I love credit cards so much! v5.0 - 2022 (see first page for add'l details)

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Yes, I did have over 500,000 C1 points at one time but have been spending some to erase travel charges from my August and September trips so I’m down to a bit over 400,000. That is a great deal! How easy is it to cancel flights? I’m constantly changing flights for overseas. I know the points can’t be transferred back. Need to learn more about Virgin Atlantic! Thanks for the info!

Make an account now, bc I think if your account is less than 24 hours old, you can't redeem your points online, and you have to call. After 24 hours of account creation, there are no issues.

I really don't know about changes and cancellations. The one cancellation I had was KLM canceling our flight and I wasn't able to get that rebooked online; I had to call. I think there might be a change or cancel fee for optional changes, so if United doesn't have that and you move your dates a lot, it might just be best to stick with United. Maybe others have experience with Virgin?

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Reports of Chase matching elevated CSR and Ink offers, so you might want to SM if you've apped recently. Sounds like speculation is closer to apps within the last 30 days, but previously Chase would match up to 90 days. Worth a SM, imo.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

OMG, my husband also thinks he's some type of coffee barista. Does your husband have an Aeropress? It's a little contraption sort of like a french press but apparently better. My husband swears by it. Maybe a good holiday gift and it's super inexpensive.

We have a Cuisinart coffee maker with a burr grinder built in. It’s has a timer and thermal carafe so it can make coffee I can have when I get up at 0500 and DH can drink after that (he’s WFH). We needs no encouragement on the coffee snob front. He roasts coffee beans nightly for the next day’s coffee and orders 20-30# of coffee beans at a time.

mines booked for winter 2023 the availability filled up . Last night I was thinking about it they had a 2 bed with an ocean view and I was like I'm going to ask DW this morning they didn't so YMMV but I think this property must be one of the better deals on points for 17k points seems too low for me (over 3 cents pp). I am too hoping for japan for a guy's trip, may have to "settle" for ireland.

Keep checking. I originally booked a king room as that’s all that was available. Later found a 2 queen room which is better for the 3 of us. I called and asked if they could change it and they did.

yeah i wanted to do big sur i have a feeling they are going to go up in category DW wants our kid to go with us all the time though so not in the cards until DD is annoyed with us and wants to stay with uncles or aunts.

Good luck with that. DS is 13 and would be horrified if we took a vacation without him.

 

[leeniewdw]

Just a DP for using Airbnb GC for an existing reservation (which was reserved with a CC). It was my understanding that this was now possible. I decided to go ahead and load 3 $100 GCs I had laying around. That worked fine. Then I went to 1 of my Ireland reservations (for June) that had ~$500+ left to pay (in May). I saw where you clicked to apply the gift cards and then I toggled each $100 gc and exited the screen.

This is where it was kind of confusing. It updated the final amount due correctly, but there was also a Button that seemed like I should click to Apply (I wish I had a screen shot). Anyway, I clicked it and it showed "The remaining balance of $237 will be processed on May 26, 2023" with a complete button (not sure 100% of the buttons labels on all this, but something like that). As soon as I hit "complete" (or whatever), my applewatch had a notification that $237 was going to be processed to my Cap1 VentureX. The reservation does reflect that the reservation is now completely paid, so it's not the end of the world, but the behavior and what it said on the screen was not consistent.

So, ymmv, but wanted to share. I'm not sure if I could have left the screen where it looked like it applied the GCs or not. I didn't think toggling the thing next to each GC would have actually applied it since you could go back and forth. Anyway -- glad the GCs were applied, but it was definitely clunky.

 

[becauseimnew]

I have managed to book all but one of our Japan hotels, The Front of Park Universal hotel hasn't opened booking for June dates. I'm sure I'll make some changes before our trip, but I've managed to get some decent rates. All except for Hilton Tokyo Bay were booked on the Chase portal, I'm going to email the hotels to make sure our reservations are good (I always contact the hotels directly when booking via 3rd party). I had estimated we would use about 250,000 URs for our hotels but it's looking like we'll only use 190K URs.

The exchange rate is currently 150 yen to the dollar, if I have time this week I'm going to try to see if rebooking some of the hotels will get me an even better rate as I booked most when exchange rate was 140/$1.

 

[sinnika]

Make an account now, bc I think if your account is less than 24 hours old, you can't redeem your points online, and you have to call. After 24 hours of account creation, there are no issues.

I really don't know about changes and cancellations. The one cancellation I had was KLM canceling our flight and I wasn't able to get that rebooked online; I had to call. I think there might be a change or cancel fee for optional changes, so if United doesn't have that and you move your dates a lot, it might just be best to stick with United. Maybe others have experience with Virgin?

I did set up a Virgin account already that I forgot about. I did just reset my password. United let’s you cancel or change for free as long as it is more than 30 days. And you can cancel anytime and pay $125 to redeposit the points. Not sure if it’s because I have their credit cards or not. I do everything from their app. Easy Peasy.

 

[reliev]

It's already the highest at Category 8. You think they're going to make a new Cat 9 or put it as an all-inclusive?

id guess cat 8 all inclusive

 

[StephPlum]

, I'm going to email the hotels to make sure our reservations are good (I always contact the hotels directly when booking via 3rd party).

I haven't thought about this. I have three trips booked next year with 6 hotels through the portal. Do you use the hotel confirmation number and the Chase itinerary number when you email?

 

[sinnika]

Can you open a Southwest personal card if you already have another Southwest personal card?

 

[georgina]

Reports of Chase matching elevated CSR and Ink offers, so you might want to SM if you've apped recently. Sounds like speculation is closer to apps within the last 30 days, but previously Chase would match up to 90 days. Worth a SM, imo.

Thanks. Opened a CIU for DH on 9/10, still working on MSR, will give it a try.

 

[reliev]

I haven't thought about this. I have three trips booked next year with 6 hotels through the portal. Do you use the hotel confirmation number and the Chase itinerary number when you email?

6? why not transfer to partners?

 

[elgerber]

p2 is a little over $3k into the $75k spend on the CIC. Is it worth it to SM do you think?

I SM them yesterday on p2 checking account, as 3 of those flash offers for 20% show as redeemed on 9/30 but have yet to be credited. they said he has to call. That's not happening.

I have this on soooo many cards. But OD is 30 minutes away, and I would fee weird buying like 10 separate cards.

10 cards was just a guess, I just wrote them all down, I have it on 11 cards. Goodness.
On top of the 8 Shop Disney offers

 

[havaneselover]

Plugging along on hitting my $15k for the Surpass. I think I'm less than $1k away now. I shifted spending there since I hit the MSR on the CIC and the Amex Gold Biz. I read on FB some are having luck getting Chase to match the 90k offer on CIC's if you signed up in the last few months. So I sent a SM and we'll see what happens. I just hit the MSR this week for it. For now I'll spend on the Surpass until I finally decide to pull the trigger for the MDD in Nov. AHHHHH! I'll be 5/24 when I do it, but I'll drop to 4/24 in Jan. So that should work nicely. I just have to hope Amex doesn't offer a FNC ($8k spend) on the Surpass like they did last holiday season, LOL. I think I can pull off the spend for the MDD.


I filled out the "contact us" on their website and chose "escalate to the the CEO" lol. I had a message today asking me for info. So hopefully I can get a new card issued!!!!

So I just got a surpass and am new to Hilton. Why is the free night so valuable?

 

[AndreaDM]

Don't feel weird, mine is like 20 minutes away and when I go in DH and I both use all the one we have in separate transactions. I just tell them ahead of time, this is all going to be separate transactions. Some look at you weird like "why are you doing this" and some could care less. I don't care what they think. Now my OD never has a line either, if there was a line I might just do a couple and then get back in line, I wouldn't want to hold anyone else up while I stand there and do 10 transactions.

I've never had any issues until this last time I went. I bought 2 GCs and told her I was going to use 2 different CCs to pay for them, separate transactions. She tried to tell me she couldn't do that, I laughed and said I could buy one, go out the door, come back in and buy the 2nd one with a different card. She then called her manager who said it was ok. SMH

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Can you open a Southwest personal card if you already have another Southwest personal card?

No, if it’s been 24 months since your last SW personal card bonus you’d have to cancel the current card and wait 30 days to apply for the same card…there are reports you can apply sooner if it’s a different SW personal card

 

[sinnika]

I’m full of questions today. Trying to help a friend. Her college age son just applied for his first credit card, a CF, and was denied. What should he apply for and how soon? Or should he be a AU on his parents card(s)? Thanks for any insight.

 

[elgerber]

Make that 13 OD offers. I have it on both US Bank cards also. I almost always have the same offers on my US Bank cards, as Chase cards.

 

[Psychodisney]

I’m full of questions today. Trying to help a friend. Her college age son just applied for his first credit card, a CF, and was denied. What should he apply for and how soon? Or should he be a AU on his parents card(s)? Thanks for any insight.

I’m team Discover for college kids. Then CF after they have established proper use of the Discover. From there, my DD was able to get a SW card while still in college and a CSP upon graduation.

 

[StephPlum]

6? why not transfer to partners?

No partners / not big chain hotels
Drury Inn, Lake Louise Inn, Banff Inn, Jasper Inn and Suites, Silver Dart Lodge (Baddeck, NS)

I am glad you called me on this. I see I have two ressies for Lake Louise Inn. I must have forgot to cancel one when the price went down and I rebooked. So just 5 hotels.
I am using Bonvoy points in Halifax and IHG cert in Charlottetown. I mix and match depending on prices.

 

[becauseimnew]

I haven't thought about this. I have three trips booked next year with 6 hotels through the portal. Do you use the hotel confirmation number and the Chase itinerary number when you email?

I usually say:
I want to confirm my reservation made via travel portal.
Name: Minnie Mouse
Checkin date Dec 25, 2022
Check out date: Jan 1 2023