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

[FloridaNative8]

My Memaw passed away this morning so I'm a bit distracted with that today. Of all my grandparents I expected her to go last, not first. While I was semi-prepared, it was much sooner than I thought it would be.

I was supposed to book our tours for Costa Rica today and completely forgot. Should I put that on CSR or the CIP I'm working on? It won't impact meeting the CIP spend if I do or don't.

So sorry for your loss... I only have 2 grandparents left, and I'm trying to prepare myself, but you can never be fully ready, I'm sure.

 

[pillow]

You guys made me look . . . I had forgotten about my Barclay's Aviator request for the 10k extra AA miles. Looks like they are on my account - yay!

 

[1st*toright]

SO my DH has some upcoming work travel...it happens rarely- We got to book his flights using our own methods(got points,thank you very much) but he had to book his hotel thru their link/portal from work- it was a Hilton,and when he was done it had generated another Hh# for the booking,instead of his own. (He knows nothing of his own lol) is there anything I can do to apply that booking to his actual #?That way he might get the points for it?

Just call the HHonors customer service account and let them know you noticed the rewards number wasn't right, and ask them to put in the correct one. Should work. It may be that someone in the travel department has it defaulting to their own rewards number, but usually it is very possible to change it (at least, with Marriotts it is - not as familiar with HHonors).

 

[liloca]

SW still lets you preboard to wipe down your seats even though they don’t serve peanuts anymore. People can still bring their own food containing peanuts. Just an FYI.

I just want to chime in as my DS is allergic to peanuts and egg and the preboarding really depends on the crew. Some of them let me board early to wipe all the seats/trays and some will say that I can’t and that I need to wait for family boarding.

 

[schmass]

My Memaw passed away this morning so I'm a bit distracted with that today. Of all my grandparents I expected her to go last, not first. While I was semi-prepared, it was much sooner than I thought it would be.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Hi All,
I'm very new to the group and planning on my first Disney Vacation with family. My first purpose is trying to figure out how to save money. I am a frequent United flier and saw I was able to redeem my miles for gift cards there. I heard from other friends that Southwest and Delta do something similar. Does anyone know of other programs I can use my rewards on to get free Disney Gift Cards?
Thank you!

What are you planning on using these gift cards for? When you visit Disney, what does your trip look like?

• Where do you stay? (On-site/Off-site, resort level, etc)
• What time of year?
• How many travelers & ages?
• How many days?
• Do you drive or fly?
• Annual pass or regular tickets?
• Any Disney promos you like to use?

Discounted gift cards are great...but what about potentially using points to just travel for FREE Would that interest you

 

[DisneyMandC]

In my opinion, lifetime silver is pretty useless - no good perks and only a small increase in points earned. Gold is easy to come by with credit cards/other status matches, and is not particularly great, only useful perk is additional points on stays, so you likely won't be in silver status much anyway. Lifetime status at gold or platinum is a loooooong way off for either of you, so I think the year by year opportunity to get status is probably more important at this point.

In my book Marriott Platinum is the only status that really gives you anything - ok chance of upgrade when you ask nicely, lounge access (if there is one), some kind of breakfast at most (not all) Marriott brands, plus when you hit Platinum you get 5 suite night upgrades (which are not guaranteed, and some people complain that they never actually get an upgrade using them, but can work well if you travel slightly off season - both the requests I've used have gotten me upgrades to junior suites).

In your situation, I would concentrate all your Marriott stays with the person most likely to get to 50 nights in any given year. If that is you, I'd book all of your travel and DH's work travel using your account (if his work travel arrangements will allow this). If the reservation is in your name, you will need to call the hotel and tell them that your husband will be arriving before you, so you want to be sure his name is also on the reservation. That way would be able to aggregate all of the elite nights under your account. Not 100% foolproof - you are supposed to get credit only for nights when you are actually in the room, but we've done this many times without an issue (my DH doesn't even have a Marriott account).

I know upgrades etc. are not super important to you, so I wouldn't get too excited about killing yourself to get to 50 nights, but if you happen to have a heavy travel year, you might find a use for the platinum benefits.

ETA - I'm having a very love/hate moment with Bonvoy. I've got a good few years of Platinum from when I traveled more for work, so lifetime Platinum would only take me another couple of years, if I maintain status and get a bunch more Marriott stays. On the other hand, 50 nights a year means pretty much all my hotel nights need to be at Marriotts, so I'm feeling like a Bonvoy hostage at the moment and kinda cranky about it.

Thanks! Yeah that was my other thought- to just book DH's travel on my account. Even then I don't think we'll get close though, but I guess I'll have to see what his travel plans are and go from there. The only reason I'd want platinum is to try to get things like breakfast/lounge when we go to Japan next year, but honestly I know we're barely going to be at the hotel enough to enjoy things like a room upgrade.

Interestingly, when I went to my conference the other week they gave me free breakfast all three days. No idea why, it was a really nice hot breakfast buffet. Only one other coworker out of the 30 who were there got it, and she's platinum. We also both got free parking for the duration of our stays. I did get an upgrade from a city view room to a refurbished river view room too. The hotel is renovating some of its floors so I don't know if they did it as a courtesy because of our status or what. It wasn't mentioned to me when I checked in other than "oh, you're getting free breakfast every day."

 

[Jax1023]

I applied for the barclay aaviator business. It went pending.

When I try the online status check thing, it says there are no applications with my information. I already got the emails from my credit services that they pulled my credit.

I’ve never not had an instant approval! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here!

 

[PolyRob]

I just want to chime in as my DS is allergic to peanuts and egg and the preboarding really depends on the crew. Some of them let me board early to wipe all the seats/trays and some will say that I can’t and that I need to wait for family boarding.

I witnessed something like this happen in MCO one time and I was shocked!

 

[schmass]

I just want to chime in as my DS is allergic to peanuts and egg and the preboarding really depends on the crew. Some of them let me board early to wipe all the seats/trays and some will say that I can’t and that I need to wait for family boarding.

My kids are allergic to peanuts, treenuts and a whole list of other foods. SW has let us preboard, but sometimes they are snarky about it, saying that there's really no need since they don't serve peanuts onboard anymore. When we explain that people still bring nuts onboard and we want to wipe everything down to be safe, they usually relent. One time we boarded (a different airline) and there was a cashew on DS's seat!

 

[DisneyMandC]

I applied for the barclay aaviator business. It went pending.

When I try the online status check thing, it says there are no applications with my information. I already got the emails from my credit services that they pulled my credit.

I’ve never not had an instant approval! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here!

Did you use the right status checker? https://www.barclaycardus.com/apply/cas/applications/search?PARTNERID=BUSINESS

 

[Albort]

Can someone help me find airline award availability? I am trying to find flights to Rome in 2020 probably march/april, dates are flexible. I can fly out of DCA, IAD, JFK, LGA, or EWR. I have a lot of AA miles, MR, and should be at around 200,000 Delta miles by the end of may. I want anything but economy. Id settle for Delta comfort. I looked at AA, they have Biz flights for 57,000 miles but they have me flying through London and the fees are insane. Could I use AA miles on another carrier? How do I do that?

ETA- I just need flights for me and SO.

i havent did any in depth searches but i do see some Y from PHL-->FCO 3/2/20. i havent checked AC either for *A partners. will have to do the search later.

 

[Jax1023]

Did you use the right status checker? https://www.barclaycardus.com/apply/cas/applications/search?PARTNERID=BUSINESS

Yes! It keeps telling me I have no applications in the past 90 days and to call a customer service number, but I really don’t think I want to do that especially if it means I have to talk to a person

 

[1st*toright]

Thanks! Yeah that was my other thought- to just book DH's travel on my account. Even then I don't think we'll get close though, but I guess I'll have to see what his travel plans are and go from there. The only reason I'd want platinum is to try to get things like breakfast/lounge when we go to Japan next year, but honestly I know we're barely going to be at the hotel enough to enjoy things like a room upgrade.

Interestingly, when I went to my conference the other week they gave me free breakfast all three days. No idea why, it was a really nice hot breakfast buffet. Only one other coworker out of the 30 who were there got it, and she's platinum. We also both got free parking for the duration of our stays. I did get an upgrade from a city view room to a refurbished river view room too. The hotel is renovating some of its floors so I don't know if they did it as a courtesy because of our status or what. It wasn't mentioned to me when I checked in other than "oh, you're getting free breakfast every day."

That's pretty sweet. Maybe something about the rate you booked? What flavor of a Marriott was it?

I always enjoy a room upgrade (unless I'm traveling for work, in which case I legit don't care). If the kids are with us every inch of extra space is valuable. If the kids aren't with us, DH and I almost always plan one morning to sleep late and hang out in our PJs (something we never ever get to do at home) and being in a swanky hotel room feels extra decadent (esp. if we can get good coffee from room service...) Looking forward to that this weekend when we go to NYC!

 

[speedyfishy]

i havent did any in depth searches but i do see some Y from PHL-->FCO 3/2/20. i havent checked AC either for *A partners. will have to do the search later.

On AA?

 

[Judique]

My Memaw passed away this morning so I'm a bit distracted with that today. Of all my grandparents I expected her to go last, not first. While I was semi-prepared, it was much sooner than I thought it would be.

I was supposed to book our tours for Costa Rica today and completely forgot. Should I put that on CSR or the CIP I'm working on? It won't impact meeting the CIP spend if I do or don't.

So sorry to hear this.

 

[miztressuz]

So I need some advice on status with Marriott. I never really pay attention to this sort of stuff since status rarely matters to me, or I'm happy enough to get whatever comes with a credit card.

My Marriott account:
- Currently have Gold Elite through one of my cards (Amex Bonvoy Biz? Chase Marriott Biz? Not sure)
- 15 nights have been credited to my account for the year
- I will for sure have 7 more nights on my account this year from paid stays
- 44 Lifetime nights

DH's Marriott Account:
- Currently Silver Elite, has been as high as Platinum in the past when traveling frequently
- 17 nights credited to his account for this year (he has the Bonvoy Biz)
- DH will start traveling more for work this year. Not on a weekly or even monthly basis, but definitely more overnight stays in the future
- 204 Lifetime nights

We have a ten night stay that we need to book for October. Is there any advantage on booking it one account versus the other? I was thinking maybe we could get DH closer to lifetime silver status, but not really sure how much that matters since I plan on keeping our Bonvoy Biz/Marriott Biz cards long term.

Anything less than Platinum is really only going to help you if you do paid stays, it'll get you a bonus on the base earn rate. Otherwise Silver and Gold are kinda Meh statuses now. The advantage to lifetime Silver is your points are supposed to never expire with lifetime status. Despite my excitement at hubby finally getting Lifetime Silver (or Lifetime Gold as his account still says despite not being anywhere close to the requirements ) it's not something I'd be actively seeking now. It's something that's nice if you made it but I wouldn't see it as a goal itself.

That said, however, I'd still try to put as much on one account as I could to try for Platinum. Since DH's account has the better chance at status, both on a yearly and lifetime basis, I'd try to consolidate as much as I could there. Who knows, maybe one day in the not so distant future it becomes a good program again and slogging through the cruddy years pays off. (one can dream ) And since DH's account isn't far off from the Lifetime Silver stats, and it's not much extra effort for it, it'd be a nice side effect.

One the fence about your account, you'd only be 3 nights away from keeping Gold so I'd make some game day decisions later in the year on trying to keep that. Like, if you're way short of Platinum on DH's account at that point, instead of throwing them at the lifetime nights number I'd probably put them on your account to keep up the Gold for your work trips.

 

[trenty]

Hi All,
I'm very new to the group and planning on my first Disney Vacation with family. My first purpose is trying to figure out how to save money. I am a frequent United flier and saw I was able to redeem my miles for gift cards there. I heard from other friends that Southwest and Delta do something similar. Does anyone know of other programs I can use my rewards on to get free Disney Gift Cards?
Thank you!

Welcome. I cannot really help with cc rewards and Disney. But have you checked out the Swagbucks thread? Many of us earn free gift cards from sites like swagbucks and mypoints, and apps like Shopkick, Dabble, etc...

 

[CaT_DisLife]

I didn't know that about Delta. Thank you!

Yes, allergies are so hard. My ds10 is *finally* outgrowing his cow's milk allergy and while cow's milk is everywhere, and he's been fairly limited, his allergy was never anaphylactic and I never worried that much. OTOH, my dd18 went into anaphylaxis at 18 mos old when she first ingested peanut butter and then again at 16yo at school after eating a dessert with peanuts (unknowingly). We keep several epi-pens handy! Her allergy is severe and she can feel her chest constricting when she is around someone eating peanuts so it seems mildly airborne...? I almost liked when SW served peanuts better as we cleaned her area and then the flight attendants announced there was a peanut allergy on board which I think kept some people from opening their bag of peanuts.

Yikes, anaphylactic reactions are so, so scary! I don’t get anaphylactic reactions to peanuts but my doc gave me a prescription for epipen and told me to carry these with me at all times. The only place where I feel safe with my peanut allergy is at Disney because the staff are so careful with this too. Having the chef come out to talk to you and tell you that they will prepare your food away from any of the allergens that may affect you is so comforting.

I still travel to other places but research the food and restaurants. I also print out free allergy cards in the language of the country that I go to.

 

[Lain]

PSA: Tomorrow, Wed. April 24, 2019 is the LAST DAY to apply for the Amex Marriott BONVOY BRILLIANT (formerly the "SPG Lux") and BONVOY BUSINESS (formerly the "SPG Biz") at the elevated 100,000 Points welcome offers.