amalone1013
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2016
- Messages
- 8,385
Remember how they were going to resend MILSs birthday balloon? They sent a whole new flower arrangement!
Thank you! If I have a big Disney wedding everyone here is welcome to attend. For my wedding gifts I’ll accept any unwanted airline giftcards and UR points (I’ll be willing to move in with any of you for a few months). I won’t accept any priority passes or global entry credits. lol
Are there support links for Swagbucks? I am going to be signing up in the next 15 minutes.
It works for Chase but not for Amex. Amex wants a SS#Wow, great idea! Thank you. The mutt will be good for something.
I will wait a few months. I am sure the Marriott/SPG reps are overwhelmed with mad/frustrated customers. The rep tried to help (a little) but was pretty clueless. She actually said, well if you don’t use this cert, you’ll get another next year. Um no, I cancelled the cc it came from. Because I can’t find a use for this crappy cert.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.
We went to China for 17 days. I freakin packed everything. We were in 3 different cities, chilly in Beijing, warm in Hubei and sweltering/humid in Guangzhou. So lots of clothes, plus a car seat for DS, plus every pharmaceutical, in baby and adult strength, known to man. The night before we left, I have a 4 page checklist and a scale weighing our luggage and rearranging everything. DH is on a stool changing the bulb in the kitchen light fixture.Yup, I definitely have a problem packing for every available scenario. I am already worried about Disneyland in November and WDW in January. It's like I completely forget what temperatures feel like so I look at the forecast and think 'But what does a high of 76 and a low of 52 feel like?! Will I need pants or shorts?!'. Never mind the fact that those are the current temperatures we are experiencing here right now. By packing time I will have total amnesia. BRING ALL OF THE PANTS!
We saw the coach once on the bridge between Swan and BW. We were on the boat, but it looked pretty cool.Last one I saw was in January and the bride arrived at Seabreeze Point in Cinderella's Coach complete with the white horses and footmen
i had to purchase visa gift cards with my american express to use on utility bills. safeway currently has them discounted.Can I pay utility bills with Amex? I'm trying to meet 2 Amex MSRs.
So if I upgrade to SPG Lux and have $300 hotel credit, my resort fees at Swan will be around $150. Any idea if the gift shop has Disney GCs and whether you can charge to room from gift shop? See where I’m going? Otherwise, we’re having a nice dinner in bluezoo.
Hi everyone! I don't post much, but try to follow along as best I can. Here's what I have and when I got it:
Key Bank cc (I know...) 9/2016
CSW 2/2017
CSP 3/2018
CIP 5/2018
I also have various cards that are older, but these are my most recent.
My travel plans include a May 2019 WDW trip, but I'm really trying to save UR points for a 2020 US/WDW big family trip. My tentative plan is to apply for SW biz and personal at the end of next year to get the CP. So, I'd like a new card this fall/winter. I'm doing really well with paying off my student loans but I think I can swing a MS during the holidays. Any suggestions? I don't see any great Chase sign up bonus out there. I really don't know how I'd use AMEX MRs. We only fly SW. I'm not totally opposed to staying at Swan, but think it's more of a hassle with no DME. What I'm looking to do is get park tickets and rooms covered (in addition to earn RR points). Thanks for any input!
Thank you! I’m not on any Facebook groups, but I have lurked on the wedding forums over here. I’m so undecided on what I want still. Part of me wants to just elope with SO at Disney. Less money and no family drama, but idk if I want to miss out on a “big wedding”
Rundown on booking Cathay with AS (south africa to usa)...
You can google this, but I got conflicting info and was just really confused for a while. Cathay screwed up parts of their online availability at some point earlier this year and it took all sorts of tricks to get around that but it all went back to normal a month or two ago- so ignore ALL those articles from that transition time.
Search one leg at a time using the BA site. You'll have to join their FF program to do so. If you try searching the whole route it won't show availability. You need availability on Cathay Pacific. Cathay Dragon is not allowed (not that I ever saw it). I had to be flexible, there was nothing showing on weekends for business, some flights did have more than 1 seat available and BA shows you how many are available. They say AS doesn't get all the availability BA does but AS saw the seats I saw, it's recommended to call with a backup plan but idk if I would wait around to develop a backup plan if I saw what I wanted! I think I could have tacked on a flight to my home airport on AS if saver level space was available (AS only- or AS subsidiary like Horizon) but I couldn't find any availability with Cathay in/out SEA where that would have been possible. I'm heading into SFO and will use other miles for my short hop home with plenty of time between flights!
When you get it nailed down grab your credit card and call AS. Be ready to HUCA. The first rep sounded like she totally knew what she was doing and looked up multiple things and then informed me that there was no availability on Cathay & that they couldn't book Cathay Dragon (? I never mentioned a Cathay Dragon flight), she said searched the whole month I was looking at there were no flights JNB-HKG. I said thanks and headed over to FT being one very sad churner. As I was typing up my "wth happened to me?!" q on the thread regarding booking Cathay with AS "HUCA" dawned on me. Guys, HUCA is life. I called again, got the same Boise call center but a different agent. She was very careful, looked for the segment I was after and FOUND IT. She then found the next leg and gave me a price of over 90k AS. I said that wasn't right because AS allows free stopovers, "of 9 days?" she asked obviously not believing me, I said yes and she went to look up some other codes or something and came back with the right estimate of around 65k((?) it was whatever the site said it should be) and then went to put it in the computer. Verified everything multiple times, she was being very careful and at the end she said "the computer agrees it's 65k miles- it's nice when the computer agrees, it doesn't always!". So that was weird, sounds like the agents price it and then the computer prices it or something. I was caught off guard that the taxes and fees were around $120 for one person. $100 was Cathay, the rest was AS. Cathay fees have gone up from the research I'd seen but still it's a steal of a deal imho. She said it didn't seem like she could book my seats but I told her that was fine, I had heard that and can handle that myself. She gave me the AS confirm # and the Cathay #.
The agent mentioned how unusual it was to be able to actual book Cathay that usually people call but AS can't access the seats, the BA trick was great for avoiding that for me.
I'm now searching flights to SA but I'm hoping to use TY and/or UR or AA points for that one. Fwiw: I've found lots of saver availability for business level- business for the one hour flight and economy for the 2 long haul flights. Yeah right UA/AA... (interesting thing to note with UA awards: Swiss apparently shows phantom availability on UA frequently so call UA and make sure the seats are actually available BEFORE transferring points to UA)
For those waiting for a CIP bonus to go pending fyi you are not alone. https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/c...tion_thread_august_30_2018/e55112w/?context=3 Others are starting to ask (myself included) and this dp had the bonus go pending right before statement close and it posted a week later. Person completed the spend almost 3 weeks before it went pending.
Heading to LAX for my flight back home. My SO proposed this tripO! I’m going to need some honeymoon ideas lol.
The Disneyland hotel was amazing. Worth 200k+ URs for the package. I could have gotten a better value out of them if I redeemed for first class travel somewhere or transferred to a Hyatt, but I prefer using URs for Disney trips.
It was so nice being on property and going back to the hotel for naps. Lol
We had so much time so we got to go slow and relax a bit. I do prefer the Grand Californian over the Disneyland hotel if you have some extra URs you want to burn. lol
We somehow spent $1125 on food for a five night trip. We only did one table service a day. We snacked a lot tho. You guys have to teach me your food tricks so I can lower this. SO has a new philosophy that there are no budgets in Disney so idk if I’ll be able to convince him to cut down.
We ate at Steakhouse 55, Blue Bayou, Cafe Orleans, Carnation Cafe, Jazz Kitchen, and Wine and Country Tratoria. I loved Steakhouse 55, Blue Bayou, Carnation Cafe, and Jazz Kitchen. SO and I agreed we would not go back to Wine and country tartoria. I didn’t like Cafe Orleans, but he did so we will be back lol. They gave us two extra beignets and a cute little Mickey made out of whipped cream for our engagement, that was very nice of them, so I will try them again.
We did a DVC tour for a $100 giftcard and four fastpasses each. It was about 40 mins so worth it for us. We also got to see an Aulani room, which was gorgeous. They didn’t use high pressure sales tactics and I simple said we couldn’t afford it right now. It’s real clever how they break the payment down to monthly payments over 10 years, like yeah we can afford $185 a month, but paying 12% interest goes against my FIRE plans. We will most likely buy dvc in the future though, but will pay cash and buy resale.
During the tour we said we couldn’t afford DVC. The guide asked where we were staying and how long. We said the Disneyland hotel and five nights. The guide said that’s like $3,000 how can you afford that and not DVC. I was like credit card points. He was like oh the Disney Visa. lol if only he knew...
Cross posted from the gift card thread regarding Best Buy Swagbucks:
So I just went to check this before making a trip to Best Buy and found this:
Special Terms
**Earn up to 1,500 Bonus SB. Spend $50 - $99.99 and earn 250 Bonus SB. Spend $100 - $499.99 and earn 750 Bonus SB. Spend $500 or more, and earn 1,500 Bonus SB. Bonus SB will only be awarded on qualifying purchases that are also eligible for the standard SB per dollar reward. Bonus SB can only be earned once per day. Bonus SB will only be awarded for an in-store purchase with your personal QR code or a purchase of items featured in the Weekly Ad (in-store or online). Offers cannot be stacked.
Soooo now buying a $50 only gets me 5% back (250 SB), and a $100 gets 7.5% back (750 SB). The $500 bonus of 1500 SB is a measly 3%. Is anyone else seeing this?
I'm not doing another transaction until I'm sure what's happening. Bummer.
Not going until spring break. It would be great if you remember. Thanks!The Swan gift shop used to be an actual Disney gift shop. I'm pretty sure I charged to my room from there.
Remind me in November and I'll walk over and check. But maybe you are going before than?