I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[becauseimnew]

Is anyone else feeling more optimistic about travel in 2021? I am one of those that really just stopped traveling in 2020. Kept thinking I'd road trip here or there and then just stayed put. All the vaccine news is making me feel optimistic. I haven't even felt like planning up to now. Last night I booked some rental cars for summer and fall travel and I might even book some refundable airfare! I've had the hotels booked since one trip is my white whale - Glacier NP - and needed to do that as soon as reservations were available.

AA - I did get my 100 miles in each of our accounts. Thanks for whoever mentioned going to the promotions tab. I didn't see it at first and was a little sad thinking I got missed.

We didn't stop traveling in 2020, in fact we took more vacations this year than ever before. Our girls took 5 RT flights, plus we are driving to Colorado to spend Christmas week skiing, DH and I took 4 RT flights. We took advantage of the amazing travel deals.

Our summer 2021 trip is booked (all but the train between major cities in Spain), I'm really thinking it won't happen. I have Grand Canyon booked as a backup, July at the Grand Canyon is probably a terrible idea but I was able to get us 1 night at Phantom Ranch.

 

[becauseimnew]

So regarding Hyatt mattress run, I will have 2 nights post (I just hit 10K spend), I will hit $15K before April to get 2 more, plus the 5 from my card.
That will put me at 9 nights, I'm thinking about getting 9 nights at one of the Cat 1 hotels in my city. That will put me at 29, but I'm sure we'll stay another night this year. I will use 33,750 points, we all think this is worth it, correct?

Our goal is to stay at Hyatt hotels in 2022 when we go to Hawaii.

 

[Judique]

It's Candle day, for all y'all addicted like my DD. As soon as she finishes classes we'll try the craziness that is the stores and see how bad they are. I'm hoping since it's over 3 days and it's Rona, it won't be crazy.

And after my post complaining about my kids and gifts....even more fun is my parents harassing me for ideas for my kids. It's like LOOK people, they won't even tell ME what they want! I guess that's the problem when you're young and have everything you could want!

Then I have the fun of my parents asking me what I want. I'm like, IDK.....I think my mom is paying to have some trees cut down. Ahhh the joys of being an adult, LOL

I asked for access to their amazon wish lists and I'm finished with the adults. The girls are easy. I've got 2 ginormous xmas gift bags and I'm filling them with lots of odds and ends. Toys, treats, clothes, books and candy/snacks such as Kinderjoy, Pez dispensers. I also stuck a m&m cupcake kit in each bag, so they can 'cook' probably with their Mom. Last year I quickly figured out that they are at a stage where they just love opening stuff, so I'm giving them lots of inexpensive things to open.

I'm easy, in my opinion. Buy me a small gift card - Disney preferably, or local fast food such as Chipotle, CFA, Panera. I don't want anything extra to clutter my house, including personal items. I'm spending so much time paring down and getting rid of clothing and household items. I want a less complicated lifestyle, lol.

 

[Judique]

How sad is it that when I find out I have to buy a new refrigerator, my first thought is that it will make hitting my SUBs easier...maybe I can even apply for another card sooner lol!

Found out this morning that the compressor is going out and it will cost about as much to fix it as a new fridge would be. So, I guess we'll be shopping for a new refrigerator tonight. Planning on hitting Lowes, Home Depot and Best Buy to see what they have and then searching for deals when we get home.

I have to decide if I want to put it on my AmEx Platinum to help with the SUB or DH's Arrival+ to hit his offer to spend $3,000 and get 60,000 points. If there isn't a difference in warranty protection or anything, I'll probably go with the Arrival because then it will be pretty close to being done and I can quit thinking about it.

Our refrigerator is only 3.5 years old, so one thing I know for sure is that I won't be going with an LG again. Very disappointed - I know things aren't built to last long anymore, but I was expecting longer than that.

Having had to buy and wait for delivery in August (a whole month) I feel for you, but at least my old one gave me about 15 years of service. I got the Samsung 4 door, with the flex drawer and door in door and other stuff and I love it, but there are many sketchy reviews on almost all the refrigerators so it's hard to know which way to go. I bought from Costco and definitely they had a significantly lower price than Lowes, HD, etc. Over 1K cheaper on special at the time but it went back up to about $400 cheaper now.

Good luck! Nice that you have an MSR.

 

[punkin]

So regarding Hyatt mattress run, I will have 2 nights post (I just hit 10K spend), I will hit $15K before April to get 2 more, plus the 5 from my card.
That will put me at 9 nights, I'm thinking about getting 9 nights at one of the Cat 1 hotels in my city. That will put me at 29, but I'm sure we'll stay another night this year. I will use 33,750 points, we all think this is worth it, correct?

Our goal is to stay at Hyatt hotels in 2022 when we go to Hawaii.

I'm trying to figure out if I can do this kind of thing too.

 

[WVMomof3]

Is anyone using their Peloton credit? Just wondering about the app. So I could get almost a years worth for free, correct? Is it a problem for more than one person to use the app? I don’t have the bike so looking at the other classes mostly.

 

[afan]

Is anyone using their Peloton credit? Just wondering about the app. So I could get almost a years worth for free, correct? Is it a problem for more than one person to use the app? I don’t have the bike so looking at the other classes mostly.

I haven't but have been thinking of doing it for the none bike/treadmill classes they have.

 

[Judique]

It still baffles me when I read about you guys back east being able to change your electricity provider. Nowhere I've ever lived in WA, CA or NC let you choose, you just go whoever the public utility was for electric and gas.

We had alternate providers for gas for quite a while and now electricity. The gas people have stopped sending me plans to look at, but when I used to get them they would offer so many years at a certain rate locked in. It was always higher than what I was currently paying. So I never bit. I'm still waiting for the price to jump up to what they wanted and we are talking 27 years since I converted to gas from oil. I'm on my 3rd (as of last month) high efficiency gas furnace and I've never spent more than $700 total per year for gas. Plans offered were $79 a month, $89 a month - that range.

Electric is another story. When they deregulated electric, I was tempted to jump away from Pepco, our legacy provider. I didn't as I was seriously considering some kind of solar and about that time, I was interested in solar shingles as opposed to solar panels. Well, I haven't gone solar and I've reroofed my house in 2018. And I don't like looking at the panels. But - deregulation helped with electric costs for those of us that have stayed with Pepco. My bill decreased. Competition is a good thing some times. Neighbor has solar panels for the last maybe 3 years and is pleased. But, I'm not sure what he's paying now. I know he had some whoppers of electrical bills at times - he has a heat pump - so needed relief.

Edited to add: the latest 'plan' being offered is for sewer line. They want me to pay $4-$7 per month, depending on company, in the event my sewer/water line between my house and the street leaks or busts open. In the case of my house, it's probably a good idea as its older, I've lived here a long time and I'll probably have a problem sooner or later. But my stubborn head says to just wait til it happens, call my last used plumber that I was happy with, and pay the bill instead of messing with a warranty company. The company estimates $2500 to fix if it busts. I figure it's an MSR, lol.

 

[Calfan]

Is anyone using their Peloton credit? Just wondering about the app. So I could get almost a years worth for free, correct? Is it a problem for more than one person to use the app? I don’t have the bike so looking at the other classes mostly.

At the suggestion of @CaliforniaGirl09, I signed up for the app before I had to self-isolate for 2 weeks in Edinburgh when I traveled with DD in September for her to start at the University of Edinburgh. The two of us did yoga every day while we were in self-isolation. I wasn't sure if I would continue after because I do Orangetheory regularly and am a hiker and walker, but I decided to keep my membership at least through the winter here in Boise since my ability to exercise outside is severely curtailed during the winter months due to weather and fewer hours of daylight. I've gotten pretty attached to it and have a couple of favorite yoga instructors. Now that it is essentially free with the CSR, I plan to keep it.

 

[becauseimnew]

At the suggestion of @CaliforniaGirl09, I signed up for the app before I had to self-isolate for 2 weeks in Edinburgh when I traveled with DD in September for her to start at the University of Edinburgh. The two of us did yoga every day while we were in self-isolation. I wasn't sure if I would continue after because I do Orangetheory regularly and am a hiker and walker, but I decided to keep my membership at least through the winter here in Boise since my ability to exercise outside is severely curtailed during the winter months due to weather and fewer hours of daylight. I've gotten pretty attached to it and have a couple of favorite yoga instructors. Now that it is essentially free with the CSR, I plan to keep it.

Thanks for that great review. I need to start doing yoga again. Might just sign up.

 

[StephPlum]

Not really I expect to be visiting my parents next year but probably no big trips until 2022.

My plans are all are domestic next year. Most wouldn‘t consider them big trips.
March - road trip to Ky state park and stay in cabin
June - Florida on the gulf side. Not sure where yet
July/August - Glacier NP and Banff & Jasper if borders open. realize this isn’t domestic but it isn’t overseas!
September - Yellowstone

I'm probably more optimistic than most... our current plans are very subject to change but so far include:

Jan - 10 days at WDW
Jan - 3 days skiing in Park City
April - 5 days in Sedona, AZ
May/June - 2 weeks in Colombia and Costa Rica (centered around a friend's destination wedding - most likely to be cancelled)
July - 1 week at a National Park (tbd which one)
September - 4 days in Zion
September - 12 days in Hungary/Serbia/Romania (counting on getting a vaccine by then)
October - 1 week at WDW (for the 50th)

We've booked flights for just about everything, but I really need to start locking down my National Park trip in July.

amazing!!! We did Mt Rainier in July and it was great! But I really dislike being too hot. Temps were perfect for me.

@StephPlum I am!! In fact, I just booked flights to Hawaii (for late July) this morning!

Thanks to all of you, who put the idea in my head that a trip to Maui was possible. So instead of rescheduling our cancelled Disneyland trip, we racked up Hilton points (via 2 Aspires and 1 Hilton Biz).

We were flexible with our dates, and earlier this week I found 5 nights at the Grand Wailea with the 95K standard rooms available. I snapped those up, so I got the 5th night free thanks to the Aspire.

I had 140K URs transferred to KrisFlyer (requested on 12/1). They showed up last night, with a (surprise to me) 15% bonus, so 161K total points. I had checked Saver seat availability on the United site, so I knew that my flights were available. When I went to book online through Singapore Air, although it said flights were available for 17.5K each way, when I put the flights in my cart, it gave me a total of 240K points! So 60K per person where it should have been 35K, with no reason for the uptick. I panicked for a second but remembered that I read somewhere it's better to call. I called this morning, and the call center agent was able to get us booked on my preferred flights for the 35K/person/round trip, plus $11.20/person in taxes.

So my totals were:
Grand Wailea: 380,000 HH Points ($4,310 list price cash value for our dates/room)
United RT Flight: 140,000 URs/KrisFlyer Points ($2,720 list price cash value for our flights/seats)

If I've done my math right, I'm pretty happy with those redemption values.

I was hoping to find a creative way to use our airline credits on the Aspire(s) this year, but short of prepaying for bags, I think I'm out of luck. I'd love to do seat upgrades, but I don't think the DPs are favorable for triggering the credits that way.

Anyway - THANK YOU all for being so awesome with sharing information. If we get to go (fingers crossed), this will be a dream come true!

Glad you were able to plan this. We were supposed to be in Hawaii at the end of Jan 2021. I cancelled. It broke my heart as i had flights and hotels on 3 islands all on points/miles. Planning for 2022. I’m just not ready to put the effort into it yet.

It's Candle day, for all y'all addicted like my DD. As soon as she finishes classes we'll try the craziness that is the stores and see how bad they are. I'm hoping since it's over 3 days and it's Rona, it won't be crazy.

And after my post complaining about my kids and gifts....even more fun is my parents harassing me for ideas for my kids. It's like LOOK people, they won't even tell ME what they want! I guess that's the problem when you're young and have everything you could want!

Then I have the fun of my parents asking me what I want. I'm like, IDK.....I think my mom is paying to have some trees cut down. Ahhh the joys of being an adult, LOL

Darn work. I had candles in my cart last night and I thought I’d checkout in the morning. I forgot and just saw this. All sold out.

We didn't stop traveling in 2020, in fact we took more vacations this year than ever before. Our girls took 5 RT flights, plus we are driving to Colorado to spend Christmas week skiing, DH and I took 4 RT flights. We took advantage of the amazing travel deals.

Our summer 2021 trip is booked (all but the train between major cities in Spain), I'm really thinking it won't happen. I have Grand Canyon booked as a backup, July at the Grand Canyon is probably a terrible idea but I was able to get us 1 night at Phantom Ranch.

I just never got comfortable enough to travel. I am glad you were able to take advantage of all the deals. I don’t think I can do another year without travel. I’m determined to do it Next year.
Congrats on phantom ranch. Those are hard to get.

 

[Calfan]

Thanks for that great review. I need to start doing yoga again. Might just sign up.

They offer tons of classes that you can do live or on-demand. (I have yet to do a live class.) You can filter classes in a search by length, difficulty level, type of yoga and instructor. I typically do a 30-minute beginner yoga flow with one of my two favorite instructors, and I have many many classes to choose from within those parameters. Their library is extensive.

 

[ski_mom]

Does this apply?

https://www.consumerreports.org/law...action-lawsuit-over-refrigerator-compressors/

Interesting - I will definitely look into that!

Having had to buy and wait for delivery in August (a whole month) I feel for you, but at least my old one gave me about 15 years of service. I got the Samsung 4 door, with the flex drawer and door in door and other stuff and I love it, but there are many sketchy reviews on almost all the refrigerators so it's hard to know which way to go. I bought from Costco and definitely they had a significantly lower price than Lowes, HD, etc. Over 1K cheaper on special at the time but it went back up to about $400 cheaper now.

Good luck! Nice that you have an MSR.

I hadn't thought about Costco. We are not currently members, but I'll look online tonight after we get back to compare. Our closest store is a little over an hour away, but most shopping areas are about that far too, so not a huge deal to go that far, but we would never get groceries, etc there.

 

[wanderlust7]

Interesting - I will definitely look into that!



I hadn't thought about Costco. We are not currently members, but I'll look online tonight after we get back to compare. Our closest store is a little over an hour away, but most shopping areas are about that far too, so not a huge deal to go that far, but we would never get groceries, etc there.

Hope it works out for you!

If you do end up putting it on a MSR card - would it be a card you'd hold on to long term? The extended warranty wouldn't apply if you no longer have the card. We always end up putting appliances on the Citibank Costco card. Their extended warranty is 2 years and we would never cancel it (no AF). It always pains me to do it though!

 

[elgerber]

Ouch! 3 1/2 years seems really unacceptable. Good luck with a new one!

Wow agree. That’s absurd.

 

[elgerber]

I am out of a SUB again LOL.

 

[Alexle2007]

So regarding Hyatt mattress run, I will have 2 nights post (I just hit 10K spend), I will hit $15K before April to get 2 more, plus the 5 from my card.
That will put me at 9 nights, I'm thinking about getting 9 nights at one of the Cat 1 hotels in my city. That will put me at 29, but I'm sure we'll stay another night this year. I will use 33,750 points, we all think this is worth it, correct?

Our goal is to stay at Hyatt hotels in 2022 when we go to Hawaii.

It really depends on what your plans are whether is it worth it or not. Like I posted earlier, we have used the heck out of it. It was nice in Orlando when we would going down when DS started study hall for a late breakfast that would hold us until dinner. Yeah, I could have grabbed pop tarts for the week and half (although DS and DH don’t them) but instead DS enjoyed 2-3 orders of bacon, a waffle or pancakes. The one bedroom suite made it much easier for DS to do remote school and we could still watch TV or something in the other room.

Since we had to cancel Australia this year, our plan is to go in 2022. It would great to be Globalist at the Park Hyatt Sydney.

if you go a mattress run, I would have it carryover into 2021 so you get the double credit for the nights. My area has several 5k a night HPs so for 50k you would get 20 nights. Or find a cheap rate that you don’t mind paying OoP for.

 

[becauseimnew]

if you go a mattress run, I would have it carryover into 2021 so you get the double credit for the nights. My area has several 5k a night HPs so for 50k you would get 20 nights. Or find a cheap rate that you don’t mind paying OoP for.

Don’t forget that card holders get 25% points back.

 

[Judique]

Interesting - I will definitely look into that!



I hadn't thought about Costco. We are not currently members, but I'll look online tonight after we get back to compare. Our closest store is a little over an hour away, but most shopping areas are about that far too, so not a huge deal to go that far, but we would never get groceries, etc there.

Since they usually only have 2 or 3 in store, shopping online is best. Unless they are getting rid of the models in the store, they aren't for sale in store, just online. What I did was find the models I was interested in, took pictures at Lowes, Home Depot and model numbers and cross referenced online. Hitting a sale was pure luck. With the Costco Citi and the Executive membership, an extended warranty of 4 years.

I just checked the website and they don't have mine for sale individually any more. It's part of the packages -RF28R7351SR.

 

[disneybirds]

A good day on the points front here! Purchased 2 Iphones today with GC bought at Kroger with my new CFF for 5x points. Used the PYB on the CSR for all but $116. Estimated I will get back $100 in gas rewards with the fuel points. The best part is that I purchased them at 4 pm and paid the $5 courier delivery fee and they just delivered them!! Luckily no one bothered to see who was at the door.

Also, the senior living community where my MIL lives just opened a portal to pay the monthly fees. There was a CC option with no fees, so I put lots on my new CFF today for 1.5x points. I probably should have paid it on my DH new CIU to finish out the MSR, but we still have time. I am sure they will start charging to use a CC, but will take it while it lasts.