I love credit cards so much!

[SBWB48]

Well, I applied for the SPG Personal with the 25K offer. I tried for about an hour but couldn't get the 30K to pull up, and its getting late here and I have other things I need to be doing. So, 75K Starriott points it is! At least I was auto approved, with a $16K CL. I am shocked that others here have only gotten $1K. My income is not that high, but apparently AMEX likes me for some reason. I have been a "card member" since 2001, so maybe that has something to do with it.

So, I am now 3/24. I'm holding one of my two remaining spots for the new Marriott Personal card, because if there is a 100K sign up bonus as has been reported I want to go for that. Then I will use my last slot to try for the CIC later this year. I had originally wanted a JetBlue card before we fly with them again this summer, but I bought our flights with UR points so the card won't even get us free checked bags. I'll pick one up next time there is an increased bonus (which hopefully won't be until after I'm done with Chase).

Now I need to nail down some travel plans for next year, hopefully utilizing all these Starriott points & free nights I'm going to have!

Congratulations on the new SPG card! But let me commiserate with you about not being able to pull up the 30k Starpoints offer again. I pulled a 100k MR Platinum offer for my wife last week, but haven’t been able to reproduce it since; best I’ve done is 75k and it’s kind of driving me nuts. As much as I love Amex, the one thing I really hate is all their targeted, incognito and otherwise hidden offers. It really doesn’t promote very much good will among their customers to find out they aren’t getting the best offer on a card. Still, 25k Starpoints > $200 statement credit, so I’m glad you were able to get in on it!

I'm sorry you cannot pull up that 100k offer again and I can totally relate to it driving you nuts! When others were struggling to pull up the 30k incognito SPG offer a few weeks back, I couldn't *NOT* pull it up. Coming up in every browser over and over again. It was bothering me that others couldn't get it, who wanted to apply, and I could easily get it but wasn't going to apply. Well, Monday night, when I decided to apply for the spg personal, I could not get that incognito offer to come up to save my life. I was so irritated and it became, at 10pm that night, my life mission to get that offer to come up or die trying lol! It took a full hour but I finally got it and never did an offer look so sweet

When I was trying to get the 30K offer, I tried a couple links on DoC to expired increased offers. The instructions were to click the link, then click on “all cards” and it should show you all the increased offers available. I had increased offers in front of me for almost every AMEX card there is, except the one I wanted! (No 100K Plat offer though, I think it was giving me 75K for that one.) So frustrating. At least this process has taught me two things:
1. Do not look at AMEX cards until I’m actually in the market to apply for one.
2. If I am in the market for an AMEX card and pull up an increased offer, do not hesitate!

THIS. ALL OF THIS. I waited and waited on the SPG Personal for DH and just couldn't pull the trigger since we already had 12K in MSR due before June 15 roughly...figured I could wait a couple weeks, perhaps. Pulled the 30K previously last week, but waited, and last night, at the 11th hour like @Ava, could NOT pull it up for the life of me.

After 45min to an hour of closing and refreshing and clearing the cache , I gave up and settled for the 25K offer since any points is better than no points (i.e. the new offer this am). And glad I did! Actually ended up applying for my dad; I needed to preserve DH's 3/24 slot and I was not willing to use one of mine (2/24) at the moment since I have to sort out the CP situation and want to get the vanilla Plat (got CardMatch to pull the 100K previously, but now I'm nervous if I can every pull it again, but I won't hesitate again, and so won't be trying until I'm ready). So, although it's for 'dad', he's allowing me to meet the spend and transfer to my account since I am using it, and he will just continue with his old CF and CSP

 

[Albort]

Thanks for this. Makes sense what you're saying. Did a read somewhere that you can earn a Marriott elite night by charging $3K on the Marriott card? If so, it might be worth doing (MSing?) if you only need a night or two.

*$30k

edit: hmm, i didnt know u can earn 1 night. i know its 30k for gold. soon to be 35k for gold.

 

[AmyAnne]

Not entirely off topic as we are on the Disboards after all...I would just rather ask you all than do a separate post somewhere else on the forum. If you don't want to clutter this thread than pm me. I just feel like I "know" you guys and appreciate your input. We are counting down the days to our next WDW. Leave in a month for 6 nights. I booked it as a bounce back with 2 rooms at CBR. Travel party is myself, husband, 3 girls who are 11, 9, 7. We stayed at CBR in January with UR points and it worked really well being in the two rooms. Everyone got their own bed and 2 bathrooms so that was the huge plus. The construction was not a big issue as we always rent a car. Last couple of years we have been off site only so being in the Disney bubble was nice. Sad but true. Now I am thinking about switching the CBR reservation to a one bedroom at Old Key West. We have never stayed there. It would cost $350 more but I think it is probably a wash as we would be able to buy some food and not eat out all the time. Bad part is girls would have to share bed and only one bathroom. Possible drama for sure. Worth it?!? Would give us a chance to stay DVC which leads me to my next question:

I keep obsessing about just buying into DVC with a small contract. Prices keep going up! I know @calypso726 you have DVC points as do a couple of you others. Are you glad you are in? Buyers regret? Worth buying at least the 75 for benefits direct from Disney? Is it bad that I am more than partially swayed to buy direct so I can put the money on cards? (Sweet UR"s coming our way).

At any rate any thoughts appreciated. I realize this is a huge tangent and if you want to just PM me responses that's great too. Thanks guys!

For us, our attachment to AKL and the specific bed configurations killed my DVC dreams. I have run the numbers multiple times over the years, but the sticking point has always been the beds . . . Having four kids, the availability of rooms with bunk beds, so everyone can have their own bed, just seemed way better than the kids sharing beds. Now that they are older, and it's becoming harder for us all to travel at the same time, I am again re-running the numbers. Of course, now the prices are crazy high . . .

 

[Tikitoi]

Tried so much to get a car rental from MCO to drop off at Dolphin but it's not available in UR's portal, called was told they only do airports, tweeted my confusion to Chase, they contacted their "travel specialist" who confirmed neighborhood locations are available, called again and got a good TA rep who tried everything she could to pull it up but couldn't get it either URs now has a some neighborhood locations available for car rentals, and do allow one way rentals, but only some neighborhood drop off locations are available.

Had this issue to that's why I decided to just pay for it. Because the convenience of being picked up and dropped off a few doors down is better for us.

 

[miztressuz]

I need to figure this out. I don't even quite understand how I accumulated the nights at Marriott. I haven't actually paid cash for a stay in years. I guess they came from points stays and credit card bonuses. Guess I need to figure out what I would actually get as Marriott Platinum under the new program and if its worth working toward. Seems I would need to be classified as Gold by 8/1 though to get mapped to Platinum. This gives me a headache!

For Marriott, nights paid with points count towards your elite count and for every 3k spent on the Marriott card you're supposed to get a night as well. So that probably contributed.

 

[linzjane88]

OK so for people that have an easier time wrapping their brains around this new SPG/Marriott stuff: I have been reading about this temporary "sweet spot" in rewards bookings from August thru the end of the year. Is that just for travel during that time or booking? Basically I have eyes on a 7 night certificate for use sometime over 2019 in a Cat 8 hotel. I should have at least points enough to book the Cat 1-5 cert w/ the 120k SW points by June.

Is it looking like it would be beneficial to make my booking in that Aug-Dec window? Or should I book something prior on the chance the rewards chart takes a nose dive on the particular hotels I am interested in? I hope my required points for my Cat 8 stay don't go above 360k.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Not entirely off topic as we are on the Disboards after all...I would just rather ask you all than do a separate post somewhere else on the forum. If you don't want to clutter this thread than pm me. I just feel like I "know" you guys and appreciate your input. We are counting down the days to our next WDW. Leave in a month for 6 nights. I booked it as a bounce back with 2 rooms at CBR. Travel party is myself, husband, 3 girls who are 11, 9, 7. We stayed at CBR in January with UR points and it worked really well being in the two rooms. Everyone got their own bed and 2 bathrooms so that was the huge plus. The construction was not a big issue as we always rent a car. Last couple of years we have been off site only so being in the Disney bubble was nice. Sad but true. Now I am thinking about switching the CBR reservation to a one bedroom at Old Key West. We have never stayed there. It would cost $350 more but I think it is probably a wash as we would be able to buy some food and not eat out all the time. Bad part is girls would have to share bed and only one bathroom. Possible drama for sure. Worth it?!? Would give us a chance to stay DVC which leads me to my next question:

I keep obsessing about just buying into DVC with a small contract. Prices keep going up! I know @calypso726 you have DVC points as do a couple of you others. Are you glad you are in? Buyers regret? Worth buying at least the 75 for benefits direct from Disney? Is it bad that I am more than partially swayed to buy direct so I can put the money on cards? (Sweet UR"s coming our way).

At any rate any thoughts appreciated. I realize this is a huge tangent and if you want to just PM me responses that's great too. Thanks guys!

I read this yesterday and needed time to think about an answer. I had been looking at DVC a couple years ago, going so far as to contact a couple resale companies. I was looking at a small contract with hopes of saving on our APs. Unfortunately, I spent to long researching and this benifit went away before I did any thing. The resale contracts that had already been purchased were grandfathered in for this benifit but with any further resale contracts this was not an option. One thing I did learn was that you can put 6 names on a contract as owners. I had been thinking that my daughter's and niece's families may have possibly also had access to these AP savings under this umbrella (I could be wrong). I'm not confident about this but this was my idea. Understand, with any timeshare, you are only guaranteed what is written in your contract. Any other benifits that are available today/tomorrow are open to change. Savings on AP would be the only reason I would purchase a small contract directly from Disney. Otherwise, i'm thinking resale might be the way to go.

 

[Albort]

OK so for people that have an easier time wrapping their brains around this new SPG/Marriott stuff: I have been reading about this temporary "sweet spot" in rewards bookings from August thru the end of the year. Is that just for travel during that time or booking? Basically I have eyes on a 7 night certificate for use sometime over 2019 in a Cat 8 hotel. I should have at least points enough to book the Cat 1-5 cert w/ the 120k SW points by June.

Is it looking like it would be beneficial to make my booking in that Aug-Dec window? Or should I book something prior on the chance the rewards chart takes a nose dive on the particular hotels I am interested in? I hope my required points for my Cat 8 stay don't go above 360k.

yes, book before. the sweet spot is that Marriott and SPG categories are misaligned. some SPG resorts(and Ritz Carlton) should be in the "9th" category but they still sit in the 8th category. Booking these resorts are the best value right now.
Source

 

[StephPlum]

Sorry to hijack the thread with Moab talk but I'm excited and love the NPs.

Also, we went to Moab last year to see Arches. I’m not sure we would have wanted to spend a week there, but I’m not sure how far away the other park a previous poster mentioned (canyonlands?) is from Moab. We drove from Salt Lake because my daughter wanted to see Arches; the bulk of our trip was at Yellowstone.

Canyonlands is just west of Arches so very easy to visit from Moab. We did Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Rocky Mountain NP as a loop trip from Denver in 2016. It was amazing. Yellowstone is like no other place I have ever been to.

We only got to spend 2 nights in Moab on our 2 week Grand Circle trip, which wasn't nearly enough time. I think you could easily find something to do for a week, but that just seems too long knowing what else there is to see in Utah. I actually liked Canyonlands and Dead horse point more than Arches. Maybe it was because Arches was sooooooo crowded with people. We went on a hike in Canyonlands and never saw another person. I am not sure if the construction is done in Arches, but there was a lot closed there when we went, so maybe that is why the parts we saw were so crowded. Dead Horse point is so beautiful, make sure you go to the actual point, we stopped at the visitor center and thought we were at the "point" but luckily discovered it was a short drive away. I wish I knew how to add photos, I think some of the Dead horse point ones are my favorites from our whole trip

I had a 2 week golden circle trip planned for last year and I tore my meniscus 3 months before the trip. Was on crutches for a week or so. I had to rearrange plans and shorten the trip as I wasn't able to walk long periods of time. We ended up only going to Sedona, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce and two state parks in Utah. I missed out on several hikes (Angel's Landing and the Narrows), which I am still bummed about. At Bryce I was able to do a horse back ride into the canyon so was a little happier. My kids (ack they are grown-ups but still my kids), loved it and hiked together. Even bummed, I loved being able to take them to see the parks and enjoy some family time. After rehab on my knee (luckily no surgery for now), I am not quite back to normal, have to realize I have 52 year old knees, but doing much better! I will be able to do the hikes I want to this year.
I think the construction is all done in Arches, at least I didn't find any talk of it on the NPS.gov site. I dislike crowds so hopefully we are on the shoulder season and it will be ok. We'll stay on eastern time and be up and out early. That also helps beat the crowds. Can't wait to see the Point!

I love this!!!! I would also like to visit Monument Valley, but I think that might be too far to drive for a day trip

I would say too far for a day trip. If we feel up to it, we are driving through Monument Valley on our way to Mesa Verde in Colorado. It makes it a full day drive with stops to go through MV (5+hrs) vs straight to Mesa Verde from Moab (2 hrs). No time to stop and stay over in MV due to limited vacation time.

We just did Moab/Arches/Canyonlands plus some of the other UT parks. We only had 2.5 days in Moab - not nearly enough. Arches is cool (did some longer hikes, plus just went over a couple times near sunset and did some short walks), and there is an insane amount to explore in Canyonlands - Island in the Sky/Dead Horse point is the only area we got to, but there is so much more to see. Every place we went, we wished we had more time!

We are only going to Canyonlands: Island in the Sky and Dead Horse point. Had to limit what we could get done in the days we had. We were able to see Western Utah last year so finishing up this year.

 

[Lain]

OK so for people that have an easier time wrapping their brains around this new SPG/Marriott stuff: I have been reading about this temporary "sweet spot" in rewards bookings from August thru the end of the year. Is that just for travel during that time or booking? Basically I have eyes on a 7 night certificate for use sometime over 2019 in a Cat 8 hotel. I should have at least points enough to book the Cat 1-5 cert w/ the 120k SW points by June.

Is it looking like it would be beneficial to make my booking in that Aug-Dec window? Or should I book something prior on the chance the rewards chart takes a nose dive on the particular hotels I am interested in? I hope my required points for my Cat 8 stay don't go above 360k.

I’m curious what Cat 8 hotels you’re eyeing. ;-)

 

[gottalovepluto]

Had this issue to that's why I decided to just pay for it. Because the convenience of being picked up and dropped off a few doors down is better for us.

I'm truly torn on the matter. When I could pay with URs for a minivan for the 4 us for our midnight arrival then go to a hotel near airport and the ability to grab some supplies in the morning for $100 paid with URs it was an easy call. I sold myself that it was better than our free hotel shuttle for night one + Uber to BC next day. Now I have no idea if I want to pay $90 cash (for Executive Aisle where there should hopefully be a car that can hold all 4 of us and our luggage, guaranteed minivan is way more expensive) in order to have a supply run for our 3 nights at BC or just buy water bottles/snack food onsite...

 

[peel]

OK so for people that have an easier time wrapping their brains around this new SPG/Marriott stuff: I have been reading about this temporary "sweet spot" in rewards bookings from August thru the end of the year. Is that just for travel during that time or booking? Basically I have eyes on a 7 night certificate for use sometime over 2019 in a Cat 8 hotel. I should have at least points enough to book the Cat 1-5 cert w/ the 120k SW points by June.

Is it looking like it would be beneficial to make my booking in that Aug-Dec window? Or should I book something prior on the chance the rewards chart takes a nose dive on the particular hotels I am interested in? I hope my required points for my Cat 8 stay don't go above 360k.

yes, book before. the sweet spot is that Marriott and SPG categories are misaligned. some SPG resorts(and Ritz Carlton) should be in the "9th" category but they still sit in the 8th category. Booking these resorts are the best value right now.
Source

You can book within that window, but you don't have to travel within the window.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

*$30k

Every $3,000 spend on the Marriott CC earns 1 additional "night" credit toward Elite status – with no limit to the number of credits. Are you thinking of something else?

 

[1st*toright]

And I just booked ANOTHER quick SW/Starriott trip. A weekend in Chicago while our kids are at their grandparents' this summer. Hoping that the flights will get cheaper (in points) so I haven't tagged myself on as "companion" just yet, but booked the flights for DH (which were ok value for points), and I found what looks like a really nice hotel for 12k points per night (list price of $500 per night, but same points as lots of hotels that only cost $220 per night the weekend I'm looking at). So its a little splurgy, but should be fun! And the points are way better than the values for hotels I was looking at in Boston. I will have to keep revisiting to see if that all still makes sense once the shift the Starriott values happens - so who knows what the trip will actually look like, but fun to have something else on the calendar . Not that I'm trying to use my points to get me to that magic 50 nights and platinum for next year, or anything...

 

[Albort]

Every $3,000 spend on the Marriott CC earns 1 additional "night" credit toward Elite status – with no limit to the number of credits. Are you thinking of something else?

yeah, im thinking instant gold status when u make 30k.

 

[1st*toright]

Sorry to hijack the thread with Moab talk but I'm excited and love the NPs.

And now I totally understand why people feel this way! Going in April was good - there were people around, but it wasn't too crazy. We definitely "rope dropped" the parks - the lines to get in later in the day didn't look fun (even in April). Our next trip out there, we will have to start in Colorado and do Mesa Verde - I've heard great things.

 

[1st*toright]

Every $3,000 spend on the Marriott CC earns 1 additional "night" credit toward Elite status – with no limit to the number of credits.

Is that benefit going away with the new programs, though? Now that I'm motivated to get Marriott nights again, I'm regretting ditching my Marriott cc (just a little - that one night is not a great reward for 3k in spend).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

DISchurners - Please Update Support Links for AMEX and Chase where necessary:

• Numerous dead SPG personal and Biz links - please delete so as not to confuse people. If SPG links were the ONLY links you had please delete your comment and if you get another eligible AMEX card in the future you can add a comment then.
• Southwest Links in Chase thread - we still have people listing "50,000 points" - please update to the correct 40,000 offer.

I'll give a few days to get these changes made/updated and then we may remove your post until the updates are made. It's important that when we send somebody to DISchurners (especially newbies) that the link information is correct. Thanks

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

FYI - if anybody read this article on DoC related to Southwest reducing their gift card redemption rates: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/southwest-points-have-lower-gift-card-redemption-value-of-just-74/

I actually think the headline and info is misleading. I think this may actually be an “added benefit” if you will. Those with SW CCs have always been able to redeem at $0.01 per point. It seems now if you don't have a SW CC you can also redeem for GCs but at a reduced rate. I have the Southwest CC and still see the $0.01 redemption rate. On my daughter's account I see the worse rate (and obviously she doesn't have a SW CC). This is not how DoC has worded it in his post so just be aware and don't panic. It seems from the comments that some people are cashing out SW points illogically because they're afraid something has changed.

 

[platamama]

A question for those who are calling in hopes of a retention offer -- when you call, do you start with "I want to cancel my card" or "I'm thinking about canceling my card" or something else? I'm on the fence about keeping my AmEx Delta Gold so I don't (at this point) want to call and say I definitely want to cancel, unless that's the strategically best thing to say.

I would say that you're thinking of canceling your card because the annual fee is due (or coming up) and you don't know that you want to keep the card. Be prepared for some "rah!rah! the card is great!" and express scepticism about it ("hmm, I'm not sure"), and ask if there are any retention offers on your account.