I love credit cards so much!

[hulagirl]

Stories! War Stories! Churning fails make all of us feel better.

How about the time I very carefully put my entire direct DVC purchase of Boardwalk Villas split between my husband's Amex Shwab Plat, and my Amex Schwab Plat to reach the minimum spend in one fell swoop and then waited and waited and waited for the pending charge to show up, only to discover that I accidentally put that whole LARGE minimum spend on our two other Plat cards that looked EXACTLY the same but were about to be cancelled due to annual fees coming due? I earned my stripes on that one.

 

[miztressuz]

OMG! OMG! OMG!

We got it! Y’all are my lucky charm today. While I was posting about the useless $495 AF card and trying to catch up on the thread I was also on the phone. I tried a new tactic to see about getting the Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai for the dates I wanted. We had a stay booked for April but those dates wouldn’t work so I cancelled it and what I needed was in March. I’ve been calling everyday with no success. Then I recalled when I initially made the April reservation I had called the Marriott Platinum line (800-399-4229) which is what we should be until December but it is wrong in the system. Anyhow, when I called Marriott they could not book it since it isn’t loaded in their system and they transferred me to someone at Starwood that could. I wondered if the problem wasn’t so much availability but the agents on the line I was calling not knowing how or not able to book the reservation. So I repeated that process and called the Marriott Plat line, got transferred to someone at Starwood and lo and behold, we have reservations for our dates, 4 nights at the Al Maha in their Bedouin King suite for 60k points per night! SQUEEEEE!

I’ve never put something like this together on such short notice. I am still stunned it all came together. So, we are flying Emirates in first over there and business on the way back. I will share airplane shower pictures. They will be DISfriendly, no cheese on my pizza shots. We have 4 nights at the Al Maha an all inclusive, all suite resort in Dubai, followed by 4 nights at the Conrad Maldives in over water bungalows.

Our flights in real money would be $21,000 per person.
We are using 460K AS miles and paid about $170
The Al Maha is $1333 per night so our 4 nights would be over $5,300
We are using 240k Starriott points
The Conrad Maldives is $1250 per night so that’s $5,000
We are using 285k Hilton points and one free night certificate


I am sharing the step by step process of what worked for me just now to book the Al Maha in case someone else is trying to secure an all suite or future cat 8 property that was SPG at 60k/night before December. Call the Marriott Plat line, try to book from there and let them transfer you to the right person. I don’t know if that will work, but it worked for me.

So awesome! My Debbie downer warning: just keep in mind on the Emirates flight over to Dubai to not have the free champagne while in the shower... or at least make sure it's out of your system before landing... or be able to lie really, really well.

Help me talk through this: Planning to spend $1,110 through Chase UR. We only have CSP/CIP. Should we upgrade our CSP to the CSR?
CSP: 85K UR
CSR: 71K UR or 51K if you use $300 travel credit.
We don't eat out much so I'm not sure what other value we would get out of the CSR.

For your math I'd keep in mind that the $300 travel credit isn't really "free", you paid the AF to get it. So when doing the math just plan for it accordingly in the points equation. So if I did my math right, is saving 34,000 UR (85 CSP - 51 CSR w/ credit) worth spending $300 OOP? Do you have other redemptions that you'd use the card for that year?

 

[jhoannam]

When I heard "I did it!" all I could think of was this video by the totally adorable Bucket List Family. Fast forward to minute 7 and watch. If you're not smiling when you're done, then you need to watch more Bucket List Family videos.

I love them... I wish I had their personality, I not this happy or bubbly.

 

[Judique]

How about the time I very carefully put my entire direct DVC purchase of Boardwalk Villas split between my husband's Amex Shwab Plat, and my Amex Schwab Plat to reach the minimum spend in one fell swoop and then waited and waited and waited for the pending charge to show up, only to discover that I accidentally put that whole LARGE minimum spend on our two other Plat cards that looked EXACTLY the same but were about to be cancelled due to annual fees coming due? I earned my stripes on that one.

OMG! I would have died! I only put $500 on my credit card when I bought DVC back in the day. If it were now I'd have a card ready for every penny.

 

[Judique]

Oops, jut realized SPG Personal AF posted 8/3... how did August go by so fast? Still worth calling to see, and just keeping since they won't refund it?

You don't want your 35K free night certificate? Won't it be due for you in September? That should be worth the $95?

On a side note, daughter is due a certificate in August, but hasn't seen it yet. Has anyone heard of anyone actually getting the SPG free night that was supposed to start 8/1/18??

Wait...did what? lol

Either caught up or quit her job.

Today I took myself over to the nearest Marriott and bought myself a $300 Marriott gift card with my SPG Lux. I got 2 of the email notifications while still standing and chatting to the desk ladies - the 'you've used your offer' ones. I was expecting an email for the $60 one, and I'm guessing the other email is for the $300 credit? The $300 charge was also pending on my account right away.
So Amex gave me $360 today and then I'll get my free night next year. For $450. Not too shabby!

Now, this Marriott gift card is the loadable kind. I'm hoping to burn it in a week or so. It's like a $300 interest free loan from Amex until the annual fee comes due. That part I like. And since it's calendar year, I can get another in January?

Now, the other part - my spend will be about $20 once the credit shows. I've got to buy something big.

So, I'll now be watching for the credits to post!

 

[calypso726]

Does anyone get much use out of the dining programs with airlines, etc? I thought @calypso726 mentioned it before? They finally started adding places we go to the SW RR program.

Yes we do. At the very least it is worth the trouble for the initial bonus. Opt for the email and do the review on the first dine or two to max the bonus and points. DH maintains VIP status with the program and gets 5x AA miles and 3x UR points per dollar. He will actually look for new places to try with coworkers at lunch on the network. I don’t but am pleasantly surprised when I dine somewhere that happened to be on the dining rewards network and get an email saying I earned points. Earl of Sandwich is on there so DH will pick up gift cards when in Disney springs in separate transactions to hit the VIP requirement.

Unfortunately the places we go to don’t participate

Our normal places don’t either but we’ve figured out how to make the program work for us. It’s a neat way to try new places.

 

[MrsAlexis]

I somehow have two Amex Hilton biz cards....I had one expedited after calling about expected delivery and was told it hadn't gone out yet. Then I got one in the mail today....I have to assume this was the original card I was going to get? What should I do with this second card? I already confirmed the first one and put spend on it and added it to online login. Can I keep the second and give to DH for his daily spending?

 

[MrsAlexis]

Most shopping portals only require you to link through them, not use a specific card. However, I have heard Chase shopping portal is hit or miss for this. So if you don’t use a Chase Card you might not see the points. Or you might.

I will definitely be trying this....if I can get UR points and put spend on MSR card, seems like best of both worlds to me!

 

[Lain]

So I tried to get a points adjustment on my SPG reservations in Hawaii for the holidays, and a very unfriendly csr told me the hotels are sold out/no award availability so, basically, go pound sand when you're on Waikiki Beach. The last part is a bit of an exaggeration, but her tone wasn't very far from it. Any ideas?

My first reaction was to HUCA, too. A friendlier csr told me that they don't even have the ability to modify points reservations at this time due to the merger.

I took a different tact the second time around, and used the wording in DoC's post to ask for help moving my points reservation to the new category pricing. The first call, I straight up asked for a points adjustment. I'll keep calling when I can, I guess.

So just to follow up on my attempts to get a points refund for a SPG award reservation that went down in category pricing under the new Marriott charts.

I’ve tried calling several SPG numbers listed on the website, on my SPG Gold card, and every rep will go into the reservation, essentially try search for award rooms for those dates to make the adjustment. However, because the reservation is for new year’s in Hawaii, all award availability is sold out, and the SPG reps can’t help me.

I’ve been tracking this issue on FT, and some people seem to have more luck getting a points refund on their award certs and bookings, even when there’s no availability, by calling Marriott. So I call Marriott. The first rep I reach looks up the confirmation number in her system, but she keeps asking me for my name, the property name, dates, because she can’t locate the reservation in her system. I let her know that it’s a legacy SPG property, and she’s like ooooh, that’s why I can’t locate it and she transfers me to a SPG specialist. The SPG specialist is on a Platinum line, very nice really wants to help. At this point, I’m also trying to be very nice to my reps because I want them to help and can only imagine the amount of anger they’re getting from their customers. The SPG specialist tries the same method of pulling award rooms for the same dates as my reservation but can’t find any availability. She lets me know that’s how the system basically, automatically, matches the points for the same room and dates. I ask if she can’t just look up the dates on the new award chart and manually make a courtesy adjustment, and she tries something along those lines but the system won’t let her. She’s convinced that it’s more of a technical issue than anything else that’s not letting her make the adjustment, so she asked that I call back in a few days.

It’s not issue resolved, but the tone is a lot better than what I’m getting from SPG directly. (Apparently, the SPG front line reps are PISSED.)

#winning

Some of you may have been following my saga of trying to get a points adjustment for my two SPG reservations in Waikiki over Christmas week and the New Year. I booked the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton Waikiki pre-merger, and post-merger they translated to 300k and 195k Marriott points, respectively. However, the Sheraton dropped to 50k/night and for some reason my Royal Hawaiian reservation wasn’t crediting me the 5th night free, which is worth 60k/night under the new charts.

About two weeks ago, I started calling, and several front line SPG reps told me they couldn’t adjust the reservation because award rooms had sold out. Because these reservations are over Christmas and New Year, I don’t expect any award space to open back up, and I couldn’t cancel and rebook the rooms with points either. I had more luck calling Marriott and having them transfer me to their SPG specialist, who sounded like she knew what to do but their system hadn’t been updated to let her make any adjustments. She told me to call back later last week.

I finally got around to calling today. Marriott bounced me to a front line SPG rep, who tried to make the adjustment by running it against available award space, which unsurprisingly there were none. I had to explain what the SPG specialist tried to do for me last week, and the front line SPG rep said she’d transfer me to their office where they have more authority to make manual adjustments to reservations. The SPG rep put me on hold while she connected to that office, explained to them that I made an award booking prior to 8/18 that has gone down in points, and that I’d like an adjustment. The SPG specialist got on the phone, and it sounded like she was just looking at my total points paid, for how many nights, how much an award night costs for that hotel now, did some quick math and made the adjustment manually. She asked me to log out, then log back in.

45k Marriott points refunded for the Sheraton Waikiki!

I asked the SPG specialist to take a look at my Royal Hawaiian reservation. 5 nights at 60k/night, but I should be getting the 5th night free. She verified that the hotel did offer the 5th night free, then credited my account for the difference. Logged out, then back in again.

BOOM! Another 60k Marriott points back into my account!

I’d like to say that was a very productive 30 minutes (most of it on hold), but I’ve been at this for two weeks now. I’m super happy that persistence paid off and Marriott was true to their word on this issue. My wife’s family and extended family are all looking forward to our visiting this Christmas, and I’ll enjoy the trip more now that I know I’ve saved 105k Marriott points on the reservations.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I somehow have two Amex Hilton biz cards....I had one expedited after calling about expected delivery and was told it hadn't gone out yet. Then I got one in the mail today....I have to assume this was the original card I was going to get? What should I do with this second card? I already confirmed the first one and put spend on it and added it to online login. Can I keep the second and give to DH for his daily spending?

If it’s a duplicate card with all the same information..card number, expiration date and pin I’m pretty sure your husband can use it....

 

[Judique]

I somehow have two Amex Hilton biz cards....I had one expedited after calling about expected delivery and was told it hadn't gone out yet. Then I got one in the mail today....I have to assume this was the original card I was going to get? What should I do with this second card? I already confirmed the first one and put spend on it and added it to online login. Can I keep the second and give to DH for his daily spending?

If they are identical, yes. Same number, etc.

 

[afan]

Fellow Washingtonians! Delta is doing their 12's thing with the Seahawks again. You need to sign up with your mileage number at 12status.com which I couldn't get to load in chrome and had to do in firefox. I didn't do it last year since I didn't have a DL mileage acct since back then I was still able to earn miles on other airlines I had accts with. Will be curious how the priority boarding works since I'll get to use it in Nov unless my biz card gets me something. Sorry to most of you, you do have to be a resident of the state but I know there's a few of us.

You're about to earn a whole lot of Delta miles, just for being a 12.

Here's a quick breakdown of the program highlights:
You earn one mile for every passing yard thrown at both home and away games this season.

There is dedicated 12status priority boarding at Sea-Tac all season long, just show your 12status badge via 12status.com on your mobile device for entry

You'll be earning miles over the course of the season to redeem for Award Travel and other great Delta experiences. Over 50 nonstop international and domestic routes from Seattle. And best of all, your miles never expire.

 

[hulagirl]

#winning
45k Marriott points refunded for the Sheraton Waikiki!

I asked the SPG specialist to take a look at my Royal Hawaiian reservation. 5 nights at 60k/night, but I should be getting the 5th night free. She verified that the hotel did offer the 5th night free, then credited my account for the difference. Logged out, then back in again.

BOOM! Another 60k Marriott points back into my account!

I’d like to say that was a very productive 30 minutes (most of it on hold), but I’ve been at this for two weeks now. I’m super happy that persistence paid off and Marriott was true to their word on this issue. My wife’s family and extended family are all looking forward to our visiting this Christmas, and I’ll enjoy the trip more now that I know I’ve saved 105k Marriott points on the reservations.

That must have felt SO good. I can't wait to hear about this trip. I was in Waikiki in July and sat in the lobby of the Royal Hawaiian and just loved the feel. It's definitely on my list.

 

[MrsAlexis]

If it’s a duplicate card with all the same information..card number, expiration date and pin I’m pretty sure your husband can use it....

If they are identical, yes. Same number, etc.

Unfortunately, not the same anything - card number or expiration. It's like this second one was in production before they sent out my first one. I guess I will just need to call them possibly, and destroy it?

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Unfortunately, not the same anything - card number or expiration. It's like this second one was in production before they sent out my first one. I guess I will just need to call them possibly, and destroy it?

Yes I’d call and then destroy it

 

[amalone1013]

Wait...did what? lol

Ahh - yes I get it now, LOL! For a minute I thought @amalone1013 finally cracked and just up and quit her job, LOL!

Either caught up or quit her job.

The job quitting post will look more like this:

You don't want your 35K free night certificate? Won't it be due for you in September? That should be worth the $95?

Technically my AF should have posted in July, I just moved my statement close back to try and trick it. I haven't seen any emails or anything about getting it, and i just forgot to call. I'm not sure I want to wait until next year for a free night especially since my AMEX offer savings was almost nothing until the last month or so with Best Buy, Staples, etc...

 

[amalone1013]

Oh, did i tell you guys MIL got ANOTHER 100k Platinum mailer?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I was thinking she got caught up on the thread lol!

I’m still racking my brain trying to remember what you are doing alone on a trip.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I am flying out to WDW tomorrow and won't be back on here most likely, until the 17th! I can only imagine how much I am going to miss while I am gone, someone take good notes LOL.

It will be nice when we have to start a new thread and we can maybe have pertinent info linked on the first post for people to use to catch up.

 

[WardFam]

Is the 100k Biz Platinum call in offer dead? Just found out DS needs surgery and our insurance has a really high deductible so that 10k spend suddenly seems more doable!