I love credit cards so much!

[AmyAnne]

On the Amex airline credit, does anyone know if the $100 virtual gift card that have to be ordered over the phone will work or do I need to do a physical gift card?

I have purchased e-gift cards online and that has worked. Flyer talk forums are the absolute authority on AmEx travel credits from what I can tell. The rules vary depending on the airline (different amounts code differently) so also make sure you are looking at the DPs for the particular airline you want to buy.

 

[havaneselover]

It's worked for me on AA on virtual GCs, but I bought them online.

Thanks. I cannot read. It says online or by phone.

 

[AmyAnne]

Can someone advise me about hotels? I have a stash of Marriott points that I used for the first time last month. Paid 25,000 and 35,000 points per night for rooms that were selling for $300ish (college town on a football weekend--I actually couldn't find availability for two consecutive nights at the same hotel, but I really didn't mind as the hotels were across the street and I saved about $700).

Now I am looking at rooms at these same hotels for a room for next week--the points are still the same but the cash price is $95 and $135. So it appears that Marriott charges the same amount of points per room per hotel regardless of what the cash price is? IIRC this is different from Hilton . . .

My other question is how should I pay for a room? It seems that using points is a bad value. I also have about $50 in hotels.com GCs I could apply to a reservation, which would count towards a free night. Is there a reason I would want to book directly with Marriott as opposed to through hotels.com?

 

[MrPTato]

I love logging in to my car loan account and seeing that my next payment isn't due until May 15th

Always a nice sight...my wife's student loans have a due date of somewhere in 2024.

For those of you who might use K cups in a Keuriq coffee maker, bed bath and beyond has the 48 count of most varieties on sale for 19.99. I was able to stock up yesterday and used 3 of the $5 coupons also, bringing my price to 31 cents a k cup. This is online and in store. I also used a credit card to get rewards. I think I'm going back to pick up a couple more boxes as my variety doesn't expire until May 2019. I also do drip coffee and French press. However when only me is drinking a cup, this is the best deal.

Thanks for the tip. I usually get the 18ct box of Donut Shop Peppermint Bark for $1.87 with coupon in January after the "season" is over. Still have a stash today.

Anyone have the Navy Fed Flagship Visa? I received a target offer 60K points for $4K spend, $49 annual fee. How easy is it to spend those points on Disney vacations?

I searched once and I don't remember Disney coming up. Now that the terms have changed a couple months back. You can cash out at face value at 1cpp. $600 isn't bad for a signup bonus. My wife got a mailer a couple weeks back. Nice that is has the GE and Pre credits as well. Using this card (I think) to pay off our Disney cruise next month.

 

[AmyAnne]

DH and I both received our Global Entry cards in the mail - they are activated and we are official. This entire process took four months.

Now I can add the PASSID numbers to our Barcelona flights!

This reminds me--does anyone know how far in advance you can renew GE? I have an unused credit on a card I plan to cancel in the spring and everyone in my family has GE now. My GE will expire in December 2020--too soon to renew? What about purchasing TSA precheck now? Would that raise red flags to apply for TSA precheck already having GE?

 

[GlamMistress]

This reminds me--does anyone know how far in advance you can renew GE? I have an unused credit on a card I plan to cancel in the spring and everyone in my family has GE now. My GE will expire in December 2020--too soon to renew? What about purchasing TSA precheck now? Would that raise red flags to apply for TSA precheck already having GE?

I don't know about the renewal but I have separate TSA precheck. So I wouldn't worry about flags.

 

[AmyAnne]

I don't know about the renewal but I have separate TSA precheck. So I wouldn't worry about flags.

Thanks. I just did a quick search and it seems you can renew GE a year in advance. I'll look into how much of a hassle it would be to apply for TSA precheck. I hate to not use the credit, but I do plan to renew GE so I'm not sure if it makes sense to get TSA precheck now too.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

DP here - x5 Chase pay >$25 purchases at BB with regular freedom. Got 5x but did NOT get 1500 extra UR. It did work with CSR and doing it for FUL.

Walmart - keeps canceling my orders too. So annoying

 

[AmyAnne]

Remember my pixie dust of Disney sending me another shirt in the correct size and not wanting the other one back? Well, it came and it's the wrong shirt. I will take partial blame; at the time I was so surprised that they were just going to send a new one that I didn't think about the fact that there were 3 different shirts on that order. So they sent me one of the other ones (which I already had in the right size - really all three were ordered as the same size, but two are fitted/women's shirts and I like to do a size up in those, which is what was ordered... the one I'm trying to exchange is a unisex so it's really big on me in that size). So I popped open FB messenger and explained that the one they sent wasn't the one I wanted to exchange, I wanted this other one. Well, then they were sold out on ShopDisney - even though I could pull it up on the ShopParks app, it's not online and that's all that matters So they emailed a gift card as a refund. It took 3 days to come to MILs email. So when it came Thursday night, I hopped on ShopParks app - no shirt! So I look on ShopDisney just for the heck of it... and there it is again. I couldn't pull it up at all online when they told me it was sold out. So I order it on the website, use the gift card, use DHs SPG Lux for the rest (got $170 to go before 11/25, that's the closest I've been on an MSR in a long time). Last night I get an email that they couldn't get the gift card to work so they charged it all to the card So after verifying the balance on the Disney GC site, I'm just going to call it a day and add it to my gift card stash. What a headache though.

On the other hand, I got emails from ebags about my returns. I ended up sending the entire first order back and keeping one thing from the second order. Right now the refund amounts ignore the ~$11 in points I used on each order... so it'll be interesting to see if they credit as the correct amounts.

ETA I'm also waiting to see how they refund, as I paid through Chase Pay with Freedom...

Hoping you get the correct shirt after all of that. What bag did you end up keeping? I'm thinking I could use a new bag for our December trip.

 

[Judique]

Anyone have the Navy Fed Flagship Visa? I received a target offer 60K points for $4K spend, $49 annual fee. How easy is it to spend those points on Disney vacations?

For Navy Fed points in the past I've just cashed them out for visa gift cards. Last xmas they had 10% off the number of points so for 4500 points I got a $50 visa gift card. I haven't checked to see if anything has changed and it's too early for the deal. I got it in Dec. But, straight gift card cash, that's $600. The public offer is 50K.

I spend very little on my NF cards as up until the past year, rewards and incentives (other than a low interest rate) were few. Younger daughter switched her first card out for the 1.5 on everything cash rewards card.

 

[amalone1013]

Hoping you get the correct shirt after all of that. What bag did you end up keeping? I'm thinking I could use a new bag for our December trip.

Hopefully this time, since I picked it and it says it's coming. I can't add the GC to my GC stash though because it's a merchandise credit

I ended up keeping this one:
https://www.ebags.com/product/travelon/anti-theft-travel-bag/132640?productid=10267517

I liked their classic tour bag too, but it was just a bit too big for my needs

 

[mmmears]

Can someone advise me about hotels? I have a stash of Marriott points that I used for the first time last month. Paid 25,000 and 35,000 points per night for rooms that were selling for $300ish (college town on a football weekend--I actually couldn't find availability for two consecutive nights at the same hotel, but I really didn't mind as the hotels were across the street and I saved about $700).

Now I am looking at rooms at these same hotels for a room for next week--the points are still the same but the cash price is $95 and $135. So it appears that Marriott charges the same amount of points per room per hotel regardless of what the cash price is? IIRC this is different from Hilton . . .

My other question is how should I pay for a room? It seems that using points is a bad value. I also have about $50 in hotels.com GCs I could apply to a reservation, which would count towards a free night. Is there a reason I would want to book directly with Marriott as opposed to through hotels.com?

Yeah, I don't like how the Hilton points keep changing, but I can see why now that I'm looking at Marriott. The hotel I booked was 25K points per night, but the hotel I prefer is now around $10 cheaper per night than the one I booked, but 5K more points. I don't want to pay $10K points more for a place that is charging less.

This reminds me--does anyone know how far in advance you can renew GE? I have an unused credit on a card I plan to cancel in the spring and everyone in my family has GE now. My GE will expire in December 2020--too soon to renew? What about purchasing TSA precheck now? Would that raise red flags to apply for TSA precheck already having GE?

Thank you for asking this question. We have so many cards right now that will pay for GE, and we've had it for several years now, so now I'm going to check and see when we can renew.

 

[trstno1]

DP here - x5 Chase pay >$25 purchases at BB with regular freedom. Got 5x but did NOT get 1500 extra UR. It did work with CSR and doing it for FUL.

Walmart - keeps canceling my orders too. So annoying

Interesting. I got the 1500 extra UR with my Freedom, and I confirmed that I would via secure message before I made my purchases. I wonder if this is targeted.

 

[afan]

Can I pick brains about concert seating?


View attachment 365870

I numbered 1-5 the sections that are still open (and really, the same sections on the other side are also open). I haven't been to a concert with this set up since 2014, and I had front row seats somehow. The time before that was probably 2010 and I was somewhere like 207/208, halfway up. So any opinions on if any section is better than another? And also, each section has seats left in rows 2-5 and 13-16 (out of 16 rows). The closer rows are $50 more per ticket, think it's worth it in this case?

I would do 4 if you are closer to 207 otherwise I would do 1 and not 5 at all, I'm surprised it's even an option. The rows at that point really won't matter much aince you aren't really close enough to see a lot without using the jumbotron for the closeups. It's part of why I hate arena concerts, it ends up being more about listening than anything else not that it isn't a fun experience still. I also don't think floor past row 15-20 is worth it cause there's too many people standing in front of you. Sit down it's ok.

 

[Albort]

DP here - x5 Chase pay >$25 purchases at BB with regular freedom. Got 5x but did NOT get 1500 extra UR. It did work with CSR and doing it for FUL.

Walmart - keeps canceling my orders too. So annoying

I think the freedom card one is targeted.
if Walmart keeps cancelling your order, chat with them. they can make an exception. happened to me last year and chatted with them, they put some kind of thing on ur account to allow the purchase through

 

[amalone1013]

I would do 4 if you are closer to 207 otherwise I would do 1 and not 5 at all, I'm surprised it's even an option. The rows at that point really won't matter much aince you aren't really close enough to see a lot without using the jumbotron for the closeups. It's part of why I hate arena concerts, it ends up being more about listening than anything else not that it isn't a fun experience still. I also don't think floor past row 15-20 is worth it cause there's too many people standing in front of you. Sit down it's ok.

I'm even more shocked that the seating literally goes all the way around!

 

[tink1970]

Can someone advise me about hotels? I have a stash of Marriott points that I used for the first time last month. Paid 25,000 and 35,000 points per night for rooms that were selling for $300ish (college town on a football weekend--I actually couldn't find availability for two consecutive nights at the same hotel, but I really didn't mind as the hotels were across the street and I saved about $700).

Now I am looking at rooms at these same hotels for a room for next week--the points are still the same but the cash price is $95 and $135. So it appears that Marriott charges the same amount of points per room per hotel regardless of what the cash price is? IIRC this is different from Hilton . . .

My other question is how should I pay for a room? It seems that using points is a bad value. I also have about $50 in hotels.com GCs I could apply to a reservation, which would count towards a free night. Is there a reason I would want to book directly with Marriott as opposed to through hotels.com?

Yes, rewards are fixed...to a point...next year there will be low season/normal/high season (different wording perhaps but still 3 fixed values).

This is definitely different from Hilton-both good and bad I suppose.

For the cash rates you quote, no need to use points, I agree. If you don't have status, then through hotels.com or another aggregate makes sense. I'm platinum so like my status recognized in the hope it will earn me...something

 

[Alexle2007]

thanks. I can't even look at my activity page. It keeps looping around to the sign in screen. then signs me in but takes me to the main rr shopping page. I click account and it has me logged out. then I start all over. it is infuriating. have tried 2 browsers. this morning got chrome to work. now nothing. ggrrr.

Mine kept doing that yesterday on my laptop but worked fine on my iPad.

 

[amalone1013]

So, maybe I should be looking at resale sites with tickets behind the stage... not too shabby?
https://aviewfrommyseat.com/wallpaper/Joynes1-20161010151618.jpg

And less $$ overall

 

[Alexle2007]

Just saw Fantastic Beasts and it was pretty awesome and the book arrived yesterday. Now to see if we can really hold out on Universal when we are staying at Sapphire Falls next week.