I love credit cards so much!

[eeyoresmom]

Why wouldn't you combine your points (adding all from CSP to CSR) so that they would all be worth 1.5 on travel? As soon as I earn Freedom points they are immediately transferred and combined with my CSR points so they are worth more. Just a thought

The CSP is mine. The Ink and CSR are DH's. I'm contemplating getting the CSR also for this very reason.

 

[platamama]

The CSP is mine. The Ink and CSR are DH's. I'm contemplating getting the CSR also for this very reason.

You should be able to transfer your UR points to his CSR; Chase allows that within the same household. See MMS post on this - http://millionmilesecrets.com/2017/01/15/transfer-chase-ultimate-rewards-points-to-spouse/

 

[calypso726]

Where is everyone going with their miles? I need some suggestions for international trips that are a good value points wise. We want to see the world so I'm open to anything and am trying to maximize the points we have. We currently have 180,000 pts and have the CSR so can redeem 130,000 at 1.5x the other 50,000 at 1.25x. We live on the east coast and will definitely fly coach. 2 adults....where would you go??

We are east coast too. So far this year we've used or are using points to do the following:

Dec/Jan - Winter in Wyoming - Yellowstone with Adventures by Disney
Feb - Flew to London for the weekend to go see Harry Potter & the Cursed Child play
Mar- Flew to Hawaii and stayed at Aulani with a few days in Disneyland on the way back
June/Jul - Scotland for a long weekend to see the Fairy Pools
July - San Francisco for the weekend to see Hamilton
August - Italy (Rome, Venice, Florence) with Adventures by Disney
Nov - Iceland to see the Northern Lights and go ice caving

As you can see from my list of trips this year, 5 years into this hobby and DH and I are able to rather do frivolous things with our points (fly to London for a weekend, across the country to see a show, Scotland for a few days) that I would have never considered when we first started. Keep in mind we never use the points to fly coach. It's always up front in first. However we did decide to go "slumming" and try business class for the Scotland trip

With so many places to visit and explore, don't let your points dictate where you are going to go. Let your dreams dictate the where and then decide how to use the points to get there. The beauty of this hobby is that it can take you almost anywhere you desire and that it doesn't have to be a one time shot. I hope to get to the point where we are throwing a dart at a world map to go decide where to next

 

[Albort]

The CSP is mine. The Ink and CSR are DH's. I'm contemplating getting the CSR also for this very reason.

You should be able to transfer your UR points to his CSR; Chase allows that within the same household. See MMS post on this - http://millionmilesecrets.com/2017/01/15/transfer-chase-ultimate-rewards-points-to-spouse/

@eeyoresmom i might have been the one that you couldnt transfer from yours to his. I was wrong about that. my apologies.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

We are east coast too. So far this year we've used or are using points to do the following:

Dec/Jan - Winter in Wyoming - Yellowstone with Adventures by Disney
Feb - Flew to London for the weekend to go see Harry Potter & the Cursed Child play
Mar- Flew to Hawaii and stayed at Aulani with a few days in Disneyland on the way back
June/Jul - Scotland for a long weekend to see the Fairy Pools
July - San Francisco for the weekend to see Hamilton
August - Italy (Rome, Venice, Florence) with Adventures by Disney
Nov - Iceland to see the Northern Lights and go ice caving

As you can see from my list of trips this year, 5 years into this hobby and DH and I are able to rather do frivolous things with our points (fly to London for a weekend, across the country to see a show, Scotland for a few days) that I would have never considered when we first started. Keep in mind we never use the points to fly coach. It's always up front in first. However we did decide to go "slumming" and try business class for the Scotland trip

With so many places to visit and explore, don't let your points dictate where you are going to go. Let your dreams dictate the where and then decide how to use the points to get there. The beauty of this hobby is that it can take you almost anywhere you desire and that it doesn't have to be a one time shot. I hope to get to the point where we are throwing a dart at a world map to decide where to next

Of these trips, how much would you say you spent out of pocket vs. with points? Including things like food, transportation, activities, DVC dues, etc. I am curious. I would love to travel more, but for us it is harder because DH gets much less vacation time than me. Last year we were able to take a trip to Disney World for 6 nights in February and Disneyland for 5 nights in November. Out of pocket costs for both trips weren't very high, since I had churned gift cards that covered many of our expenses. For WDW, I paid for tickets, food, souvenirs and DVC dues almost completely with churned cards. I just paid airfare costs out of pocket. And for Disneyland, I got free airfare to LAX for me and paid $250 for DH. I got free hotel at a Sheraton and I paid for tickets, food and souvenirs with churned gift cards. And I still had enough left over to pay our DVC dues for 2017.

Unfortunately, all the good Disney gift card churns are dead, so I can't generate nearly as much as before. For our May cruise, my OOP cost is about $2500. I got hotel, airfare and some activities with points. We have a weekend trip to Madison, WI in May as well and hotel is covered with points, so it will just be gas and food costs for that trip, so maybe $100. We will go camping for a weekend in June, which will cost around $100 total. And for the cruise next year, I am hoping to spend just $1200 for the remaining cruise fare plus excursion costs. I hope to cover hotel in Venice and airfare all with points. I am considering some shorter summer trip for next year as well, but I need to consider what might be friendly with an 8 month old and still fun for us.

 

[fdefulvio]

It sounds like the CC rewards are MUCH easier to redeem for flights than the airline rewards. I'm Aadvantage Gold with 80,000 points, and redeeming for US flights is nearly impossible for less than 60,000 points. Trying to go from PHL to DEN in July. There are plenty of flights, but nothing for their advertised 25k miles. Maybe one flight for non preferred days at ridiculous hours.

 

[eeyoresmom]

You should be able to transfer your UR points to his CSR; Chase allows that within the same household. See MMS post on this - http://millionmilesecrets.com/2017/01/15/transfer-chase-ultimate-rewards-points-to-spouse/

Thanks so much!

 

[elgerber]

My husband and I are flying to England today to visit our daughter. Our flights were covered by Barclays. Our hotels in Lincoln, Edinburgh and York on Hilton and IHG points, and our other Barclays will pretty much cover our 5 night hotel in London. I may not be as good as getting the great values but it works for me. I did pay two annual fees on each Barclay card, so $356, but we earned almost $3000 on them, so a good value for me.

 

[eeyoresmom]

@eeyoresmom i might have been the one that you couldnt transfer from yours to his. I was wrong about that. my apologies.

No worries. We are all learning and I appreciate all the info you have shared

 

[eeyoresmom]

No worries. We are all learning and I appreciate all the info you have shared

@calypso726 , We got great prices to Paris last fall with Iceland Air (under $450 rt, Boston to Orly). Iceland Air allows free stopovers so we could have stayed a few nights to see the Northern Lights which I sorely wanted to do but did not want to cut any nights from our Venice, Florence,Paris itinerary. Alas, another trip then. Your Hawaii/Disneyland trip is one I am strongly considering. I would want to break up that long flight from the east coast and use our dvc points at DL as well. I was poking around the Chase travel site this morning ( new to us) and checked on Boston to Honolulu for January and the tickets are $$$$. More than we paid cash for DD to fly last summer.

 

[anita46]

Will a money order puchase be allowed by AMEX to meet the minimum spend on the Plat?

 

[Albort]

Will a money order puchase be allowed by AMEX to meet the minimum spend on the Plat?

you can't buy a money order with a credit card. only with debit card. u could buy a prepaid MasterCard/visa. it gets pretty complicated though. PO money order only takes certain bank prepaid, Walmart is the same. I know some grocery stores does MO as well.

 

[amcc]

Since we are a family of 6, frequent flyer redemptions for all of us on the same flight are a bit difficult. So, with our 237,000 points, we booked tickets to France this summer (through the portal at 1.5x redemption), $550 oop, plus another $800 in seats and baggage fees. We only have the CSR and I should have applied for another card with a signup bonus to completely cover the cost. Staying in Airbnb and VRBO properties so no benefit to a hotel card. We would need two rooms everywhere we are going and the value just isn't there vs a rental.
Anyways, this thread has been EXTREMELY helpful with ideas and facts so that I think I will be able to travel more with the kids in the future.

I will be downgrading my CSR and only keeping my husband's when the AF hits again and downgrading to something else with no fee. Thanks for everyone's very generous sharing of information.

 

[Albort]

Will a money order puchase be allowed by AMEX to meet the minimum spend on the Plat?

can't seem to edit. also would recommend u get a dummy bank account so u don't get shut down. Wells Fargo is a good one cuz they are super lineamt since they are desperate for customers. I heard u can even mobile deposit MO.

 

[eeyoresmom]

@amcc , we booked an Airb&B in Paris and it worked out great. We paid $89 a night for a 1 bedroom in the 4th. It was so convenient and about a quarter the price of a hotel room.

 

[anita46]

can't seem to edit. also would recommend u get a dummy bank account so u don't get shut down. Wells Fargo is a good one cuz they are super lineamt since they are desperate for customers. I heard u can even mobile deposit MO

OK - so I use the Amex to buy Visa/MC then use them to purchase MO? My need is to meet minimum for AMEX.
OR
are you saying open a Wells Fargo account and fund it with AMEX?

My apologies for being a moron about this...Thanks for your responses!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Question about the Amex Platinum. It says that you get a free gold card for an authorized user. One of the benefits of the gold card is a $100 annual benefit towards airline incidentals. Any know if the free gold card would get this perk if I put my husband on as an authorized user? Once I am finished with Chase cards (thinking I will get CSP and later downgrade to Chase Unlimited), I am interested in getting the Amex. The $200 incidentals from the Platinum card + another $100 from a Gold card would go a decent way towards offsetting the $550 annual fee.

Also, does the CSP ever go above 50k sign up bonus? This would be my next card, but I would be interested in waiting if there may be a better offer.

 

[Albort]

OK - so I use the Amex to buy Visa/MC then use them to purchase MO? My need is to meet minimum for AMEX.
OR
are you saying open a Wells Fargo account and fund it with AMEX?

My apologies for being a moron about this...Thanks for your responses!

u need a dummy account like Wells Fargo to deposit the MO u buy. most banks don't like people depositing MO. if u do deposit to ur bank, u will run the risk of getting ur account shut down.

Buy Gift Card, Buy MO with Gift Card, deposit into dummy account. ACH it back to ur main account or pay ur credit card with dummy account.

u will lose like $10 per MO transaction, per every $500 I think.

 

[anita46]

u need a dummy account like Wells Fargo to deposit the MO u buy. most banks don't like people depositing MO. if u do deposit to ur bank, u will run the risk of getting ur account shut down.

Buy Gift Card, Buy MO with Gift Card, deposit into dummy account. ACH it back to ur main account or pay ur credit card with dummy account.

u will lose like $10 per MO transaction, per every $500 I think.

Perfect...gotcha....will AMEX be OK with gift cards used for a minimum spend?

 

[Albort]

Also, does the CSP ever go above 50k sign up bonus? This would be my next card, but I would be interested in waiting if there may be a better offer.

historically, csp went as high as 75k. but I think it's rare or targeted offer.