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

[Judique]

Ugh. Happy for you and everyone that got extended, including me for one night I had left that was due to expire January 31.

But, I burned two nights for my daughter’s wedding needlessly, as it turns out. Wedding had been postponed, but then they just decided to do a small family wedding at her now husband’s moms house. She only lives about 35 minutes from me, but I booked the rooms in case we, ahem, celebrated too much. (We didn’t.) I asked the agent if they were going to be extended, and he pretty much said no, due to the fact they had already been extended once. I kind of had a feeling that might change. Ah, well. Hopefully I will be able to use it before it expires again, plus I just got an anniversary night.

I almost burned the two nights I had expiring Jan 31 and one is a 50K night. I was going to use them at a local Residence Inn that is only 15K and let the girls use the pool. Now, we are not going and I'll try to book for summer.

 

[calypso726]

That's amazing @calypso726! Do you have a blog or did you write on here how you did the Maldives and Dubai trip? I want to do that too! Can't wait to see how you plan your upcoming trips.

Too lazy to blog apparently I did post about it on either this thread or the 2.0 I love credit cards thread. I took advantage of the SPG/Marriott merger. At the time you could transfer SPG points to Marriott at 1:3 and I did so. Then I purchased the Marriott nights and flights vacation packages that pertained to Alaska air flights. I used the Alaska Air miles to book first class flights on Emirates so we could experience taking a shower in the sky. Emirates award flights also allows stop overs so we flew into Dubai first.

We used Marriott points to book 4 nights at the all inclusive Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa before the category increases took effect. So it was 60k points per night. We had it booked again for this year pre zombie apocalypse but it was 100k per night now. Besides Ashford Castle in Ireland the Al Maha has been my favorite resort stay. After our visit in Dubai we flew to the Maldives. I had 4 nights booked in overwater bungalows at the Conrad Rangali through Hilton at 95k per night. We leveraged the $250 resort credit on each of our Aspire cards to pre pay that amount for our stay prior to our card anniversary. Then when our card anniversary hit we had another $250 each resort credit and we charged the sea plane to the room which pretty much covered the exorbitant pricing of the sea plane transfers to the island which was just over $1,000 for the two of us. Diamond status on the Aspire also allowed us to get free breakfast and cocktail hour snacks which meant we were really only splurging for dinners. The cost of food is also insane. So saving a bit helps and we ate at the underwater restaurant which was an amazing experience.

My current plans on going back to Antarctica and this time adding South Georgia and the Falkland Islands has me focused on a combination of Hyatt and UR points. Hyatt has a partnership with Lindblad and you can book Lindblad expeditions with Hyatt points. When we went to Antarctica last year it was with Lindblad/NatGeo and I was delighted with the trip. As I’m sure you know Chase URs transfer 1:1 to Hyatt. I estimate I will need about 5 million points to do both this trip and the Galapagos. Therefore, I am not diversifying my point earnings for the first time ever. It’s all Chase/Hyatt. Regardless of how much any shopping portal is paying out on online shopping I am using the UR portal. I am using my Ink Plus (no longer available to new applicants) to purchase gift cards at office supply stores. CFU and new CIU will get all non category spend. Two Freedom cards will have bonus categories maximized as well. Hotel of choice is now Hyatt and when there are category bonuses on the card I will take advantage of those. My goal is to hit the 5 million needed within 5 years. It’s aggressive considering how many UR points I normally go through each year but I do think it’s doable.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

It may be getting harder to MS after Dec 19 - over on regular reddit there is an image of a memo sent out to WM employees. (Only WM, not FD or DG) Don't go crazy buying vgcs right now unless you have other ways to use them up.

I managed to flip one to my mom, LOL. She was saying she was going to get my 15yo a $200 GC. I'm like, ooooh I have 3 in my wallet right now! So now I only have $300 in which I need to liquidate, LOL.

In the churning front....my mom had me not only buy my Fridge, but also buy a bunch of presents for her too. So I think I figured I've got about $700 left I need to put on it. She MIGHT gift my sister $1000 in VGC (since she bought my $1k fridge). So she said she'll have me buy those if so. My dad also had me get the kids' presents.

For me this year, I finally got the CIP after being denied, and the AA Barclay Biz (which they denied me like 4 times). I jumped on the 5 FNC w/ Bonvoy too. Oh and I also opened a BOA 0/0 card again for my balance transfer. I need to try and see if I can snag the amex Platinum (if the 100k is still out there) and I might still try for the free IHG if it's elevated. I was on the sidelines for awhile thanks to my refi. We'll see what my 2021 holds. I know I want to get the free Hilton at some point. The free IHG too. I need to do the personal Citi AA. Oh and I want to do a CIC when the spend isn't as high (if it comes down). Then it's lather rinse and repeat on cards that I can.

Question on the barclay AAviator (personal). That has been the AA card I've kept. Anyone know the language on churning it. And how nice barclay plays? I know it took 4 attempts to get the biz card! I like to have an AA card for the reduce mileage perks and the free luggage. But when/if I get a Citi card, I'd be open to closing the barclay if it means I can churn it.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Okay question on the PYB option....I've been reading on one of the FB groups I'm in....People have been using the PYB feature to buy travel gift cards at grocery stores vs booking through the portal. Is there any reason this makes more sense? I've been sitting on my URs (370k) knowing that I have Ireland lurking in March 2023. But from what y'all have said, I really need to start getting into planning mode for that.

 

[IFlossU]

Okay question on the PYB option....I've been reading on one of the FB groups I'm in....People have been using the PYB feature to buy travel gift cards at grocery stores vs booking through the portal. Is there any reason this makes more sense? I've been sitting on my URs (370k) knowing that I have Ireland lurking in March 2023. But from what y'all have said, I really need to start getting into planning mode for that.

For me PYB is worth it because DH has a CSR. So the redemption rate is 1.5cpp regardless of cashing out w/PYB or booking through their portal. I personally would rather cash out with PYB and then book everything with that cash, rather than booking through the portal. Mentally it requires me to realize that even though I’m paying cash for travel bookings, that cash came from points, if that makes sense. I just used PYB to erase our grocery spend with a couple VGC thrown in to maximize cash out.

I think if we only had a CSP and were cashing out at 1.25cpp I’d probably sit on my points instead.

 

[becauseimnew]

Okay question on the PYB option....I've been reading on one of the FB groups I'm in....People have been using the PYB feature to buy travel gift cards at grocery stores vs booking through the portal. Is there any reason this makes more sense? I've been sitting on my URs (370k) knowing that I have Ireland lurking in March 2023. But from what y'all have said, I really need to start getting into planning mode for that.

Right the CSR earns 3x at grocery stores. If you buy $1000 AirBnB GC you earn 3,000 points VS 0 you earn if you book through the portal.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

That said, I'm interested in hearing what everybody has to say on this discussion topic:
Do you personally feel churning has improved or worsened this year?
I'm not looking for a commentary on what went well or poorly from a global churning perspective - I purely mean this on a YOU level. Perhaps your churning has improved because you got more educated on what was available. Perhaps a benefit introduced by a card worked perfectly with your strategy. Or perhaps, the things that died this year made things worse. Weigh in, join in, let's drum up a little fun activity here!

We got 5 cards this year between the 2 of us. 2019 saw 6 new cards plus 2 upgrades with MSR/bonus. We had 0 travel after March, so I was not motivated to plan anything including new cards. Also spending very limited, since limited school, sports and travel. I applied for new cards opportunistically since March; before that had a few cips from the cup at the beginning of the year. We applied for the Amex BCP for the 6% grocery cash back, and the Chase Marriott for the 5 nights (really hoping we can make Swolphin happen.) I hadn't had a CSP since 2014 so applied for that, but missed the 80k offer. I did use PYB for a few thousand down on a new car but otherwise left URs intact for travel. Overall it was a worse year for churning, partly because of my mental state and partly since we have very little spending going on it is hard to meet MSRs.

 

[have2getaway]

So it's been a little slower around here lately. Part of that is definitely the reduced travel and we just aren't attracting a lot of newer folks to the thread which creates activity and buzz. DIS traffic as a whole has to be down.

I also know that some of the shutdowns and craziness that happened earlier this year drove people away from the game, and the whole thing is cyclical too. Long term churners are rare... many people just decide the game isn't for them after a few cards.

That said, I'm interested in hearing what everybody has to say on this discussion topic:
Do you personally feel churning has improved or worsened this year?
I'm not looking for a commentary on what went well or poorly from a global churning perspective - I purely mean this on a YOU level. Perhaps your churning has improved because you got more educated on what was available. Perhaps a benefit introduced by a card worked perfectly with your strategy. Or perhaps, the things that died this year made things worse. Weigh in, join in, let's drum up a little fun activity here!

Our churning basically came to a complete halt this year. We went on our US/Disney Star Wars trip mid-February and the pandemic hit a couple weeks after we returned. We just became overwhelmed with the pandemic and traveling wasn’t really an option for us because of the quarantine restrictions in NY. We did focus on the cards we had and tried to maximize the benefits that became available due to the pandemic. We signed up for the benefits with both DoorDash and Instacart with our CSR and looked into and used other available benefits with our other Chase cards as much as possible. We are only now just getting to a point where we are planning out a new strategy for a future trip, which is why we didn’t pursue the PYB option, even with the CSR. We definitely knew we weren’t done for good, but just on a temporary break.

 

[kmc8826]

As to @SouthFayetteFan and the question the best way to answer the churning 2020 question is that it started one way and ended another. In January and February I got the Plat and Green. My husband saw my awesome Away bag that I had gotten with the credit so he got a Green too. Our suitcases came and sat in the corner ready for our big trip at end of March. Which of course was the start of the 15 days to slow the spread. I finally put them away in June.

My husband stopped getting income in middle of March. It was supposed to start up 90 days later. We didn’t get his income coming in until end of July! Credit cards unequivocally saved us. I never had to pay interest (or stuff where people get in financial trouble) but the ability to float a balance on some Chase cards saved us. I had on a whim got approved for the Bank of America Biz card in January. I ended up paying our mortgage on Plastiq with it and floating the balance all summer. People have different views of AF’s and Amex but we both got Schwab Plat’s in May (when 6 month for spend) so we could cash out our MR’s. We both now have a decent stash of money in Schwab accounts that is more of an emergency fund.

My focus at this point is still cash back. Between us we have 750k skymiles, endless Delta flight credits, thousands in vouchers. Slowly getting back to the thought of using points for travel but right now I can’t help but put a higher premium on cash. I think the banks realize we are not alone in that and that is why the PYB programs etc have been extended. I am flirting with the idea of using Hyatt points in January to mattress run to Globalist; and I am not sure if it is really practical or what I will do, or if I am just considering it because it is a way to travel hack again. Fingers crossed 2021 brings us back some normal!

 

[ep1229]

Too lazy to blog apparently I did post about it on either this thread or the 2.0 I love credit cards thread. I took advantage of the SPG/Marriott merger. At the time you could transfer SPG points to Marriott at 1:3 and I did so. Then I purchased the Marriott nights and flights vacation packages that pertained to Alaska air flights. I used the Alaska Air miles to book first class flights on Emirates so we could experience taking a shower in the sky. Emirates award flights also allows stop overs so we flew into Dubai first.

We used Marriott points to book 4 nights at the all inclusive Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa before the category increases took effect. So it was 60k points per night. We had it booked again for this year pre zombie apocalypse but it was 100k per night now. Besides Ashford Castle in Ireland the Al Maha has been my favorite resort stay. After our visit in Dubai we flew to the Maldives. I had 4 nights booked in overwater bungalows at the Conrad Rangali through Hilton at 95k per night. We leveraged the $250 resort credit on each of our Aspire cards to pre pay that amount for our stay prior to our card anniversary. Then when our card anniversary hit we had another $250 each resort credit and we charged the sea plane to the room which pretty much covered the exorbitant pricing of the sea plane transfers to the island which was just over $1,000 for the two of us. Diamond status on the Aspire also allowed us to get free breakfast and cocktail hour snacks which meant we were really only splurging for dinners. The cost of food is also insane. So saving a bit helps and we ate at the underwater restaurant which was an amazing experience.

My current plans on going back to Antarctica and this time adding South Georgia and the Falkland Islands has me focused on a combination of Hyatt and UR points. Hyatt has a partnership with Lindblad and you can book Lindblad expeditions with Hyatt points. When we went to Antarctica last year it was with Lindblad/NatGeo and I was delighted with the trip. As I’m sure you know Chase URs transfer 1:1 to Hyatt. I estimate I will need about 5 million points to do both this trip and the Galapagos. Therefore, I am not diversifying my point earnings for the first time ever. It’s all Chase/Hyatt. Regardless of how much any shopping portal is paying out on online shopping I am using the UR portal. I am using my Ink Plus (no longer available to new applicants) to purchase gift cards at office supply stores. CFU and new CIU will get all non category spend. Two Freedom cards will have bonus categories maximized as well. Hotel of choice is now Hyatt and when there are category bonuses on the card I will take advantage of those. My goal is to hit the 5 million needed within 5 years. It’s aggressive considering how many UR points I normally go through each year but I do think it’s doable.

WOW!! That's just amazing!! You are my hero!

Question about the Hyatt Mattress Run. Can someone please tell me if this is correct... So I just got the Hyatt card. I'm going to get 10 elite nights. If I do a 10 day mattress run, over the last week of December checking out the beginning of January, that will give me 20 elite nights? Or do I just need to do 5 because it counts twice? I'm not sure how it works. Currently I have 110,000 Hyatt points. My question is, how many nights should I book to get to 30 and should I use cash or points? Thanks in advance.

 

[snugglebug]

Twice today I tried to use my CFU via Samsung pay and it was declined. Using the physical card went through just fine. I'm going to remove and re-add it, but is there anything else I should look into?



Ah, 2020. We've made good use of our SW CP's and Disney AP's with a total of 4 trips. I just canceled Shades of Green for January. We might try to squeeze in one more before they expire, but dh needs to build up more PTO. He had a contract change so we're starting from the bottom again (worst part about government contracts, I guess I might lump medical insurance changes in there too). I want to go visit my girls and not sure when would be a good time for that.

I've made good use of Chase's PYB. I've been booking everything on cash (car rental, a few hotel stays) to earn UR and program benefits, then paying myself back for that. Booking through Chase I don't always get credit for the stays at Marriott and Hilton.

I didn't think I'd ever be a DoorDash/Grubhub/UberEats type of person, but wow they are so convenient. Making good use of all the CC benefits with those.

We spent most of the summer denied by Chase or pop-up'd by Amex. I was getting ready to branch out when I got that surprise Plat approval which I fully expected to be denied. I think we might be back in the game on personals now, or at least I am. I really would love to rebuild my UR balance, which isn't depleted, but I don't want to see it go too low. I have a few future trip ideas, but nothing in motion yet. I'm waiting on my boy to return from deployment so we can include him (hopefully) in a future trip.

 

[wanderlust7]

WOW!! That's just amazing!! You are my hero!

Question about the Hyatt Mattress Run. Can someone please tell me if this is correct... So I just got the Hyatt card. I'm going to get 10 elite nights. If I do a 10 day mattress run, over the last week of December checking out the beginning of January, that will give me 20 elite nights? Or do I just need to do 5 because it counts twice? I'm not sure how it works. Currently I have 110,000 Hyatt points. My question is, how many nights should I book to get to 30 and should I use cash or points? Thanks in advance.

You also get 2 elite nights per $5000 spend, so you'll have 2 additional just from meeting MSR. Then you only need 9 nights that are doubled. That promotion was extended to 2/28/21. You don't have to do the Dec-Jan stay like you needed to before it got extended.

As for cash vs points, that's going to depend on the cash price. Points you'll get 25% back during the promo. Cash you'll earn 19.5x points with the triple points promo (usual is 5x) plus 4x on the card. Discoverists get another 0.5x (comes with the card) and then 1x when you get to Explorist.

 

[ep1229]

You also get 2 elite nights per $5000 spend, so you'll have 2 additional just from meeting MSR. Then you only need 9 nights that are doubled. That promotion was extended to 2/28/21. You don't have to do the Dec-Jan stay like you needed to before it got extended.

As for cash vs points, that's going to depend on the cash price. Points you'll get 25% back during the promo. Cash you'll earn 19.5x points with the triple points promo (usual is 5x) plus 4x on the card. Discoverists get another 0.5x (comes with the card) and then 1x when you get to Explorist.

Thank you @wanderlust7, that's very helpful. I found a Hyatt 30 minutes away that is $75/night or 5,000 points. I have the Explorist level. Do you think using cash or points make sense?

 

[calypso726]

WOW!! That's just amazing!! You are my hero!

Question about the Hyatt Mattress Run. Can someone please tell me if this is correct... So I just got the Hyatt card. I'm going to get 10 elite nights. If I do a 10 day mattress run, over the last week of December checking out the beginning of January, that will give me 20 elite nights? Or do I just need to do 5 because it counts twice? I'm not sure how it works. Currently I have 110,000 Hyatt points. My question is, how many nights should I book to get to 30 and should I use cash or points? Thanks in advance.

Haha thanks I saw that your question got answered. I suggest reading through the article I’m going to post below. One really should consider what they’re going to do depending on your goals. For me, the milestone rewards were more important than just the Globalist status. I’d already had a 30 night stay booked before the latest promo and thought about doing 15 nights instead. But then I’d be giving up the suite upgrade rewards I absolutely wanted to have so chose to do the 30 nights.

https://frequentmiler.com/ludicrous...globalist-status-top-tier-status-for-2-years/

 

[Albort]

Twice today I tried to use my CFU via Samsung pay and it was declined. Using the physical card went through just fine. I'm going to remove and re-add it, but is there anything else I should look into?

some stores reject mobile payments.
At the same store, try apple pay or a different card.
at another store, try samsung pay again.

 

[wanderlust7]

Thank you @wanderlust7, that's very helpful. I found a Hyatt 30 minutes away that is $75/night or 5,000 points. I have the Explorist level. Do you think using cash or points make sense?

I value Hyatt at 1.5 cents per point since that's how I value UR. So cash vs points rate is basically the same. There's probably taxes on the cash rate? 20x the cash rate is like getting 30% value back. While points is 25% back. But taxes could totally tip that. All things equal, I'd choose points over cash.

 

[Hoosier John]

... My husband stopped getting income in middle of March. It was supposed to start up 90 days later. We didn’t get his income coming in until end of July! Credit cards unequivocally saved us. I never had to pay interest (or stuff where people get in financial trouble) but the ability to float a balance on some Chase cards saved us. I had on a whim got approved for the Bank of America Biz card in January. I ended up paying our mortgage on Plastiq with it and floating the balance all summer. People have different views of AF’s and Amex but we both got Schwab Plat’s in May (when 6 month for spend) so we could cash out our MR’s. We both now have a decent stash of money in Schwab accounts that is more of an emergency fund ...

Wow! This is the BEST use case for card churning I have ever seen! Great Job & congratulations!

I simply cashed out URs at 1 cpp in 2019 to pay off everything except mortgages, and am now just sitting on URs and MRs in case of emergency.

 

[DisneyMandC]

It's definitely been a good year for me churning-wise with PYB. I basically have our 2021 Disney trip completely funded for all 6 of us as a result of that! I took both of us over 5/24 this year to take advantage of a couple different cards I wanted to start new currencies with, like Citi Premiers for both of us. We both have several cards dropping off in 2021 though, and I will be eligible to get a Sapphire card with the bonus again in December 2021.

Only downside to the year (well, besides everything) is we haven't been able to go anywhere. We got in our great trip to FL in February before everything hit, thankfully. But we canceled Japan in June, Hawaii at Christmas, and will be canceling our re-scheduled Japan in April 2021 trip here soon. My job will not allow me to fly anywhere right now without quarantining for two weeks when I get back, which is unfair to my coworkers. Currently, we're tentatively planning to do a road trip to Kentucky in April since I'm going to have to start using up my PTO here soon.

 

[Sarah_B]

Try what I did here: Include as many of the following as you can: Incognito Edge browser (or different browsers), a different home address, using this PreQualified Link, with VPN running, at the top of an hour. I just tried it again and it showed a Platinum offer of 100k. I'm not sure when the pop-up occurs, because I've only ever applied for two Amex cards. But I feel like if they make the offer, you're good. My support on DISchurners was only showing 60k for me. Neither of these trials were incognito. Good Luck!

thank you for this! Ive tried Incognito and gotten nothing but the 75k offer but decided to get serious and do everything you suggested - 125k! (Faint dead away) now I’m using up all these 2020 credits like the smart churner Y’all have taught me to be.

 

[DisneyMandC]

@havaneselover did your daughter hear anything from UVA yet? My niece found out Friday night that she was accepted into the nursing program! She did the binding early decision. Not sure if the dates differ based on which program you apply for/whether it's binding or not.