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

[palhockeymomof2]

Thanks for sharing - I tagged this in the news thread. I'll also report that once again no CIP clicks went pending this week despite other Chase points going pending. I'm now up to 6 or 7 Tuesdays with a missing Cross Support click... So I don't think I'm getting those points.

well that stinks

 

[orangecuse]

So I know I didn’t get any responses but- I went for it! We are using P2s blue biz a lot so now was a good time in terms of Amex being happy.

P2 approved for the gold! So hopefully 120k MR all said and done between the 2 referrals and 2 approvals.

Friday I want to apply for a Chase card for me and P2. No Chase card for me since Oct I think. I was leaning Hyatt but don’t wanna do 2 Hyatts at once (just too much MSR I think). I could do-

Hyatts for us both if I can figure out the MSR.

Hyatt for me and something for him- what?! Just a Freedom?

Also could I do Hyatt and something else for me before I surpass 5/24? Like a MDD but two diff cards?

 

[afan]

well that stinks

It does but I also look at it that people got to use the link for the lower spend offer after the $10k one came out. Would love the points but at least people got what I think is the better deal.

 

[disfanforlife]

Can I just say that I love this board?

Moving full steam ahead for Hawaii 2022 and thinking Hilton Hawaiian Village looks good before moving to Aulani. I haven’t gotten a new card since January so I’ve been looking for something with a small MSR.

I searched this board and found that the Hilton no fee card had 100,000points incognito so I have it a shot. It worked and I was approved instantly. I also want to thank whoever recommended having a Hilton Honors number before getting the card. I got to the slot asking for my Hilton number and quickly opened another browser to sign up quick.

Love this thread

That’s great! I was thinking of that card myself.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

So I know I didn’t get any responses but- I went for it! We are using P2s blue biz a lot so now was a good time in terms of Amex being happy.

P2 approved for the gold! So hopefully 120k MR all said and done between the 2 referrals and 2 approvals.

Friday I want to apply for a Chase card for me and P2. No Chase card for me since Oct I think. I was leaning Hyatt but don’t wanna do 2 Hyatts at once (just too much MSR I think). I could do-

Hyatts for us both if I can figure out the MSR.

Hyatt for me and something for him- what?! Just a Freedom?

Also could I do Hyatt and something else for me before I surpass 5/24? Like a MDD but two diff cards?

You could do a MDD...just apply for the card you prefer first, then the other a day after approval

 

[afan]

I know there's some other fans of musicals on here. For anyone that watched Smash when it was on NBC, they are doing a livestream of the 2015 Bombshell concert at 5pm est with a reunion I think at intermission. I rewatched the 2 seasons this past week after I heard they were doing this. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. It's also a fundraiser for the actors fund.

 

[Alexle2007]

@Calfan My size 7 Rothy’s have finally arrived. It was quite the saga with the return going MIA but Rothy’s had great Customer service. They fit much better. The back still rubs in the back since they go so high on the flats but I was told to try wearing socks with them to help stretch there a bit.

They are super cute though!

 

[elgerber]

@Calfan My size 7 Rothy’s have finally arrived. It was quite the saga with the return going MIA but Rothy’s had great Customer service. They fit much better. The back still rubs in the back since they go so high on the flats but I was told to try wearing socks with them to help stretch there a bit.

They are super cute though!

I LOVE that pattern!!!! I can't wear anything that rubs on the back, at all. My feet are crazy crabby. What size do you normally wear?

 

[EACarlson]

$17 shipped for two sets of Medium Packing cubes on eBags. Should make it easy to keep my umpiring uniforms organized this summer, or next.

 

[mmmears]

It was totally surreal. I still have to look at the pictures to remember it, and i was there, LOL. DD's roommates are from Norway, and that was one of the issues: they can't get out yet. I hope your DD is able to get back in soon. From what my DD said, her roommates were cautiously optimistic that they might be able to get out soon. We offered to pack their stuff up for them, but they declined so I hope they are right!

We live in the East Bay, and I see pretty much 100% masks but we live in the city so surrounded by businesses. The only exceptions are the occasional runner or biker when we go walking in the neighborhoods. But yes tons of masks even when walking. The teen-20 something crowd held out the longest, but I see masks on most of them now, too.

Thanks. My DD has pretty much given up trying at this point. With quarantines on both ends and a job here starting this summer it doesn't look like it would be worth trying. We are on the peninsula and honestly I barely ever see anyone with a mask. I understand it's better outside, but we are doing our best to be really careful. I don't know why I never see them around here - I wish I did.

So I know I didn’t get any responses but- I went for it! We are using P2s blue biz a lot so now was a good time in terms of Amex being happy.

P2 approved for the gold! So hopefully 120k MR all said and done between the 2 referrals and 2 approvals.

Friday I want to apply for a Chase card for me and P2. No Chase card for me since Oct I think. I was leaning Hyatt but don’t wanna do 2 Hyatts at once (just too much MSR I think). I could do-

Hyatts for us both if I can figure out the MSR.

Hyatt for me and something for him- what?! Just a Freedom?

Also could I do Hyatt and something else for me before I surpass 5/24? Like a MDD but two diff cards?

Congrats on the new card! The Hyatt cards are weird with the 2-step MSRs, but that also gives you more time to meet it. We found the Hyatt points are a great deal (but sadly have to cancel our PHPV stay this summer that was on points...)

 

[mmmears]

I took my newborn to the pediatrician a few weeks ago, and other than the staff, I was the only one wearing a mask. When DH went to do a drug test for his new job, someone was actually arguing with him, because he was wearing a mask. He had a handful of N95 masks from before COVID, so he was wearing one, and someone else waiting was trying to convince him that he shouldn't be wearing that mask because of the PPE shortage, and that "it doesn't help anyway."
This was about a month ago...but still. It's such a strange world we live in.

In other news, 10 years ago, when Disney was running their AP promotion where current AP holders could refer others and both parties would get a$25 GC, I'm pretty sure I sent one of my referral cards to you!

Me?

Annoying that people are saying that about masks. I think it's nice to protect others.

 

[miztressuz]

Years ago I set up accounts for each of my kids and got probably a $100 bonus for doing so. At the time, I think it was ING.com (or something like that) which has since been taken over by capital one. At any rate, I now have 3 accounts with capital one that each have small amounts of money in them ($72, $116 & $85). One is in my name and the other 2 are in my youngest's names. My oldest DD transferred her money to an account just in her name, but I haven't gone through that process with the others.

Anyway, is there any reason in the credit card world to leave these accounts open? I don't have any other business with capital one and I doubt that accounts with these tiny balances would matter much, but I can leave them open if there's a reason I don't know about. If there is no reason, I'm just going to close them out. I never think about them until we get a yearly statement on them, so I'd like to deal with them one way or the other this year.

I haven't really seen anything that suggests CO values a relationship for their products like some other banks, so off hand I can't see a reason to keep them.

I have just changed my CIP to a CIC to avoid an annual fee. Now I need to figure out the bast way to use this card. I will also product change another card to a CIU when that annual fee comes due leaving me with no UR earning cars, at which point DH will refer me to a CSP for the bonus and so I have at least one card open to keep my points redemption when necessary.

Just a technical point, both the CIC and CIU are UR earning cards. Your % cashback is awarded as UR points. How you redeem them is a little different as you can't directly transfer them to travel partners and don't have any redemption multipliers. But you can transfer those UR from the CIC and CIU to your CSP/CSR for travel transfer or a redemption. Or transfer to your DHs card.

 

[wendow]

What is the amex offer? I have been debating a refi to get out of the VA loan I got to assume and give it back to the ex, but my current rate is 3.25% and I've not seen much lower then that.

The Amex offer is a $2500 statement credit and free appraisal if you refi through Better.com. It is only good on non-branded, personal Amex cards. Some were targeted for it but if you read the slickdeals and DoC pages about the offer, it appears people are getting the credit even if not targeted. The slickdeals thread is like 58 pages long so there is a lot of good info there. I have asked several times of our Better.com team and they have said we will have no problem getting the statement credit and it is noted on my account.

However, your rate is just slighty over what we locked in last Friday and I think rates went up Monday- not by much - but you may not fin much better than what you currently have.

 

[wendow]

Were you targeted for the Amex offer (I'm guessing it's the $2500 back) or did you just ask them about it? We tried to refi recently but since our house is in construction, it didn't work out - we should have known and saved ourselves the hard pull but live and learn. Hopefully the rates will stay low until we finish the house towards the end of the year.

In cc news, I logged into Amex and saw they offer one year free of Calm app. We aren't a quiet, meditative bunch but I should probably use something like this as I wallow in the anxiety of not knowing what will happen with my job.

Yes, the Better.com offer. I was not targeted and just asked them about it. Sorry you were not able to refi but I guess that makes sense since you are in construction

 

[Artygal90]

So apparently 1:45 am central time is when the Houston IKEA click-and-collect slots open up. Epcot bathroom, here I come!

 

[havaneselover]

Just did the HSBC Slickdeals deal--took about 10 minutes.

 

[Lain]

Are there any Hawaiian airline experts on here? Any tips? Are their miles easy to use and not have blackout dates?
Is there anyway to see what a fare costs in points without having any? I don’t see anywhere to check a box that says use points?

I am looking at Hawaiian cards and see there are 2 available? Barclay and Bank of Hawaii. Both have 50,000. Has anyone seen better offers? Is one card better than the other?
Thank you!

I think you've mentioned you fly out of BDL? Hawaiian operates direct flights to HNL from BOS and JFK.

The HawaiianMiles MasterCard is the same card issued by Bank of Hawaii through Barclays. Would the personal card be your first personal card with Barclays? There is also a business version of the card. I can't predict approval odds because Barclays be cray cray, and lenders are tightening credit card lending generally. I will say that the 50,000 offer you're seeing is low compared to recent offers of 60,000 on the personal card and 70,000 miles on the business card (search DoC for an idea of historic offers).

I'm not going to say the HawaiianMiles card is bad, but it's not great at earning a lot of HawaiianMiles to fly a family from the East Coast to Hawaii and back, especially because of the current low SUB and since Hawaiian devalued their award charts last year. However, when flying Hawaiian, the HawaiianMiles card is a great card to have open. SUB aside, holding the HawaiianMiles card gives you access to discounted economy flight awards. Being a HawaiianMiles cardmember also lets anyone transfer their HawaiianMiles into your account for free, which makes it easy to pool points with the cardmember who has access to the discounted award fares. There's also your first bag free if you pay for your flight or taxes on the card, and a companion fare discount for cash fares (but the point is to try to use miles, so that latter benefit is negligible).

Since your trip isn't until summer 2022, I would keep Hawaiian as an option and focus on earning a flexible currency like Chase UR, Amex MR, or even Citi TYP in case you find a better deal on other airlines. Hawaiian offers a great product and you can really feel the Aloha spirit once you step onboard (several blogs have reviewed the BOS<>HNL flight and JFK<>HNL should be similar, to give you an idea), but they're not always the cheapest cash- or points-wise. If you think there's a good chance you'll be flying Hawaiian anyway, I'd recommend earning as many Amex MR points as you can (not a bad idea in any case) in the next year since MR are still relatively easy to earn a lot of, MR transfers to HawaiianMiles, and Amex typically runs a 25% transfer bonus once a year. Get the HawaiianMiles card when you see a better, elevated offer for the SUB, but really for the ability to pool points when you're ready to redeem for discounted award fares (even better if the stars align and the first year AF is waived).

Hawaiian's site is wonky as I type this, and your planned trip isn't until 2022 so I can't possibly check the number of miles required. For reference, here is Hawaiian's current award chart, one-way, HNL to/from the East Coast:

https://hawaiianair.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2218/~/hawaiianmiles-award-chart#naec
Hawaiian opens their seats for sale 330 days in advance of departure date. There are no blackout dates, but award seats are always subject to inventory. I've also seen Hawaiian hold back award availability for several weeks/months for peak travel times (usually the two weeks around the holidays). While flights tend to be at their cheapest at release, that's not always the case and cash/miles fares can go up and down (use the chart as your guide). Unfortunately, Hawaiian is not like SW where you can easily rebook to save some points.

You can see that Hawaiian has a dynamic chart for award seats based on inventory and demand, so a one-way main cabin economy award fare can range from as low as 30k to as high as 130k (discounted to 26,250-110k for HawaiianMiles cardmembers and elites) miles. You'll typically find the better deals are for midweek travel. Still, that 50k SUB (even in 2-Player mode) won't get you very far with Hawaiian.

This is why if Hawaiian is a possibility, you should start accumulating Amex MR. Earning MR, in general, is a good idea because it's a very valuable and flexible currency, with a lot of solid transfer (particularly airline) partners, as well as cash out value; and Amex is still approving folks for a lot of their cards so there are lots of cards and opportunities that'll let you accumulate a lot of MR in a relatively short amount of time, especially in 2-Player mode with cross-supportals to elevated welcome offers.

MR transfers to HawaiianMiles 1:1 normally, but Amex runs a 25% transfer bonus to Hawaiian once a year making the conversion 1:1.25.

• In 2019, it ran from about 9/23 - 10/7
• In 2018, from about 6/12 - 6/26
• In 2017, from about 6/7 - 6/21
• In 2016, from about 6/6 - 6/21
• In 2015, from about 12/8 - 12/21

If you can accumulate enough MRs in time to take advantage of a transfer bonus to Hawaiian, you could give your MRs a 25% boost when transferring to HawaiianMiles. (However, note that when transferring MR to a domestic airline's frequent flyer program, Amex charges a $0.0006 per point fee, with a maximum fee of $99 to your card account.) Pair that with discounted award fares from holding the HawaiianMiles card, and it's not a bad use of MR points.

If you want to read more, I've replied about HawaiianMiles and their credit card offerings previously. Just do a search for HawaiianMiles and Lain.

Hope this helps.

 

[pinkxray]

Thank you so much @Lain.

I probably should have mentioned where we would fly out of. We are In Southern CT so I am hoping to fly from JFK.
I am pretty maxed out with Chase cards but do plan on applying for the BBP at some point to help with MRs. I will have to start maximizing my 4x on my Rose Gold to earn those MRs.
I need to review where I am within my /24. I kind of lost interest in churning last year so haven’t paid attention. I think I am 3/24 but just got the Hilton Amex yesterday.

I am slowing down on how often I get cards and DH isn’t willing to be player 2 so I am ok with knowing I’ll pay for some of our flight out of pocket but every little bit I can cover with points will be great.

I did notice while researching direct flights Jetblue has some flights but underneath it says Hawaiian airlines. Do you know anything about that? Are there really JetBlue planes or I am just booking a Hawaiian flight with JetBlue point?

 

[Lain]

I did notice while researching direct flights Jetblue has some flights but underneath it says Hawaiian airlines. Do you know anything about that? Are there really JetBlue planes or I am just booking a Hawaiian flight with JetBlue point?

I believe those are code share flights between JetBlue and Hawaiian. They're JB planes that connect you to BOS or JFK, then board a HA plane to HNL.

 

[pillow]

Just did the HSBC Slickdeals deal--took about 10 minutes.

Thanks. I did it as well.