I love credit cards so much!

[1st*toright]

Tell me about Osa. Where did you stay? I can't decide if I want Drake Bay or the other side (can't recall town names).

We stayed at the Iguana Lodge near Puerto Jimenez. It was great - more rustic than some of the places on Drake Bay (no ac, no tv). It is owned by an American couple who have run the resort for many years. We went during the off season and stayed in the beach house, which was amazing. Our shower was on the third floor, cantilevered out over the jungle in the open air. We had gotten the beach house so that we could have multiple bedrooms and have some separation from our daughter. But it turned out that the center of the house was all open to the outside (the living room/kitchen area had no walls at all, and each bedroom just had a lock on the door and half of the walls were just screens). I was a little uncomfortable having our daughter alone in her own room, and was worried about not being able to hear her if she woke up, so we wound up all sleeping in one of the bedrooms, after all! The food there was really good - all the guests eat dinner together in a big amazing dining room each night, so we got to chat with some other travelers. We did a couple of excursions organized by the hotel, a boat tour of the bay and a rainforest walk to see monkeys. Our daughter was 4 or 5 when we went, so we didn't do ziplining or anything super adventurous, although that stuff was available too. The staff was amazing, it felt like we were visiting friends. It was very different from a beach resort where you go back to your hotel room that could be in any country in the world. We'd love to go back!

 

[Calfan]

i saw DoC posted on twitter that if you dont see this offer, sign off and sign back in should do that trick. to anyone else who cant find the offer.

I actually did a reload with Chase Pay this morning without seeing the offer in my Starbucks account, and it worked just fine. I see the bonus stars in my account, and it references the Chase Pay promotion.

Heads up for all the Platinum folks using the Uber credits, if you haven't seen it yet, it appears Uber made a change to how you apply the AmEx monthly credit. You have to manually select the credit in order to use it, new steps and info: https://thepointsguy.com/news/amex-credit-uber-cash/

Thanks for posting. Grrrr. This irritates me so much. I used Uber this past weekend and, sure enough, it did not take my Amex credits because I did not know about this change and manually select Uber Cash. And of course I don't plan to use Uber today or tomorrow, so those credits will go unused. It's only $15, but I *hate* leaving cash on the table. And it galls me that Uber did this with no announcement whatsoever.

 

[WVMomof3]

Still in Colorado but had planned to use the morning catching up on all the posts I missed! Ack to no access all morning. Hopefully really fixed now. Off to see what I missed.

I did want to post about my SW flight from MCO to DEN had no wifi service at all so no inflight offers. I guess the lesson is strike while you can. We did get accosted like a county fair game person while walking through DEN though from a SW Rep pedaling the credit cards in the terminal. I think someone had asked if you could get them at airport without flying SW. We did not stop to talk to him, but it seems like anyone can get. He definitely did not know we just flew with them.

 

[1st*toright]

I LOVE hearing about people doing last minute trips!!! (what's EBCI?)

Early Bird Check In

 

[elgerber]

Instant approval on a Chase Biz card cheer party! Pretty sweet, congrats!

Congrats!! I need to get my app in for the SW Biz, but for some reason I am very scared to do so, with a "business".

 

[GlamMistress]

I actually did a reload with Chase Pay this morning without seeing the offer in my Starbucks account, and it worked just fine. I see the bonus stars in my account, and it references the Chase Pay promotion.



Thanks for posting. Grrrr. This irritates me so much. I used Uber this past weekend and, sure enough, it did not take my Amex credits because I did not know about this change and manually select Uber Cash. And of course I don't plan to use Uber today or tomorrow, so those credits will go unused. It's only $15, but I *hate* leaving cash on the table. And it galls me that Uber did this with no announcement whatsoever.

I don't understand the Uber cash thing. I just opened my app and I don't see Uber Cash as an option. I do have three payment cards listed (which I need to just drop to be my plat only). What am I missing here?

 

[DisneyMandC]

There are uni gift cards?! Do we know of any deals on them? I don't do fuel points. Anywhere else sell them?

The only place I've ever seen them is Kroger! I've looked other places before and haven't found them.

 

[Lain]

I applied my DW for the Barclay's AA Biz card tonight, and she got instant approval! And I finally got an e-mail for mine. 120K AA miles, here we come! Now to wait for the cards and put some purchases on them. I figure I'll use them for smaller non-bonus category purchases for a while so Barclay's doesn't flag us for not using the cards.

Congratulations!



Monday saw a bumper crop of approvals. Good times!

Do you have to load each card individually into Masterpass, or can Masterpass combine them so you can pay a larger amount on Plastiq? I don't think my landlord would be happy if they got multiple checks to cover one month's rent.

Whether you load them into Masterpass or add them directly into Plastiq, you can only pay (the payment amount+fee) up to the actual amount on the MCGC. Masterpass doesn't combine the cards in your wallet (or their limits) so that you could make a larger payment.

Can you apply payments of $97.56 (+2.5% fee on a $100 MCGC) or $48.78 (+2.5% fee on a $50 MCGC) towards something else, like student loans, car payment, utilities, insurance, to bank those FFDs for whatever else you might have to pay next month?

 

[Lain]

Instant approval for DH CIU! Second instant approval for him this month, with SPG Personal on 10.12.

Congratulations!



So many approvals and much happy news!

 

[Alexle2007]

I LOVE hearing about people doing last minute trips!!! (what's EBCI?)

Since you mention missing BF shopping... SeaWorld had lot of interesting "extras" when I went a couple years ago. We did the penguin encounter and it was a highlight of my life. Litterally, a top 10 experience- I'm grining from ear to ear remembering meeting Pippin the gregarious penguin If you think someone in your fam might prefer an extra thing like that over some gifts you might have grabbed BF shopping you could consider early Xmas present/s...

EBCI- Early Bird Check-In with SW. I do not want to be up until 10:30 pm at night frantically trying to check in only to end up with a high B or C boarding pass.

Awesome idea. I wonder if DS would have any interest. We are surprising him with the trip so now to figure out how to get the info without actually asking.

 

[Limes96]

Got P2’s Amex Plat yesterday in a fancy wooden box. Looking back over past posts to clarify in my mind some of the perks. The Saks Fifth Ave credits were talked about just this weekend I think. I think I might just go in store for a $50 gift card. Most of our MSR will be made at the local gravel pit in a few weeks. Not sure if I read whether the airline credit was by calendar year or card year. Our next flight probably won’t be until next late winter/early spring. Is there anything we can do to take advantage of that credit if we lose out on 2018’s credit after Dec31?

In other news, we paid off our minivan last week. No more vehicle payments, yay! I already got an email from CreditKarma saying one of our accounts has been closed. We used the Plastiq Masterpass deal over the summer to pay this off early. It all went into IHG points.

 

[havaneselover]

Got P2’s Amex Plat yesterday in a fancy wooden box. Looking back over past posts to clarify in my mind some of the perks. The Saks Fifth Ave credits were talked about just this weekend I think. I think I might just go in store for a $50 gift card. Most of our MSR will be made at the local gravel pit in a few weeks. Not sure if I read whether the airline credit was by calendar year or card year. Our next flight probably won’t be until next late winter/early spring. Is there anything we can do to take advantage of that credit if we lose out on 2018’s credit after Dec31?

In other news, we paid off our minivan last week. No more vehicle payments, yay! I already got an email from CreditKarma saying one of our accounts has been closed. We used the Plastiq Masterpass deal over the summer to pay this off early. It all went into IHG points.

It's calendar year on the airline credit so you probably want to buy gift cards (Southwest, Delta, American).

I think this is my next card once I finish with my gold card spend (half way there!).

 

[Alexle2007]

Got P2’s Amex Plat yesterday in a fancy wooden box. Looking back over past posts to clarify in my mind some of the perks. The Saks Fifth Ave credits were talked about just this weekend I think. I think I might just go in store for a $50 gift card. Most of our MSR will be made at the local gravel pit in a few weeks. Not sure if I read whether the airline credit was by calendar year or card year. Our next flight probably won’t be until next late winter/early spring. Is there anything we can do to take advantage of that credit if we lose out on 2018’s credit after Dec31?

In other news, we paid off our minivan last week. No more vehicle payments, yay! I already got an email from CreditKarma saying one of our accounts has been closed. We used the Plastiq Masterpass deal over the summer to pay this off early. It all went into IHG points.

I used my Plat airline credit which is calendar year to purchase a $200 SW GC. I know there are others that work but not sure which ones.

There's also an opportunity to signup for Shoprunner for free. I used that in conjunction with my SFA credit this weekend for an online purchase. Correct on the $50 GC, only in store.

You need to sign-up for PP just like with the CSR.

 

[Limes96]

It's calendar year on the airline credit so you probably want to buy gift cards (Southwest, Delta, American).

I think this is my next card once I finish with my gold card spend (half way there!).

Will it work on gift cards? Isn’t it supposed to be just for luggage fees and in flight purchases?

 

[Judique]

Which Amex cards do you have?

SPG, biz, personal and lux. And an 'Optima' credit card. No charge card.

 

[havaneselover]

Will it work on gift cards? Isn’t it supposed to be just for luggage fees and in flight purchases?

It works for those three airlines on gift cards according to data points.

 

[tink1970]

Will it work on gift cards? Isn’t it supposed to be just for luggage fees and in flight purchases?

Historically, it has at different price points- I believe $100 for AA, $50 for DL. Of course the bloggers keep announcing that this is a work around so who knows how long GC purchases will last (sorry, still bitter, Tesla man).

 

[Limes96]

Historically, it has at different price points- I believe $100 for AA, $50 for DL. Of course the bloggers keep announcing that this is a work around so who knows how long GC purchases will last (sorry, still bitter, Tesla man).

So if I wanted delta gc’s I’d need to buy 4 $50 ones to get the $200 credit?

 

[tink1970]

So if I wanted delta gc’s I’d need to buy 4 $50 ones to get the $200 credit?

Yes-kind of a pain tbh.

 

[Calfan]

I don't understand the Uber cash thing. I just opened my app and I don't see Uber Cash as an option. I do have three payment cards listed (which I need to just drop to be my plat only). What am I missing here?

On mine, I see my CSR, Apple Pay, my Amex Plat and Uber Cash. Included in the total amount of my Uber cash is my $15 Amex credit for Oct. plus some Uber gift cards I had loaded on to my account. In the past, when I had Amex credits available in my account, Uber took them first automatically and then charged any balance to my cc (since I only recently added some gcs to my account). Now, unless you manually select away from your cc (after typing in a destination but before selecting a car) and to Uber Cash, Uber will charge your credit card and won't use your Amex credits. Ridiculous change anyway and even more ridiculous to do it without notifying riders. Customer service has already heard from me via email (where I am having a very unsatisfactory exchange with barely coherent responses from CS), and I've taken to Twitter.