I love credit cards so much! v4.0 - 2021 (see first page for add'l details)

[Alexle2007]

Remind me, if you have a CSP, can you upgrade a CF to a CSR?

 

[GlamMistress]

Went ahead and applied for the CSP for the 100k UR bonus. Didn't think I would get it and hence why I was considering the Citi Premier the other day. Chase did approve me, so I will take the extra 100k URs thank you very much.

 

[georgina]

Mine hasn’t posted

So my Graham Fisk wine credit did post, Amex must back date them because my statement closed July 8 and it wasn't there, now I see it listed as a credit from July 7. It was not included in the original statement balance, hoping the autopay does the smaller amount that is now listed as my total balance. Weird.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Went ahead and applied for the CSP for the 100k UR bonus. Didn't think I would get it and hence why I was considering the Citi Premier the other day. Chase did approve me, so I will take the extra 100k URs thank you very much.

Congrats

 

[Shannon G]

calculate the CPP and see which one nets higher.

also, im not sure how ur transferring UR to Delta. they arent partners... now if its MR to Delta, then that would make sense...

You are correct - I misspoke (or rather, mid-typed). I transferred MRs to Delta. I have both MRs and URs that I could use for the flights, depending on airline.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Can someone refresh my memory regarding
SW business cards?
I had the Performance in Jan. 2020. Can I get the Premier and get the bonus now?
I am not ready to get a personal card yet so that’s out.

Here are the offer terms:

OFFER DETAILS

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES RAPID REWARDS® PREMIER BUSINESS CREDIT CARD
...

60,000 Bonus Points After You Spend $3,000 On Purchases In The First 3 Months From Account Opening: This new Cardmember bonus offer is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of this business credit card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of this business credit card who received a new Cardmember bonus for this business credit card within the last 24 months. To qualify for your bonus points, you must make Purchases totaling $3,000 or more during the first 3 months from account opening. Please allow up to 8 weeks for bonus points to post to your Rapid Rewards® account. (“Purchases” do not include balance transfers, cash advances, travelers checks, foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions, any checks that access your account, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, and fees of any kind, including an annual fee, if applicable.) To be eligible for this bonus offer, account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment.

Versus the personal card which has the more restrictive language: "The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards® Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Cardmembers of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card and Employee Credit Card products. "

 

[iujen94]

Hawaii review, continued!
We landed in Oahu on Friday after noon. I should have mentioned - we had great lunch ordering snacks, bottled water and some groceries from Target in Maui. We placed our order the night before for curbside pickup, drove there from the airport (maybe 5 minutes away?) and they put our stuff right in the trunk. It was fantastic! Unfortunately the Targets on Oahu don’t seem to carry groceries (or they aren’t available for curbside pickup), so we had to hit the grocery store. An Oahu Facebook group recommended Foodland at Ala Moana mall. That was a mistake. The store was great, but it’s literally in a mall in a super crowded part of town with no convenient parking.

We are in Hilton Hawaiian Village in the Lagoon Tower, which is the tower with the condo-like units. We’ve got a 2-bedroom oceanfront. Boy did we do this trip in the wrong order. While our room is just fine, it absolutely pales in comparison to Wailea Beach Villas (a 10 out of 10) and Hyatt Residence Club (a 9). I’d give our room maybe a 5 or 6 in comparison? Little things like the washer and dryer are shared in the hallway and not in our unit. The master bath just has a regular shower/tub combo with a shower curtain instead of a walk-in shower and separate tub. The balcony is small and just has a basic table and chairs. But it’s well stocked and the beds are comfortable (I’ve slept like a LOG this whole trip - I think the time change helped!). Again, it’s perfectly fine, but just not as fabulous as our Maui resorts.

Also a bummer and a blessing is that we are on the 3rd floor. A bummer because it’s SUPER loud. Definitely avoid if anyone in your group wants to take mid-day naps. And bring a white noise machine with you! That said, it’s a blessing because we can take the stairs - we’ve seen lines for the elevators with at least 25-30 people in them (5-10 people is more common, and sometimes no wait when it’s not a busy time).
HHV itself is humongous. I’m glad I waited a few days to write this review because, to be honest, I hated it (well, really disliked it) our first day here. It’s so big and overwhelming that I found it kind of stressful. But now that we’ve been here a few days and are getting the lay of the land, it’s much better.

But lines, lines, lines everywhere. We waited over an hour this morning to get chairs and an umbrella on the beach. The rental stand opens at 9, I believe. Line up at least an hour to 90 minutes beforehand if you want to get a front row seat next to the ocean. Other tips - they let you pick your spot on the beach. Go to the left side, because the right side is really rocky. Also, try to pick a spot behind people who have their own chairs/umbrellas/towels, because they won’t set up umbrellas in front of you. Then if those people leave, you’ve got a great ocean view instead of a sea of rental umbrellas in front of you.

There are tons of food choices but they’ve all seemed pretty crowded (at the deli at 11:30 today, they were quoting a 20-30 minute wait). Most things seem open except for the Lagoon pool bar (not sure about the other pool bars) and other little bar stands that I’ve seen sprinkled around the property. Lots of places do takeout. We got the Italian place (Fresco) last night. It wasn’t great, but it was fine and easy which is what we wanted and needed. And the ABC store has a great selection of hot and cold pre-packaged foods. My DS got sushi from there last night and loved it.

Oh, if luaus are your thing but you don’t want to pay the crazy price tag, HHV’s is in a big open area. You can totally just stand there and watch the whole show (which plenty of people did).

As for activities -
We went to Kualoa Ranch and did the 2.5 hour Jurassic Adventure Tour. I am a HUGE Jurassic Park fan, so I was super excited about this. Had I done my homework better, I would have known that only one scene from the original JP was filmed on Oahu (when Dr Grant and the kids hide under the log when the gallimimus herd goes by). We did get to see that log (allegedly - I question if it’s the actual log...) and take pictures with it. The rest of the things we saw were all from the Jurassic World movies, which I’ve seen, but don’t love like the original. We also got quick drive bys of other movie and TV sites from Lost, Godzilla, Kong Skull Island, and some others (many I hadn’t heard of), so we got a taste of the movie sites tour as well (BTW, the movie sites tour goes in a big school bus which did not look very appealing. We rode in an open air but covered Jeep sort of vehicles with about 16 people in it. So the tour was kind of disappointing as far as JP sites went, but the scenery was gorgeous, our guide was great, and we got lots of fun photo ops.
From Kualoa Ranch, we attempted to head to the North Shore. This was around 12:30 and was a massive mistake. We got maybe 1/2 mile up the road where we stopped for lunch (Uncle Bobo’s in Ka’a’awa, on a friend’s recommendation - it’s to go only, but there are tons of picnic tables at the beach right across the street). Lunch was fantastic and then we attempted to continue to head north. Except traffic was literally at a complete standstill. We checked the Waze app, which told us that it would take us an hour and fifteen minutes to drive to a town 10 miles up the road. So we made the best decision of the trip and turned around and went back to our hotel, saving us MUCH angst and bickering.

Today has been a beach day, and tomorrow we are doing scuba scooters through Island Watersports, so I’ll be sure to report back on how that goes.

As for restaurants, the only place of note that we’ve eaten (other than Uncle Bobo’s) is Karai Crab, primarily because we could get a reservation there. My boys LOVE crab legs (I know, I know, it’s not remotely Hawaiian food and totally flown in just like it would be in NC), and everything we had (including garlic noodles, for you ‘Ohana fans...) was absolutely delicious. I’d definitely recommend it. We have a rental car but Ubered there because we weren’t sure how parking would be, and that was a good decision.

Ok, more later!

 

[mmmears]

Haha! I'll be on the lookout for you to say hi! We'll be the family that has no clue what we're doing because for some reason I am very unprepared for this trip! I think because of all of the uncertainty with travel/testing I just wasn't sure it would happen. That and my kiddos just aren't that excited for it. My DD8 kept asking if she has to go. I'm like really? Do you know how much planning I did to make it happen and how lucky we are to get to go?!? She's just really dreading the 8 hour flight. My DS10 is somewhat excited, so I just hope we have great time and if nothing else can enjoy GW! We usually go to WDW every summer and it's always go go go so I'm looking forward to a more relaxed trip.

I am thinking about booking the 2 hour kayak/snorkel tour that leaves from the GW beach. Did you consider that one? 2 hours seems about right for my crew. I booked a 3 hour dolphin watch and snorkel excursion on Oahu and my DH was like 3 hours?!? Good thing I didn't book a full day Road to Hana!

I haven't booked any dining ressies, but honestly my DD is a very picky eater, and we overall have pretty simple tastes so I think we'll just wing it. My DH is the only one of us who really eats fish/seafood, and he's pretty limited on what he likes too so I think a lot of the sought after places would be lost on us. I did check out Morimoto's menu for his restaurant on Oahu and I think we'll try to eat there.

Oh, one other thing I did reserve is a photo session on the beach at GW. The session is free but the pics are expensive! I've always wanted family pics on the beach so we're going to do it. If nothing else I can buy the single pic for $89

Like you said, everyone's different, but I'll chime in with my thoughts here. When our DD was small we alternated between trips to WDW and trips to the GWR. She loved them both equally. I also have a few friends who did the same (WDW and GWR) and their kids were equally happy at both. There are no rides, but the pool outshines every WDW pool, plus the beach there is great. I hope you have a nice trip - Maui is really lovely. Also, I think I wouldn't show them too many videos since it's hard to live up to the hype and also because it's really a nice surprise to walk into that lobby not knowing what it looks like.

 

[mmmears]

Been a minute and I haven’t caught up but did notice some posts about the CSR $550 AF.

I thought I'd post this, which I've posted in the past for you (in case you missed it previously) and others who may be new to this thread in case they have not seen it before. I’ve also updated the math to account for the $550 on the CSR.

PC strategies to avoid annual fees are one thing and may work if one doesn't have an emergency, need to book asap and can't PC back for whatever reason. The topic of keeping a high AF card like the CSR comes up fairly often and for those newer to the game will cause a knee jerk reaction and people assume that keeping a lower AF card like the CIP/CSP is more cost effective. That well may be true in some cases. However, I think it is important to look at the big picture because it may actually cost a person more to keep the lower AF card if they are redeeming for paid travel in the UR portal. Below, I have copied, pasted, edited and added to one of my previous posts:

I see quite often where folks can get sticker shock when it comes to the AF of a card, especially one as high as the CSR. I think it is important to look well beyond the bonus and that high AF before passing judgement with a knee jerk reaction as you may wind up paying more for not having it in the long run.

The CSR is $550 and comes with a $300 travel credit that can be triggered for a number of things. Merchants in the travel category like airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares (DVC dues), campgrounds, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, and operators of passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots, garages, etc.

If your household spends $300 per year in any combination of these categories then the travel credit will be triggered and the CSR will be a $250 AF per year card because you were spending that money anyhow with or without the card. For me, it's tolls for work and I spend well over $300 a year on those. Fortunately, I do get reimbursed on it so it is "free money" in my case. I also have DVC so even without the tolls, I am spending over $300 each year in a travel category for annual dues. Assuming that you wish to keep either a CIP or CSP for use at .0125 cpp in the UR portal or to transfer to an airline or hotel you are paying $95 per year for that card. The difference between that and the CSR after factoring in the $300 credit you were spending anyway is $155.

Math: $550 AF on CSR - $300 travel credit you are spending anyway = $250. Difference between $250 CSR - $95 CIP/CSP = $155.

The important thing to look at is what does it cost you per year to redeem your UR points through the travel portal? It is very possible that keeping a CSP or CIP over a CSR is actually costing you more money. This is especially true for those who are redeeming for paid seats on flights via the UR portal. More often than not it costs fewer points to redeem coach airfare via the UR portal over transferring points to an airline.

Let's say you are going to redeem a $500 RT flight for a party of 2. That's $1000. If you hold a CSP or CIP that should cost you 80,000 UR points. If you hold a CSR those flights would cost you 66,667 points. That is a difference of 13,333 points which is equivalent to $166.66 in the CSP/CIP UR portal. So holding the CIP or CSP over the CSR just cost you $166 in points. When you factor in the $155 difference then it still costs you an additional $10 to keep a card with a "lower AF" over the higher AF card. That is just one redemption example. How much is it costing a family of 4 to keep the lower AF card? How much does it cost folks who are redeeming well beyond $1000 annually via the UR travel portal?

When I originally posted this the difference was much greater since the CSR was $450. However my numbers still stand. If you are spending $300 in travel categories anyway each year, then the decision to keep a CSR over a CSP is still are you redeeming $1,000 or more annually via the UR portal in points. If the answer is yes, keep a CSR if it is no, keep the CSP/CIP. Happy churning y’all!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts here. I really appreciate thoughtful posts about the value of these cards.

 

[mmmears]

Any thoughts here on the the changes to the CSR and Amex Platinum and which is best to use when booking trips, insurance-wise?

We've been giving up the Amex 5x lately in favor of CSR's 3x + better trip delay insurance, but maybe those days are over. Anyone looking into this as well?

 

[platamama]

Any thoughts here on the the changes to the CSR and Amex Platinum and which is best to use when booking trips, insurance-wise?

We've been giving up the Amex 5x lately in favor of CSR's 3x + better trip delay insurance, but maybe those days are over. Anyone looking into this as well?

The best write-up I've seen is the one from Frequent Miler. https://frequentmiler.com/ultra-premium-credit-card-travel-insurance/

I plan to continue using CSR for covering flights, I don't think I've ever chosen the Plat to pay for airfare. Is there some change to CSR that I somehow missed?

 

[mmmears]

The best write-up I've seen is the one from Frequent Miler. https://frequentmiler.com/ultra-premium-credit-card-travel-insurance/

I plan to continue using CSR for covering flights, I don't think I've ever chosen the Plat to pay for airfare. Is there some change to CSR that I somehow missed?

Thank you for the link - it helps. I believe it's more that Amex is doing a better job with the insurance than they were in the past (back when we used to travel regularly, ie. before the shut down). We generally put flights on the Plat unless I'm concerned that we might get stuck somewhere, because DH would rather get 5x. Lately, because of all the travel disruptions, we've been using the CSR more, but it's hard to lose the extra points.

 

[Angrose]

Hawaii review, continued!
We landed in Oahu on Friday after noon. I should have mentioned - we had great lunch ordering snacks, bottled water and some groceries from Target in Maui. We placed our order the night before for curbside pickup, drove there from the airport (maybe 5 minutes away?) and they put our stuff right in the trunk. It was fantastic! Unfortunately the Targets on Oahu don’t seem to carry groceries (or they aren’t available for curbside pickup), so we had to hit the grocery store. An Oahu Facebook group recommended Foodland at Ala Moana mall. That was a mistake. The store was great, but it’s literally in a mall in a super crowded part of town with no convenient parking.

We are in Hilton Hawaiian Village in the Lagoon Tower, which is the tower with the condo-like units. We’ve got a 2-bedroom oceanfront. Boy did we do this trip in the wrong order. While our room is just fine, it absolutely pales in comparison to Wailea Beach Villas (a 10 out of 10) and Hyatt Residence Club (a 9). I’d give our room maybe a 5 or 6 in comparison? Little things like the washer and dryer are shared in the hallway and not in our unit. The master bath just has a regular shower/tub combo with a shower curtain instead of a walk-in shower and separate tub. The balcony is small and just has a basic table and chairs. But it’s well stocked and the beds are comfortable (I’ve slept like a LOG this whole trip - I think the time change helped!). Again, it’s perfectly fine, but just not as fabulous as our Maui resorts.

Also a bummer and a blessing is that we are on the 3rd floor. A bummer because it’s SUPER loud. Definitely avoid if anyone in your group wants to take mid-day naps. And bring a white noise machine with you! That said, it’s a blessing because we can take the stairs - we’ve seen lines for the elevators with at least 25-30 people in them (5-10 people is more common, and sometimes no wait when it’s not a busy time).
HHV itself is humongous. I’m glad I waited a few days to write this review because, to be honest, I hated it (well, really disliked it) our first day here. It’s so big and overwhelming that I found it kind of stressful. But now that we’ve been here a few days and are getting the lay of the land, it’s much better.

But lines, lines, lines everywhere. We waited over an hour this morning to get chairs and an umbrella on the beach. The rental stand opens at 9, I believe. Line up at least an hour to 90 minutes beforehand if you want to get a front row seat next to the ocean. Other tips - they let you pick your spot on the beach. Go to the left side, because the right side is really rocky. Also, try to pick a spot behind people who have their own chairs/umbrellas/towels, because they won’t set up umbrellas in front of you. Then if those people leave, you’ve got a great ocean view instead of a sea of rental umbrellas in front of you.

There are tons of food choices but they’ve all seemed pretty crowded (at the deli at 11:30 today, they were quoting a 20-30 minute wait). Most things seem open except for the Lagoon pool bar (not sure about the other pool bars) and other little bar stands that I’ve seen sprinkled around the property. Lots of places do takeout. We got the Italian place (Fresco) last night. It wasn’t great, but it was fine and easy which is what we wanted and needed. And the ABC store has a great selection of hot and cold pre-packaged foods. My DS got sushi from there last night and loved it.

Oh, if luaus are your thing but you don’t want to pay the crazy price tag, HHV’s is in a big open area. You can totally just stand there and watch the whole show (which plenty of people did).

As for activities -
We went to Kualoa Ranch and did the 2.5 hour Jurassic Adventure Tour. I am a HUGE Jurassic Park fan, so I was super excited about this. Had I done my homework better, I would have known that only one scene from the original JP was filmed on Oahu (when Dr Grant and the kids hide under the log when the gallimimus herd goes by). We did get to see that log (allegedly - I question if it’s the actual log...) and take pictures with it. The rest of the things we saw were all from the Jurassic World movies, which I’ve seen, but don’t love like the original. We also got quick drive bys of other movie and TV sites from Lost, Godzilla, Kong Skull Island, and some others (many I hadn’t heard of), so we got a taste of the movie sites tour as well (BTW, the movie sites tour goes in a big school bus which did not look very appealing. We rode in an open air but covered Jeep sort of vehicles with about 16 people in it. So the tour was kind of disappointing as far as JP sites went, but the scenery was gorgeous, our guide was great, and we got lots of fun photo ops.
From Kualoa Ranch, we attempted to head to the North Shore. This was around 12:30 and was a massive mistake. We got maybe 1/2 mile up the road where we stopped for lunch (Uncle Bobo’s in Ka’a’awa, on a friend’s recommendation - it’s to go only, but there are tons of picnic tables at the beach right across the street). Lunch was fantastic and then we attempted to continue to head north. Except traffic was literally at a complete standstill. We checked the Waze app, which told us that it would take us an hour and fifteen minutes to drive to a town 10 miles up the road. So we made the best decision of the trip and turned around and went back to our hotel, saving us MUCH angst and bickering.

Today has been a beach day, and tomorrow we are doing scuba scooters through Island Watersports, so I’ll be sure to report back on how that goes.

As for restaurants, the only place of note that we’ve eaten (other than Uncle Bobo’s) is Karai Crab, primarily because we could get a reservation there. My boys LOVE crab legs (I know, I know, it’s not remotely Hawaiian food and totally flown in just like it would be in NC), and everything we had (including garlic noodles, for you ‘Ohana fans...) was absolutely delicious. I’d definitely recommend it. We have a rental car but Ubered there because we weren’t sure how parking would be, and that was a good decision.

Ok, more later!

Thank you thank you for your write-up! So much helpful info! I think the only pool bars open right now are the Hau Tree Cantina at the Super Pool and the Tapa Bar at the Tapa Pool. I’m definitely worried about the lines for food. DH doesn’t want to make reservations anywhere, but we‘re also OK with grab and go from ABC.

I’m wondering if the traffic was so bad since it was a weekend. We’re only getting a car for two days, Sun and Mon, so maybe we’ll do that part of the island on Monday. We’ve done the Kualoa tours before so this time we want to stop at the botanical gardens, the temple and Ka’a’wa Beach, then head north like you had intended. Last time we went north from Aulani and only hit traffic going through Haleiwa, but it was a 3 day weekend so poor planning on my part. At least we have seen that part of the island so we won’t be too upset if we miss it this time.

 

[iujen94]

Thank you thank you for your write-up! So much helpful info! I think the only pool bars open right now are the Hau Tree Cantina at the Super Pool and the Tapa Bar at the Tapa Pool. I’m definitely worried about the lines for food. DH doesn’t want to make reservations anywhere, but we‘re also OK with grab and go from ABC.

I’m wondering if the traffic was so bad since it was a weekend. We’re only getting a car for two days, Sun and Mon, so maybe we’ll do that part of the island on Monday. We’ve done the Kualoa tours before so this time we want to stop at the botanical gardens, the temple and Ka’a’wa Beach, then head north like you had intended. Last time we went north from Aulani and only hit traffic going through Haleiwa, but it was a 3 day weekend so poor planning on my part. At least we have seen that part of the island so we won’t be too upset if we miss it this time.

Oh I’m so glad it’s helpful! Yes, Hau Tree is open. It’s mostly drinks - I think they have total of 5 things on their lunch/dinner menu . We did get takeout breakfast from there one morning, which my boys liked just fine. I’ve bookmarked this site and it’s been super helpful: https://qrcodes.pro/SgrfnH?preview=true

As for the North Shore (and honestly as with all things in Hawaii, it seems), if you are ok with heading out really early, I’m sure you’ll be totally fine. I think we were hitting that part of the island at the absolute worst time of day!

 

[iujen94]

Can you stand more Hawaii trip report?

First of all, holy cow I can’t believe I left out one of our excursions today - DH and I hiked Diamond Head. And it’s noteworthy because I got to put my Disney skillz to use, because getting to Diamond Head is basically like rope dropping SDD.
The park opens at 6am. We left HHV at 5:17 and arrived at Diamond Head at about 5:30. We were the 6th car in line, and the line QUICKLY grew behind us. We got to watch the sunrise while we waited for the gate to open, which it did at precisely 5:58 (a local heading in on foot gave us a heads up on the exact time). We paid $10 to park, parked, and then bought trail tickets ($5 apiece at a kiosk). It took us an hour total to get to the top and get back down (we are pretty speedy). I’m so so so glad we did it this way. Heading up, we could go at whatever pace we wanted, and there was plenty of room to pass or be passed. And, obviously, we weren’t sharing the path with anyone coming down from the summit. Even when we were coming down at 7am, there was a steady stream of people both going up and coming down, such that the “going up” folks were basically walking in a single file line, at the pace of the person in front of them. Also, we had zero crowds at the summit to take pictures, and also at the lookout points along the way.
We had dinner tonight at Hula Grill at the Outrigger. I reallllly advise against trying to eat somewhere like Hula Grill or Duke’s without a reservation. At 5:30, Hula Grill was quoting folks a 2.5 hours wait. Also, seeing the crowd on the beach and in the water outside Outrigger (even at 5:30!) made me feel SOO much better about the crowds at HHV. It was a literal sea of humanity outside the Outrigger.

 

[Alexle2007]

Thank you thank you for your write-up! So much helpful info! I think the only pool bars open right now are the Hau Tree Cantina at the Super Pool and the Tapa Bar at the Tapa Pool. I’m definitely worried about the lines for food. DH doesn’t want to make reservations anywhere, but we‘re also OK with grab and go from ABC.

I’m wondering if the traffic was so bad since it was a weekend. We’re only getting a car for two days, Sun and Mon, so maybe we’ll do that part of the island on Monday. We’ve done the Kualoa tours before so this time we want to stop at the botanical gardens, the temple and Ka’a’wa Beach, then head north like you had intended. Last time we went north from Aulani and only hit traffic going through Haleiwa, but it was a 3 day weekend so poor planning on my part. At least we have seen that part of the island so we won’t be too upset if we miss it this time.

We did the botanical gardens (they were nice but we weren’t prepared for the mud pit to get to the Koa pond) and then drove to temple but it was packed and raining so we passed on it. Make sure to stop at the overlook on the drive there, if you haven’t been before. It was a terrific view!

 

[hsmamato2]

EDIT- oops...see @Alexle2007 post above sooo....

 

[hsmamato2]

Remind me, if you have a CSP, can you upgrade a CF to a CSR?

OMG I asked he same question riiiiight before I read this! sorry I'll go and edit

 

[Judique]

There's a Marriott Bonvoy offer on my 2 MR Amex cards today but not on my Marriott card. It's spend $200 get $40 back.

And, it's expiry is July 31,2021!

That's one of the shortest expirations I've ever seen.

Not too long ago, like in the last 1-2 months, this offer appeared on my Gold and I did not add it and it disappeared fairly quickly. I wonder if it is the same offer being recycled because maybe people that added it haven't used it?

If it was on my Brilliant I would quickly add it and then call Hawaii and see if they would run a charge through for $200plus in fees and whatever else they charge extra. I also have most of my Brilliant $300 credit but was waiting on that until closer to the end of this month just in case I find another use for it.

 

[Arcades]

The CSR is $550 and comes with a $300 travel credit that can be triggered for a number of things. Merchants in the travel category like airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares (DVC dues), campgrounds, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, and operators of passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots, garages, etc.

When I originally posted this the difference was much greater since the CSR was $450. However my numbers still stand. If you are spending $300 in travel categories anyway each year, then the decision to keep a CSR over a CSP is still are you redeeming $1,000 or more annually via the UR portal in points. If the answer is yes, keep a CSR if it is no, keep the CSP/CIP. Happy churning y’all!

You might also consider including that you can "double dip" the $300 travel credit during the first 30 days of the second calendar year, then cancel or PC your CSR for an AF refund (So, +$50 net). You can also trigger the credit with a refundable Southwest fare (Business or Anytime) if you don't have travel plans. The CSR always pays for itself in the first year of acquisition/upgrade. Then, it boils down to whether the benefits, such as trip insurance, are worth keeping. Ever since they added 3x dining to the CFU and CF, it seems less mandatory to keep the CSR, unless you travel a lot and want that insurance.