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

[GlamMistress]

Boy it's been a long day. Crazy at work. I started making alternate plans to get down to Miami for my Disney cruise next week once I saw the news about the FAA groundstops... now it seems we've got a deal to reopen the government so I'm not worried about getting to warmer weather now.

I hope everyone gets their back pay like Monday.

I'm so behind here. Off to catch up!

 

[Angrose]

How do you plan on saving on the Grand Californian stay? I’ve been planning our Thanksgiving trip to Disneyland, which for the past two years we booked the Disneyland Hotel using UR points. With that option out, I planned to pay for it using discounted Disney GCs, but Disney won’t take Disney GCs as payment on a deposit for a room-only reservation.

I've been wanting to respond to this for the past few days. I stayed at the Grand 3x last year. For my March one night stay I got a great AP rate and offset the deposit with DH's new Disney card with the $200 stmt credit. In April we stayed for two nights and got the Dapper Days rate, deposit offset with the CSR travel credit. In August we stayed four nights and I cashed out MRs for 1.25x via Schwab Plat. I suppose if you have URs you could cash them out to cover the deposit and then pay the remaining balance with the discounted gift cards? Or you could hop on the grAAvy train and book it via AA's portal but...I just looked for that week and they're charging 122,225 miles per night...YIKES!

 

[Angrose]

so far behind today...but uhhh yeah my girlie voice is pretty awesome

So many talents!

I called SPG for my DH one time because I couldn't login to his account and wanted them to reset it. I answered all the security questions correctly but I had a terrible time putting on a male voice with a British accent. The CSR was like, you don't sound like a man??!! I just coughed, said I had a cold, and quickly hung up. In hindsight, I don't know why I even tried the accent, like how would they even know he had one??!! That scared me off from EVER calling in for him again!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

omgosh omgosh omgosh!!!!!! does this mean something!!!?????

please tell me this hasn't been discussed in the last 24 hours and I am late the party...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Did you call Citi again for the match? Got a letter that they are matching me to 60,000 for 2k spend. Also got a $250 credit for AA gift card.

That's an after vacation thing...lol But I will try.

 

[vanjust14]

omgosh omgosh omgosh!!!!!! does this mean something!!!????? View attachment 378143

please tell me this hasn't been discussed in the last 24 hours and I am late the party...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

omgosh omgosh omgosh!!!!!! does this mean something!!!????? View attachment 378143

please tell me this hasn't been discussed in the last 24 hours and I am late the party...

WHATTTTT????? I need to investigate this too!!! You do not appear to be late...you appear to be FIRST to the party!

EDIT: I don't think this is a sign

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Downgrade from Lux/Brilliant to SPG/Bonvoy? Yes, it will be an option -Frequent Miler

Per an Amex exec:


This is potentially big news, and I posted some thoughts on r/DISchurners about the implications this may have on second (and subsequent) year AFs.

Thanks for adding this to the news thread and the Marriott DP as well!

I also added the HSA discussion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DISchurners/comments/aj6vx6/news_discussion_thread/

 

[Lain]

Thank you @SouthFayetteFan for starting the new thread! Already over 100 pages...it'll hit 1,000 before we know it!

I'm not one to comment much, but thought I'd share an update that I hit the $10,000 spend for the AMEX Biz Plat a few days ago and my 100k MR points have already posted! (This is the deal that you can only get by calling in - PM @Lain if interested). I opened the card on 11/28/18 for the triple dip and it's a little scary how fast we met the spend, all organically. A third of the charges went to rent via Plastiq, one third WDW, and the other third just everyday spend. The sad thing is that we had to cancel the WDW trip so we got refunded, but the spend still counted. I think I now have to make that up somehow or potentially get in trouble with the RATs, right? I do have another MSR that I'm working on but can continue to charge regular small amounts on the Biz Plat, it will just take awhile to spend another $3,000 to make up for it! Will that make the RATs happy?

Yes, absolutely make up the refunded spend within the 3 months MSR period. Although Amex counts spend-only when triggering the signup bonus, and doesn't deduct for refunds for the purposes of the bonus posting, the terms say returns, fees, and other credits don't count. You don't want to risk Amex clawing back your points if they find you didn't meet the MSR. I know the Biz Plat doesn't have any good bonus categories to put ongoing spend on, but you should try to keep spending on it anyway because the RATs seem to be looking for drop-offs in spend after meeting MSR to deny future bonuses.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

WHATTTTT????? I need to investigate this too!!! You do not appear to be late...you appear to be FIRST to the party!

I was about to cash out $500 worth of URs towards my trip tomorrow and wanted to check one more time. So I pulled up an Orlando search for random dates and then in the search box typed "Disney's" because sometimes I trick the aggregators to make them pop up that way when I can't otherwise find them. Scrolled down and saw that SSR. But when I click it, it takes me to a new search page. well, maybe it is a glimmer of hope...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

omgosh omgosh omgosh!!!!!! does this mean something!!!????? View attachment 378143

please tell me this hasn't been discussed in the last 24 hours and I am late the party...

This may be a false alarm...

In reading the description it sounds like somebody listing a "vacation rental" property. I wonder if somebody is trying to rent their points through this some weird way... It's very strange... I don't think it's a sign unfortunately.

 

[Angrose]

Yes, absolutely make up the refunded spend within the 3 months MSR period. Although Amex counts spend-only when triggering the signup bonus, and doesn't deduct for refunds for the purposes of the bonus posting, the terms say returns, fees, and other credits don't count. You don't want to risk Amex clawing back your points if they find you didn't meet the MSR. I know the Biz Plat doesn't have any good bonus categories to put ongoing spend on, but you should try to keep spending on it anyway because the RATs seem to be looking for drop-offs in spend after meeting MSR to deny future bonuses.

Thanks, I figured as much. To be honest, I'm going to be in the AMEX dog house by this summer anyway after I cancel 5 cards with them to avoid AFs! These are cards I opened to rack up MRs and cash out via Schwab. After July it's quite possible I may never get approved for another AMEX card.

 

[GlamMistress]

Our CSP cards arrived today. Officially back in the UR game I guess. We never used the Freedom card we upgraded. Will drop the CSP into rotation now, along with the Amex pink gold and Arrival+. Will use the CSP to pay for our rental car after the Disney cruise.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

This may be a false alarm...

In reading the description it sounds like somebody listing a "vacation rental" property. I wonder if somebody is trying to rent their points through this some weird way... It's very strange... I don't think it's a sign unfortunately.

How'd you even get to the description? It kept taking me to another search page. Well, I guess if we can book SSR at the price point rentals usually go for, on the portal, that is still a bit of a win.

 

[WVMomof3]

Thanks to those that gave tips for DD on her London layover. She made it into the city and back to the airport no problem. I’m not sure how much she got to see, but she did try to recreate a photo. Anyone know who the top left person in photo is? My hint is my DD would love to take her place and be married to her man. Lol.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks to those that gave tips for DD on her London layover. She made it into the city and back to the airport no problem. I’m not sure how much she got to see, but she did try to recreate a photo. Anyone know who the top left person in photo is? My hint is my DD would love to take her place and be married to her man. Lol.

View attachment 378148

Duchess Meghan! Cute pic of your DD and so glad she made it into London for a while before catching her flight.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

And P.S. I do know that's not the correct form of address, LOL. It's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, but I like my way better Debrette's take note!

 

[Lain]

Interesting. I got a replacement card in the mail since the MB Plat has been discontinued and converted to the vanilla Platinum. My new vanilla Platinum has the contactless feature, but now also has the same plastic-y matte back layer as the Gold. My old MB Plat, canceled vanilla Plat, and Biz Plat all have the shiny metal(lic?) layer but no contactless.

 

[Alexle2007]

Pollyanna is on our list for this weekend! All I remember about it is a scene where Haley Mills is wearing part the American flag, its super cheesy and I LOVED it when I was a kid.

I agree - and the old Parent Trap is such a favorite of mine, I was prepared to absolutely hate the new one. Lindsay Lohan was really cute when she was a kid.

North by Northwest is great- cheese and all. Also, To Catch a Thief. And Charade. And It Happened One Night (not Cary Grant, but Cary Grant always makes me think of Clark Gable).

Sorry - I spent summers with my grandparents as a kid and watched a ton of old movies with them! Its really fun watching those same movies with my kids now.

What am I missing that I have never heard of any of these movies? I am no where close to being a 20 something.

 

[elgerber]

I forgot Charade, that is a great movie too!!!