I love credit cards so much!

[platamama]

I'm not suggesting this is the best use of SPG points, but if you were thinking of converting any to AAdvantage points there is a 25% promo going until May 31st.

So if I understand correctly 20000 SPG plus 5000 transfer bonus usually gets you 25000 AA points. With this promo AA give you an extra 25% so 20000 SPG effectively becomes 31,250 AAdvantage Miles.

It actually becomes 30,000 AA miles - you only get 25% extra on the 20,000 Starpoints transferred over. At least, when I've done it before that's how it worked.

I want to post a mea culpa - you were right @GZanta77. With the 25% promo, 20K SPG --> 31,250 AA Miles. I searched my history, and I transferred when the bonus was only 20% (not the current 25%) so I got 30,000 AAmiles.

 

[peel]

Ok - I've been summoned so I will take a look I will say that international travel and flight redemptions not on Southwest are not my strong suit. That said, this is a math problem, and that is something I enjoy!! I'll bullet to make this easier to read:

• The most important comment here is: I’d like to spend as little cash as possible which of course makes option 2 the instant favorite
• Option 1 clearly identifies that the value of any redemption option is $1,100.26
• Option 2 shows that you can redeem 77,610 URs to get the flights you want at a value of 1.418 cents per point. It seems the flight is a little more expensive through the UR portal. I base cpp on the actual value received (in this instance even though it "costs" $1,164...the value is really $1,100)
• Option 3...so the best way to get 120,000 United Miles (non nights & flights) would be through the Marriott transfer program (http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morerew.mi)...not SPG. With Marriott you'd want to transfer for 50k, 50k, 10k and 10k (120k total) United. This would cost 112k, 112k, 24k and 24k (272k total) in Marriott points OR 90,667 SPG points. Given that 272,000 Marriott points is probably worth < $2,500 this is a terrible option.
• Option 3 could also be done via nights and flights which actually works better than the math above. You could get 132k United miles for 270k Marriott points and you'd have a Cat1-5 cert in your back pocket. Given that a Cat1-5 cert for 7 nights is probably worth < $1,500...this is still probably a bad option
• Option 4 and 5 sound terrible due to the fees. I don't know how this whole "avios" thing works...but I don't like it, lol!

My vote is option 2 for the reasons identified above. You aren't "truly" getting the 1.5 cpp due to the math I show but you're only "losing" $64 in value... It's a good option

See, this is why I asked! I was pretty sure Option 2 was the best, but I needed a math lesson! Thank you for the breakdown!

What a nice story, how cool to meet up with family that you otherwise wouldn't! I highly recommend checking out Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland if you can, it's a natural wonder. And if you're a Game of Thrones fan, there are day tours there geared to various filming locations from the show.

Option 2 is the least expensive from the looks of it, but be aware of any penalties if your travel plans change. Sometimes award flights have more lenient policies. For instance, booking with Avios, it looks like if you cancel your plans 24+ hrs before your flight departure, you can skate buy with a 35GBP (~$48) per person penalty and have the Avios re-deposited into your account. That's if you have an Aer Lingus Avios account. If you have a British Airways Avios account it looks like it costs $55pp. If you go through Chase UR, at that price, those tickets are going to be the nonrefundable kind.

If you have the time for it, consider flying out of another part of Ireland so that you can see some of the rest of the country, it is beautiful!

Thank you for the advice! I've been to Ireland once before, staying with a friend who lived in a little town, and she took us on a driving tour to see some of the country. We did a day in Dublin on that trip, but I'm looking forward to splitting our time between Dublin and Belfast this time. Very much looking forward to the Titanic museum. I'm not a GoT fan, but DH is, so I'll definitely look into the tour options!

Good point on being aware of changes in travel plans. I have accounts with Aer Lingus, BA, and Avios.com just to have all options open to me. It's super complicated that you can redeem Avios from all three places but the award charts and fees are different. I do know that we have enough Avios to use within the US, so I'm not too upset about leaving them on the table for future use.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Got my Alamo certificate from Daily Getaways ($50 for $25), tried to use it this afternoon & it didn't work. Called Alamo and they said it's only valid on Saturdays. Escalated with Alamo and they said it's only valid for Sat night rentals, no other days of the week and they would not honor it for anything else and to go talk to whoever I bought it from. The T&Cs from Daily Getaways say "dates of travel: anytime". So I email the address in the confirmation and the address the certificate came from and get responses back they are out of the office until Mon. Of course. When you live in CA don't wait until 4pm on a Fri afternoon to get around to stuff!

Venting done, I'm off to catch up on the dozen pages I missed here yesterday

 

[gottalovepluto]

@gottalovepluto How long after your transferred your last $200 to Memory Bank until you saw the bonus post?

Bonuses post on the 15th of the month. (I believe mine went pending sometime on the 14th.)

 

[gottalovepluto]

I have no idea what this card is or what it's about, but I just saw this ad on my Spotify and found the layout of the card very interesting!! Wonder if we'll start seeing more cards like this with chips now being used.
View attachment 319317

Our useless Cap1 GM card has had that design for at least a couple years. It's just weird.

 

[gottalovepluto]

My husband was approved for CIP 2 days ago. This morning I realized I forgot to refer him. I am so mad at myself. Is it too late to do anything about it?

Yes. So sorry!! It probably won't make you feel any better but we all make bonehead mistakes like that at some point in this game, you are not alone!
Edit: caught up now and it looks like you might get the bonus! Love it! YOU are the case in point that it never hurts to call!!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Well I burned almost all my UR booking the Disneyland hotel for six nights. Earn and burn, right? Pretty sure I’m going to cancel the Marriott and Sheraton that I currently also have booked. SO just really wants to stay at the Disneyland hotel. It sucks it will be a construction zone when we go, but we will be back. I need some UR’s so we can stay onsite again when Star Wars Land opens the extra magic hour benefit would be great.

Since I need to replenish our stash of URs I applied SO for the CIC. He got the 30 day notice. I’m nervous because he just got the CIP in February, but is only 2/24. He also only has three Chase cards in the last 13 months. If he gets approved I’ll feel less guilty about burning through my URs.

With 6 nights you should look into the tour at the Disneyland Hotel. Idk if they're still running it but I when I did it a few years ago, they ran it like twice a week at noon for one hour, was free (I would not pay for it though!), we signed up with the concierge at GCH when we checked in. A CM walked us through the lobbies of the 3 towers and Steakhouse 55 and talked through the history of the hotel, it was quite interesting! (Except we accidentally starved ourselves by not eating lunch first but hitting the parks at like 7am so by the time the tour finished an hour later we staggered our way into Trader Sam's to devour lunch and sweet boozy drinks. Upside: no line!)

 

[Tikitoi]

Nothing on Chase side. But on the gift card side, US MCGC has a tendency to lose its funds. So drain it as quickly as you can. There is a way of doing that in our MS thread on reddit.

Okay. Thanks for that.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Note to self: Do not buy PNC stock!

I will never forget reading an earnings transcript of M&T back in the heyday of repeatedly getting the bonuses... If you don't type in a zipcode the app defaulted your account to the Albany area and was serviced by their Albany team. An analyst asked something like why so many new accounts were being opened in Albany and M&T responded that Albany was seeing strong economic growth! ...ROFL, all bank churners would have known what was up with that stat (and I guess M&T figured it out when that person got busted with dozens and dozens of accounts opened for them and their family and friends that led to the shutdown of the greatest bank bonus of the last couple years) *sigh* good times!

 

[Lain]

we staggered our way into Trader Sam's to devour lunch and sweet boozy drinks. Upside: no line!)

Huh. You did it the wrong way. Usually people are staggering their way out of Trader Sam’s.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Got my Alamo certificate from Daily Getaways ($50 for $25), tried to use it this afternoon & it didn't work. Called Alamo and they said it's only valid on Saturdays. Escalated with Alamo and they said it's only valid for Sat night rentals, no other days of the week and they would not honor it for anything else and to go talk to whoever I bought it from. The T&Cs from Daily Getaways say "dates of travel: anytime". So I email the address in the confirmation and the address the certificate came from and get responses back they are out of the office until Mon. Of course. When you live in CA don't wait until 4pm on a Fri afternoon to get around to stuff!

Venting done, I'm off to catch up on the dozen pages I missed here yesterday

I’m really interested in the answer. I got 3 of them.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'm guessing all of us who are complaining about this are flying SW. The SW gates are in the 100-129 section. The MCO lounge that is closest for SW is by gate 90 (I believe). So, you have to take the tram that goes to gates 70-99, eat at the lounge, take the tram back to the terminal and you would then need to take the tram to gates 100-129. However, when you come off the tram, they do not allow you to just go over to the other tram, they force you back into the main terminal, which requires TSA again. Does that make sense?

I think Delta gates are by the other MCO lounge, which obviously works great for Delta fliers.

FWIW: We flew Delta and used a PP lounge and I recall only taking one tram and walking across a little food court area, all of it was super convenient. *but I think I've read if international arrivals come in while you're in the lounge access to the gates gets blocked off by a temporary wall and everyone has to go through TSA a 2nd time that didn't happen to us thank goodness!

 

[gottalovepluto]

I’m really interested in the answer. I got 3 of them.

I sincerely hope my certificate is a fluke then! If you happen to have a Sat in your rental you should be safe even with these certs, maybe. I've read the fine print on the cert and the offer confirmation like a half a dozen times now, and even when I bought it, and I see no mention of Sat or weekend only anywhere. I'll keep y'all updated no doubt!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Well - I hit my goal for the year so it's 8 months of gravy my friends...Lots of time to DIS

That is AWESOME! No wonder you win work awards!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Perfect yes. That makes sense. I am so impressed you have the gates memorized! And glad at least being a Delta hostage pays off in this instance!

But fyi the taxi time sucks. Literally like we were at LAX. My parents were like "why is this taking so long, we're in Orlando, not LA" and I was like "I really don't know I flew United last time and I swear I was already unloading by this point in time..." You go like over a bridge, up and down a mini hill, pretty sure they could of taxied us to WDW by the time we finally got to those gates!

 

[speedyfishy]

With 6 nights you should look into the tour at the Disneyland Hotel. Idk if they're still running it but I when I did it a few years ago, they ran it like twice a week at noon for one hour, was free (I would not pay for it though!), we signed up with the concierge at GCH when we checked in. A CM walked us through the lobbies of the 3 towers and Steakhouse 55 and talked through the history of the hotel, it was quite interesting! (Except we accidentally starved ourselves by not eating lunch first but hitting the parks at like 7am so by the time the tour finished an hour later we staggered our way into Trader Sam's to devour lunch and sweet boozy drinks. Upside: no line!)

I didn’t know they did this!! This sounds so cool. I will try and do it.

ETA: when I stayed at the Grand Californian in January I wanted to do the power walk through DCA early in the morning. I never got around to it because I was so tired. This sounds perfect since it isn’t super early lol

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'll keep Prime because I need to be able to watch Grand Tour and it's exclusive to Prime. I also use the shipping, but I used to be on a friends account so I hadn't paid for shipping in a long time. I do get everything in 2 days or less. I like the same day shipping when it's available. Living near Seattle has some advantages but most everything I order comes from Vegas or Lexington, KY, so weird. A lot of the stuff is delivered by Amazon or OnTrac here rather than USPS. I love it for dog food and other random stuff. Mine renews in Nov and I'll make sure it goes on my Discover card. Pretty sure I got the 5% off it last year when I did that.

Ack, I hate when things are delivered by OnTrac here. It's always some person looking unfortunately down and out on their luck driving a beat up white van that is the spitting image of those lessons as a child to not go to strangers in cars trying to entice you over with candy. I have no idea why I cannot shake that image (they must have shown us video or something at one point to thoroughly creep us kids out I'm guessing) but OnTrac deliveries always creep me out... (Apparently if you want to rob me pull up in a FedEx/UPS/USPS van and I won't see it coming!)

 

[gottalovepluto]

AND, I'm about to go for a bank account bonus, which I thought I would NEVER do! But Chase keeps sending me offers for $300 if I open a checking account and have at least one direct deposit made to it. I've shrugged it off til now due to the hassle factor, but it turns out it is super easy to change the direct deposit of my pay checks online via our HR portal. Our primary accounts are with another bank that doesn't have branches in Idaho, so when we first moved, I set up a Chase savings account and maintain a very small balance there so we can make the rare ATM withdrawal if we need cash (there is a Chase branch very conveniently located to our house and my office). I'm mulling over moving all of our banking accounts to Chase eventually, but I'm not there yet. But in the meantime, I figure I can probably open the checking account with the offer, move the balance over from our savings account and close that one, top off the balance a little bit to avoid incurring a fee for the checking account, and then just route a portion of one of my upcoming paychecks to the checking account via direct deposit to get the $300 bonus. Seems easy enough to try for some free cash. You guys are all rubbing off on me, lol!

Is there any requirement about depositing a certain amount of money at opening or within 10 business days or maintaining a certain amount of money in the account in order to get the bonus? If so you need to deposit funds that are new to Chase, in other words money from a different bank (which could totally be gotten by transferring from your savings to your other bank and then transferring that money to your new Chase account).

Btw, easiest way to close the savings is to transfer all the money out after a statement closes and then send an SM asking them to close the account. (And then come back in a few months when you qualify for the Savings bonus!!!) And you've chosen well, Chase has some of the easiest bonuses out there *gets messier with their biz bonuses, still totally attainable but definitely more finky than personal bonuses, alas we'll let you learn to swim first before we push you into the deep end

ETA: Wow, you opened that account fast! Pretty sure there were only a few posts from am going to open to BAM! opened! Cool, sounds like savings was shut down super easy for you in branch, welcome to the bank bonus side! (once you're in, you never leave, it's basically the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror but with free cash )

 

[DaveL]

A very pleasant person took info and put through a request on my behalf. 7-10 days response by mail. Where there's life there's hope lol

How did you do it? Just wondering if I should try again.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Even hubby who is still not convinced all the CC stuff is legal (or "legal", but I give up discussing it)...