So now that I've come out of lurkdom, I need advice, lol. We are going to China in October, but will only be in Shanghai for 36 hours. For those that have been, how much a priority is
Disneyland? We are Disney lovers, but my DH also loves (even more) big cities and Asia, so he wants to do all the major sites as well. Would you suggest carving out time for Disneyland? If so, can the highlights (Pirates, Manor, Tron, am I missing something?) be done in half day? Or would you skip altogether?
Also, we are in the *early* stages of planning a possible Japan and Australia combined trip, a week or so at each. For those that have been, what card/airline did you use to get from US to Japan? I'm thinking the CIP for P1 & P2 will give us enough points for flights (by transferring to United?). IHG Premiere would give us enough points for hotels in Sydney. I'm left wondering what to do about Japan... I see there's a Hyatt. Is the WoH card any good? It would probably give me 4-5 nights with the sign up bonus, and then I'd have to figure out something for the rest. I'm also at a complete loss as how to get from Japan to Australia or vice versa. As I said, this is very early stages... we're planning to go in 2023 for our 15th year anniversary, so I have a few years to work on the cards we need in 2P mode. I'm currently past 5/24 and won't get down to 3/24 until April. P2 is past 5/24 until next month, when he should go down to 4/24, but had recent problems getting approved for a Chase card because of too much credit. They had to lower some to make room for the new card, so I'm thinking this should be first step... lowering all credit lines on Chase cards. Does that generally work and not throw any flags up with them? I saw previous posts that you could do this through your secure messages. So many questions, lol. I will definitely post on Reddit once we're ready to apply with strategy and to pay it forward with a referral! I'm just trying to get general ideas I guess right now.
Our travel party is just DH and I. Here's some other pertinent stats (currently have all personal cards, no biz) -
P1:
01/18 Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer
01/18 AU on P2's CSP
03/18 TD Cash
07/18 Citi Aadvantage Plat Select
12/18 Amex Hilton Honors
04/19 Barclays Aadvantage Aviator Red
P2:
01/18 AU on P2's Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer
01/18 CSP
05/18 Citi Aadvantage Plat Select
09/18 Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer
03/19 Barclays Aadvantage Aviator Red
08/19 Chase IHG Premier
We put about 2K spend on cc's each month, and pay the balance in full every month. Our home airport is CLT (Charlotte) / GSP (Greenville). Southwest does service both.
We currently combined have 130,000 AA points, along with 150,000 IHG points, and 140,000 Hilton points. We plan to wipe out the majority of these for a Europe trip in 2021.
I have 2,300 Marriott Bonvoy points that are about to expire. Anything to do with that small amounts? Can I transfer to someone? We no longer have Marriott cards.
TIA for you all!