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

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yes I think it comes down to whether you plan to get more than 1.5x value for your UR points. Help me with the math here . . . if what @DisneyMandC mentions is correct, I'd be able to cash out 100,000 UR points to reimburse myself for the $1,500 June grocery spend. In other words 100,000 points = $1,500 statement credit. Not sure why I'm having such a hard time wrapping my head around this.

I would strike the word “cash out” in my explanation. To me cash out means money in my bank account that I can use for any purpose. (ie that I could spend on another card earning an MSR). But Otherwise, yeah, you could apply a statement credit against grocery purchases. And 100,000 URs would give you a $1,500 statement credit.

(and hopefully also earn you 7,500 more URs in the process but Chase could implement something funky there to prevent a “double dip” of sorts)

 

[Judique]

Similar-ish position here. August trip. Not rebooked but DVC and if we don't go our points expire soon. Plane tickets (for 3 of us) and parkhopper tickets (for all 4 of us) already bought and paid for. We're willing to deal with whatever restrictions are in place. We even would have been willing to do a resort + Disney Springs, no parks trip.

I'm fairly confident Disney will make some sort of accommodation for people who travel during the early restricted phases and who already bought passes or multi-day ticket/hoppers. We have 7-day hoppers. If we can even go, we might only get in the parks 3-4 days, or be limited to a few hours each day, or limited to one park per day. That's not what I bought and Disney knows that and I'm confident they will make it good somehow.

But for us, the big issue is if and when Governor DeSantis drops the quarantine on visitors from NY. It makes no sense to travel to Disney if we cannot even leave our room. And the problem there is the Governor has no timeline, and no need to relax the quarantine in concert with Disney or Universal or an other tourist spot. To the extent he does want to help the tourist industry they probably won't be hurt by doing without visitors from NY/NJ/CT for the first few months with everything operating at reduced capacity. He could drop the quarantine tomorrow, in June, the day before our trip, or months later. It's the worst case scenario for planning.

I mostly don't know how to plan or handle the quarantine issue and our plane tickets. As mentioned, we have tickets for 3 of us. We are on JetBlue. I originally held off buying the fourth for reasons unrelated to the virus. If we're going, I should book the 4th ticket now. But I don't know what JetBlue will do if we decide to cancel because the quarantine order is in place. Our travel is not restricted, just what we can do when we get there. JB could take the position that canceling is entirely our decision and we are owed nothing. If I wait to buy the 4th ticket it could be too late with reduced routes and capacity. If I buy it now I might just be throwing additional money or points away.

ETA: It appears JetBlue has a pretty good policy in place for bookings made through June 30 and I will be able to cancel and get a credit good for 24 months if necessary. So I'm buying that 4th ticket and hoping for the best.

I don't know if this will be any comfort to you but at one point the majority of DVC owners were from the states you mention. Sort of the backbone of the DVC company. I absolutely don't know if this is the case and my history goes back 20 years so I remember milestones like 40k members and now it's up to 10 or 12 times that number and obviously much further spread across the world.

I used to file away useless trivia like that for the questions asked at Welcome Home events where you could win Disney branded prizes such as watches, umbrellas, tote bags, key chains, koozies, window shades, pens, pictures, hats, visors and pins plus other mementos, for knowing the answers. I have all of the above from my winnings, lol. I never left a WH event empty handed until they moved them to Atlantic Dance where you were lucky to get lemonade or pretzels. The original WH's were continental breakfasts and quite lovely plus small - maybe 30-40 people if crowded.

Hopefully the quarantine will be dropped soon. You might email Disney and mention this obstacle to your visit. You never know who might read your email. One thing I'm certain of - Disney will not continue to operate bare bones and getting customers into the state is in their best interest long-term.

 

[pillow]

I would strike the word “cash out” in my explanation. To me cash out means money in my bank account that I can use for any purpose. (ie that I could spend on another card earning an MSR). But Otherwise, yeah, you could apply a statement credit against grocery purchases. And 100,000 URs would give you a $1,500 statement credit.

(and hopefully also earn you 7,500 more URs in the process but Chase could implement something funky there to prevent a “double dip” of sorts)

I'd have to send money from my bank account to pay the $1,500 credit card bill, so its pretty much the same thing as cashing out for me. Interesting . . .

 

[GZanta77]

Chase Sapphire Reserve adds some "limited time perks" including a grocery statement credit 1.5x cash-out:

New limited-time perks:

• Pay Yourself Back, with each point worth 1.5 cents towards a statement credit used to offset purchases at grocery stores, home improvement stores and dining establishments from May 31 through Sept. 30.
• Expansion of $300 annual credit, with remaining balance automatically applied to purchases at grocery stores and gas stations from June 1 through the end of the year.

$300 Travel credit turning into a grocery credit is pretty awesome I guess!

So if they are automatically crediting Grocery purchases against the travel credit - will that mean you won't earn the 5x URs on grocery with a CSR in June?

 

[pillow]

so is the prevailing wisdom that this is a better deal than redeeming for travel?

I think it depends on how you usually redeem your UR's or what your future plans are. We often get about 1.5x value since we tend to book lots of hotels and car rentals on the portal. I think if you're often transferring to partners for outsized value (think Hyatt), then you wouldn't want to cash in at 1.5x. It really depends on your situation. Personally, we have too many UR points anyway I think + DH is possibly looking at a furlough. Its a nice option to have right now.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

So if they are automatically crediting Grocery purchases against the travel credit - will that mean you won't earn the 5x URs on grocery with a CSR in June?

That is a good point... if you haven’t used your full travel credit yet, they will use that first before you’re awarded your 5x URs. The way around that would be to just cash out your travel credit by doing a quick refundable flight purchase or something like that.

 

[magickingdomprincess]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a nice beach resort/hotel to stay at that's within a few hours of WDW? We'd like to stay at the beach for a few nights in between our WDW and UO stays in August. We've stayed at Disney Vero Beach before and really liked it, but I was hoping to find something we can pay cash (or use Hilton or Bonvoy points for). We've done day trips to Cocoa Beach and really enjoyed that, but never stayed at a hotel there. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Judique]

I have been going through my cards within Annual fees.
Looking at the Amex gold and realized since we cancelled our Nov. trip I can’t really take advantage of the airline credit. Does anything still work like buying gift cards? I think I have Southwest as my airline and used like $5 in Jan. for a fee.

Does the gold ever have a retention offer? I don’t earn a lot of MRs so not sure I will want to keep this if I have to pay the full fee without the credit.

I was able to get a retention offer of $100 last November. I think some others have also. The call lasted quite a while and they looked at my spending in depth which was at least a thousand a month.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

With regards to earning URs at grocery stores and then offsetting those with stmt credits...

From the fine print: https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/sapphire-reserve-benefits

Annually, the first $300 in travel purchases will not earn rewards points, regardless of whether the Annual Credit was earned on purchases for Travel, or for promotional offers on other categories, for example at Gas Stations, or Grocery Stores.​

So I don’t think they’ll get petty here... I think you can earn the 5x URs and then offset them with a stmt credit. (As long as you’ve already used up your $300 credit)

 

[pillow]

I was able to get a retention offer of $100 last November. I think some others have also. The call lasted quite a while and they looked at my spending in depth which was at least a thousand a month.

Off topic . . . I'm glad you're back; I've missed your posts. Was getting a little worried about you.

 

[Judique]

Off topic . . . I'm glad you're back; I've missed your posts. Was getting a little worried about you.

Thank you. I've had a lot going on, but things have quieted down a bit.

 

[Brandilla]

I was approved for a Plat on Tuesday, it arrived yesterday, that was really quick. Good thing I printed out the instant card number on Tuesday though, because I ended up meeting the MSR before I even had the card in hand. My 5 yr old dog had been having back pain and trouble walking since the weekend, and became paralyzed in his hindquarters Tuesday night. He ended up getting an MRI and undergoing 3 1/2 hours of surgery yesterday. I hear he's doing well all things considered and his pain is being well managed. The unusual thing about veterinary care right now (at least where I am) is you stay in your car until someone (vet tech/nurse) comes out to get your pet, you never enter the hospital, and there is no face to face contact with anyone else like the doctor. All detailed conversations are on the phone. I haven't even met the doctor who performed the surgery and probably never will. It's a little surreal.

This was not my expected way of meeting MSR, but it helped on the financial aspect of the decision to pursue treatment knowing that I could cash out $1250 in MRs to go towards the cost (I used P2's support link incognito mode - he gets 20K, I get 75K + 5K spend, so that's 100K MRs and we both have Schwab Plats).

Hugs! You are definitely not alone in feeling that way. I'm sorry you're going through that with your puppers. My hospital hasn't allowed visitors for months. I'm seeing people getting major surgery without having their family with them. Being diagnosed with advanced cancers alone. It's so hard for the patients and for their families. If patients are confused, their families are in the same position as you, making literal life and death decisions over the phone without getting to see doctors or cat scans, etc. Veterinary care is the same here too. I truly believe it's the hardest part of this whole pandemic!

I hope your doggo is home and back to normal quickly!

 

[Babars_Wife]

What about buying Disney gift cards at grocery and offsetting it with statement credit. Kind of like using UR for Disney, right?

 

[georgina]

Since I recently started using my UR's 1¢/pt as statement credit, the new temporary bonus works for me! I won't spend anywhere near $1500 on groceries in June, have too many GC for Disney and Universal now because of cancelled trips. Very little travel planned to use up our 400,000+ URs. Just got another $715 credit on CSR from a cancelled VRBO deposit.

 

[havaneselover]

Now I'm on the phone with SW about my companion pass. 66 minute wait. Requested a call back and they had the number I was calling from totally wrong (it's my cell so I don't even know how they came up with the number they wanted to call me back at).

And I wish DCL would cancel my Alaska cruise. Was hoping it would happen yesterday since it's been two weeks since the last announcement.

 

[afan]

Now I'm on the phone with SW about my companion pass. 66 minute wait. Requested a call back and they had the number I was calling from totally wrong (it's my cell so I don't even know how they came up with the number they wanted to call me back at).

And I wish DCL would cancel my Alaska cruise. Was hoping it would happen yesterday since it's been two weeks since the last announcement.

Slightly related but the mlb and the players union are at a bit of an impasse over salary so no idea if the season will even happen let alone them play here. League wants thrm to take a further reduction in pay on top of what was already agreed to.

And yeah, yeah for those still reading, not all players make millions and other things, I don't blame them when it's the 2nd ask.

 

[Albort]

What about buying Disney gift cards at grocery and offsetting it with statement credit. Kind of like using UR for Disney, right?

basically. but @ a redemption rate of 1.5x...

 

[pillow]

Now I'm on the phone with SW about my companion pass. 66 minute wait. Requested a call back and they had the number I was calling from totally wrong (it's my cell so I don't even know how they came up with the number they wanted to call me back at).

I'm having the same problem - getting an error message when trying to add my companion flight. Gonna try calling now . . .

 

[havaneselover]

Slightly related but the mlb and the players union are at a bit of an impasse over salary so no idea if the season will even happen let alone them play here. League wants thrm to take a further reduction in pay on top of what was already agreed to.

And yeah, yeah for those still reading, not all players make millions and other things, I don't blame them when it's the 2nd ask.

Yeah--I have mixed feelings about this but really want to see some baseball. I can't keep watching old NBA games with DS And I'm thinking at some point I'll get my money back for my Mariners tickets.

 

[havaneselover]

I need to figure the CSR "cashout" out. I'm sitting on 350k ur. Would love to liquidate at 1.5 ur/ $0.01. But I have too many fuel points already. I wish Kroger had more deals on visa gift cards.