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

[wendow]

@GlamMistress prayers that your dh is ok and that life calms down for you soon.

As far as plans, I’m still working on August 2019 plans. I don’t get much further out than that lol!

 

[wendow]

I know we have a lot of YC/BC/BW/Swolphin fans here on the thread. Did you all see where they put the new smoking area at DHS??

This is terrible! Welcome to our guests staying at some of our most expensive resorts. Here’s a cloud of smoke!!

View attachment 398446

Well that stinks! Literally

 

[elgerber]

I know we have a lot of YC/BC/BW/Swolphin fans here on the thread. Did you all see where they put the new smoking area at DHS??

This is terrible! Welcome to our guests staying at some of our most expensive resorts. Here’s a cloud of smoke!!

View attachment 398446

I did see this and thought the same thing! WTH were they thinking? Luckily we almost never take the boat, we usually walk.

 

[SBWB48]

Has anyone seen @SBWB48 around? It’s been like forever since she’s posted here.

By clicking on the link for her name you can see that she was on the boards late yesterday evening. You could pm her and ask how she is doing. That said, @SBWB48 - we are now thinking about you! Hopefully all is well and you are just busy! Come on by and say hello.

Awww, thanks for thinking of me @Lain and @Judique

I've been around, but in total lurkdom after life (and a end of May trip to WDW!) got in the way, and I ended up nearly 100 pages behind . I'm stubborn and stuck in my ways that I want to read/skim every post to still feel part of the group lol. I've made a dent in it so far (only 40 pages now!) until @Lain paged me .

I appreciate the thought and the fact that someone still remembered me My user name isn't exactly an easy one to just think of lol.

Since I last posted, although I've been quiet around here, I haven't been out of churning. I've been hitting the MCGCs promos and the 1% fee on Plastiq now with MCGCs has been lovely for MS when I have the time. I got DH CIP #2 and the United Biz (which I sorely regret now, but it is what it is). I've been laying low since I'm 6/24 until next May and trying to figure out what I want to do since DH is still 3/24 and will return to 2/24 later in July. I've also been trying to spend down all the VGCs I amassed previously and maximize category spend here and there.

I'll be back to posting soon! Back to the 40 pages I have left to go!

 

[CaleCakes]

I have about $215 in reward dollars from my Amex blue card. If I use 200 of it to get an Amex gift card, can I then use that card to buy a Disney gift card?

 

[wed100105]

If you aren’t going to get a lot of use out of the CP in 2019, you may want to look to earn it in early 2020 and get good use out of it in 2020/2021. For this flight, you could just transfer URs to SW to cover it. You can always earn more URs via CIP2, or CIC or CIU

That's not a bad idea, plus I could use my Aspire card to buy Southwest gift cards and use the airline credit for one of the tickets. Southwest has several nonstop flights out of STL, which would be helpful for us. I will continue to stalk Allegiant's website (in incognito mode), too. I had heard that Allegiant's best prices were right away, but I'm hoping with 3 days of flights 12/24, 12/25, and 12/26 that prices will drop significantly. I'm not sure the return flight will be good savings though. There are only a few that first week of January returning to our home airport.

Ideally, I think we're willing to pay around $300 per person round trip out of our home airport. Allegiant has really generous military baggage and seat assignment policies as well, which would work to our advantage on this particular trip. I'll keep looking. I really apprecaite the help with Southwest. It's good to have an Ace in the hole.

 

[GusGus16]

Under 2 weeks from my first trip to Disneyland and California, I'm super excited about it. Things changed and now I'm spending almost two weeks traveling, which I'm breaking up in 3 "mini" trips.
1st is disneyland- staying at the 4 points sheraton anahiem booked 5 nights using 70,000 Marriott points (I actually have two rooms booked given the group who is going so grand total of 140,000 points for 10 nights)...hoping this is going to be a good choice. Bought the 3 day park tickets from the ticket promotion. Booked a rental car through costco and I keep checking to rebook when the cost goes down. I've been reading through the disneyland board and think I have a good handle on maxpass and hoping touring around the park. So far only have 1 lunch reservation to Blue Bayou, I need to look if there are anymore I'm interested in booking. I plan to do grocery/costco run after we fly in, and appears to be one north of disneyland so that will be convenient.
2nd San Diego-work portion of my trip, still hoping to visit the zoo and do some sight seeing.
3rd Pacific coast highway, all hotels booked using Marriott points on the way to San Fransisco. Only going to be me and my sister during this portion and the goal was to minimize out of pocket cost at least for hotels.

Sharing since it is slightly churning related. Finishing my CIP MSR, given my recent citi failure I'm just planning on optimizing my spend on my current cards as I likely wouldn't get the card in time. I'll plan to use my SPG LUX credit on the work hotels in san diego as those aren't booked on points and use my SPG LUX for the car rental insurance as the only other car with primary car rental insurance is my CIP. Any suggestions for my trip would be appreciated!

ETA: flights from southwest RR points and companion pass!

 

[RamblingMad]

Credit card performance is getting worse. What this means is that a lot of perks you're seeing might start to go away. Keep your eyes on the perks as I expect credit card companies might start to scale them back via account change notices.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...s-higher-with-credit-card-losses?srnd=premium

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

For the r/churning fans here... user name checks out??

 

[StephPlum]

Is there info about PNC on reddit? I’ve seen a lot of those down here so I’m wondering if that should be our local bank after we move. I don’t know anything about them

PNC is good for the bonus but in my opinion, the website sucks, their way of verifying you when you log in sometimes or transfer and the transfer limits are low. It would not be my first choice for an everyday bank. I am planning to close my accounts once it is safe to do post-bonus.

I don't tell many people my plans until it gets closer. I tell DH just to get it cleared with him. His eyes usually glaze over and it's in one ear out the other, lol. But he's usually fine with it as long as it's not too close to other trips or something that seems repetitive. I'll tell my BFF, who's a spur of the moment type gal. She usually just laughs. Oh the other hand, when she's a month out and doesn't have all the hotels booked, I stare at her incredulously. LOL.

Yeah, I don't share that list with many people. I have it easy as I am main decision maker on trips.

My plans already laid out are mainly for a large trip for the year. Then I will add on some smaller trips. I do travel a little for work and I try to add on a few days if it is place I want to explore. I won't know where those trips are until a few months before.

Ahh maybe someday I want to be spur of the moment like your BFF. It would stress me out though to let it go to within a month out!

 

[StephPlum]

3rd Pacific coast highway,

Sounds like a great trip. The PCH is on my road trip bucket list.

 

[miztressuz]

Are you looking for a free night for Hilton or for Marriott? I never received the email with my Hilton weekend certificate, but it showed up in AmEx dashboard. Over on the right, under my Hilton points total, is a link to view free weekend night rewards. There might be something similar for Marriott.

For Marriott, it should pop up in my Marriott account in the activity page. I've been checking there every other day for the last couple weeks. I see nothing like that in the AmEx dashboard for Marriott. They give me a Redeem Points button that just opens up the Marriott activity page... that shows me no certificate ​

MMS is shilling the Bonvoy Biz HARD even after the welcome offer dropped from 100k to only 75k Marriott points.

- "3 of our team members are seriously considering getting [it] — and our senior editor [] already has the card."

Wondering why they haven't already jumped on this card (and its previous iteration) when the welcome offers were much better, like at 100k Marriott points or 35k Starpoints (105k Marriott points). Or when the first year AF was waived and they could've locked in a lower $95 second year AF?

Newbie's, they had to bring in fresh blood so the 3 team members are the new college interns who haven't been put on research duty yet to know any better.

- "A Better Hotel Experience [with] automatic Silver Marriott Bonvoy elite status."

Good thing this is in writing, because I don't think anyone can convincing say Silver Bonbon status is worth anything with a straight face.

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- "Three of us on the team plan to apply for the card."

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Sure, it's just a looooong term plan for 6 months from now when there's a waaayyyy better offer up

 

[amalone1013]

Just got to the end of season 6 of gilmore girls. DH is angry sighing across the room...

 

[CaT_DisLife]

I've been in a weird space, just quietly reading along. DH had an MRI today. It should be read tomorrow. Hopefully everything is okay. This is from his recent ER visit and a CT scan that showed a little something abnormal. I am taking a vacation day Friday. I'm pretty mentally fried right now.

Conversation Starter:

Is anyone else already actively working on 2021 vacation plans? I've already got my 2020 locked in with a Disney cruise and a trip to WDW for food and wine. I've got 2021 pretty narrowed down too.

I can't talk about this in real life - people would think I was insane planning trips that far in advance. But I can't be the only one, right?

Once I'm under 5/24, I'll be actively racking up URs again and I plan on using them for either Greece or Norway.

Sending you a virtual hug. Hope everything’s ok with your DH.

 

[Psychodisney]

I did see this and thought the same thing! WTH were they thinking? Luckily we almost never take the boat, we usually walk.

That smoking section has always been there. I notice every smoking section because it bothers me so much!
The one that always bothered me in MK was the path from the castle to Adventureland/back of Liberty Square. SO glad they are trying to restrict smoking a little more.

 

[Haley R]

PNC is good for the bonus but in my opinion, the website sucks, their way of verifying you when you log in sometimes or transfer and the transfer limits are low. It would not be my first choice for an everyday bank. I am planning to close my accounts once it is safe to do post-bonus.


Yeah, I don't share that list with many people. I have it easy as I am main decision maker on trips.

My plans already laid out are mainly for a large trip for the year. Then I will add on some smaller trips. I do travel a little for work and I try to add on a few days if it is place I want to explore. I won't know where those trips are until a few months before.

Ahh maybe someday I want to be spur of the moment like your BFF. It would stress me out though to let it go to within a month out!

We really just need a bank close by that we can get cash out of or deposit cash. Otherwise we will use Heritage bank for everything else. Do you think they would be okay for those purposes? If not, who do you suggest? Chase bank?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

That smoking section has always been there. I notice every smoking section because it bothers me so much!
The one that always bothered me in MK was the path from the castle to Adventureland/back of Liberty Square. SO glad they are trying to restrict smoking a little more.

The problem is that this is now the ONLY smoking section so for those waiting for a boat, you may have dozens of smoker friends there waiting with you (vs what used to be a much sparser smoker crowd since it was so out of the way/inconvenient).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

We really just need a bank close by that we can get cash out of or deposit cash. Otherwise we will use Heritage bank for everything else. Do you think they would be okay for those purposes? If not, who do you suggest? Chase bank?

As a Pittsburgh guy, I do all my banking at PNC (they’re headquartered here). They work fine for me. And for those wondering, I do not work there I work at a competitor bank haha.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

@Lain - would this be the opposite of what you said about MMS earlier?

https://mobile.twitter.com/Drofcredit/status/1123784615859249152

For those wondering why we love DoC so much...that pretty much explains it!

 

[afan]

We really just need a bank close by that we can get cash out of or deposit cash. Otherwise we will use Heritage bank for everything else. Do you think they would be okay for those purposes? If not, who do you suggest? Chase bank?

I really liked Suntrust when I was in NC and the only reason I switched is because they aren't out west. You might also look for a credit union, you might be able to find one with interest on checking. Mine does interest on balances up to 500 and since it's just a holding acct you probably wouldn't have more than that in it anyway. Just a thought.

My only experience with PNC was with the refi on my house and it wasn't a good experience, though I don't know how much of that was the bank vs the guy we were dealing with that may have just been a broker and not a bank emp. They've been fine in the roughly 8 years they've held my mortgage though. But I HATE their website. I don't even know if I can still get on it or how. It was bad so I just use bill pay through my bank. It makes BofA look good and it's awful.