 2) even if I spend another $1365 on points and use those for this redemption, the combined total of $2730 OOP is less than the value ($4100) I'm extracting out of the points.

FWIW, I think the ability to reserve award space without having the points in your account is a huge under-reported benefit with Marriott.

 

[SmallMama]

I applied today for the ink business preferred and got instant approval with a 10k approval. I was shock about the instant approval since most stated I had to wait to hear and I am shock chase keeps giving me so much credit line.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

well,every time I've compared the price per night with taxes to the cost of the points bought divided by my nights,it's always cheaper to buy the points...maybe it's the time of year we travel etc but rooms are never cheaper than $300 a night (over the years of looking)

I've talked about Marriott travel packages before, and for me that's where I get value from buying points.

For example, last year I transferred 60,000 UR points to Marriott to have enough for a Marriott travel package that I redeemed for SW miles and a Cat 6 property. I could (should!!!) have bought SPG points to transfer over and it would have only cost me $455 for 20K Starpoints = 60K Marriott points. Instead I gave up 60K UR points worth at least $600 cash or $900 thru the CSR UR portal.

So determined not to make that mistake again, I bought Starpoints on sale last year for both DH and me for another Marriott travel package, cost me $1365 for 60K Starpoints = 180K Marriott points...with no concrete plan for them. (Went thru points . com and put it on my SPG AX to max out what I could receive for my spend.)

I searched for Marriott places where I'd want to spend a week, and decided on a Marriott in Costa Rica over Thanksgiving break which costs $2400 OOP or 240K Marriott points. I've booked that reward stay even though I don't have enough Marriott points in my account yet. Marriott lets you do this, which is awesome. I plan on redeeming for 120K SW miles as the miles part of that travel package and that's worth $1700 to me (actually more than $1700 since I have a SW CP [which I got from my travel package redemption last year - RIP hotel transfers counting toward CP ]). So for $1365 in points purchased, I'm getting at least $4100 in value. Granted, between DH and me, we have other URs and MRs to transfer the remaining 180K over to Marriott to redeem for a 360,000 Marriott travel package, so at this point I don't NEED to buy Starpoints...but I probably will. Because 1) it will help me reach my SPG Biz MSR, and 2) even if I spend another $1365 on points and use those for this redemption, the combined total of $2730 OOP is less than the value ($4100) I'm extracting out of the points.

FWIW, I think the ability to reserve award space without having the points in your account is a huge under-reported benefit with Marriott.

Ok...fair warning but this is gonna sound super braggy ...I think I've never really understood the "sense" of buying Marriott points (or SPG) because we already have over a million Marriott points LOL. Like...why do I need more, haha - definitely makes sense now that I see some more concrete examples.

Also, I haven't actually stayed at Swan/Dolphin yet, this is a future plan for us when our travel patterns change in late 2019 (We basically have a travel agenda/strategy out through the end of 2020 currently, lol). I just looked and can see that the cpp on a Swan room can be pretty awesome (and well over what I currently value my Marriott/SPG stash at). Thanks for providing some more info guys

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I applied today for the ink business preferred and got instant approval with a 10k approval. I was shock about the instant approval since most stated I had to wait to hear and I am shock chase keeps giving me so much credit line.

Awesome - congrats!!!

 

[Lain]

I applied today for the ink business preferred and got instant approval with a 10k approval. I was shock about the instant approval since most stated I had to wait to hear and I am shock chase keeps giving me so much credit line.

Congratulations!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

FWIW, I think the ability to reserve award space without having the points in your account is a huge under-reported benefit with Marriott.

This is definitely a GREAT benefit when you have points coming but want to lock things in now. It's a shame others won't do the same (lookin at you Hilton!)

 

[SmallMama]

Congratulations!

Thanks for the help and i hope you enjoy the special treat if i did it right!

 

[SmallMama]

Awesome - congrats!!!

Thanks!

 

[linzjane88]

Hey I have a conundrum. So we are going to Oahu 5/12-5/20 and traveling with friends that have no travel perks or miles and the only request is that we fly on Hawaiian Airlines (we want the full Hawaii experience. Ha! ). There is no logical loophole to use our 130k UR's to book an award on Hawaiian, right? Last time we transferred to BA to book on Alaska but Alaska is more expensive for our flight dates anyway. I don't want to push our friends into a more expensive flight so we can use miles. The only way I can think to swing it is if we simply book through Chase but for the $608 flight I think it will cost 42k UR per person or so. Pretty rough when I got our last award to Hawaii for like 25k round trip. I'm torn between "free flights" and saving the UR for a better value and paying up front.

Is the anything I'm not seeing here? Thoughts?

 

[Albort]

I will look into gyft now. thx!

@Lain does it only work on the app...not on computer?

i have some experience with gyft.com. i don’t recall being able to use apple pay though desktop. for some reason using my phone to buy gift cards tends to not get rejected. if u buy a huge string of gift card, be prepared for a few rejections. to solve this, u may need to send your ID to them. after that, it should be super easy street.

Hey I have a conundrum. So we are going to Oahu 5/12-5/20 and traveling with friends that have no travel perks or miles and the only request is that we fly on Hawaiian Airlines (we want the full Hawaii experience. Ha! ). There is no logical loophole to use our 130k UR's to book an award on Hawaiian, right? Last time we transferred to BA to book on Alaska but Alaska is more expensive for our flight dates anyway. I don't want to push our friends into a more expensive flight so we can use miles. The only way I can think to swing it is if we simply book through Chase but for the $608 flight I think it will cost 42k UR per person or so. Pretty rough when I got our last award to Hawaii for like 25k round trip. I'm torn between "free flights" and saving the UR for a better value and paying up front.

Is the anything I'm not seeing here? Thoughts?

Timeframe might not be long enough, u can try calling KE for 25k RT on Delta Metal.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

On the bolded part for your Alaska cruise down the line: My suggestion would be to get your DH the CIP with your referral. Once he has it, PC your CIP to an Ink Cash. That is assuming you have a CIP too and not the Ink+. I have an Ink+ but my referral link goes for a CIP. Anyhow, with the Ink Cash or Ink+ you can purchase Disney GCs at office supply stores for 5x. You can then pay for your Alaska cruise with Disney GCs through Dreams and get 5x on paying for your cruise. I believe Dreams limits you to how much you can pay with Disney GCs per day or how many Disney GCs you can submit per day, but it is totally do-able.

For your current Hawai plans: I'd advise the Aspire card. You'd get 100K Hilton points, a $250 airline credit (this can be triggered by certain airline gift cards at certain amounts once you select your airline), a $250 Hilton resort credit, $100 Waldorf or Conrad resort credit, a free weekend night and Diamond status! I picked this one up because I am planning a trip to Bora Bora in a couple of years. DH picked one up too, my mistake was not making him wait until I had a referral code. So if both you and your DH decide to pick up the card and get 200K points, $500 in resort credits, $500 in airline credits, 2 weekend nights etc. I'd wait until you can generate a referral code.

With your current Hilton points, current plans and ease of adding another 100K Hilton points, plus resort credits, a free weekend night and airline credits you can easily cover your entire resort stay depending on the property you choose. Even with the high end properties you'd be able to cover a good portion of the stay considering you get 5th night free on award stays.

SPG won't last long at 35K. If you find with the current planning that the SPG points will be more valuable then jump on it sooner rather than later.

I have the regular CIP. Do I not need it a year before I can PC it? It is pretty new. My only thought about that is (because I like the CIC category better) is I lose out on this plastiq endeavor I was about to partake on. I guess we could use DHs for that if I refer him though.

As for hilton...DH is already diamond, so that part of the card perk is moot. We are trying to get to lifetime diamond...3 more years. What I am running into is that the Hawaiian places seem to require 2 rooms for us. Usually we just pull it off by getting a room with a sleeper sofa and 2 beds. DD2 sleeps in a pack n play. I haven't found any Hawaii hilton rooms that have the sleeper sofa, so we'd need 2 rooms. With these resorts running so high, that is going to easily be 120k/nt for the rooms. Insane. The aspire is a personal card, right? We are both under 5/24 so that messes with my chase. That is the reason I haven't jumped on it for DH. So I was sort of leaning towards doing Hyatt with my UR. We can get 2 rooms there at 20k/nt each...40k/nt. I just need to pin all this down so I can find award availability. There was some at thanksgiving, last I looked. I wasn't considering summer at that point. I am going check hilton again and see what I can find there too

I think I can figure out hotel stuff, with the several options I have. I am more worried about flights b/c I have no clue about anything other than southwest.

 

[amalone1013]

Ok...fair warning but this is gonna sound super braggy ...I think I've never really understood the "sense" of buying Marriott points (or SPG) because we already have over a million Marriott points LOL. Like...why do I need more, haha - definitely makes sense now that I see some more concrete examples.

Also, I haven't actually stayed at Swan/Dolphin yet, this is a future plan for us when our travel patterns change in late 2019 (We basically have a travel agenda/strategy out through the end of 2020 currently, lol). I just looked and can see that the cpp on a Swan room can be pretty awesome (and well over what I currently value my Marriott/SPG stash at). Thanks for providing some more info guys

I love how planned out you have things.

I'm just over here like, ahh I almost forgot to book us a room in my hometown for our at home reception next weekend...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I love how planned out you have things.

I'm just over here like, ahh I almost forgot to book us a room in my hometown for our at home reception next weekend...

You're young and just married - you guys should be fun and spontaneous!! We have 2 kids (one in school and one soon to be) and numerous other family members with kids/priorities of their own who we coordinate trips with, lol! Planning trips 2 years out is a both a gift and a burden LOL!

 

[mefordis]

Just applied for the SPG Biz online and after hitting submit the page said my husband was approved, but the email I got says:

We are excited that you've decided to apply for the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card, and we're reviewing your application now. We promise to let you know when we're finished, or if we need more information.


While we're reviewing your application, please don't apply for another Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card. Thank you for your interest in American Express.

I did not go past that initial response page because I thought I was done, then when I came back to look at it later I see I was supposed to add more users or decline adding any. Oops. Not sure if this is why I didn't get an approval email?

What do you think? Was he really approved? Thanks!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Just applied for the SPG Biz online and after hitting submit the page said my husband was approved, but the email I got says:

We are excited that you've decided to apply for the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card, and we're reviewing your application now. We promise to let you know when we're finished, or if we need more information.


While we're reviewing your application, please don't apply for another Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card. Thank you for your interest in American Express.

I did not go past that initial response page because I thought I was done, then when I came back to look at it later I see I was supposed to add more users or decline adding any. Oops. Not sure if this is why I didn't get an approval email?

What do you think? Was he really approved? Thanks!

This probably means you went pending VERY briefly. If you want to verify that you were approved check here https://www262.americanexpress.com/eaol/welcome.do

 

[mefordis]

This probably means you went pending VERY briefly. If you want to verify that you were approved check here https://www262.americanexpress.com/eaol/welcome.do

Thanks you so much! You are so helpful!!!

 

[mefordis]

Thanks you so much! You are so helpful!!!

Is it too soon to check? I got a response saying they could not locate his application.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Is it too soon to check? I got a response saying they could not locate his application.

Hmmmm...most times any application will show up that site immediately. There was one time that we had an app not show up there for a couple of days but that was because we applied via phone. I don't have a good answer for you on this one...but I'm slightly concerned that your application didn't go thru since you didn't complete those screens. Sorry I don't have greater certainty for you on this one...

 

[afan]

Beat my goal and finished under 2 hours. Used my csr to buy my early lunch after because it's my preferred card to carry on runs