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

[Alexle2007]

You know you are excited about vacation when...you try to check in 20 minutes early for your flight! 4 more minutes to go!

 

[schmass]

We arrived in Charleston today and checked into the Residence Inn using our 7 night certificate. So far so good, and I’ll post a review on the other thread when we get home.

@disneymagicgirl we had dinner at California Dreaming per your recommendation and we all enjoyed it- thank you!

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

That's good news. The partner flights are mixed cabin. Oh, well, I don't mind flying a couple of hours to Quebec in economy to then fly in one of those business class seats - they are nice. However, I have my eye on the Polaris direct flights right out of EWR, 70k each way. Fingers crossed but i know it will be mid August and who knows what the availability will be with the dynamic pricing.

Have you been tracking the flights each day as they are released to see if there's a pattern? Are there business saver seats released every day? (I can't remember if you have specific days you want/need to fly.)

I've been watching the flights from EWR and PHL to Sydney every day for the past two weeks. I check at different times each day, though I haven't yet checked in the middle of the night (eastern). At least for mid-May 2020, I cannot find business saver on flights that connect through IAH, LAX or SFO each day. PHL has seats appear for flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays; EWR has seats on Sundays, Mondays (that lasted only a day), Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. I'll keep checking every week or so to see if this pattern holds. This is important to me because the trans-Australia train we want to take only leaves Sydney on Wednesdays----if we get a Tuesday-arriving-Thursday flight we can do X things before the train but if we have to get a Saturday or Sunday flight we can only do Y things before the train.

I am a planner

 

[schmass]

Also, my sister was approved for her second CIP today, so hopefully I’ll have 20k more URs heading my way!

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Thank you! The date thing occurred to me as well and no, we are going in Aug and she's going over Thanksgiving so I don't think this is going to work for her without it being a huge hassle!

Would you be able to prioritize the AP, bring the other tickets when you go in August and then reassign them to your aunt when you get home?

 

[mhartman09]

Decided to pull the trigger on the Sam's APs. Couldn't pass up the savings. Just want to make sure I do this correctly. I can add them to my MDE linked to me, DH and DS and they will just sit until we activate on our April trip, correct?

ETA - DH and I will be buying tickets for our SWGE trip on 8/29. Thinking I'll have to prioritize those tickets somehow so the APs dont get activated.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

How long days it take to get the referral points? I referred my DH yesterday and his card was approved sometime between 10PM-8AM last night. Does that mean that I should look for the referral points next Tuesday? I know they usually post then it just seems like I couldn't expect them that fast.

You may get them next Tuesday...if not probably 7/2

 

[mefordis]

I've advocated AA (or your airline of choice) rewards dining here several times. It's a great way to keep you points active and passively earn points. You only need to go out of your way to get the bonus for becoming part of the network once. After that you can either use it as a way to try out new places or passively earn miles or hotel points. Once DH gained VIP status and I moved my cards over to his account. Now when I eat somewhere without him that is part of the network it earns 4x on my Amex Rose gold and 5x AA miles. Finding you earned extra miles is always a nice surprise!

I just signed up for the United MileagePlus dining but I don't see a lot of restaurants we go to - they don't even have the Cheesecake Factory! I'm going to enroll all my other mileage programs. Thanks for the tip!

 

[calypso726]

I've basically got enough tickets for the rest of my DVC ownership for myself and also a few non expiry that can be used by family.

Up until this big increase I saw ticket increases as what you would expect. I'm just wondering what the next step will be - single day tickets are already really expensive. Will they do away with multi day discounts?

This is the first time that a price hike has really startled me.

I'm pretty stunned at the price hike as well. Makes me wonder if they are going to add another increase at the start of their fiscal year in October too.

 

[Hoosier John]

All the talk of Grinders and Hogies, how about Wecks as in Buffalo Wild Wings and Wecks (aka BW3, or now days B-dubs)?
.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

@disneymagicgirl the mcgc currently works at 1% on Plastiq. If you have a high grocery cb card it could be beneficial to do on a regular basis. My math is about 2.8% with freedom 5x grocery and 1.7% back with PGR. I wait for a little incentive my s+s gives gas points occasionally or Shaw’s will give extra off the fee

Ok, thanks! So you come out 2.8% ahead with CF 5x? I don't have any of these store I keep reading about lately...stop n shop and such.

 

[calypso726]

I just signed up for the United MileagePlus dining but I don't see a lot of restaurants we go to - they don't even have the Cheesecake Factory! I'm going to enroll all my other mileage programs. Thanks for the tip!

When we started, one of the restaurants was one we'd never heard of but was close by so we checked it out. It became our favorite local restaurant and we go there all the time now, even though they haven't been part of the dining rewards program for several years. It's our go to place for date nights or special occasions. I literally just ask my favorite server there to surprise me as far as what I'm ordering for my meal. Whatever he brings me is always amazing! He also creates cocktails he thinks I will like and surprises me with a new one every so often. If it weren't for the rewards program I may have never decided to try this restaurant. So use it as a resource for doing something new. Even if you don't like the place or food as much, at least you earned and stacked some extra points and miles for your trouble.

Make sure you read the fine print to get the bonus. Depending on the program you may need to complete a certain number of dines at a minimum amount, $25 or $30 and some require you to do the review of the restaurant. Opting in for the emails will earn you more points per dine on some programs.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Wow that’s so nerve wracking. They send an email out right? What if we for some reason don’t get an email? I don’t want to miss out on this

I never have gotten an email. Last event the site kept malfunctioning (shocking, I know) and I didn't get tickets.

 

[mefordis]

Have you been tracking the flights each day as they are released to see if there's a pattern? Are there business saver seats released every day? (I can't remember if you have specific days you want/need to fly.)

I've been watching the flights from EWR and PHL to Sydney every day for the past two weeks. I check at different times each day, though I haven't yet checked in the middle of the night (eastern). At least for mid-May 2020, I cannot find business saver on flights that connect through IAH, LAX or SFO each day. PHL has seats appear for flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays; EWR has seats on Sundays, Mondays (that lasted only a day), Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. I'll keep checking every week or so to see if this pattern holds. This is important to me because the trans-Australia train we want to take only leaves Sydney on Wednesdays----if we get a Tuesday-arriving-Thursday flight we can do X things before the train but if we have to get a Saturday or Sunday flight we can only do Y things before the train.

I am a planner

I'll tell you May 2020 looks bleak. No saver awards from EWR to NRT whatsoever. However, back up to April and there are a good amount. That tells me they may schedule the flights 11 mos out but hold back on the saver fares and release them gradually? So 9 months out, there are saver awards for Business. 10 mos out, none as of yet. However, when I look for the return flight from NRT to EWR I see a saver award on May 19. Monday - Wednesday seem to be popular saver award days for these flights.

So, I don't see any pattern. LOL!

I'm interested in seeing what you find. We want to go to Australia the summer 2021!!

 

[alryan]

-

 

[Haley R]

All the talk of Grinders and Hogies, how about Wecks as in Buffalo Wild Wings and Wecks (aka BW3, or now days B-dubs)?
.

It’s b-dubs. No other name will suffice

 

[PolyRob]

Gah just pulled the trigger on two . . . I'm hoping to get to a few runDisney events next year which would mean a few 3/4 day trips so I should at least break even.

Also, I triple-checked the Disney website that the Platinum APs don't have any blackout dates. I'm assuming that if I end up holding on to these for a few years, Disney would still honor those terms even if the then-existing APs do have blackout dates?

Yes, Disney will honor the original terms even if the product isn’t available anymore. Plenty of people have ticket from before they had to be used within 14-days and there was a way for GR to have them added to MDE and they let people book FP+ with these special tickets. You should be good!

THIS IS ME.

The struggle. I am going to be bored here without an MSR!

Decided to pull the trigger on the Sam's APs. Couldn't pass up the savings. Just want to make sure I do this correctly. I can add them to my MDE linked to me, DH and DS and they will just sit until we activate on our April trip, correct?

ETA - DH and I will be buying tickets for our SWGE trip on 8/29. Thinking I'll have to prioritize those tickets somehow so the APs dont get activated.

Correct, they will just sit in MDE with all your other ticket media. Rather than prioritizing, you can even make a fake friend and push the passes there during your SWGE trip so there is no way they can accidentally get activated, and then transfer them back once your trip is over. This would be my personal preferred method if you do not need to hold FP+ within 60+ days of your other trip.

 

[Albort]

Anyone heard about the SW change trick for September? i didnt read through all the pages so im not sure if someone already posted it.
I guess in september, you change change your flight for free within 2 weeks... so you can book a tuesday flight for xx, then move it to leaving on sat, making it cheaper and redeeming for a better value.

not sure why, my guess says it has to do with the 737-Max8 issue again. perhaps someone can take advantage of this.

 

[Haley R]

I never have gotten an email. Last event the site kept malfunctioning (shocking, I know) and I didn't get tickets.

Yeah I’m a little worried about that or that I’ll be asleep or something when they start it

 

[snugglebug]

I'm looking at purchasing the GoOahu card from Costco. I've done the pricing and it will save us money. The pass is currently $205, just the Ka Moana Luau and an afternoon Makani Catamaran sail totals more than that. Has anyone used it or one from another city?

This will knock out a chunk of my CIP2 spend.