I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[PolyRob]

WOW - I'm so sorry @Albort! Have you talked to Chase yet - I assume you caught it early enough to get everything corrected?

Chase really needs to put some protocols in place here. This whole "cash out to a random account" stuff is crazy.

Seriously, you need to be a household member or business owner to transfer points, but it lets someone cash out to any random person?! You would think the account would need to either be an internal Chase account or an external account with same name!

 

[mhartman09]

Finally getting around to catching up here. Thoroughly enjoyed our Labor Day trip, despite Dorian looming. We arrived Wednesday Aug 28th around 9 am. Took ME over to Movies, then headed straight to HS. Spent most of the day there, then decided to head back to resort for a rest around 4. We must have been more tired than we realized because we napped until 8:30pm. Decided to grab dinner at the food court and hit the bed for the night since we had our VIP tour the next morning.

The next morning we met our VIP tour group in the Contemporary lobby at 7:45am, with a tour scheduled for 8am. Unfortunately there was some miscommunication and the tour wasn't going to start until 10am. So we took the monorail to MK and hit 7DMT with a 20 min wait, then walked on Space Mtn, Buzz. Finally started the tour at 10 and began with SWGE!! Both the tour and the land were as awesome as I expected! Only downside was we had to have our guide cancel our Oga's ADR since it was scheduled with our original tour times in mind. No way was I using up tour time for that. We got a ton done, then headed back to the resort in early evening to get to bed.

Friday was our MK day and MNSSHP. We had a blast at MK with some pretty low wait times for rides. Then we hopped to AK for a while. Headed back to resort in the afternoon to relax for a bit and change for the party. We had been watching the storm every day and DH was really getting worried. He insisted we needed to change our flight from Monday to Sunday. I would have prefered to extend our trip, but he wasn't having it. This was right around the time we saw posts about MCO closing on Monday, so I reluctantly called SW to make the change. At least we got to head out to the party afterwards, so I was in a much better mood. We were a bit lazy with our "costumes" this year since we didnt have DS with us. DH was a red card and I was a paper FP. Had tons of fun at the party! I was happy I decided to book the fireworks party afterall. The plaza garden view was perfect! While waiting for the show, I jumped on MDE to see if I could salvage our Frozen dessert party scheduled for Sunday night. Luckily I was able to snag one for Saturday night, which someone just have cancelled because I had looked for that day originally.

Saturday we took lyft over to the Swan where we were supposed to be staying for 2 nights. Checked in and they told us we were upgraded to a king room with balcony. Of course this would happen when we could only be there 1 night. Front desk said we should see the points back in DHs account within a few hours. Spent the day at Epcot and really loved the dessert party. It was great to watch Illuminations with such a good view for the last time! Was still sad walking back to the room to pack though, since we'd be flying out midday Sunday instead of enjoying AK.

All in all, it was a fun trip packed with tons of extras. Not sure I'd try to do all that stuff over again on one trip, but it worked out ok since it was just me and DH. He could tell I was sad about cutting a day from our trip, so he agreed to do a quick Thanksgiving week trip. So now we are doing DL Nov 20 - 24, then doing WDW Nov 28 - Dec 1!! I know its will likely be exhausting, but I am so excited!! Thanks so much for posting here about the SW rebooking. I was able to score our flights back on Dec 1st for 5600 RR pp instead of 23000 RR pp!

Side note, we were able to get both the Simba magnet at AK and Minnie magnet in Epcot. We weren't able to get one with DSs card though. CM said he had to be there in person, which wasn't the case in the past.

 

[Albort]

WOW - I'm so sorry @Albort! Have you talked to Chase yet - I assume you caught it early enough to get everything corrected?

Chase really needs to put some protocols in place here. This whole "cash out to a random account" stuff is crazy.

its been all fixed but now my problem is trying to figure out how they got in.

 

[wanderlust7]

Price Change
Ticket price changed from $1,240.33 to $5,260.33. Because prices change often, we recommend booking now to lock in this price.

This just happened again...this is what the message says. UGH....

What a weird glitch. Hopefully it'll just resolve itself tomorrow. Or you could try calling in to book (hopefully they don't see the same glitch!).

 

[Lain]

My cell phone auto pay is the only thing on my Amex Plat. I haven't even looked into cell phone coverage through them. I should probably check into that, right?

The Amex Plat doesn’t have cell phone insurance. Pay your cell phone bill with the CIP, and it covers damaged or stolen phones up to $600 for repairs or replacement after a $100 deductible. (Lost phones are not covered.)

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Friendly Reminder: CHECK your point balances regularly!

One of the sheets on my churning tracking spreadsheet is devoted to monitoring my point balances. Know how many points you have - the only way you'll know some go missing is if you know what the number should be.

There are numerous instances I can cite where this comes in handy:

• @Albort just today saying somebody drained his URs (now it's pretty easy to see if everything goes missing) BUT checking regularly means you'll catch this quickly!
• @elgerber (I believe it was her) had somebody fraudulently use AA miles I think. It took awhile to resolve but she was on top of it.
• @wendow had an issue with Southwest pulling the wrong amount of SW RR points when she made a flight change. At the time she was unsure of the exact correct amount and expressed that she wished she had an accurate spreadsheet at the time.

There's likely other instances that I'm totally forgetting. The key here is to have some mechanism to keep track!

I keep track of the number of points I have and the date I last updated that figure (so I can isolate when something changed). Additionally, I also track last activity and expiration in this sheet as well for programs that have expiration policies. I try to check this at a minimum once a month but it's not unheard of for me to check this weekly, because I'm kinda crazy with my points.

If you have 300,000 UR laying around that's $3,000+ in value. If you have 100,000+ SW RR points that's almost $1,500 in value. Just giving an example here to show that these points are worth something - verify the accuracy of your accounts and treat them like you would treat cash in your bank account. It's sad but points fraud is out there, make sure you are protecting yourself!

 

[Lain]

I have not used one yet, so I am not sure! Though looking at Hawaii, I think there are only 2 possible redemption locations: The Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach or the Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach. All others look higher than a category 4. I am hoping to get a second free night with staying 30 nights this year. Right now with all DH's travel he has planned for the rest of the year, he is at exactly 50 for Marriott and 27 for Hyatt through the end of the year. I am like please go away 3 more nights in a Hyatt friendly place! haha Hyatt's are ususally tough for him, but he will have had 3 conferences at Hyatt Regencys this year so the nights added up. And with almost 30 nights we are still only at 3 different Hyatt Brands! Grrrrrr

Also, maybe you know this, but for some reason I assumed the spend $15k was for calendar year. It is for your anniversary year. I am now seeing spend $5k for 2 nights credits also. Maybe I need to at least do that this year.

Good to know, thanks! We actually got the card in january so it works out about the same for us lol. I have my eye on the Grand Hyatt Kaua’i currently, so I wonder if I could use it there.

@WVMomof3 is right. The FN certs you get from the Hyatt card for your anniversary and spending $15k/year are good at Cat 1-4 hotels. As far as Hawaii goes, the only Cat 1-4 hotels are the Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach (Cat 3) and the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach (Cat 4). The Grand Hyatt Kauai is a Cat 6 property, but at 25k Hyatt points (=25k UR) a night, that’s still a really good deal!

You can check Hyatt’s properties and categories here: https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/explore-hotels?regionGroup=0-All&categories=0

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

@WVMomof3 is right. The FN certs you get on the Hyatt card for your anniversary and spending $15k/year are good at Cat 1-4 hotels. As far as Hawaii goes, the only Cat 1-4 hotels are the Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach (Cat 3) and the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach (Cat 4). The Grand Hyatt Kauai is a Cat 6 property, but at 25k Hyatt points (=25k UR) a night, that’s still a really good deal!

You can check Hyatt’s properties and categories here: https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/explore-hotels?regionGroup=0-All&categories=0

I feel like transferring URs to Hyatt is something that doesn't get discussed enough. I personally am no Hyatt expert but it seems like there's a TON of great redemption opportunities out there and that 1:1 UR transfer can be a goldmine!

 

[DLgal]

What a weird glitch. Hopefully it'll just resolve itself tomorrow. Or you could try calling in to book (hopefully they don't see the same glitch!).

Nope. It's been happening regularly for a month. I've been looking at flights at least once a day and it happens every time. It happens on any flight that has more than one airline, which is all the ones he can take. He can't fly through China, Hong Kong or Taiwan due to travel restrictions and being military. So, a lot of the international airlines are out. All the domestic ones code share for that route and it is happening with all of them, but I can book at the prices I initially see by going directly to each airline website.

 

[Albort]

Friendly Reminder: CHECK your point balances regularly!

One of the sheets on my churning tracking spreadsheet is devoted to monitoring my point balances. Know how many points you have - the only way you'll know some go missing is if you know what the number should be.

There are numerous instances I can cite where this comes in handy:

• @Albort just today saying somebody drained his URs (now it's pretty easy to see if everything goes missing) BUT checking regularly means you'll catch this quickly!
• @elgerber (I believe it was her) had somebody fraudulently use AA miles I think. It took awhile to resolve but she was on top of it.
• @wendow had an issue with Southwest pulling the wrong amount of SW RR points when she made a flight change. At the time she was unsure of the exact correct amount and expressed that she wished she had an accurate spreadsheet at the time.

There's likely other instances that I'm totally forgetting. The key here is to have some mechanism to keep track!

I keep track of the number of points I have and the date I last updated that figure (so I can isolate when something changed). Additionally, I also track last activity and expiration in this sheet as well for programs that have expiration policies. I try to check this at a minimum once a month but it's not unheard of for me to check this weekly, because I'm kinda crazy with my points.

If you have 300,000 UR laying around that's $3,000+ in value. If you have 100,000+ SW RR points that's almost $1,500 in value. Just giving an example here to show that these points are worth something - verify the accuracy of your accounts and treat them like you would treat cash in your bank account. It's sad but points fraud is out there, make sure you are protecting yourself!

check your email... thats how i caught mine... was quite frightening...



fyi, thats an account number i dont own... no idea how that is even possible.

 

[Lain]

I feel like transferring URs to Hyatt is something that doesn't get discussed enough. I personally am no Hyatt expert but it seems like there's a TON of great redemption opportunities out there and that 1:1 UR transfer can be a goldmine!

Totally agree.

 

[Lain]

Nope. It's been happening regularly for a month. I've been looking at flights at least once a day and it happens every time. It happens on any flight that has more than one airline, which is all the ones he can take. He can't fly through China, Hong Kong or Taiwan due to travel restrictions and being military. So, a lot of the international airlines are out. All the domestic ones code share for that route and it is happening with all of them, but I can book at the prices I initially see by going directly to each airline website.

Have you tried calling the Chase UR travel department at 866-951-6592 or a Chase travel specialist at 855-234-2542? Perhaps they can help you book the tickets you need at the price shown on the airline’s site with the 50% redemption bonus on your CSR.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Totally off-topic comment... Today began National Suicide Prevention week in the US.

Unfortunately that day for me was marked by heading to a local funeral home to attend the visitation for a former HS classmate. I am not close enough with this person or family to truly know the details, but all of the indicators of this "unexpected passing" are suicide. It's sobering, unsettling, even disturbing to think that a father of 2 who married his HS sweetheart found himself in such a situation that this was "the only way out". I think of 2 elementary aged boys who will grow up without a father, I think of a wife who has to deal with a gamut of emotions that I can't begin to even fathom, I think of a mother who has to bury her son. All I can do is pray for this family who now has to find a way to put one foot in front of the other and somehow move on with their lives now.

It feels odd to me to be somewhat shaken by this event given that you'd almost describe this person as an acquaintance at this point. It seriously has shook me - How this happens is just incomprehensible to me. If anybody here is struggling with thoughts like this - reach out to somebody. Find help - call the suicide prevention lifeline 1-800-273-8255 or if you aren't sure who to talk to PM me right here on the DIS. No family should have to go through an unthinkable tragedy like this.

 

[ten6mom]

Friendly Reminder: CHECK your point balances regularly!

One of the sheets on my churning tracking spreadsheet is devoted to monitoring my point balances. Know how many points you have - the only way you'll know some go missing is if you know what the number should be.

There are numerous instances I can cite where this comes in handy:

• @Albort just today saying somebody drained his URs (now it's pretty easy to see if everything goes missing) BUT checking regularly means you'll catch this quickly!
• @elgerber (I believe it was her) had somebody fraudulently use AA miles I think. It took awhile to resolve but she was on top of it.
• @wendow had an issue with Southwest pulling the wrong amount of SW RR points when she made a flight change. At the time she was unsure of the exact correct amount and expressed that she wished she had an accurate spreadsheet at the time.

There's likely other instances that I'm totally forgetting. The key here is to have some mechanism to keep track!

I keep track of the number of points I have and the date I last updated that figure (so I can isolate when something changed). Additionally, I also track last activity and expiration in this sheet as well for programs that have expiration policies. I try to check this at a minimum once a month but it's not unheard of for me to check this weekly, because I'm kinda crazy with my points.

If you have 300,000 UR laying around that's $3,000+ in value. If you have 100,000+ SW RR points that's almost $1,500 in value. Just giving an example here to show that these points are worth something - verify the accuracy of your accounts and treat them like you would treat cash in your bank account. It's sad but points fraud is out there, make sure you are protecting yourself!

Off to add another sheet to my workbook...

 

[magickingdomprincess]

The Amex Plat doesn’t have cell phone insurance. Pay your cell phone bill with the CIP, and it covers damaged or stolen phones up to $600 for repairs or replacement after a $100 deductible. (Lost phones are not covered.)

I'm curious if the CIP insurance would cover family members? I'm wondering if I should start paying DH's phone bill with my CIP? I pay mine and DS21's phone with my CIP, but DH takes care of his own currently.

 

[Haley R]

Off to add another sheet to my workbook...

I just did the same thing. We don’t have nearly as many points as other people but we have enough that I would be very angry if they were gone.

 

[disfanforlife]

I feel like transferring URs to Hyatt is something that doesn't get discussed enough. I personally am no Hyatt expert but it seems like there's a TON of great redemption opportunities out there and that 1:1 UR transfer can be a goldmine!

I was just looking at the Hyatt in Maui. Looks like a great option for us! Just need to save up some more URs. Ready to apply for my first CIP this week.

 

[GlamMistress]

Totally agree.

I think it is the *best* transfer option to be honest. I've felt that way for years and years now, too. The ability to do a points and cash booking makes Hyatt points the best - can really stretch your currency (real and otherwise) this way.

I just look forward to getting past November so I can get myself some Chase and Hyatt points again.

 

[GlamMistress]

Meant to post yesterday but forgot - thanks to all who answered my questions about travel insurance early last week. I bought some from Travelex via Insure My Trip. It was $123 for our Disney cruise in Feb. Comes with $100,000 medical evacuation coverage which was the only thing I really cared about to be honest.

 

[disfanforlife]

I think it is the *best* transfer option to be honest. I've felt that way for years and years now, too. The ability to do a points and cash booking makes Hyatt points the best - can really stretch your currency (real and otherwise) this way.

I just look forward to getting past November so I can get myself some Chase and Hyatt points again.

How does that work? Do you mean that you can book a few days with points and a few days with Cash? I was wondering because I only saw one room type show up with points but there were multiple with cash, can you upgrade to a different type of room and pay the cash difference?