I love credit cards so much!

[trenty]

@Livelovedance - I just checked the support link. If you click on "see rates, rewards and other info" you will see that you do in fact get the 0% along with the $50 bonus for the IT.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I used DVC rental store for my trip next month, staying at SSR. You put in the dates you want and they email you back a quote. It was fast and easy. I'm sure David's is just as easy.

Are you planning far out or really short term? The official DVC page has some short term availability listed here ---> https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/vacation-planning/resort-availability-stays/

And DVC Rental Store has discounted confirmed reservations https://**************.com/discounted-points-confirmed-reservations/#002

Thank you! Mid December is what I need. But just a night or two and not picky on Resort. It is a pre cruise stay. Still, dec is popular, so likely won’t happen. I see cash options at dvc resorts so there is some hope maybe.

 

[Livelovedance]

If you click on the support link it will take you to a page that will tell you the offer. There should also be a link for the terms. I believe discover comes with the 0% for 14 months whether you use a link or not. I think it is either 14 or 18 months interest free.

I have the IT card. I love the car back match, 5% rotating categories, and there is no AF. I wasn't planning to take advantage of the 0% at all. But I did put a few major and necessary purchases on there last month so I might just use the 0% instead of using my savings all at once.

@Livelovedance - I just checked the support link. If you click on "see rates, rewards and other info" you will see that you do in fact get the 0% along with the $50 bonus for the IT.

Perfect, thank you! The IT card sounds like a great deal. It'll be my first discover card though, so I'm hoping for a decent credit limit!

 

[DaveL]

Friends, a Saturday night churning question:

I know Chase requires you to use all the points you plan to use on your booking upfront. Thing is, I'm not sure I'll have enough points to pay for the hotel, tickets, and DDP all at once if I want to take advantage of Disney's 180+ day dining reservation window. I was thinking I could just book the hotel and dining package but then realized you need tickets to get dining *facepalm*. If I could just wait until right before the 60 day FP window, I'd definitely have enough between me and P2, but of course I want to try BOG, Tiffins, California Grill, and the new Star Wars TS place. Is there a way to book in "installments" with points and also make ADRs and FPs as early as possible?

Edit: just read the r/DISchurners "Churning for Disney" guide. So I could theoretically book my trip through Disney, pay the $200 deposit in cash, and make my ADRs, book DME, make room requests, etc. Then within 30 days I would transfer the reservation to Chase, who will require payment in full 30 days before the trip starts just like Disney would, and at that point I can pay with URs? Yes/no?

I paid in full half points half gift card when I transferred reservation to Chase. But I think you can wait to pay until 30 days. Maybe @DaveL knows?

I know that when I moved a package from Disney to Chase I was able to wait on any payment to Chase (Points/Cash) until Disney requried the payment. I have heard if you make the reservation with Chase on the website the full payment is required at booking. I do not know tho booking on the phone for sure since I think I heard they required full payment because Disney required a payment (Deposit). You might ask if you can make that payment in cash and then pay the balance off using points later. You can only make ONE points payment so make sure you use all you want to use in that payment.

 

[trenty]

Perfect, thank you! The IT card sounds like a great deal. It'll be my first discover card though, so I'm hoping for a decent credit limit!

I use my IT for most of my purchases right now since I am in my first year and they are matching my Cashback. I will be working on a MSR for another card soon and am kind of sad that IT will be ignored for a bit. I will still use it for the 5% categories even while working on the MSR.

 

[DaveL]

Had a little time to get some projects done on the laser. Made this for DW's birthday today on a tile from Lowes.. I also had DD write her a note and we put that on a tile too.



Also did some Dinosaur puzzles, one of them being this guy.. He's 43" wide and about 2' tall..



DD wanted a train so I made these to play around with scaling..



Then of course started working on key chains..



I have many many more projects done, Don't want to go too far . If anyone is looking into a Glowforge let me know I have a referral for $100~$500 off.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Anyone else here have Directv? I have the 10% back deal on DH's Delta Gold and used it one this month. I can get an additional $12 back from the deal, so I'd like to pay ahead $120, but my monthly bill is only $72. Am I going to have any issues with this?

 

[calypso726]

And F just opened up on another Cathay flight- but now IT’S MINE!!! I had to pay the AS change fee of $125 in addition to the 7500 AS miles but with you and basically the entire churning community saying it’s a very special experience I could not say no when I saw it open today! I’m almost a bit worried it’s too fancy for me, like I don’t deserve it but THIS is what I’ve been churning for. I have freaking earned it

(Not only will I get F from HK to the West Coast but I’ll come in during the morning leaving me lots of buffer time to clear customs and catch a connecting flight home.)

ETA: The lady on the phone did inform I would get a refund for the difference in taxes as the taxes were a whole $.90 cheaper

Forgot to mention a congrats on snagging CX in first. It’s on our bucket list of airlines to try out. That is exciting!

I posted earlier this summer about considering opening the Disney visa and using it to make a down payment to add more DVC points direct. At that point I decided to wait, but now I’m back because I’m pretty sure I’m going to do it.

I know the Disney cards aren’t great cards, and I probably won’t use it much after this, but here’s my thought process. I’d appreciate any feedback, positive or negative! FYI: I’m not interested in business cards, and I have the CSP, CF, CFU, AmEx Blue Cash, TD Bank Cash, and the UPromise card (that one is sockdrawered).

My plan is to apply for the Disney Premier Visa with the $49 annual fee. The sign on bonus is $200 back with a $500 spend. I’m planning on using that card to make the deposit for about 150 DVC points direct with the summer add on promotion for the $1,500 credit. My deposit would be an amount (TBD) that I could pay off in 6 months, using the 0% financing on the card. The rest would be financed.

Afterwards, I’ll use the card for the 2% at gas stations (when gas stations aren’t a CF category) and possibly at the “select Disney locations” (unless I choose to charge to our resort with the CSP on file), the 10% on shopdisney and in the Disney store, and the in park character experiences. I think the other perks I already have covered with other cards/as an AP and DVC member. I’ll use the rewards dollars earned for annual dues and/or any other Disney expenses.

Any opinions on this strategy? Will using this strategy put a significant hit on my credit score? I’m mostly concerned about the 6 month balance, because I never put charges that I can’t afford to pay off when the bill comes! However, I know a higher down payment will be helpful down the line.

Thanks in advance!

I’m going to come in at this from another angle to consider. While there is nothing wrong with your plan, I thought I’d throw in some other ideas for you. Pick up a card or cards that have points/miles that would be valuable towards your future DVC stays. I don’t recall if you mentioned needing to fly in to MCO or not. We are DVC owners too but live in Florida and are about 3 hours away so there is no need for us to fly into MCO. If there is an airline card like Southwest that you can double dip if possible for a CP open those, make the spend with the DVC purchase and open an Amex Everday no fee card that has a 0% balance transfer with a $0 transfer fee option for 15 months. Then transfer those balances to the Amex. If not SW cards, whatever will give you more than $200 in value. Just a thought.

 

[calypso726]

I don't post often, but I follow this board as much as I can (it moves so fast!), and I wanted to come on to say thank you. I had a family emergency last week that required me to get from Indiana to Atlanta, the Thursday before Labor Day, with 2 days' notice. Thanks to all I've learned on this board, I knew exactly how to book direct flights with my UR discount and had the points to do it. Otherwise, I would have been looking at a 9+ hour drive, by myself, in Labor Day traffic.

I'm sure there are many other lurkers and semi-lurkers with stories similar to mine, so on behalf of myself and anyone else like me, thank you!

Sorry to hear about your family emergency. out of lurkdom to the thread. I agree with @SouthFayetteFan and hope to see you and others come out and say hi too. If there’s an unwritten rule on this thread it would be to be kind, welcoming and non judgmental to all who post here. Basically, the opposite of Reddit and Flyer Talk.

My parents own at the Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas. They LOVE LOVE LOVE it, but it is a pricey timeshare. Lucky for me they bought a second every other year week, so every other year they invite all their children and grandchildren who can want to go. I've been to the Maui Westin timeshare with my little family 3 times and once to the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas on Kauai. You will love it!

Oh wow good to know! It’s our first time to Maui. I don’t see us getting another timeshare though. We’ve got 1300 DVC points to play around with. That means a whole lot in maintenance dues though. At least I can pay maintenance dues with Disney gift cards and get them at a discount or at 5x. I don’t want to add anymore maintenance dues to the vacation budget. Seriously, they’d have to offer something that beats travel hacking for me to consider it. Even then I’d likely look into a resale first. But, I’m not dreading the presentation or anything. I’m more curious to see how or if the merger with Marriott affects SPG timeshare owners. I read something about it on TUG.

 

[Alexle2007]

Anyone else here have Directv? I have the 10% back deal on DH's Delta Gold and used it one this month. I can get an additional $12 back from the deal, so I'd like to pay ahead $120, but my monthly bill is only $72. Am I going to have any issues with this?

We have DirectTV but our bill is way more than that. We have never tried paying ahead since it just gets billed monthly to our CIC. Reminds me though that I have action item to call to see about negotiating our bill. We don’t even have DVR but we do have 2 HD boxes and 4 regular.

 

[Livelovedance]

I’m going to come in at this from another angle to consider. While there is nothing wrong with your plan, I thought I’d throw in some other ideas for you. Pick up a card or cards that have points/miles that would be valuable towards your future DVC stays. I don’t recall if you mentioned needing to fly in to MCO or not. We are DVC owners too but live in Florida and are about 3 hours away so there is no need for us to fly into MCO. If there is an airline card like Southwest that you can double dip if possible for a CP open those, make the spend with the DVC purchase and open an Amex Everday no fee card that has a 0% balance transfer with a $0 transfer fee option for 15 months. Then transfer those balances to the Amex. If not SW cards, whatever will give you more than $200 in value. Just a thought.

I did consider SW cards in the past, but we usually only fly about 2 times a year, so I didn’t think the CP benefit would be valuable enough for us. Instead I’ve been using the URs from my chase cards and transferring them to SW. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, I usually can’t keep up with this thread so I could be missing some valuable information!

I’m all about simplicity, but I also want to make an educated decision! I’m thinking if our flights are paid with URs, the next savings could be money towards annual dues. Right now I’m leaning towards the Discover IT cash back. A good spend on that with the first year matched could be a decent savings, right?

I truly appreciate your advice! I’m still in the planning stages, so any input is helpful!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I thought the OP was asking about getting the Disney dining plan with just a room reservation, not just making dining reservations.

Sorry, I misunderstood

 

[trenty]

I did consider SW cards in the past, but we usually only fly about 2 times a year, so I didn’t think the CP benefit would be valuable enough for us. Instead I’ve been using the URs from my chase cards and transferring them to SW. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, I usually can’t keep up with this thread so I could be missing some valuable information!

I’m all about simplicity, but I also want to make an educated decision! I’m thinking if our flights are paid with URs, the next savings could be money towards annual dues. Right now I’m leaning towards the Discover IT cash back. A good spend on that with the first year matched could be a decent savings, right?

I truly appreciate your advice! I’m still in the planning stages, so any input is helpful!

I have been using my cash back from IT for vacation expenses. Up until last month I bought Disney gift cards with the money. Now that the trip is over I will let the cash back sit for the next vacation.

 

[calypso726]

what airline is that? United?

American Airlines. We decided to go for a Platinum status challenge too. DH took it upon himself to learn how EQMs and EQDs work and realized that if we went for a challenge we’d meeet the qualifications after this trip. The flights were paid with MRs and AA gift cards so it’s a cash booking as far as AA is concerned.

Favorite DVC point rental sources?

I have reserved through these boards before, just once. I don't mind doing it again. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something obvious. Any way for me to look at availability online? Probably not, but it would sure speed up the process...

David’s gets great feedback from everyone. I recently rented out some of my points through them and everything has been smooth. I’ve had friends rent from them when I didn’t have points to spare and they said the process was easy and would do it again.

@Livelivedance. I don’t know if it was this forum or another, but I had seen some conversation about use years for DVC. I have absolutely no understanding of how DVC works but I thought the conversation revolved around purchase time and when your use year starts and ends. I’m sorry I can’t remember more but other DVC owners would maybe have some ideas about how to maximize your points related to your most likely travel months.

Thanks! I actually already own DVC (just purchased this past February) and I'm looking to add on points. I'm probably going to try to purchase the same use year that I currently have, but I've already started searching the DVC threads for that (it seems like the use year is important if you need to cancel a reservation for any reason, but I'm still figuring it all out!). Right now I'm focused on choosing the cards I'll apply for, seeing if I can use any referral links from reddit, and having them in hand with enough time to take advantage of the add on promotion! Thanks for the heads up!

I’ll chime in on UY. Ideally, you want your UY to be the same month or close to the same month you travel to WDW. We are there most of the year anyhow. When we initially purchased it was to go to MNSSHP every year in October. So, our UY is September. We have 10 contracts and all are September UY which means we have the same membership number for all the contracts. The only way I’d consider an add on with a different use year is if I were to decide to get anough points specifically to rent out and cover most of my dues. I don’t want to juggle multiple membership contracts with multiple log ins and be unable to combine points for a reservation.

 

[Livelovedance]

I’ll chime in on UY. Ideally, you want your UY to be the same month or close to the same month you travel to WDW. We are there most of the year anyhow. When we initially purchased it was to go to MNSSHP every year in October. So, our UY is September. We have 10 contracts and all are September UY which means we have the same membership number for all the contracts. The only way I’d consider an add on with a different use year is if I were to decide to get anough points specifically to rent out and cover most of my dues. I don’t want to juggle multiple membership contracts with multiple log ins and be unable to combine points for a reservation.

Hmm... what would be the downside to having a UY that’s not close to when you usually travel? Mine isn’t really, but when I bought mine I didn’t know any better. My plan is to buy the same UY when I add on, does that still make sense if my UY isn’t my likely travel month?

 

[calypso726]

I did consider SW cards in the past, but we usually only fly about 2 times a year, so I didn’t think the CP benefit would be valuable enough for us. Instead I’ve been using the URs from my chase cards and transferring them to SW. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, I usually can’t keep up with this thread so I could be missing some valuable information!

I’m all about simplicity, but I also want to make an educated decision! I’m thinking if our flights are paid with URs, the next savings could be money towards annual dues. Right now I’m leaning towards the Discover IT cash back. A good spend on that with the first year matched could be a decent savings, right?

I truly appreciate your advice! I’m still in the planning stages, so any input is helpful!

Absolutely the first year with Discover IT matching your earnings would be great. If keeping it simple is the goal while making sure you get the 0% on the purchase and some bang for your buck, then that would be a great plan!

 

[Haley R]

I used DVC rental store for my trip next month, staying at SSR. You put in the dates you want and they email you back a quote. It was fast and easy. I'm sure David's is just as easy.

Are you planning far out or really short term? The official DVC page has some short term availability listed here ---> https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/vacation-planning/resort-availability-stays/

And DVC Rental Store has discounted confirmed reservations https://**************.com/discounted-points-confirmed-reservations/#002

Is David’s the one where you have to pay a deposit just to see the availability?

 

[calypso726]

Hmm... what would be the downside to having a UY that’s not close to when you usually travel? Mine isn’t really, but when I bought mine I didn’t know any better. My plan is to buy the same UY when I add on, does that still make sense if my UY isn’t my likely travel month?

Short term cancellations within 30 days and and your points going into holding. They can’t be banked and have to be booked within 60 days of the next reservation.

Let’s say I was planning F&W in November, a December UY would not be good for me, because if I have to cancel a November trip within 30 days of checking in and had a December UY my points would have to be used by that December 1st. However, an October or my September UY is fine for consistent October and November trips. If I have to cancel within 30 days of checking in I still have until September 1st of the following year to use those points.

 

[afan]

Had a little time to get some projects done on the laser. Made this for DW's birthday today on a tile from Lowes.. I also had DD write her a note and we put that on a tile too.

View attachment 347814

Also did some Dinosaur puzzles, one of them being this guy.. He's 43" wide and about 2' tall..

View attachment 347816

DD wanted a train so I made these to play around with scaling..

View attachment 347815

Then of course started working on key chains..

View attachment 347817

I have many many more projects done, Don't want to go too far . If anyone is looking into a Glowforge let me know I have a referral for $100~$500 off.

Those are so cool! Now I know how some of the holiday bazar stuff people sell is made

 

[Lain]

Just a drive by post to say Aloha! We are on our way to Maui for the Westin timeshare offer trip. No shower or double bed on this plane but I’m not complaining and neither is the Plane Princess. Lie flat seats from DFW to Maui and we are happy campers!

Mahalo to travel hacking!

View attachment 347746

Are you serious? We’re connecting through OGG right now!