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

[Disneyonmymind]

@SouthFayetteFan What is the word from your folks in Myrtle Beach? Is it very crowded? I am hoping the beaches are less crowded than normal for July. We always try to social distance when we go to any beach (even without a pandemic lol.)

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Which departure time from MCO would you choose, knowing you had to check out of your hotel that morning:

2 pm or 5 pm?

If you are not going to a park etc 2pm

 

[Haley R]

Totally off topic but want to share that my daughter is pregnant with a Disney princess due early January....our first grandchild

We had a whole family trip planned for late October, early November at BWV.....cancelled that since it’s too risky for her to travel

Just spent 2 1/2 hrs on hold cancelling annual passes for everyone...

we now have 2 years of points to use in 2021/22 to bring her to WDW

Congrats!!

 

[happ]

Totally off topic but want to share that my daughter is pregnant with a Disney princess due early January....our first grandchild

We had a whole family trip planned for late October, early November at BWV.....cancelled that since it’s too risky for her to travel

Just spent 2 1/2 hrs on hold cancelling annual passes for everyone...

we now have 2 years of points to use in 2021/22 to bring her to WDW

Congratulations!!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

OK so, I have just over 100,000 Chase URs right at the moment. I will be canceling a hotel reservation soon which SHOULD give me another 80K or so. I am looking to see if I can use those for a flight from PHX to MCO (nonstop).

United, to whom Chase URs transfer, does not seem to have a nonstop flight on that Route. (nor do they have a nonstop from LAX, which surprises me).

American does but Chase URs don't transfer to them.

If I book directly through Chase travel, which I know is a terrible redemption value, I can do it for "free" once those 80K points from the hotel cancellation are back in my account (I currently have 100K and the total trip cost would be 177K URs.

All that to save about $632.

I am so conflicted.

The best airline ever (i.e.Southwest) is notably missing from your comments.

EDIT: ok catching up I see that it finally came up lol.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

@SouthFayetteFan What is the word from your folks in Myrtle Beach? Is it very crowded? I am hoping the beaches are less crowded than normal for July. We always try to social distance when we go to any beach (even without a pandemic lol.)

They are in North Myrtle. It sounds like they went half a mile or so up the road to avoid the hotel/resort swath of beach we are usually near and instead are by an area of homes, which provided a non “elbow to elbow” beach. I’m gathering that from a few random texts and pictures I saw.

 

[ten6mom]

So here is a minor question.... will my American flight show up in my American account and app even though I booked it through BA? It would be handy dandy to have it on the AA app but I don't see it yet and it's been a few hours. I have no idea if that's normal.

 

[jaysraptor]

I applied for the WF Biz card earlier this week. Do you remember how long it took to receive the card?

@happ On my wife's card, we applied on the 3rd of June and had the card in hand using it on the 10th. Also, I applied for mine on July 13th and it showed up in my WF account yesterday. Should have it in hand next week.

 

[Tellycopter]

They are in North Myrtle. It sounds like they went half a mile or so up the road to avoid the hotel/resort swath of beach we are usually near and instead are by an area of homes, which provided a non “elbow to elbow” beach. I’m gathering that from a few random texts and pictures I saw.

Gah, I booked a hilton timeshare presentation for Myrtle beach for September and more and more looks like that isn't going to happen. My BF also still goes into work and with the two week quarantine here in NJ we really can't swing it. I just want to go somewhere!

 

[snugglebug]

Which departure time from MCO would you choose, knowing you had to check out of your hotel that morning:

2 pm or 5 pm?

We always fly out the last flight of the day. This trip, in a few days, we fly out at 7:55pm to Denver. Land at like almost 10pm. We also leave here at 6am headed to Orlando so we seriously milk the trip for everything we can and that is with kids lol. We are brutal.

Same here. First flight in, last flight out. I was at DHS yesterday from 10-2:15, our flight was at 5:30. This trip we just put everything into our rental car, but you can store it at the hotel and continue to use the hotel facilities. There are showers/changing rooms at the pool. If you do leave your hotel and you're going to use Magical Express just make sure to give yourself plenty of time to get back to your hotel

 

[Minnie368]

Is anyone here from Wisconsin or familiar with Wisconsin Dells? Just asking because we're considering it for a quick family trip next month. Long story short, I work in a PA nursing home. If we go to one of about 18-20 states, I have to come back and quarantine 14 days before going back to work. We are already going to be in SC the last week of July for softball's junior olympic cup for DD, so I'm stuck with a 14 day quarantine after that. During those 2 weeks we want to squeeze in a family trip- I had already scheduled vacation time for one of those weeks before all of this came about, so I'm only missing an extra week of work. Problem is, it was for the second week of what is now my quarantine time, and it was to WDW. If we keep that, then that adds two more weeks of quarantine and I just can't do that to my facility. So we're looking for a state that's not on the quarantine list. Also, looking for a place without a mask requirement that is for everywhere you go- indoors and outdoors. Mask requirement or not, we will wear one anywhere we can't distance appropriately, but I don't want to have to wear it 24/7. A friend of mine mentioned the Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells and I see it's got great reviews. Also it seems like there is a nice assortment of outdoor activities we could do along the Wisconsin River. But I've never been anywhere near Wisconsin so I know nothing about it. I would appreciate anyone's insight/experience, or any other thoughts on places to go that are in states I wouldn't have to quarantine when I return.

 

[snugglebug]

I had SW flights booked with EBCI for P2 and our Companions back in May for the trip that didn't happen. I called in to move those flights to July in order to keep the EBCI. I remember asking more than once that my EBCI transferred for all 3 flights, that was back in April according to my notes. Fast forward to the day before the flight I had a feeling I needed to check on things. I used Twitter to chat with SW and learned that my CPs did NOT have EBCI, it somehow got dropped. After some back and forth they agreed to refund those. I then asked that P2's be refunded since I had A-list and he still had EBCI I was not going to leave my kids to board alone. (My son is getting there, but needs guidance and I don't like leaving a vulnerable young teen in an airport either even for a few minutes). SW said since P2's worked as intended I could not get refunded. I did politely express my frustration that I felt I had now wasted money because we would be boarding with the kids whatever their boarding pass ended up being. I got my 2 refund notifications. Fast forward a few hours to check in time- my CP had a consecutive boarding number to mine and P2's was consecutive to his. It's clear SW did something to arrange that. My CP had a boarding number above P2. Southwest is back on the good side.

For the most part no one is truly following boarding numbers at this point. They call in groups of 10-15 and everyone just makes their way up there in any order. It's rather relaxed and I kind of like it. You aren't looking at other people trying to see or asking their number to see if you should be in front of or behind them.

 

[winnieofpooh]

Hi! My husband and I are attempting to get free business class flights to Paris next year using sign up bonus miles. Just wanted to get some extra eyes on my plan before we take the plunge. My husband is also concerned about his credit score, so if anyone knows how big of an effect the below plan would have, that would be great to help me convince him to do this . We both have credit scores around 790.

My credit cards:
01/16 - Wells Fargo Platinum $1.5k limit
02/16 - Discover IT - $16k limit
09/18 - Chase Sapphire Preferred - $17k limit

My husband:
01/16 - Discover IT
01/15 - First Bankcard Sheetz Visa

We really only use the two Discovers and the CSP, the other two are only open because they're our oldest accounts. Currently put about $1,000 a month across all the cards. All cards are paid off every month. We're looking to take a trip Aug 2021 from PIT-CDG (as long as COVID cooperates). American seems to be our best/easiest bet to earn the miles we need to get business seats.

The plan: my husband and I will each sign up for two cards - Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select and Barclays Aviator Red Mastercard. One of us will sign up for the Citi card first and hit the minimum spend ($2,500). We should be able to hit that in 3 months, could easily do it in 1 if we use Plastiq for rent. After we get that minimum spend, we'll sign up the other person for the Citi card (potentially refer one another?) and hit the minimum spend. After that we'll both sign up for the Barclays card. It does not have a minimum spend, we just need to make one purchase so that will be an easy one to hit.

We don't fly American often (we mostly do domestic travel on SWA), so we'll likely downgrade the Citi cards to no-fee cards. The fee is waived for the first year, so we'll make sure to do it before the fee hits. We'll likely cancel the 2 Barclays cards before the second year fee hits, since we won't really use it and the downgraded version gets pretty horrid returns.

Is this a solid plan? We don't plan on taking out any loans for at least 2 years, so I figured the small hit from applying and canceling would be fine and our scores would bounce back in that time period.

 

[Judique]

WELL....this is a bit complicated currently....typically, you could check out at 11am (standard wdw hotel check out), go ahead and check your luggage in with the airline (yes, they have stations at the hotel to do this) and then enjoy your time at the resort or at a part until you need to be picked up to go to MCO. At pickup time, you need to be at the resort you were staying at. However, so much is up-in-the-air right now for Magical Express and luggage service. Worst case is that you store your luggage with Bell Services and then need to grab it before boarding the Magical Express. Having said that, a lot could change between now and Nov and it's really hard to give advice.

What I've done twice for people that have traveled with me and were flying back earlier than I was driving, was had the pickup changed to whatever hotel was convenient for our schedule, usually the day before or as late as that morning. Like last November we were leaving checking out of Beach and into BWV, so we moved it to BWV pickup. Took suitcase to BWV and gave it to bell services until time to leave on the bus. Also, didn't have the room until later but had other things to do.

And, also had pickup at Contemporary because we wanted a Wave breakfast on another trip and it was more convenient to leave from there, even though I was staying with BWV.

This is just stuff I've managed in the past. May never happen again. But normal is coming, I'm certain.

 

[Judique]

.

Side note: I guess I will keep the CitiAA card after all. It's $95 and on the chance that we actually have to bring two checked bags back. I will look at the fee as insurance.... we try to travel light but I feel like I'll need warmer clothes and rain gear for this trip so knowing I can use a little more space makes me feel better.

I'd just wear a pair of jeans and a medium to light jacket for November. Day time can still be shorts. You shouldn't need anything super heavy.

 

[Tellycopter]

One of us will sign up for the Citi card first and hit the minimum spend ($2,500). We should be able to hit that in 3 months, could easily do it in 2 if we use Plastiq for rent. After we get that minimum spend, we'll sign up the other person for the Citi card (potentially refer one another?)

So I don't really fly american and am not super familiar with the cards but you should absolutely refer each other to cards unless you find a better bonus in a non-referral link. If you don't you're leaving extra points on the table!

 

[elgerber]

SO...closing didn't happen today...surprise, surprise....Why am I even surprised? I guess cause it felt more real this time since we got to the 'day of' before they cancelled. Hopefully this weekend. I told our closer...."I know I put this in email but we leave at 6am on Tuesday morning and will be gone for almost 2 weeks. You have to get his done...". Have I mentioned that I am so over this...

Wow, we would be out of business if we did that to people!! Have you signed a closing disclosure yet?

 

[Judique]

Editing to THANK @Albort - I canceled the original booking and got the exact same booking with a transfer to BA using only 44000 URs instead of the truly astronomical amount I had used on the original!!!

Thank you!!!!

Avios! Love them! I once got a Reagan National-MCO for daughter one way for 4000 avios, using them from other daughter's account - who 'had no use for them' until she also figured this workaround out! I have an avios account where I've never had an earned avios but have used the account to figure out avios.

 

[cindianne320]

Is anyone here from Wisconsin or familiar with Wisconsin Dells? Just asking because we're considering it for a quick family trip next month. Long story short, I work in a PA nursing home. If we go to one of about 18-20 states, I have to come back and quarantine 14 days before going back to work. We are already going to be in SC the last week of July for softball's junior olympic cup for DD, so I'm stuck with a 14 day quarantine after that. During those 2 weeks we want to squeeze in a family trip- I had already scheduled vacation time for one of those weeks before all of this came about, so I'm only missing an extra week of work. Problem is, it was for the second week of what is now my quarantine time, and it was to WDW. If we keep that, then that adds two more weeks of quarantine and I just can't do that to my facility. So we're looking for a state that's not on the quarantine list. Also, looking for a place without a mask requirement that is for everywhere you go- indoors and outdoors. Mask requirement or not, we will wear one anywhere we can't distance appropriately, but I don't want to have to wear it 24/7. A friend of mine mentioned the Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells and I see it's got great reviews. Also it seems like there is a nice assortment of outdoor activities we could do along the Wisconsin River. But I've never been anywhere near Wisconsin so I know nothing about it. I would appreciate anyone's insight/experience, or any other thoughts on places to go that are in states I wouldn't have to quarantine when I return.

I'm from MN and have been to WI dells a bunch of times. We've always had a great time! What do you want to know?

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

AA and JetBlue partnership. Wonder if we'll be able to use AA miles on JetBlue soon...