I love credit cards so much!

[Lain]

Is there any legit way my mom could get an SPG AMEX and transfer Starpoints to me? Or can I use her Starpoints to book a room where she won't be traveling?

I don't know SPG's program rules, but assuming your mom can't transfer the points to you, couldn't she use her points to book a room (for you), include your name as a guest on the reservation, so you can check in? The hotel doesn't even have to know (and probably won't care) she's not traveling with you. I'm pretty sure I remember doing something like this at a Hilton once.

 

[mhartman09]

How do you go about using the CP to book flights? Do I just need to book the flight first, then it will allow me to add the companion? I'm not seeing a place to add before purchasing the original ticket, so I want to make sure I'm not just missing it.

**Edited - Figured it out after a quick google search. I had to book the flight for DH and my son, then after the booking was complete I was able to add myself to the booking. Super simple. Just got 3 round trip tickets from New Orleans to Orlando for $33.60 and just over 25,000 points.

 

[Albort]

@Lain What happens when a fraud alert is triggered? Do you get a call or a text or something? I'm so paranoid about using the CIP. I just made my first purchase an hour ago, and it was for concert tickets. It shows as pending in my account, so I'm assuming I would have already known if there was a fraud alert. But I missed a random phone call from Ohio not long after the purchase. No one left a message, so I don't think it was Chase.

Chase is pretty good with fraud alerts. I remember getting my CSR/CI+, i put like thousands instantly with no fraud triggers. I did however get triggers recently on my CSR when i put some foreign use on it when buying airline tickets. It just sent txt messages and emails asking if i did that transaction or not. I reply yes and it just says thank you. I did however get an fraud which i answered no, i did not make this transaction, and they automatically called me right after. If its in pending, you should be fine.

 

[calypso726]

Is there any legit way my mom could get an SPG AMEX and transfer Starpoints to me? Or can I use her Starpoints to book a room where she won't be traveling?

Not directly unless you have the same address. However, there is a back way. She can transfer her SPG points to Marriott, then transfer her Marriott points to your Marriott points, then you transfer those Marriott points to your SPG account.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Not directly unless you have the same address. However, there is a back way. She can transfer her SPG points to Marriott, then transfer her Marriott points to your Marriott points, then you transfer those Marriott points to your SPG account.

Maybe she'll have to get SPG and Marriott accounts.
Does Marriott allow transfer between family members? I have transferred points to a friend who needed to stay with her sick kid, but it was a bit of a pain & I remember having to call to arrange it.

 

[Albort]

Maybe she'll have to get SPG and Marriott accounts.
Does Marriott allow transfer between family members? I have transferred points to a friend who needed to stay with her sick kid, but it was a bit of a pain & I remember having to call to arrange it.

i believe you can book for other people through your account. When i went to alaska, we booked all our Hiltons through someone else's diamond account(got a free bottle of water and a upgrade from regular room to suite using friends account), we just added guest 1 as my name and they let us check in and check out without needing the account holder. I would assume this applies to every hotels. For Hyatt, they let my mom check in before i arrive too. I just had to add my mom's name to the reservation.

 

[havaneselover]

I'm not loving credit cards so much this morning. I found a $4,100 charge for a local builder for lumber on my citi thank you card??? Three weeks ago my csr had fraud. Last summer it was my quicksilver card. This one is the weirdest though since it's local.

 

[havaneselover]

Chase Summer Fun is only restaurants and movie theaters I hope 4th quarter bonus caregories are more exciting.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Chase Summer Fun is only restaurants and movie theaters I hope 4th quarter bonus caregories are more exciting.

Yeah, these categories are pretty terrible for us. We don't eat out much. I guess we will just stock up on some gift cards to our favorite restaurants and some at the movie theater too.

 

[Lain]

I have mixed feelings about restaurants and movie theaters being Freedom's 5x categories next quarter. I'd hate to think we could spend a max $1,500 on eating out, but we'll probably make a good dent. The problem is we can always find significantly discounted gift cards for restaurants on Raise, eBay, at Costco, etc., so between 5x cash back/UR points vs. buying a gift card at 10-20% off, upfront cash savings wins. As for movies, we have a young child and a lot of the family friendly movies she's interested in seeing will have already released before July. But I'll still be sure to use our Freedom on the MileagePlusX app to double dip on the miles and the 5x UR points when dining or seeing a movie.

 

[amalone1013]

SW CP Question. I SM'd chase a few days ago to see when my statement would close on the business card, because I've hit the $3k spend. They told me today, so I wasn't worried about changing it. I was wondering how long was it between statement close and your points showing up in your RR account?

 

[AmyAnne]

So the Fairmont card is being automatically converted to a CSP: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/chas...nverted-chase-sapphire-preferred-august-15th/

I'm pretty sure I'm going to cancel the CSP I already have, so I definitely don't want another one. I also already have a Freedom card but I think I will convert this to another - even though this quarter's categories are bad for us, I can definitely max the grocery store and warehouse (if that ever happens again) categories.

 

[Lain]

So the Fairmont card is being automatically converted to a CSP: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/chas...nverted-chase-sapphire-preferred-august-15th/

I'm pretty sure I'm going to cancel the CSP I already have, so I definitely don't want another one. I also already have a Freedom card but I think I will convert this to another - even though this quarter's categories are bad for us, I can definitely max the grocery store and warehouse (if that ever happens again) categories.

Why not convert your existing CSP to a Freedom Unlimited for the 1.5% cash back everywhere?

 

[AmyAnne]

Why not convert your existing CSP to a Freedom Unlimited for the 1.5% cash back everywhere?

That's a possibility - but I have a Capital One card that pays 2% everywhere. I should probably do some math and see which would be greater, 5% back some quarters or 1.5% everywhere.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

That's a possibility - but I have a Capital One card that pays 2% everywhere. I should probably do some math and see which would be greater, 5% back some quarters or 1.5% everywhere.

If you have a CSR and use the 50% bonus towards travel, then the Freedom Unlimited actually gives you 2.25%.

 

[AmyAnne]

If you have a CSR and use the 50% bonus towards travel, then the Freedom Unlimited actually gives you 2.25%.

That's another good point, especially since CSR is the premium card we're most likely to keep, because the travel credit is so versatile. On the other hand, for recent travel we have used our AmEx points and have a decent (for us) supply of Chase UR points. I'm leaning towards valuing cash back now at 2% more than travel credit at 2.25% at some indeterminate future time.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

That's another good point, especially since CSR is the premium card we're most likely to keep, because the travel credit is so versatile. On the other hand, for recent travel we have used our AmEx points and have a decent (for us) supply of Chase UR points. I'm leaning towards valuing cash back now at 2% more than travel credit at 2.25% at some indeterminate future time.

Definitely a personal thing. We have concrete plans to work towards airfare to Italy with our UR points, so I am valuing the UR points higher for our purposes.

 

[AmyAnne]

Definitely a personal thing. We have concrete plans to work towards airfare to Italy with our UR points, so I am valuing the UR points higher for our purposes.

One of the many things I appreciate about this thread is reading about how other people plan their travel using the various CC options. For our Feb. 2018 trip to London, we are using United points for flights and Fairmont free nights for the hotel. For Chicago (this December), we are using Hilton points for the hotel and AmEx points for the flights (on American, which for the moment gets us 50% of the points back). We probably will have a Europe or Asia trip in the fall of 2018 but nothing definite yet.

 

[Tikitoi]

Yeah, these categories are pretty terrible for us. We don't eat out much. I guess we will just stock up on some gift cards to our favorite restaurants and some at the movie theater too.

I'm assuming you have to buy these gift cards directly from the movie theater and restaurants? I'm thinking you wouldn't get the 5% purchasing from just any store...

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I'm assuming you have to buy these gift cards directly from the movie theater and restaurants? I'm thinking you wouldn't get the 5% purchasing from just any store...

Yes, I plan to buy the gift cards direct. We eat at Chipotle pretty often, so I will hold out to see if they offer any gift card promotions during that time. They often do a buy $25/$30 gift card, get a free bowl on your next visit. When those deals pop up, DH and I both buy the gift cards each week and roll the free meal, buying again the next week until the promo ends (usually 4-6 weeks). It ends up being a very good value, something like 30% off. Fingers crossed that they run this during the Chase Summer promo period. And if any of our other favorites offer gift card promos, I will be sure to hop on those too. The movie theatre is less likely to run anything, but we don't usually get any deals from there anyways, so stocking up a couple hundred dollars worth won't hurt anything.