I love credit cards so much!

[amalone1013]

Heard back. Booked flights! $100 total with seat selection at $13 each. Just personal items, no carry-ons/checked bags.

 

[chattadisser]

I have some pages to catch up on but thought I would share a few churning successes and failures so far today:

On the success front, I was able to get us Business class seats for our flights from San Francisco to Johannesburg for our Botswana trip next summer! I had originally booked a coach itinerary using United miles with a combo of Lufthansa and South African Airways flights connecting through Munich, with the hope of upgrading that route to Business. I've been stalking the United website daily to see if any saver Business awards would pop up either for that route or one that was fairly comparable. Well, today it happened! I saw a Swiss itinerary connecting through Zurich. Still only one stop. A little longer layover in Zurich than we would have had in Munich, but totally worth it to get both legs in Business. I had to pay a $300 total change fee, but I also got back $23.60 because taxes were cheaper on the new route. So for 320,000 total United miles and a little over $275, we are now in Business to Africa! Super happy about that. Now to keep working on upgrades for the Emirates flights on the return...

Also on the plus side, I finished up the MSR on my Amex Biz Platinum so will hopefully see the 100K bonus MR post soon. Still trying to pull up some good offers for DH so we can get the 66Kish additional MR we would need to be able to upgrade both legs of our return flights from Africa on Emirates. The leg I really care about is the very long leg from Dubai to SFO, but I'd like to have enough MR to upgrade the whole itinerary if upgrades become available.

On the partial plus side is hearing from United customer service that they are crediting my MileagePlus account and the accounts for each of my kids with 3K miles each. This is a result of having our flight from LAX to BOI a couple of weeks ago delayed from 8:11 p.m. to 6:45 a.m. the next morning!! Apparently United had an aircraft but no crew to fly it at the time we were supposed to leave, SMH! Luckily, we were in the United Club when we got the unfortunate news about the delay, and the United agent in the lounge was able to book us in to a hotel with United vouchers and also got us food vouchers. Much better than being among the masses at the gate needing the same kind of assistance. United did give us all 7,500 miles as compensation for the delay, but I sent an email to Customer Service to see if I could get a little more. I was actually pleasantly surprised to hear back this morning with the additional 3K each.

This is in total contrast to the radio silence I've experienced from Delta on the delay issues we experienced with them on the way to LAX for the start of that trip. That trip was just cursed with bad travel karma. I'm hoping, though, that we got all of the bad juju out of our system for a while. With the amount of international travel we do, we've been pretty darn lucky in never having a truly awful delay or cancellation experience. If the bad stuff had to happen, better for it to happen on some short domestic flights. Anyway, on our way to Los Angeles for that trip, our 7:44 a.m. flight on Delta ended up leaving at around 4 p.m. due to an electrical issue with the plane that took eons to fix. We absolutely needed to be in the Los Angeles area to make a VIP tour at Universal Studios the next morning, so at about 12:30 p.m., we pulled the plug on waiting to see if Delta could fix our plane and jumped on a Southwest flight to Burbank through San Jose. Instead of arriving at LAX at around 9:30 a.m. that morning, we landed in Burbank at about 5 p.m. that evening! But Delta clearly had no backup plan if the original aircraft couldn't go, so we felt we had no choice but to bail out to another airline. Delta did refund our flights, and the Delta crew in Boise made a pretty heroic effort to get our bags off the Delta aircraft so we could check them on SW, but the SW flights still cost us around $900 more than the amount we got refunded from Delta, due to the last-minute booking. I wrote to Delta customer service and have heard absolutely nothing back. I expect to be SOL on that one since we made the choice to bail out and the original flight did end up going, but I still thought it was worth a shot to try to get something out of Delta. I sent a follow up request to Customer Service today. I'll take to Twitter next....

And also on the fail/frustration side was trying to attach my Marriott/SPG 7-night N&F certificate to a Marriott reservation in Chicago for our Hamilton trip. I was on hold for about 45 minutes total between two different reps. (I did have it on speaker while I was doing work and other things, but never fun to be on hold for so long.) Finally got a rep who knew how to attach a certificate only to be told that the room type I had reserved wasn't available to be attached to a certificate. The only room type eligible/available was one that totally wouldn't work for 4 of us. Ugh!! At that point, I just told the rep to cancel the room reservation and also cancel my N&F cert in exchange for the 45,000 points Marriott said it would offer. (I was only planning to stay 3 nights of the 7 anyway and can see no other use for the cert before it expires). Of course, I got an email confirmation of the cert cancellation but am still waiting for the 45,000 points to actually show up in my account. She said it could take 24 hours. We'll see. So instead of Marriott, we'll be staying with Hilton in Chicago. Whereas Marriott was a total PITA to deal with this morning, it was super easy to do a partial points/partial cash booking with Hilton for the nights I needed. So I cast my hotel loyalty lot with Hilton! I plan to cancel both my Marriott and SPG biz cards when the next AF hits for each. The free night certs just aren't worth it for me when we stay in hotels relatively infrequently and it seems so hard to find a hotel in the proper category for the cert and then a room type that the certs will actually work with. Way to lose a customer, Marriott/SPG!

(Edited to correct the total number of UA miles for the Business booking)

I would go straight to twitter with Delta, its about the only way they will respond.

About a week and half ago I took DD 13 to NYC for her birthday trip. We were scheduled to be there Saturday-Monday as she was starting school on Wednesday. Just as we were checking out of our hotel on Monday I get a text that our flight later that night had been cancelled. Due to weather they say, umm yeah right 12 hours in advance and I know that the plane never left its origination city that morning. They had automatically rebooked us with a connection for the next day. We did have a non-stop flight originally. So luckily I had my DH get on the case and he managed to rebook us, have that flight get cancelled as well and get us rebooked the next day. We get to LGA (which is nuts on a normal day) but add in a few days of delays and cancellations and it was crazy. We push back early and the pilot tells us we are 30-37 in line for takeoff. Ok, I think we still have time to get off before the evening thunderstorms roll in. Nope, we got to #7 before they shut down LGA. We sat there on the runway trying to not loose our spot in line and eventually time out due to the three hour rule. Have to go back to the gate, get off, only to get back on about 15 minutes later. Seven hours after originally boarding the flight we land in ATL. We did make it home about 7 hours before DD had to be at school for her first day. Because of twitter and being insistent on there, we both got $100 voucher for another flight. While not much, it was more than they wanted to do. I will say they have and have always had the worst CSR on their phone lines. Being somewhat a Delta hostage most of my life, I've dealt with them for a long time and will avoid contacting them as much as I can. I really don't think most of them care to get you where you need to be, whereas when we had a similar situation with SW, while limited by their schedule, I did at least feel they cared that I got to my destination in the hottest possible time. I did send Delta a compliment for the crew we had on our flight, they were wonderful through it all.

I will also add, it helps to have someone else helping you, such as my DH in this case, when this happens. I doubt I would have had much luck booking and rebooking all these flights (we had a total of 3 cancelled and then had to rebook our connection several times during the delay) just using just the Delta app and an I-phone. It was also reassuring that the flight had been booked with points and we had plenty of hotel points to book another night in the city knowing that we weren't out of pocket anything.

 

[MrPTato]

Heard back. Booked flights! $100 total with seat selection at $13 each. Just personal items, no carry-ons/checked bags.

She give you the day off or are you going in for a half day?

 

[amalone1013]

She give you the day off or are you going in for a half day?

Day off!

Which really means I kind of wanted to be like, here DH you go home on this flight so you can go to work for the day, I'll see you tonight when you pick me up at the airport...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

So, how do you decide where to go/what to do? Are there resources you use for trip inspiration with points/miles?

I feel like we have so many options opened up to us now. There's so much I want to do! See all 50 states, travel internationally!

Now I'm torn, do I try to hoard my points for an international trip in 3ish years? Utilize points to travel more frequently to cheaper places in the U.S.? Use points to help a good friend and her children experience WDW?

Oh the decisions!!!

Yeah, decisions are hard. That's why I just go to the same 3-4 places each year...HAHA (yeah it's true...and it makes me happy )

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Seriously! At what other hotel chain but Hilton can you earn 54x points per dollar!?!

But...But...But...this would involve spending money (like literal US dollars) on a hotel room. That goes against every fiber of my being...

 

[Judique]

You are correct, last year for rollover
It's the only reason we can get close to Platinum as we ended up with 20 rollover nights from actually travelling last year
After next year we'll be lucky to keep Gold. I know it's blasphemy, but we may need to do some spend for elite nights to make it so we're hanging on to the old/plain Premier card!

Gold should be fairly easy - 15 nights for the credit card plus the free night/nights depending on how many cards you have - I have 5 so 20 nights right there. Doubt I'll get to 50, but I might actually give it a try.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I am super laid back and have finally hit the end of my rope with this place I'm counting down the days until my 401k match is vested - 16 days!

Come be a banker...if you ask my wife, All I do is wake up at 9am, head to the basement, take naps, mow the grass, play golf and hang out on the DISboards all day. She might think that because that might be exactly what I do...maybe...maybe

 

[Lain]

Nothing posted after the first of the year. 15 nights posted when I got the Marriott Biz in June. I'm not expecting any nights for the Lux card. The issue is I applied for the SPG Biz on July 31 the night before the new offer came out. I then asked Amex for a match to the new offer, which I don't expect and haven't heard back on. If I got that match, it would be highly unusual as apparently Amex doesn't match offers?

That said, if I got the match - I need to meet the spend and I'll be swimming in another 100K points! I'm just waiting now to see if my statement credit hits.

Amex doesn’t match offers, but hands out “courtesy points” if you express your extreme displeasure.

 

[amalone1013]

But...But...But...this would involve spending money (like literal US dollars) on a hotel room. That goes against every fiber of my being...

Shhhh, just use your MR cashout!

Come be a banker...if you ask my wife, All I do is wake up at 9am, head to the basement, take naps, mow the grass, play golf and hang out on the DISboards all day. She might think that because that might be exactly what I do...maybe...maybe

Sub golf for mini golf and i'm in.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Oh yeah - if you're earning Hilton points the LEGIT way (i.e. staying in a room as a biz traveler) then they are a perfectly fine program. They are more a joke to churners because their cards in many ways can't compare to the value you get our of other competitors (but us churners don't pay for hotel rooms much, lol!)

I understand now. Since I have been reaping the benefits of 10 years of 100 nights/year that we don’t pay for I am tainted. My perspective is way diff than someone who is just trying to do the stays off churning.

 

[chattadisser]

Does anyone know anything about CLEAR?

I signed up for a complimentary membership for a month when we were at LGA (the trip I described just above). I have till mid September to cancel or pay for a membership. It's not at every airport but it is at ATL (which we usually fly from) and at a lot of the airports out west which is usually where we are headed. (It's also at MCO for those that travel there frequently...I'm sure that's no one here. LOL) You essentially get to bypass the pre-check line and go straight to the physical screening. We need to sign-up for pre-check and global entry anyway which we have due to our cards (we've just never got around to it). Anyone under 18 can go thru CLEAR with the adult member. Since I have the AmEx Delta Gold I can get a years membership for $79 and add my DH for $50. This would give all 4 of us CLEAR for a year where it's usually $179 pp. We likely have 3-4 trips coming up in the next year leaving and/or going to airports that have CLEAR. I just can't decide if I should go for it....

 

[amalone1013]

Does anyone know anything about CLEAR?

I signed up for a complimentary membership for a month when we were at LGA (the trip I described just above). I have till mid September to cancel or pay for a membership. It's not at every airport but it is at ATL (which we usually fly from) and at a lot of the airports out west which is usually where we are headed. (It's also at MCO for those that travel there frequently...I'm sure that's no one here. LOL) You essentially get to bypass the pre-check line and go straight to the physical screening. We need to sign-up for pre-check and global entry anyway which we have due to our cards (we've just never got around to it). Anyone under 18 can go thru CLEAR with the adult member. Since I have the AmEx Delta Gold I can get a years membership for $79 and add my DH for $50. This would give all 4 of us CLEAR for a year where it's usually $179 pp. We likely have 3-4 trips coming up in the next year leaving and/or going to airports that have CLEAR. I just can't decide if I should go for it....

I would say it's no help at MCO personally. We live in Denver and used it there and it was nice because it got us straight up to the ID check podium... most of the security line is behind that, then you go into the scanner/xray line that is maybe up to 20 people deep when it's busy. But at MCO, it puts you in past the ID check but since the line is still really long before you get to the scanners/xrays, we still waited forever. I would much rather spend the money on TSA Precheck (and need to do so!)

 

[afan]

Does anyone know anything about CLEAR?

I signed up for a complimentary membership for a month when we were at LGA (the trip I described just above). I have till mid September to cancel or pay for a membership. It's not at every airport but it is at ATL (which we usually fly from) and at a lot of the airports out west which is usually where we are headed. (It's also at MCO for those that travel there frequently...I'm sure that's no one here. LOL) You essentially get to bypass the pre-check line and go straight to the physical screening. We need to sign-up for pre-check and global entry anyway which we have due to our cards (we've just never got around to it). Anyone under 18 can go thru CLEAR with the adult member. Since I have the AmEx Delta Gold I can get a years membership for $79 and add my DH for $50. This would give all 4 of us CLEAR for a year where it's usually $179 pp. We likely have 3-4 trips coming up in the next year leaving and/or going to airports that have CLEAR. I just can't decide if I should go for it....

I looked into it because some stadiums use it too, but I don't go to enough games to warrant the cost. Honestly, if you are going to get GE or Precheck I think it's a waste of money. Why pay for something yearly when you could pay once for several years. Unless the precheck at your main airport was totally nuts and you traveled weekly I can't see the cost benefit. Unless you also were a season ticket holder to basketball or baseball, I think football is too short of a season even for it to be worth it.

 

[Albort]

If any of you have the Staples 10% amex offer, you might get an email of a clawback. Multiple Accounts only, if u only did it once, ur okay.

FYI.

 

[amalone1013]

@chattadisser I was trying to find some photos to illustrate... obviously it depends on the airports you'd be going to too.
@afan, I did the free trial and cancelled but it said I can still use it to get into my stadium. Maybe it would for yours?


Here is one of the Denver security lines.

Everyone goes through this line to the ID checks. You can see the agents in blue at the top left (there are podiums all the way down the left side of this photo just off camera). If you have precheck or clear, you walk up a lane that runs right along the bottom of this photo to a podium. If you have precheck you go into your dedicated scanner line, if you are CLEAR you have your choice of whatever ones are open (this is standard procedure for everyone, most go straight to the line behind whatever podium they used).



Since we're all familiar with MCO....

The CLEAR scanners are near that escalator/staircase to the left of the TSA lines. So you skip those part of the lines, but it's still a very long line to the scanners so it's not as useful when busy (is MCO ever not busy?)



Although CLEAR and Precheck can be used together in some airports. Last time we flew out of Den the precheck lines were longer than the regular lines

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I understand now. Since I have been reaping the benefits of 10 years of 100 nights/year that we don’t pay for I am tainted. My perspective is way diff than someone who is just trying to do the stays off churning.

Yeah - to compare two elite level travelers carrying the most prestigious credit card:

Hilton (the SouthFayetteFan valuation of these is 0.6cpp)
Diamond Elite - has a Hilton Aspire card (this card gives you auto Diamond status, but our hypothetical regular traveler can earn this through stays anyways)
They have a $1,000 hotel bill

• Earn 10x points on the $1,000 = 10,000 pts
• Earn double points as diamond = 10,000 pts
• Pays with Aspire = earns 14x points = 14,000 pts
• TOTAL STAY = 34,000 pts worth ~$204

Marriott (the SouthFayetteFan valuation of these is 0.8cpp)
Platinum Premier Elite - has an SPG Luxury Card (this card does not give you Plat status - you have to earn that on your own with stays)
They also have a $1,000 hotel bill

• Earn 10x points on the $1,000 = 10,000 pts
• 75% bump on points as Plat Prem = 7,500 pts
• Pays with SPG Luxury = earns 6x points = 6,000 pts
• TOTAL STAY = 23,500 pts = $188

Conclusion
So the traveler with Hilton earned 10,500 more points (which to the uneducated eye sounds awesome) BUT it's just $16 more worth of points because of the different valuations. Of course you could argue with my valuations (but I feel strongly that Marriott is worth slightly more than Hilton). Still - if you are a business traveler who is regularly generating a $1,000 hotel bill that $16 could add up very quickly. I didn't include any promotional points because both chains run promotions and it's really hard to value what they're worth as they're usually super complex promotions requiring multiple stays.

 

[amalone1013]

If any of you have the Staples 10% amex offer, you might get an email of a clawback. Multiple Accounts only, if u only did it once, ur okay.

FYI.

Multiple accounts... like if you have different logins? Or do you think the multi tab trick is part of it? I added Staples to DHs biz card and his employee card for my biz... bother are on same account and did multi tab trick.

 

[amalone1013]

the SouthFayetteFan valuation of these is 0.8cpp

I love that you phrased it like this.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I would say it's no help at MCO personally. We live in Denver and used it there and it was nice because it got us straight up to the ID check podium... most of the security line is behind that, then you go into the scanner/xray line that is maybe up to 20 people deep when it's busy. But at MCO, it puts you in past the ID check but since the line is still really long before you get to the scanners/xrays, we still waited forever. I would much rather spend the money on TSA Precheck (and need to do so!)

How don't you have Precheck? Don't you have some card out there that offered it for free?? What kinda churner are you