I love credit cards so much!

[amalone1013]

Do you know what the limit for gift cards per day or transaction is at Lowe's? I remember a big discussion when the offer first came out on DoC but can't remember the upshot other than a lot of people bought $800 or $900 worth of gc but only some were activated. I'd like to avoid that aggravation if I can since I need to use my 3 Lowe's offers in the next 3 months.

The most I've done in one go is $400 ($200 Visa and 2x$100 Amazon). I haven't had any issues with activation.

 

[wendow]

Lol it's okay we are all weird in some way right? I was that kid growing up that enjoyed school and was like "GIVE ME WORKSHEETS OR FORMS TO FILL OUT!"

My dd18 taught herself to read at 3yo, and by 5-6yo, she was reading encyclopedias on a daily basis (I used to have a real, physical set). She'll read anything you put in her hands, but loves old classics. Grammar was her fav subject and she can diagram sentences like it's nothing. And yes, she loves worksheets lol! Yep, we are all weird in some way, or lots of ways

 

[pillow]

The Marriott Biz loses the elite night from spend on 8/26 when it gets auto converted to the Biz Premier Plus. The old Marriott Premier personal ($85 AF) keeps it indefinitely, so far (at least until whenever they get rid of the card I guess). And, of course, the new personal Premier Plus ($95 AF) doesn't have it at all.

Almost can't wait for the conversion to happens so I can stop thinking about all these dates!

Thanks for clarifying. I have the Biz card. I thought I was ok but couldn't remember details.

 

[gottalovepluto]

For @DisneyMandC, here's where we've ended up for our trip

Flights:

• Fly in late Thursday night , 7966 SW RRs plus CP
• Fly out next Sunday night, 13,698 SW RRs plus CP

Tickets:

• Disney: 7 day PHs, $1043.70, used 69,580 UR pts
• Universal: still need to buy, most expensive part, but getting 2 day Park to Park plus 1 day free via UCT, will probably upgrade to Seasonal Passes for $0; we're going to do Halloween Horror Nights, we were just going to do Saturday night but it turns out for about $8 more per ticket we can get a Rush of Fear Pass which is good for the first 10 nights (Friday night will be the first night). I think we're going to do EP for Saturday night though.

Hotels:

• Thurs: Cabana Bay $161.99
• Friday: Royal Pacific through Hotels.com, $336.38, used discount gift cards so OOP is $94, plus 5% back through swagbucks; also charged $25 of it to my Barclay Arrival so I could use up the last $25 in points on it
• Sat: Royal Pacific through UR portal, $337.12, used 22,474 pts
• Sun: All Star Movies through Chase Travel, $122.58, used 8,172 pts
• Mon - Sat night: Dolphin using 50,000 SPG pts plus $189 in resort fees, will either pay OOP or use DHs CSR credit because it should be resetting... if I end up getting DH the SPG lux we'll use that resort credit for the resort fees plus our anniversary dinner at Shula's

Activities:

• After Fireworks Dessert Party in MK, which I used towards Hilton Biz MSR
• Disney After Hours! which I used my earned/discounted Disney gift cards for

Beyond that is food and fastpasses And we're meeting up with some Dis'ers for HHN, which should be fun!

That sounds awesome!! (I’ve stayed RPR briefly on a couple trips, would totally return!)

 

[amalone1013]

That sounds awesome!! (I’ve stayed RPR briefly on a couple trips, would totally return!)

We loved RPR last September! It was our first really fancy hotel too so now it will always be special

 

[wendow]

Mine too! Neither of my parents use curse words, and I won’t say I never do, but it is a rare occasion.

That's me. And if I actually do get mad enough to utter something profane, it's really mild compared to most curse words

 

[gottalovepluto]

...We've been laying our phones on top of our glasses...

OMG, dollars to donuts my phone would land in my wine! Glad you found an alternative!!

 

[wendow]

@brownhaired_girl Loved the video! We could so relate!!

 

[Albort]

Wow, thanks, so much info. From what I read everything seems to work the same for first as economy... just need more points! Since this is supposed to be "nice" trip, and it's only for one way, figured it might be a good time to be comfortable on a longer flight. That's always the worst part of the end of vaca, that flight back brings you back to reality real quick. Hubby's never had a taste of first so since it's points, might as well splurge if we can and extend that vaca feeling a bit.

Seems like AS is distance based too, which is why it needs 30k at least for ANC to PHL. And that's the lowest for first, as a non refundable. It's goes up to like 60-70k one way If that's my only options we're moving to the back of the plane, hehe.



Ah, sorry about the transfer partner confusion. I have MR, SPG, and UR points in the budget to use for this, but no direct airline points. We don't fly much outside of SW for personal. The points I had been earning from business trips I managed to let expire on AA (which I still kick myself for, IIRC I had about 12k go poof after diligently keeping them active for several years), I still have a couple thousand in BA Avios and the same in United. But no where close to actually being able to redeem them for anything I think hubby has nothing because I forgot to try to save the little bit he had in AA and before that I'm not even sure he opened a FF account from his UK trips for work (he does kill me sometimes) but if he did those were forgotten and expired too. So I think I have points that can transfer to either airline, either directly or roundabout. And I'm not married to AS or AA but they were easy to start with.

We only need a one way for the flight. We're doing a one-way cruise to Alaska so I'm looking for the flight home, which is why we can splurge a bit for First if I can find the right award. As a random date I picked 5/3/2019 - it's also shoulder season like we'll be in for our cruise in Sep 2019 - just to get a feel for how many routes are available (and comparing to the routes available in 9/18) and rough ideas for points. On that date AS has an option for AS106 > AA2113 for 25k in first. However, I just figured out why, I think. It's first AS but Coach AA. When I looked it up before I happened to be on the mobile site and it doesn't show the class in the flight details there that I can see. That seems like a kinda important detail there. Silly me for assuming they'd list that when booking a non-refundable flight. So that probably explains why it wasn't an option when I searched on AA for First Class awards. I guess if I want a cheap First seat I'll have to put up with a few stops (note to self, pick out a route that has PP lounges for the layovers, hehe)

Torn on picking up more cards for the flight. I know AA should be easy but I've had a ban on Citi since I closed last card with them years ago out of aggravation (and reading all the "citi being citi" posts on reddit just tells me they're still the same or gotten worse since I had them) and honestly, Barclay's scares me a bit BoA is kind of tolerable but I'd have to be for sure I want to fly Alaska for that. Current plan for the budget is 50k UR and / or 50k MR for this flight. Hoping for "or" because I'm cheap but that's the only thing these points are budgeted for so if I need to use both I'm ok with it. Also have a pile of SPG that I can use if needed, if the MR isn't enough and I can't use the UR to augment. Seems like I'm up for more research still

30k seems quite a bit for a domestic first class. U can fly to Asia from west coast on 35k economy class.

The 2 nondistance carriers i know is BA and KE, however, skyteam tickets tend to not like stopovers. You could reposition yourself on cash to a nearby city(ie seattle) and then fly F class to your final destinations since most likely there will be a lot of flights. BA does AA flights 7500 one way in Y and 15000 one way in F. i believe it applies to all domestic flights.
KE also does AS flights(was 30k RT from San Jose to Maui).

Awardhacker suggests AF as well. SQ is another option.

 

[mmmears]

We loved RPR last September! It was our first really fancy hotel too so now it will always be special

We really liked it, too. Loved the theming and the location. And I'm pretty fussy when it comes to staying in hotels.

 

[Haley R]

My dd18 taught herself to read at 3yo, and by 5-6yo, she was reading encyclopedias on a daily basis (I used to have a real, physical set). She'll read anything you put in her hands, but loves old classics. Grammar was her fav subject and she can diagram sentences like it's nothing. And yes, she loves worksheets lol! Yep, we are all weird in some way, or lots of ways

Well I definitely wasn’t like that lol. I did attempt the sorcerers stone in first grade but I had to skip over a lot of words. I still love to read and I hope my kids will too. Dh hates reading lol

 

[amalone1013]

My dd18 taught herself to read at 3yo, and by 5-6yo, she was reading encyclopedias on a daily basis (I used to have a real, physical set). She'll read anything you put in her hands, but loves old classics. Grammar was her fav subject and she can diagram sentences like it's nothing. And yes, she loves worksheets lol! Yep, we are all weird in some way, or lots of ways

When I was about 3, I memorized every word in my favorite book and would turn the pages at just the right time

 

[SBWB48]

Weird. The $500 MCGC that gave me the error was also from US Bank. I'll try again next month.

I’ll be trying the $500 version soon. Bought my VGCs with the Biz Plat at Harris Teeter last week, so I need cool it this week before throwing another company party

Who did you end up calling to get the card activated? I've called the number on the activation paper, which has no option for MC, and I called the number on the back of the card and they were not able to help.

Call the main Staples support line at 1-800-333-3330 (I’m posting via my phone, so I can’t remember it exactly but pretty sure that’s the right number). Ask the rep you get to transfer you to the Giftcardmall team because you are having issues with activation. Once you get the next rep, provide your order number and explain you are having issues. They should be able to look up the cards without the number even, just order number, and activate them for you. Hope that works for you! Mine are all set and 2/3 used via MasterPass.

 

[wendow]

Call the main Staples support line at 1-800-333-3330 (I’m posting via my phone, so I can’t remember it exactly but pretty sure that’s the right number). Ask the rep you get to transfer you to the Giftcardmall team because you are having issues with activation. Once you get the next rep, provide your order number and explain you are having issues. They should be able to look up the cards without the number even, just order number, and activate them for you. Hope that works for you! Mine are all set and 2/3 used via MasterPass.

Thank you! I'll try this tomorrow. I'm frustrated with this at this point!

 

[Ngwira]

were you targeted?
Yes and no... DH received the mailing from them but the account was opened in my name alone. Same mailing address so maybe why I had no issues?

Mine too! Neither of my parents use curse words, and I won’t say I never do, but it is a rare occasion.

 

[farmerswife]

Holy cow this is a tough thread to keep up with!

We have had a Disney Rewards Visa for years. It has served us well. I recently got the CSP...now my husband thinks I may have become obsessed with ways to earn more points. It's like a game! I'm thinking of having him apply for the CSP/CSR double dip. I travel more frequently so really I would like to have the CSR in my name for the Priority Club benefit.

I'm probably thinking to far ahead but can we rent a car using the CSR in my name if my husband is the driver?

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Holy cow this is a tough thread to keep up with!

We have had a Disney Rewards Visa for years. It has served us well. I recently got the CSP...now my husband thinks I may have become obsessed with ways to earn more points. It's like a game! I'm thinking of having him apply for the CSP/CSR double dip. I travel more frequently so really I would like to have the CSR in my name for the Priority Club benefit.

I'm probably thinking to far ahead but can we rent a car using the CSR in my name if my husband is the driver?

Yes you can rent a car with a CC in your name with your husband as the driver...I do it all the time....but in my experience you have to be with him since at the rental booth they have asked us for the cc and the drivers DL...

And yes I’m also always looks for ways to get more points...lol

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm thinking about applying for the Barclay Business jet blue card. I have read some conflicting things on whether it would report to personal credit and count against 5/24. Any experience with this?

So it appears as though those DPs of people saying they had Barclays biz cards report to personal credit were confused. Barclays will do an inquiry on your personal credit, as all credit card companies do, but the cards won’t report. I have a Barclays AA biz and so does @speedyfishy and neither of us has had them report to our personal credit reports.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Another Labor and delivery nurse here for 18 years. Like @wendow my mother also washed our mouth out with soap for bad language so I’m pretty cautious most of the time. But I must say we are exposed to colorful language.

A bit off topic, but saw this video and thought I would share.

I LOVE John Crist!! He's coming to my city in November but we'll be out of town (at WDW, no less). He does a lot of really great clean stand-up and videos.

For @DisneyMandC, here's where we've ended up for our trip

Flights:

• Fly in late Thursday night , 7966 SW RRs plus CP
• Fly out next Sunday night, 13,698 SW RRs plus CP

Tickets:

• Disney: 7 day PHs, $1043.70, used 69,580 UR pts
• Universal: still need to buy, most expensive part, but getting 2 day Park to Park plus 1 day free via UCT, will probably upgrade to Seasonal Passes for $0; we're going to do Halloween Horror Nights, we were just going to do Saturday night but it turns out for about $8 more per ticket we can get a Rush of Fear Pass which is good for the first 10 nights (Friday night will be the first night). I think we're going to do EP for Saturday night though.

Hotels:

• Thurs: Cabana Bay $161.99
• Friday: Royal Pacific through Hotels.com, $336.38, used discount gift cards so OOP is $94, plus 5% back through swagbucks; also charged $25 of it to my Barclay Arrival so I could use up the last $25 in points on it
• Sat: Royal Pacific through UR portal, $337.12, used 22,474 pts
• Sun: All Star Movies through Chase Travel, $122.58, used 8,172 pts
• Mon - Sat night: Dolphin using 50,000 SPG pts plus $189 in resort fees, will either pay OOP or use DHs CSR credit because it should be resetting... if I end up getting DH the SPG lux we'll use that resort credit for the resort fees plus our anniversary dinner at Shula's

Activities:

• After Fireworks Dessert Party in MK, which I used towards Hilton Biz MSR
• Disney After Hours! which I used my earned/discounted Disney gift cards for

Beyond that is food and fastpasses And we're meeting up with some Dis'ers for HHN, which should be fun!

Sounds like such a great trip! And agreed on Universal... it's so expensive! I'm probably going to buy from UCT, but I have absolutely no need for that one day free ticket since we'll be driving back our last day. I don't know what the expiration looks like on those tickets, wonder how long it's good for.

 

[MrPTato]

So planning a quick trip to Philly for a weekend in September...driving from RI to meet friends coming up from WV. What things are there to see in Philly? Food?

Big question...thinking about Airbnb for the first time. I was going to signup but does anyone know if they have referral links that I could help someone out with here? I didn't see any over on our other reddit group.