I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 (see first page for add'l details)

[iujen94]

Thanks to whoever asked about the Citi business AAdvantage card with the 75k SUB and the responder who said it was a good SUB to go for. It wasn’t even on my radar, but I’ve been working to collect AA miles and got instantly approved today! I was a little worried because I got instantly denied for the Citi personal AA card when it had the elevated SUB in the spring. And with property taxes due soon, it’ll be easy to make the minimum spend!

 

[DogCat]

Thanks to whoever asked about the Citi business AAdvantage card with the 75k SUB and the responder who said it was a good SUB to go for. It wasn’t even on my radar, but I’ve been working to collect AA miles and got instantly approved today! I was a little worried because I got instantly denied for the Citi personal AA card when it had the elevated SUB in the spring. And with property taxes due soon, it’ll be easy to make the minimum spend!

Nice! I love instant approval, lol. I wish I could pay my property taxes with a credit card.

 

[iujen94]

Nice! I love instant approval, lol. I wish I could pay my property taxes with a credit card.

I’m crossing my fingers that the PayPal Bill Pay trick still works this year!

 

[miztressuz]

Thanks - I didn't originally ask the question, but I'm planning on cancelling my plat (and probably gold) personal cards when the annual fees come due. I do have a checking account with AmEx, so I don't think it would lose my points, but I don't think they are as valuable without the CCs.

I do have an offer for 50,000 MR with $15,000 spend in 12 months with the BBP. I don't really want to spend the $15k, but with an entire year, I could use it when I am not working on another SUB I suppose. Or worst case, I could just get the card and not earn the SUB, but that just seems wrong lol!

Since you have 12 months to spend the 15k, that's only $1,250 per month to make MSR. I don't know about you but I don't always have the next MSR card lined up and ready when I finish the last. I couldn't pull the 75k offer but when I finally got the 50k I took it so I'd always have something to go. Helpful for the times where I only have a couple hundred left to make MSR but have a bill well higher than that pop up. Put the high bill towards the BBP, continue with plan on the other MSR. Felt better than "overspending" on the first card. I think I took 11 or 11.5 months to make spend but I did it!

With the 2x earning on the 15k spend it totals 80k MR for a free card. But if you're not in dire need, could just keep trying for the 75k offer and pounce if it comes up.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

So I have a redemption I am pretty pleased about.

Chicago-Lisbon business class KLM, OW for 55k FB +$250/pp for peak summer dates. But I pre-emptively transferred during a 25% promotion, and DS is kid aged, so four tickets averaged 41k UR +taxes/fees!!! And, it should trigger the Air France/KLM spend $1,000, get 20,000 MR. I had that on two cards and we did 8 biz class flights, so that's 40k MR coming our way, so essentially one biz class flight for free!

In other news, I chickened out on buying the AA points, but maybe next time?

I did grab TripIt Pro, which is still running the Black/Cyber special for $24 for the first year (50% off). I think @wanderlust7 or @becauseimnew likes the Pro version, and it would be nice to add unlimited attachments, since we are a large family. I also thought it would be valuable to track our seats, since airlines seem to love to change our seats and not notify us. I figured $2 a month is worth it.

 

[StephPlum]

Seems like a high spend for not many miles especially when you look at some of Barclay's offers that are just buy something and pay for it and the af.

Does the card have enough perks to help justify the 6k?

It's a historically high offer. Also currently the only way to get AA miles without using a 5/24 slot since they pulled the Barclays AA biz.

Make sure you're past 48 months from the last bonus since they'll approve you without the SUB.

For the last few years the offer has been consistent at 65k/4k. Last time it was at 75k it was a slightly lower spend at 5k in 5 months, but given how MSRs have been trending the increase isn't totally unexpected. That's when I picked it up, but I took most of the MSR period to meet it so I'm not eligible for another few months.

On the Citi side I don't think this card has been higher. Since there are limited ways to generate AA miles this is usually considered a great offer given that it won't interfere with 5/24. It's only recently that the Citi personal version made an offer of points that high (and with limited application windows), so if you were trying to accumulate a stash of AA, a 75k biz offer was useful even with the higher spend.

Thanks for the thoughts.
I’m past the 48 months so it is ready to churn. I’m 4/24 so only looking for biz cards right now. Otherwise, I’d look at Barclays. I’ll probably jump on this.

 

[leeniewdw]

I’m crossing my fingers that the PayPal Bill Pay trick still works this year!

I did this for the first time with my Property Tax (due to the 5% Q4 for Chase FF) and the first few weeks I was trying it would error out when I got the final step. Googling found some other complaints about our county tax and PP (reddit) and I left it for a week or so and then tried 1 last time before resorting to a different method...and it worked. I think I did it on the PP app rather than the website, but I don't know if that had anything to do with it because I'm pretty sure it errored in the app originally too.

I originally just paid $500 to make sure it credited properly on the county revenue site (it took 2 days, so enough to make me nervous), but it worked fine and I proceeded with the add'l payment.

 

[iujen94]

I did this for the first time with my Property Tax (due to the 5% Q4 for Chase FF) and the first few weeks I was trying it would error out when I got the final step. Googling found some other complaints about our county tax and PP (reddit) and I left it for a week or so and then tried 1 last time before resorting to a different method...and it worked. I think I did it on the PP app rather than the website, but I don't know if that had anything to do with it because I'm pretty sure it errored in the app originally too.

I originally just paid $500 to make sure it credited properly on the county revenue site (it took 2 days, so enough to make me nervous), but it worked fine and I proceeded with the add'l payment.

Thanks for the good data point! Finding out I could pay property taxes with a credit card this way was a game changer!!

 

[trenty]

OT: Question for those who have cruised, especially with RCI.

Is it a good or bad idea to make a specialty restaurant lunch reservation on Day One? I don't think I want to deal with the Wind Jammer. If I make a 1:15 reservation will that limit my ability to enjoy the sites as we leave port? I don't have my check-in time yet if that makes any difference.

 

[wanderlust7]

OT: Question for those who have cruised, especially with RCI.

Is it a good or bad idea to make a specialty restaurant lunch reservation on Day One? I don't think I want to deal with the Wind Jammer. If I make a 1:15 reservation will that limit my ability to enjoy the sites as we leave port? I don't have my check-in time yet if that makes any difference.

I don't think the speciality restaurants are open for lunch when the ship is in port. There should be other places you can grab lunch other than the buffet. We went to Two70 on the Quantum and it wasn't crowded.

 

[trenty]

I don't think the speciality restaurants are open for lunch when the ship is in port. There should be other places you can grab lunch other than the buffet. We went to Two70 on the Quantum and it wasn't crowded.

I am able to make a reservation at Jamie's. But thanks for the info. Good to know I am not limited to the WindJammer.

If I were to make the 1:15 reservation, would that be a bad idea? I do have the 3 dinner specialty package so I can definitely go to Jamie's for dinner one of the evenings. Basically just looking for a stress-free/crowd-free day one. This is our first cruise.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Received IA for the Chase Biz Preferred with a $13k CL! I closed a 1 year old biz card and reduced the CL on another 2 last week in preparation for the new app. Will meet the MSR with dd's tuition and residence payment due in mid-January.

 

[reliev]

DH's AA Executive card renewal posted, it posted at $450 not the new $550. Anyone think the card is a keeper?

We have used the lounge about 3 times in the last 12 months. I would say that's about $200 worth of airport food, I missed out on the opportunity to use the $120 Avis/Budget credit - I have a car reservation for our trip to Disney next week but parking at the WA Orlando is $45/night so I'm thinking we might as well just Uber.
We haven't used the $10 Grubhub monthly credit. We will be flying AA twice next year, but once we'll have lounge access with our J tickets. DH is flying AA in Jan so he will probably be able to use the lounge.
Am I missing another benefit?

i peg visits at 30$ pp That is about what it cost me before i got obsessed with lounges I think the real benefit to the aa card is getting the points on non-bonus spending not to mention using the AA portal to get status. If you only going to use the lounge once id probably downgrade.

 

[platamama]

OT: Question for those who have cruised, especially with RCI.

Is it a good or bad idea to make a specialty restaurant lunch reservation on Day One? I don't think I want to deal with the Wind Jammer. If I make a 1:15 reservation will that limit my ability to enjoy the sites as we leave port? I don't have my check-in time yet if that makes any difference.

When we went in May, I had purchased "The Key" for our sailing which included lunch on Day One at Chops Grill. Due to timing (we entered the terminal for Vancouver port at 12:00, and the line took 2 hours to get through because there were 3 or 4 big ships in port that day), we missed our lunch at Chops because they closed at 2:00pm. Our ship didn't have a Jamie's; and we ended up grabbing food at the pool bar on Day One instead of Windjammer. We did eventually get our lunch at Chops the next day but it took a lot of time at Guest Services to work that out. Each department at RCI doesn't seem to know how operations run at the other departments (cross-training seems disincentivized) so we spent a lot of time going around to find the right person to talk to.

ETA: My thread on our cruise experience https://www.disboards.com/threads/b...vancouver-1st-timer-to-rc-and-alaska.3918211/

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

If anyone has an upcoming car rental, check your reservation! It's "Travel Tuesday". Costco has a shop card promo going on for Budget. Helps for my Feb car rental.

I hope that this works out for people. I used Costco Travel to book a Budget rental car for our July Hawaii trip of TWO weeks this year.
I did not receive a shop card so on August 30th I sent them an inquiry about the timing of the shop card. They responded and told me that they don't do shop cards for Budget! I have no defense now, but perhaps I should have screen shot that page on that day in June when they were advertising shop cards for rental cars. I'm still very disappointed in Costco.

 

[wanderlust7]

I am able to make a reservation at Jamie's. But thanks for the info. Good to know I am not limited to the WindJammer.

If I were to make the 1:15 reservation, would that be a bad idea? I do have the 3 dinner specialty package so I can definitely go to Jamie's for dinner one of the evenings. Basically just looking for a stress-free/crowd-free day one. This is our first cruise.

Interesting, guess it depends on the ship/port. I was looking at my cruise planner for our Quantum Alaska cruise out of Seattle and none of the speciality restaurants are listed as open for lunch on embarkation day.

Like @platamama, we've been delayed on embarkation day before. So my preference would be to keep things flexible without a reservation.

 

[Maryrachel713]

Making good progress on our spend--we just put a bunch on our gas bill but electric wouldn't let us pay ahead. Going to pay it off once tonights charges hit and hopefully we'll make the rest of it quickly.

Cancelled a card today that I thought I'd already paid AF on...but I hadn't, which means I missed out on some anniversary points for SW. Oh well.

 

[Frugalmama]

I hope that this works out for people. I used Costco Travel to book a Budget rental car for our July Hawaii trip of TWO weeks this year.
I did not receive a shop card so on August 30th I sent them an inquiry about the timing of the shop card. They responded and told me that they don't do shop cards for Budget! I have no defense now, but perhaps I should have screen shot that page on that day in June when they were advertising shop cards for rental cars. I'm still very disappointed in Costco.

I received a Costco shop card for my Budget rental for Denver in September. Costco emailed the card about a week after I returned home. I’m not sure why they would tell you that if it worked for me. I made a new reservation the other day and the email confirmation states that I will receive a shop cards after.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

I received a Costco shop card for my Budget rental for Denver in September. Costco emailed the card about a week after I returned home. I’m not sure why they would tell you that if it worked for me. I made a new reservation the other day and the email confirmation states that I will receive a shop cards after.

I have no idea what happened there. Maybe I should investigate further. In looking at the 6/29 email I see it says that I'll receive $7.92 towards my Executive Member 2% Reward on this purchase, but it does not say anything in the email about a shop card. Thanks for this info!!

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

So I'm torn on what to do. Mind you, right now I have my son who tested positive for both Covid and Flu A on Saturday. I've stayed away from him and have been testing negative. I do however have a nasty cough I've had for over a week. I went to urgent care yesterday and the Dr said this cough has been lingering for a month for some. He gave me some cough meds for now

The BF and I were planning on going to Mexico 12/3-6. But now the forecast is showing rain. We were going to stay at the Hilton PDC which we love. We could change our trip and leave as early as tomorrow, but I'm not sure I'm "well enough" to go tomorrow. That said, I might feel the same on Sunday. But if we go tomorrow (or Sat) we'll have the nicer weather. But we'd have to either; stay at a different Hilton AI, both don't have the best reviews. We could stay at PDC and use 2 FNC and then points for Sat night (127k, ouch. I do have 1 mill hilton points). We could use the FNC I just got from Marriott (that don't expire till 11/24 so kinda wanted to hang onto them). Or our backup is to use the 2 free nights in Vegas at ResortsWorld, thanks to the Merry Go Round status matching. But the 2 things we want to do in Vegas aren't really available this weekend.

The issue being we have so many free nights to use, LOL. I think I listed before. But we have 2 IHG nights (4/24, 8/24), 5 Marriott (11/24), 3 Hilton (2 exp 6/24, 1 exp 11/24), Resorts World 2 nights (6/24) and Caesar's Nobu 2 nights (July 24). So it seems stupid to use points just so we can stay at PDC when we have so many free nights to use. I was looking at Hyatts using URs but again, we have too many free nights to use, LOL. WWYD? I'm driving my BF insane trying to figure this out.

Thanks for the good data point! Finding out I could pay property taxes with a credit card this way was a game changer!!

FYI, I got screwed in Sept. My taxes were due. I paid like 2 week early. But I got caught in some freak "hiccup" bill pay seems to have from time to time and my payment never went through. The finally processed the batch from that day the day AFTER my taxes were due. So I got charged a fee. My township also didn't know anything about paypal bill pay and it was a nightmare. They are trying to shut it down WAHHHH! Stupid bill pay not processing!