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

[GZanta77]

So sad to see my Hyatt status turn blue
View attachment 743325
I've got a cash stay coming up later this month, we'll see if I can score any upgrades.

Yep, me too.

My final Globalist guest of honor booking was for my son who decided to take a solo trip to Jordan to visit Petra this week. I made him a booking for the Grand Hyatt in Amman for his first 3 nights. He was upgraded to a suite which he said was bigger than his apartment and provided a bottle of wine, fruit platter and selection of cakes upon arrival in his room. It was only 8,000 pts/night.

Sure gonna miss Globalist - but hopefully will requalify this year. Would be nice if Hyatt came up with a double elite nights promo at some point.

 

[mom2febgirls]

If I previously had a CSP (2 years ago) can I apply for a CSR or do I have to wait 48 months?

 

[iujen94]

If I previously had a CSP (2 years ago) can I apply for a CSR or do I have to wait 48 months?

48 months from when you got the CSP signup bonus.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I know there are a few other hockey parent's in here. Pure Hockey has always recommended using an Amex card to buy sticks, since they'll be covered on the extended warranty Amex offer. I know other hockey parents have had luck too. When I called yesterday they told me that sporting gear isn't covered. I asked him to email me the policy, but again, I never got the email (must have been my luck yesterday). When I went online to file the form instead, I decided to look at "purchase protection". When I read the coverage on that, it states sporting gear isn't covered. Then I looked at the extended warranty, it DOESN'T list sporting gear on the not covered list. So I think the person I got was confused. Is this a HUCA situation? I asked in the MI hockey group and several have had sticks covered this year. In fact one parent said she's done it 5 times this season!!!

Also why did I wait so long to open a personal paypal? I'm loving paying my bills w/ the township w/o fees, LOL. You can't do that on a biz acct.

Oh man! How frustrating. Just shows how much the representative you’re speaking with can make such a difference. Sorry this was your experience. I guess I’m lucky mine went so smoothly. Hopefully you can get it sorted easily.

My letter doesn't say Ireland, it says worldwide. I sure hope it works. Yesterday was not my day for calling on things, LOL.

 

[Maryrachel713]

Unless you're only doing 1 or 2 day tickets, they're cheaper through Undercover Tourist (and can't use Disney GC).

Just for future reference if you do another Disney cruise, you can get about 6-7% back in Costco Cash if you go through them.

It’s just 2 days.

We had used a placeholder reservation so got 10% off for it. Good to know about booking through Costco!

 

[elgerber]

I'll probably regret it, but I didn't use all mine because I wasn't confident they would credit. I wish they would be more consistent with their emails so I'd know if something actually triggered the offer.

I haven't been getting the emails at all on these. I have some of the credits, but missing the 3 from Saturday (but it's early yet) and the 2 from the debit cards. Those I have had issues with before.
I am also missing a Peacock credit, that's expired and I didn't screen shot. Of course they just gave me a canned response...either you didn't add it to the card, used the wrong card, or the offer expired. Nope, none of the above! Give me my $3.

 

[linzjane88]

I am being the data point I want to see
So I have the Amex Resy Plat with 10x on dining and was wondering what would and would not work in WDW, specifically if I were to purchase a WDW gift card in the quick service area of a resort if it would code as restaurant. Guess what? It did! I ended up charging a bunch the gift shop purchases and other things that seemed like they wouldn't qualify to my MB and bought a gift card in the lobby the night before checkout to cover it all. One thing to note is you can't buy a gift card and charge it on your MB so I did need to make a second trip back with the card in hand. Cool way to earn 10x on all things WDW.

Strangely there were a few things that did not code as a restaurant. Chef Art's coded as 'Other' and Gideons Bakehouse coded as "Merchandise and Supplies". I don't really feel like doing a chat for the 1991 missing MR'S on the deal. But then again I guess that negates all my little gift shop purchases at 10x....hmmmm. Decisions.

Also of note Alaska Air wifi doesn't count towards your $200 airline credit because it comes up as another company name. I ended up getting a refund on it anyway because we bought wifi on 5 devices and it only worked for about 45 minutes of our 5 1/2 hour flight (and the flight tracker was off and showed we were within 30 minutes to Orlando when really we were still over 2 hours out which was somehow more bothersome than the flight map randomly showing our destination as the ocean off the coast of Africa ) I have gotten spoiled with wifi entertaining me since doing the CC thing so it felt like the longest flight *ever*.

Second random note: Coming home on SW we bought (free) wifi with the SW Biz card. It said streaming wouldn't work but it did so we were on Netflix, Youtube, etc with no problems. After our layover we got a much newer plane with the fancy color changing interior but the wifi didn't carry over from the prior flight and when I repurchased it I had no streaming capabilities. So strange!

 

[platamama]

Capital One is offering an 11mo. CD at 5% APY with no minimum opening balance, the offering expires 3/14/23. That seems pretty attractive.

 

[linzjane88]

I have been looking for a surprise anniversary trip for DH to a beach location in a lie flat of some sort. Hawaii is easy because it's his favorite but seems almost a waste of the lie flat points because of the 'short' trip (we leave from PDX) and none of the hotels seem like real knock your socks off places. Not to mention I don't find Hawaii super tourist friendly but maybe I am paranoid.
Anybody have any amazing beach hotel experiences that you are itching to go back to? I have loads of Amex points and even though I have primarily been loyal to Marriott before I think I want to try Hyatt for this trip--they seem a step better. Hyatt Zilara in Mexico looks nice and so does Baja Mar. Any other places I should consider?

 

[wanderlust7]

It’s just 2 days.

We had used a placeholder reservation so got 10% off for it. Good to know about booking through Costco!

I believe you can stack the discounts by transferring the placeholder to Costco within 30 days. I've never tried it myself, but it gets mentioned on the DCL board. A con would be if you want to book on opening day, you'd have to deal with Costco Travel's opening hours and hold times.

 

[wanderlust7]

I have been looking for a surprise anniversary trip for DH to a beach location in a lie flat of some sort. Hawaii is easy because it's his favorite but seems almost a waste of the lie flat points because of the 'short' trip (we leave from PDX) and none of the hotels seem like real knock your socks off places. Not to mention I don't find Hawaii super tourist friendly but maybe I am paranoid.
Anybody have any amazing beach hotel experiences that you are itching to go back to? I have loads of Amex points and even though I have primarily been loyal to Marriott before I think I want to try Hyatt for this trip--they seem a step better. Hyatt Zilara in Mexico looks nice and so does Baja Mar. Any other places I should consider?

Hands down, Conrad Bora Bora.

Other ones we've enjoyed on points - Grand Hyatt Kauai, Grand Wailea Maui, Westin Hapuna

Ones I have plans at or have my eye on - Andaz Papagayo Costa Rica, Andaz Mayakoba, Waldorf Los Cabos

 

[shystalips]

I have been looking for a surprise anniversary trip for DH to a beach location in a lie flat of some sort. Hawaii is easy because it's his favorite but seems almost a waste of the lie flat points because of the 'short' trip (we leave from PDX) and none of the hotels seem like real knock your socks off places. Not to mention I don't find Hawaii super tourist friendly but maybe I am paranoid.
Anybody have any amazing beach hotel experiences that you are itching to go back to? I have loads of Amex points and even though I have primarily been loyal to Marriott before I think I want to try Hyatt for this trip--they seem a step better. Hyatt Zilara in Mexico looks nice and so does Baja Mar. Any other places I should consider?

Better hurry up with Hyatt, redemptions are going up at the end of the month!

 

[disneybirds]

You can use the same business information. It will automatically be added to your Chase logins

Thank you! Waited until the 1st to apply and was instantly approved with a crazy credit limit! Will be interesting to see which login they link to. Would love to have only one but that will require a call from DH.

The next plan is to wait until 6/1 to use his CSR travel funds and then downgrade back to a CF. Then he can apply for the CSR or CSP since it has been 4 years.

We don't churn alot, so this is impressive for us!!

 

[linzjane88]

Another question: any cruisers here? I thought that could be another viable option but the rooms always look so disappointing and tiny and there doesn't seem to be a good way to cover it with points. We've never cruised so I wondered if that should be in the running. I'm still leaning no unless somebody has a report of it being a really "Wow!" experience.

Hands down, Conrad Bora Bora.

Other ones we've enjoyed on points - Grand Hyatt Kauai, Grand Wailea Maui, Westin Hapuna

Ones I have plans at or have my eye on - Andaz Papagayo Costa Rica, Andaz Mayakoba, Waldorf Los Cabos

I am going to look at all of these! I like to feel fancy on a any vacation but I'd like to dial up the bougie even further for the 15th anniversary surprise trip.

 

[linzjane88]

Good to know! I have points to use and all but I want to feel like I am getting alotta bang for my buck.

Better hurry up with Hyatt, redemptions are going up at the end of the month

 

[magickingdomprincess]

Any tips on using the CSR travel credit? My DH has about $150 credit remaining. I still need to buy my DD9 her Disney park ticket, but it's $713 on UCT, so I hate to pay for it all on his CSR when I'm working on a separate CIU SUB. I also need to buy a waterpark ticket for myself, most likely directly from Disney using my DVC discount, but that ticket is only $52. We already have our rental car, air, and hotels taken care of. UCT purchases do count, correct? Do direct Disney purchases? I seem to remember some do and some don't, but can't remember the specifics. Could we maybe charge items to the room using our MB's and have that count? We'll be staying using DVC points if that matters. Thank you!

ETA - do Genie+ purchases count? I know we'll have a lot of those

 

[Arcades]

Any tips on using the CSR travel credit? My DH has about $150 credit remaining. I still need to buy my DD9 her Disney park ticket, but it's $713 on UCT, so I hate to pay for it all on his CSR when I'm working on a separate CIU SUB. I also need to buy a waterpark ticket for myself, most likely directly from Disney using my DVC discount, but that ticket is only $52. We already have our rental car, air, and hotels taken care of. UCT purchases do count, correct? Do direct Disney purchases? I seem to remember some do and some don't, but can't remember the specifics. Could we maybe charge items to the room using our MB's and have that count? We'll be staying using DVC points if that matters. Thank you!

When in doubt, you can always turn it into cash with a refundable Southwest fare (cancel after the credit posts).

 

[sinnika]

Just cancelled my United biz card as my AF came due Feb 1. I called in to see if there was any incentive to keep the card since I have not used it much after earning the sign up bonus. I earned 150,000 United points when they were running a promotion for a $20,000 spend. I honestly don’t need the benefit of a free bag since I do carry on only even for my international travel. And I have a priority pass for lounges so the 2 United lounge passes aren’t vital. The agent said the fee could not be waived so the cancellation happened immediately. I did manage 5 one way flights from Houston to Frankfurt, Germany using those points so the card was well worth having for the year. I still have a United Gateway (downgraded from the Quest which I earned an additional 100,000 United points). Getting ready to fly my 4th trip to Frankfurt on points and have gifted travel awards to family. It’s all because of the tips I learned on this forum! So I want to say a big thank you to all the great advice here!

 

[havaneselover]

I believe you can stack the discounts by transferring the placeholder to Costco within 30 days. I've never tried it myself, but it gets mentioned on the DCL board. A con would be if you want to book on opening day, you'd have to deal with Costco Travel's opening hours and hold times.

Yep. Done it many times. And the lines weren't that bad when spring 2024 was released. You just have to know how to dial in exactly at 10:00 AM ET.

 

[wanderlust7]

Another question: any cruisers here? I thought that could be another viable option but the rooms always look so disappointing and tiny and there doesn't seem to be a good way to cover it with points. We've never cruised so I wondered if that should be in the running. I'm still leaning no unless somebody has a report of it being a really "Wow!" experience.


I am going to look at all of these! I like to feel fancy on a any vacation but I'd like to dial up the bougie even further for the 15th anniversary surprise trip.

The cabins on the new ships can be fairly nice, though still small compared to hotel rooms unless you get a suite. We get a balcony cabin and I enjoy having the ocean view and waking up in a new place.

I agree that there's not a great way to cover it with points. You could cover it at 1.5 cent per point with a CSR, but I get more value from my URs by transferring to Hyatt plus I can get at least 10% off a cruise with a TA (excluding DCL).

One exception might be booking a Virgin cruise for 80-100k points. Link

Getting to feel bougie is the best part of this hobby!