I love credit cards so much!

[miztressuz]

@Lain

Thanks to both of you! I was able to generate the link from my 'Platinum' card - which is what Amex called my Optima....it's the Optima Platinum card, now that I read the front of the card. I'm pretty sure it's a credit card, but I don't think I've ever carried a balance on it so not fully sure.

Anyway, I have the 50K link for the rose gold if it doesn't drop in the next week or two. I want to wait until after my trip to apply as I don't want it to sit in my mailbox if it were to get here a bit early.

That's about the only other thing I know about the Optima card is that it was AmEx's first Credit card. I always thought it was the Blue line the way they advertised it, but when I looked it up evidently Optima was the trail blazer instead.

That’s awesome news! I’m so happy to be wrong. Is the Optima referral bonus for $100 or 15k MR (or something else)?

Yes, definitely apply for the Amex Gold 50k MR offer via your referral link. The higher 50k MR/$2k MSR/3 months/up to $100 statement credit from 20% back on restaurant purchases is available via incognito or referral (and likely will continue to be until 1/9/19), but since you can benefit from your own referral, there’s no reason to fiddle with incognito.

I don't think you were wrong, AmEx just decided to make you outdated in real time

Not seeing the ability to refer from my MB Plat. (I guess I'll have to wait until the MB Plat converts to a vanilla Plat.)

That's just weird, if the Optima card and the OBC card can do it, why'd the MB get singled out?? Hopefully still just being rolled out.

(Side note: The OBC acronym for Old Blue Cash always throws me, there's only one definition for that in my book - On Board Credit!)

 

[platamama]

I was already thinking about a SW flight to the East Coast and then flying out from there. I'm glad to see it worked for you. On Saver fares is there usually a limit to how many you can book? I am a little concerned I won't be able to get enough rewards flights for my family even if I have the points for them. We are looking at May 2020 so that would give me a year or less to accumulate the points.

It is interesting to me that you both said AA. Which wasn't even on my radar! From looking at sample flights it appears both UR and MR could transfer to different airlines that could get me there. I feel like MR might have more availability. If DH is 3/24 and I am 1/24 would it make more sense to continue with Chase cards and then move on to AMEX or AA? Or would moving on now make more sense since we have a specific goal in mind? We are primarily concerned with the airfare. Most likely we will stay AirBnB when in Italy. Unless we found some other amazing deals for hotels.

There is a limited supply of saver fares, but you're welcome to snag all of them if you can. I think ExpertFlyer gives a pretty good indication of how many seats are released for award tickets by airline. And I think you can do a free trial of it for a little bit of time, then pay for a subscription if you find it helpful. I've never done it myself but I think a few people on this thread have. Are you trying to find award tickets for 8 people? TBH I think that's shooting for the moon; you might get 2-4 that way but you probably would need to pay OOP for the rest. If you're using MRs or URs as cash equivalents then you can pay with as many points as you have because you're not trying to snag an award ticket, you're basically paying for a cash ticket. From that perspective, you're probably better off with URs getting 1.5 cpp. I did use URs for a hotel in Florence and truly got 1.5 cpp, and recently bought United tickets and got 1.5 cpp (this was before the Expedia switchover). What I've seen on the Amex travel site for airfare is 1.0 cpp. Transferring to partners could yield a better value proposition but you're at the whim of the airline releasing award tickets.

FWIW, I like using AA for a few reasons. 1) AA will hold a reservation for you for 5 days and you don't have to pay anything (not money, not points) to put it on hold. If you do nothing at all, the reservation just cancels itself, no harm no foul. 2) You can change the date/time/route of the flight as long as the origin and destination remain the same. You can do this without paying any stupid penalty. Travel needs to be done within 1 yr of the original booking date. 3) The penalty to cancel and redeposit miles is $150 for the first pax then $25 for any other pax on the same record locator, definitely on the less expensive side for cancellation penalties.

On my Italy trip, I originally booked a saver economy fare home from Venice, but I obsessively checked the website and one day there were business saver fare on a different day. I called AA, and was able to upgrade to the business class tickets for the difference in points and a little more in taxes/fees because one segment was on BA. No penalties to change it, and we had a very nice experience flying home. It seems that if you're upgrading you don't get charged a cancellation fee on the original booking.

Chase is the very sensitive to #/24, Barclays and Cap1 can be sensitive too. Amex and Citi are less so. With your trip planned for May (which is considered high season in Italy) if you go for AA miles you want them in your account by August 2019 so I think that leaves you some time and space to get more Chase or AMEX cards. If you do go for AA miles, I'd suggest applying for the Barclay card before the Citi card since it's harder to get approved by Barclay.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I’m now scared to have kids... when I did take my sister to Disney she complained about the walking and even the fastpass lines were too much for her I thought that was a teenage thing but I guess kids just always complain. We did go a little hard since we were only there two days. I feel bad now I should have let her pick and if she wanted to go back to the room I should have taken her back.

Every kid is different. Some kids are complainers, it’s just part of their personality. My DS doesn’t complain much on vacation but he constantly complains about school

 

[miztressuz]

My kids are overall pretty good kids, but vacations definitely make me want to get out my soapbox and give my speech about walking uphill in the snow both ways.

They can be so incredibly whiny on vacations. My youngest constantly asks to go back to the hotel to rest and my oldest whines about basically everything.

On Day 5 of incessant whining and my kids being less than 3 feet away from me 24/7 (those Pop rooms are small) you may definitely encounter a scary mom moment outside IASW.

Of course, I don't really scream at them in public. It's more of a very pointed, very scary, teeth gritting forced whisper .

Oh, I know that Mom face, that's more powerful than any Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Ring, Paranormal Activity, name-your-scariest-involuntary-scream-here movie.
That was the 'oh fudge we took it too far' face - full stop.

 

[wanderlust7]

My sister took her kids to Greece last summer (BIL is Greek). She came back saying she’s never taking her kids on vacation again, ever. The kids would pick an activity, then complain the whole time about it. And complain about the food. And not having wi-fi. And having to walk. The kids wanted to go swimming at the beach, so they drove an hour to the beach to find out both girls forgot their swimsuits. (They are 9 & 12, not little).

Oh gosh, reading some of these posts about traveling with kids makes me grateful that my kids are reasonably good travelers. Sure, they whine or have grouch face sometimes, but in general they like traveling.

Took DD to WDW when she was 2. She LOVED the characters and would run towards them. So magical. Took her to Tokyo Disneyland when she was 4. Worried about jet lag, but it was fine. Kept offering to rent her a stroller, but she refused (said it was for babies, lol). She so walked, and walked, and had a hole in her shoe by the end of it. Worried about taking her on a food tour in Barcelona this summer (now age 6) since she's a super picky eater. Told her ahead of time that she has to try everything, but it can be a tiny bite. No spitting out or saying yuck because it'll hurt the store owner's feelings. Surprisingly, she ate a lot more than I expected!

Went to Warner Bros. Studio Tour in London. DS (age 9, not a Harry Potter fan) had grouch face. Finally DH gave him a stern talking to about how lucky he was to be there, how not everyone has that opportunity. That plus then we got to the special effects section, which he's much more interested in, seemed to turn things around.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Wow! What gets me is that they were renting a castle too. You'd think they'd be old enough to appreciate how special that is! But who knows, maybe in the future the kids will remember the trip much differently than the parents. We went on a family vacation to Egypt maybe 20 years ago (we were expats at the time so it wasn't too far but still a big trip) My parents had three kids under the age of ten and we all spent a week sightseeing. Us three sisters were talking about the trip a few years ago with our parents and we were reminiscing about how fun some of the shows we saw were, how much we loved our resort, how special it was to see the pyramids and ride a camel and see mummies and see King Tut's Tomb. We remembered it as an amazing trip, one of the highlights of our childhood.

Our parents' mouths dropped open! "You girls were pills the entire time!" my mother said. "It was one of the worst family trips we ever took!" said my dad. Apparently all we did was whine about how we were hungry, tired, sweaty, and hot, and could we just go back to the pool already, and we didn't like the food, and we thought everything was boring, and we kept getting in fights. So who knows, @CyndiLouWho , maybe your nieces will eventually remember the trip fondly, even if your sister doesn't!

Oh yes. Our family Disney trip was horrible. My sister hates Disney and will never go back. To me it was one disaster after another with non stop arguing and complaining from the kids. The kids however say it was great and they’d love to go back.

 

[Lain]

I think the CIC would only be good for 5x GC at Staples. Not sure how much I’d use that. I could also put my AT&T internet on there.
Hmmnnn

Gyft using PayPal checkout earns 5x UR on the CIC too — if you can get it to work.

 

[Mopedmom1]

We have to go to the east coast in May for a couple of days but decided to splurge and add on a few days in NYC and Philadelphia to do the tourist stuff. We picked some nice hotels and best of all we are paying for them with points.

THIS! This is what I am appreciating about this hobby now that Chase has whacked Disney at the knees.

When we get off our cruise in March the airfare from MCO to PDX is outrageous due to Spring Break. I am able to add 5 days to our vacation by using some SW miles to fly to Albuquerque, Marriott points for hotels AND rent a car OOP for the same cash price it would have cost me to fly RT PDX-MCO on Alaska Airlines on our original dates.

Since we will be experiencing new places, I guess I owe Chase a thank you for nerfing Disney.

 

[Albort]

Gyft using PayPal checkout earns 5x UR on the CIC too — if you can get it to work.

as well as swych via paypal checkout

 

[calypso726]

I’m now scared to have kids... when I did take my sister to Disney she complained about the walking and even the fastpass lines were too much for her I thought that was a teenage thing but I guess kids just always complain. We did go a little hard since we were only there two days. I feel bad now I should have let her pick and if she wanted to go back to the room I should have taken her back.

Well they are all different. We recently took my niece and her friend, both teens and had a blast. I’d take them again in a heartbeat. I’ve taken my nephew, who can be somewhat challenging. I recall one trip when he was a teen. He was in a mood when I picked him up to go. As I was driving, I explained that I didn’t have to take him and if he preferred to sulk, that was fine but he would be doing it at home. I pulled over and asked him to make his choice. He said he’d like to go to WDW with us but didn’t know how to snap into a good mood right off and could he have a little time to work on changing his mood while I drove. I thought that was reasonable and 15 minutes later he was pleasant and we had great trip and he didn’t complain about anything. I like kids, but I’m not cut out to be a parent and lack the patience to put up with complaining and whining.

 

[Ava]

When my son was 2 and I was pregnant with my daughter..we went to Disney with my in-laws.....dating myself ...but it was in 1990 when Universal opened..my DH and his mom, dad and brother went there one day...so it was just my son and I at MK...I let him pick the rides..we went on it’s a small world...a lot and...watched..Minnies surprise birthday party show for Mickey many times..super relaxing day I still remember

I remember that surprise party show! And Toontown being “Mickey’s Birthday Land.” We went to WDW a couple times in the late 1980s-early 1990s. My dad videotaped that birthday show on one of those trips and my sister & I loved watching it, even though it was all shaky because he was holding the video camera up over his head.

Like many kids their age, they often prefer tech to spending time with their parent. My DS would be watching tv or using an iPad all day if I let him. Although on vacation, the iPod stays in the room usually.

We don’t usually bring iPads with us on vacation, but my 9-year-old has realized that hotel rooms have cable TV (we don’t). Guess what she wants to do the second we step foot into a hotel room?

(Side note: The OBC acronym for Old Blue Cash always throws me, there's only one definition for that in my book - On Board Credit!)

To me, OBC stands for “original Broadway cast.” (Where are my fellow theater nerds?)

 

[disneymagicgirl]

This hobby has saved the day.

DD19 asked me to come to a mothers brunch for her sorority in Nov. It just so happens to be on a Sunday morning after an at-home conference football game (SEC). Needless to say hotels are astronomical. My usual Hilton and Hampton were sold out and $350 (60k points) respectively. Marriott is blocking 1 night ressies. Chase UR to the rescue! Transferred 8k UR to Hyatt and booked a nice, new Hyatt place right on the square. Going cash rate of $421 after tax. Whoohoo!
Trying to book another room for my parents but keep getting errors. Will try again tomorrow. My dad said he'd give me money to cover the points usage and I figured that I will put it towards food/travel expenses and that way he gets the room for much less than the going rate.

I wish Hyatt was more prevalent. I sure would like to have DH start frequenting their chain since their reward redemptions seem amazing.

 

[GZanta77]

Well they are all different. We recently took my niece and her friend, both teens and had a blast. I’d take them again in a heartbeat. I’ve taken my nephew, who can be somewhat challenging. I recall one trip when he was a teen. He was in a mood when I picked him up to go. As I was driving, I explained that I didn’t have to take him and if he preferred to sulk, that was fine but he would be doing it at home. I pulled over and asked him to make his choice. He said he’d like to go to WDW with us but didn’t know how to snap into a good mood right off and could he have a little time to work on changing his mood while I drove. I thought that was reasonable and 15 minutes later he was pleasant and we had great trip and he didn’t complain about anything. I like kids, but I’m not cut out to be a parent and lack the patience to put up with complaining and whining.

Maybe you're not cut out to be a parent, but your post indicates you have more skills than many parents to deal with teenage moods.

 

[mmmears]

THIS! This is what I am appreciating about this hobby now that Chase has whacked Disney at the knees.

When we get off our cruise in March the airfare from MCO to PDX is outrageous due to Spring Break. I am able to add 5 days to our vacation by using some SW miles to fly to Albuquerque, Marriott points for hotels AND rent a car OOP for the same cash price it would have cost me to fly RT PDX-MCO on Alaska Airlines on our original dates.

Since we will be experiencing new places, I guess I owe Chase a thank you for nerfing Disney.

MIL lives in Albuquerque and it sounds like we are going to have to go there for a visit in the next year or two. Please let me know if you enjoy your time there. We are considering adding a few "fun" days to that trip as well. And yes, now that it seems like I can't use the URs for Disney I'm not hoarding them. I may regret that, but it's time for us to go to other destinations anyway. (Not that we are giving up DL, WDW, or DCL).

 

[Psychodisney]

This hobby has saved the day.

DD19 asked me to come to a mothers brunch for her sorority in Nov. It just so happens to be on a Sunday morning after an at-home conference football game (SEC). Needless to say hotels are astronomical. My usual Hilton and Hampton were sold out and $350 (60k points) respectively. Marriott is blocking 1 night ressies. Chase UR to the rescue! Transferred 8k UR to Hyatt and booked a nice, new Hyatt place right on the square. Going cash rate of $421 after tax. Whoohoo!
Trying to book another room for my parents but keep getting errors. Will try again tomorrow. My dad said he'd give me money to cover the points usage and I figured that I will put it towards food/travel expenses and that way he gets the room for much less than the going rate.

I wish Hyatt was more prevalent. I sure would like to have DH start frequenting their chain since their reward redemptions seem amazing.

That’s a great redemption!
We made late plans to visits our DD19 for family weekend this weekend. I found a Marriott not too far away but everything in Ann Arbor was full. When I checked yesterday, there was a courtyard king available...and then it wasn’t...I eventually was able to snag it for 25k points...close to a $400 room. My DH asked “Do people really pay those rates?”. Anyway, she’ll enjoy seeing us and of course, we’ll enjoy seeing her. No plans to go to the football game (45 degrees brr) but GO BLUE!

 

[mamathompson]

There is a limited supply of saver fares, but you're welcome to snag all of them if you can. I think ExpertFlyer gives a pretty good indication of how many seats are released for award tickets by airline. And I think you can do a free trial of it for a little bit of time, then pay for a subscription if you find it helpful. I've never done it myself but I think a few people on this thread have. Are you trying to find award tickets for 8 people? TBH I think that's shooting for the moon; you might get 2-4 that way but you probably would need to pay OOP for the rest. If you're using MRs or URs as cash equivalents then you can pay with as many points as you have because you're not trying to snag an award ticket, you're basically paying for a cash ticket. From that perspective, you're probably better off with URs getting 1.5 cpp. I did use URs for a hotel in Florence and truly got 1.5 cpp, and recently bought United tickets and got 1.5 cpp (this was before the Expedia switchover). What I've seen on the Amex travel site for airfare is 1.0 cpp. Transferring to partners could yield a better value proposition but you're at the whim of the airline releasing award tickets.

FWIW, I like using AA for a few reasons. 1) AA will hold a reservation for you for 5 days and you don't have to pay anything (not money, not points) to put it on hold. If you do nothing at all, the reservation just cancels itself, no harm no foul. 2) You can change the date/time/route of the flight as long as the origin and destination remain the same. You can do this without paying any stupid penalty. Travel needs to be done within 1 yr of the original booking date. 3) The penalty to cancel and redeposit miles is $150 for the first pax then $25 for any other pax on the same record locator, definitely on the less expensive side for cancellation penalties.

On my Italy trip, I originally booked a saver economy fare home from Venice, but I obsessively checked the website and one day there were business saver fare on a different day. I called AA, and was able to upgrade to the business class tickets for the difference in points and a little more in taxes/fees because one segment was on BA. No penalties to change it, and we had a very nice experience flying home. It seems that if you're upgrading you don't get charged a cancellation fee on the original booking.

Chase is the very sensitive to #/24, Barclays and Cap1 can be sensitive too. Amex and Citi are less so. With your trip planned for May (which is considered high season in Italy) if you go for AA miles you want them in your account by August 2019 so I think that leaves you some time and space to get more Chase or AMEX cards. If you do go for AA miles, I'd suggest applying for the Barclay card before the Citi card since it's harder to get approved by Barclay.

Thank you so much for all of this information! It's definitely given me lots to think about. We have five kids and my MIL usually tags along. So we will most likely be 8 people. Our large bunch makes it more challenging to plan for sometimes.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

THIS! This is what I am appreciating about this hobby now that Chase has whacked Disney at the knees.

When we get off our cruise in March the airfare from MCO to PDX is outrageous due to Spring Break. I am able to add 5 days to our vacation by using some SW miles to fly to Albuquerque, Marriott points for hotels AND rent a car OOP for the same cash price it would have cost me to fly RT PDX-MCO on Alaska Airlines on our original dates.

Since we will be experiencing new places, I guess I owe Chase a thank you for nerfing Disney.

Did I miss something - what happened with Chase and Disney? I have a DRV so is there something changing?

 

[wendow]

I’m now scared to have kids... when I did take my sister to Disney she complained about the walking and even the fastpass lines were too much for her I thought that was a teenage thing but I guess kids just always complain. We did go a little hard since we were only there two days. I feel bad now I should have let her pick and if she wanted to go back to the room I should have taken her back.

Don't be afraid to have them! My kids have waited an hour to meet characters that only half wanted to meet. And that was back in Dec 2014 so my boys were 3 and 5 (they were characters my girls wanted to meet)...? My kids are not big complainers. My dd18 has been sick for 3.5yrs and rarely complains. It's somewhat personality and a lot in how you raise them.

 

[dina444444]

Did I miss something - what happened with Chase and Disney? I have a DRV so is there something changing?

Disney has been removed from the Chase UR booking portal.

 

[pillow]

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!

The lodge looks terrific - and not horribly expensive. I've found a few budget options at Drake Bay on Airbnb - even with a/c. Not sure when we'll make it back there though. Too many ideas and not enough vacation time for DH.