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

[miztressuz]

I love reddit. I post the story above here, have 4 likes so far. I post on reddit under the TR thread... I've gotten just enough support clicks there to keep me coming back for more, also I'm a glutton for punishment obviously, post currently is -1.

Gee, sorry this hobby has allowed my husband to visit his ill brother

Pay no attention to the early downvotes, there's something (someone?) on reddit that downvotes new stuff. Don't know if it's a bot or just people downvoting to move topics that don't interest them down the list. You were in positive territory when I checked and I added to it to keep the bot at bay

 

[amalone1013]

Pay no attention to the early downvotes, there's something (someone?) on reddit that downvotes new stuff. Don't know if it's a bot or just people downvoting to move topics that don't interest them down the list. You were in positive territory when I checked and I added to it to keep the bot at bay

I appreciate that. It just makes me giggle, really. Remember how much I upset everyone when I posted about apping for DHs SW Biz at the end of last year?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We had a great trip to Florida last week. Just wanted to recap for you all what we did from a churning standpoint. We paid some out of pocket for the trip, but not much.

-SW flights CMH-MCO - Used RR from SWbiz and SW Priority SUB for 2 tickets, CP for 1, Amex Plat travel credit for two, paid for fees with SW Priority $75 credit

-Rental car from MCO - Used UR for full size vehicle from Thrifty, was upgraded to a minivan, which was great since there were 5 of us. Put a small $ amt on my CSR just to round off and conserve UR

-I forget how I paid for the kids’ Universal tickets from last December (previous visit they got stormed out and couldn’t use them) and I’m too lazy to look it up.

-VAH tickets, paid for on the Disney site with discounted gc’s

-Rented points from a Dis member for a SS studio preferred room. Used Swagbucks/PayPal for this. Side note: we loved this location being so close to Disney Springs! The rental car made it so easy to get to the Lime parking garage, and we could also easily walk. I requested as close as possible to DS which we got. The closer rooms were being refurbed. You could tell our room was ready for a refurb. It was clean but just worn and outdated. We landed at MCO at 9:10 am last Weds. and got our room ready text upon landing, which was awesome!

-DS1’s gf stayed at the Wyndham - Used UR for this also. Paid for the resort fee with CSR. Another excellent location for us for an off property stay. It was walkable but also only about a 3 minute drive from our room, even with traffic.

-Food, souvenirs, bowling at Splitsville - discounted gift cards

Anyways, we had a great time. Timed things to stay indoors in the afternoons, and didn’t spend a ton of time in the parks. Next up: driving DS2 to move in to his dorm room this afternoon. Not looking forward to the Cincinnati and Louisville traffic!

Also hoping for decent rates on SW for DD and I to fly to Ft Meyer over a long Presidents Day weekend. I booked us for 5 nights at the Hilton on Marco Island.

Ooohhh, can't wait to hear about it! We last stayed pre-reno. The updated pics look amazing!

 

[miztressuz]

I appreciate that. It just makes me giggle, really. Remember how much I upset everyone when I posted about apping for DHs SW Biz at the end of last year?

Yeah, that was legen-dary
But I recall that ship righted itself later, and, go figure, actually created a discussion in the discussion thread. A novel occurrence

 

[afan]

TSL drop was at 931. Was able, between rounds on TSMM, to move up my slinky fp from 115 to 1130 and I didn't affect my score.

 

[afan]

Darling Daughter's first house was turned into a rental property in 2012. This year is the year of new bathroom fan, new toilet, new heater and ac unit and now new basement toilet plus it's special pump because it's in a basement. And it's only August.

That sucks. I wish I could sell it just to lose the stress. It's good when it's good and sucks when it's not.

 

[Limes96]

Ooohhh, can't wait to hear about it! We last stayed pre-reno. The updated pics look amazing!

Yes! praying for no hurricanes this year!

 

[Killer Fish]

I was thinking of using some AA miles to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge (hopefully Savannah view) before the year is over and Disney is no longer an option. Am I correct that I just need to bundle it with a car (that we won't use) on AA vacations to find the best option. I guess I will just need to search each Saturday for the end of the year to find "best" rate/miles since we are pretty open to going anytime. Does that all make sense? Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[WVMomof3]

I don’t think we booked a view either. We booked a two queen room and a king room and only requested connecting. They couldn’t accommodate us for that so I think they upgraded us a bit. We’re right next door to the other room. Not complaining at all. POR couldn’t accommodate the connecting rooms either but just said ‘sorry, requests aren’t guaranteed’ and then put us fairly far from each other

Way behind, but was wondering about your upgrade. I am assuming booking through the AA portal you also don't get your Marriott status and nights don't count just like booking through the UR portal, correct?

 

[tink1970]

Would somewhere like Spain or Italy be to cool?

LOL-one of the coldest winter holidays I've spent was in Venice (it's cold and humid). Rome, Florence and Orvieto in December were also not warm-when we were there it was much like Virginia in December. I can't speak to Spain but Central Europe-Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia were also cold in December. DD wore coat, hat and gloves in Northern and Central France and Germany was cold too.

A quick check on holiday-weather dot com reveals that both Barcelona and Lisbon range from 40s-high 50s, while Athens is similar (which was surprising to me).

If you want tropical it sounds like the Caribbean, Mexico or Costa Rica, etc would be a better fit...or something antipodean!

 

[wendow]

Way behind, but was wondering about your upgrade. I am assuming booking through the AA portal you also don't get your Marriott status and nights don't count just like booking through the UR portal, correct?

I called swan beforehand and the lady said the nights would not count but our status would and we’d be eligible for an upgrade.

 

[Jax1023]

I was thinking of using some AA miles to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge (hopefully Savannah view) before the year is over and Disney is no longer an option. Am I correct that I just need to bundle it with a car (that we won't use) on AA vacations to find the best option. I guess I will just need to search each Saturday for the end of the year to find "best" rate/miles since we are pretty open to going anytime. Does that all make sense? Thanks for the help in advance!

Also try the useaa miles site. That doesn’t require a package, and it seems to be hit or miss which is cheaper

 

[Alexle2007]

Does anyone know if you use a certificate for a free night with Marriott, does it count toward your nights stayed with them. I had used a certificate and paid cash for another night and only got credit for the night I paid cash.

It sure does! My two free nights have credited along with the ones where I used points for the stay.

 

[speedyfishy]

Omg I just saw my first churner out in the wild. He was doing a few serve loads with my favorite cashier. I then saw him go to my former favorite cashier that told me to go to customer service the other day. He got sent away but he didn’t go to customer service lol

 

[Lain]

I was very pleasantly surprised that the rooms were 12k a night for our June stay too. I had 60k Hyatt points hanging out from picking up that card in January on a whim, so it worked out great. We're spending 4 nights there and then switching over to Hilton properties for the rest of our stay (Conrad Osaka and Hilton Tokyo Bay). As long as I can get my second free weekend night with Hilton through meeting the 15k spend, then all of our hotels will be free on points and nights.

The same TPG writer has reviews up for the Conrad Tokyo and JAL First Class from JFK to Tokyo (which is what you're flying, right?).

https://thepointsguy.com/reviews/conrad-tokyo-hotel/
https://thepointsguy.com/reviews/japan-airlines-777-300er-first-class/
I haven't read either review, so I don't know how they come off.

 

[amalone1013]

Way behind, but was wondering about your upgrade. I am assuming booking through the AA portal you also don't get your Marriott status and nights don't count just like booking through the UR portal, correct?

Same as Wendow said, our nights did not count but they asked for my Marriott number at check in (I didn't call ahead) and noted my Platinum status and gave me an upgrade, points, choice of amenity. They even upgraded my ILs room because I had my name on it, I stopped by the desk to add MILs name so she could check in if we weren't there.

 

[Alexle2007]

LOL-one of the coldest winter holidays I've spent was in Venice (it's cold and humid). Rome, Florence and Orvieto in December were also not warm-when we were there it was much like Virginia in December. I can't speak to Spain but Central Europe-Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia were also cold in December. DD wore coat, hat and gloves in Northern and Central France and Germany was cold too.

A quick check on holiday-weather dot com reveals that both Barcelona and Lisbon range from 40s-high 50s, while Athens is similar (which was surprising to me).

If you want tropical it sounds like the Caribbean, Mexico or Costa Rica, etc would be a better fit...or something antipodean!

Thanks! Those temps are not appealing at all. Looks like I need to talk into keeping our tradition or look for a reasonably priced cruise. It would help if we weren't Balcony or better princess and princes. I think an inside would make be claustrophobic and an oceanview would make me paranoid of being underwater.

 

[Lain]

Omg I just saw my first churner out in the wild. He was doing a few serve loads with my favorite cashier. I then saw him go to my former favorite cashier that told me to go to customer service the other day. He got sent away but he didn’t go to customer service lol

I totally heard David Attenborough's voiceover when reading your post.

 

[miztressuz]

Some news about the new grAAvy train postal mailers arriving:

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/cpavn0/_/ewo95t0

Uncertain what this means at this point as it's still early and data is being gathered, but seems like Citi is trying to slow down the ride. (whether it's successful may depend on their IT if the public link situation is any indication) For the moment it seem like email mailers may still be ok, so not completely stopped yet.

Tagging @SouthFayetteFan since you like to track this for DISchurners I think.

 

[Alexle2007]

Now that I think about it, I will need to book flights to GRR for a hockey tourney in February, so I guess I can knock that out on Thursday.

We have a long weekend (Fri-Mon) in Jan and Feb so I am going to look for pricing for those to escape the cold!