I love credit cards so much!

[CyndiLouWho]

I finally got at pop up message saying that stat might be wrong, they are working on it and to be patient. I’m holding off until they fix it before I merge the accounts.

Mine were fine before I merged, now there is something different every few days. First I was missing stays, then they appeared. Then I was Silver. Now Gold but funny math.
Patience, grasshopper

 

[Limes96]

Just noticed, my kids’ fall sports pictures coded 3x on my CIP. Maybe it will do the same on my son’s senior pictures.

 

[Calfan]

I have some pages to catch up on but thought I would share a few churning successes and failures so far today:

On the success front, I was able to get us Business class seats for our flights from San Francisco to Johannesburg for our Botswana trip next summer! I had originally booked a coach itinerary using United miles with a combo of Lufthansa and South African Airways flights connecting through Munich, with the hope of upgrading that route to Business. I've been stalking the United website daily to see if any saver Business awards would pop up either for that route or one that was fairly comparable. Well, today it happened! I saw a Swiss itinerary connecting through Zurich. Still only one stop. A little longer layover in Zurich than we would have had in Munich, but totally worth it to get both legs in Business. I had to pay a $300 total change fee, but I also got back $23.60 because taxes were cheaper on the new route. So for 320,000 total United miles and a little over $275, we are now in Business to Africa! Super happy about that. Now to keep working on upgrades for the Emirates flights on the return...

Also on the plus side, I finished up the MSR on my Amex Biz Platinum so will hopefully see the 100K bonus MR post soon. Still trying to pull up some good offers for DH so we can get the 66Kish additional MR we would need to be able to upgrade both legs of our return flights from Africa on Emirates. The leg I really care about is the very long leg from Dubai to SFO, but I'd like to have enough MR to upgrade the whole itinerary if upgrades become available.

On the partial plus side is hearing from United customer service that they are crediting my MileagePlus account and the accounts for each of my kids with 3K miles each. This is a result of having our flight from LAX to BOI a couple of weeks ago delayed from 8:11 p.m. to 6:45 a.m. the next morning!! Apparently United had an aircraft but no crew to fly it at the time we were supposed to leave, SMH! Luckily, we were in the United Club when we got the unfortunate news about the delay, and the United agent in the lounge was able to book us in to a hotel with United vouchers and also got us food vouchers. Much better than being among the masses at the gate needing the same kind of assistance. United did give us all 7,500 miles as compensation for the delay, but I sent an email to Customer Service to see if I could get a little more. I was actually pleasantly surprised to hear back this morning with the additional 3K each.

This is in total contrast to the radio silence I've experienced from Delta on the delay issues we experienced with them on the way to LAX for the start of that trip. That trip was just cursed with bad travel karma. I'm hoping, though, that we got all of the bad juju out of our system for a while. With the amount of international travel we do, we've been pretty darn lucky in never having a truly awful delay or cancellation experience. If the bad stuff had to happen, better for it to happen on some short domestic flights. Anyway, on our way to Los Angeles for that trip, our 7:44 a.m. flight on Delta ended up leaving at around 4 p.m. due to an electrical issue with the plane that took eons to fix. We absolutely needed to be in the Los Angeles area to make a VIP tour at Universal Studios the next morning, so at about 12:30 p.m., we pulled the plug on waiting to see if Delta could fix our plane and jumped on a Southwest flight to Burbank through San Jose. Instead of arriving at LAX at around 9:30 a.m. that morning, we landed in Burbank at about 5 p.m. that evening! But Delta clearly had no backup plan if the original aircraft couldn't go, so we felt we had no choice but to bail out to another airline. Delta did refund our flights, and the Delta crew in Boise made a pretty heroic effort to get our bags off the Delta aircraft so we could check them on SW, but the SW flights still cost us around $900 more than the amount we got refunded from Delta, due to the last-minute booking. I wrote to Delta customer service and have heard absolutely nothing back. I expect to be SOL on that one since we made the choice to bail out and the original flight did end up going, but I still thought it was worth a shot to try to get something out of Delta. I sent a follow up request to Customer Service today. I'll take to Twitter next....

And also on the fail/frustration side was trying to attach my Marriott/SPG 7-night N&F certificate to a Marriott reservation in Chicago for our Hamilton trip. I was on hold for about 45 minutes total between two different reps. (I did have it on speaker while I was doing work and other things, but never fun to be on hold for so long.) Finally got a rep who knew how to attach a certificate only to be told that the room type I had reserved wasn't available to be attached to a certificate. The only room type eligible/available was one that totally wouldn't work for 4 of us. Ugh!! At that point, I just told the rep to cancel the room reservation and also cancel my N&F cert in exchange for the 45,000 points Marriott said it would offer. (I was only planning to stay 3 nights of the 7 anyway and can see no other use for the cert before it expires). Of course, I got an email confirmation of the cert cancellation but am still waiting for the 45,000 points to actually show up in my account. She said it could take 24 hours. We'll see. So instead of Marriott, we'll be staying with Hilton in Chicago. Whereas Marriott was a total PITA to deal with this morning, it was super easy to do a partial points/partial cash booking with Hilton for the nights I needed. So I cast my hotel loyalty lot with Hilton! I plan to cancel both my Marriott and SPG biz cards when the next AF hits for each. The free night certs just aren't worth it for me when we stay in hotels relatively infrequently and it seems so hard to find a hotel in the proper category for the cert and then a room type that the certs will actually work with. Way to lose a customer, Marriott/SPG!

(Edited to correct the total number of UA miles for the Business booking)

 

[jhoannam]

So, I just booked an AS award flight on Cathay in business from South Africa to SanFran with a week and half stopover in Hong Kong where I'll use my 7 night Marriott cert next year... oh. my. gosh. ...My first big, international award booking. I'm still processing that I just did that, when I'm thinking a bit clearer I'll come back and lay out some of the process details in case anyone else is looking at using AS miles to book Cathay.

How freaking exciting! Can you post details. # of people, # of miles, which program you used to book. Africa is like 6 years down the road for us.

 

[Judique]

Hmmm...all this Starriott talk made me check my account and it seems I also missing the SPG Biz 5 nights. I got my Marriott personal on 12/8/17 so if I can get those 15 plus 5 Biz that puts me 40 plus I have my Sat and current stay which is 4 nights plus 2 nights at SeaWorld and I’m at 46. So I just need to work in 4 more nights. We were supposed to have one Labor Day weekend in Hershey but DH hurt his foot and has been limping around since Fri so we canceled it Now to plan out how to get those nights even if it’s staying near Dave and Buster’s and enduring that torture!

Did you have the 5 rollover nights from your spg personal that @miztressuz has mentioned?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Just went to Best Buy. So glad that’s over. I unfortunately got the nice but clueless elderly man as my cashier. He didn’t understand what the “swashbuckler” (Swagbucks) code was I wanted him to scan. Then for some reason the $50 Disney GC rang up as a variable red lobster gift card, which he insisted must be because of my “swashbuckler” code. I went out to the parking lot and immediately put the code into the Disney gift card website and it worked though. I also got an email from Amex immediately thanking me for using my offer.

 

[miztressuz]

Just a PSA on Marriott Rollover nights as everyone is counting nights on fingers and toes - I believe that 2017 was the last year for rollover nights, so if you are thinking of trying for elite status in 2019, don't count on any rollover nights from 2018 to help you along. Seems like 2018 should be pretty easy to score elite status - stacking credit card nights, rollover nights, generous meeting policies. Options get fewer in 2019 - maybe that means that elite status will mean more when fewer people can achieve it? (I will probably never know because I'm not sure I'll ever make it to an elite level without some of the things that helped me along this year!)

You are correct, last year for rollover
It's the only reason we can get close to Platinum as we ended up with 20 rollover nights from actually travelling last year
After next year we'll be lucky to keep Gold. I know it's blasphemy, but we may need to do some spend for elite nights to make it so we're hanging on to the old/plain Premier card!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I think it's kind of a result of how easy they throw points at you... almost literally. If points were worth so much, why would they be so free with them? Cuz they know you still need way more to redeem than you earn. The 100k bonus looks great, but when you go to spend it each night is 30-50k. Whereas programs like Marriott and IHG I can get the same rooms for 10-20k. So yeah, I wouldn't calculate it down to the penny (although I probably should) but when you look at the valuations sometimes you're talking dollars to pesos. (not everywhere, but generally it seems so)

This past weekend we stayed in the Pittsburgh area. I looked at Hilton and Marriott in the same location with equivalent brands. Spent 12,500 a night at Marriott vs the 30,000 a night Hilton asked. Both Marriott and Hilton cards give you the same 100k so in this scenario we'd get many more nights with Marriott. So it's easy for Hilton to be the butt of a joke Doesn't mean we don't all grab the card and stay with them anyway. If there can be Skypesos there's bound to be a land equivalent, Hilton just seems to be "it" for now. I'm sure they'll tag someone sooner or later.

oh, I see. It is diff for us b/c the earn rate is so huge with DH staying out multiple nights a week. He gets like 6k points /night for his little $100 rooms with all the promos and diamond earn rate and their CC. Then they have 10k bonus every 10 nights and he just got a 30k bonus on top of that for his 60th night. So there are incentives now for diamonds to stick around even after renewing status for the year. The 40k bonus he just got for his 60th night is enough for a night somewhere in itself. If you are just looking at points earned from credit card bonus/purchases then I can see where you would think the points aren't so valuable.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Just went to Best Buy. So glad that’s over. I unfortunately got the nice but clueless elderly man as my cashier. He didn’t understand what the “swashbuckler” (Swagbucks) code was I wanted him to scan. Then for some reason the $50 Disney GC rang up as a variable red lobster gift card, which he insisted must be because of my “swashbuckler” code. I went out to the parking lot and immediately put the code into the Disney gift card website and it worked though. I also got an email from Amex immediately thanking me for using my offer.

swashbuckler...I had a good laugh about this.

 

[MrPTato]

Just went to Best Buy. So glad that’s over. I unfortunately got the nice but clueless elderly man as my cashier. He didn’t understand what the “swashbuckler” (Swagbucks) code was I wanted him to scan. Then for some reason the $50 Disney GC rang up as a variable red lobster gift card, which he insisted must be because of my “swashbuckler” code. I went out to the parking lot and immediately put the code into the Disney gift card website and it worked though. I also got an email from Amex immediately thanking me for using my offer.

I was just at BB and the cashier was clueless...she was very hesitant about scanning anything that I gave her. Tried giving her my phone number for my rewards account but she kept insisting that was what she had scanned. She also kept entering my phone number wrong...I think she was clueless that my area code didn't match the area I was in and asked me where I was visiting from. Finally made it out of there with my loot.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Do you have Marriot cards or just SPG?

I have both. A Marriott premier plus (me and DH) and SPG biz (both of us) and now Lux (just me, upgraded)

 

[miztressuz]

oh, I see. It is diff for us b/c the earn rate is so huge with DH staying out multiple nights a week. He gets like 6k points /night for his little $100 rooms with all the promos and diamond earn rate and their CC. Then they have 10k bonus every 10 nights and he just got a 30k bonus on top of that for his 60th night. So there are incentives now for diamonds to stick around even after renewing status for the year. The 40k bonus he just got for his 60th night is enough for a night somewhere in itself. If you are just looking at points earned from credit card bonus/purchases then I can see where you would think the points aren't so valuable.

Yeah, if you have status with them they're great. I'm flabbergasted at how many points they've thrown at us just from this last stay, because we got the Gold status from the card. 80% bonus plus the double points promo plus the CC earnings... and the 100% bonus for diamond still floors me. The really have stacked it towards loyalty with all the bonuses for stays, so if you're a traveler/road warrior this is the place to be. But for those of use that aren't, it's just not really attainable without help from a CC.

When we look at the 3 stays we took as a Blue member (I think that's it? whatever is the equivalent of "pion" ) at moderately priced hotels, even with points promotions, 5 nights got us 18k in points. I can't even find a room for that without doing a points+cash booking. They are nice with the low threshold for stays to reach Silver at just 4, but usually we don't do much more than that in a year So we could hit Silver if we stayed solely with them, and maybe every year we'd get enough points for a one night stay. But we've found more value in the Marriott and IHG programs - plus it helped that IHG for a while was the preferred chain for my work so when I had to travel at least I got points for it - even though Hilton has a nice product.

All that said, hubby is a perks person. Even though the Hilton card doesn't give us a free night like the others, which was our justification to pay the AF for them, I think seeing the accumulation of points as part of all the perks that gets us more free stuff, I can see it being kept. We'll see what happens when it comes time to actually pay the AF next year, but I sense they got him hooked. (marketing: 1, user: 0 )

 

[DrFacilier]

If your points will post within the next 30 days I would just book directly with Disney right now. Then when points post call Cruise and Tours (I can give you information on someone good) and transfer reservation to Chase. You decide how many points to use if you don’t want to use all of them. You can even pay any balance with a gift card. Gift card payment on part was my choice since couldn’t part with all my precious UR’s!

Just called Chase and they said they should post around 9/25. Should I just book on the Disney site? I would love your information for someone at Cruise and Tours. Thanks so much for your help!

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

What position does he hold that he wrote the grants? I know probably a volunteer position but seemshe could be a consultant for them. Writing the grants, then helping coordinate use of said grants. I’m not sure of all the business categories (I use rental property for mine, never looked at the rest) but consultancy seems a pretty legit business and he has a definite need to keep those expenditures separate.

Even if he isn't receiving any sort of compensation? Dh is very by-the-book (has to be, for his job lol) so I'm not sure how far he would go.

Perhaps opening 2 different cards for 2 bonuses with $5Kish MSRs, instead of opening one card with the high MSR, might be better. The purchases will come from multiple businesses (strings from one, woodwinds from another, etc).

Thanks for your response

 

[platamama]

Just called Chase and they said they should post around 9/25. Should I just book on the Disney site? I would love your information for someone at Cruise and Tours. Thanks so much for your help!

Are you on the reddit for Dischurners? There is contact information for people at Cruise and Tours on the Churning for Disney subtopic.

 

[Judique]

Ok I'm apparently way off in my memory of when I opened this card since my AF was last due on Nov 23,2017. I had thought this was an August card..... so Now I need to think about this. even more. and..... What was the free anniversary night change to the SPG card again?(reg. card) it was free night up to 35k on anniversary,right? but it was tied to the date of card opening...I can't recall what that detail was....help please?

They added the free 35K night effective August 1,2018. Since your anniversary is November, you would be due the free night in November. (I've had the card 17 years and won't get my first free night until next March.)

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Hmmmm, I just combined both mine and dh Marriott/SPG accounts, and discovered that somehow there was 16k points in his SPG account I didn't know were there. Ugh, could have transferred those over to join my Marriott points long ago, before the merge. Am I seeing correctly that now I have to pay $10 to share them and can only do it over the phone? He is never going to call them :-(.

I've been away all day. I had the un-enviable task of Golfing for work today but at any rate...sorry if this was already answered.

I've transferred points before and have NOT seen them actually charge the $10 fee. Not sure if that practice still holds though (and I wasn't any special status when I did that before). Also - you could ask for them to waive as a courtesy if they try to charge since SPG wouldn't have charged you.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

First of all, this thread moves SO fast!

I still haven't pulled the trigger on applying for a CIP myself, and now I have a different question.

I pulled DH's Experian report today. Apparently, about two weeks ago he went to Peebles to buy a shirt for a funeral and forgot his wallet at home and "reopened" the card he used to have at Peebles to charge it. Of course, on the credit report, it's showing opened as of August 2018 . It has an embarrassing $350 limit haha! As a reminder, he has a CIP (02/18). I'm thinking that maybe I should apply for a personal card in his name to help boost his credit score? The last time I checked it was around 720ish. I would like for it to be a little higher. Thoughts on this? Right now the only thing on his credit report is the dang Peebles card.

I'm considering 3 options if I decide to add a personal card for him:

• Wait until December and apply for SW pers & biz to get the CP for 2019 & 2020 (we wouldn't be able to use the CP until summer so I don't need to have the points post in Jan).
• CSP
• Hyatt

Otherwise, I will probably refer myself from his CIP (105,000 UR total). There's also a 95% chance DH will open a new LLC by the end of the year. So i'll probably get a CIP for both of us for that business next year (210,000 UR total - if my math is right. Can you refer back and forth like that?) I would space these apps out over a year or so with the goal to obtain the points by this time next year (or a little later). Does anyone see any issues with this? I feel like I should add personal cards in there somewhere?? But maybe not?

I think you're going about this the right way. You're planning your apps intentionally, you're spacing things out. As long as you keep things spaced out, any of your ideas here should work IMO.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

If I buy gcs at Best Buy will it be a problem for my AMEX MSR?

 

[elgerber]

I've been away all day. I had the un-enviable task of Golfing for work today but at any rate...sorry if this was already answered.

I've transferred points before and have NOT seen them actually charge the $10 fee. Not sure if that practice still holds though (and I wasn't any special status when I did that before). Also - you could ask for them to waive as a courtesy if they try to charge since SPG wouldn't have charged you.

Have you been able to do it online since they merged? I'm sure most people probably haven't, since it's so recent. I don't even mind the $10 much, just the calling part, no way dh is going to do that.