I love credit cards so much!

[Calfan]

I truly mean this as a DP and not a shameless plug for use of my support links, lol, but my CSR support link appears to still be working....

 

[FloridaNative8]

Hit the MSR for my CIP this past week! Over a month ahead of schedule, thanks to work travel last week. Also, thanks to Delta - due to a delayed flight that would have made me miss my connection home (which was the last flight), I got rebooked on a separate airline.

Concerning the airline credit for my pretty new rose gold card (which I received this weekend!), I had planned to use it on this trip. I planned on $25 each way for a checked bag, and I had upgraded my seat on the leg home to take care of the rest. Now, I have $75 on the table. I searched the thread but it's buried somewhere - is it possible to purchase Delta GCs on the site and have that count?

Funny story - my husband called me last week and said "Ummm, I am NOT carrying around a pink card!" I know I didn't request one for him, but Amex sent him one anyway. I got nervous and thought that I had inadvertently switched around the request! This may be why there is a shortage - they're sending them out like Oprah!!

 

[amalone1013]

So, I think I've talked DH into taking the earlier flight to Nashville so we can go to an Opry show Now I'm thinking maybe I should switch over the Courtyard Marriott downtown for Friday night, since it looks like it's only a couple blocks from Ryman Auditorium.

Also, I got an email from Marriott saying they were giving me an elite night credit for my birthday...

 

[JKalai]

I truly mean this as a DP and not a shameless plug for use of my support links, lol, but my CSR support link appears to still be working....

S/O referred me through the app after the link disappeared on the website. I still received the 10k referral for the CSR.

 

[miztressuz]

I truly mean this as a DP and not a shameless plug for use of my support links, lol, but my CSR support link appears to still be working....

I was hopeful for a second as I got the 'this offer is no longer available, redirecting to current offer' message on your link but after I hit Apply I got the offer unavailable error

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I truly mean this as a DP and not a shameless plug for use of my support links, lol, but my CSR support link appears to still be working....

Did you click on the link when the referral page comes up to apply ?...on mine ..the referral page shows ut when you click on the link it says offer is no longer available

 

[palhockeymomof2]

S/O referred me through the app after the link disappeared on the website. I still received the 10k referral for the CSR.

Unfortunately the refer a friend option no longer comes up on the app for the CSR

 

[phewms]

Are you booking with points or with actual money?

If points, make sure to book the kids on their own individual tickets.* That way if you get the CP before your flight, if there are still seats available you can grab one for your CP and then just cancel the kids' tickets, and the points go back into the account they came from.

If booking with money, you can still do this BUT you would receive Ticketless Travel Funds for that individual and those funds need to go toward a trip that is completed within 12 months of original booking. That makes the CP worth less (not worthless but worth less) since you'd have these funds sitting around that you want to use up. The funds are tied to that individual's name and can't be used for anyone else.

*ETA: Depending on the kids' ages you may have some issues. I remember when DD was younger, I had to make sure that I entered my confirmation information for her ticket so that SW knew that she was an accompanied minor.

Honestly, I am a bit frustrated right now. I wanted to book with points, but don't have enough for 4 tickets. (50k SWA pts and I can transfer 65k from Chase but that's still not enough.) I have waited so late to plan the trip that most of the ideal flight times are either sold out or too expensive one way. I am afraid waiting until Feb when I hope to get the CPs will be too late. I am hoping for a June promotion so I can push the trip back til then. Right now we have discounted dining.

 

[Calfan]

I was hopeful for a second as I got the 'this offer is no longer available, redirecting to current offer' message on your link but after I hit Apply I got the offer unavailable error

Did you click on the link when the referral page comes up to apply ?...on mine ..the referral page shows ut when you click on the link it says offer is no longer available

Unfortunately the refer a friend option no longer comes up on the app for the CSR

Ahhh...I did not actually try to apply since I already have the card, lol, so didn't know that was the issue (versus getting the referral page to pull up at all). Why bother to redirect if it's going to say the offer is unavailable? Oh well...

In other Chase news, I just got a code to upgrade my Chase checking account to a Sapphire checking account for the 60k UR bonus which is now live. I've been meaning to move my bank accounts from BofA to Chase for a while now since there aren't any BofA branches in Idaho, so I think this is going to be the offer that finally gets me to make the definitive move.

 

[Fischstick]

For the Dischurners.....Fischstick01 on reddit!

 

[platamama]

Honestly, I am a bit frustrated right now. I wanted to book with points, but don't have enough for 4 tickets. (50k SWA pts and I can transfer 65k from Chase but that's still not enough.) I have waited so late to plan the trip that most of the ideal flight times are either sold out or too expensive one way. I am afraid waiting until Feb when I hope to get the CPs will be too late. I am hoping for a June promotion so I can push the trip back til then. Right now we have discounted dining.

Sorry it's frustrating. It does get easier once you have a stash of points to work with, but when you're first starting out it is hard.

One kind of crazy idea, if you have the points for it, is to get a ticket for you and a ticket for DH. (And personally, I only book one-ways with SW; it makes it easier to adjust the ticket if needed.)Then, when you get your CPs in Feb, each of you add on your companion. This hinges on the stars aligning and seats being available. But, just so you know, they don't need to be Wanna Get Away seats in order for you to use your CP. You can use your CP on any available seat.

My fam is going to Costa Rica over Thanksgiving, and I made a mistake and just got tickets for DH and I, figuring I would add on DD as my companion later. Well, a couple weeks later the flights sold out on one leg and I was kind of panicking. I did have the reassurance of knowing that I wouldn't have to pay any penalties if I ended up canceling our tickets, since I got them with RR points, so worst case scenario we just wouldn't go. I kept checking back obsessively and one night there was one seat available on the leg that was sold out. It was an Anytime fare, but I grabbed it as my companion pass seat no problem.

Other alternatives for you: does AA fly your route and does it have SAAver fares available and is it direct? If it is less than 1151 airmiles then you can use British Airlines Avios at 6500 off-peak/7500 peak each way. You could transfer URs to BA to use that way. You can do a google search for BA award chart to see how many miles you would need. The persnickety thing is that BA is distance based per segment, so if there is a connection somewhere you have to count each leg as a separate award redemption.

Also check United since you can transfer URs to them as well. All of the mentioned airlines allow booking one-ways, so you can mix and match if that suits your needs better.

SW RRs are the only ones without penalties for changes, so that's something to keep in mind.

 

[AmyAnne]

Of course, I do not presume to speak for @calypso726 so I'll just give you my rationale for keeping (right now) the Plat Biz.

1) I fly delta a lot so having entry into Skyclubs as well as Priority Pass and Centurion lounges is a good thing

2) $200 worth of DL gc that I resell so approx $160 in "business" revenue

3) most importantly for me is I'm eyeing a trip to Aust/NZ in 2020/2021. If I price flights on Delta for approx dates in 2019 (*knowing full well that a year is a long time in this game and prices will likely increase!), both Amex Travel and Delta have the flights I want priced the same- $5390/pp. However, using SkyPesos the price is 855,000 versus 538,953 MRs. Booking with Amex Travel with MRs is read as cash so I'll be credited miles (skypesos but still) and MQMs (towards status) but most importantly 35% of the MRs will be refunded--188,633 MRs returned to my account. What other program returns miles/points/rewards at that rate?

If you fly overseas and use MRs this is an awesome perk-one I'm hopefully going to be able to use before Amex decides they are being way too generous.

Plus, with the AF at $450 (v personal at $550), I figure the $200 airline credit plus multiple lounge entry to be "almost" worth the fee even without the 5x airlines credits, Global entry and 35% MR return with amex travel. Now, if those went away I'd have to consider things more stringently

DH and I keep finances and point earning separate. MR points can’t be pooled like Chase UR or be transferred to someone else’s account. AUs can transfer to the each other’s airlines but you can’t pool points. When we redeeen we use just one of our accounts, whichever has the higher balance of points if possible. When that one account and it’s type of points dwindles down we switch to the other person's account and work on replenishing the dwindled account. Not a problem when we were going back and forth with each of us having a biz Plat when paying airfare with points. However it became painfully obvious how much I was using the feature after we depleted DHs MR and switched to my account. I wanted to use the 35% back on points an was unable to do it. The airfare I was looking at was discounted for Amex card holders through the Amex Travel portal. It felt like having my hands tied. I had to go a different route to do what I wanted and it was going to cost more in either gift cards or UR points. We also ran through all of the GoGo Wi-Fi passes on flights using just DHs account.

It wasn’t until I didn’t have access to these features or benefits that I realized how much I would actually use them.

Thanks for the perspectives. The Biz Plat was one of the first cards I got when I started to catch on to the whole travel rewards thing, and I used the 50% MR points back a lot, until they changed it to 35%. By then, I had a decent stash of AA points plus the AA gift cards from the travel credit to use for flights, so I got out of the habit of looking to use MR for flights. I have a few months to think about the cost v. benefits so I'll make a point to look at the possibility of using MR for flights -- I have a bunch of flights to book for Christmas.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

For the Dischurners.....Fischstick01 on reddit!

@Lain @Albort @SouthFayetteFan ?

 

[mamathompson]

After getting my husband and I each a CSP and him a Cap. One Venture last month we have already hit MSR's. Paying off our upcoming trip mostly. We also have 5 kids which means quite a bit of organic spending. Since we established that I probably applied for the wrong cards to get started I don't want to make another mistake. I have a few questions:
1. Our credit scores are both in the low 700's. Are they too low to effectively churn?
2. We want to buy a house in a year or two. I have read conflicting information about how churning effects a mortgage. Any first hand experience?
3. If churning is right for us, what is our next move? Christmas and 4 out of 5 birthdays in the next few months means I have lots of spending coming up.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

For the Dischurners.....Fischstick01 on reddit!

Welcome to DISchurners!

You're approved and all set! Access the main page here.

As a reminder most of the discussion does happen here on the boards. On r/DISchurners you can post your own support links and/or use others' support links here:

• Chase
• American Express
• Other/Misc

And of course there's other info there too including some of our best tips from the thread that you might want to explore! Welcome, thanks for joining!

 

[wendow]

Are all chase support links kaput or just CSR? I haven’t been following what’s going on with those.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Anyone else with Citi AA box? How long after I meet MSR do the miles hit my account? Is it after the statement closes?

 

[phewms]

Sorry it's frustrating. It does get easier once you have a stash of points to work with, but when you're first starting out it is hard.

One kind of crazy idea, if you have the points for it, is to get a ticket for you and a ticket for DH. (And personally, I only book one-ways with SW; it makes it easier to adjust the ticket if needed.)Then, when you get your CPs in Feb, each of you add on your companion. This hinges on the stars aligning and seats being available. But, just so you know, they don't need to be Wanna Get Away seats in order for you to use your CP. You can use your CP on any available seat.

My fam is going to Costa Rica over Thanksgiving, and I made a mistake and just got tickets for DH and I, figuring I would add on DD as my companion later. Well, a couple weeks later the flights sold out on one leg and I was kind of panicking. I did have the reassurance of knowing that I wouldn't have to pay any penalties if I ended up canceling our tickets, since I got them with RR points, so worst case scenario we just wouldn't go. I kept checking back obsessively and one night there was one seat available on the leg that was sold out. It was an Anytime fare, but I grabbed it as my companion pass seat no problem.

Other alternatives for you: does AA fly your route and does it have SAAver fares available and is it direct? If it is less than 1151 airmiles then you can use British Airlines Avios at 6500 off-peak/7500 peak each way. You could transfer URs to BA to use that way. You can do a google search for BA award chart to see how many miles you would need. The persnickety thing is that BA is distance based per segment, so if there is a connection somewhere you have to count each leg as a separate award redemption.

Also check United since you can transfer URs to them as well. All of the mentioned airlines allow booking one-ways, so you can mix and match if that suits your needs better.

SW RRs are the only ones without penalties for changes, so that's something to keep in mind.

Thank you. I will dig more into it tonight. I was looking at RT fares. AA and Delta are super expensive. United is within budget. I can check one way for them but SWA only flys out of HOU and if Delta is flying into IAH, I may be in a pickle.

Can I book DH and myself one way using my current points? He doesn't have any at the moment. If this is an option and I can get the CP for the kids on any "tier" in Feb, I think this could possibly work.

Again, I cannot express my gratitude. You all are a wealth of information.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

After getting my husband and I each a CSP and him a Cap. One Venture last month we have already hit MSR's. Paying off our upcoming trip mostly. We also have 5 kids which means quite a bit of organic spending. Since we established that I probably applied for the wrong cards to get started I don't want to make another mistake. I have a few questions:
1. Our credit scores are both in the low 700's. Are they too low to effectively churn?
2. We want to buy a house in a year or two. I have read conflicting information about how churning effects a mortgage. Any first hand experience?
3. If churning is right for us, what is our next move? Christmas and 4 out of 5 birthdays in the next few months means I have lots of spending coming up.

1-I don’t think your credit scores are too low to open additional cards...have you looked on credit Karma to see if there are ways you can raise them. I’m assuming your paying off the cards in full each month.

2-can’t help on the house question...sorry...

3- sinceyou said you have a lot of upcoming expenses...I’d recommend the CIP...80,000URs after meeting the $5k MSP...you could get one...then refer your husband for one...once the MSR is complete on both you have 180,000URs

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Are all chase support links kaput or just CSR? I haven’t been following what’s going on with those.

CSR and CF links