I love credit cards so much! v5.0 - 2022 (see first page for add'l details)

[elgerber]

Does anyone know if the capital one points can be used towards Disneyland tickets?

Once I pay for summer camp this month, we should be done with our two companion passes and planning a Disneyland trip this summer. I also offered to put the very large payment for a friends vrbo trip this summer on one of my cards, so that’s like 3.5k.

The whole trip is free hotels on points except the Grand Canyon hotel and the Disneyland tickets. If I could use the capital one points to bring down those costs, it could be worth it:

Undercover tourist codes as Travel with Cap One to use Venture Miles to cover them.

 

[Judique]

Well..... Since I'm paring (my AF cards) I might as well be sharing my reasoning..... recently,due to some medical issues our single income household took a hit to a no income situation. (hopefully temporary)
so far, I've still been able to utilize some built up benefits and points to go on a couple of trips (yay) but since we currently have $0 coming in, all AF cards are on the block right now...... I'll share one thing about this 'game' that has been invaluable (in addition to a 'free' Disney trip last month) over the course of the past 2 years....I focused solely on saving like a fiend,and paying off our mortgage earlier than normal. I used every tactic I could find to turn rewards and points into savings for our household- which in turn was flipped directly into our mortgage. I paid it all off in Oct '21. I used (PYB) around 900,000 UR (at least) and translated all of that into extra payments.
Now that we're in this situation -what a relief to not have that payment hanging over us. I was unsure if I had chosen correctly with all those points,but I'm so glad I was able to do this! Now I'm on to figuring out a side hustle for a while,and removing any unnecessary costs,like AF etc. The one I WILL keep is my CSP bc having the ability to still getaway and have a little fun at no cost is such a blessing! (and use the UR as cash if needed) I appreciate all the advice and cameraderie on this thread...and inspiration for travel ideas!

One smart cookie.....

 

[lsutigers03]

It's not 50% of the cost, the points you use are worth 50% more. So 36,667 X 1.5 = 55,000 URs. Or, the 55,000 points you would have used divided by 1.5 is 36,667 URs.

Makes sense . Thank you I just didn't understand how it worked.

 

[KPK02090]

So nice to be decompressing on this beautiful island! This will be DS’s final “real” Spring Break since public school basically only gets a long Easter weekend. SNA with Hyatt used to upgrade to a family 2 bedroom suite. Easily would have paid over $6000 instead only 150k points.View attachment 653808

Just added to my bucket list. Gorgeous!
Is an SNA a suite award or something? Do you get them from having a Hyatt card? Hyatt stays? Also wondering how far in advance you booked? I’ve started looking for something for next February and am not having much luck. Any info is much appreciated.
Enjoy your vacation!

 

[EACarlson]

Our Portillos is just as slow to get the food as Culvers if not more. At least at Culvers you sit down and wait. But my dipped beef sandwich and chocolate cake yesterday was worth every minute of wait!!

Portillo's has always been much faster for me at the ones I've been to in Woodbury and IL. I always sit down until it's close to my number coming up and then go get my food. I refuse to do drive-through at either one.
I live in a town of 50,000 people and we have two Culvers', of course it helps that Craig Culver went to school here and it was the first city to have two Culvers'. And even here it's still a 10-15 car wait at almost all times for the drive through.
The issue I've found with Culvers' online ordering is that they don't have their whole menu online. I was told it was a software limitation, but I want my chili cheese fries.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

The BF and I are both in agreement, we want to be back in Mexico. Sadly, he COULD go this week....I've got to teach, mom, and it's the DD's 17th bday (the golden one). But I guess MI is maybe finally warming up. With that said, I get the fun of sitting in a hockey rink a lot over the next 2 weeks, LOL.

And now that Ireland 2023 is about a year away.....anyone have any hotel suggestions? The DD hasn't chosen where she wants to go yet. Grrrr. I know she wants to see Dublin, and the cliffs, the blarney stone and a castle. I'll probably only be there 5 days (unless I can figure out a way to swing more days off from school). I'm thinking of having my mom jump on the free Hilton card to get a FNC (she's joining us).

ANy good tips for restocking? also a Hilton fan and wanting more....

Well right now I just grabbed the free Hilton card since I haven't had that yet. So that will add 70k and FNC. I just earned the $8k FNC offer. I'm hoping I can snag an upgrade offer at some point. And I've given a few friends referral links. And I always make a run at the $15k FNC too. My luck comes more with having the FNCs to use. But I'm with you, I need more points, LOL. I find I'm always wanting to restock AA, IHG and HH the most!

 

[Alexle2007]

Just added to my bucket list. Gorgeous!
Is an SNA a suite award or something? Do you get them from having a Hyatt card? Hyatt stays? Also wondering how far in advance you booked? I’ve started looking for something for next February and am not having much luck. Any info is much appreciated.
Enjoy your vacation!

The SNA are earned based on stays with Hyatt. The first 2 are earned after 50 nights and then you earned 2 more for every 10 nights. They allow you to know you’ll have a suite before arriving and hoping for an upgrade as a Globalist. I believe you can apply them for up to a 7 night stay so different than Marriott where it is 1 for 1.

I believe I booked in Nov. We are late planners compared to many.

 

[havaneselover]

Chase freedom q2 categories are Amazon and select streaming. Worthless to me since I use gift cards for both.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Real quick, can you use the virtual visa on things like utility bills if they accept visa? I'm gonna jump on this AA offer and grab some extra miles, sine my DS and I are using some this summer, LOL.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Real quick, can you use the virtual visa on things like utility bills if they accept visa? I'm gonna jump on this AA offer and grab some extra miles, sine my DS and I are using some this summer, LOL.

Wish I had some expertise in this area. For my insurance payment they accepted debit and credit cards and I put my VV in the Visa debit section and it worked.

 

[amcc]

ANy good tips for restocking? also a Hilton fan and wanting more....

The BF and I are both in agreement, we want to be back in Mexico. Sadly, he COULD go this week....I've got to teach, mom, and it's the DD's 17th bday (the golden one). But I guess MI is maybe finally warming up. With that said, I get the fun of sitting in a hockey rink a lot over the next 2 weeks, LOL.

And now that Ireland 2023 is about a year away.....anyone have any hotel suggestions? The DD hasn't chosen where she wants to go yet. Grrrr. I know she wants to see Dublin, and the cliffs, the blarney stone and a castle. I'll probably only be there 5 days (unless I can figure out a way to swing more days off from school). I'm thinking of having my mom jump on the free Hilton card to get a FNC (she's joining us).


Well right now I just grabbed the free Hilton card since I haven't had that yet. So that will add 70k and FNC. I just earned the $8k FNC offer. I'm hoping I can snag an upgrade offer at some point. And I've given a few friends referral links. And I always make a run at the $15k FNC too. My luck comes more with having the FNCs to use. But I'm with you, I need more points, LOL. I find I'm always wanting to restock AA, IHG and HH the most!

One nice thing about Hilton points is that you can easily combine points between accounts for free and it doesn't have to be someone in your household. I'm going to try and get my husband the Hilton cards (he has none) and I'm hoping my college son can get one at some point and I'm considering asking my mom to do it for me (I pay the bill).

We just stayed at an Embassy Suites in Orlando this weekend for a band competition and the rooms were so bad we refused to sit on the chairs and sofa. It was also the most expensive hotel room we've stayed at ($450/nt, Spring Break I guess?) so I told my husband that now that we've broken that psychological barrier, we can move up to Wilderness Lodge for our Disney stays when I can't find space at Fort Wilderness Best thing about the weekend was that I was reading the discussion with @afan about Zaxbys and found one in Orlando. It was GREAT! wish there was one here in South Florida.

 

[amcc]

SUBs Ending 3/14/2022:
Just a reminder they are reporting the limited time introductory or elevated offers on these cards are expiring:
Capital One Venture X, 100,000 points, $10k spend/6 mos
Capital One Spark Cash with the huge 50k spend.
Southwest cards with points and companion pass

Amex transfer bonuses:
Hawaiian miles 20%, ends 3/21
Hilton Honors 30%, ends 3/31
Virgin Atlantic 30%, ends 3/31

IHG mystery points purchase of up to 100%, ending 3/18

IHG is launching their revamped awards program 3/24, along with a new biz card

Thank you for this. Finally bit the bullet and my husband was approved for the Cap1 X with 20k limit. He used to have a Cap1 AA card that was closed over a year ago and an open card. His credit score is a little below 750 as a DP (should head up soon, refinancing made both our scores take quite a hit).

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Well right now I just grabbed the free Hilton card since I haven't had that yet. So that will add 70k and FNC. I just earned the $8k FNC offer. I'm hoping I can snag an upgrade offer at some point. And I've given a few friends referral links. And I always make a run at the $15k FNC too. My luck comes more with having the FNCs to use. But I'm with you, I need more points, LOL. I find I'm always wanting to restock AA, IHG and HH the most!

The no fee Hilton card is very tempting. I think dd may need to apply for 1. Any reason why you chose this over the Surpass? The Surpass has 130k points and FNC for $2k spend which seems like a good deal.

 

[leeniewdw]

And now that Ireland 2023 is about a year away.....anyone have any hotel suggestions? The DD hasn't chosen where she wants to go yet. Grrrr. I know she wants to see Dublin, and the cliffs, the blarney stone and a castle. I'll probably only be there 5 days (unless I can figure out a way to swing more days off from school). I'm thinking of having my mom jump on the free Hilton card to get a FNC (she's joining us).

We're planning a 2023 Ireland trip as well. What kind of points are you planning to use? Limited choices for chains outside Dublin (maybe Cork, which is convenient to Blarney). Our trip is just the 2 of us, so we're going for 2 weeks and will use combo of Airbnbs (grabbing gift cards now) and smaller places using UR I think.

 

[Jax1023]

Approved for the Venture x. Now at 3/24 until next April.

This spend should take me a few months though. Then I’ll need to restock on URs.

 

[afan]

The no fee Hilton card is very tempting. I think dd may need to apply for 1. Any reason why you chose this over the Surpass? The Surpass has 130k points and FNC for $2k spend which seems like a good deal.

I think the no fee is the only one she could currently get. She has the surpass, it's what the $8k fnc offer was on.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

One nice thing about Hilton points is that you can easily combine points between accounts for free and it doesn't have to be someone in your household. I'm going to try and get my husband the Hilton cards (he has none) and I'm hoping my college son can get one at some point and I'm considering asking my mom to do it for me (I pay the bill).

We just stayed at an Embassy Suites in Orlando this weekend for a band competition and the rooms were so bad we refused to sit on the chairs and sofa. It was also the most expensive hotel room we've stayed at ($450/nt, Spring Break I guess?) so I told my husband that now that we've broken that psychological barrier, we can move up to Wilderness Lodge for our Disney stays when I can't find space at Fort Wilderness Best thing about the weekend was that I was reading the discussion with @afan about Zaxbys and found one in Orlando. It was GREAT! wish there was one here in South Florida.

Another Zaxbys fan, LOL. My MCO had an overnight in MCO this weekend. He walked 1.5 miles to Zaxbys just to rub it in, LOL.

The no fee Hilton card is very tempting. I think dd may need to apply for 1. Any reason why you chose this over the Surpass? The Surpass has 130k points and FNC for $2k spend which seems like a good deal.

The only hilton card I haven't had is the free, LOL. So I've been wanting to add that for awhile! There have been higher points offered, 150k, but considering you can use the FNC on any room, that is worth a lot to me!

We're planning a 2023 Ireland trip as well. What kind of points are you planning to use? Limited choices for chains outside Dublin (maybe Cork, which is convenient to Blarney). Our trip is just the 2 of us, so we're going for 2 weeks and will use combo of Airbnbs (grabbing gift cards now) and smaller places using UR I think.

I have URs, MRs, Hilton, Marriott, IHG, etc. I need to look at flights and get serious about booking those sooner than later since my DD wants biz class, LOL.

 

[Psychodisney]

We're planning a 2023 Ireland trip as well. What kind of points are you planning to use? Limited choices for chains outside Dublin (maybe Cork, which is convenient to Blarney). Our trip is just the 2 of us, so we're going for 2 weeks and will use combo of Airbnbs (grabbing gift cards now) and smaller places using UR I think.

Capital one points can erase anything coded as travel. Adds some flexibility for non chain places.

 

[leeniewdw]

Capital one points can erase anything coded as travel. Adds some flexibility for non chain places.

So, using this method gives one more flexibility on booking since actually booking via a portal may have limited choices? I've got the 100k (well 120k after the MSR) from Cap 1, but also URs.

I guess this also makes Airbnbs on points easier. Hmmm. I admit I just hit my Venture X MSR and haven't used anything other than booking a flight via their portal to get the $300 travel credit.

 

[sinnika]

Thank you for this. Finally bit the bullet and my husband was approved for the Cap1 X with 20k limit. He used to have a Cap1 AA card that was closed over a year ago and an open card. His credit score is a little below 750 as a DP (should head up soon, refinancing made both our scores take quite a hit).

Thank you for posting this! I have the Venture X card and want to apply for the Cap One Spark business card which also ends today. My credit score dropped from 800 to 750 when I charged over $14,000 on a $15,000 CL on a new United biz card which I opened on 1/29/2022. Paid most of it down over the weekend but don't know if my credit score will go right back to 800. My Cap One app only updates weekly. Going to apply so fingers crossed!