I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[FloridaNative8]

Some people are just bad with directions lol that’s me lol

Same! I mean, I can tell you to go towards the coast on a road, or towards Orlando in I-4, but start throwing in N/S/E/W, and I'm lost!

 

[WVMomof3]

I know we talked about this over here before, has anyone bought an Undercover tourist Universal ticket lately and upgraded it? When I did it, I bought the buy 2 get 1 free ticket and got the full gate price value of a 3 day ticket in upgrading. It cost me $10 to upgrade to a seasonal pass. Now I am seeing reports that you will only get the value that you paid. They can see the price somehow. Is this true? Trying to advise a friend so don’t want to steer her wrong.

 

[punkin]

Just got an Aadvanrage platinum select offer for 65k miles. First year AF waived.

 

[Happy814]

First time popping in for a few days, aside from brief scrolling and "liking." So sorry to hear about the losses being experienced. Thoughts and prayers.

Our whirlwind Universal trip was April 4-6. Somehow, I managed to pick the only weekend Universal closed at 6 p.m. both nights for grad bash. It ended up being fine, we felt like we had plenty of time in the parks. The boys were super surprised, we didn't tell them until we were in the airport parking lot and they started asking questions. I was worried about my littlest being upset because he is a planner, but he was completely fine and super excited. I thought I would share a few thoughts.

• Hyatt @ MCO was great. Our flight landed at 10:30, and it was so nice to walk straight over. The boys were over the moon excited about staying at the airport hotel and we could see planes taking off and landing from our room. They were super impressed with the clock in the mirror lol.
• Royal Pacific was nice as well. It was very nice having the Express Pass, because the park was pretty crowded the days we were there.
• We have confirmed that we definitely prefer Disney much over Universal. DH found out pretty quickly he could not handle the screen rides and they didn't make me feel too great either. We had some really great employee interactions; the food and atmosphere at Three Broomsticks was wonderful. When my picky eater devoured an ear of corn, I asked if I could buy more without going through the line, and they gave it to me for free! We all loved the Harry Potter areas. The attention to details in those areas is truly remarkable. DS1 was chosen in the wand shop, which was a really fun experience.
• It was refreshing how close everything was in Universal. The boat trip from our hotel was less than 5 mins, and it was nice being so close to the City Walk at the end of the day so we could have dinner. This is a stark contrast to Disney that's for sure.
• Toothsome's was not very good. I didn't even finish half of my food and I'm not usually too picky. The desserts were ok, but not worth the price in my opinion. We had a much better (and cheaper!) meal the following night at Vivo Italian Kitchen.

All in all, I'm glad that we went and we all had a great time. Prior to this, I had taken exactly 4 days off since mid-January, so the best part was spending more than 1 day at a time with my family. It was a nice refresher after a stressful busy season. But, I think it will be a few years before (if) we go back. We much prefer Disney. The trip was mostly free (aside from food and the rental car) with points, but if we had paid cash it would have been just as much as spending two days at Disney. I'm sure if you lengthened your stay, the price per day would go down. But for us, we found so much better value at Disney.

I really appreciate all the advice you all gave me surrounding this trip - I asked plenty of questions. I spoiler'd a couple photos from our trip (since they will probably be huge!) below.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[amalone1013]

I know we talked about this over here before, has anyone bought an Undercover tourist Universal ticket lately and upgraded it? When I did it, I bought the buy 2 get 1 free ticket and got the full gate price value of a 3 day ticket in upgrading. It cost me $10 to upgrade to a seasonal pass. Now I am seeing reports that you will only get the value that you paid. They can see the price somehow. Is this true? Trying to advise a friend so don’t want to steer her wrong.

Have you tried the ticket upgrade thread on the Uni section of the boards? I'd think they were pretty up to date

 

[georgina]

I know we talked about this over here before, has anyone bought an Undercover tourist Universal ticket lately and upgraded it? When I did it, I bought the buy 2 get 1 free ticket and got the full gate price value of a 3 day ticket in upgrading. It cost me $10 to upgrade to a seasonal pass. Now I am seeing reports that you will only get the value that you paid. They can see the price somehow. Is this true? Trying to advise a friend so don’t want to steer her wrong.

We upgraded one in November without issue. It depends on what ticket you get. The old buy 2 get 1 free from UT used to ship as a regular 3 day ticket. Universal can't tell anything from those other than it is a valid 3 day ticket. With all the extra promo deals now though, some are coming as a 2 day ticket with 2 free days so that would only get them the value of a 2 day ticket when upgrading. The back of the ticket may say promo which means they may not get the full value.

 

[Happy814]

Some people are just bad with directions lol that’s me lol

Yes this is me too. I have learned to accept it haha. I get lost in office buildings even.

 

[amalone1013]

@WVMomof3 I guess the ticket upgrade thread is locked. Here's my post where I did the math last September...

https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...-good-to-be-true.3679837/page-8#post-59700491

Like @georgina said, if I'm remembering right, there is something with the promo tickets so if you can get the same promo ticket direct from Uni, then that's what you're getting from UT so that is why it's only worth the 'lower' value. But if it's a promo that is only available on UT, it should count as the 'full' value.

For us, I just went with whatever ticket gave us the best deal anyways with UT, since we were upgrading. I was just looking for what was the best net cost irregardless of what our trip was (so I went with the 5 day ticket and got a small refund, and all we did that weekend was Volcano Bay...)

 

[amalone1013]

Plastiq Update:
I have paid $7400 through my new business account, in actual payments. About $1300 of that was NOT on business cards. I'm planning on paying ~$2k with DHs AA biz, and then will probably do the last ~$600 on one of our CIPs and see if the FFDs trigger. If not I have plenty of wiggle room in the budget and cc MSR periods to make up for my non biz card spend before May 31st.

 

[Kawnipi]

Just a quick note that Yelp went from 2% CB at Sams Club to 3% for those of you who purchase GC there.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

DD19 and I flew our $49 SWA flight to Maui yesterday (the third day of operations from OAK!), and had a great credit card score waiting for us. Thanks to the AMEX Business Platinum I have Emerald status at National, giving me my choice of cars in the Executive aisle. DD waited for the luggage when we got off the bus while I went straight for the aisle. You should have seen her face when she came around the corner and saw me in our car: a convertible white Mustang GT. The lady asked whether I minded the bigger engine. I--of course--laughed. So for under $300 (price of midsize) we have a week in a convertible. Mega score! I almost got rid of the card when they raised the AF to $595, but i wanted the 1.5x points for paying taxes. So glad I didn't. This is an example of one of those unexpected perks that I find make these cards worth it to me.

We usually don't rent a car in Maui (rely on walking and UBER), but we wanted to play golf this time. Hope the clubs fit

 

[speedyfishy]

Talk in the reddit MS thread of a certain grocery chain allowing MOs to be purchased with credit. Any idea what this is?

ETA: if no one knows I will play around next week at some chains near me. Safeway won’t take any kind of card.

 

[StephPlum]

• Royal Pacific was nice as well. It was very nice having the Express Pass, because the park was pretty crowded the days we were there.

• We have confirmed that we definitely prefer Disney much over Universal. DH found out pretty quickly he could not handle the screen rides and they didn't make me feel too great either. We had some really great employee interactions; the food and atmosphere at Three Broomsticks was wonderful. When my picky eater devoured an ear of corn, I asked if I could buy more without going through the line, and they gave it to me for free! We all loved the Harry Potter areas. The attention to details in those areas is truly remarkable. DS1 was chosen in the wand shop, which was a really fun experience.

• It was refreshing how close everything was in Universal. The boat trip from our hotel was less than 5 mins, and it was nice being so close to the City Walk at the end of the day so we could have dinner. This is a stark contrast to Disney that's for sure.

• Toothsome's was not very good. I didn't even finish half of my food and I'm not usually too picky. The desserts were ok, but not worth the price in my opinion. We had a much better (and cheaper!) meal the following night at Vivo Italian Kitchen

I love RPR. It is a great resort and the boat ride makes it so easy to go back and forth to the parks or City Walk.

Sorry about the screen rides. I am glad no one in my family has issues with them. I really prefer those to the intense roller coasters.

Congrats on wand selection. It is always cute to watch the kids participate in that.

I thought I was the only Toothsome non-fan. I don't think it is up to the hype - food is not that special and my dessert was half melted once. We really like NBC Sports Grill. Lots of variety.

 

[Albort]

My DD9 is obsessed with Panera Mac and cheese too. Calls it “my delight”! It is pretty tasty. I love that strawberry chicken salad now back for spring/summer!!

Sams club got those in the fridge section...

 

[speedyfishy]

Sams club got those in the fridge section...

It’s not the same lol

 

[miztressuz]

DD19 and I flew our $49 SWA flight to Maui yesterday (the third day of operations from OAK!), and had a great credit card score waiting for us. Thanks to the AMEX Business Platinum I have Emerald status at National, giving me my choice of cars in the Executive aisle. DD waited for the luggage when we got off the bus while I went straight for the aisle. You should have seen her face when she came around the corner and saw me in our car: a convertible white Mustang GT. The lady asked whether I minded the bigger engine. I--of course--laughed. So for under $300 (price of midsize) we have a week in a convertible. Mega score! I almost got rid of the card when they raised the AF to $595, but i wanted the 1.5x points for paying taxes. So glad I didn't. This is an example of one of those unexpected perks that I find make these cards worth it to me.

We usually don't rent a car in Maui (rely on walking and UBER), but we wanted to play golf this time. Hope the clubs fit

View attachment 393967

Very nice!!

Also for folks with the CSR, you can get Executive status from that too. I believe it's part of the Infinite Visa perks and I think I found it under benefits.
I am so looking forward to trying it out someday after all the good reports from here. So jelly!

 

[havaneselover]

@havaneselover I stopped by Kroger today and bought $100 in Disney GCs with my Kroger GC. No issues at all at self-checkout. I did not try the VGC again as it occurred to me that they probably can't resell that VGC yesterday after they had to peel the back open to scan it, and I felt kind of bad about that. But I still got 4x fuel points on the Disney GC plus the 10% off the Kroger GC. With fuel points, I put my savings at around 16.8%

Thank you so much. I guess I'm headed to Chesterfield!

ETA: It's only 7 miles from the dog's groomer and she's having a spa day on Saturday so at least I know how to kill the time

 

[LynnTH]

So, I am trying to plan a few trips on points.

1. Cruise to Alaska next Summer for DH and I 25th Anniversary. This will be a surprise as he has wanted to go to Alaska. Will give it to him as a Christmas/Anniversary Gift. Friends of ours will be going also. Looks like Princess or Holland America are the 2 main cruiselines. I just got 55,000 for Referrals I just for dumb AMEX Cards for us (as we both get the pop up now - but still got the referral points) And I just got the email to get 5,000 MR points to add AU. So, I added both kids and need to spend $500 on each of the cards so that will be another 10,000 MR's. So, in total between DH and I - we will have about 190,000 MR's. I think I may cash those out for Carnival Corp Gift Cards as those would work for both Princess and Holland America. I have 70,000 Delta points and will have at least 400,000 UR's so will most likely use one or both of those for flights. Then I have about $900 in Cap1 Rewards - so thought about using those for excursions.

2. Going to Vegas next March (right after DS turns 21) Have no idea on where we will stay here. Hoping to build up SW stash again by getting 2 cards end of the year and then getting companion pass for 2020-2021. Have many family members coming with on this one. Usually rooms are not too bad (hopefully). I think it is too early to start planning that one.

3. That leaves me to my last trip. I have about 450,000 Bonvoy points and would like to use them somewhere tropical. Would like to go beginning of January. Both kids will be home from College - they don't start classes again until January 13th. So, I thought the rates might be better as the holidays are over at that point. Would like to go somewhere out of the US as weather can be iffy in January even in Florida. We stopped in Aruba for a cruise and really liked it - so thought that might be a good spot. Can get Aruba Marriott Stellaris Resort for 50,000 per night. I was seeing if I could use some AA points for flights - they don't always have the best options I am finding out. But after playing with the dates I found Economy Milesaver Awards for 15,000 points each way from MSP. So, only 120,000 points for the 4 of us (plus almost $400 in taxes and fees). I don't know anything about AA flights/bookings. From reading a bit - they cannot be cancelled like SW flights correct (without incurring a fee). If I have the AA Credit Card (new one on it's way), we can get free checked bags. Do you have to pay for the fees with the card or how do you get the free checked bags? Marriott you can cancel up to 7 days prior so that is not an issue. I thought this would be a great Christmas present for the kids before they go back to college (they are both going to the same college so same breaks and stuff and only 1-1/2 hours away). Anything I am missing here. Will have to talk to DH about this tonight before I book but seems like a no brainer

Oh - and I just got the email to upgrade my AMEX Bonvoy Card for 100,000 points with $5,000 spend. So, I would be able to use the $300 credit right at the resort - just charge everything to the room?? I have to reply to this by 4/24 (I already have AA Business card on its way but that I will just use Mortgage. I also have Cap 1 Arrival plus with $3,000 spend and $500 Each for the 2 AU cards for the Kids). I know I will have Tuition coming up but they don't take AMEX, but could possibly do Plastiq on that and just pay some early. Will they still upgrade me and give me the points even though I get the pop ups? Or is this handled differently.

Sorry for all the questions. Going in so many directions - don't know which way to go!!

 

[platamama]

After hemming and hawing about applying for a CitiBiz AA for DH who - like me - still has an open CitiBiz AA card, I decided to do the 40K/$2K + $250 statement credit offer. Yesterday I got insta-approved, and today he got "Your application is pending for further review, and we need additional information from you. Call 1-866-606-2961 now to receive an immediate decision." The only difference in the applications is that I didn't put in an email address because it said it was optional (I didn't put one in because I couldn't remember which email address we used before), and I wonder if that triggered something. I will check his status tomorrow and see where it stands. I might have him call but he's not going to be too happy about it.

Even with AA going to dynamic pricing model, it looks like I can still get 1cpp if I apply the miles to an AAdvantage vacation. Interestingly, I can find J class flights to Europe as a package with hotel for less than the flights themselves. I'm having a hard time finding information on whether or not I can apply AA gift cards towards payment as well. Someone (@bernina?) mentioned a RCCL cruise out of Barcelona and that got the wheels turning in my head...

 

[DisneyMandC]

Thank you so much. I guess I'm headed to Chesterfield!

ETA: It's only 7 miles from the dog's groomer and she's having a spa day on Saturday so at least I know how to kill the time

There's a Kroger down there by Charter Colony. Or there's the BIG one at Chippenham (not sure which direction you're traveling for your dog). I don't ever go to either of those, but you could always hit them and liquidate to Disney that day!