I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[DisMommyTX]

Hopefully. Massively stressful and way too many phone calls to Chase, but I think we got it worked out.

 

[disfanforlife]

Hopefully. Massively stressful and way too many phone calls to Chase, but I think we got it worked out.

Glad to hear you got it worked out. Sorry so stressful, I would feel the same way.

 

[Alexle2007]

Hopefully. Massively stressful and way too many phone calls to Chase, but I think we got it worked out.

Yay! Congrats!

 

[IFlossU]

But you have “dry” heat as everyone says. We’ve been to visit the ILs in Phoenix in July and 115-120 degrees is hot as heck dry heat or not.

Agreed. It’s just hot. We love it here the other 7-8 months out of the year, but the Summer heat does start to wear on us. While the rest of the country tries to escape the cold of Winter, we have to escape the heat of Summer.

Where do you stay? I have eyed the Hilton, but we have grown accustomed to having the kitchen in our room at the Westin. Dd is a creature of habit and really doesn't want to stay anywhere other than the Westin.

I'd love to go in the summer -- so many active things to do! It's on my list for sure (Banff may come first!).

We actually rent a condo across from the village. The owner is phenomenal. So gracious with how well it’s stocked, and it’s beautifully kept. It’s within walking distance of everything in the village area. On our last visit it really felt like a home away from home. Our kids had a blast at kids zone set up at Blackcomb, hiking, lakes..all of it. Just such a gorgeous place to visit, and the people were all very friendly.

 

[wendow]

Just completed the re-enrollment contract for private school. Now we have a few more MSRs we can easily meet.

So, your ds is doing okay at the private school? I can't remember what I read from you last but I remember he didn't love it to begin with.

 

[Alexle2007]

So, your ds is doing okay at the private school? I can't remember what I read from you last but I remember he didn't love it to begin with.

Ha, no, he still hates it and wants to return to public school. He says he hates it even more since he is sick and can’t really enjoy our mini vacay to USO (we were stuck in the hotel room all day yesterday. He says he’s not going there for HS but we just signed the re-enrollment contract and have until 7/1 to pull him. They have a lot more work to do that public school so he hates that part.

He is going to the dance because he can take his BFF from public school.

Thanks for asking!

 

[Lain]

Since it's slow here help me decide.

We are going to Disneyland 2/27-2/29. I will arrive 2/25 for a work conference, DH & the girls will arrive at 11:30PM 2/26. We are staying at Hyatt Place, work is covering Tue-Thursday nights. We have to cover Friday & Saturday night, I have us booked on points for those 2 nights. DH also has 2 BonBlah certificates that we could use to move to Fairfield inn. Park hours for those 2 days are 8AM-12AM, would like to make the most of it on both days and stay late at the park. Moving would be a pain and we wouldn't have free breakfast for Saturday & Sunday, but DH still has $140 Brilliant credit that resets next month.

Would it be worth it to move hotels? We are planning to use the Toy Story parking shuttles to cut on the walking to/from the Hyatt, but I've read the lines could get really long at the end of the day.

Do you plan to eat breakfast at the hotel? If not, the Hyatt Place's free breakfast is not a factor. With an 8 a.m. opening, our family would be out the door at 7 a.m. to make it over to the park, get through bag check, and line up at the Esplanade for rope drop. Disneyland (and DCA) typically starts scanning guests through the turnstiles around 7:45-7:50 a.m. and holds guests at the Hub for rope drop. Especially if you're hoping to join a boarding group for RotR, you need to be scanned in before official park opening. I also cannot stress how much you can get done between park opening and 11 a.m. Those first 3 hours or so in the parks, before the masses descend upon DLR will see shorter lines, wait times, and be strategic about pulling FastPasses (or MaxPass if you decide to splurge).

Another thing to consider is Disneyland Park has its EMH/Magic Mornings on Thursdays and Saturdays. Disney California Adventure has its EMH on Fridays. So while the official opening time for the parks is 8 a.m., Disneyland will already have been open an hour before that, since 7 a.m., on Thursday and Saturday, and DCA will have been open an hour earlier on Friday. This means if you're not an EMH guest, even if you're lined up for an 8 a.m. opening at a park at has EMH/MM, you'll enter a somewhat crowded park and be at a disadvantage for FastPasses and lines. (I believe the early entrants still have to wait for official park opening at 8 a.m. in order to join a boarding group.) You may want to open up the park opposite of EMH/MM, i.e., DCA on Thursday and Saturday, and Disneyland on Friday.

What our family typically does for "breakfast," when we're staying at one of the offsite hotels along Harbor, is if there's enough time once we get in line, we'll place a mobile order at Starbucks next to the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney (note there are two Starbucks locations in DTD, so you'll probably want to order from the one further east, closer to the Esplanade), and I'll run and grab some coffee, drinks, and pastries to bring back to the line. We'll juice up and eat in line or at the Hub waiting for rope drop, which usually tides us over well enough until lunch when the crowds start getting heavy.

If you do plan to move hotels (and we've done this), what I'd do is wake up a little early the morning of the move, pack up everything you can (or do this the night before), then come back to the hotel around 10-11 a.m. (when the parks start getting crowded) to finish any packing that's left, get your bags, check out, and take an Uber down Harbor to the Fairfield, check in. (Or just send DH?) Then you can grab a bite to eat offsite (there's a Pizza Hut kiosk at the Fairfield, a McDonald's and Panera Bread nearby) or head back to DLR and grab lunch in the parks, hotels, or DTD.

The Fairfield is a LOT closer to DLR than Hyatt Place -- about a 5 minute walk across the street. Normally, I'd recommend against utilizing the Toy Story Shuttles, because I don't think they save very much time (just footsteps), but from Hyatt Place, the Toy Story Parking Lot is on the way anyway. I think if you go early enough, you won't have much of a wait in line or have to wait for the next bus because of crowds.

 

[amalone1013]

I've been pretty quiet too (except the last few days with random commentary). Work has been kinda crazy and I was also having browser problems and got locked out of the Dis because of course I couldn't remember my password. Back in now though.

I feel like I've made it nowhere on my theoretical London/Paris trip as DH keeps making requests that make the dates hard to figure out. I'm going to revoke his trip request rights First he had a themepark. Then he realized that there are these Victorian steam engines in London that he's been watching videos of on the internet for years... could we maybe go if it would work? Sure. Well of course we look and they are only scheduled to run them seven weekends this year. And none of them work with Labor Day timing. So we drop the plan of LD being an extra 'free' day off. Technically we could work one with LD, but then we would have to skip our HHN trip with Disfriends… Soooo we could go to HHN, come back for a few days, go to Europe starting with the steam engines. Or we could hit the October days, the only thing here being we would be better off to start in Paris and end in London and pay the extra to fly out of London. If we started with London that would put our Paris time for sure in the last half of the month which is when most UK/France schools have fall break, which I've been trying to avoid. Then there's the weekend before Thanksgiving, which I immediately thought, let's use Thanksgiving and Black Friday! But DH has elderly grandparents who aren't well so he doesn't want to do something like that while they are around still, which I am fine with. But we did talk about flying back that Wed, we'd be fine with being jet lagged for Thanksgiving lol. But wait... November dates mean the other theme parks (bc he added another request, of course) are closed for the season.

So the dates are hard enough, and then we are working with DHs already limited PTO. He should be fine to take part of it unpaid, honestly I think there is a good chance his boss would just make him use up his PTO but not take unpaid time... but we can work with either. But I need an idea of how many days I can play with to pick flights, and DH just keeps going well it depends on what we want to do! Well if you want to use that mentality that I'm quitting my job and living off savings for as long as possible while I travel There are a million things to do so we will just have to do what we want in our time limits! Go back again to do more things... etc. I think I've messed DH up now because we've had quite a few minute spontaneous trips and he's not getting that I don't want to be booking these flights 3 weeks out

 

[calypso726]

Wow! That is such a huge difference! I can see why most people prefer earning URs.

Keep in mind a few things, when you book with URs you won’t earn elite hotel status credits or loyalty points. This is different than when you use URs to pay for airfare which is no different than paying cash with regards to mileage earning and status.

Also, paying with URs via CSR account on the UR portal will always be less than paying with URs via the CSP or CIP. Using a CSP or CIP would have cost 21,600 URs instead of 18,000. That Seems like a drop in the bucket and is still way better than 50,000 BonBlah points. My point is that for some, holding a CSR and paying that $550 AF is a better proposition than keeping a CSP or CIP at $95.

For someone like me, and quite a few others on this thread, keeping a CSP or CIP over a CSR would cost more money and value in points redemption than paying the CSR AF. I know many of the bloggers say you have to spend x amount of dollars in dining and travel to make keeping a CSR worth it. Yeah, that’s not exactly how math works. My CSR is essentially a sock drawer card. It’s purpose is to increase the value of my existing UR points via the UR portal. Oh, and as a back up card to use when dining internationally if Amex isn’t accepted and incidentals at hotel stays.

Generally speaking, if a person is redeeming about $1,000 or more annually worth of travel via the UR portal they are losing money by keeping a CSP or CIP over a CSR.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Anyone had any luck with getting an additional reservation/walk-in day if for Droid Depot? I was telling my coworker about it the other day and he thought it was amazing and wanted me to get one for him if I can. I have a reservation but obviously that’s to build my own droid. Didn’t know if I would be lucky enough to be able to get to DH to build one too for my coworker when I do it.

 

[disfanforlife]

Keep in mind a few things, when you book with URs you won’t earn elite hotel status credits or loyalty points. This is different than when you use URs to pay for airfare which is no different than paying cash with regards to mileage earning and status.

Also, paying with URs via CSR account on the UR portal will always be less than paying with URs via the CSP or CIP. Using a CSP or CIP would have cost 21,600 URs instead of 18,000. That Seems like a drop in the bucket and is still way better than 50,000 BonBlah points. My point is that for some, holding a CSR and paying that $550 AF is a better proposition than keeping a CSP or CIP at $95.

For someone like me, and quite a few others on this thread, keeping a CSP or CIP over a CSR would cost more money and value in points redemption than paying the CSR AF. I know many of the bloggers say you have to spend x amount of dollars in dining and travel to make keeping a CSR worth it. Yeah, that’s not exactly how math works. My CSR is essentially a sock drawer card. It’s purpose is to increase the value of my existing UR points via the UR portal. Oh, and as a back up card to use when dining internationally if Amex isn’t accepted and incidentals at hotel stays.

Generally speaking, if a person is redeeming about $1,000 or more annually worth of travel via the UR portal they are losing money by keeping a CSP or CIP over a CSR.

Thank you so much for explaining all of that. I don’t have CSR or a CSP but will definitely consider getting one when I am ready to start redeeming that many URs.

 

[stitchfan18]

DH has his TSA precheck interview on Monday. I have the benefit on my AMEX Biz Plat for reimbursement, does DH need to take the actual platinum card to pay with, or can he use the employee card on the account? I'm hoping he gets approved quickly, I think mine took less than a week, but if he doesn't, do they still give TSA precheck others in your travel party? We're flying to Chicago in a few weeks, and I just remember that security being a pain, so I'm hoping we can get through precheck.

 

[WVMomof3]

Ha, no, he still hates it and wants to return to public school. He says he hates it even more since he is sick and can’t really enjoy our mini vacay to USO (we were stuck in the hotel room all day yesterday. He says he’s not going there for HS but we just signed the re-enrollment contract and have until 7/1 to pull him. They have a lot more work to do that public school so he hates that part.

He is going to the dance because he can take his BFF from public school.

Thanks for asking!

Hope he feels better soon so you guys can enjoy the weekend!

 

[striker1064]

DH has his TSA precheck interview on Monday. I have the benefit on my AMEX Biz Plat for reimbursement, does DH need to take the actual platinum card to pay with, or can he use the employee card on the account? I'm hoping he gets approved quickly, I think mine took less than a week, but if he doesn't, do they still give TSA precheck others in your travel party? We're flying to Chicago in a few weeks, and I just remember that security being a pain, so I'm hoping we can get through precheck.

I recall when I did TSA Precheck, I had to bring the card and pay in person. I'm not sure if this is on a center-by-center basis or something, though.

 

[calypso726]

Thank you so much for explaining all of that. I don’t have CSR or a CSP but will definitely consider getting one when I am ready to start redeeming that many URs.

You’re welcome. Nothing wrong with timing things for an application or upgrade when one is ready to pull the trigger. I know I have a post that went into the details a bit more. I’ll see if I can dig it out and repost.

 

[calypso726]

@disfanforlife here you go.

$550 on CSR minus $300 travel credit I am spending anyway - $250. Difference between $250 CSR - $95 CIP/CSP = $155

I'd still keep it. We booked 4 nights at Ashford Castle with UR points for next year. All in the price of the hotel was $4,117. We "paid" 274,477 UR points through the CSR. If I had a CSP/CIP I would have had to pay 329,372 UR points. That's a difference of 54,895 points. That's a $548 statement credit, CSP/CIP value of $686 or CSR value of $823. For the way I redeem points via UR it is still more vaulable for me to keep the card even if they raise the fee for something I can't or won't use. PCing the card would cost me too much money lost in point redemption.

I get that not everyone goes through and redeems points the way we do. But even those doing once a year redemptions may want to look at their own math before jumping the gun one way or the other.

Let's say you are going to redeem a $500 RT flight for a party of 2. That's $1000. If you hold a CSP or CIP that should cost you 80,000 UR points. If you hold a CSR those flights would cost you 66,666 points. That is a difference of 13,334 points which is equivalent to $166 in the CSP/CIP UR portal. So holding the CIP/CSP over the CSR just cost you $166 in points. If someone is redeeming $1,000 or more via the UR portal each year, then they may be looking at a small loss, or in my case a huge loss by PCing the card if it goes up to $550.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Wenwow how do I do that? Is there a special place to email them?

Ok - just going back through the thread to update the DISchurners news thread...but I love this typo! @wendow - I will now be calling you WenWOW!!!

 

[Limes96]

Europe people, is there any was to use points/miles to pay for Eurostar train tickets? I read about using MR but looks like that’s for UK Amex only.

 

[bernina]

DH has his TSA precheck interview on Monday. I have the benefit on my AMEX Biz Plat for reimbursement, does DH need to take the actual platinum card to pay with, or can he use the employee card on the account? I'm hoping he gets approved quickly, I think mine took less than a week, but if he doesn't, do they still give TSA precheck others in your travel party? We're flying to Chicago in a few weeks, and I just remember that security being a pain, so I'm hoping we can get through precheck.

I also have the Amex Biz Plat and was researching to see if the free Green employee cards received TSA credit. I found several DPs in the comments on sites like Doctor of Credit indicating they did indeed receive the credit. I don't yet have personal experience but will be trying later this year. So if those data points are correct (and I don't have a reason to doubt them), DH could use his employee card and receive the credit. This would not be using your credit which would still be available on your Biz Platinum.

 

[Haley R]

Dh said my valentine present was to choose whatever hotel I wanted for when we go to do pictures even if it’s expensive. I think I’m gonna stick with POR though. YC is $393/night and that’s just a lot of money. Plus I’m planning to get pictures at POFQ anyway