I love credit cards so much!

[SouthFayetteFan]

Thanks guys for the feedback - this makes sense!

• I can save ~7,300 SW RRs and then earn ~600 points for paying cash (per flight)
• I end up with ~7,900 SW RRs in my account this way
• It costs me ~$30 out of pocket and I can use up the ~$80 travel credit (which I probably can only use $20 of if I don't actually book a cash flight)
• I could redeem the ~7,900 SW RRs for ~$79 worth of gift cards at 1cpp

Whether I actually chose to cash the points out for a gift card is another story...BUT...in theory it makes much more sense to use that additional $60 of flight credit vs. letting it go to waste! And THIS is why I come to my friendly group of experts when I'm overthinking something

GAAAH! AND of course if I wait around...the price goes away.

I just went to rebook this and the prices went up a ton since this morning! There are non-stop flights at 7, 10 and 12 that day and SW has been playing the prices on all 3 flights the last few days I assume to try to fill all the flights. I've seen my fight at 154, 134, 125, 131, 115 (this morning) and now 154 again! Luckily I re-booked all 3 points reservations so I have the $115 price (in points) locked in right now. BUT it kinda blows upmy re-book theory because instead of $30 oop it's now $74 oop and that's just meh to me. Oh well, lol...I'll keep an eye on it. Maybe tomorrow it will go back down, lol!

 

[StephPlum]

Does anyone know about using a spouses CC on your plastiq account? I need to get to meeting MSR on DH's SW card and my plastiq has all the accounts saved in it already.

I've done this and it works but also have referred DH for his own account to get the referral bonus.

 

[amalone1013]

GAAAH! AND of course if I wait around...the price goes away.

I just went to rebook this and the prices went up a ton since this morning! There are non-stop flights at 7, 10 and 12 that day and SW has been playing the prices on all 3 flights the last few days I assume to try to fill all the flights. I've seen my fight at 154, 134, 125, 131, 115 (this morning) and now 154 again! Luckily I re-booked all 3 points reservations so I have the $115 price (in points) locked in right now. BUT it kinda blows upmy re-book theory because instead of $30 oop it's now $74 oop and that's just meh to me. Oh well, lol...I'll keep an eye on it. Maybe tomorrow it will go back down, lol!

I went and checked mine earlier and now they're higher than I'd seen them at all. They are in 4 days though... but on the other hand, the price went from $120 to $90 to $49 exactly one week out... earlier they were $160ish, now they don't even have WGA fares. But I'll check again tomorrow like an OCD person, because that one time our flights dropped 2 days out...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

So, pretty sure I want the Amex BCP, mainly for buying Disney giftcards at Kroger for the fuel points. I recall reading something about you shouldn't purchase gift cards with Amex to meet MSR? Or something? Does that apply to me?

When should I apply? I'm currently:
8/20 CIP
11/28 SW Pers

I'll apply for the SW Biz in the next few weeks as I'm trying to get the CP. Should I apply for the BCP on the same day?

If you’re buying 3rd party GCs at a grocery store with AMEX you should be fine. The issues there typically are people buying VGCs at an office supply store that passes thru level 3 data.

 

[mmmears]

Opinions on best hotel at MCO? Trying to use my chase points, but also have other reward points available.

Another vote for the Hyatt.

Parts of our old fence fell on two sides of the yard. Thankfully all the new fence stayed standing. A couple sections of the neighbors new fence fell. These are all wood fences which are no match for wind. Couple sections broke off at the bottom and a couple sections came put of the wet ground. One section flew into the yard, not even sure what the wind did then and I don't want to know.

ETA - trying this picture

Yikes. How awful. I'm sorry your fence is down, and glad that there wasn't any more damage. We have rain, rain, rain here this week. It's good because we need it, but I do worry something is going to leak.

Guys, the Disneyland price increases have hit not just APs, but one-day and multi-day tickets too: https://wdwnt.com/2019/01/breaking-...ases-ahead-of-star-wars-galaxys-edge-opening/

LMT Club still has multi-day tickets discounted at the old prices. Might want to lock in discounts on the old pricing if you're planning a trip sometime this year. And remember, LMT Club codes as travel for 3x UR on CSR and CIP, 2x UR on CSP.

Thanks for this info. Our "trip" is still too iffy for me to commit to buying tickets. And it's looking less and less likely with all the changes. The hotel rates didn't help.

Brutal increase on passes, good grief! Over $2k for the premier pass! The mouse owns us all.

I'm thinking I don't want them to own me. Just frees up money for other kinds of trips. Disney is value/pricing me out. I can just think of better places to spend thousands of dollars, but it makes me really sad that it's this way.

 

[Jax1023]

This summers “magical deals” are a whole lot less magical than last year. And I can’t get tickets with UR anymore.

Soooo.... I booked free dining at the wilderness lodge. This is actually a good deal for us this year since my dd will be 2 and still be free at buffets, so we will do a lot of character meals.

My new plan is now- use all UR for the spring break universal trip instead of the arrival plus bonus.

Arrival plus bonus x 2 for the summer trip- that’s $1600 right there.

Lots of discounted gift cards.

Free flight with my companion pass I should get next week and rr points.

Once I finish the a+ spend, more chase business cards to restock UR. Thinking cic in april and It will be 2 years since my last cip bonus in July. So probably a cip I’m august.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

no giant eagle

Martins?

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Does anyone know about using a spouses CC on your plastiq account? I need to get to meeting MSR on DH's SW card and my plastiq has all the accounts saved in it already.

I have too. But if you have time I’d refer him to his own account for the fee free dollars. Then I wouldn’t put the same cc on both accounts to be safe.

Speaking of Plastiq where have all the promos been lately??!!!

 

[tink1970]

When's the last day to get the rose gold card? I thought that specific color would go away at some point this month.

January 9 so you have only 3 days! It is the best card in my wallet right now

 

[mmmears]

January 9 so you have only 3 days! It is the best card in my wallet right now

I totally agree! It's my favorite card for spending these days. I still love my plat for lounge access of course, but I find I do a lot of dining/grocery spend so my gold card is the one I use the most.

 

[DisneyMandC]

January 9 so you have only 3 days! It is the best card in my wallet right now

Oh boy... I have NO MR earning cards... I guess this would be a good start. Of course, I also have no idea what I'll use MRs for since I'm planning to use AA miles to fly JAL to Tokyo instead of ANA.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I totally agree! It's my favorite card for spending these days. I still love my plat for lounge access of course, but I find I do a lot of dining/grocery spend so my gold card is the one I use the most.

Yeah we do eat out a lot, so the credit will be put to good use. This will be the highest AF I've ever paid!

 

[amalone1013]

Oh boy... I have NO MR earning cards... I guess this would be a good start. Of course, I also have no idea what I'll use MRs for

Me.

 

[amalone1013]

Sorry to beat the dead horse... but with all of the hotel gift card talk... If I can get a gift card at the Courtyard by my house using the AMEX offer, is it good at all Marriott hotels? I remember there is no SPG/Marriott gift card crossover yet.

 

[afan]

OMG it was so scary windy last night! We had one of those little plastic kiddie pools in the backyard under the deck that managed to get out and fly into the front yard. The bedroom area of our house is surrounded by 100 year old maple trees that drop big limbs and creak when it gets windy and I just lay there waiting to hear something drop onto the roof above me. Oddly enough nothing major happened. The windstorm that was maybe two years ago we had one fall in the backyard, smashing the fence on the way down. Needless to say I am glad it is over!

We had more trees down for the inauguration day storm back in the 90's but I was at school when most of it was going on, power went out, we were on lock down before they finally sent us home. We walked/ran home because of the wind still going and saw trees down on the way home and then the shared driveway that goes back to the neighbors wasn't passable for all the trees that fell. I think having to hear the wind this time was what made it worse, we didn't hear it when we were in the school and the worst part was over by the time we got sent home.

Yikes! Have you called your insurance company? I know it's Sunday but some of them will process a claim call and get you in the long line that happens when there are a lot of sudden claims due to storms. Did you lose any shingles on your roof?

Mom's going to talk with our agent tomorrow. We use an agent that sells multiple companies so she can get their opinion on whether to use it or not. She used it last year when she backed into the garage door so she may not want to do a claim if it'll make the insurance go up a ton. The house is paid off so she saves money throughout the year from her various retirement stuff to pay it and the taxes. They didn't require anyone to come out and look at the garage and we have photo's so hopefully that'll be enough.

I didn't hear anything come off the house or hit the house last night, though I haven't walked far enough away to see. It should be ok since I didn't see any in the yard when I walked around earlier. There were two trees across the street at the park that broke, one about 3 ft off the ground and the other about 10ft and both fell in the same direction as the section of fence that had the one panel fly into the yard. I'm guessing those all happened on the same wind gust. The city is generally pretty good about cutting down sick/dead trees in the main area and there were just people counting/looking at the trees in November so I'm guessing it was a pretty good gust/strait line wind that did it. She'll call Lowe's to have them come do an estimate too, though they may have to wait for the ground to dry out some.

We live in a canyon and usually have very little wind down here. Not last night, it was wailing! So far the only damage sustained was during a power surge. My brand new notebook took a hit and I can't get it to turn on. We have 20 acres and lots of trees so the potential for more issues is there. I haven't walked the property yet so time will tell if we have firewood for next year.

See if you can get it covered under warranty or something. I had a power issue that fried my new Tivo and my dishwasher. When I called in about the dishwasher the lady I got was super nice and did it as a warranty repair. I was still in my return window with the Tivo so I returned it as not working. Wrong, maybe but it wasn't working and was plugged into a surge protector along with the tv and dvd player that didn't have any problems so I can't say for sure that the power was the problem. It could have been a coincidence.

Yikes. How awful. I'm sorry your fence is down, and glad that there wasn't any more damage. We have rain, rain, rain here this week. It's good because we need it, but I do worry something is going to leak.

Leaks are the worst. We're used to the rain and there was some with the wind, but normally our wind storms are actually dry. This one had hail and thunderstorms north of Seattle.

 

[Ngwira]

Best is subjective of course but I really like the Hyatt Regency inside MCO. It's fun to people watch, eat around the world, er, airport (apps one place, main another, then of course dessert). I just transferred 12, 000 URs to Hyatt since Chase's travel portal wanted 23,000 URs for the same room.

They are undergoing renovations through the end of next month though, so a caveat if you might be disturbed by that. Also quite near MCO is the Hyatt Place.

My brother is a big Marriott fan and always uses his points to stay at the Fairfield Inn/Renaissance/Marriott near MCO. There are so many options I think it's hard to go wrong.

Another big fan of Hyatt mco. We’ve stayed there thrice. For our trip next month, we’re trying out the Hyatt place.

 

[mmmears]

Yeah we do eat out a lot, so the credit will be put to good use. This will be the highest AF I've ever paid!

You can turn them into hotel points (Hyatt/Marriott) if you don't want to use them for air travel. Just one option of course. Oh, and that AF isn't all that bad, especially since you can get $100 back on dining on the first 3 months. So if you eat out a lot that will make the AF more palatable I think.

Sorry to beat the dead horse... but with all of the hotel gift card talk... If I can get a gift card at the Courtyard by my house using the AMEX offer, is it good at all Marriott hotels? I remember there is no SPG/Marriott gift card crossover yet.

Glad you asked. I'm wondering the same thing since we have a Marriott stay booked for May and a Courtyard close to our house. I keep worrying it will be an issue but would like to use that offer, too.

 

[Albort]

I checked dischurners and didn't see much there either. I don't have stop & shop, just need general MS info. I ventured over the regular reddit and it was way over my head. If any of you pros get time, and don't mind doing a little write up on dischurners, I think some of us would be appreciative.

there is an MS thread on the private reddit board, feel free to ask questions there.

 

[WVMomof3]

Parts of our old fence fell on two sides of the yard. Thankfully all the new fence stayed standing. A couple sections of the neighbors new fence fell. These are all wood fences which are no match for wind. Couple sections broke off at the bottom and a couple sections came put of the wet ground. One section flew into the yard, not even sure what the wind did then and I don't want to know.

ETA - trying this picture

OMG it was so scary windy last night! We had one of those little plastic kiddie pools in the backyard under the deck that managed to get out and fly into the front yard. The bedroom area of our house is surrounded by 100 year old maple trees that drop big limbs and creak when it gets windy and I just lay there waiting to hear something drop onto the roof above me. Oddly enough nothing major happened. The windstorm that was maybe two years ago we had one fall in the backyard, smashing the fence on the way down. Needless to say I am glad it is over!

Yikes! I hate loud wind storms. Just a couple months ago a young mom was killed by a tree falling on her bedroom overnight. So sad. It wasn't even that windy that night, but I think it was more from the saturated ground. We have had a ton of rain in the last few months.

 

[amalone1013]

Did the bonus points from the SW RR shopping portal thing post? The one that ended 11/18? I see points for my purchases but not the 500 bonus yet. Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss it.