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

[wendow]

I swear my blood pressure goes up every time I read one of pizzy's comments. What good is acquiring tons of points that don't work into your travel plans and you won't even use just for the sake of acquiring points?

I don't spend enough time on r/churning to know who all these rude posters are but just going on that sub makes my blood pressure go up. Hat's off to those of y'all who go there to keep up and then share here. I've tried. I just cannot read there often. It's toxic!

 

[Alexle2007]

Technically mine is a snowblower, but yes, it's awesome! It's the most memorable redemption of MR we ever made at least. It's about the only time I actually thank AmEx when I pull it out

@Judique has that shiny new John Deere mower that she cashed out for

 

[Calfan]

A couple of redemption/churning updates for today:

--I'm super happy with a little redemption I did this morning. For our Japan trip next summer, we need three positioning flights: BOI to the Bay Area to catch our flight from SFO to Tokyo Haneda, Osaka back to Tokyo for our flight back to the states and LAX to BOI for our final leg home. I set up some flight alerts on Google Flights to start tracking prices for these legs and on a whim decided to check United for ANA award bookings for the KIX to Tokyo piece to see if I was remembering correctly that I could use United miles to book ANA flights. Well, Saver awards were available on my first-choice ANA flight for 5k miles each! So I went ahead and booked. Based on the cash prices I was seeing for this flight, that was a $0.04+ per mile redemption

--I also cancelled a couple of my Amex cards this morning. I saw that the AF's had hit on both my Biz Plat and my Biz Green. I called to see about a retention offer on my Biz Plat (although I was leaning strongly toward cancelling unless the offer was really good) and got nothing, so I cancelled both. The rep gave me the spiel about not putting much spend on either of those cards and having a lot of open cards, etc. Couldn't disagree with that, so said to go ahead and cancel. It goes with my new post-Africa mantra to simplify my life. I thought about keeping the Biz Green open for a potential upgrade to another Biz Plat but 50k MR for $10k spend just wasn't attractive enough with that high AF, especially with the airline fee reimbursement getting harder to use. I did tell the rep that was an issue with the card and that Chase's travel credit was so much easier to use....

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I swear my blood pressure goes up every time I read one of pizzy's comments. What good is acquiring tons of points that don't work into your travel plans and you won't even use just for the sake of acquiring points?

One thing I've never mentioned over there is my wife's flight anxiety. The "bro" mentality just couldn't handle something like that without stupid comments. If they understood that, then they'd know why Delta and AA miles don't help me.

The problem is, they pre-judge that I obviously am making poor decisions rather than assuming I'm intelligent and have made the smart decision for me. That is what I take issue with - I love counter viewpoints if they come from a position of mutual respect. They shouldn't need to know why I don't want AA/Delta miles to respect the fact that I've made an informed decision.

I often will start comments here with "Have you perhaps considered", "You may already realize this", "I'm not sure if this makes sense for you" or something along those lines. I want to lift people up and let them know that I respect that they are intelligent and capable. Maybe my idea doesn't work for them, and that's ok!

 

[mamathompson]

We made it home and I am hopelessly behind. So grateful for the news thread to catch me up.
While in Disney we made the choice to postpone our upcoming Italy trip a year. I don't quite have enough points for it yet and haven't felt quite prepared for it, but what really helped solidify the decision was that we became DVC members! We knew going into this trip we would probably buy, it's been an ongoing decision and we really wanted Copper Creek. So Italy will wait for a year and I can accumulate plenty more points.
We have never flown anything but economy, but I may have a future plane princess on my hands. DH hates flying more every time we go. He's definitely decided he does not like 5-6 hour flights on smaller airplanes. He says we aren't flying direct to Disney anymore unless we are in first. Which works into my plans a little since I was planning on getting a couple CPs and SW doesn't fly direct from Seattle.
I am currently without an MSR and need to sit down and decide what my next moves will be. I was really thinking SW cards are next but if the CIPpy is flowing it makes the decision a bit more complicated.

 

[Lain]

Thanks for this. What are your thoughts about buying gift cards at office supply stores just to keep the Am Ex Rat happy? Not worth it since they can see it's gift cards?

I would not use ANY Amex card to buy GC at office supply stores due to L3 data being sent. You will most likely NOT get points and anger the RAT. I would buy them at grocery stores where currently no L3 data is sent.

I don't know about that. Whenever there are Amex Offers for S/OD/OM (), what do we do with them? Buy GCs.

I received base spend points and the statement credit/MR from the recent Amex Offer at Staples on third-party GCs purchases. I received base spend points on my BBP from buying VGCs last week at OD/OM. Yes, the stores reported L3 data so Amex knows what I bought, but I still earned the points.

Could Amex, at some point in the future, claw back those points as ineligible purchases under their program? Possibly. So I'm hesitant to hit it too hard and earn all these points that might get clawed back. But a few purchases here or there might escape their radar or be too small for the RATs to bother with (and certainly looks like otherwise normal customer behavior). It would boost your spend. And if you did lose out on the points, then a few purchases here or there shouldn't hurt too bad.

 

[alryan]

I don't know about that. Whenever there are Amex Offers for S/OD/OM (), what do we do with them? Buy GCs.

I received base spend points and the statement credit/MR from the recent Amex Offer at Staples on third-party GCs purchases. I received base spend points on my BBP from buying VGCs last week at OD/OM. Yes, the stores reported L3 data so Amex knows what I bought, but I still earned the points.

Could Amex, at some point in the future, claw back those points as ineligible purchases under their program? Possibly. So I'm hesitant to hit it too hard and earn all these points that might get clawed back. But a few purchases here or there might escape their radar or be too small for the RATs to bother with (and certainly looks like otherwise normal customer behavior). It would boost your spend. And if you did lose out on the points, then a few purchases here or there shouldn't hurt too bad.

Thank you both for your thoughts. I may very well hit my max with 5% on CIC so it's not really going to hurt me to put some on my Hilton Biz to keep some spend on there. Not getting a few thousand points would not be that big of a deal. I think I'll try it for three months or until I'm ready for my next Am Ex. I don't have any OD/OM near me, but just realized I can stop at one on my way to the Brewers game tonight, so thanks for the reminder!

 

[WVMomof3]

How long does it take to see the AF refunded when you PC a CSR to a CF? I just want to know what to expect to I don't freak out if it takes like a week lol

When I did it I think it was within a day or 2. It was pretty quick.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Applied for P2's CIP#3 (using this thread's advice) yesterday, and it was listed in her account this morning.
Secure messaging wasn't working this morning (initial reply that they received message never came), but I kept trying and eventually they agreed to expedite.
Love drinking from the CIPpy cup!

 

[Haley R]

When I did it I think it was within a day or 2. It was pretty quick.

Okay great thanks!

 

[alryan]

@speedyfishy Couple questions about giftcardmall. So if I go through Rakuten at 1% cash back it's only net $.95 cost for a $500 gift card. You could load these to Serve right? Since I messed up with Great Southern Bank I am going to wait until I use that account before I try for another. So I signed up DH for a Serve card so I could link it to his Great Southern and actually use the account. Then I thought I might as well just use those accounts for MS. This game just keeps pulling me in deeper and deeper. Thank you so much for all your help with MS!!

 

[amalone1013]

Trying to decide if it's weird to apply for a job, for a company which is owned by the father of an old college friend/roommate... we got together a few times after I moved out here but kind of fell out of touch because we were both busy and our free time didn't align very often, so I haven't spoken to her in years...

I probably worry way more about this than I should. I met her dad a couple times, I doubt he would remember me unless she thought I was a really terrible roommate the year we lived together

 

[Judique]

Yes - great point! Having the experience of a veteran churner with the blessing of <5/24 status is pretty amazing!

I didn’t post that exchange for sympathy or upvotes - more to just once again highlight the significant cultural difference between us and that sub. Unfortunately, r/churning remains one of the best sources for breaking churning news so it’s important to continue to mine the information there looking for opportunities.

And we all appreciate you putting on your enlightened hard hat and going for it, because if I was a member of r/churning I would be downvoted to oblivion the minute I opened my mouth!

 

[Judique]

I think my dh signed up for D23 a few years ago but he is in NO on a biz trip and with clients all day. Ugh, can't ask!

ETA: Yay! Got the offer on dh's account!!! I hacked my way in

Did he have a member account or a paid account?

 

[Lain]

A couple of redemption/churning updates for today:

--I'm super happy with a little redemption I did this morning. For our Japan trip next summer, we need three positioning flights: BOI to the Bay Area to catch our flight from SFO to Tokyo Haneda, Osaka back to Tokyo for our flight back to the states and LAX to BOI for our final leg home. I set up some flight alerts on Google Flights to start tracking prices for these legs and on a whim decided to check United for ANA award bookings for the KIX to Tokyo piece to see if I was remembering correctly that I could use United miles to book ANA flights. Well, Saver awards were available on my first-choice ANA flight for 5k miles each! So I went ahead and booked. Based on the cash prices I was seeing for this flight, that was a $0.04+ per mile redemption

--I also cancelled a couple of my Amex cards this morning. I saw that the AF's had hit on both my Biz Plat and my Biz Green. I called to see about a retention offer on my Biz Plat (although I was leaning strongly toward cancelling unless the offer was really good) and got nothing, so I cancelled both. The rep gave me the spiel about not putting much spend on either of those cards and having a lot of open cards, etc. Couldn't disagree with that, so said to go ahead and cancel. It goes with my new post-Africa mantra to simplify my life. I thought about keeping the Biz Green open for a potential upgrade to another Biz Plat but 50k MR for $10k spend just wasn't attractive enough with that high AF, especially with the airline fee reimbursement getting harder to use. I did tell the rep that was an issue with the card and that Chase's travel credit was so much easier to use....

The AF on my Biz Plat 1 posted today too. I closed it via chat. Easy decision.

Congrats on making great use of United's new dynamic pricing! I guess it's not all bad!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

We made it home and I am hopelessly behind. So grateful for the news thread to catch me up.
While in Disney we made the choice to postpone our upcoming Italy trip a year. I don't quite have enough points for it yet and haven't felt quite prepared for it, but what really helped solidify the decision was that we became DVC members! We knew going into this trip we would probably buy, it's been an ongoing decision and we really wanted Copper Creek. So Italy will wait for a year and I can accumulate plenty more points.
We have never flown anything but economy, but I may have a future plane princess on my hands. DH hates flying more every time we go. He's definitely decided he does not like 5-6 hour flights on smaller airplanes. He says we aren't flying direct to Disney anymore unless we are in first. Which works into my plans a little since I was planning on getting a couple CPs and SW doesn't fly direct from Seattle.
I am currently without an MSR and need to sit down and decide what my next moves will be. I was really thinking SW cards are next but if the CIPpy is flowing it makes the decision a bit more complicated.

Congrats on the DVC purchase

 

[Albort]

Thanks for this. What are your thoughts about buying gift cards at office supply stores just to keep the Am Ex Rat happy? Not worth it since they can see it's gift cards?

At the moment, Amex does not care about what u buy after you have met MSR. They want u to spend spend spend.
Source: spends close to 10k-15k a month on gift cards alone. *knock on wood*

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Trying to decide if it's weird to apply for a job, for a company which is owned by the father of an old college friend/roommate... we got together a few times after I moved out here but kind of fell out of touch because we were both busy and our free time didn't align very often, so I haven't spoken to her in years...

I probably worry way more about this than I should. I met her dad a couple times, I doubt he would remember me unless she thought I was a really terrible roommate the year we lived together

I don't think it is weird. I'd definitely apply if you are interested!

 

[mmmears]

If you go to the D23 website and click join D23, scroll down to "general member."

Once you have the account click on "View Account" under the my account tab at the top right corner. I had the offer waiting. I am not sure if you join today if it will work. I've been a general member for a few years.

Yes, you pay in full now for all three years.

Thanks for the heads up on this one. Apparently I am a member (my computer seemed to remember my access info LOL - I certainly haven't logged in there in years), and I did get the offer.

Trying to decide if it's weird to apply for a job, for a company which is owned by the father of an old college friend/roommate... we got together a few times after I moved out here but kind of fell out of touch because we were both busy and our free time didn't align very often, so I haven't spoken to her in years...

I probably worry way more about this than I should. I met her dad a couple times, I doubt he would remember me unless she thought I was a really terrible roommate the year we lived together

If it's a job you really want then I'd go ahead and apply for it, even with the connection. You don't have to mention it. Just my 2¢.

 

[mmmears]

At the moment, Amex does not care about what u buy after you have met MSR. They want u to spend spend spend.
Source: spends close to 10k-15k a month on gift cards alone. *knock on wood*

I agree. We've been doing a fair amount (nothing like your spending) of GC purchases to use up all of those AMEX deals and so far we haven't had a problem with it, even though some of it was through office supply stores.