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

[calypso726]

Has anyone ever dealt with Hyatt blackout dates... even though they’re not supposed to blackout anything? I’ve been interested in booking the Grand Hyatt Kauai for next Christmas and they show no availability at all. I find it hard to believe the entire hotel is sold out for that week a year out. Any ideas?

I can’t comment on Hyatt specifically but many hotels won’t load award space until xxx number of days out. When we booked our Radisson Blu stays availability was there for cash reservations about a year out. Point bookings showed as unavailable. The award space opened up about 9 months out. I have seen the same thing happen with cash stays as well. The hotel looks sold out completely for every day after a certain date. I am seeing that right now with accommodations I’m looking at in Africa.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Has anyone ever dealt with Hyatt blackout dates... even though they’re not supposed to blackout anything? I’ve been interested in booking the Grand Hyatt Kauai for next Christmas and they show no availability at all. I find it hard to believe the entire hotel is sold out for that week a year out. Any ideas?

I can’t comment on Hyatt specifically but many hotels won’t load award space until xxx number of days out. When we booked our Radisson Blu stays availability was there for cash reservations about a year out. Point bookings showed as unavailable. The award space opened up about 9 months out. I have seen the same thing happen with cash stays as well. The hotel looks sold out completely for every day after a certain date. I am seeing that right now with accommodations I’m looking at in Africa.

I just figured it out. Apparently it will let you book an award stay starting Dec 23, but you can’t book an award stay starting Dec 24 and until the new year. Then it opens back up again. So looks like I might have a long trip to Hawaii haha.

 

[kmc8826]

Approved this morning for CIP! I applied Wednesday morning and today on account.
Happy New Year!

 

[Alexle2007]

Approved this morning for CIP! I applied Wednesday morning and today on account.
Happy New Year!

Congrats!

 

[Alexle2007]

Sadly, DS’s new Nintendo Switch, the only thing he actually asked for, is not charging. I contacted Dell, since I had used my Biz Plat Credit, and they are sending a replacement. Unfortunately, it won’t be in stock until 1/10 but, nonetheless, I had great customer service! And now we wait.

 

[wendow]

we stopped playing clue as a family a while back.... my DS1 always solved the mystery in about 3 seconds..... still don't know how he does it so fast (I guess he's a logical thinker?) I love board games but as my kids grew up we play them less and less,my DH hates board games.

I feel bad. This is me. I always solve it really fast too. I try to drag out my accusations for the kid’s sake but they know I’m going to win

 

[StephPlum]

Worth checking your Southwest account to see if you got gifted A list status. I checked this morning and saw I was upgraded till 6/30/2020. Seems to basically give early bird check in.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/sout...ne-2020-30k-companion-pass-chase-cardholders/

Nothing here. I never seem to get any promotions on SW. Congratulations to you!!

That’s awesome. I checked my account no go and then DH’s and got status pending. What the heck! His CCs close tomorrow and the points should be reporting soon for CP so I hope this doesn’t mess him up.

https://www.southwest.com/html/rapidrewards/tier-status.html?clk=4027119&cbid=4027119They do maintenance at the first of the year. Mine said status pending yesterday. Today it was back to normal. Wouldn't worry. When I got my CP last year, it looked the same with status pending early in January.

Has anyone ever dealt with Hyatt blackout dates... even though they’re not supposed to blackout anything? I’ve been interested in booking the Grand Hyatt Kauai for next Christmas and they show no availability at all. I find it hard to believe the entire hotel is sold out for that week a year out. Any ideas?

Maybe they just don't have anything open yet.

 

[reliev]

Last year, I was lucky enough to get Platinum Elite Bonvoy Status with all of the bonus nights from the cards. I got Platinum Elite status again this year with spend (I had bonus points offer that made the spend worth it for me) but not nights. I didn't realize that I can't get the suite nights without the 50 night stays. So your Platinum elite but can't have all of the benefits? I'm starting to understand why Bonvoy gets no love. lol

agree 100% going to Hyatt getting a status match once I get the bonus deal I know its 10k points but I can wait..

 

[reliev]

Does anyone know if Spotify codes as 5x for the CF streaming category? I am struggling to find a way to max it this quarter.

sorry answered too soon seems others are getting it to hurray.

 

[reliev]

Has anyone ever dealt with Hyatt blackout dates... even though they’re not supposed to blackout anything? I’ve been interested in booking the Grand Hyatt Kauai for next Christmas and they show no availability at all. I find it hard to believe the entire hotel is sold out for that week a year out. Any ideas?

I've looked into this a lot I've learned since they have cheaper redemptions they tend to fill up quickly did you look at the same dates in cash? I wonder if they have a rule/law that they have a certain percentage they can cap out at. That one Andaz property in Maui seems that you have to book a year out.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

2019 TAX PLANNING AND SUPPORT LINKS
Oh boy - it's now January 2020 which means those 2019 tax returns can't be far behind!

As a reminder, last year Chase and American Express issued 1099s for support clicks! Here are some random thoughts on this:

• Chase issued one 1099 per person for all cards. It showed the card # on the 1099 so you could easily match up and check for accuracy.
• American Express issued one 1099 per card! So some people received numerous 1099s if they had clicks on multiple cards. The 1099 showed the account number also so you could match up and check for accuracy.
• People did identify ERRORS on their 1099s. The only way to check this is to comb through your records for all the clicks your received.
• We never reached a consensus on what sparked you to receive a 1099. There were lots of theories of a thresh-hold of $500 or $600 but never reached a clear answer there. And there were some people who inexplicably received 1099s at lower amounts if I recall correctly.
• If you had any support clicks last year, it would be best to wait and be SURE that no 1099s are coming your way no matter how simple your taxes may seem.
• I don't recall ANY of these 1099s being available online

Here are the way points were valued last year:

• ALL American Express related cards/points (MRs, Marriott, Delta) = 1 cpp (with exception of Hilton)
• Hilton = 0.67 cpp
• ALL Chase related cards/points (URs, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriott, United) = 1cpp
• Please let me know if anything is wrong here and I can update this.

Some people - namely @Andysol - did make an effort to dispute some valuations last year and/or attribute expenses/annual fees against them. Unless you are a major heavy hitter in the support link realm, this is likely NOT worth your time since you're probably saving an inconsequential amount on your taxes and possibly putting yourself at a risk of larger scrutiny by the IRS (this is probably just paranoia on my part though). If you can identify a clear mistake however, (i.e. that your amount is higher than the actual points received based on the calculations above) then you may want to follow up with the bank to attempt to clarify that.

Please share here on the thread if you receive a 1099 for support links so that people can be on the lookout for them. These likely won't go out until very late in the month based on how it worked last year.

Yesterday when I was typing this up I kept feeling like I forgot something but I couldn’t remember what.... so I finally just went with it.

Somebody on DISchurners triggered that memory today though! For anybody who had self-support clawed back by Amex, please keep us posted on what your 1099 shows! ThIs is sort of unknown territory and I don’t exactly have faith that they’ll handle it right the first time around.

 

[reliev]

I only did maybe 1 referral of each I even reached out last year they never sent me 1099 is there a threshold? I only did one this year I think that's it.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Thank you all for your input! Maybe I’ll hold off until he’s a toddler and by that point he might already be doing stuff. I just saw our trampoline park does a 5 and under once a week so that’s an option too. I’ll stick to going to the park, library, and stuff like that. There’s a mom group in my area that does playdates every week and activities that I might join. They charge $20 for the year

Catching up from yesterday----we did Gymboree with our oldest (lol he's 26) because we had recently moved (back) to the area and we were the first in our families and friend groups to have a baby, plus I was a SAHM (dh would have been a SAHD but at the time, his job had the better benefits). We met some people we are still friends with, so that was cool. It was incredibly expensive part of our budget. I also joined a moms group with playgroups and park days and other activities. Those women are my closest friends to this day

Playing catch up here and skimming through posts. I posted more pics on the hotel thread for Baker's Cay in Key Largo HERE

2020 Goals

Secure flights and accommodations to Africa for an end of year trip with points. Originally was planning to use AA miles but I will be waiting until the dust settles with all the AA shut down stuff and hopefully come out unscathed. At this juncture I have no plans to touch anything AA related.

Maximize UR earning and MR earning and keep better track of my AOs.

Get under 5/24 for the first time since 2012 and pick up the CIP, United business and Hyatt cards

Begin planning how to visit the Galapagos and not pay real money for it.

Hit up a few bank bonuses for the year.

Begin accumulating Alaska miles again.

Pick up some cash back business cards and diversify the points portfolio.

Work on gathering points and miles needed for airfare to visit Dubai and Maldives again for 2023.

Looking forward to reading about your planning for this trip. This is my ultimate bucket list trip.

I am currently exploring the Hyatt and Lindblad partnership. It would cost less URs transferred to Hyatt to book the trip than it does to redeem URs via CSR UR portal assuming that one can redeem URs for this expedition.

I love your goals. We can't even decide what's next in theory, so I can't even start to work on the points. Africa is on the list (but less likely than some other options) so I'd love to hear what you are planning. As for the Galapagos, a friend sailed SilverSea and loved it, but it was cash and expensive. I saw that Celebrity has a very small ship out there that could perhaps be booked with points, but I would think that Lindblad would do the area better.

Africa and the Galapagos are the two trips next on my planning agenda. I am hopeful that Africa will happen in 2021 but I may not have the points on hand to book when flights open.

Wore a wet suit for first time today. Didn't realize that wet suit meant you get wet! lol I was like mine doesn't work, it is leaking!! But those of you that know me on here know that i am petrified of the water/ocean/fish/sharks/whatever lurks beneath the surface would be so proud of me that I did it! I think I may have to steal @Killer Fish 's manatee pic and pass it off as my own though. lol I was told I saw them, they swam under me, but I am blind as a bat and I couldn't see a thing with the goggles and no glasses. I saw big rock shapes moving, so I guess I kind of saw them. lol I tried to get pics but was having difficulty with that and trying to breath through my tube at the same time and not panicking. Could only do 2 of those 3 things at once so breathing and panic attacking won out. Snorkeling is not my friend. I can't say I liked it, really hated it, but I did it. Did much better on the kayak and did see several manatees from that vantage point.

We'll be staying at a Great Barrier Reef resort in September. I am petrified of deep water. Without my contacts I cannot see (do goggles work well enough that I can wear contacts?) I started following the resort on Insta in hopes of desensitizing myself with all the beautiful snorkeling pictures they post My dh wanted to get scuba certified before the trip and I said NO WAY

 

[Judique]

Oh my gosh I had no idea. I’m sorry, I would have been happy to support. It wasn’t even on my radar. Thank you for pointing it out. I had not even fully looked at that section before.

I have a membership myself that expires in February and can actually refer my daughter. I'm just watching for the best deal to make the membership as free as possible. No offense to Happ! Thanks for pointing it out again - my own referral may be best.

 

[jhoannam]

Worth checking your Southwest account to see if you got gifted A list status. I checked this morning and saw I was upgraded till 6/30/2020. Seems to basically give early bird check in.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/sout...ne-2020-30k-companion-pass-chase-cardholders/

woohoo! DH got A-list until June. My status says pending, I'm not sure what that means.

 

[elgerber]

No status for me on SW. Dh and DD say status pending. Said that yesterday too. I guess we will see what happens when that goes away.

 

[pinkxray]

Can someone tell me the wholesale Disney number I call about AA bookings? I am considering adding on someone to my room.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Sam's will refund the membership fee if you're not satisfied with it. So if you don't get your credit you can cancel with refund.

Disney GC are members only pricing so once you saw the discount, sounds like you were unsatisfied to continue the membership if you won't use it for other things.

I did order Disney GCs already, probably the only thing I’ll use it for. The actual warehouses are not too close and the opposite direction from everywhere else I shop/work/play. I have a (free) Costco membership with a convenient location.
I feel like it would be dishonest to cancel since the link I used isn’t actually supposed to trigger the credit.

Yes, youngest DD tried to convince me earlier today that she should be homeschooled...um, no a hard pass here. She won't listen to me and one of us ends up in tears just doing math homework. Hats off to those that can homeschool!

Exactly. DS hates school, but listens to his teacher (for the most part) but won’t pay attention and argues when I try to teach him anything.

Thankfully, the kids in public school do a ton of busy work so the little we do keeps the kids on par with the schools

I don’t feel like my son has much busy work at all. In fact, it’s probably why he hates school. He is inherently lazy, and would prefer not to work hard. The only busy work he really has is math because he’s way ahead of the other kids. So he whips through the work, then gets to “play” math on the computer which he prefers.

That’s awesome. I checked my account no go and then DH’s and got status pending. What the heck! His CCs close tomorrow and the points should be reporting soon for CP so I hope this doesn’t mess him up.

Mine says status pending also. Maintenance I think.

Has anyone ever dealt with Hyatt blackout dates... even though they’re not supposed to blackout anything? I’ve been interested in booking the Grand Hyatt Kauai for next Christmas and they show no availability at all. I find it hard to believe the entire hotel is sold out for that week a year out. Any ideas?

I have found Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott all have dates that don’t load right away. I chased the Hyatt in Vancouver for months before getting availability. Same with a Marriott in Anaheim, while the sister property right next door showed award availability.

Approved this morning for CIP! I applied Wednesday morning and today on account.
Happy New Year!

Same here! DH has a new CIP. I’ll wait until I get it then use it to fund a new account at GSB.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I've looked into this a lot I've learned since they have cheaper redemptions they tend to fill up quickly did you look at the same dates in cash? I wonder if they have a rule/law that they have a certain percentage they can cap out at. That one Andaz property in Maui seems that you have to book a year out.

It turns out they’ve blocked bookings beginning Dec 24 through the year. You can make award bookings beginning Dec 23, but you can’t make any award bookings beginning the 24 through the 1st, it looks like.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

.