I love credit cards so much!

[Albort]

My CIC arrived! When I log into my Chase account I don't see it. Do I have to set up a different log in because it is a business card?

yes, u need to create a separate login. if u want them all in one login, u can merge your personal accounts to ur business account, but not the other way around.

 

[pillow]

[QUOTE="Lain, post: 59898560, member: 532692"We used to just swing by and order a tasting flight and cheese plate and take in the views. And I'm guessing you visited Castello di Amorosa?[/QUOTE]

That sounds lovely! And yes, thats the one. I kept calling it the "castle winery" cause I could never recall the name. It was cool to visit and tour, but it was super crowded and I didn't really like the wine. I don't feel the need to go back there.

On the Sierra Nevada lottery - we have a pretty narrow window of when we can go due to the fact I want to wait until DD has left for college. It IS a serious competition, and I may be disappointed. We are going with another couple, so we're a party of 4, which doesn't help. Fingers crossed.

 

[pillow]

This is the first I have heard of the High Sierra lottery Did you choose guided or unguided? This would be a fabulous trip for dh and I, though that one day marked "very strenuous" is giving me pause.

We chose unguided. It doesn't seem like you would need a guide as the trails are well marked. I've been eyeing this trip for a while now but wanted to wait till the kids were out of the house as it isn't something they would be into. I tend to look at the elevation change over the number of miles and compare it to other hikes I've done to gauge difficulty. I don't remember thinking anything here would be TOO difficult - although maybe slower due to overall elevation. Keep in mind you could always try to add a night either before or after the difficult day for recovery purposes.

I need to drop some pounds and get in better shape . . .

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

We chose unguided. It doesn't seem like you would need a guide as the trails are well marked. I've been eyeing this trip for a while now but wanted to wait till the kids were out of the house as it isn't something they would be into. I tend to look at the elevation change over the number of miles and compare it to other hikes I've done to gauge difficulty. I don't remember thinking anything here would be TOO difficult - although maybe slower due to overall elevation. Keep in mind you could always try to add a night either before or after the difficult day for recovery purposes.

I need to drop some pounds and get in better shape . . .

Thanks---same here regarding kids out of the house and losing weight When you win a lottery, are you able to choose your route? I expect remaining open dates are quite difficult to grab once lottery winners select their dates.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

My CIC arrived! When I log into my Chase account I don't see it. Do I have to set up a different log in because it is a business card?

Yes separate log in for business cards....others have called and merged business and personal...but I’ve kept mine separate

 

[disneybirds]

Is rainy season over by Christmas time? I specifically avoided the rainy months and went at the end of March. But you might be ok in late December. Something to double check though.

We flew into San Jose and rented a car (used Southwest points). Driving was a little tricky due to poor signage, but we had a GPS and managed ok. They also have shared shuttles as a way to travel if you don't want to drive. But for 4 of us, a rental car was cheaper + we like the freedom.

From San Jose, we drove to Manuel Antonio National park. Stayed here 3 nights (2 full days) and booked with UR: https://www.fallsresortcr.com

In Manuel Antonio, we did a park tour also booked with UR. It was inexpensive and very worth it (got to see wildlife we would never have spotted on our own). The beaches in Manuel Antonio National park are beautiful + its so much fun to watch the crazy monkeys!

On day 2, we drove up the coast and did horseback riding on the beach - also booked with UR. We were the only 4 on the tour and it was TERRIFIC! http://www.theridingadventure.com

From there, we drove to Monteverde, where we stayed for 3 nights - https://www.casabatsu.org. We couldn't book this one with UR, but it was cheap with cash. This is probably my favorite lodging experience of all time! I loved this place - just can't say enough positive things about it (check out tripadvisor for reviews). In Monteverde, we hiked the cloud forest, wandered around town, ziplined, shopped a little, had ice cream at a creamery. Such a lovely town and the drive to get there is beautiful.

From there, we drove to Arenal/La Fortuna. Stayed here on UR points - http://www.hotelsilenciodelcampo.com
I enjoyed the beautiful grounds here + they have their own hot springs. We drove up to the Arenal Observatory Lodge for the day to hike, and if I go back, I would stay there - mostly due to the property and the access to trails. It wasn't on the UR portal when I was looking unfortunately. We also went to the La Fortuna waterfall, which was also fun.

We flew home from the Liberia airport. If you want beach time thats not Manuel Antonio, this airport is close to beaches. The Marriott Mangroove hotel is close and I believe only 35k points. Plus, there is a Hyatt Andaz that costs only 15k points. We contemplated staying here but really wanted to explore the country. We plan to add more beach time on the next trip.

Also, I really want to go down to the Osa Peninsula - although I think this would be difficult to do on points. We skipped it due to limited time + its quite a hike down there.

Its a beautiful country; the people are friendly. And its fairly easy to travel on your own. I highly recommend!

Thank you! This is great info! I have looked in the Hyatt Andaz, but worry that it will be too far to explore the rest of the country. Sounds like a great trip!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I'm not a great person to ask about wine. The only wine I really love is pinot noir, which they don't grow in Napa. So for me, it was more about the experience. I did the tastings, but I wasn't blown over by any of the wines. I didn't really care though; the wineries are so pretty I could visit them all day and not drink a thing.

The wine trolley visited 4 smaller wineries, and a catered lunch was included (you still have to pay your own tasting fees). It was lots of fun. I skipped the tasting at the last vineyard simply because my head was swimming and I was starting to get a headache. Still fun though. If memory serves, all wineries had both red and whites - sauvignon blanc and cabernets primarily. I particularly liked Sterling - although it is larger and maybe not on your radar. It sits up on a hill and you have to take a tram up. The views from up there were beautiful + the tasting was quiet and very relaxing. I also enjoyed touring the facility to watch the grapes being sorted and de-stemmed.

Even though I loved the Marriott, I probably would try to stay in town if I could. There is a Westin within walking distance of the Oxbow market and the Culinary institute. Plus you can walk to all the restaurants and shops from there. Lots of hotels in town - I recall seeing a Hyatt Andaz too.

@Lain probably has some better advice for you since he is from CA.

Thanks...trip is probably a year or two off so I’ll bookmark all of these suggestions

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Just how many columns do you have in that spreadsheet of yours???

Plans are on hold. I have 2 other trips I need to figure out first so that I can see how much vacation DH has left. But if so, I'll definitely put a GOC card stop on my agenda. I was just in Napa with a friend but it was before I had read about the GOC card expansion.

I’m wondering how much time it takes to maintain this spreadsheet.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Bought my 1st Happy card yesterday when I was at Kroger’s (4xfuel pnts) with AMEX gold. Heading over to HD to get Disney GCs. If I get 2 x $50 (also getting a space heater) and pay at self serve with Happy am I going to have to show an ID?

Rumor has it at self check out a gc purchase over $100 requires staff to override the purchase. You’d probably be fine. But to be safe I’d ring it up as 2 separate purchases - gc and spaceheater and gc alone.

 

[pillow]

Thank you! This is great info! I have looked in the Hyatt Andaz, but worry that it will be too far to explore the rest of the country. Sounds like a great trip!

Also note sunset times. It gets dark fairly early there. The sun sets a little earlier in December vs March - not hugely different but something to take into account. We found ourselves getting up REALLY EARLY to get as much daylight in as possible. Sunrise is 5:30ish or something like that.

 

[platamama]

Question about AA miles...
We just got off an AA flight that offered 60,000 miles with any purchase in 90 days (and paying the $95 fee) plus 500 additional for applying in flight. My husband and I both applied as it seemed like a super deal...hoping that’s the case.
We want to use the miles next thanksgiving. Airline mile redemption is totally new to us...so I’m wondering if the flights around the holidays will be more (pamphlet said 12,500 domestic)??? Also can these points be transferrred to any other airline in case we can’t find what we need? We’d be flying from MDT, ABE or PHL to MCO if that makes any difference.
Second...would would our yearly fee for next year post? Is it one year from when we are approved?
Thanks!

It’s a Barclay card.

My DH got that in 2017, it's a really good deal. He cancelled it this year since he didn't get a retention offer to keep it.

You're in a good spot with PHL as your airport since it's a hub for AA.

The AA miles can't be transferred to another airline, but can be used to book on partner airlines. However, for domestic flights you're stuck with using AA on AA.

Your AF will show up on your first statement (last day of the month you got the card, probably 10/31/18 in your case), and then yearly on the same date.

As others recommend, start visiting the AA website when your flight dates are released. Your best shot of getting the reduced SAAver awards are going to be early on in the booking window.

When you find award tickets available, I recommend booking one way awards for you and your DH. AA currently does not impose a penalty for changing dates/times of your award ticket as long as the origin and destination remain the same, so you could change the dates of travel (within 1 yr of original booking & pending availability of awards) for no fee. I also recommend that you book the two of you together at a time, i.e. both of you one way and both of you the way back, and use your account for one direction and your DH's account the other direction (since you can't pool points without a fee). That's because the penalty to cancel an award booking and redepositing miles with AA is $150 for the 1st pax and $25 for subsequent pax on the same record locator. If you book all legs individually per pax and have to cancel, it would cost you a lot more to do that. Most of these fees are waived if you are an Elite flyer with AA.

Something to note about the more widely available AAnytime tickets: if you book an AAnytime ticket, and later find it's available as a SAAver ticket for less miles - you won't get your miles back for the difference. No "price protection" on that.

 

[pillow]

Thanks---same here regarding kids out of the house and losing weight When you win a lottery, are you able to choose your route? I expect remaining open dates are quite difficult to grab once lottery winners select their dates.

No I think they assign your route based on what you select on your lottery form. I selected that I'd be open to hiking either direction. And I also made a note that we would happily spend an extra night or two at any of the camps if that was necessary to make the loop work. I suspect there will be some random dates that will be available in March so that you could maybe do part of the hike perhaps vs the full loop. That may be what we'll do just depending on availability. We're traveling with another couple, and I think we're all committed to hiking somewhere, so if that doesn't work, we'll figure out something else I guess. Are you gonna try for it??

 

[StephPlum]

Tried again to use my Marriott 7 night Cat 1-5 certificate. I now have a confirmation number and hotel booked which says it it used 45K points from my cert but I got a second odd email.

Dear STEPH PLUM,
As requested, we have cancelled your reward order. Below is a summary of your cancellation information.
Sincerely,
Marriott Rewards
Cancellation Information

• Description: 7 Night Travel Package Category 1-5 Hotels
• Certificate cancelled: XXXXxxxx
• Cancelled on: Saturday, October 27, 2018
• Reward code: 830T

Important note:
Please note that if you are cancelling a hotel reward this does not also cancel your hotel reservation for this reward stay. If you would also like to cancel your hotel reservation you may do so by calling 1-800-MARRIOTT (627-7468) or by visiting us online.

That is a weird way to say certificate redeemed. I think I remember at least one other person has redeemed their cert. Is this a normal email?

 

[platamama]

We are thinking of going to Costa Rica next Christmas. Where did you stay? Any must dos?

@pillow's trip to Costa Rica sounds fantastic. There is a lot of geographic diversity in CR and so much to do just depending on your interests. Volcanos, beaches, rain forests, jungles, it's an incredible place.

I think CR has "rainy" and "less rainy" seasons, and December should be in the "less rainy" season. We are leaving for CR in a few weeks for Thanksgiving week and I'm a little worried since it will be the tail end of the "rainy" season. On this trip we're staying at just one location in Guanacaste (Hotel Punta Islita) that I got with a Marriott travel package (pre 8/18). Previously, we visited the Arenal and Manuel Antonio areas since those seem to be CR 101 trip destinations, and had a wonderful & busy time since I wasn't sure when or if we'd ever make it back and I wanted to fit in as much as I could. This trip is going to be more for relaxation since I think DH and DD need it. I'm concerned I might be bored since I usually am gogogo on vacation, but I'll bring books and art supplies.

 

[StephPlum]

Savings day! Picked up 3 $25 gift cards at Staples on my Hilton Biz and RMN for 30% savings. One GC used at CVS to pay for my prescription, the other two are stocking stuffers for DS (Amazon and Old Navy).

 

[bernina]

Haven't read anything since yesterday morning but just wanted to share a few things...

On the Alamo and skip the counter - I did my Alamo through the UR portal on points. I logged in yesterday and had the option to Check in online. I thought that meant skip the counter - nope. Directions said go to Counter. They said you can not skip the counter unless you book directly through the Alamo website. And @SouthFayetteFan you definitely have to have the driver and the credit card the same name. Though it sounded like if you paid with URs, it didn't matter what card you showed them, just any card in your name. I listened to the people check in next to us and they had this issue. The husband had no credit card (say what?? lol) and the wife did but didn't want to drive. They said they would have to pay $15/day extra driver fee. Then the agent said since this is prepaid if you have a debit card in husbands name that will be fine. Good thing for them, it sounded like they were having the car for several weeks.

I told my DH we needed to apply for SW on one of our 3 flights this week. As soon as we took off he was on the app looking at the options. lol We had choice of 50,000 points for the $69 card or the $149 card. We went for the $149 card and got instant approval. I was a little worried because right before we left I added up his CLs with chase and realized he was right at 50%. I knew I didn't have time to lower them so I did not. He was approved with his highest limit at the moment.

I’m 100+ pages behind since our 2 disney trips but wanted to comment on this real quick. We rented from Alamo via Costco Travel for our trip on the 17th. Costco provided the Alamon reservation number on our confirmation. I used that and was able to check in online using my husbands Alamo account (rental was in his name). I entered his license info (and mine as free second driver) and put in his CSR. We got there and went straight to aisle. Got upgraded to mini van since no std SUV were left. No issues at all. Not sure how different it is booking via UR portal but I’d try online check in on Alamo site vs. UR site.

 

[calypso726]

Question about AA miles...
We just got off an AA flight that offered 60,000 miles with any purchase in 90 days (and paying the $95 fee) plus 500 additional for applying in flight. My husband and I both applied as it seemed like a super deal...hoping that’s the case.
We want to use the miles next thanksgiving. Airline mile redemption is totally new to us...so I’m wondering if the flights around the holidays will be more (pamphlet said 12,500 domestic)??? Also can these points be transferrred to any other airline in case we can’t find what we need? We’d be flying from MDT, ABE or PHL to MCO if that makes any difference.
Second...would would our yearly fee for next year post? Is it one year from when we are approved?
Thanks!

Just catching up on the thread. I’m at WDW again this weekend but saw the tag from @tink1970 below.

That is a super great deal. I’d be all over that and it was very wise for both of you to apply.

Your timing is actually good too because your miles should be in place one year before they need to be used. AA releases both saver awards and standard awards. Saver awards are less miles than standard awards. AA generally releases inventory 331 days out. You will want to book 2 one way awards rather than risk losing the departure while wait8ng for the return to become available.

Sometimes saver awards are released later and some times not at all. Holiday time can be dicey. We initially booked flights for out Antarctica trip departing g Christmas Day. When the flights were released there was no saver inventory and it was 150,000 AA miles per person in business/first. We booked it. A few months later there was saver inventory for the same day but a different departure time at 57,500 AA miles per person. I paid the fee to cancel and redeposit the miles since it was nearly 100k miles we’d be saving. Our return flight is 2 weeks later and was 195,000 miles per person in business/first. No saver awards have been released for that day in business/first. I have checked everyday.

Airline miles cannot be transferred to another airline. However, you can book partner awards with one airline’s miles on a partner if there is saver inventory on the partner airline. AA is part of the One World airline alliance and you can book other One World partners with AA miles if the partner has partner availability. Sometimes, you will want to check another One World airline for inventory because it may not show up on AA. I will use Japan Airlines as an example. AA and JAL are partners. AA’s website never shows availability to book JAL. Therefore, I searched for JAL partner space on British Airways (another AA partner) when booking flights back home from Tokyo Disney Sea. I saw the JAL flight I needed on BA’s website, wrote down the flight information and then called AA. I gave them the flight number and relevant info and was able to book the flight with my AA miles.

The AF should post one year after you get the card. If you plan to cancel I’d wait until the AF hits first. Banks don’t look kindly on cancelling cards before a year is out.

I'm definitely not a super AA user but that sounds like a great deal...if I'm understanding it, 60,500 for $95 AF and 1 purchase? Yep, that's pretty good!

Rates for domestic airlines come out 330 days prior so that's when if I were you I'd start stalking fares. I just did a quick search for PHL-MCO 11-19 to 11-24 (Monday-Sat of this year's Thanksgiving since next year's is out) and RT for 1 person is 25,000. Better yet, available still. If you wanted different dates a 1 person RT could range from 25,000-100,000. Best advice, start fare stalking in Dec.

Safe to guess the AF will post a year after the first one, but I'm sure there's a more specific explanation somewhere.

There are definitely AA experts here like @calypso726 who will hopefully chime in!

Thanks for tagging!

 

[StephPlum]

When you find award tickets available, I recommend booking one way awards for you and your DH. AA currently does not impose a penalty for changing dates/times of your award ticket as long as the origin and destination remain the same, so you could change the dates of travel (within 1 yr of original booking & pending availability of awards) for no fee. I also recommend that you book the two of you together at a time, i.e. both of you one way and both of you the way back, and use your account for one direction and your DH's account the other direction (since you can't pool points without a fee). That's because the penalty to cancel an award booking and redepositing miles with AA is $150 for the 1st pax and $25 for subsequent pax on the same record locator. If you book all legs individually per pax and have to cancel, it would cost you a lot more to do that. Most of these fees are waived if you are an Elite flyer with AA.

Thanks for sharing this. I had seen the information on changing dates (keeping origin and destination the same), but hadn't realized the cancel fee. I would have done mine tickets on my acct and Dhs on his but knowing this, I'll be sure to book like you suggest.

 

[calypso726]

What would you use you MRs for? I’m having a hard time finding a good value for mine.

Flights. I have used MRs transferred BA to go to Scotland during a 50% transfer bonus. I used a handful combined with SPG and TYP to fly Singapore Suites this past May. I recently took advantage the 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic and plan to use those to book flights to Japan on ANA in first class.

Non transfer redemption have been in combination with the Amex business platinum card. I can pay for flights with my MR points at 1 cpp but then in about 30 days receive 35% of the points back which makes the value 1.54 cpp. This comes in handy when I can’t find an award flight I like or the cost of points transferred vs paying with points is negligible. Then, I’ll take the butt in seat miles too.

 

[pillow]

@pillow's trip to Costa Rica sounds fantastic. There is a lot of geographic diversity in CR and so much to do just depending on your interests. Volcanos, beaches, rain forests, jungles, it's an incredible place.

I think CR has "rainy" and "less rainy" seasons, and December should be in the "less rainy" season. We are leaving for CR in a few weeks for Thanksgiving week and I'm a little worried since it will be the tail end of the "rainy" season. On this trip we're staying at just one location in Guanacaste (Hotel Punta Islita) that I got with a Marriott travel package (pre 8/18). Previously, we visited the Arenal and Manuel Antonio areas since those seem to be CR 101 trip destinations, and had a wonderful & busy time since I wasn't sure when or if we'd ever make it back and I wanted to fit in as much as I could. This trip is going to be more for relaxation since I think DH and DD need it. I'm concerned I might be bored since I usually am gogogo on vacation, but I'll bring books and art supplies.

That hotel looks beautiful and the views are nice. I was told that during rainy season, you still have nice sunny mornings. The rain tends to come in the afternoons. So even if you have rain, I bet you'll still get lots of sun too. Would you report back after? We would like to go back at some point and want to file as much info away as possible.