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

[georgina]

So conflicted - went to Home Depot today and used my 3 20% Chase offers to buy 3 $50 Disney GC. Then walked over to the Staples next door and bought 3 $50 GC there with 20% back. They didn't have Disney or Target so I got Amazon. I still have 3 20% offers at Best Buy to use, plus one 10% there, and 5 10% offers at Staples. While I hate to miss out on savings I am not sure what GC to buy!

 

[jujubiee4]

Well as my mom went to apply for GE she discovered her passport expired back in March. I asked her about it when I booked the tickets for Ireland. She assured me she had several years left. UGH, LOL. Since it'll be likely a few months till she gets her new passport back, I went ahead and just applied for GE for my 13yo. That way my kids expire the same year, LOL.



The Surpass comes w/ 10 passes, but you have a family, so that might not be the best option. Do you know where you will be going mostly? Like the lounge at DTW SUCKS! It's good for a pop, a bottle of water and a bag of pretzels, LOL. Lots of airports don't have lounges, they have minute suites or sometimes food offers. I'd look at where you might use it and then decide what card you might like.

I think to access the Delta lounges free you have to have the Reserve which is $450/year. With the Delta Plat you can buy a day pass for $30 or $40.

Good grief is every great premium card 450 or more these days? lol

 

[CaptainAmerica]

amex plat with walmart + starting next month rumor is you can upgrade and pay the difference well see.

That's Paramount+, not Peacock, isn't it?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Didn't see anything interesting.

WWE is my guilty pleasure.

 

[Narnia_girl]

finally signed up for premium thrifty traveler if anyone is interested 40% off code is FORTY

I'm tempted by this offer. Can you tell me if St. Louis is one of the home cities/airports available?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

WWE is my guilty pleasure.

We watch Premier League soccer. Some games are exclusive to Peacock I think.

 

[wweazel]

Thank you. That's exactly what I was asking and wanting to know. I wondered why everyone kept canceling and reapply every couple years so now it makes more sense to me. I am sure it's hard to log 100 flights a year and earn 125k RR, at least for me it would be. lol. I think that's what we will do, I will apply in Oct. alone, then my DH can apply 2 years later so we would have 4 years for sure. We are trying to get in the position of traveling more now that our kids are basically grown and I hate driving anywhere far so I think it's the perfect time for us to get the SWA card. So I am trying to be smart like all of you and travel on points and benefits and spend less cash!

usually, it will require 2 SW cards SUBs to earn the CP, and I'm pretty sure you can't have 2 personal cards - although someone several posts back mentioned the DD?

 

[calypso726]

That's a nice benefit from AMEX.

I LOVE making spreadsheets. I guess if I start getting several cards with AF's, I would make a spreadsheet too just to keep up. I am starting it slow, as I just got my first AF card, but it was no doubt worth the $95 fee because I already have earned $1500 UR since May. Every card has different benefits and I need to step up my game. I struggle sometimes just to keep up with the Chase Freedom and Discover card 5% Bonus categories each quarter and also the little addons "+" signs that have to be clicked each month. I plan on getting a SWA card in October to earn the CP so I am looking into those options now to see which one would be best us.

That CSR $495 AF for sure had me nervous! But I know from the DIS that it pretty much pays for itself if you work it right. Normally spending $8k in travel a year is nothing to me, but we just purchased DVC so we will no longer be making cash reservations for rooms anymore there, which was a huge chunk of our travel spend. So now I will have to sit back next year and just see what we are looking like with our spending.

I carry a fair number of AF cards each year. Some I keep because the benefits outweigh the fee for me. Some are just around for a year and then get cancelled, to be churned again or downgraded for a year to be upgraded with a bonus down the line. With regards to the CSR, I have never looked at how much I spend in travel to make it worth keeping. One can earn 3x on the CIP for travel purchases and that's only a $95 AF. Granted, the travel protections are not the same. I have always recommended that one look at how many URs are being redeemed through the travel portal at .015 with the CSR vs .0125 with the CSP to determine if it is worth keeping.

The important thing to look at is what does it cost you per year to redeem your UR points through the travel portal? It is very possible that keeping a CSP or CIP over a CSR is actually costing you more money. This is especially true for those who are redeeming for paid seats on flights via the UR portal.

Math: $550 AF on CSR - $300 travel credit you are spending anyway = $250. Difference between $250 CSR - $95 CIP/CSP = $155.

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 since you can redeem at .0125 with those cards.

If you hold a CSR those flights would cost you 66,667 points. That is a difference of 13,333 points which is equivalent to $166.66 in the CSP/CIP UR portal. So holding the CIP or CSP over the CSR just cost you $166 in points. When you factor in the $155 difference between a CSR over a CSP/CIP then it still costs you an additional $10 to keep a card with a "lower AF" over the higher AF card. That is just one redemption example. How much is it costing a family of 4 to keep the lower AF card? How much does it cost folks who are redeeming well beyond $1000 annually via the UR travel portal?

AFs are part of my travel budget. We also have DVC. Between all the DVC contracts and various hotel cards with FN certs, we aren't spending much on accommodations. DVC dues are another story. I pay our DVC dues annually with Disney GCs. I purchase many at 5x UR points from Office Supply stores with my Chase Ink Plus (current closest equivalent would be the Chase Ink Cash). I will also purchase them throughout the year at a discount of 10% or more using Chase offers and Amex offers. Buying Disney GCs for DVC dues, ABD or DCL at 5x bonus categories on the Ink+/CIC, Freedom cards do help make a up a good portion of the URs we earn each year. We also use the Disney GCs to pay for food and merch while we are in WDW or DLR. I try to get as close as possible to 5x on all spend. Lastly, don't forget shopping through the UR portal to earn additional URs. This game definitely requires spreadsheets at some point. Hope this helps

 

[trenty]

Got an email from Discover IT with this:

Special Offer: Enjoy a $10 statement credit when you spend $100 with your Discover® Card using your Digital Wallet now–Dec 2022.*

* Offer valid now through 12/31/2022. Earn a $10 statement credit on your Discover credit card account when you make a purchase of $100 or more and check out using your Discover Card with your Digital Wallet. No activation required. Offer is non-transferable and limited to one offer per Discover account, whether the offer is received from Discover, your Digital Wallet or both. Statement credit will be posted to your account within two billing periods after the end of the promotion. Digital wallets includes Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Garmin Pay.​

 

[georgina]

We all CSR differently. I have not redeemed for flights through the Chase portal since 2020 when I had a lot of issues with cancelled flights booked through them. I have redeemed thousands of dollars worth of PYB on dining, airbnb, and charity donations at 1.5X, making it very worthwhile for us. We have opened several other UR earning cards for the SUBs and transferred the points over. If PYB goes away I may reevaluate, although the lounge access is a great perk.

 

[GZanta77]

Got an email from Discover IT with this:

Special Offer: Enjoy a $10 statement credit when you spend $100 with your Discover® Card using your Digital Wallet now–Dec 2022.*

* Offer valid now through 12/31/2022. Earn a $10 statement credit on your Discover credit card account when you make a purchase of $100 or more and check out using your Discover Card with your Digital Wallet. No activation required. Offer is non-transferable and limited to one offer per Discover account, whether the offer is received from Discover, your Digital Wallet or both. Statement credit will be posted to your account within two billing periods after the end of the promotion. Digital wallets includes Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Garmin Pay.​

Nice. Don't forget digital wallets are one of Discovers 5% categories in Q4.

 

[babyready]

Once upon a time I had been planning a Japan trip for 2021 and researched and had an idea of what points I would need to get my family of six there (A LOT!) Obviously, a lot has happened and all our travel plans changed. I am now looking at 2024. As I started researching to see if I would be able to get enough points by then, I am having trouble with Tokyo Bay through the Hilton site. Is there something I need to know about booking this? It shows NO availability at all for any dates in the next year. With points or cash. When I look through other sites, there is availability but not on the Hilton site. Is there something I need to know? Thx!

 

[becauseimnew]

Once upon a time I had been planning a Japan trip for 2021 and researched and had an idea of what points I would need to get my family of six there (A LOT!) Obviously, a lot has happened and all our travel plans changed. I am now looking at 2024. As I started researching to see if I would be able to get enough points by then, I am having trouble with Tokyo Bay through the Hilton site. Is there something I need to know about booking this? It shows NO availability at all for any dates in the next year. With points or cash. When I look through other sites, there is availability but not on the Hilton site. Is there something I need to know? Thx!

I can see availability through July 2023. How many people are you trying to book in each room?

 

[calypso726]

We all CSR differently. I have not redeemed for flights through the Chase portal since 2020 when I had a lot of issues with cancelled flights booked through them. I have redeemed thousands of dollars worth of PYB on dining, airbnb, and charity donations at 1.5X, making it very worthwhile for us. We have opened several other UR earning cards for the SUBs and transferred the points over. If PYB goes away I may reevaluate, although the lounge access is a great perk.

Absolutely. PYB has been good to us too and we are looking forward to the Galapagos later this year thanks to that. However, I don't know if it will stay or not. Therefore, I stick with basing redemptions for travel via the UR portal for someone on the fence between that and CSP. I also do not book flights via the UR portal since we are mostly in search of lie flat seats for flights and generally speaking the cost is absurd and far more points to pay for with UR points as opposed to using miles. I like to use UR portal travel purchases with points for places I can't use hotel points or airline miles to pay for. Something like Ashford Castle in Ireland, Fairmont Masai Mara in Kenya, Four Seasons in Whistler, Gran Melia in Rome etc.

 

[nhgirl]

Any cards out there subsidizing Peacock subscriptions, either in part or entirely? Amex Plat is already subsidizing my Disney+.

Amex Hilton Surpass spend $4.99 get $4.99 back

ETA: for up to 3 months. Mine exp in 6 days

 

[ten6mom]

Are you trying to check a bag because you don't want to pay for it, or because you want to keep it with you? You should be able to gate check for free if that's something you're interested in.

Oh duh I should have said.

I don't want to check a bag because I am worried about it getting lost, and also I want to have the least amount of things go wrong that could delay my return.

 

[DisMommyTX]

I have failed. Was just checking MIL Sapphire Pref card (opened July 2021), intending to transfer off her points to SW before closing it, when I realized that she never got the 100k sign-up bonus. Initially thought I must have already transferred them, but no. She was short on the minimum spend ($3500, hit $4k two weeks after 3 mo). I wasn't watching closely bc my mother died late July and life kinda sucked all around, but still, I can't believe that I didn't even realize until almost a year later. I want my 100,000 points. My first epic fail. Thank you all for understand as I know only you can.

 

[hsmamato2]

Um, no. It was a completely full flight. Every single seat. I guess this was the traveler type that doesn't fly southwest a lot? Boarding was... special. The poor flight attendants trying to get travelers to find a seat. People sitting in the front, but their luggage in the way back. People using the bathroom during boarding and then trying to make their way back up the aisle.

I will think twice about flying into ORD on SW again, just because ORD is such a hassle.

This sounds like my flight out of MDW last week....I have never seen a planeful of people who didn't seem to know plane travel etiquette at ALL. I mean, it was strange IMHO. A completely full flight too (and we also got the privilege of re-enacting that airport running scene from Home Alone, thanks SWA) I mean the entire back of the plane attempted to jam up the entire front of the plane to deplane,which caused the front of the plane passengers to just muscle their way thru them,which caused a lot of slow moving problems...I had a seat farther back, I just stayed put and watched till the traffic jam eased up but never seen that happen before....

 

[hsmamato2]

I need someone to tell me if it makes sense for us to apply for a SWA card of any kind. We aren’t what I call frequent flyers, we (3 of us) probably fly RT to MCO 1-2 times a year, and (2 of us) sometimes RT to HOU 1 time a year or at least every other year. We normally fly from MEM, but can fly from JAN, if that means anything. We just purchased DVC in May on our new CSP (which we got in May just to make the purchase for the SUB). I’m sure I’ll give more info below then anyone needs, so sorry about that.

We have these chase cards already. My husband and I are both authorized users on all of them, except he’s not on Slate or Disney
*Regular Freedom (since 09/2005)
*Slate (since 07/2015) only me
*Freedom Unlimited (since 05/2016)
*Amazon Prime visa (9/2012)
*Disney visa (since 10/2008)
*Sapphire preferred (since 05/2022)

Then, if it matters, we also have 2 Citi double cash cards, regular discover card, Barclays upromise and old navy and us bank Kroger and platinum visa I think it’s called, lowe’s, Victoria’s Secret, care credit. The newest one we got in 2016 and the oldest in 2005.

Looking at my chase app, I only have 1 credit inquiry from 5/2021

My husband shows 4 credit inquiries: 3 were on 10/2021 for buying a truck, then 1 on 05/2022 for CSP.

I’ve tried to do some research on my own, but all the SWA card options overwhelm me. We do not have a business. We are not accustomed to AF’s so that’s a whole new thing to us. We always buy EBCI on flights. I charge everything possible on whichever card is best for the situation, even though I hate having all those monthly patents, plus it’s a lot to keep up with. Mostly I use CSP now, and regular Freedom for bonuses. I buy gas and groceries on Kroger. I use Amazon every time I make an order, which is a lot That’s pretty much it. We are not big spenders except for on vacation so maybe an average $2,000 a month in recurring charges. The SWA CP intrigues me. I saw where it’s recommended to apply in October and let it post in January for the full advantage of time. We do plan on a total kitchen remodel in the near future so that’ll be a big cost for us that we could put toward the SUB. No estimate yet on cost. We also plan on a trip to Aulani in the next year or two using our new DVC points.

What would be the best thing to do or is it worth it to us to add this card to our pile? I just don’t want to get it if we wouldn’t maximize its benefits with our limited flying each year and want to make sure if we do get it, the AF is worth paying. I certainly don’t like to waste my money and I hardly ever cancel a credit card as you can see, because some of them haven’t been used once in years and years. I’d like to hear from the experts please !!!

In my limited experience,it sounds like you'd get good use out of a double app for SWA cc's in late October (per their guidance in doing so) b/c you could take advantage of the points and the C Pass for 2 years. Even just a couple of flights for your family would more than pay for itself over 2 years. I'm not as frequent a traveler as many on here,and still find it useful to have had that combo of points plus CP in hand ....

 

[trenty]

Nice. Don't forget digital wallets are one of Discovers 5% categories in Q4.

Yes. The email did say that too.