I love credit cards so much!

[GlamMistress]

I currently have one other card that has no annual fee and earns rewards, but not necessarily travel-related.

I don't travel very often, and when I do it is generally road trips. I wanted some airline miles for some potential upcoming trips and the travel cards seemed like too good a deal to pass up.

You would probably be better off starting with the Sapphire Reserve or Preferred and do the double dip. Like I said, with those points you can transfer to United but you can also use the Ultimate Rewards portal to book flights as well and then you're not stuck with one airline.

You might read through these sites first - then come back with more questions. Where is it that you are trying to get to in 2019?

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/5mhaai/beginners_chase_guide_for_folks_under_524/

https://www.theglobetrottingteacher...-for-beginners-the-first-5-to-get-a-strategy/

 

[JaxDad]

You would probably be better off starting with the Sapphire Reserve or Preferred and do the double dip. Like I said, with those points you can transfer to United but you can also use the Ultimate Rewards portal to book flights as well and then you're not stuck with one airline.

You might read through these sites first - then come back with more questions. Where is it that you are trying to get to in 2019?

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/5mhaai/beginners_chase_guide_for_folks_under_524/

https://www.theglobetrottingteacher...-for-beginners-the-first-5-to-get-a-strategy/

Thanks! Our destination is still somewhat in flux, but somewhere out west.

 

[amalone1013]

Also, the Dolphin had a renovation at some point and I thought they added queen beds?

Still doubles. But just renovated over the last two-ish years? My understanding was that the lobby/Fuel were the end of the renovation, so we've only seen renovated rooms.

 

[hsmamato2]

you may need to create one, then merge it into whatever account u have set up. i recall having to create one for SPG biz to combine with my SPG personal. When i got my Biz Plat, i just added it to my main login.
At the moment, it seems like it only affects the Business card side only. The only one that was on personal card, the term seems to suggest we are safe.(best buy). All the other ones, were only available on Amex Biz cards.

I just added my hilton biz to my acct page no issues,that plus spg biz also.

 

[hsmamato2]

I think the clown head pool (if it's still there) at BW is freaky and scary (but I did read IT while housesitting so there's that). BC is much better for most people, I think. Cape May is a great idea and such a fun way to start off a cruise. Well played!



That was...fast! Since the card has existed for a week, even more impressive

@1st*toright any tips on how to do this so fast? I'd love some...

 

[Judique]

I have to tie with you on that one! Had ds20 at 18, went to senior prom 6 months prego didn't have any more kiddos until I was 31 and 33. I had one starting college and another starting kindergarten a few years ago! I will say I can definitely appreciate it more having the two little ones, realizing how fast they grow up. Kids somehow make you feel old but keep you young at the same time!

I had a friend who was in this same situation. An 18 year old and an infant! I had a 13 year old and an infant, with an 8 year old in the middle. They all turned out just fine. But, if I hadn't gotten pregnant with my first while actually believing I couldn't get pregnant at age 25 (according to doctors) I never would have planned any children. They all sort of just happened. Each one seemed like a miracle when they came along. No birth control at all, so in a way the doctors were somewhat correct.

 

[hsmamato2]

Gotcha. I know, you really can't beat upgrading to a seasonal pass for $0!

can you or @amalone1013 detail how to do that again? I'd like to get down there sometime and need a deal

 

[jhoannam]

Does anyone have recent experience with the United and Delta cards? I'm considering getting one to supplement my points, and either airline works for my travel plans. The United card seems to get the better reviews, but Delta has more initial miles. I haven't had an American Express card in a while, so that may work against the Delta card if others have had issues. Thanks in advance!

I have the United card, I haven't used the points but they have lots of availability. Right now we only fly Southwest because we are able to take advantage of the Companion pass. What is your home airport? A lot depends on which airline has a hub at your airport.

If you are a Delta hostage you'll want to focus on Delta cards. If not I would focus on Chase cards first.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I got started young but had some pretty intense struggles with endometriosis between my girls and my boys. Those problems carried over into my future pregnancies, including some losses of babies and time loss having babies. Had I not had that, who knows how many I'd have lol! I suspect at least 2-3 more :D Talk about some pricey Disney vacations lol! We'd need 3 rooms!

I had pretty severe pre-eclampsiaa with my youngest followed by a hysterectomy for pre-cancer otherwise I can imagine we'd have another one to keep the youngest company as she will be in 7th grade with all the other kids are out of the house. I guess she will get alot of great trips since traveling as a family of 3 instead of 6 will seem like a total bargain!

 

[hsmamato2]

random question of the day (for me) is it smarter to max the FR category at Walgreens buying a $500 visa,or to max the AMEX offer at staples buying visa gc? I'm leaning towards the 10% off....I wish I had enough $$$ to do both but I don't think so this month...it's been a busy summer......or.....and this is a first for me, best gc to purchase for resale? what sells best,and what place to use? I know there are better choices....

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Ugh that stinks That predicament is begging for a HUCA! I'm still holding out a sliver of a hope that they will allow at least one category upgrades on old certificates. This process is making me hate them a little though.

Also, if @Calfan declares you winner of the advanced maternal age award I think I get dibs on the other end of the spectrum. Although I don't think they give out awards for teen pregnancy . Married at 18 and pregnant 3 weeks later. Very much an accident but I still think the people I married and made are pretty likeable so it's all good in the end. We are very spoiled in having lots of grandparents available to us to keep the kids for us for a date night or even a few days /week. I think it would have been much harder without that since we didn't get much (any) time on our own before kids.

I was 18 with my oldest and 34 with my youngest. Super convenient have so many years to space out the 4 bundles of joy.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I have to tie with you on that one! Had ds20 at 18, went to senior prom 6 months prego didn't have any more kiddos until I was 31 and 33. I had one starting college and another starting kindergarten a few years ago! I will say I can definitely appreciate it more having the two little ones, realizing how fast they grow up. Kids somehow make you feel old but keep you young at the same time!

hahaha I was huge too at prom....It was me and my date was a friend from our group...the gay friend. The pregnant teen and the gay guy. My poor parents. I was so dumb. It is ok. I turned out fine. LOL. Just sorta jealous now of DD19's fun college experience she is having and knowing all the fun she will have in her 20s. I was working full time, raising a baby as a single momma, and in nursing school when I was her age.

 

[Ava]

I’m not completely caught up on the thread but want to jump in on the Marriott/SPG nights discussion.

I mysteriously have 10 extra “lifetime” nights showing in my account. I merged my Marriott & SPG accounts, and have the correct 26 nights showing for this year. But then I have another 10 nights under my lifetime earnings, and I have no idea where those came from. Obviously I’m not going to complain about it, and maybe they will disappear eventually, but just wanted to add another DP on how messed up this merger has been.

I do have a question about SPG Lux and nights/status. Since SPG Lux gives you automatic Gold status, do any nights you have stack on top of that? Or do you still need to have 50 nights to get to Platinum? I have Gold from my other credit card nights stacking - 16 from Marriott Biz + 10 from SPG - so wondering if I will get Platinum now from having the Lux, or if I’d still need to stay another 24 nights to get Plat.

 

[Judique]

I’m not completely caught up on the thread but want to jump in on the Marriott/SPG nights discussion.

I mysteriously have 10 extra “lifetime” nights showing in my account. I merged my Marriott & SPG accounts, and have the correct 26 nights showing for this year. But then I have another 10 nights under my lifetime earnings, and I have no idea where those came from. Obviously I’m not going to complain about it, and maybe they will disappear eventually, but just wanted to add another DP on how messed up this merger has been.

I do have a question about SPG Lux and nights/status. Since SPG Lux gives you automatic Gold status, do any nights you have stack on top of that? Or do you still need to have 50 nights to get to Platinum? I have Gold from my other credit card nights stacking - 16 from Marriott Biz + 10 from SPG - so wondering if I will get Platinum now from having the Lux, or if I’d still need to stay another 24 nights to get Plat.

You will still need 24 nights. At least you are close to correct with the possible mistake in the plus column!

 

[elgerber]

I've been a BWV owner since 2000, and I understand that many people have a dislike for the giant clown face.

I rarely even see the clown. I don't ever use that pool and enjoy the quiet pool and community hall area. And, several of my trips we've had access to Stormalong Bay over at BC due to pool rehab and I don't think I've ever bothered. We've used SB when staying at BCV as I'm also an owner there, but mostly the little BCV pool has been fine for me. When daughter was younger you couldn't get her out of the water so I had to spend all my SB pool time with eyes glued on her, because she would be in the whirlpool area and always filled with bigger kids. Yes, a good swimmer but still make me nervous, so if I could get out of going to the pool I did.
!

This is us too! And yes, we do not use the big pool much anymore, since the kids are older, we just lounge in the quiet pool, if we go at all. I also found no time to relax at all the times we stayed at YC/BC, when we were at the pool.

I have both cards.

Honestly if both airlines work for your travels, I'd go with United. I've found it is much easier to find better/cheaper flights with them. Plus the Explorer comes with primary car rental coverage and you get the $100 global entry credit too and 2 free lounge passes and the bag benefit.

I have the Delta gold and all it is good for is the free bags. Husband has the Delta plat so it comes with a companion fare at least but Delta mileage prices are high and no set award chart. I say all this as a person who collects a lot of Membership Rewards and Delta points. You can transfer Chase ultimate rewards to United too.

Do you have the other chase cards first?

I have had several AMEX Delta cards, and currently have two personal and one BIZ, the only issue is the occasional place that doesn't accept AMEX. I have actually had great luck the last couple of years finding good points flights on Delta, at least to Orlando. As low as 18000 miles round trip, which never used to happen. I even saw 10000 round trip from Minneapolis to Chicago last year, but we didn't go.

 

[elgerber]

UGH, it's been a week since I was told my new Hilton Biz would be expedited, and it wasn't, and it's still not coming today, grrrrrrrr. I have some stuff to pay this weekend that could have put some dent in the spend. It sure as heck better be here by next Thursday before we leave for Disney.

 

[miztressuz]

I’m not completely caught up on the thread but want to jump in on the Marriott/SPG nights discussion.

I mysteriously have 10 extra “lifetime” nights showing in my account. I merged my Marriott & SPG accounts, and have the correct 26 nights showing for this year. But then I have another 10 nights under my lifetime earnings, and I have no idea where those came from. Obviously I’m not going to complain about it, and maybe they will disappear eventually, but just wanted to add another DP on how messed up this merger has been.

I do have a question about SPG Lux and nights/status. Since SPG Lux gives you automatic Gold status, do any nights you have stack on top of that? Or do you still need to have 50 nights to get to Platinum? I have Gold from my other credit card nights stacking - 16 from Marriott Biz + 10 from SPG - so wondering if I will get Platinum now from having the Lux, or if I’d still need to stay another 24 nights to get Plat.

I also have extra Lifetime nights. I only have the 5 nights I got from the SPG card earlier this year in total for my SPG account, somehow I have 10 Lifetime nights though. I'm not gonna complain but no clue how they got there...

For the Platinum, still need the 50 nights. The status is just kind of a perk when given by the card, but if you want higher status still have to meet all the same requirements, either nights or insane spends. So if you want to be Platinum have to figure out another 24 nights (edit: or spend like crazy, I think it's 75k for plat?). You won't get any nights from the Lux until 2019. And then at that point you can only have 15 nights from credit cards total, no more stacking from multiple cards.

 

[striker1064]

Still doubles. But just renovated over the last two-ish years? My understanding was that the lobby/Fuel were the end of the renovation, so we've only seen renovated rooms.

Just wanted to throw out there, we have a reservation at Dolphin for this October and it specifies a King bed.

Could be surprising if we get in there and it's something else!

 

[1st*toright]

Sorry, more questions since I noticed I can the Dolphin or the Swan for 1/2 of the cost of YC. I know it doesn’t get MDE service but do you get Extra Hours Entry? Can you charge to your room like the WDW resort? Which one is better? I shouldn’t have checked the UR portal, which, of course, doesn’t have the WDW resorts showing.

@Alexle2007
I've stayed Swan multiple times in years gone by and I've always preferred it over Dolphin. Probably because the Swan was operated as a Westin and the Dolphin was operated as a Sheraton. Not sure if that's still true. I have stayed at Dolphin when I couldn't get a points room at Swan. The pool area is shared and very nice.

I do prefer the Dolphin for food options. More choice plus I like bluezoo. I ate at Garden Grove last November for their seafood feast and I do not recommend. It was priced well and had characters but the food was just lacking in quality prep. Overall it was a good value but not quite what I expect in quality, but I'm kind of that way about most of Disney now, with a few exceptions.

I've only stayed at the Swan - its a little smaller, and I like the queen beds. The shared pool area is awesome, and the food options at both places are really good - I love bluezoo (eat apps at the bar during happy hour if you want to eat amazing food for less $$$), Shula's is a good steakhouse, and I've heard good things about Il Mulino, though I haven't eaten there. Breakfast at Garden Grove (last time we were there, continental buffet was free for platinums, full hot bfast buffet for $7pp during the week and maybe $15 on the weekend?) Perfectly adequate breakfast buffet, and Goofy and Pluto come around - much less crazy than a regular character meal and they were awesome with DD.

@1st*toright any tips on how to do this so fast? I'd love some...

Well, it wasn't THAT fast, since it was an AMEX Biz Plat, and not the new SPG Lux, so I had at least a month to work on it. No tricks, just lucky timing on spend, really. We bought some furniture (replaced 20 year old couches, so this isn't spend that happens very often!) and I got super lucky and got to register myself and a colleague for a work conference that cost $2k each - that was a huge boost, since I got reimbursed by my company. My company doesn't do corporate credit cards (which seemed super strange to me when I started here) so all my travel, and some other random work expenses get run through personal cards. I am NOT complaining, especially because they do a really good job of paying employee expenses quickly.

 

[amalone1013]

Just wanted to throw out there, we have a reservation at Dolphin for this October and it specifies a King bed.

Could be surprising if we get in there and it's something else!

They have King bed rooms too! That's what I usually book I have pictures!