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

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I think it was you. It's possible I just remember your SN from something else. (Oh to go back to 2009, when we could stay in a Deluxe resort for less than $200/night and Disney gave people extra incentives to get APs!)

I wasn't sure if that message was meant for me. I don't think it was me, since I rarely get APs and I think I would remember getting a discount. But I could be mis-remembering, too. :)
 
SW changed our flights again. Rebooking and choices include SMF or OAK with 55 minute layovers. Those of you familiar with both, would one be better than the other for a short layover?

Not sure if fog is an issue in oakland, never used that airport since both sjc and sfo were closer to where I lived.

But I'd also look at whether either have other flights to where your going that day just in case. I would think sacramento would be easier though. The one advantage to oakland though would be that sjc and sfo are nearby. I think this is for your socal trip so I'd imagine both oakland and sacramento have at least a few flights still going south.
 
We actually had a chain of robberies that involved people going into people's cars and stealing their garage door openers, then coming back later to use that as entry into people's houses. Apparently, most people don't lock the door that comes in from their garage. We always dead bolt ours, because it's warped or something, so if we don't it flies open all the time.

We just left home for a few days and DH was laughing at me when I asked him to take the garage door opener out of his car (which is outside.) I'm going to show him this. :rotfl2:
 
SW changed our flights again. Rebooking and choices include SMF or OAK with 55 minute layovers. Those of you familiar with both, would one be better than the other for a short layover?
My house is about a 40 minute drive to both of those airports. SMF is a much nicer airport, better eateries, smaller, etc. For a short layover that's probably a better choice. OAK is where I go to most of the time since I prefer the parking, the traffic flow going there on a Friday afternoon is vastly superior and the only feature that will be relevant to you: there are at least 3x as many flights that go there compared to SMF. OAK is a Southwest hub, so if they revise the flight schedule more, you're more likely to be able to stick to your original timeline if you choose OAK.
I've been trying to get my son back from his grandparents in the middle of an ocean to home, and his flight has been cancelled 4x since this started; he's supposed to be back in 2 weeks but it wouldn't surprise me if his flight gets cancelled/rerouted yet again. My mom works for the airlines so I'm hyper aware to the fact that flight schedules right now are very very prone to changing.
 


We have 8 years straight also. 3 kids, with a new one entering every other year. Our first is starting his senior year this August. So we also have 4 years straight of having two in at the same time. This year and next year will be roughest though. My last gets the best grades of them all so I’m hoping for a higher academic scholarship for her.;)

Pretty much the exact same here, too. 8 years, 3 kids. With little hope of #1 getting any academic scholarships. #2 and #3 I have hope for. ;)
 
I'm trying to figure out how to get started with AmEx cards. I posted details in the dischurning thread, but I think traffic is down. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

I have done lots with Chase, but need some help with AmEx. About 200k points would be useful for Hilton stay in Dec. I think the Hhonors Surpass is the best option right now at 135k with $95 annual fee. Any better cards you would suggest, strategies or pitfalls to keep in mind? With 2 players, the points can be pooled, right?

We usually use Hilton points bc family prefers suites w/ breakfast included (Embassy or Homewood). Is there a comparable chain you would recommend through Bonvoy/ Marriott with a similar style room. Strategy to earn those points?

Most of the nonbranded cards are under 50k points on their bonus right now. Do these ever go up?

Thanks everyone!
One thing to keep in mind, MR transfers to Honors at 1:2. So that 50k Gold card SUB is worth 100k Hilton points. Not that I would do it that way, but it is an option. I have the no fee Hilton card and am strongly considering upgrading to the Aspire for the Diamond status, lounge access if I ever get to fly again, and the FNC that I'd like to use in Paris.
 
Instant approval for DH on the Hyatt card. I held my breath since he was denied last weekend for the CIC. I figure since biz cards are going to be in short supply it’s time to finally move beyond 5/24. This card puts DH at 4/24. In July I’ll get myself a CSP, and we’ll keep chugging along. Still plenty of great cards for us to get 👍🏻
 


Flew on SW yesterday. 30 or so people on the first flight, maybe 50 on the 2nd. Everyone was wearing face masks, including flight attendants. They made an announcement on the 2nd flight that face masks were required on board. I didn't hear it on the 1st, but might not have been paying attention. No food or drink served. I flew out of a small airport and only one place open to get food or drinks before (a fast food place, no other open stores). Layover was at BWI, plenty of places open there - most with long lines. Or maybe they just looked long because of the social distancing. :D
 
Flew on SW yesterday. 30 or so people on the first flight, maybe 50 on the 2nd. Everyone was wearing face masks, including flight attendants. They made an announcement on the 2nd flight that face masks were required on board. I didn't hear it on the 1st, but might not have been paying attention. No food or drink served. I flew out of a small airport and only one place open to get food or drinks before (a fast food place, no other open stores). Layover was at BWI, plenty of places open there - most with long lines. Or maybe they just looked long because of the social distancing. :D
I am flying this weekend. SW on the way out, direct with a 55 minute layover and no plane change. No clue how many seats are sold. Should be interesting. I depart at 6:40 am so at least I know the plane will be freshly cleaned. Delta on the way home non stop. I can see they have the middle seats blocked and it’s a 2/3 configuration. I picked the very back seat on the 2 seat side. So far no one else in the last 3 available rows (the very back two are blocked off) so with any luck I will be alone back there. Bonus. With the last two rows blocked I can recline all the way and not annoy anyone 😜
 
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.
This was SO helpful, @Lain ! Would your advice be any different for someone flying from the west coast?
 
Not sure if fog is an issue in oakland, never used that airport since both sjc and sfo were closer to where I lived.

But I'd also look at whether either have other flights to where your going that day just in case. I would think sacramento would be easier though. The one advantage to oakland though would be that sjc and sfo are nearby. I think this is for your socal trip so I'd imagine both oakland and sacramento have at least a few flights still going south.
Apparently many flights from SNA to Chicago (it's our flight home) go through Northern California as there are options from SNA to MDW through SMF, OAK, SJC. There are also flights through DEN, LAS and PHX though all get us home after 8 pm. The connections for the SMF and OAK flight are both 55 minutes, so not sure that is enough time though both airports seem to have all SW gates close together.
 
My house is about a 40 minute drive to both of those airports. SMF is a much nicer airport, better eateries, smaller, etc. For a short layover that's probably a better choice. OAK is where I go to most of the time since I prefer the parking, the traffic flow going there on a Friday afternoon is vastly superior and the only feature that will be relevant to you: there are at least 3x as many flights that go there compared to SMF. OAK is a Southwest hub, so if they revise the flight schedule more, you're more likely to be able to stick to your original timeline if you choose OAK.
I've been trying to get my son back from his grandparents in the middle of an ocean to home, and his flight has been cancelled 4x since this started; he's supposed to be back in 2 weeks but it wouldn't surprise me if his flight gets cancelled/rerouted yet again. My mom works for the airlines so I'm hyper aware to the fact that flight schedules right now are very very prone to changing.
All of it is likely a moot point as the trip is probably going to end up canceled. Our flight home is SNA to MDW but no direct flights. One flight per day through OAK, SMF or SJC, layover 55 minutes (a little longer at SJC IIRC) There are more flights through LAS but either @ 7 am :crazy2: Or arriving home pretty late.
 
I called to get a refund on my annual passes today. Sad. We won’t be traveling for the foreseeable future until this settles. I’ve just seen too much at work to even consider it.

I am considering looking for a house rental in the poconos on a lake or with a private pool for a week this summer.

In churning questions- my platicorn annual fee will be due next month and barring the worlds most amazing retention offer, I won’t be renewing.

Is the bbp still the best place to park MRs? Anyone think a gold might be worth it with all the increased grocery spending?

Are there still any supports on dischurners for either of these?
 
Interesting. My feeling is, if I haven't gotten it after all the exposure at work, maybe travel isn't so bad. Lol.

Nope. After seeing a 31 year old, a 40 year old and a 27 year old on ECMO all in the same week- nope. On that note- convalescent plasma seems miraculous.

I feel now like work is a controlled environment. Masks on everyone- all staff and all patients all of the time- and every admitted patient is tested so no surprises. Who knows what your getting on a plane.

Also my youngest is just about to turn 3- in the touch everything and lick handrails age still.
 
I called to get a refund on my annual passes today. Sad. We won’t be traveling for the foreseeable future until this settles. I’ve just seen too much at work to even consider it.

I am considering looking for a house rental in the poconos on a lake or with a private pool for a week this summer.

In churning questions- my platicorn annual fee will be due next month and barring the worlds most amazing retention offer, I won’t be renewing.

Is the bbp still the best place to park MRs? Anyone think a gold might be worth it with all the increased grocery spending?

Are there still any supports on dischurners for either of these?
BBP is the best biz card to park them if you’re looking for a no AF MR card and have an Amex slot to spare (remember that they appear to have reduced their limit to 4 credit cards). Gold would be a charge card of course (subject to the 10 charge card limit).

Both have support links. Do you or a spouse have Amex cards currently? Cross support is still fine if you do - just no self support.
 
BBP is the best biz card to park them if you’re looking for a no AF MR card and have an Amex slot to spare (remember that they appear to have reduced their limit to 4 credit cards). Gold would be a charge card of course (subject to the 10 charge card limit).

Both have support links. Do you or a spouse have Amex cards currently? Cross support is still fine if you do - just no self support.

I have 3 amex charge cards- one is a super super old blue card that earns MRs- it was a blue for students back in the early 2000s. I wonder if they would just stay there.

DH has no Amex. This really isn’t his thing. He was getting some cip, but honestly I’m backing off for now.
 
I have 3 amex charge cards- one is a super super old blue card that earns MRs- it was a blue for students back in the early 2000s. I wonder if they would just stay there.

DH has no Amex. This really isn’t his thing. He was getting some cip, but honestly I’m backing off for now.
🤔 🤔

Okay - idea! Your max earnings here would be to do a cross support to your husband for a card (maybe a BCE or BCP for the grocery rewards if you’re willing to use a 5/24 slot). Then you could use his support link to grab a BBP.

If he’s not in for a card period then a BBP with a DISchurners link (or a gold) would be a decent play. I can’t speak to that Blue card and if it keeps you active. There’s probably some other plans that would work too but this was what jumped into my brain as I thought about it.
 
Apparently many flights from SNA to Chicago (it's our flight home) go through Northern California as there are options from SNA to MDW through SMF, OAK, SJC. There are also flights through DEN, LAS and PHX though all get us home after 8 pm. The connections for the SMF and OAK flight are both 55 minutes, so not sure that is enough time though both airports seem to have all SW gates close together.

Neither of those airports are going to be a huge trek because they just aren't that big of an airport, especially if all the gates are close together.
 
Nope. After seeing a 31 year old, a 40 year old and a 27 year old on ECMO all in the same week- nope. On that note- convalescent plasma seems miraculous.

I feel now like work is a controlled environment. Masks on everyone- all staff and all patients all of the time- and every admitted patient is tested so no surprises. Who knows what your getting on a plane.

Also my youngest is just about to turn 3- in the touch everything and lick handrails age still.
Work is far less controlled here. All patients not wearing masks, not all being tested. In fact the highest number of infected nurses seems to be on the non-covid units as I think they aren’t taking as many precautions and then have patients turn up positive (totally anecdotal though). Also had an outbreak in rehab, 5 patients and I think nearly as many staff.
I get it with a 3 year old though. Can’t keep their hands off things and out of their mouths. Plus a mask is probably a struggle too.
 
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