I love credit cards so much!

[havaneselover]

Yup, the charge is from DCL, Costco is just the TA. It should code as travel. Onboard account might not though, so maybe you want to keep a little of the GCs for that.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/which-purchases-count-as-travel-chase-sapphire-reserve-preferred/

Agree. I only put $100 on csr when I used Costco for dcl to get car insurance but it’s travel and the charge is dcl. Everything else I paid with gift cards (or dva before its demise).

 

[Ngwira]

Went there in June. What are your family's interests? Do you have things in mind that you have to see/do? I used walkaboutflorence .com for some activities and walksofitaly .com for some as well. If you're interested in viewing the Colosseum, the least expensive way to do it is with CoopCulture .it but those tickets go fairly quickly. We downloaded audiotours from Rick Steves and listened to those when walking around. The Sistine Chapel is best early, because the crush of bodies gets intense as the day goes on.

I bought train tickets online ahead of time to get from Rome to Florence on ItaliaRail and that was easy. The train stations are very hectic and a bit confusing so allow yourself extra time to figure out where the gates and entrances are. And keep a very close eye on your belongings. My iPhone was stolen on the train, and I was super super lucky to find it blocks away from the train station with DH using "Find iPhone" on his phone.

Happy to answer any questions I can.

Thank you for this information.

 

[Ngwira]

Adults or family with kids, and if so roughly what ages are the kids? We spent a few days in Rome with DD when she was 13, so I can maybe help with that part. It's been too long since I've been to Florence to comment on that, other than saying that it's beautiful. Oh, and what kind of tips are you looking for? I'd be happy to help if I can.

2 adults, 2 kids 10 and 13. Where to eat, what to see off the beaten path, tips on seeing the sites? Our Airbnb is very close to the Trevi fountain.

 

[happ]

Currently planning for spring break 2020...Rome and Florence.
Any tips from anyone who has been? Already booked our Airbnb.

I went to Rome years ago. The tips I can offer are stay to the main streets, hide your valuables, and figure out food options ahead of time. Someone attempted to pickpocket us when we somehow ended up walking down a side street away from the main roads. Fortunately, we had our wallets hidden inside interior jacket pockets so all the person got was a free tourist map. The other thing we had trouble with was eating out, especially mid-day. Away from the main tourist areas, most restaurants were closed during the day until late at night or at least they appeared to be closed. One time we walked into an empty restaurant at lunchtime after being turned away from others. We were led to a back room with tables. It was like a little hidden restaurant within a restaurant. I guess they used the main area only for dinner.

 

[1st*toright]

Amex offers on my Gold Card this morning: 4 separate offers 40 of 200 at each of Courtyard, Fairfield, Springhill Suites and Sheraton Four Points.

I'm going to try the Courtyard first to see if I can score it on a gift card. It does say gift cards excluded.

I reached back for this because a Miracle did occur!! I was just going through my offers on the SPG Biz after not signing in for about a week and there they were. I actually skipped past them all until I saw one at the very bottom of the list, and since I've been seeing them on every other card we have it didn't click until that last one that Hey! That's a Stariott offer! When I scrolled through again all 4 were there.

I guess the moral of the story is after 2 or 3 weeks AmEx gets desperate and casts a wider net... or fixes the glitch I did put one charge on it but that was just rounding off my Lowe's offer so it was only a couple days after these came out and didn't seem to affect anything - at least not right away.

As long as you buy the gift card at a hotel, it does seem to work. I bought a $200 Fairfield Inn card a couple of weeks ago (wasn't staying at the hotel, just went in and bought a $200 even card from the front desk), and the credit went through on Amex right away. I then tried to use my gift card at a Fairfield Inn in the middle of nowhere PA the other day, and the desk clerk insisted she couldn't use it for my room charge scared. We were only there from 9pm to 6am, so I waited until I got back to the office and called and asked for a manager. I explained what had happened, and she was able to reverse the charge on my cc and use my gift card instead after the fact. Bonus- one of my colleagues was too lazy to do an expense report just for the hotel charge, so he left his room on my credit card (I try to be the one to make the hotel reservations when we travel), so I got to use it on his room as well.

Only fail in all of this is that I saw the offers, got excited and added them all to my Biz Plat instead of my SPG Biz, so that wasn't great...

 

[Judique]

As long as you buy the gift card at a hotel, it does seem to work. I bought a $200 Fairfield Inn card a couple of weeks ago (wasn't staying at the hotel, just went in and bought a $200 even card from the front desk), and the credit went through on Amex right away. I then tried to use my gift card at a Fairfield Inn in the middle of nowhere PA the other day, and the desk clerk insisted she couldn't use it for my room charge scared. We were only there from 9pm to 6am, so I waited until I got back to the office and called and asked for a manager. I explained what had happened, and she was able to reverse the charge on my cc and use my gift card instead after the fact. Bonus- one of my colleagues was too lazy to do an expense report just for the hotel charge, so he left his room on my credit card (I try to be the one to make the hotel reservations when we travel), so I got to use it on his room as well.

Only fail in all of this is that I saw the offers, got excited and added them all to my Biz Plat instead of my SPG Biz, so that wasn't great...

My possible fail also! Except I got the offer on two MR cards once I went back and looked so SPG wasn't actually an option for me. At first, I thought I remembered seeing it there.

I did the gift card on the Courtyard. I'll do Fairfield and Springhill Suites soon - closer to month's end to put the expense on my Feb payments. Now, the Sheraton will be a bit of a problem as I have no plans to stay at Four Points before the offer ends and I don't yet know if they have gift cards. Anyone tried for a Four Points gift card?

 

[1st*toright]

Even better on the random Fairfield Inn stay- the desk clerk never changed the name on the rooms when we checked in, so I got points for all 3 rooms (even though I didn't pay for one of them). And I just made the top tier of platinum with Marriott, so my earnings rate on hotel stays is pretty good (even when they are cheap rooms in the middle of nowhere!).

Also, there is something funky going on with the night count - I think someone else mentioned getting phantom nights. You're supposed to only get credit for 1 room per night, even if you book multiple rooms, but I seem to have been credited with 3 nights for the stay. Not complaining - I'm spitting distance from lifetime Silver (not that Silver means much in Starriott status) and I have enough years as gold/platinum to get lifetime gold, which gives you a couple of perks. Lifetime Platinum is a good ways away, and I'd need to get Plat status a few more times, which may or may not happen depending on how much work travel I have - 75 nights is a lot, if they are limiting credit card nights to 15 per year.

I'm also missing a Westin stay, which seems odd because I booked and prepaid through the Marriott site - strange that it isn't showing up in my activity. Maybe its the hackers wreaking havoc...

 

[WVMomof3]

Even though my account errored out every time I tried to play the Marriott game, I was awarded 8 - 50 point wins, so 400 points. Plus the 5,000 courtesy points they gave me when I complained about it not working. I will take it! lol No points on DHs account yet. Thanks @miztressuz for telling me to look.

I am super bummed that I did not see the Marriott offers on the SPG cards sooner. DH stayed at a 4 Points last week and usually he is not allowed to put work travel on a personal card, but there was a mixup with his work card so he did put on his personal SPG. Bummer that I missed out on free $40.

 

[schmass]

No Marriott game points here yet!

Not sure if I should even post this given all the Starbucks/coffee hate here in the last day or so, but for anyone who does like Starbucks, I just got the free $5 giftcard for purchasing a $10 gc. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/starbucks-buy-a-10-digital-gift-card-get-a-bonus-5-e-gift/

 

[amalone1013]

No Marriott game points here yet!

Not sure if I should even post this given all the Starbucks/coffee hate here in the last day or so, but for anyone who does like Starbucks, I just got the free $5 giftcard for purchasing a $10 gc. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/starbucks-buy-a-10-digital-gift-card-get-a-bonus-5-e-gift/

Thanks! I was going to track down this offer today anyways.. don't forget about Chase/Amex offers for those who are using it!

 

[Judique]

Who is going to the movies on Dec 19 just to see Lin Manuel Miranda in Mary Poppins Returns?

 

[havaneselover]

Who is going to the movies on Dec 19 just to see Lin Manuel Miranda in Mary Poppins Returns?

My DD and I are (unless she sees it with friends). I'm really excited and I don't usually like musicals.

 

[Judique]

My DD and I are (unless she sees it with friends). I'm really excited and I don't usually like musicals.

I was just checking and it can be paid for with a Disney Rewards card. I'm going to ask my daughter if she will see it with me on Xmas eve or day.

 

[1st*toright]

No Marriott game points here yet!

Not sure if I should even post this given all the Starbucks/coffee hate here in the last day or so, but for anyone who does like Starbucks, I just got the free $5 giftcard for purchasing a $10 gc. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/starbucks-buy-a-10-digital-gift-card-get-a-bonus-5-e-gift/

Plenty of Sbux fans around - we've just been lying low so as not to get hit by the coke/pepsi crossfire

Who is going to the movies on Dec 19 just to see Lin Manuel Miranda in Mary Poppins Returns?

Perfect family outing- my little one just saw the original Mary Poppins and loved it, so she's up for it and my teen will happily watch Lin Manuel Miranda in anything. Just hoping his cockney accent is better than Dick Van Dyke's or my brit husband may not survive

Not sure we'll make it on opening weekend, but definitely in the cards for the holidays.

 

[elgerber]

Who is going to the movies on Dec 19 just to see Lin Manuel Miranda in Mary Poppins Returns?

I am not going just to Lin, and we are not going until Christmas Day, but we are seeing it, and I am sooooooooooooo excited! This has been our Christmas Day movie plan for two years, since they announced the date.

 

[amalone1013]

This is off topic work venting but as we all know here, this is my favorite emoji and I really need it everywhere, like on my phone and google hangouts too.

The person in charge of our supply ordering is so incompetent I could scream. Doesn't order things when asked multiple times, orders random things without being asked, orders the wrong thing, orders huge amounts of things when we don't have places to store them, encourages you to take supplies from the other labs instead of just ordering them for whichever lab you want them for. Doesn't send things back after ordering the wrong things - they are just piling up in his office. Does no follow up after ordering to see if things are shipped, back ordered, ever show up... just two weeks ago he was going off because someone asked about something he was supposed to order, it shows as delivered on the tracking, but we never saw it show up. A $4000 order is missing. And he is trying to blame everyone else. Now the whole orders showing up thing could easily be solved by a system where the person who unpacks the order marks off on the packing list if everything showed up or not, and putting it in his mailbox so he can check it against his ordering... but that would make too much sense.

Anyways, earlier this week I emailed him to order some standards for our equipment. He came to the lab yesterday to ask what I wanted again. I repeated what my email said. Today he sends an email that he ordered them, plus sample containers for this equipment. Why? Because he "thought I mentioned them, guess I was wrong haha!" We go through 25 of these sample containers at most throughout a week, and we currently have 2600 in stock, and he ordered 500 more

Sorry, I forgot that when I emailed for supplies, I also put sample containers on my list IN INVISIBLE INK.

 

[Lain]

Not sure if I should even post this given all the Starbucks/coffee hate here in the last day or so, but for anyone who does like Starbucks, I just got the free $5 giftcard for purchasing a $10 gc. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/starbucks-buy-a-10-digital-gift-card-get-a-bonus-5-e-gift/

Plenty of Sbux fans around - we've just been lying low so as not to get hit by the coke/pepsi crossfire

FYI - even though this deal says Limit 1 promotional eGift per person, you can do it multiple times if you have a Citi Mastercard. At 33% off Starbucks, you can't get a much better deal.

I did this deal last night, first, with generic Masterpass using an Amex on which I'm working on a spending bonus; then second, I checked out through Masterpass Citi Pay using my Citi Mastercard. But last month, I used Masterpass Citi Pay to hit this deal four times using different email addresses.

Check out this comment on DoC:
1. After signing in to masterpass .com with your citi credentials (Chrome incognito mode), you’ll be taken to the page where it’ll show the credit card you’ll be using.
2. Below that, you’ll see the “Contact Information”. click on “Change”. You’ll then have the option to “Add” a new email address.
3. Type in a new email address and click “Add Email” (for the sake of simplicity, I sent the $10 gc to the same address that I typed here).
NOTE: You don’t need to change the credit card you want to charge it to.
4. Then proceed as usual by clicking the “Continue with Checkout”.
Masterpass allows you to store up to 5 email addresses although I did this more than 5 times by editing an existing email and changing to a new one.

I'm going to do this deal a few more times through Masterpass Citi Pay, but I'll space it out a little so I don't trip any fraud alerts.

Hope it works for you!

 

[1st*toright]

This is off topic work venting but as we all know here, this is my favorite emoji and I really need it everywhere, like on my phone and google hangouts too.

The person in charge of our supply ordering is so incompetent I could scream. Doesn't order things when asked multiple times, orders random things without being asked, orders the wrong thing, orders huge amounts of things when we don't have places to store them, encourages you to take supplies from the other labs instead of just ordering them for whichever lab you want them for. Doesn't send things back after ordering the wrong things - they are just piling up in his office. Does no follow up after ordering to see if things are shipped, back ordered, ever show up... just two weeks ago he was going off because someone asked about something he was supposed to order, it shows as delivered on the tracking, but we never saw it show up. A $4000 order is missing. And he is trying to blame everyone else. Now the whole orders showing up thing could easily be solved by a system where the person who unpacks the order marks off on the packing list if everything showed up or not, and putting it in his mailbox so he can check it against his ordering... but that would make too much sense.

Anyways, earlier this week I emailed him to order some standards for our equipment. He came to the lab yesterday to ask what I wanted again. I repeated what my email said. Today he sends an email that he ordered them, plus sample containers for this equipment. Why? Because he "thought I mentioned them, guess I was wrong haha!" We go through 25 of these sample containers at most throughout a week, and we currently have 2600 in stock, and he ordered 500 more

Sorry, I forgot that when I emailed for supplies, I also put sample containers on my list IN INVISIBLE INK.

That sounds insane! Is it just incompetence, or is there some kind of malfeasance? It seems crazy that no one would be all over this - its the kind of dumb waste that can really affect profit margins - in my world (a manufacturer that squeezes every penny at the operations) heads would be rolling!

 

[elgerber]

DH Starriott points, finally showed up, and they are correct, YAY!!! He has enough for a free room at a lower level now! But his last qualifying date went from 5/7/18 to 1/2/18?!? I can't figure out how we lost 4 months, and I can't see any activity past 3 months no matter what I click on.

Editing this, he has SPG spend in his SPG history in 4/2018, shouldn't that transfer over at least, for qualifying?

I was also wondering how I was going to extend these, but we have SPG Biz cards, those will now earn qualifying points in the Marriott account, right?

 

[amalone1013]

I couldn't resist this TPG article: The Critical Points: Why TPG’s Mission Is More Important Than Ever

"Our job here at The Points Guy is to educate and equip the modern traveler. With developments in just the last couple of weeks, it has become apparent to me just how critical this mission is."

Wait... I thought the mission of TPG was to line his own accounts with reward points and his own pockets with cash

Basically they just say how they're so great explaing BS company statements to the readers, like the SPG breach and giving people info on how to protect themselves because Marriott didn't and is trying to lay blame elsewhere, or how statements from United/Delta/American against foreign airlines is lies to protect themselves.