I love credit cards so much!

[SouthFayetteFan]

So, if for example The Swan (WDW) is 12,000 starpoints a night, once they combine the point programs, will it then be 36k / night? Anyone know or want to guess?

It’s on the new charts. It will be 50k per night regularly. Less during value and more during peak.

Here’s where you can view any property and the changes coming: https://points-redemption.marriott.com/category-change

 

[wendow]

At Costco this weekend the checker asked if we were paying with our Costco card and when we said yes he proceeded to hold it up to the terminal and the payment processed!! CONTACTLESS CC PAYMENTS HAVE COME TO AMERICA! I am embarrassingly excited but y’all might understand

My last two Costco trips have been 'contactless' payment! So weird. I just finally got used to the chip thing!

 

[wendow]

My last WDW room stay booked through the portal was through expedia. Found that out when I called to get the Disney confirmation number to link and the rep from the wholesale line mentioned expedia. Will be interesting to see what changes come to the portal due to this. I'e been trying to search for a room for March.

Our rooms last Sept, that we booked through the UR portal, showed that we booked through Expedia. I don't understand what is changing here...?

 

[gottalovepluto]

Hah. My Dad was in town this weekend and was telling me about his contactless Costco card... I had to show him a video of how easy a guy with a mobile CC processor was able to walk around and place charges on peoples cards w/out their knowledge.

yeah... rfid protecting wallets are getting more important for sure!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Hmmm...it doesn’t seem to be working for me. I was looking for 9/8-10 and none of the Disney hotels are coming up. Trying to decide if maybe we do WDW instead of SeaWorld/Aquatica.

someone mentioned that it was only rolled out to Freedom...so that I the one I logged into and was searching under. Working great for me!

 

[calypso726]

Thanks. Is anyone working that card all you can before they combine the points? Is it Aug 30? I'm thinking of working that card for the rest of the month to collect as many spg points as I can.

Points combine August 18.

 

[tink1970]

@Calfan - I see @calypso726 did a great job of explaining. Sorry for the delayed response, I was away from my computer for a couple of hours

 

[miztressuz]

Hubby's getting a taste of the Suite life this week thanks to the new Hilton card we don't even have yet
When he booked the hotel the corporate portal only have 2 doubles for the room type, even though the kings are the same price. He was planning to ask for a king at check-in but after we got confirmation of his Gold status change I told him to ask for an upgrade, maybe he'd get one of the larger kings with the couch. Well the lady at the check-in desk said sure, no problem, here's your keys. Hubby tottles off to the room, opens the door and sees a big 'ole Junior Suite! He actually walked back to the check-in to double check he wasn't being charged extra for the higher upgrade than he was expecting

He gets to hang out in this all week:

 

[AmyAnne]

Marriott-Starwood experts: I confess that I haven't been following this too closely because I don't have a great number of Marriott or Starwood points. However, I do have some, and now I'm wondering what if anything I should do with them before August 18. Specifically, should I combine them all as either Marriott or Starwood points now? So far I have just been letting them accumulate and stay separate.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Marriott-Starwood experts: I confess that I haven't been following this too closely because I don't have a great number of Marriott or Starwood points. However, I do have some, and now I'm wondering what if anything I should do with them before August 18. Specifically, should I combine them all as either Marriott or Starwood points now? So far I have just been letting them accumulate and stay separate.

How many points do you and your spouse each have in Marriott points & SPG points? (List all 4 numbers)

 

[amalone1013]

I’ve got 6 nights booked at the Swan, Nov 10-16th, and preparing to buy 4 day park tickets now through Chase UR. I have 126,000 now on one account but my 86,000 will be hitting my Chase Business Ink on the 18th. I’m buying a total of 2 adult tickets and 4 kids. Will it make a difference if I call tomorrow and “order” the 4 kids tickets, then wait for the 18th to “order” the adult tickets? Or should I just wait and transfer the points on the 18th and order all 6 together?

Once they are ordered, what’s the easiest way to get it all linked in My Disney Experience? I thought I read that I’d have to call Swan and get a new confirmation number because the one in the email wasn’t the same?

How did you book the Swan? If it was through SPG that confirmation number will work in My Disney Experience, it just takes a day or two before it will link.

I think the only difference in ordering tickets is if you order them all together you'll only have to link them once, if you do them separately you'll have to link them twice. I ordered tickets maybe 2 months ago with UR points. I got a confirmation email within 10 mins of the phone call, plus the agent gave it to me over the phone. I put it in MDE and then matched the tickets to each person. Super easy.

 

[AmyAnne]

How many points do you and your spouse each have in Marriott points & SPG points? (List all 4 numbers)

SPG me = 30,000
SPG DH = none
Marriott me = 99,000
Marriott DH = 24,000

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

SPG me = 30,000
SPG DH = none
Marriott me = 99,000
Marriott DH = 24,000

You're going to end up with 189k Marriott points in a couple of weeks. Your husband will stay with his 24k.

IF your husband has an SPG account already and it shares your address, you could move his 24k points to you...That would get all 213k of your Marriott points in one place (which can be nice).

You'd do His Marriott => His SPG => Your SPG => Your Marriott.
- The Marriott => SPG and SPG => Marriott transfers should be automatic
- The SPG => SPG transfer takes 3-5 days typically which means you're up against the cutoff

IF that doesn't seem worth the hassle then I'd just stay put. Congrats on having a nice little stash of Marriott points!

 

[AmyAnne]

You're going to end up with 189k Marriott points in a couple of weeks. Your husband will stay with his 24k.

IF your husband has an SPG account already and it shares your address, you could move his 24k points to you...That would get all 213k of your Marriott points in one place (which can be nice).

You'd do His Marriott => His SPG => Your SPG => Your Marriott.
- The Marriott => SPG and SPG => Marriott transfers should be automatic
- The SPG => SPG transfer takes 3-5 days typically which means you're up against the cutoff

IF that doesn't seem worth the hassle then I'd just stay put. Congrats on having a nice little stash of Marriott points!

Excellent - thanks! He doesn't have an SPG account so I'll go back to ignoring all of the merger chatter

 

[speedyfishy]

I’ve got 6 nights booked at the Swan, Nov 10-16th, and preparing to buy 4 day park tickets now through Chase UR. I have 126,000 now on one account but my 86,000 will be hitting my Chase Business Ink on the 18th. I’m buying a total of 2 adult tickets and 4 kids. Will it make a difference if I call tomorrow and “order” the 4 kids tickets, then wait for the 18th to “order” the adult tickets? Or should I just wait and transfer the points on the 18th and order all 6 together?

Once they are ordered, what’s the easiest way to get it all linked in My Disney Experience? I thought I read that I’d have to call Swan and get a new confirmation number because the one in the email wasn’t the same?

I haven’t done a swan reservation but for the tickets if you have them get it through the Disney website you will get your confirmation number right away. Personally, I’d get all the tickets at once. You can’t make fast passes anyway yet and it seems like every time I call Chase Cruise and Tours it takes half an hour to book what I want.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Excellent - thanks! He doesn't have an SPG account so I'll go back to ignoring all of the merger chatter

Marriott will also allow you to transfer points if you ever need to. There’s supposed to be a fee although in practice I haven’t seen them charge it. The process isn’t terribly difficult but the SPG workaround was easier which is why people have been doing it now.

 

[AmyAnne]

Marriott will also allow you to transfer points if you ever need to. There’s supposed to be a fee although in practice I haven’t seen them charge it. The process isn’t terribly difficult but the SPG workaround was easier which is why people have been doing it now.

Thanks for explaining about transferring. I've been using airline points forever (we used to live in a Delta hub city, so I have had the AmEx Delta card for 12 years) but I've only recently started thinking about hotel points. I used to *love* Priceline when you could figure out exactly which hotel you would win based on star rating, but that ended five or so years ago. My one hotel hacking has been our Hilton hotel for Chicago last year - $900 worth of rooms for essentially free This year's big family trip is WDW so I'm working on UR points mostly (except for a recent diversion caused by the AmEx bonuses for self-referring from the Biz Plat). I need to remember to consult my spreadsheet often enough to make sure the Marriott points don't expire!

 

[Alexle2007]

someone mentioned that it was only rolled out to Freedom...so that I the one I logged into and was searching under. Working great for me!

Gotcha. I missed that part. I was checking on my CSR. I guess I could check on DH’s Freedom but then f I wanted to book I would still have to call since I’d want to use the CSR.

 

[Albort]

https://www.hotelsbypoints.com/updated-marriott-starwood-map

found this on reddit. very very helpful.

 

[castoral]

How did you book the Swan? If it was through SPG that confirmation number will work in My Disney Experience, it just takes a day or two before it will link.

I think the only difference in ordering tickets is if you order them all together you'll only have to link them once, if you do them separately you'll have to link them twice. I ordered tickets maybe 2 months ago with UR points. I got a confirmation email within 10 mins of the phone call, plus the agent gave it to me over the phone. I put it in MDE and then matched the tickets to each person. Super easy.

Hmmm, oddly I booked over the phone with SPG, so I would consider that directly with Swan, and the confirmation number doesn’t work. I’ll try calling Disney first and then SPG to figure out why it won’t link.

And thank you for the help on the tickets. I mostly was worried about flagging a business account for moving points. I know it’s allowed but I wanted to double check if it was kinda taboo. I figured if it wasn’t needed (like I needed to combine just to buy one hotel reservation for instance), then I’d let it slide.

Now on to figure out what card to get next. We have a fairly large kitchen/first floor remodel starting soon so lots of materials to purchase!