I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 (see first page for add'l details)

[orangecuse]

I know this is a recurring question but was that the first call/msg about retention? My AF hit on my Plat on 6/7 and I've tried once with no offer (last week). I'd like to keep it (and honestly, will) but I'd like to get a retention offer of any kind. My homeowners when up $800 (just realized it and I'm just not ready to change, though I should), so my annual premium is due late July. I wanted to either use it for a retention offer or a new card, so need to pull the trigger in the next week if it's a new card.

Typing all this out makes me realize we should just spend the time to shop around for new homeowners, but we JUST switched last summer. It went up 50%. No claims, but wondering if it's just catching up to the actual market value for this house.

Retention was offered about a week after AF posted, and on first ask. We always call instead of chat, but not sure that matters.

 

[Alexle2007]

It should work at any Visa or plus enabled ATM. Did you set up a travel notice before leaving? If so, maybe try a different ATM - try to stick to the major banks. I have experienced situations overseas where some banks ATMs don't work but others do.

If all else fails you'll have to call CS.

Thanks. I did a travel alert and I chatted with CS. They can see the failed transactions but there are not making it through. I think I have tried 6 different banks now, small transactions. It’s crazy. Our poor guides will not be getting tips.

 

[hsmamato2]

Wyndham Biz card gives diamond status, match that to Caesers (the casino). They will award Diamond status. Then, show that Diamond status to carnival! Very simple and the Biz card AF is only $95 so even if you didn't want the 50k Wyndham points its worth it. You can also match to Holland America and URComped. You used to be able to match to Royal Caribbean, but I dont see that right now.

This sounds so simple here....is it really? I'd love to figure this out for myself

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Anyone have any thoughts on the new Hyatt Blackfriars in London?

I know we have a lot of UK travelers here, so I'd love to know what you think. It's not my usual preferred location (which is HP corner to the Ritz) but it looks interesting.

It does like nice. As long as you're okay taking the tube around London it would be fine (I love transit in London -- it's incredibly efficient).

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Thanks. I did a travel alert and I chatted with CS. They can see the failed transactions but there are not making it through. I think I have tried 6 different banks now, small transactions. It’s crazy. Our poor guides will not be getting tips.

Are you on an ABD? The guides take Venmo and Paypal (at least they did in 2019).

 

[becauseimnew]

Posting for Hilton Tokyo Bay after day 2 of TDR. I feel like we hit the jackpot with our trip to Japan. We’ve had one day of rain and it happened on our day at USJ, it was pouring rain all morning which I’m sure kept the crowds away. It stopped raining after lunch and then had a beautiful sunny day. We had the 7 ride express pass and managed to do everything by 6PM, including Mario World and Harry Potter rides twice.
Our guide in Kyoto mentioned how slow Junes has been, specially compared to May. At Disney we never waited more than 40 minutes for any ride at either park. We seriously haven’t seen crazy crowds I was expecting. We did Disney Sea 6/26, Disneyland today and did everything we wanted to do, with the exception of the Sea of Dreams, I wish we would have skipped the Soarin DPA and paid for the Sea of Dreams DPA. We also purchased Enchanted Tales DPA. We have another day at Disney Sea but I think 1 day at each park would have been enough do to the low crowds. We move to Tokyo tomorrow after a half day at Disney Sea, but we are having an awesome time. I’ll have a trip report when I get back.
Attached are some pictures to show the lack of crowds

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Posting for Hilton Tokyo Bay after day 2 of TDR. I feel like we hit the jackpot with our trip to Japan. We’ve had one day of rain and it happened on our day at USJ, it was pouring rain all morning which I’m sure kept the crowds away. It stopped raining after lunch and then had a beautiful sunny day. We had the 7 ride express pass and managed to do everything by 6PM, including Mario World and Harry Potter rides twice.
Our guide in Kyoto mentioned how slow Junes has been, specially compared to May. At Disney we never waited more than 40 minutes for any ride at either park. We seriously haven’t seen crazy crowds I was expecting. We did Disney Sea 6/26, Disneyland today and did everything we wanted to do, with the exception of the Sea of Dreams, I wish we would have skipped the Soarin DPA and paid for the Sea of Dreams DPA. We also purchased Enchanted Tales DPA. We have another day at Disney Sea but I think 1 day at each park would have been enough do to the low crowds. We move to Tokyo tomorrow after a half day at Disney Sea, but we are having an awesome time. I’ll have a trip report when I get back.
Attached are some pictures to show the lack of crowds View attachment 771460
View attachment 771459
View attachment 771458
View attachment 771457
View attachment 771456
View attachment 771455
View attachment 771454

I've literally never seen (in person) a castle with no crowds. So jealous. Sounds lovely. Japan not really high on my bucket list before but this looks so fun.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

DP: Had Instacart 15% off offer on a couple Chase Biz cards. It says it’s for Instacart Business. Used on my regular Instacart grocery order and got $17 credit.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Posting for Hilton Tokyo Bay after day 2 of TDR. I feel like we hit the jackpot with our trip to Japan. We’ve had one day of rain and it happened on our day at USJ, it was pouring rain all morning which I’m sure kept the crowds away. It stopped raining after lunch and then had a beautiful sunny day. We had the 7 ride express pass and managed to do everything by 6PM, including Mario World and Harry Potter rides twice.
Our guide in Kyoto mentioned how slow Junes has been, specially compared to May. At Disney we never waited more than 40 minutes for any ride at either park. We seriously haven’t seen crazy crowds I was expecting. We did Disney Sea 6/26, Disneyland today and did everything we wanted to do, with the exception of the Sea of Dreams, I wish we would have skipped the Soarin DPA and paid for the Sea of Dreams DPA. We also purchased Enchanted Tales DPA. We have another day at Disney Sea but I think 1 day at each park would have been enough do to the low crowds. We move to Tokyo tomorrow after a half day at Disney Sea, but we are having an awesome time. I’ll have a trip report when I get back.
Attached are some pictures to show the lack of crowds View attachment 771460
View attachment 771459
View attachment 771458
View attachment 771457
View attachment 771456
View attachment 771455
View attachment 771454

WOW, this is such a stark contrast to our trip in May with insane crowds everywhere. So jealous!! Have a fabulous rest of your trip!

 

[disneybirds]

Planning to go to Italy next May and I have been looking at flights. We primarily fly Delta and will need flights from SAV as well as ATL. We still have Delta vacation dollars (from 2020!), delta credits, and delta gift cards for a couple of the flights. I have been looking at the Air France and KLM sites, but the direct flight from ATL to FCO rarely seems to show up. I think I saw one day in the fall. Is this standard for the Delta direct flights not to show up? If we were only going to Paris, we would be set since there are lots of direct flights to CDG. Not sure I can convince DH to have a two stopovers and fly AF or KLM.

 

[Alexle2007]

Are you on an ABD? The guides take Venmo and Paypal (at least they did in 2019).

No, RCCL Med cruise. I have US $ on me but that doesn’t help. Definitely will get some Euros next time before I leave the States. I have 5 Euros that one of my colleagues gave me. That seems insulting to tip that.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

There are so many travel bloggers out there...can you guys suggest some of your favorites?

I look at Milesfeed daily, which is a blog aggregator. My favs are DoC and OMAAT and I also like Thrifty Traveler and Loyalty Lobby. I very much dislike View from the Wing. IMHO, it's like Daily Mail for travel blogging.

I know this is a recurring question but was that the first call/msg about retention? My AF hit on my Plat on 6/7 and I've tried once with no offer (last week). I'd like to keep it (and honestly, will) but I'd like to get a retention offer of any kind. My homeowners when up $800 (just realized it and I'm just not ready to change, though I should), so my annual premium is due late July. I wanted to either use it for a retention offer or a new card, so need to pull the trigger in the next week if it's a new card.

Typing all this out makes me realize we should just spend the time to shop around for new homeowners, but we JUST switched last summer. It went up 50%. No claims, but wondering if it's just catching up to the actual market value for this house.

You can try daily between now and the 30 day mark for a retention offer, and they could change daily. Our homeowner's went up like 25%, as well. I do think there is some market catch up. We use an independent agent, so it does make it easier to shop around. But I too put it on a card I was meeting MSR on, and so didn't want the hassle of the last minute change around. Next year for sure.

Hi ! I came across this thread and would love to join your Reddit page. When I clicked on the link, it said the community is private. How can I get added?

I think wendow already hooked you up, for others wondering, you can join us over at Dischurners. You can message the mods over there with your DISBOARDS username, and they'll get you joined to the group.

 

[miztressuz]

Thanks. I did a travel alert and I chatted with CS. They can see the failed transactions but there are not making it through. I think I have tried 6 different banks now, small transactions. It’s crazy. Our poor guides will not be getting tips.

It's a silly suggestion, but I'll throw it out anyway - do you have cash available in the brokerage account? Only thing I can think of is that the primary account is the brokerage instead of checking and there's not enough cash to cover the withdrawal and fee.

I'd hope the CS rep checked that too but you never know sometimes. I haven't encountered a foreign ATM that lets me pick which account to withdrawal from, and I recall being able to get a debit card for the brokerage account when I set it up. I think I declined and just requested for the checking but I just realized it's been about 5 years since I created it so not sure if my card does only one or both. ( where does the time go!) Last withdrawal - which was also a few years ago now - automatically came from my checking. And I just remembered I have the app installed and confirmed mine is only showing linked to checking.

And again, hope the rep double checked this too, but the card is unlocked? A locked card also blocks ATM withdrawals.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

2 things:
I saw some pretty nice payouts on that ATM class action lawsuit and regretted not signing up (I rarely do those). But turns out I must have because I got $85 via email notification!! Woot, woot.

Also, I have some fall flights on SW and had one flight drop in points, so if you're not looking daily like me it might be worth a look. I have been leaving the page loaded and then I just refresh.

 

[orangecuse]

This sounds so simple here....is it really? I'd love to figure this out for myself

Yes! Time from applying for Wyndham to free cruise was maybe 2 weeks tops! Frequent Miler has a good article on it if you search for that and free cruise. (Not sure links are allowed).

 

[Alexle2007]

It's a silly suggestion, but I'll throw it out anyway - do you have cash available in the brokerage account? Only thing I can think of is that the primary account is the brokerage instead of checking and there's not enough cash to cover the withdrawal and fee.

I'd hope the CS rep checked that too but you never know sometimes. I haven't encountered a foreign ATM that lets me pick which account to withdrawal from, and I recall being able to get a debit card for the brokerage account when I set it up. I think I declined and just requested for the checking but I just realized it's been about 5 years since I created it so not sure if my card does only one or both. ( where does the time go!) Last withdrawal - which was also a few years ago now - automatically came from my checking. And I just remembered I have the app installed and confirmed mine is only showing linked to checking.

And again, hope the rep double checked this too, but the card is unlocked? A locked card also blocks ATM withdrawals.

Oh, I thought it would pull from checking. I’ll move some funds around.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Must go back and I'm sure read 100 pages. Back from Mexico, which omg....my BF is a saint, LOL. But here to report, I hit the spend on my Hilton Biz card (take 2) and the FNC hit my inbox! So I've got 1 towards next year's Feb Cancun trip, LOL. Now to get the BF to earn one and for me to earn the $15k FNC.

DP, I had the Hilton bix 10/19 cancelled a year later and just earned again w/ the offer on DOC!

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

In what no one in the world would define as a problem, I have a lot of Hilton FNC to use. No clue where we want to go. My soon to be 6 year old has requested Hawaii (lol- he dreams big) but idk that I can churn that many airline miles from the east.

Hilton doesn't seem to have the most interesting Caribbean profile either.

If anyone has a Hilton they love in the US or a cool city/park to explore let me know!

In credit card world we are both working on Wyndham Biz cards, just finished our Hilton biz by buying our first ever Disneyland tickets!

Look at the AI's Hilton has! I feel like it's the best use of the FNC. They have a "family" Hilton AI in Cancun. I think in DR too!

 

[Haley R]

Posting for Hilton Tokyo Bay after day 2 of TDR. I feel like we hit the jackpot with our trip to Japan. We’ve had one day of rain and it happened on our day at USJ, it was pouring rain all morning which I’m sure kept the crowds away. It stopped raining after lunch and then had a beautiful sunny day. We had the 7 ride express pass and managed to do everything by 6PM, including Mario World and Harry Potter rides twice.
Our guide in Kyoto mentioned how slow Junes has been, specially compared to May. At Disney we never waited more than 40 minutes for any ride at either park. We seriously haven’t seen crazy crowds I was expecting. We did Disney Sea 6/26, Disneyland today and did everything we wanted to do, with the exception of the Sea of Dreams, I wish we would have skipped the Soarin DPA and paid for the Sea of Dreams DPA. We also purchased Enchanted Tales DPA. We have another day at Disney Sea but I think 1 day at each park would have been enough do to the low crowds. We move to Tokyo tomorrow after a half day at Disney Sea, but we are having an awesome time. I’ll have a trip report when I get back.
Attached are some pictures to show the lack of crowds View attachment 771460
View attachment 771459
View attachment 771458
View attachment 771457
View attachment 771456
View attachment 771455
View attachment 771454

That’s awesome about the low crowds! Much different than our experience in May of 2019. Kyoto was the absolute worst crowd wise. Now you’re making me worried about going next May instead of June

 

[calypso726]

No, RCCL Med cruise. I have US $ on me but that doesn’t help. Definitely will get some Euros next time before I leave the States. I have 5 Euros that one of my colleagues gave me. That seems insulting to tip that.

Maybe explain and give the USD, which while inconvenient, is better than nothing. A few years ago we had a BA flight get canceled in Scotland and HAD to get to London for our flight the following morning. All flights were cancelled both in Glasgow and the next closest airport in Edinburgh, train wouid not have gotten us there in time either. We wound up taking a 7 hour Uber that was over $1000. The tip was capped and we wanted to give him way more than allowed. We had very few Euros left, so we gave him all of USD cash. He said it was no problem and could exchange it later.