I love credit cards so much!

[calypso726]

Once in a lifetime for sure!

How do you do a 5 day hold? By phone? Any explanation why only first class awards were the only thing showing early am & saver awards didn't show till afternoon? Are they usually released in waves, or is it random?

You can do the hold right online. You proceed as if you are booking it, but towards the end you have the option to hold or book and pay.

holy moly, how many points did u have?
Ive barely reached 500k points in combined points altogether.

Between DH and I we had a little over 350,000 SPG points. We used 2,000 TY points that I had left over, 220,000 MR points and the rest were SPG points. He had to transfer his SPG points to my account and then I had to transfer them to my KrisFlyer account. Apparently, if you get caught transferring points from someone else's account into your KF account directly, they can shut you down or you can forfeit the points.

Between us we try to maintain a balance of a few million points at all times.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Ha I'm trying to get to 35k Starpoints, not 350k
But now I can say "I have this friend online who..."

 

[calypso726]

@calypso726 OMG! #churninglifegoal right there! I hope you give us a detailed report on the experience after your trip!

Hahaha! For sure. The flight is for our Adventures by Disney trip to China. I post day by day trip reports on the ABD forum here on the DIS when I'm on one. So when we leave next May for the trip I'll be sure to post a link to the trip report. I've figured out getting to Hong Kong. Now, I have to work on getting from Shanghai to Tokyo since we plan to do a post stay and visit Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea. Then I gotta figure out how to get from Tokyo back home. I'm thinking JAL using AA miles.

 

[calypso726]

Ha I'm trying to get to 35k Starpoints, not 350k
But now I can say "I have this friend online who..."

Ok that made me quite literally LOL

 

[CyndiLouWho]

@calypso726 thanks for the help!
Put our flight award on hold. Will check daily to see. Fingers crossed.

Seriously I am more jealous of your trip in China than your flight there even though the flight is quite the accomplishment

 

[calypso726]

@calypso726 thanks for the help!
Put our flight award on hold. Will check daily to see. Fingers crossed.

Seriously I am more jealous of your trip in China than your flight there even though the flight is quite the accomplishment

Oh anytime. Glad I could help.

As much as I am looking forward to the ABD trip to China, walking along the Great Wall, seeing the Terracotta Warriors, Gumdrop Mountains and holding a panda bear I think I'm most excited about finally being able to do all the Asia Disney Parks. After that trip I will be able to say I've been to every Disney Park in the world. I know that sounds crazy.

 

[wendow]

Ha I'm trying to get to 35k Starpoints, not 350k
But now I can say "I have this friend online who..."

LOL! I was showing my dh...cause that is just how impressed I am...with @calypso726 's airline suite. My 8yo came up and asked who was going to be flying on this 'bed' to China and my dh said, "one of your mom's online friends". My ds asked if she'd be with the president lol...Make me feel pretty special that I have an online friend that my ds thinks might fly with the president since she gets to fly on a bed

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Oh anytime. Glad I could help.

As much as I am looking forward to the ABD trip to China, walking along the Great Wall, seeing the Terracotta Warriors, Gumdrop Mountains and holding a panda bear I think I'm most excited about finally being able to do all the Asia Disney Parks. After that trip I will be able to say I've been to every Disney Park in the world. I know that sounds crazy.

Actually at least Shanghai Disney is in our plans when we return to China. Don't know if we will hit more than that as we already have at least a 10-14 day trip outlined without extra Disney. The Great Wall is magnificent as is the Forbidden City. Larger than I could comprehend & just amazing. Although I have heard the smog is much worse now than 7 years ago when we were there. I did see a real Terracotta Warrior in Indiana though planning on visiting those too. Plus a stop in Hubei where DS was born. Can't wait to follow your trip.

 

[Albort]

Yep. I cleared it and then it was flagged again. All other charges when I've cleared have been allowed to go through, first time that happened. After like the 3rd(?) denial I was locked out of credit card funding by PNC. I so regret I didn't stop using my Chase & try a different card.

Also, anyone considering funding a bank account with a CC remember to set your cash advance down as low as possible or it could go through as a cash advance.

Booo, i wonder what kept denying it. Did you call Chase and give them your thoughts? :] I was able to fund $1,000 to my Consumer Credit Union account with my TYP card. Its also a nice account to keep too, $10k @3.09% after 10 debits.

Between DH and I we had a little over 350,000 SPG points. We used 2,000 TY points that I had left over, 220,000 MR points and the rest were SPG points. He had to transfer his SPG points to my account and then I had to transfer them to my KrisFlyer account. Apparently, if you get caught transferring points from someone else's account into your KF account directly, they can shut you down or you can forfeit the points.

Between us we try to maintain a balance of a few million points at all times.

any tip on earning 350k SPG points?
a few million points... should i even want to ask how much UR points u have?

Ha I'm trying to get to 35k Starpoints, not 350k
But now I can say "I have this friend online who..."

same here, i just barely hit my last 10k for the remainder 2k spendings...

 

[calypso726]

LOL! I was showing my dh...cause that is just how impressed I am...with @calypso726 's airline suite. My 8yo came up and asked who was going to be flying on this 'bed' to China and my dh said, "one of your mom's online friends". My ds asked if she'd be with the president lol...Make me feel pretty special that I have an online friend that my ds thinks might fly with the president since she gets to fly on a bed

Aaaw that is so cute I don't think there is any way to travel hack a flight on Air Force One but wouldn't it be cool if there was

Actually at least Shanghai Disney is in our plans when we return to China. Don't know if we will hit more than that as we already have at least a 10-14 day trip outlined without extra Disney. The Great Wall is magnificent as is the Forbidden City. Larger than I could comprehend & just amazing. Although I have heard the smog is much worse now than 7 years ago when we were there. I did see a real Terracotta Warrior in Indiana though planning on visiting those too. Plus a stop in Hubei where DS was born. Can't wait to follow your trip.

ABD does Hong Kong DL and Shanghai DL so we thought we'd make it a Trifecta and add Tokyo to the trip. Can't believe we are going to Japan and not really seeing Japan just the parks. It just means we will have to go back. Yeah, I've see the smog and it reminds me of LA in the 70's when I was a kid. Fortunately, I work for a safety company as an OSHA and CPR instructor so I have plenty of respirators and masks to choose from. We figured it's only going to get worse so we are going next year and crossing it off the bucket list.

any tip on earning 350k SPG points?
a few million points... should i even want to ask how much UR points u have?

We've been accumulating them since 2012 and haven't dipped into the stash very often. The first 160K is between DH and I each getting both the personal and business SPG with bonus and spend and a few referrals to friends added to the pile. A lot of it was MS during the Red Bird days and any and all non category spend over the last 5 years.

DH has about 250k UR points now and we need to build up my stash again. If you remember, we used about 360K to get the flights to Iceland this Thanksgiving. We built up the stash again and then I transferred a bunch to BA which we just used this past weekend. I decided to go back to Scotland for a long weekend and see the fairy pools and a few other sites we had not been to. Apparently, I've normalized the idea that long weekends in Europe are totally reasonable after going a few months ago just to see the Harry Potter play We wanted to conserve some points though and went "slumming" it in business class so my stash is depleted again to a few thousand UR points. I've been slacking this year on UR due to making spend on an Amex business Plat card, the personal Amex Plat card and now the BA card for the companion pass and 100K Avios.

Last year, we focused on building back up the AA miles stash and between AA rewards dining, bonus offers for spend from the Citi and Barclay AA cards, and the AA shopping portal we've got a little over a million between us. That will cover any flight plans for the near future while we build back up the UR points and make spend on other cards. Miami is an AA hub so I can pretty much get to wherever I decide to go with AA miles on a One World air alliance partner. So now we will switch back to using the UR portal and UR bonus categories once DH finishes spend on his new Amex Plat personal card. He got a targeted offer without the "Once per lifetime" language so of course picked it up.

We've laid off using the SPG for non category spend because we don't know what will happen with the card next year. I don't want to put a lot of eggs into an uncertain basket when I have other options like CFU and spending on new cards. I am also trying to determine the best way to build up MR points. We've got about 300k or so between us, but I'd like to figure out how to accumulate them faster like we can UR points.

The reason I share all of this is that I know many here are new to the hobby, some may be lurking and not posting and it can seem pretty overwhelming. I thought by sharing how we juggle building up between reward programs and why, it might help others formulate strategies that best meet their goals. I've said it before and I'll say it again, compared to the travel bloggers out there I barely know what the heck I'm doing and I'm totally ok with that. None the less, I am always happy to answer questions either publicly and via PM which I get fairly often

 

[pinkxray]

I am hoping to use UR to book a hotel in the future. What happens if you end up canceling? Do the points just go back to your UR acct? Does it take long?
This assuming whatever resort is refundable.

 

[Judique]

Ha I'm trying to get to 35k Starpoints, not 350k
But now I can say "I have this friend online who..."

I've got just under a 100K star points, but I've had my SPG card since 2001, after my brother got me involved in the Starwood rewards program. I'm kind of hoarding them as I've long realized the value. Plus even though properties do have rising costs for points stays, Starwood has in my opinion kept it reasonable.

With the Marriott merger I've often thought of using them up just in case they devalue. I've used many at the Swan at Disney and a few at the Dolphin. I prefer Westin properties. But I mainly use my DVC at Disney now.

So, I'm giving a lot of thought to a nice Northeast driving trip. I'm in Maryland, so NYC, Boston, etc. I think they will come in handy for a few rooms.

I'm also in awe at Calypso's wonderful vacation on the flying bed! She inspired me to go for the Carlson card and I just finished the spend.

 

[belle1986]

Last week I called Chase about having my CIP sent express. Well it came on Monday and yesterday I received another one. Same card number, should I just stash the extra one in the drawer or do I need to call and let them know I was sent 2?

 

[Lehuaann]

overpay your utility bills. or find banks that lets you fund with a credit card. PNC($2000?), consumer credit union($1000).

Someone mentioned Tio a few pages back.

1. About a month ago, Plastiq received new guidelines from Visa not to allow mortgage payments using Visa cards. Implementation of this ban has kind of been spotty, so YMMV. It seems Plastiq has blocked mortgage payments using Visa to a lot of the large banks, lenders, and servicers, but some of the smaller ones are still slipping through. Basically, you can try to submit or schedule a mortgage payment, and if you don't get an error screen or message about using another card, then it should go through.

2. You can use Tio .com to pay your mortgage with a credit card. @peel recently tried this service with success. AFAIK, Tio doesn't have any restrictions on using Visas to pay mortgages. However, Tio does have a higher fee than Plastiq: 3.1% vs 2.5% (iirc).



Like @Albort said, you can also:

1. Prepay bills.

2. Fund a bank account with your credit card.

You can also:

3. Manufacture spending by buying a Visa gift card and using that to buy a money order that you'll deposit into your bank account (preferrably not Chase). Chase doesn't seem to be too sensitive to you using their credit cards to buy Visa or Amex gift cards, but Chase is very sensitive to money order deposits and can shut down your accounts.

4. Buy gift cards for stores and restaurants you know you'll shop at eventually anyway.

Ok, thank you for the options. I think I'll just fastrack it with utilities, auto insurance, and gift cards for upcoming trips. It will just take me a little longer than expected, but no big deal. Thank you again

 

[Lehuaann]

PSA: don't do those to meet an Amex minimum spend! People have gotten shut down & retroactively had MR points taken away (points they'd earned on other cards where they didn't MS!). And FOR SURE don't do this on the US Bank Altitude, multiple data points of people being shut down there.

You mean don't purchase Visa gift cards to purchase money orders, correct? It's ok to purchase gift cards?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I am hoping to use UR to book a hotel in the future. What happens if you end up canceling? Do the points just go back to your UR acct? Does it take long?
This assuming whatever resort is refundable.

If it's refundable the points will go back into your account instantly. And it should tell you during booking when you can cancel until and still get a refund.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

The reason I share all of this is that I know many here are new to the hobby, some may be lurking and not posting and it can seem pretty overwhelming. I thought by sharing how we juggle building up between reward programs and why, it might help others formulate strategies that best meet their goals. I've said it before and I'll say it again, compared to the travel bloggers out there I barely know what the heck I'm doing and I'm totally ok with that. None the less, I am always happy to answer questions either publicly and via PM which I get fairly often

But most travel bloggers do it for a living, so it's still impressive you have a real job and still accomplish this.

 

[jhoannam]

I need guidance...just received my SW cards and trying to reach the $4k needed fast. Is Plastiq my only option to make a mortgage payment? Or is buying pre-paid Visas at Kroger and making payment inside bank allowed/ok? Thank you!

Buy gas station and grocery store gift cards.

 

[peel]

Oh anytime. Glad I could help.

As much as I am looking forward to the ABD trip to China, walking along the Great Wall, seeing the Terracotta Warriors, Gumdrop Mountains and holding a panda bear I think I'm most excited about finally being able to do all the Asia Disney Parks. After that trip I will be able to say I've been to every Disney Park in the world. I know that sounds crazy.

I have a friend who literally got into a fight with several members of a Chinese family in front of the Terracotta Warriors. They were all even detained for a while! Be forewarned, tourists will push each other out of the way to get good photos.

 

[Narnia_girl]

1. Answering my own question from several pages back. I wondered if the CSP insurance covered us if we booked a rental car with Ultimate Rewards. Mixed info online--most bloggers said yes; individuals said no. I called UR Travel and they confirmed the rental car insurance is still active when booking with points, because we essentially "bought" the points by using that card in the first place.

2.

Actually at least Shanghai Disney is in our plans when we return to China. Don't know if we will hit more than that as we already have at least a 10-14 day trip outlined without extra Disney. The Great Wall is magnificent as is the Forbidden City. Larger than I could comprehend & just amazing. Although I have heard the smog is much worse now than 7 years ago when we were there. I did see a real Terracotta Warrior in Indiana though planning on visiting those too. Plus a stop in Hubei where DS was born. Can't wait to follow your trip.

Real life friend just returned from Japan/China and the Disney parks there. One day she wore a white t-shirt under another shirt and the portion of the white shirt that was visible was gray/brown at the end of the day. She had bronchitis when she got home. (Of course, I got bronchitis after visiting Orlando, so it might not be the smog to blame.)

3. Question about companion pass. We are waiting until early 2018 to earn this as we want it for 2019 also. My husband often travels for work and flies Southwest. The company pays for his ticket but he gets the RR points. They will not allow him to pay for his own ticket because employees are then tempted to book the most expensive flights (for their own credit card or frequent flyer gain).
What I'd like to do when he has the companion pass is occasionally go with him on business trips and spend the days touring whatever city while he's in meetings. If his company pays for the ticket, am I still able to go as his free companion?