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

[MsOnceUponATime]

I try to book 2 one-way tickets for my travels just in case something happens. Having never been to Greece, I am not sure how I'd approach the return ticket. Are you staying for a few days in Paris on your way over? Would you consider spending a few days in Istanbul on your way home? CDG isn't my fav airport, so I'd be nervous trying to connect there on my way home. I can say that I do like to keep as many of my URs and MRs as possible, so I'd look to book the least costly ticket with the most palatable itinerary.

I can't recall your itinerary and if you actually plan to spend some time in Paris, or it just happens to be where your flight stops?
Often, a flight from say IAH-CDG-Greece airport may cost just a few thousand points more than booking this in pieces.

Ferries are a great way to get from Athens to the greek islands. I do recall a few years back I got some nonstop flights from LHR to Santorini.

The current plan is to spend my 50th birthday in Paris, France and then my husband's 55th birthday in Athens and/or Santorini Greece (not sure which island(s)). Our birthdays are 7 days apart so maybe 6 nights each? I can take off work however long I'd like, up to 3 weeks (but I have an elderly (16 year old) cat and don't want to be gone too too long) and my husband owns his own company so he can do whatever it is that he wants! So, yes, CDG will be very intentional. I have never been to either France or Greece, but have been to Switzerland, Austria, Germany... and have LOVED each minute of it. I have even gone so far as to consider flying into London or Zurich and taking a train to and fro, but again, I don't want to be gone (from my cat) too long.

London was always on my bucket list -- as long as I can remember, but with how expensive I have been reading that it is to fly into London I have changed my mind to incorporate Paris and will likely do London on a different trip -- hopefully a work trip with an extended personal amount of time so that I can enjoy it. I still wouldn't mind throwing London into this trip, but I think it might be too much hopping around??

I don't know ANYTHING about Istandbul so I'd say that is a no.

I think the biggest kink here is getting from Greece home to IAH? I have even toyed with flying into Iceland or Norway (Playair has stop overs) for a few days after Greece if that's necessary. I just don't know enough about traveling over there to make a good, or educated, decision.

 

[Narnia_girl]

If you use Capital One their first travel sale is active now. They have 10-20% discounts on hotel bookings in select cities (there are a lot) and sales on flights, too. I think it's going to be a good option for me as I need a hotel in Miami (20% off) and I need to use my Venture X travel credit ($300). The sale lasts until Oct. 17.

 

[becauseimnew]

My CSR has a $50 off $200 at Sephora offer. I also had 10% off on my CF. I may pick up some gift cards. I don't spend a ton on makeup/skincare but I do tend to buy from Sephora. Plus DD likes to splurge occasionally.

Thanks for sharing. I have 2 teen girls, we spend a fortune at Sephora. They will each be getting $200 in Sephora GCs this year for their bdays next month (we hold 2 CSRs).

 

[AndreaDM]

The current plan is to spend my 50th birthday in Paris, France and then my husband's 55th birthday in Athens and/or Santorini Greece (not sure which island(s)). Our birthdays are 7 days apart so maybe 6 nights each? I can take off work however long I'd like, up to 3 weeks (but I have an elderly (16 year old) cat and don't want to be gone too too long) and my husband owns his own company so he can do whatever it is that he wants! So, yes, CDG will be very intentional. I have never been to either France or Greece, but have been to Switzerland, Austria, Germany... and have LOVED each minute of it. I have even gone so far as to consider flying into London or Zurich and taking a train to and fro, but again, I don't want to be gone (from my cat) too long.

London was always on my bucket list -- as long as I can remember, but with how expensive I have been reading that it is to fly into London I have changed my mind to incorporate Paris and will likely do London on a different trip -- hopefully a work trip with an extended personal amount of time so that I can enjoy it. I still wouldn't mind throwing London into this trip, but I think it might be too much hopping around??

I don't know ANYTHING about Istandbul so I'd say that is a no.

I think the biggest kink here is getting from Greece home to IAH? I have even toyed with flying into Iceland or Norway (Playair has stop overs) for a few days after Greece if that's necessary. I just don't know enough about traveling over there to make a good, or educated, decision.

We are actually doing something very similar next fall, flying into London and out of Athens. Planning to fly into London on Virgin via KLM - I am showing 74.5K flying blue points plus $227. Only seeing through mid-August for now, but I keep checking for Oct. dates. Hoping for another bonus transfer soon, I know one just ended in Sept.

 

[becauseimnew]

For those that like to use the AA Shopping portal, Dell is 8Xs today. I still have 2 Dell Plat $200 credits to use, I also added the $50/$100 spend offer to those cards. Do you all think it is safe to spend $500? Or should I spend $600?

 

[LynnTH]

Would the SW support points be helpful for you in maintaining or achieving CP? If so, the timing of that may be something to consider. I do think around this time of year is when they start messing with the norm SW SUBs and I sort of recall last year the 50k/$1k went away for a bit, which made it difficult for those with smaller spends.

Your daughter may think differently, but I guarantee a $400 SC would just be $400 in free cash for my daughter. It wouldn't go towards travel. And that's not bad, there's all kinds of different goals. Whereas, the SW card points can really only be used for one thing.

No - the Support Points wouldn't matter. I have CP until end of 2024. She probably would use the $400 SC for shopping, but that's ok. Nice to get something for a small spend.

Then she can wait until the $1000 spend on the SW Cards come back. I know they usually do but this is a pretty good bonus for the Disney Card and they don't have this that often. (as far as I know...)

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

We are actually doing something very similar next fall, flying into London and out of Athens. Planning to fly into London on Virgin via KLM - I am showing 74.5K flying blue points plus $227. Only seeing through mid-August for now, but I keep checking for Oct. dates. Hoping for another bonus transfer soon, I know one just ended in Sept.

Thanks for this tidbit. My dates are leaving IAH on June 14 and returning probably June 26th. Not sure on the end date yet...
Unfortunately, not sure on a lot of this trip! Trying to have a plan A, plan B and plan C at this point.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

For those that like to use the AA Shopping portal, Dell is 8Xs today. I still have 2 Dell Plat $200 credits to use, I also added the $50/$100 spend offer to those cards. Do you all think it is safe to spend $500? Or should I spend $600?

500 should be fine.

 

[wanderlust7]

For those that like to use the AA Shopping portal, Dell is 8Xs today. I still have 2 Dell Plat $200 credits to use, I also added the $50/$100 spend offer to those cards. Do you all think it is safe to spend $500? Or should I spend $600?

I have the same and plan to do $500. The clawbacks in the past have been when they've paid out more than you've spent.

Impatiently waiting for the biz golds. It's too bad they don't expedite those anymore.

 

[nlenguyen]

I just applied for a CIU and was approved. I was wondering, it has been a while since I have applied for a chase card. When will it show on my dashboard? When they ship it?

 

[wanderlust7]

I just applied for a CIU and was approved. I was wondering, it has been a while since I have applied for a chase card. When will it show on my dashboard? When they ship it?

If you have a business login, it should show up there as soon as you're approved.

 

[becauseimnew]

I have the same and plan to do $500. The clawbacks in the past have been when they've paid out more than you've spent.

Impatiently waiting for the biz golds. It's too bad they don't expedite those anymore.

Same, I went ahead and added all the other offers to our Hilton Biz card since we are $3500 away from FNC.
Going to place 2 Vuori orders & get 2 Disney GCs at Lowe's. That should put us $600 closer to FNC.

 

[iujen94]

I just applied for a CIU and was approved. I was wondering, it has been a while since I have applied for a chase card. When will it show on my dashboard? When they ship it?

If you’ve got a chase business account, it usually shows up immediately. Sometimes even before approval! As for shipping, I would strongly suggest calling and asking that they expedite it. The ink cards have been notoriously slow to ship in the last couple of years, taking as long as two weeks sometimes.

 

[disneedee]

We are back from our travel hacked Virgin Voyages Irresistible Med cruise. We followed that up with a day in DLP, not travel hacked except for the flight. After that another flight on miles to Manchester and caught a train to Wales where we spent 4 nights touring before heading to London to crash at a Hilton on points before our morning flight on BA (using Avios) back home.

It was our first time flying Iberia and while their business class product isn't something to write home about, I'd definitely fly them again. It was only 51.5K miles for a lie flat seat.

We were traveling with my BFF TA so I didn't need to do much in the way of planning. We did a tours by locals on our Barcelona pre stay and visited Sagrada Familia.

I didn't like any of the excursions offered by Virgin during the cruise so we mostly explored each port. The exception was Cinque Terre. Here, I really wanted to see the villages from the ocean and not with crowds of people, hiking and trains and whatnot. My TA was able to secure 2 private boats for the day since 11 in our group of 13 wanted to come with on this adventure. We sailed around and stopped at a few of the villages and had time to swim in the Mediterranean sea for those who wished to do so. They provided local wines and local charcuterie for lunch among other snacks. This was my favorite day of the cruise as was for our other traveling companions. For those of you who enjoy cruising, it is definitely worth thinking outside the box when you don't like the excursions available with the cruise line.

We hired a local guide in Wales that my TA found as none of us were keen on driving on the left side of the road. Plus, I'd rather sightsee and hear about local culture and history than pay attention to and try to decipher road signs in Welsh. Here we stayed at Inns and B&Bs as the large corporate chains aren't as available in the countryside. Even if they were, I prefer the charm and quirks of an old fishing villages turned into an Inn or B&B. We stayed at one place that had nary a proper right angle to be found

We also stayed at the Wildings Hotel in Llandudno. Llandudno was the holiday destination of the real Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell, who inspired Lewis Carroll’s famous story. The Wildings Hotel’s link with the books began when Alice Liddell, stayed in Llandudno in 1861. The census that year shows the Liddell family, along with Alice aged 8, residing The Wildings Hotel. Back then the hotel was known as ‘Tudno Villa’ and then became St Tudno Hotel before being renamed The Wildings Hotel in 2021.

I attempted to pack carry on only as I am an over packer. I failed epically at this endeavor. Firstly, I did decide to pack a Dapper style dress with full petticoat, gloves, fascinator, shoes etc. for Scarlet Night on the ship. Secondly, I failed to recall that 54F in Wales is NOT AT ALL the same as 54F in South Florida. An extra jacket simply did not cut it. I now own a hoodie with a Welsh Dragon from the Visitor's center LOL

Below a few favorite pics from the trip.

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^ Lessons in what NOT to pack for carry on only ^

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you really have a great eye for photos

 

[elgerber]

If you’ve got a chase business account, it usually shows up immediately. Sometimes even before approval! As for shipping, I would strongly suggest calling and asking that they expedite it. The ink cards have been notoriously slow to ship in the last couple of years, taking as long as two weeks sometimes.

Unless you are my P2 LOL.

 

[wanderlust7]

Anyone still have Delta Vacations vouchers from Covid cancellations? I still have $300 left.

They're expiring - book by 12/31/23 for travel through 12/31/24. Which is a little misleading since their calendar opens 331 in advance, so it's really travel by 11/26/24 (unless the reservation can be moved?). But I guess they've been more than generous with it, so I shouldn't complain lol.

 

[Haley R]

Unless you are my P2 LOL.

I have 4-5 different chase logins because my cards never show up or link to my previous accounts

 

[elgerber]

I have 4-5 different chase logins because my cards never show up or link to my previous accounts

If only that would fix my problem :-(

 

[havaneselover]

I have 4-5 different chase logins because my cards never show up or link to my previous accounts

I have four too. It's so much fun

 

[elgerber]

I have four too. It's so much fun

I have had good luck, till now.
I am terrified to call them, based on their response to the SM. Husband isn't going to have much fun with that, and if they ask Biz questions, yikes.
But they already approved the card, a little late to ask biz questions now.