I love credit cards so much!

[disneymagicgirl]

It's the Bella Suite that is on the UR site (and available with points on ihg). Says it is 720 sqft, has two queens and a double pull-out sofa. PLENTY of space! I called Intercontinental hotels last night and talked to someone and she said if the room says the occupancy is 4, then that is the limit ("no matter how big the room is or how many sleeping spaces there are"). Really puzzling. Are fire codes that must stricter in Vegas?? The Residence Inn not that far away sleeps 6 in 500'ish sq ft with same bed set-up.

What they don't know won't hurt them.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I just ordered some Disney cinderella toms for myself and DD2. Then I started thinking I should buy some to ebay if they are popular. So I checked ebay and some are on there already? How is that possible?

Anyways, $20 off with code Venice, 8% back on ebates, and PayPal checkout on CF for another 5%. Nice deal.

ETA: I am really excited for Snow White but she doesn't debut til August. She is my favorite!

 

[wendow]

I just ordered some Disney cinderella toms for myself and DD2. Then I started thinking I should buy some to ebay if they are popular. So I checked ebay and some are on there already? How is that possible?

Anyways, $20 off with code Venice, 8% back on ebates, and PayPal checkout on CF for another 5%. Nice deal.

Was looking at these earlier. How can they be on eBay??? If I wasn’t leaving town for 11 days, I’d be ordering!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Here's a WWDD: What Would DisChurners Do?

I can pay my auto insurance with a credit card, or a check. It's about $250 a month. Options:

• Barclay Arrival Plus = 500pts
• SPG AMEX (for now) = 250pts
• Pay by Plastiq with CIP = 768.75pts for a fee of $6.25 (which I would try to cover with our travel fund, not cash out URs)

I shelved the Arrival+ after I finished extracting my bonus so personally any points accrued on that card are useless to me, but do you have a plan for using those points? It's the equivalent of $5.25 if you can use the 5% points you'll get back. SPG has me thrown right now, what was the value of your last redemption? Personally that's what I'm using to value points today because I have no idea what tomorrow holds. Were you running around 3 cpp? (My last marriott redemption was about 1 cpp so that I'm completely ball parking SPG here off that) if so using that we've got a value of $7.50 for SPG Amex. You have a CSR so the value of those points is approx $11.53-$6.25 fee = $5.28. So IF you value SPG at 3cpp this is what I come out with
1) SPG: $7.50
2) CSR $5.28
3) A+: $5.25

 

[wendow]

What they don't know won't hurt them.

I read you have to show room keys for each person at the elevator. Anyone know if that is accurate??

 

[gottalovepluto]

I read you have to show room keys for each person at the elevator. Anyone know if that is accurate??

Idk but if so what a bummer- and I'm very glad you read up on that! I would have been all in on what they don't know won't hurt them. It's Vegas though, the house knows everything.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I read you have to show room keys for each person at the elevator. Anyone know if that is accurate??

oh geez. I have never experienced that anywhere. I do have to play by the rule sometimes when a wristband is required for pool entry though.

eta: what do people do if someone is coming to visit them from another hotel etc? We often stay at one place and my parents another. They might come meet us to go to dinner and come up to the room for a few mins.

 

[afan]

I’m looking at that Hyatt place. Might be the winner. There are no rewards rooms though

Are you looking at UR or Hyatt points? I'd call Hyatt to see if they can see anything just to make sure. If you are going to transfer UR to Hyatt to cover it, the transfer has always been instant when I've done it so you could do it while you were on the phone.

 

[wendow]

oh geez. I have never experienced that anywhere. I do have to play by the rule sometimes when a wristband is required for pool entry though.

eta: what do people do if someone is coming to visit them from another hotel etc? We often stay at one place and my parents another. They might come meet us to go to dinner and come up to the room for a few mins.

I read that they have 24/7 security at the elevators. It’s vegas and I’m sure they are really strict since they can get 20 people trying to crash in one room.

Not sure about visitors??

 

[wendow]

Are you looking at UR or Hyatt points? I'd call Hyatt to see if they can see anything just to make sure. If you are going to transfer UR to Hyatt to cover it, the transfer has always been instant when I've done it so you could do it while you were on the phone.

The Hyatt is on UR but no rooms through Hyatt points. I’ll call to see if they have anything. It’s a Saturday night so that probably isn’t helping.

 

[Judique]

Here's a WWDD: What Would DisChurners Do?

I can pay my auto insurance with a credit card, or a check. It's about $250 a month. Options:

• Barclay Arrival Plus = 500pts
• SPG AMEX (for now) = 250pts
• Pay by Plastiq with CIP = 768.75pts for a fee of $6.25 (which I would try to cover with our travel fund, not cash out URs)

SPG

 

[amalone1013]

I shelved the Arrival+ after I finished extracting my bonus so personally any points accrued on that card are useless to me, but do you have a plan for using those points? It's the equivalent of $5.25 if you can use the 5% points you'll get back. SPG has me thrown right now, what was the value of your last redemption? Personally that's what I'm using to value points today because I have no idea what tomorrow holds. Were you running around 3 cpp? (My last marriott redemption was about 1 cpp so that I'm completely ball parking SPG here off that) if so using that we've got a value of $7.50 for SPG Amex. You have a CSR so the value of those points is approx $11.53-$6.25 fee = $5.28. So IF you value SPG at 3cpp this is what I come out with
1) SPG: $7.50
2) CSR $5.28
3) A+: $5.25

A+ is our only non-category over 1pt/$ card. No current plans, but we've got $208 on it so definitely a usable amount.

Hmm... technically last SPG was the Dolphin in January at 4.6cpp (whoa!) But what I have coming up in Sept at Dolphin is 2.6cpp. That was before the category change tho, accounting for that itd be 2.2cpp if I booked it today. I'm torn on what to value them at too.

Still seems like a winner... I appreciate you taking the time on today's episode of WWDD

 

[pillow]

I want to go back, and stay in the haunted hotel they have! Did you go to the Gold King Mine Museum junkyard? That place was amazing!

This was back in 2009, and my memory is fuzzy. No, don't recall the junkyard. We only had a few hours, so we wandered around town, shopped some, and watched a glass blowing demonstration. We ate at the Haunted Hamburger and I got sick on the way back to Sedona. THAT I remember very clearly!

 

[Lain]

I just ordered some Disney cinderella toms for myself and DD2. Then I started thinking I should buy some to ebay if they are popular. So I checked ebay and some are on there already? How is that possible?

Anyways, $20 off with code Venice, 8% back on ebates, and PayPal checkout on CF for another 5%. Nice deal.

ETA: I am really excited for Snow White but she doesn't debut til August. She is my favorite!

Was looking at these earlier. How can they be on eBay??? If I wasn’t leaving town for 11 days, I’d be ordering!

A lot of eBay resellers will list a hot item as soon as they receive confirmation of their preorder (and include a screenshot of their confirmation screen/email/receipt). Some will even list before they’ve ordered with assurances that they will get the preorder or will refund your money. For hot items, there’s real money at stake in getting your listing up while the iron is hot, before the market is flooded or people lose interest — sometimes it can mean a difference of tens or hundreds of dollars. Especially with preorders or limited edition/stock items, once sold out, people get desperate (FOMO), don’t think rationally, and are much more willing to overspend to know they’ll be getting that item. If they have time to step back and think, they’ll probably be much savvier about price.

 

[chattadisser]

Does the CIC code as 5X from Staples if you order online? I go there for my GC's that I can't get at the grocery but I am about over going into the store. It's like Flash, the sloth, from Zootopia is the cashier. And every single time something goes wrong and then the manager has to come up. It would be much easier to order them online.

Thanks!

 

[pillow]

Hi everyone... so I'm rethinking our Hawaii trip - mostly because I keep reading how expensive everything is. We are planning 13 days, I could cut that back but I feel like we should do at least do 10 days since travel time is about 17 hours.
We would have all flights and hotel covered via points, but that still leaves all food and activities. I could see us spending $500/day, would you all agree with that? Is that a reasonable amount for a family of 4 - we would like to do some activities- like snorkeling, Kualoa Tour, Road to Hana, boat rental, Luau. Car rentals and activities would be about $3.5K.
We are now considering Costa Rica, is that just as expensive as Hawaii? We would only do 8 days in Costa Rica. I haven't done much research there so I'm not sure how expensive an 8 day trip would be, we would also do many activities including zip-lines, hot springs, tours.

Trip would be around Memorial Day 2019.

The 4 of us stayed 9 nights in Costa Rica (+ 1 night at the Fort Lauderdale airport). We used SW points for flights, and UR's for 2 out of 3 hotels + a few activities. Our total spend was $3K, which included the car rental (expensive!), gas, food (went over budget here), and activities that weren't covered by UR's. I did pay out of pocket for a B&B that was #1 on TripAdvisor, but I couldn't get it on the UR portal. I really wanted to stay there - turned out it was my favorite! You can make Costa Rica cheap, but what costs are the tours/activities - ziplining, waterfall repelling, etc.

 

[gottalovepluto]

@Lain that list of what to use where was epic! One q, does PayPal always code as 3x on CIP or does PayPal only code as 3x for specific purchases (like ebay shipping charges)?

 

[pillow]

Trip would be around Memorial Day 2019.

I think its rainy season that late in May (double check). If so, I wouldn't go then. We went early April and had fabulous weather. A friend went during rainy season and never even got to see Arenal volcano cause it was socked in the entire time she was there. Plus, driving can be dicey with all the rain and some not so stellar roads.

 

[Albort]

I recall reading about people being denied credit card apps because they applied from overseas, I just can't find it right now. I'd call Chase and see what they say when you ask about the status of your credit card application. 30 days usually turns into: 7-10 days (aka denial so immediately call Chase for a recon) or 2 weeks (like 90% of the time means approval within a day or two) or approved. BUT it can take 1-3 weeks (most people have a status change within week 1). In your shoes I'd call and recon it now since you'll be in the US later this week and they will expedite the CSR.

@msufan
heh, i asked my friend about this. he said you just need to VPN back to the states with Citi Bank.
Chase, amex and Cap1 dont care.

 

[pillow]

Just sitting here, mulling over the really important questions...

Can I make a Labor Day trip work to do the waterparks? Why doesn't DH have more vacation time? Is it excessive to do that and go again 2 weeks later? Do we need APs again?

Do the 3 night DCL Bahamas cruise over Labor Day weekend. Its our first cruise without kids! Tell your DH that I'll buy him a fizzy drink!