I love credit cards so much!

[Lain]

Ok...I read the @SouthFayetteFan post and his end of year message in which @Lain was thanked for this long responses and excellent memory, or note taking skills. All I could imagine is the following picture of @Lain and his DW after they eat dinner and log onto the DisBoards. He is reading and reciting while DW is taking notes and adding them to Excel. This is maybe what is after dinner apparel and study look like.

Ha! I’m flattered to be compared to Captain Picard! I have been known to pull a Picard maneuver after dinner. But really, my wife has no interest in the chatter that goes on here or in our hobby. In fact, if she asks me what I’m doing, and I tell her I’m on the DIS, she’d more likely than not roll her eyes at me.

I’m so sorry to read about your grandparents and the family cat.

 

[Albort]

Anybody here watching this thread on r/churning: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/a73lf4/amex_bonus_denial_without_popup_datapoints/

There's also been a lot of discussion on this topic in various Daily Discussion threads too...

AMEX is crazy anymore...
- They have a popup that should tell you if you're not eligible for the bonus
- Sometimes that popup doesn't show up but they still deny people for the bonus
- Sometimes the popup will show up, people will put spend on their cards, the popup will go away, and they are still denied for the bonus
- Sometimes the popup will show up, people will put spend on their cards, the popup will go away, and they receive the bonus
- People aren't sure but it seems this isn't related to self-referring
- People have attempted to appeal to CFPB and it doesn't appear to have a positive result
- Some folks have chatted with AMEX and found out the bonus wasn't tied to their account before hitting the spend
- Others have chatted and been told the bonus details ONLY to be denied later anyways after hitting the spend

The results are VERY inconclusive. The only result you can conclude is that there's a new sheriff in town and that's the AMEX RAT. They will decide whether you get your bonus or not and they may or may not not inform you ahead of time that you will not get the bonus.

I'm not posting this to scare away folks from applying with AMEX. For newer folks who haven't "abused" AMEX yet...you're probably fine. I honestly am not sure I'm ever going to get another AMEX card unless this pattern changes though. I would be SOOOO angry if I spent $3k or $5k on a crappy card (i.e. something with 1x MR pts) and then get denied the bonus. I'm very interested to hear others' thoughts on this situation (especially those that have been following it)

EDIT: here's some additional discussion from today's DD: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/a6yvzk/daily_discussion_thread_december_17_2018/ebzsx3w/

the one that gets me is that people only spend between $1-$500 a month after meeting MSR... i think thats a huge no no if u want to apply for more...
only 24 ppl responded though its its rather small DP...

 

[speedyfishy]

Did you use the same email address on all the fake accounts?

I used different emails

 

[calypso726]

Well damn after my post about thinking about getting the Biz Ascend because I don't have any travel plans worthy of the Aspire....I've followed a little bit the perks on the Aspire. You're saying for the $450 fee I could buy the AA giftcards (I think it's $50 increments, if I remember) now, and do another $250 in Jan, all under the $450 fee? And then there's the resort credit too? I'm not 100% on how that works, but I'm guessing there's no way to get that now (with no travel planned for 2018) and again in 2019.

Playing catch up here after weekend at WDW followed by a visit to Urgent Care last night

AA gift cards trigger the credit at $100 each. So we did two $100 AA gift cards and one $50 AA gift card spread out over 3 days.

I have a tendency to look at cards like this for funding unplanned travel. Timing wise, it happened to work out for the Maldives trip which we moved up by a year thanks to the card. It wasn't the reason I got the card. If I were getting the card this year, with no plans to use it my view would be as follows.

I am getting an unplanned long weekend escape or maybe longer thanks to this card.

Airline credit is $250 this year, $250 in January. P2 gets the same card and same credit. Now I have $1,000 worth of airfare that I'm not paying out of pocket.

We make the MSR and then have 324,000 HH points to use for accommodations.

If I decide to go to WDW that is enough points to stay at the Hilton Bonnet Creek for 7 nights (5th night free on points) between Christmas and New Year's peak time.

There's a shuttle to the parks.

The Hilton Bonnet Creek is one of the eligible resorts for the credit. There are 228 eligible resorts. https://www3.hilton.com/en/resorts/index.html?WT.mc_id=zkdCSAA0US1CI2REP4Resorts5US7BR840893

Diamond status that comes with the card will add additional perks to the stay such as free bottled water, free wifi, usually and upgrade etc.

I do recall something about the credit triggering for pre payments on resorts outside of the US but coding differently for US resorts. So, if one is planning to use double dip a resort credit like we did, you need to do a bit of homework. I think there is discussion on Flyer Talk and I imagine one of the bloggers must have a write up on it.

 

[calypso726]

I love this sentiment. For me, the most amazing place I've been to so far is Santorini, Greece. I'll have to see how Bora Bora stacks up when I finally get there.

Which got me thinking - what is everyone else's most amazing place? Even better if you got there on points.

Wow! That is a tough question to answer. Thanks to this hobby I have been able to visit a fair share of amazing places. I think for me it is likely a tie between Scotland and Iceland. The beauty of Scotland brings tears to my eyes and the beauty of Iceland takes my breath away. Used points and miles to get to or mitigate expenses of both. Iceland twice and Scotland 4 times with our 5th trip coming up in the summer. Next week we will be heading to Antarctica and then have Dubai and the Maldives planned for the spring. We shall see how those places stack up.

 

[striker1064]

Anybody here watching this thread on r/churning: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/a73lf4/amex_bonus_denial_without_popup_datapoints/

There's also been a lot of discussion on this topic in various Daily Discussion threads too...

AMEX is crazy anymore...
- They have a popup that should tell you if you're not eligible for the bonus
- Sometimes that popup doesn't show up but they still deny people for the bonus
- Sometimes the popup will show up, people will put spend on their cards, the popup will go away, and they are still denied for the bonus
- Sometimes the popup will show up, people will put spend on their cards, the popup will go away, and they receive the bonus
- People aren't sure but it seems this isn't related to self-referring
- People have attempted to appeal to CFPB and it doesn't appear to have a positive result
- Some folks have chatted with AMEX and found out the bonus wasn't tied to their account before hitting the spend
- Others have chatted and been told the bonus details ONLY to be denied later anyways after hitting the spend

The results are VERY inconclusive. The only result you can conclude is that there's a new sheriff in town and that's the AMEX RAT. They will decide whether you get your bonus or not and they may or may not not inform you ahead of time that you will not get the bonus.

I'm not posting this to scare away folks from applying with AMEX. For newer folks who haven't "abused" AMEX yet...you're probably fine. I honestly am not sure I'm ever going to get another AMEX card unless this pattern changes though. I would be SOOOO angry if I spent $3k or $5k on a crappy card (i.e. something with 1x MR pts) and then get denied the bonus. I'm very interested to hear others' thoughts on this situation (especially those that have been following it)

EDIT: here's some additional discussion from today's DD: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/a6yvzk/daily_discussion_thread_december_17_2018/ebzsx3w/

Yeah, I saw this thread pop up yesterday, but I haven't browsed all of it yet. I'm curious to know how many of these people chatted/called Amex after approval to confirm the bonus. I couldn't believe when people said they did that. There's no popup, hit your spend and keep quiet. That's what we've always done and we've never had an issue.

But... Amex is clearly clamping down.

I’ve definitely considered slowing down with Amex, held off on self-referring for the BBP this year (not that I necessarily think these denials have anything to do with self-referrals because there are plenty of DPs of self-referrals getting their bonuses), because I feel like I’ve been hitting Amex too hard and the BBP would be my 5th Amex credit card (and 8th Amex this year) and lock me out of a potentially good offer unless I close a card that I may not be ready to cancel.

I’ve also thought about the cards I’ve signed up for and which ones I’ll be keeping or closing next year. I’ll probably hold onto my 3 SPG cards as long as I can, until I need to close them to free up a slot, because the FN certs offset the AFs. My kiddo wants to go to Disneyland again for her birthday next August, anyway, and by then I should have 2x 35k FNs (or one or two more from my Marriott Biz and Premier Plus) and my wife will have 1x 35k FN, which we can probably use to book one of the nearby Marriotts. I’ll very likely close my Hilton Biz. I had planned to close my MB Plat (which will convert to a vanilla Plat in January), but may ask for a retention offer instead to help offset the AF and avoid closing another Plat card (I closed one this year), so I can stay in Amex’s good graces a little while longer. (Alternatively, I’d go for the MS Plat, but I’m kind of lazy to set up an investment account with MS just for a new card — and I’d feel scummy not funding it, and with the market right now... Or a Schwab Plat, but I’m not really looking to cash out, and not anytime soon anyway.) I guess that means putting more spend on the Plat in the new year to make me look like a good customer leading up to the retention call. I do plan on closing my Biz Green and BGR in due time, but I’m on the fence about closing the Biz Plat. Although I haven’t used the 35% MR rebate, I can see some value in it. But eesh, the AF will be $595! Maybe I can find something to buy at Dell, or sign up for WeWork to justify the increased fee.

I’ve also all but ruled out having my wife apply for her own Amex Gold at this time, and I’ll have her keep putting spend on the SPG Biz that we’ll be keeping, and occasional spend on the Hilton Biz until it’s time to cancel.

I do think that a major factor is spend. If you’re spending a lot with Amex (even if not on all your open cards), you’re making them money on swipe fees. Whatever metric they’re using to score us probably must include whether you’re a profitable or unprofitable customer, e.g., the value of the bonuses you’ve received vs. the AFs you’ve paid and how much spend (swipe fees) you’re bringing in.

Amex is definitely valuing ongoing spend more and more. And it makes total sense. It was always surprising to me that Barclays (up until now) was the only bank that really valued continued use of their cards. Why wouldn't all banks make that a clear priority? It stinks because it makes it much more difficult to churn quickly, but at least Amex has a few cards with good category bonuses that makes it easier to put regular spend on them (Gold 4x restaurants, Plat 5x flights, BBP 2x everything). They could use more - maybe something with hotels or all travel - but it's something.

 

[havaneselover]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

 

[miztressuz]

Just some random updates related to SPG/Marriott for us -

We both finally got the 29ways points. I'll have to go through our emails to see if they all posted correctly as we had quite a few 50pt days. I thought hubby got the 2k points once but maybe I'm misremembering and it was around 2k total as I see a 1k and 500 pt entry only among the handful of 50's. Mine are dated the 13th and his are the 16th.

When looking for a redemption room, don't be afraid to stalk the site Every so often I check out the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown in Vancouver for next year pre cruise as when they opened the 2nd night we needed was unavailable on points. So I booked the first night on hubby's account, and I booked both nights (on separate ressies) as backup at the Delta on my account. The Delta does look awesome but the Marriott has a pool/hot tub/sauna in their fitness area that I know we'd use after the travel day I have planned. I've been checking back periodically and the last time it got worse and there were no award nights available for that whole weekend into the week! But randomly this morning it let me book that 2nd night with points. So I have night 1 on hubby's account that we're hoping to switch to a 35k "free" night certificate when that posts next year, and the second night on my account to do the same thing. (I'm hoping they stay at 35k and not go peak so we can use the certs but given the convenience of the location I wanted to lock in that rate anyway) Then I'm hoping to link them together and add hubby to my night so we get the Platinum benefits for the whole weekend. Fingers crossed!

Interesting note on that, I did not cancel my Delta backup reservation for the same night before booking and so far it has let me hold 2 hotels for the same date. At some point this may become a problem but for right now it worked. Once I have hubby look it over to make sure I didn't goof up the dates or anything I'll probably release the Delta nights to get my points back, my account it looking very anemic right now and it'll be nice to see that 70k back in it.

 

[GlamMistress]

Anybody here watching this thread on r/churning: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/a73lf4/amex_bonus_denial_without_popup_datapoints/

There's also been a lot of discussion on this topic in various Daily Discussion threads too...

So this is giving me great pause in signing DH up for the no fee Hilton. I was going to do that over the weekend but just got too busy. We are heavy legit users of Amex. The PRG (now pink) has been my ride or die for years. I just spent heavy on my own no fee Hilton for Xmas to get the extra 20k points bonus. I have a Delta, Plat, Blue Biz, etc. I cycle all of them to be a "good Amex steward." The issue is that DH has an Everyday and Delta Plat - and he never spends on them. He carries my pink Gold (he's always been an AU on my gold account) so he spends on it. I've gotten lots of Amex accounts for him, just did the MSR, got bonus and closed at the year mark.

I wasn't worried before because I thought I'd get the popup so I could back out.... then I saw this thread on Reddit yesterday and my dreams were dashed a little. I wondered when the discussion would roll over here.

I don't know what to say anymore. I'm already cut out of Chase. Might be cut out of Amex. I've already got three Barclay's accounts, so I'm tapped out there.

What's next? Cap One? I probably can't even get one of those cards because my credit is "too good" and I don't revolve a balance. [They like hight utilization]. Argh.

Really looking forward to what other's are planning with Amex going forward.

 

[GlamMistress]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

I am sorry to read this.
Thinking of you.

 

[miztressuz]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

oh no So sorry for your loss.

 

[magickingdomprincess]

As we approach the end of the year, I just wanted to take a moment and thank some friends on this thread who are awesome contributors!

I wanted to make a list of people I've enjoyed interacting with and I ended up with over 30 names, and I just can't type that many personal messages. AND I'm sure I've missed people so PLEASE don't take offense if I didn't include you! I don't have a spreadsheet of all your activities like @Lain does

First off just a list of people who I've enjoyed trading messages or discussing on the board or who were new and have impressed me with their quick grasp of the game: @ afan, @brownhaired_girl, @CoP Luv, @disneymagicgirl, @DisneyMandC, @elgerber, @FloridaNative8, @GlamMistress, @GusGus16, @Haley R, @jhoannam, @kmc8826, @LuckyMamaInDE, @magickingdomprincess, @mmmears, @mom2elal, @MrPTato, @palhockeymomof2, @pillow, @platamama, @PolyRob, @speedyfishy, @striker1064, @Texans_loyal, @tink1970, @trenty, @vanjust14, @WVMomof3 (again sorry to anybody I missed...it's hard to remember all of you!!)

And then a few I want to just say something personal about:

• @Albort - You were the first mod of DISchurners. You've helped me maintain that for 15 months now and most of your comments either provide great info or make me laugh, OR sometimes both. Thanks for being awesome!
• @amalone1013 - whenever I see I think of you. I loved your trip report, you make it so fun around here!!
• @calypso726 - what can I say other than you are an amazing wealth of knowledge! We approach things so much differently and yet I learn and read everything you say! I love that we can provide varying viewpoints and have such respectful discussions! And what you achieve with your points is AMAZING!!!
• @gottalovepluto - super cool to realize who you were on r/churning. I love how you and I can both have different personalities there vs. here...
• @Lain - you are a straight up animal with those long responses and advice you give folks! You've provided me my fair share of great suggestions AND I appreciate you helping out with mod duties on DISchurners. Oh and your listening skills are out of this world! (Or that spreadsheet you keep is super amazing )
• @wendow - just love the perspective and discussion you bring. Have had awesome interactions with you and love how hard you work at the game to provide awesome experiences for your family!

Love the community we have here! You guys are all awesome - 2018 was a great year - here's to making 2019 even better!!

EDIT: should've included @miztressuz and also missed @DaveL who gave us so many tips on Disney and URs before that went south!

Thanks @SouthFayetteFan! I admire you and so many others on this thread for your knowledge and willingness to share this knowledge with newbies like me! Although I might be ready to qualify for intermediate churning for 2019?

 

[speedyfishy]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

I’m sorry

 

[magickingdomprincess]

Travel plans for 2019 for our family are 9 days in Florida in June (2 nights Universal, 5 nights at BCV (home DVC resort that my kids have never actually stayed at!), and 2 nights at Vero Beach), 1 week at Disneyland/SoCal using Marriot N/F cert (this one isn't set in stone but will hopefully happen). Oh almost forgot WDW with my mom/uncle in Oct for 4 nights for F/W Festival.

Churning goals are finish up MSR on CIP, meet MSR on DH's Arrival plus, get CIU or CIC for myself, then CSR or CSP for myself (not sure if I have the guts to go for modified double dip or not but will at least consider it), also convince DH to get another SW card. I have a CP thru 2019 but getting low on RR points. After that I'm not sure, I have 3 cards dropping off 5/24 in May/June but I will have hit Chase pretty hard in 18 months or so. Probably get more AA points (currently have 124k that I have no plans for immediately), maybe dip into MR's but not so sure with how Amex is going lately. I'd like to come up with a plan for Hawaii in 2020 while squeezing in another trip to WDW before our AP's expire in June 2020.

 

[magickingdomprincess]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

So sorry for your family's loss.

 

[happ]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

So sorry for your loss and for your mom. This time of year is especially hard when loved ones pass.

 

[Lain]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

I’m so sorry... having gone through something similar, I feel terrible for you and your mom too. And so close to Christmas is such bad timing. At least it seems your grandma lived a long life, and I hope your mom will be surrounded by family and friends in the coming days and weeks to help you all get through this loss.

 

[PolyRob]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

So sorry for your loss!

 

[Eighty8Keys]

Sad morning I woke up to a text that my 99-year old grandma passed away yesterday. My mom was on her way to see her but didn’t make it in time. I feel so badly for my mom.

I’m so sorry to hear this. My thoughts are with you.

 

[PolyRob]

Catching up after putting everything away from my week long WDW trip. I just wanted to mention how much I love my Priority Pass card!

Between the travel credit and two lounge visits this past trip with at least two more trips coming up before my anniversary, the CSR has definitely paid for itself