I love credit cards so much!

[Nimbus]

dvc-rental.com coded as travel for me on CSR and Barclay Arrival. I'm not familiar with Capital One cards.

Would it count towards your $300 annual travel credit then, do you know?

edit: I'm referring to the CSR in case that wasn't clear.

 

[Lain]

When you aren’t trying to get to your MSR, are there any cards in particular that give you the most bang for your buck?

Until 8/1/18, my non-MSR, non-bonus category everyday card is the SPG card because 1 Starpoint/$1 = 3 Marriott points. I recently booked our hotels in Hawaii using Starpoints at a 3.2-3.8 cpp redemption rate. (I could’ve upped it to 4 cpp if I played with the dates a little more.) After 8/1/18, when the SPG cards will earn only 2 Marriott points/$1, I’ll have to reconsider.

 

[DisneyMandC]

in theory, its co-brands that are getting people into shutdown mode. but its mostly those with lol/24. United cards are under 5/24 rules so i dont see much DP on shutdowns with that.

I don't know that we'll ever be at lol/24 status just because it's simply not something we could sustain with our budget. I just got my CIP, have 4 cards with Chase and am sitting at 3/24 (two of the Chase cards are business). The only other plan I currently have this year is double dip for DH, so I'm thinking maybe over the winter we could start going for the United card (assuming that turns out to be a good option for us).

 

[Texans_loyal]

Hey y'all, quick question.
I made a purchase with my CIP card at office depot and it didn't give me 5X points. I thought Office depot/max and Staples were 5X?

I will need a big amount of Disney GCs soon, I had planned on purchasing them at one of the 3 stores mentioned but maybe I need to rethink my plan?

 

[Albort]

I don't know that we'll ever be at lol/24 status just because it's simply not something we could sustain with our budget. I just got my CIP, have 4 cards with Chase and am sitting at 3/24 (two of the Chase cards are business). The only other plan I currently have this year is double dip for DH, so I'm thinking maybe over the winter we could start going for the United card (assuming that turns out to be a good option for us).

as long as you follow the bustout rules, u should be good... :]

 

[Albort]

Hey y'all, quick question.
I made a purchase with my CIP card at office depot and it didn't give me 5X points. I thought Office depot/max and Staples were 5X?

I will need a big amount of Disney GCs soon, I had planned on purchasing them at one of the 3 stores mentioned but maybe I need to rethink my plan?

CIC/CI+ gives u 5x. correct me if im wrong, but u should get 3x? i dont see the office depot category on CIP's list. would assume 1x.

 

[Texans_loyal]

CIC/CI+ gives u 5x. correct me if im wrong, but u should get 3x? i dont see the office depot category on CIP's list. would assume 1x.

Thank you! it was only 1X, I need to get my info straight.

 

[linzjane88]

OK people. I have never known what LOL/24 is. I assume waaaaay over 5/24? Google is no help today.

 

[jhoannam]

Hey y'all, quick question.
I made a purchase with my CIP card at office depot and it didn't give me 5X points. I thought Office depot/max and Staples were 5X?

I will need a big amount of Disney GCs soon, I had planned on purchasing them at one of the 3 stores mentioned but maybe I need to rethink my plan?

CIP is 1X at office supply stores. The only way to get 3X on gift cards using CIP is to buy Walmart GC via gyft.com and use those to buy Disney gift cards at Sam’s club.

 

[Texans_loyal]

CIP is 1X at office supply stores. The only way to get 3X on gift cards using CIP is to buy Walmart GC via gyft.com and use those to buy Disney gift cards at Sam’s club.

That sounds like a good plan! I may just pay with CIP to get 5X points. need to sit down and do the math. Thank you!

 

[Disneyonmymind]

Is this a true statement? Assuming I pay bills from plastiq/Amex “allowed categories” there is no risk in using that for MSR.

 

[Lain]

Is this a true statement? Assuming I pay bills from plastiq/Amex “allowed categories” there is no risk in using that for MSR.

Plastiq counts for Amex MSR.

 

[Judique]

Daily Getaways still have Universal Orlando tickets available. 15% off - 2 tickets 3 parks - park to park. $569. I don't follow Universal tickets so I can't tell if these are a savings or not.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

OK people. I have never known what LOL/24 is. I assume waaaaay over 5/24? Google is no help today.

Yeah - it’s a somewhat lazy way of saying you’re over 5/24. When asking for advice I always recommend people state their actual 5/24 status because there truly isn’t a good “definition” for it. I once had a guy tell me he was lol/24 and he was 7/24...ummmm no!

Basically I despise the term, but I’ll get off my soapbox now HAHA!

 

[wendow]

Is this a true statement? Assuming I pay bills from plastiq/Amex “allowed categories” there is no risk in using that for MSR.

That is the assumption. I’ve had no problems with my plastiq payments not counting towards MSR’s.

 

[amalone1013]

Would it count towards your $300 annual travel credit then, do you know?

edit: I'm referring to the CSR in case that wasn't clear.

It sure did!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

That sounds like a good plan! I may just pay with CIP to get 5X points. need to sit down and do the math. Thank you!

Perhaps this was a typo but CIP does not earn 5X Anywhere on any purchases.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Your math on the SPG transfer is spot on. 20k=25k so 100k=125k (obviously pretty simply) It's basically a 1:1.25 ratio (or a 2.4:1 ratio expressed in Marriott terms)

So there's 2 schools of thought on Marriott Nights & Flights in my opinion. (1) People who have a 7 night hotel stay in mind and are getting the airline points as a bonus AND (2) People who are doing it purely for the miles (and the nights are a throw-in bonus of sorts). The People in #1 or doing it as Marriott intended. Let me analyze both here (for option 1 we'll use your cat 6 as our example):

(1) People with a 7 night hotel stay in mind

• I am planning a 7 night stay at a category 6 property. Without Nights & Flights this would cost me 30k points per night.
• Since I get the 5th night free, 7 nights costs 180,000 Marriott points (30kx6 + 1 free)
• Now I can also look at a Nights & Flights...and I can transfer 50k, 70k, 100k or 120k add'l Marriott points at a 1:1 ratio to most of my favorite airlines
• So 180k (for nights) + 120k (for flights) gets me 7 nights at a hotel AND 120k air miles/points

(2) People with no stay in mind

• I just want the best redemption rate possible - who cares if I ever even use the nights (hopefully I do)
• I can transfer 270k Marriott points and get 120k airline miles/points at 2.25:1 (compare that the earlier 2.4:1 and it even beats that)
• Oh yay, I also get 7 nights at a Cat1-5 property. If I only use 4 of those nights, who cares...I did it solely for the miles.

Option 2 isn't bad and as you can see at the right level even beats the SPG transfers. HOWEVER if you're an option 1 person you are using this program as intended and you have won the day my friend!! If somebody is an option 1 person, the more efficiently they use the free nights will increase their actual savings/return.

Obviously the United deal is even better since Marriott has that special deal with them that gives you a 10% bump on miles when you use these transfer programs.

I do not know the answer on booking ahead of time but my guess is YES you could do it. I would book it now so it's locked in and then see what happens from there Let me know if you have any other questions.

I wanted to circle back on this now that I've had a chance to get to my desktop computer.

I went to look at the Marriott Category 6 hotel that I stay at when I visit my daughter at University in England. The week I am planning to go it is 180,000 Marriott points (standard rate) and 967GBP for members or roughly $1311. WOW!!!! Not a bad return on those 5,000 "lost" Alaska miles!!! I will definitely be going for the Marriott hotel/air package with my Starpoints at least once if not twice before August. I/we go visit DD a lot

I was able to book the room for the week on points without having any in my account. So once I get the certificate, I will call and see if they can apply it.

Can someone confirm the steps for my plan so I don't trip up on anything?

1. Pool our household points by transferring DH's Starpoints to my Starwood account. This will take a couple days.
2. Transfer 100,000 Starpoints to my Marriott account. I assume this can be done online. Anything to be cautious of here? This will give me 300,000 Marriott points.
3. Call Marriott and have those 300,000 points converted into a Hotel & Air package. Which will yield me 120,000k Alaska miles (or 132,000 United miles) plus my Category 6 hotel voucher (worth $1311 to me for my Sept. stay).
4. As soon as the hotel certificate appears in my account (instantly?) call back to have the certificate applied to my reservation that is being held on points. Maybe I could do it at the same time as I book the hotel & air package? My thought in doing this right away would be to avoid a negative re-categorization in August, and as I already have my flights, I know when I'll be there.

I now have my booked hotel ($1311) and 120,000/132,000 miles for the original 100,000 Starpoints.

Rinse & Repeat as many times as I can before they change this, LOL.

 

[Disneyonmymind]

Thanks! I hated to do it (when I have a CIP) but I need to get a jump on the MSR and AMEX is not accepted by a large portion of my regular payees.

 

[Texans_loyal]

Perhaps this was a typo but CIP does not earn 5X Anywhere on any purchases.

It's me lol I'm just confused and mixing up info