I love credit cards so much!

[wendow]

Thanks! We actually just got his CIP in the mail 20 minutes ago. I don’t have long range plans for him beyond referring him for the Sapphires maybe early 2019. I’ll read some more on DoC and check out Reddit today and think some more about it. This card would be a good fit for our family, so hopefully we can get it while the bonus is this good.

@Lain is right. Your dh can get the IHG since it is a personal card and Chase allows 2 apps in 30 days for those. The conventional wisdom a lot of us dish out is to go for Chase cards that are subject to the 5/24 rule first. The IHG card is not subject to that rule, meaning you can qualify for it when you are over 5/24. However, if a card is a good fit for your family, then I believe in doing what makes the most sense for your family and vacation style FIRST. The IHG bonus has bopped all around over the years. 100k is the highest I've ever seen. We don't know when it will end. If you were to go for it now, I also agree with @Lain, you'd want to lay off Chase for 3-4 mos. Good luck deciding!

 

[Lain]

Thanks! Sent you a PM!

​

 

[wendow]

Hello everyone! I just got back from a trip to Universal and we had a great time! I need to catch up on about 30 pages but I figured I'd give a summary on how I used points for my trip

I used southwest points and companion pass to fly 5 of us to Orlando. I used UR points to pay for two rooms at Royal Pacific for two nights which gave us express pass for 3 days, and one room at Sapphire Falls for two nights. I paid cash for the second room at Sapphire by booking an AP rate of $139/night. I used my CSR and my travel credit. This was my first time at Sapphire Falls and I really enjoyed the hotel. The Strongwater Tavern had excellent food and I highly recommend! If it weren't for the lack of express pass I would definitely stay at Sapphire again.

I also bought three 5 day park to park passes with UR's. There was a promo for buy 3 days get 2 days free. I price bridged the tickets at the park and upgraded to seasonal AP's for $0! The guy at the guest services thought it was a mistake and called his manager over to make sure it was ok to give me a seasonal pass for $0, haha. Tip: There is a guest services window at the Hogsmeade station where you can upgrade your tickets. There was NO LINE. Much better than waiting in line at the front of the park.

I used my priority pass for the first time at MCO. The rest of my group didn't want to risk going through security again but I have TSA precheck thanks to my CSR so I enjoyed the lounge by myself and going through security again was a breeze.

All in all, I was really glad to be able to take my dad and my son's friend along with us for this mostly free trip thanks to this thread!

Yay! So happy you are back and had a great time! Missed you around here Great use of points! Now to get some more, huh!?! Such a viscous cycle lol!

 

[platamama]

@SouthFayetteFan CONGRATS!!! You're a man with a plan and you're not afraid to use it!

 

[amalone1013]

I had a weird RMN experience. I bought a $100 Visa GC online on 7/27, went pending after a couple days, and has an estimated approval date of 8/11. Two days ago I needed to get ink for our printer, so I purchased through Staples.... I was at $65ish, so I added a $15 restaurant gift card to the order to push it over $75. It's showing as ineligible with a purchase amount of $15 I'm not going to ask about it, but I definitely was over $75 before taxes. Just kind of strange.

 

[SBWB48]

I noticed this last week - the prices for most of September are going up. I'm really hoping we can snag some less expensive tickets now that I know they vary. I'm noticing $349 and $399 orchestra this weekend. That's great. We had mid-level orchestra seats on Broadway last weekend and they were some of the best seats we've ever had for a Broadway show, and they were $549. Worth every penny. So I kinda can't believe I'm seeing Hamilton in the $200-300 ranges.

And as I type that, I just received my daily "Sorry, you didn't win the lottery" email.



The cherry blossom bloom dates can vary so much especially if we have a late cold/snow like we did this year (we had more snow on the first day of spring than we did all of winter combined!), but it's so worth it. They're beautiful.

Food recommendations!

If you're hungry but not sure what you want, a good idea is to start at the Eastern Market Metro and walk down 8th St/Barracks Row. There are tons of restaurants. Here are a couple highlights:

Ted's Bulletin - they make adult milk shakes and homemade pop-tarts, and they're the closest thing DC has to true, home-cooked comfort food. Lines get long.

Ambar - Get the Balkan Experience! $49 per person, all you can eat small plates and all you can drink rail drinks for 2 hours. A true one of a kind experience, and everything is so delicious.

Cava Mezze - Greek mezze/small plates. This adds up price wise because you'll be ordering a bunch of plates, but it is very tasty. I think they also do bottomless brunch.

For other specific cuisines:

Dolan Uyghur - I had no idea what Uyghur cuisine was. Spoiler - it's wonderful. It's a blend of a couple of different cuisines. I had a noodle dish that I loved.

El Rinconcito - Salvadoran is pretty similar to Mexican cuisine. This is a small hole-in-the-wall type of place not far from the Convention Center. They have really interesting dishes if you're feeling adventurous, or the usual fare you might expect.

And now, my favorite, Ethiopian. DC has so many good Ethiopian restaurants I could write an entire blog post, but here are only two of my favorites:

Chercher - This is where I bring everyone the first time they try Ethiopian. It's my favorite restaurant. It's close to the Convention Center, at 9th and O St. I highly recommend the Ybeg Tibs (lamb tips) and the veggie platter. It's more food than you could possibly finish at once. A lot of people like to try Doro We't (chicken stew) for their first time, and it's pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of Ethiopian stews (We't) because I find the individual meats have more flavor. But it's worth a try - We't is hugely popular for a reason.

Quara - Quara is a small restaurant tucked away on the busy restaurant row of H Street. It used to be in Adams Morgan and recently moved. Quara has good meats, but the truly spectacular dish is Shiro (stewed legumes). They have the best Shiro I've had at any Ethiopian restaurant.

While you're on H Street, don't miss Dangerously Delicious Pies. I don't really have anything more to add about that one, it's pretty self-explanatory. And it's as amazing as it looks.

This turned out to be much longer than I expected.

@calypso726 I second Ambar!

 

[SBWB48]

Thanks! Asked on Reddit too and had someone else say they didn't have a problem doing that deal. Going to make my second stop for it this afternoon. Only had the deal on one card so only four more to go...

Storytime my friends…

It was June 2016…Chase’s new 5/24 rule was running amuck . Churning plans had gone awry and a new strategy needed to be hatched . I was 15/24 at the time, Mrs. SouthFayetteFan was 16/24. We had just both gotten AMEX Hilton cards and I was questioning what I was even doing in the game at that point . One night after midnight, I read an article on DoC about the AMEX Schwab Plat and it’s 1.25x cashout . I knew there were tons of AMEX MR cards but previously had no use for them . A plan started to form…

If I could distract myself with AMEX MR cards …and allow my wife’s report to sit dormant …perhaps someday we could dream of being back under 5/24 . If we didn’t apply for a single card in her name we would be <5/24 in April 2018. It sounded a long way off …it was a long way off. So we began to implement the strategy, I went from AMEX card to AMEX card (never adding an AU). My wife would take my card at times, or we’d buy VGCs at our grocery store for her to use. I got 13 more cards in the last 6 months of 2016 (including our first business card – a Marriott Biz).

In late 2016, the CSR card came out. I was sick that we couldn’t get it due to 5/24 , I remained resolved to our strategy, to one day hold in my hands a CSR ! Then CIP comes along…also subject to 5/24. We continued on – I got 10 more cards in 2017, 6 personal and 4 biz cards. My wife got back in the act a bit too with 4 AMEX biz cards of her own.

Finally, April 2018 arrived and we chose to hit the CIP first. Since this was a biz card, it would only be an inquiry on the report. We met the spend, and earned our largest signup bonus EVER (in terms of value) . And so we resumed waiting…

Until today my friends. Yes today, the glorious 9th day of August, 2018. For today my friends…I am now approved for a CSR and CSP!! A card that was 26 months in the making. I almost want to cry …to see this strategy culminate today is just amazing! The fact that during those 2+ years, nothing changed to negatively impact my plan is amazing. In fact…many new AWESOME cards came out during that time.

So yes – I was approved for my double dip! I called in this morning to see if there was a way to get my BiL credit after the fact for the referral. I’m going to send some screenshots and see if it will work. Such a happy day!

I had to read this twice cause the emoijs were so perfectly utilized

Please make your story even better and tell us it was instant approval for both!?

I'm getting DH ready for the CIP soon and hopefully the double dip later this year.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I had to read this twice cause the emoijs were so perfectly utilized

Please make your story even better and tell us it was instant approval for both!?

I'm getting DH ready for the CIP soon and hopefully the double dip later this year.

Oh yeah - instant approval on both!! 22k CL on the CSR and 12k CL on the CSP.

 

[Judique]

Dolan Uyghur - I had no idea what Uyghur cuisine was. Spoiler - it's wonderful. It's a blend of a couple of different cuisines. I had a noodle dish that I loved.

El Rinconcito - Salvadoran is pretty similar to Mexican cuisine. This is a small hole-in-the-wall type of place not far from the Convention Center. They have really interesting dishes if you're feeling adventurous, or the usual fare you might expect.

And now, my favorite, Ethiopian. DC has so many good Ethiopian restaurants I could write an entire blog post, but here are only two of my favorites:

Chercher - This is where I bring everyone the first time they try Ethiopian. It's my favorite restaurant. It's close to the Convention Center, at 9th and O St. I highly recommend the Ybeg Tibs (lamb tips) and the veggie platter. It's more food than you could possibly finish at once. A lot of people like to try Doro We't (chicken stew) for their first time, and it's pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of Ethiopian stews (We't) because I find the individual meats have more flavor. But it's worth a try - We't is hugely popular for a reason.

Quara - Quara is a small restaurant tucked away on the busy restaurant row of H Street. It used to be in Adams Morgan and recently moved. Quara has good meats, but the truly spectacular dish is Shiro (stewed legumes). They have the best Shiro I've had at any Ethiopian restaurant.

While you're on H Street, don't miss Dangerously Delicious Pies. I don't really have anything more to add about that one, it's pretty self-explanatory. And it's as amazing as it looks.

This turned out to be much longer than I expected.

@striker1064 - I used to go eat on 8th Street all the time! You are bringing back memories for me. I may have to venture into the District just to try Dolan Uyghur - I'm a fan of these type dishes. Also, the Salvadoran place interests me.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Congrats @SouthFayetteFan !!!

@wendow did you do RMN online with sams/dis GC without issues?

 

[Limes96]

@Lain is right. Your dh can get the IHG since it is a personal card and Chase allows 2 apps in 30 days for those. The conventional wisdom a lot of us dish out is to go for Chase cards that are subject to the 5/24 rule first. The IHG card is not subject to that rule, meaning you can qualify for it when you are over 5/24. However, if a card is a good fit for your family, then I believe in doing what makes the most sense for your family and vacation style FIRST. The IHG bonus has bopped all around over the years. 100k is the highest I've ever seen. We don't know when it will end. If you were to go for it now, I also agree with @Lain, you'd want to lay off Chase for 3-4 mos. Good luck deciding!

It would be at least 6 months before another Chase app for him. His 2/24 will fall off next March and next June. Getting this card now would give us 8,000 in minimum spend over the next 3 months and would definitely help me wait for my own double dip. Might even put that off until November. Hmmm....might just go for it. Thanks @Lain and @wendow .

 

[wendow]

@wendow did you do RMN online with sams/dis GC without issues?

I have not done that one. For Dis GC's, I've only done Walgreens in-store (successfully multiple times now on multiple accounts) and Staples online (unsuccessfully at this point).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Guys...I’m so excited. I can’t even focus on work HAHA!

 

[3 DD love princesses]

The list of prizes for the one in Baltimore has gift cards to local restaurants, Orioles tickets, as well as a small instax camera, bose Bluetooth speaker, echo dot, tickets to American Idol, and 10K points. It would be an hour drive for me, plus finding parking at Inner Harbor and hanging around for a chance to spin. There's also an $800 value prize of round trip travel. Our high today is only 86 so I gave it a moments consideration and then ditched the idea. Other than the trip which is for 1 person the prizes are anywhere from 15-45 in quantity. The restaurants gift cards are for $60. I guess that will cover one person around here..

Wish this was on Wednesday I could have drove up. Now we are headed to the beach in DE. Good luck winning if you go.

@SouthFayetteFan congrats! It was a great plan.

 

[striker1064]

@striker1064 - I used to go eat on 8th Street all the time! You are bringing back memories for me. I may have to venture into the District just to try Dolan Uyghur - I'm a fan of these type dishes. Also, the Salvadoran place interests me.

Well, one good thing is, Dolan Uyghur is in Cleveland Park (NW) - so depending on where you're coming from, you may not even have to fight your way downtown! El Rinconcito is near the Mout Vernon Square/Convention Center metro, so not much you can do about that one.

There are other good Salvadoran places in DC, I'm just not familiar with them.

 

[platamama]

this is instore? how do I find this deal? I was gonna go in later and use my offers together

The $200 MCGC has an automatic $5 off this week at Staples, the 10% off at Staples AMEX offer was a targeted offer. The $10 off $30 in-store purchase at Staples was an offer on the RMN app.

 

[amalone1013]

Hello everyone! I just got back from a trip to Universal and we had a great time! I need to catch up on about 30 pages but I figured I'd give a summary on how I used points for my trip

I used southwest points and companion pass to fly 5 of us to Orlando. I used UR points to pay for two rooms at Royal Pacific for two nights which gave us express pass for 3 days, and one room at Sapphire Falls for two nights. I paid cash for the second room at Sapphire by booking an AP rate of $139/night. I used my CSR and my travel credit. This was my first time at Sapphire Falls and I really enjoyed the hotel. The Strongwater Tavern had excellent food and I highly recommend! If it weren't for the lack of express pass I would definitely stay at Sapphire again.

I also bought three 5 day park to park passes with UR's. There was a promo for buy 3 days get 2 days free. I price bridged the tickets at the park and upgraded to seasonal AP's for $0! The guy at the guest services thought it was a mistake and called his manager over to make sure it was ok to give me a seasonal pass for $0, haha. Tip: There is a guest services window at the Hogsmeade station where you can upgrade your tickets. There was NO LINE. Much better than waiting in line at the front of the park.

I used my priority pass for the first time at MCO. The rest of my group didn't want to risk going through security again but I have TSA precheck thanks to my CSR so I enjoyed the lounge by myself and going through security again was a breeze.

All in all, I was really glad to be able to take my dad and my son's friend along with us for this mostly free trip thanks to this thread!

Glad you had a good trip! This is perfect timing because I've been debating our trip next month. We need 3 hotel nights and I think I'm going to do RPR for two nights for express pass. I've got one night covered but am debating points, OOP, discounted hotels.com gift cards for the other night.

I'm especially intrigued by your story of upgrading... That didn't cross my mind. We need 3 day tickets for our trip, and will be down there next June but not sure if we'll go to US or not. But the deal hunter in me noticed how the seasonal passes were the same price as the 3 day tickets (or $32 more than buying 3 day tickets via Undercover Tourist). Plus we are debating going down Labor Day weekend for water parks, which would include Volcano Bay. I looked at the promo tickets for that reason, and if they had the 'use all days within 14 days of first entrance' policy like Disney it would have worked (with our last day being the 16th, I think those expire the 17th?) but US only does 7 days... Really, I could buy the 3 park promo ticket from Undercover tourist for $328 and upgrade it to a Seasonal Pass for free, activating it Labor Day weekend and then we'd have it if we decided to go back within the next year

 

[LynnTH]

Happy Dance!! Was just approved for the CIP... Yes. Applied on Tuesday and was approved this morning. So excited.

In other news: Both DH and I applied for Barclays AAdvantage Business (the last day of the 50,000 points with first purchase). Both got letters in the mail needing DL Pic, SS Pic and Bank/Utility Statement. So, I sent mine all in and DH informs me that he has not had an actual SS card for a long time. (if ever - can't remember ever seeing is since we been married and that has been 23 years). So, does anyone know if Barclays will accept anything else? Passport copy maybe. They don't put a phone # on the letter they send out so not sure who to call. ( I am going to have DH get a replacement card but not sure how long that will take).

Oh - all you guys talking about Packing Cubes. I bought 4 sets of them on Prime Day (different color for each of us). Now I have absolutely no idea what to do with them. I told DH everyone talks about how amazing they are. Now what... May have to watch some You Tube Videos.

Getting to be like Southfayettefan. Trying to plan out my next year of cards for both DH and I. Of course UR's are our ultimate goal. Just used 200,000 for a cruise for the 4 of us. How cool to get a free cruise. Plus we have SW Points and will get free airfare. Love it!!

Anyway to my point. I am 4/24 as CIP will not count. Will be 3/24 in November when CSR will fall off. Would like to double dip CSR/CSP but can't do that until 2019 sometime. But figured now would be a good time to get a personal card that is of good value as I can double dip at 4/24 and now would be the time (or in the next few months) to get a card I normally could not get at 3/24. Starting to dabble in AMEX MR's. Just got the Gold Business and Green Business and referred DH to Green Business. So should I get a personal AMEX or do I get Hyatt or something else... (so many options)

DH is in the same predicament. He is 4/24 and will go 3/24 next month. So after we finish with CIP spend can work on something else. He would be able to double dip CSR/CSP in December or after. So, don't want to screw that up also. But don't want to waste that one spot I can use for something valuable also...

Eventually want to double dip SW cards for me again. But that can't happen until end of 2019. May have to research the PNC bank funding to use up $4000 on one of the cards for CSR/CSP double dip. Have no idea on any of that.

Next fall both kids will be in college. (DS is at community college right now but will be transferring to State College next fall and can use Visa/MC to pay. DD is still researching colleges so not sure on CC payments for her yet - but could have lots of spend available next fall).

Just talking through everything - maybe someone will have some advice I have not thought of.

 

[linzjane88]

what do you mean 'hasn't worked'...how do you know if it has? ETA- sorry I'm new to RTMN..... I still haven't seen an instore purchase show as pending from 3 days ago(Big Lots) that should have been totally legit...I sent an email

What in the world does RMN mean? When did we start with a new acronym?! Haha. It's driving me crazy that I can't figure it out...

 

[elgerber]

What in the world does RMN mean? When did we start with a new acronym?! Haha. It's driving me crazy that I can't figure it out...

LOL, thanks for asking, I have been wondering too!