I love credit cards so much!

[WVMomof3]

Ok all, while not as impressive as some of you get, I have been planning an 11 night trip to Grand Canyon/Utah areas this summer. So far I have 10 of 11 nights booked and flights for 4 (will get my companion pass first week of April and will add a companion for a 5th ticket). My total that I would have spent so far is $4500 for flights and hotels. I will only be spending $800 out of pocket so far. This was for 4 nights that I couldn't find on Chase site for hotels I wanted. Pretty excited! I still need to add my last night in Vegas, close to airport, and rental car. I have used 75,000 SW points and 145,000 UR points.

 

[Lain]

I have to re-plumb most of my house...the plumber of choice doesn't accept credit cards....what is the best way to handle this...I have cards with plenty of room to put this. But I also got approved for Spg and would like to spend the sign-up for the 35,000 bonus.
Any thoughts or suggestions? I don't want to burn a bridge with AMEX if they think I am churning.

If you don't mind incurring a 2.5% fee, Plastiq will take a credit card payment for any bill you owe and issue a check to the payee.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Anyone else see this from Bloomberg? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-31/airlines-make-more-money-selling-miles-than-seats
If you've ever wondered why there are so many airline credit card offers here's your answer! They make bank off the deals with the banks and then the banks make bank off the deals with consumers!

 

[gottalovepluto]

... I still need to add my last night in Vegas, close to airport, and rental car...

Don't forget to check the UR portal for the rental car rates. This may have been specific to Hawaii but the price UR gave me for my National Rental was like $80 less than the best price I could find on the website typing in a dozen different contract codes and coupons. I'll make sure to double check UR's rate next time I go to book a rental car after finding that! (You can pay cash through the UR website if you find a good deal there, it's not only for points.)

 

[Albort]

For anyone that has the Citi Thank you. I got email this morning about 5x on certain
categories. A couple of them are dept stores and home improvement stores.
So I went out this morning and got 500 Disney card for 2500 points. I did this because
Citi is also offering 50% bonus on transfer to jet blue miles (which is our favorite
next to virgin). I was looking to top up and transfer.

The offer is only good up to 2500 points.

man, i never get targetted from citi... i got a $200 item in mind too!

Edited: did my own research and found out that NO, office supplies are no longer a multiplier on the Chase Ink Preferred.

So my options (for my husband) are:

• Ink Preferred, get 80k bonus, but forfeit the multiplier on office supplies (AKA DISNEY GIFT CARDS)
• Ink Cash, get $300 bonus, 5x mutliplier on office supplies, but no big mileage bonus. And no annual fee.
  
• Chase Sapphire Preferred, get 50k bonus and extra 5k to add an authorized user.

I want to stay in the Chase family, and i'm feeling behind the ball on point accumulation. I wish I had found this thread before, as we are planning a trip to WDW/Universal in March. I would love to have enough UR to fly and stay onsite at Universal and use UR points. Wanted to use Disney GC to fund DVA (get GC back) to use for room reservation.

I have already received my CSP, so will have 55k after meeting spend. I am really not sure what to do now. I'm lost.

well, ink Cash, $300 bonus... aka 30,000 points... it aint big but its still something... honestly, Id take ink cash over ink preferred as long as you have a CS card to go with it.

@calypso726 are u a Millennial? https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-have-29-credit-cards-youre-probably-a-millennial-1490972634

 

[jujubiee4]

I see MillionMileSecrets had a writeup yesterday about Disney World with points......

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2017/...disney-world-resorts-with-points/#more-222191

 

[jujubiee4]

Don't forget to check the UR portal for the rental car rates. This may have been specific to Hawaii but the price UR gave me for my National Rental was like $80 less than the best price I could find on the website typing in a dozen different contract codes and coupons. I'll make sure to double check UR's rate next time I go to book a rental car after finding that! (You can pay cash through the UR website if you find a good deal there, it's not only for points.)

I didn't know Chase had car rental through the portal. I did check but don't see a one way price
that i will need for a cruise. I will try it next year for Hawaii trip though. Thanks again.

 

[calypso726]

Wow, the Regis looks amazing. I'm leaning towards that.

I know, right! If we like Rome enough to want to return, I know where we will be staying next time!

@calypso726 are u a Millennial? https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-have-29-credit-cards-youre-probably-a-millennial-1490972634

Nope @Albort I am Gen X and old enough to be the parent of a Millenial but the shoe fits as they say.

 

[jujubiee4]

Sorry Im so annoyed. This is an alert out to Chase card holders. I clean out
my laptop and run security scans every other day or at least few times a week. Whenever
i do this and try to log into Chase i get the message "we are not familiar with the device you
are trying to log on from". Meaning the cookies were cleared. They then ask to text me a code.
The two numbers i have on are the last 4 of my home and last 4 of my cell.

Well i logged in a little while ago and there was a THIRD number there. Completely unfamiliar
to me. It was not there a few days ago. I called and got transferred around to 3 different
people who didnt understand . I asked how did this number get here. They were completely
clueless. They did remove it. Since it was the last 4 numbers I asked what is the full
phone number and get this ...they couldn't tell me for security reasons and IT IS MY
ACCOUNT!! I said how could it have been added and she said someone may have called to
put it on???
What the heck???

I put a verbal password on it now and will be watching even more closely.

I read on flyertalk Chase is the most hacked card. I thought i had escaped i guess not.
I have had the preferred for 1 1/2 years and Reserve about 8 months. No charges were on them.

 

[jujubiee4]

By the way the first 2 customer service reps could not find the 3rd phone number.
I looked on my online profile and it wasn't there. They kept saying are you sure?
are you sure? Like i was crazy. Then i got transferred to a different security
dept and she found it and removed it. Really weird.

 

[Albort]

I read on flyertalk Chase is the most hacked card. I thought i had escaped i guess not.

i honestly think its an inside job, someone in chase stealing. Some people were reporting their cards being used even before they got the actual card.

I had a similar event like yours except with my frontier bill. I had to verify my account, says i will get an email. when i get to the confirmation page, it says a completely different email than mine...

 

[mefordis]

I am planning a trip to Hawaii for my birthday summer 2018. I want to fly my family first class on Virgin America from JFK to Maui. I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Am Ex Everyday cards that I"m using. I can transfer points into miles from both cards to Virgin America. My question is, if this were your goal, what would you do to rack up the miles? I think one first class ticket is $4500 or 200,000 points. Therefore, I would need to rack up 400k points then pay 9k for two remaining flights. I know it seems like a waste of money and points, but this would be a special trip.

Anyway, I have a little over a year to do this. How would you go about trying to accumulate 400k points within that time frame? I only have about 50k points right now. I have wasted a lot of points in the past getting cash back.

Thanks for any help!

 

[mefordis]

What a bummer! Looks like my Chase Preferred only transfers points to Virgin Atlantic, and my AMEX ED transfers at 200 points = 100 miles. Ugh. This would be such an uphill battle. I should look into flying United, right? I have a card with them as well with 25k miles.

I am planning a trip to Hawaii for my birthday summer 2018. I want to fly my family first class on Virgin America from JFK to Maui. I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Am Ex Everyday cards that I"m using. I can transfer points into miles from both cards to Virgin America. My question is, if this were your goal, what would you do to rack up the miles? I think one first class ticket is $4500 or 200,000 points. Therefore, I would need to rack up 400k points then pay 9k for two remaining flights. I know it seems like a waste of money and points, but this would be a special trip.

Anyway, I have a little over a year to do this. How would you go about trying to accumulate 400k points within that time frame? I only have about 50k points right now. I have wasted a lot of points in the past getting cash back.

Thanks for any help!

 

[afan]

I am planning a trip to Hawaii for my birthday summer 2018. I want to fly my family first class on Virgin America from JFK to Maui. I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Am Ex Everyday cards that I"m using. I can transfer points into miles from both cards to Virgin America. My question is, if this were your goal, what would you do to rack up the miles? I think one first class ticket is $4500 or 200,000 points. Therefore, I would need to rack up 400k points then pay 9k for two remaining flights. I know it seems like a waste of money and points, but this would be a special trip.

Anyway, I have a little over a year to do this. How would you go about trying to accumulate 400k points within that time frame? I only have about 50k points right now. I have wasted a lot of points in the past getting cash back.

Thanks for any help!

Virgin American got bought by Alaska and I think their mileage programs have been or will be merged by that point. I know the liverly will start getting changed and all planes done I think the news said by 2020. I'm in Seattle so get all the news about Alaska Air on tv. That may be why you can't move the points that you mentioned in your other post.

 

[kmc8826]

i honestly think its an inside job, someone in chase stealing. Some people were reporting their cards being used even before they got the actual card.

I had an event this week too with my Freedom. I just got it last September and have only used it for Costco through the end of the year and then gas stations this past quarter. A random $5 online unspecified charge showed up. I disputed it through the online system and then someone ended up calling me. I verified that I still had the physical card. She said that Chase is hacked a lot because the first numbers of their accounts are the same and then people randomly try other number combinations. I don't know if that is true or not, but seeing as I have five chase cards now and my husband has three it doesn't make me feel any better. That explanation seems a little strange! Chase handled it appropriately, but didn't seem too overly concerned. I guess it verifies my daily checking on the app of our accounts and what is going on.

 

[mefordis]

Virgin American got bought by Alaska and I think their mileage programs have been or will be merged by that point. I know the liverly will start getting changed and all planes done I think the news said by 2020. I'm in Seattle so get all the news about Alaska Air on tv. That may be why you can't move the points that you mentioned in your other post.

Oh, got it. A lot can change in a year and a half. Could you make a recommendation to me as to what approach I should take to rack up as many miles within the next 1 1/2 years? Am I doing all I can by using those two cards I mentioned (AMEX ED, Chase Sapphire) and not touching the points? I wish we could pay our mortgage by credit card! That would be awesome! We use them for everything else.

 

[calypso726]

I am planning a trip to Hawaii for my birthday summer 2018. I want to fly my family first class on Virgin America from JFK to Maui. I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Am Ex Everyday cards that I"m using. I can transfer points into miles from both cards to Virgin America. My question is, if this were your goal, what would you do to rack up the miles? I think one first class ticket is $4500 or 200,000 points. Therefore, I would need to rack up 400k points then pay 9k for two remaining flights. I know it seems like a waste of money and points, but this would be a special trip.

Anyway, I have a little over a year to do this. How would you go about trying to accumulate 400k points within that time frame? I only have about 50k points right now. I have wasted a lot of points in the past getting cash back.

Thanks for any help!

@mefordis As a pp mentioned Alaska and Virgin America will be merging and I have read that the VA planes will be changed and the first class seats will not be as nice as they are now. Nonetheless if you want to use you UR and MR points for Alaska Air then you'd transfer to BA as they are partners and UR and MR both transfer to BA. The rate with MR is 1.25:1 so if you see a a transfer bonus for MR-BA then go for it. We did this when there was a 40% transfer bonus and came out ahead on MR:BA. You'd search on Alaska's website for lowest award space which means partner award space. You'd have to call BA to book.

You can also use BA to book on American Airlines as they are also partners. You'd search American for saver award space and call BA to book.

Another option is to transfer UR to Korean to fly Delta and MR to Delta as well. The booking process requires some hurdles and you'd have to find low level Delta awards which isn't always easy.

I did a quick search on Delta for flights this July from JFK-OGG and found first class lie flat seats in the $2,449 range. If you stick to booking the easy way straight on Delta then you'd be using 200K miles anyhow for each flight but your flights would cost less than $4500 each. So you'd need 400K MR to transfer to Delta and you'd use your UR points to pay for one of the flights. Pick up a CSR so your UR points are worth 1.5 instead of 1.25, make the bonus so you have an additional 50K UR points plus the $300 travel credit. Paying with UR points for your Delta flight at $2449 would cost you just over 163,000 UR points. If you don't have that many points pay with what you have and the remainder with the CSR which will trigger your $300 travel credit. Get the CSR first if you are not over 5/24. Then pick up a few more MR cards with a high bonus. In your situation and trying to get 4 people up front, and not much time to do it (summer 2018), I'd forgo the headache of UR to Korean and I'd go straight via Delta using UR to pay for one or more tickets and MR transfer to Delta to book award flights. If you let the thread know how many UR and MR you currently have, how many new credit cards and AU accounts you've opened in the last 24 months and whether or not you are comfortable applying for a business card we'd probably be able to come up with a god strategy for you.

 

[Lain]

I am planning a trip to Hawaii for my birthday summer 2018. I want to fly my family first class on Virgin America from JFK to Maui. I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Am Ex Everyday cards that I"m using. I can transfer points into miles from both cards to Virgin America. My question is, if this were your goal, what would you do to rack up the miles? I think one first class ticket is $4500 or 200,000 points. Therefore, I would need to rack up 400k points then pay 9k for two remaining flights. I know it seems like a waste of money and points, but this would be a special trip.

Anyway, I have a little over a year to do this. How would you go about trying to accumulate 400k points within that time frame? I only have about 50k points right now. I have wasted a lot of points in the past getting cash back.

Thanks for any help!

What a bummer! Looks like my Chase Preferred only transfers points to Virgin Atlantic, and my AMEX ED transfers at 200 points = 100 miles. Ugh. This would be such an uphill battle. I should look into flying United, right? I have a card with them as well with 25k miles.

Have you looked into flying Hawaiian Airlines from JFK to HNL?: https://thepointsguy.com/2017/02/hawaiian-a330-first-review/ This is my preferred airline to Hawaii.

As TPG mentioned in the article, Amex Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest points transfer to HawaiianMiles.

You can get hefty signup bonuses for Amex credit and charge cards through incognito offers (see: https://www.uscreditcardguide.com/a-new-method-to-get-amex-best-offers-the-chinese-website-method/). Amex just raised their public offer on the Platinum card to 60k MR, but as you can see an incognito offer could get you 75k MR, or you could hold out in hopes of being targeted for or finding a link to a 100k MR offer. The Premier Rewards Gold could get you as much as another 50k MR. Then you can make your way down the list of Amex cards for their signup bonuses. With Amex, signup bonuses are almost always once per lifetime, so pick your signup offers very carefully and watch those minimum spend requirements. Both the Platinum and PRG card come with hefty annual fees, but you can offset some of that with airline fee credits. The Platinum card offers $200 and the PRG offers $100 in statement credits each calendar year for incidental fees incurred with your select airline. Choose Hawaiian because you can buy $100 Hawaiian Airlines gift certificates to trigger the fee credit (buy them $100 per transaction; anything more won't qualify), which you can use towards your flights. Unfortunately, Hawaiian accepts only 4 gift certificates per booking.

Amex MR points typically transfer to HawaiianMiles at 1:1, plus a fee, but it seems about once a year, Amex offers a transfer bonus of 25%. So if you can rack up those MR points and hold out for the transfer bonus, you can transfer your MR to HawaiianMiles at 1:1.25 (see, e.g., https://thepointsguy.com/2016/06/membership-rewards-to-hawaiian-25-percent-bonus/)

And currently, Amex is offering the SPG personal credit card for 35k SPG (highest offer) until April 5 (see: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/starwood-preferred-guest/).

If you decide to fly Hawaiian, you should definitely get the Barclaycard Hawaiian Airlines MasterCard. You can get as much as 50k HawaiianMiles for a relatively low $1,000/90 days minimum spend. The standard offer is 35k HawaiianMiles, but you can make a dummy booking on the Hawaiian Airlines website to get the 50k offer (see: http://milecards.com/1588428286/50000-mile-hawaiian-bonus-mastercard/). I also received a targeted mailer for the 50k HawaiianMiles bonus from Barclaycard recently, probably because I purchased Hawaiian Airlines gift certificates. Other benefits include a one-time 50% off a companion discount for roundtrip coach travel between the Mainland and Hawaii and a $100 discount off a companion roundtrip coach ticket every anniversary, and a complimentary checked bag for the cardholder on tickets purchased with this card.

The real benefit, I think, of having the Hawaiian Airlines MasterCard is the card gets linked to your HawaiianMiles account and anyone can then transfer miles to the cardholder's account. This makes pooling HawaiianMiles from several people very easy! So if you have family who are flying Hawaiian and earning miles, or who are also signing up for credit card bonuses, they can all transfer those points to you towards this special trip.

I may be missing some details, but this is about as best I can do right now at 7 on a weekend morning. If you have any questions, post away. Good luck!

 

[shystalips]

I see MillionMileSecrets had a writeup yesterday about Disney World with points......

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2017/...disney-world-resorts-with-points/#more-222191

Wow! Never could find this. This just may give me a reason to keep the CSR: Points for All Star Sports avg. 7,357 per night for end of october, and moderates avg. 14.000 pts.

 

[Lain]

I wish we could pay our mortgage by credit card! That would be awesome! We use them for everything else.

You could, but you'd almost certainly pay a fee. Like I've mentioned elsewhere, Plastiq will accept a credit card payment for any bill you owe, including a mortgage, and send a check out for you (scheduled monthly if you'd like) for a 2.5% fee. Plastiq occasionally runs promos with a lower fee. You can dissect whether the fee is "worth it" many different ways, but your mortgage is something you have to pay anyway, and usually in cash. Paying in cash doesn't get you anything. So is the credit card fee that Plastiq tacks on worth however many points you'll earn? Then you'll have to consider how much those points are worth for whatever you plan on using them for.