I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[elgerber]

It's so lame and ridiculous. My teenagers and I couldn't believe how poorly it was executed.

ETA: I did give us something to joke about. After we rode it we would joke about how we could ride it again!

Yeah, pretty much was my ds said.

 

[pinkxray]

I’m am trying to come up with some type of plan for 2020 but since we don’t know for sure where we will travel it’s hard to pin anything down.
I’m thinking once I finish my MSR on my SW performance I might go for Amex BBP. I see through support links I can do 10,000/$3000 or 15,000/5000. The $5000 is just too much after just finishing the performance. Is 10,000 the best I should expect for this card. I’m in no hurry.

 

[havaneselover]

So I have done zero Universal planning, other than booking the hotel (Portofino Bay bc RPR was full) and buying our tickets. We leave tomorrow at 6am for the weekend

Fast & Furious for people who have never watched the movies: yay or nay?
the Jimmy Fallon thing: yay or nay?

motion sickness: which rides should be skipped for someone who gets nauseous on Everest (backwards part does him in) and can only do Star Tours once in a row? (FoP is ok for one ride---haven't done it in a row bc FoP lol)

Any restaurant recs for Portofino Bay? Counterservice recs in the parks?

Simpsons and Forbidden Journey are tough for Motion Sickness. I can do Gringotts. Love Mummy. Liked Hulk but hated the Rock and Roll coaster (sorry I don't have the right names). Spider Man isn't the best.

 

[miztressuz]

What did you end up with?

Ah ultimately we got the 1 year for $10.xx a month but paid for it upfront so $127 after taxes and whatnot... and still got to keep the echo dot. But I don't recommend that route

It was kinda a mess and at this point I am just happy we were charged correctly in the end and didn't buy the whole company with the amount of charges I have on various cards. (all because hubby forgot to call for an offer and change the card on file before it renewed. I'm hoping that's a lesson learned but, ah, probably not since that's Future Mr. miztressuz problem...)

But looking around online I think I saw the $30 for 6 months offer code still kicking. Might have been a slick deals code.

 

[Minnie368]

So I have done zero Universal planning, other than booking the hotel (Portofino Bay bc RPR was full) and buying our tickets. We leave tomorrow at 6am for the weekend

Fast & Furious for people who have never watched the movies: yay or nay?
the Jimmy Fallon thing: yay or nay?

motion sickness: which rides should be skipped for someone who gets nauseous on Everest (backwards part does him in) and can only do Star Tours once in a row? (FoP is ok for one ride---haven't done it in a row bc FoP lol)

Any restaurant recs for Portofino Bay? Counterservice recs in the parks?

We were there in January. Not impressed at all with Fast & Furious- I've never seen any of the movies. We like to do everything at least once, but now that we have we'll probably never do it again. Jimmy Fallon was better- still not overly impressed but definitely worth doing. Actually our favorite part was the waiting area where they showed a ton of really funny video clips and that was entertaining. I can't comment on motion sickness because I've never experienced it, however, I don't think that either of these two would cause it. DH gets a little ill on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Counter service in the parks- we really enjoyed Fire Eater's Grill at IOA for gyros and hummus. At US there may have been better options but we always get pizza at Louie's and love it (especially since there aren't many places to get good pizza at WDW).

 

[happ]

I posted on 'what card next' over on Reddit.... also- pertaining to my last ??,still no show of the sams club membership purchase on the amex cc.... I can't figure it out

Last year when I did the Sam's membership with an Amex offer it didn't show. I chatted and the rep manually applied the credit. He/she "argued" with me at first and said that I hadn't made the purchase, but I provided the exact info from my statement and the person agreed it should have credited. Then, over a month later another credit appeared.

 

[Psychodisney]

They are actually very destructive to property. We had one that was pooping on our pool deck every few days and it was disgusting. They dig huge holes in gardens (destroying vegetation), can seriously harm a small dog (which we have) and a female can lay massive quantities of eggs, so they multiply very quickly. Most of the country clubs in S. Florida hired companies to eradicate them (sorry) as they are becoming a serious hazard on the roads and destroying golf courses. They are considered invasive here as are pythons.

Someone posted a picture of one in our neighborhood that is 4 feet long!!!

 

[Psychodisney]

Which airline?

Southwest. Fees on two companion tickets.

 

[Limes96]

I posted on 'what card next' over on Reddit.... also- pertaining to my last ??,still no show of the sams club membership purchase on the amex cc.... I can't figure it out

If I’m remembering right, some Sam’s Club Amex offers are incredibly slow posting. Like 4-6 weeks, that slow. I forget how long ago yours is from.

 

[becauseimnew]

Elevated limited time offer on IHG Premier card ($89)

$140k/3k spend. Not seeing the expiration date offhand. I believe the best offer before was 125k+$50 statement credit for 3k. As the offer mentions, this will get you at least 2 nights at their top tier 70k reward night properties. Which is a selling feature now that the anniversary nights are capped at 40k.

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/esrliv/_/ffcbsie

All these new offers, hopefully the Hyatt card is next!

 

[Oscar Madison]

Anyone made a spreadsheet of @SouthFayetteFan decline in posting in this thread?

The days of him trying to post on every page of the 3.0 thread has gone by the wayside...oh what a tangled web we weave...

 

[Judique]

It's all ready for ya! Good luck with RotR. On our second day our (well, me and the kids since I joined without DH who couldn't get into the park in time) call back was just as I was checking in for Moonlight Magic and headed to my FOP FP so we obviously did not go back. Can not believe it was down for so long, I blame the cold seriously. Everest was fine that entire day I think, it went down right as MM started and didn't come back until the last hour. They started up Primevil Whirl for us, but it didn't last long and it was down for most of the event.

I'll go ahead and share this so y'all can laugh at me, I laughed. This was completely unplanned. This is what happens when you have frustrating morning trying to get into HS when no one is prepared for the crowd (rideshare drop off was so backed up), get a late BG for RotR that you know you won't make (even if it does ever start running), you no longer enjoy drop rides and your head just isn't ready for the big stuff yet. I honestly wonder what the other people in the elevator thought when this came out. (We are the upper left)

Interested in your Moonlight Magic experience:

You mentioned a fast pass for FOP - how were the wait times for people that did not have fast passes as the night went on? My older brother no longer does the parks or buys tickets but I've invited him for this and he likes this type of ride, but not the waits. Younger ones have passes.

How about the food? Did they have options at the quick service locations? I did one a couple of years back at Magic Kingdom where it was hamburger, or chicken nuggets with French fries, a fountain drink and a plastic wrapped cookie - not impressive. I'm actually thinking regular dinner first before we go and maybe indulge in a Mickey ice cream during the event.

I'm scheduled for Feb 11 and bringing family as guests that will be offsite. Did you do check in at your hotel or at the park? Did everyone have to be present to get the wristband or could one person pick them up for all of us? Hoping to get the wrist bands earlier at the hotel so I can drive to my niece's home and then go directly to the park, since the house is in Reunion and much closer to Animal Kingdom.

 

[hsmamato2]

Elevated limited time offer on IHG Premier card ($89)

$140k/3k spend. Not seeing the expiration date offhand. I believe the best offer before was 125k+$50 statement credit for 3k. As the offer mentions, this will get you at least 2 nights at their top tier 70k reward night properties. Which is a selling feature now that the anniversary nights are capped at 40k.

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/esrliv/_/ffcbsie

I have the old card (49 AF) I wonder if I could get this too...

 

[Oscar Madison]

Ah ultimately we got the 1 year for $10.xx a month but paid for it upfront so $127 after taxes and whatnot... and still got to keep the echo dot. But I don't recommend that route

It was kinda a mess and at this point I am just happy we were charged correctly in the end and didn't buy the whole company with the amount of charges I have on various cards. (all because hubby forgot to call for an offer and change the card on file before it renewed. I'm hoping that's a lesson learned but, ah, probably not since that's Future Mr. miztressuz problem...)

But looking around online I think I saw the $30 for 6 months offer code still kicking. Might have been a slick deals code.

Thank you..so you recommend me calling in for a better deal before it renews?

 

[Alexle2007]

Strange comment on r/churning, and it seems to be the second one that indicated this (I saw one earlier this week too)...

I lost 60,000 MR back in July because of referral clawbacks. Just saw that Amex credited me 40,000 MR back. Any ideas why? ​

​

Anybody here get random MRs deposited into their account?
(I'll just wait here while you all feverishly go refresh your Amex account hoping for good news, haha!)

I checked. NO extras for me but then I had not had any clawbacks despite a couple of self-referrals.

 

[hsmamato2]

Last year when I did the Sam's membership with an Amex offer it didn't show. I chatted and the rep manually applied the credit. He/she "argued" with me at first and said that I hadn't made the purchase, but I provided the exact info from my statement and the person agreed it should have credited. Then, over a month later another credit appeared.

ok...so the *purchase* itself isn't on there.... so obviously no credit.... I wondered if this has happened to anyone before? Yet the *purchase* exists b/c it shows on sams club account...

 

[Judique]

All these new offers, hopefully the Hyatt card is next!

This morning I got 2 upgrade offers for the cards from Chase: I have the $49 IHG card - they raised the offer from 5k to 10k points.

For the Hyatt card, they didn't offer any points - just went through the elevated benefits. At that time I realized I have purchase protection on the old card, but it's removed from the new card. I see no benefit to paying them more once per year, as the only worthwhile benefit would have been an additional free night at $15K spend and I don't MS and not likely to spend this much on that card.

 

[hsmamato2]

Last year when I did the Sam's membership with an Amex offer it didn't show. I chatted and the rep manually applied the credit. He/she "argued" with me at first and said that I hadn't made the purchase, but I provided the exact info from my statement and the person agreed it should have credited. Then, over a month later another credit appeared.

ok...so the *purchase* itself isn't on there.... so obviously no credit.... I wondered if this has happened to anyone before? Yet the *purchase* exists b/c it shows on sams club account...

If I’m remembering right, some Sam’s Club Amex offers are incredibly slow posting. Like 4-6 weeks, that slow. I forget how long ago yours is from.

so the credit,or purchase? b/c the offer is good thru 1/31, but if it doesn't post till after that,then I don't get the credit?

 

[LB002]

@miztressuz

Thank you for all the tips! They are all very helpful. I’ve priced out all the lines cruising to Alaska next June and NCL is the only one that has a room for 5. It’s an oceanview but it’s already $7500. Dh wants to do an excursion that cost almost $3500 so I need all the tips I can to bring the cost down.

@mizt- echoing thanks for NCL tips!

@pinkxI started.looking for AK cruises in Sept for next Aug and I was shocked at how booked they already were. We are paying $5k for 7 day RT from Seattle.

Are you looking at the helicopter to a glacier to dog sled excursion? DH is trying to convince me, but YiKES, the cost!!!

 

[StephPlum]

So I have done zero Universal planning, other than booking the hotel (Portofino Bay bc RPR was full) and buying our tickets. We leave tomorrow at 6am for the weekend

Fast & Furious for people who have never watched the movies: yay or nay?
the Jimmy Fallon thing: yay or nay?

motion sickness: which rides should be skipped for someone who gets nauseous on Everest (backwards part does him in) and can only do Star Tours once in a row? (FoP is ok for one ride---haven't done it in a row bc FoP lol)

Any restaurant recs for Portofino Bay? Counterservice recs in the parks?

Really didn't like Fast and Furious. It is the same type of ride as Kong (which I do like for the story and effects). Haven't seen a F&F movie so no understanding of who was who and what was going on.

Jimmy Fallon - I would do once, not a repeater. Nice that you can wait in the virtual line and comfy seats. We played the games they have in the waiting area.

I don't get motion sickness, but Gringotts has 3D so that might be an impact. Forbidden Journey has a section where you are almost upside down so that is probably out. Mummy has a short backward part but I think easier than Everest.

At Portofino Bay, I liked Trattoria Del Porto. Casual place but you can get build your own pasta with veggies, sauce you pick. Yummy

Counterservice - Love Louie's pizza. I used to like Monster's Cafe but they changed the menu. I like sitting in the dark watching the old horror clips! Even if you don't eat at 3 Broomsticks, go inside to look around if you are a HP fan. And must have - frozen butterbeer! Hopefully not too cold out for this.

Have fun!!