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

[wanderlust7]

Hi I’m new here and I’m thinking about getting an American Express Marriott business card. I haven’t Hi, I’m new here and I’m thinking about getting a American Express Marriott business card. I haven’t gotten any new cards in the past 48 months, and we put about $5-6000 a month on our credit cards. We pay it all off every month.

I currently have a Marriott Chase personal visa card, I have a Bank of America Visa, and I have a Disney premier visa.

My main reason for wanting to pick up the Marriott business card is because the 15 nights will stack with our regular card, which will help boost us up to our platinum level. Our travel this year is a little smaller than normal, and we are going to be short at the end of the year for our 50 travel nights.

I will also make use of the sign on bonus points from this on a trip in March, so that’ll be even better.

The best on scene for a sign-up bonus right now is 75,000 points, but I’m not sure if there’s something better out there I’m just missing.

The Amex Marriott biz bonus isn't very good right now. You might want to wait until an elevated offer comes back (it was recently 125k). You can see a historical chart here.

Will also mention the Amex Brilliant comes with platinum status. Annual fee is a whopping $650, but comes with $25 monthly dining credits and an up to 85k anniversary free night certificate (can be topped off with points up to 15k). Current bonus is also not good.

The Marriott cards have complicated applications rules, so check this chart before applying.

 

[pinkxray]

Happy to see all the Alaska cruise talk! I have us booked on the NCL encore in June 2024. Would have loved to do Disney but it is $13,000+ where NCL is 6300.

I also checked out HAL and Princess but NCL leaves on a Sunday which works well for us. I can’t take off more than a full week and maybe an extra day. Most of the other cruises leave on a Fri, Monday or Tues.
I also looked at Royal Carribean but NCL does go to Glacier Bay which is a plus.

Princess did have one sailing that would have worked but it was over another $1000 more. Our excursions are looking to be at least another 3000 so I figured I’d stick with NCL. Hoping it turns out ok. Sometimes I’ll come across a negative review and it makes me want to change bc it is the best option for us.


@AndreaDM- did you do any fun excursions you would recommend?

I briefly looked at Princess but we travel with DS8 and Dd6. Did you see any kids on your trip?

 

[Aela]

The Amex Marriott biz bonus isn't very good right now. You might want to wait until an elevated offer comes back (it was recently 125k). You can see a historical chart here.

Will also mention the Amex Brilliant comes with platinum status. Annual fee is a whopping $650, but comes with $25 monthly dining credits and an up to 85k anniversary free night certificate (can be topped off with points up to 15k). Current bonus is also not good.

The Marriott cards have complicated applications rules, so check this chart before applying.

Ah ha! Makes sense. My last enrollment bonus posted on 2/13/2022. So I will have to wait until Feb 2024, correct? I was thinking you could do the business card sooner.

 

[wanderlust7]

Ah ha! Makes sense. My last enrollment bonus posted on 2/13/2022. So I will have to wait until Feb 2024, correct? I was thinking you could do the business card sooner.

Correct. In Feb 2024, you'd be able to get all the Amex Marriott cards without the 24 month restriction.

 

[GZanta77]

Just the spend. I got enough to make me positive after they deducted points for the "waived" AF.

And I may be behind the times but I thought I had SMd to close my last one. Tried this time and they responded back almost immediately that I had to call. Wasn't a terrible call, just said I didn't anticipate flying AA for the next year and I didn't want to pay the AF. Rep closed the card out and apologized for not being able to waive the fee for my account. I closed a few days before AF would have posted (last day of the month!) and the fee never posted so I think it's good.

Must be a fairly recent policy change - DS closed his JetBlue card by SM in March so it was working then.

I am considering closing mine this month so I guess I'm gonna have to call.

 

[Aela]

Correct. In Feb 2024, you'd be able to get all the Amex Marriott cards without the 24 month restriction.

Okay I was hoping to use the sign up bonus nights for a March 2024 trip. I guess that is out of the question

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Happy to see all the Alaska cruise talk! I have us booked on the NCL encore in June 2024. Would have loved to do Disney but it is $13,000+ where NCL is 6300.

I also checked out HAL and Princess but NCL leaves on a Sunday which works well for us. I can’t take off more than a full week and maybe an extra day. Most of the other cruises leave on a Fri, Monday or Tues.
I also looked at Royal Carribean but NCL does go to Glacier Bay which is a plus.

Princess did have one sailing that would have worked but it was over another $1000 more. Our excursions are looking to be at least another 3000 so I figured I’d stick with NCL. Hoping it turns out ok. Sometimes I’ll come across a negative review and it makes me want to change bc it is the best option for us.


@AndreaDM- did you do any fun excursions you would recommend?

I briefly looked at Princess but we travel with DS8 and Dd6. Did you see any kids on your trip?

I think in 2024, Discovery Princess is Saturday to Saturday. I'm with you on vacation time, a mid week cruise departure wouldn't work for me. I'm trying to balance the kid (though he's a teen) factor with adult preferences.
On our previous Alaska cruise, I booked all our excursions through the Chase portal and used URs.

 

[DogCat]

Which Marriott cards are considered better? Amex or Chase?

 

[Zhoen]

Going back to our instacart discussion from the other day... I was just looking at doing an Aldi pick-up order, and it looks like my local store has a $35 minimum for "free pickup and 5% back on instacart." Anybody else have that in their locality? I am in the Balt-Wash corridor.

Not a deal breaker, but not as cool as buying a $15 order then getting $16.05 back would have been... ($15 chase credit, plus 5% instacart, plus 1% rakuten, plus 1% URs)

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Going back to our instacart discussion from the other day... I was just looking at doing an Aldi pick-up order, and it looks like my local store has a $35 minimum for "free pickup and 5% back on instacart." Anybody else have that in their locality? I am in the Balt-Wash corridor.

Not a deal breaker, but not as cool as buying a $15 order then getting $16.05 back would have been... ($15 chase credit, plus 5% instacart, plus 1% rakuten, plus 1% URs)

Yes, same for me. I think alternatively you can pay for pickup for like 1.99 if under $35 (but double check that). They have good prices on paper towels, garbage bags, etc if their groceries don't get you to $35. Their bakery items are excellent.

Also, link your Delta account to Instacart and you'll earn 3 miles for every dollar spent.

Since you are into stacking discounts, I like to buy Instacart GCs at Kroger to get fuel points, and save about 14% that way. You might be able to buy them in small increments (like $20 GC and $15 CSR) so that you can pay with both GC and cc, whereas normally it's one or the other.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

DH was approved for the new 70k AA point/$99 AF/ single purchase MSR on the Aadvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard. I'd like to apply but it would put me at 4/24 for 9 months, which I don't love. So many cards I want, lol.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

DH was approved for the new 70k AA point/$99 AF/ single purchase MSR on the Aadvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard. I'd like to apply but it would put me at 4/24 for 9 months, which I don't love. So many cards I want, lol.

I want it, too, but am already at 4/24 until September. Sigh... it's a good deal

 

[jenmsmith]

Happy to see all the Alaska cruise talk! I have us booked on the NCL encore in June 2024. Would have loved to do Disney but it is $13,000+ where NCL is 6300.

I also checked out HAL and Princess but NCL leaves on a Sunday which works well for us. I can’t take off more than a full week and maybe an extra day. Most of the other cruises leave on a Fri, Monday or Tues.
I also looked at Royal Carribean but NCL does go to Glacier Bay which is a plus.

Princess did have one sailing that would have worked but it was over another $1000 more. Our excursions are looking to be at least another 3000 so I figured I’d stick with NCL. Hoping it turns out ok. Sometimes I’ll come across a negative review and it makes me want to change bc it is the best option for us.


@AndreaDM- did you do any fun excursions you would recommend?

I briefly looked at Princess but we travel with DS8 and Dd6. Did you see any kids on your trip?

We enjoyed the Encore and wouldn’t hesitate to sail her again. The observation area was our little slice of heaven.

 

[wanderlust7]

Which Marriott cards are considered better? Amex or Chase?

I prefer the Amex track since it doesn't take up my Chase velocity, there are 3 potential cards to get instead of 2 (without the 24 month rule), plus one of them is a business card.

But for someone who doesn't get many cards, that all may not matter. The Chase Boundless 5 FNC SUB was certainly appealing.

 

[pinkxray]

Ugh. I just spent awhile trying to find the 200,000mr Amex Business Platnium offer. Wasn’t able to get it. Got the Gold Biz 130,000 to work. Applied and got the pop up!! I haven’t seen that in years Lol. Guess I was too confident. I am calling today to add on direct DVC points and would have knocked out the spend. Oh well. Am getting the DVC points anyway. I did get a new Ink using Dh’s link so at least there is that.

Guess I need to start using my Amex cards a bit more. I have concentrating on URs as I found them so much easier to use.

 

[becauseimnew]

Ugh. I just spent awhile trying to find the 200,000mr Amex Business Platnium offer. Wasn’t able to get it. Got the Gold Biz 130,000 to work. Applied and got the pop up!! I haven’t seen that in years Lol. Guess I was too confident. I am calling today to add on direct DVC points and would have knocked out the spend. Oh well. Am getting the DVC points anyway. I did get a new Ink using Dh’s link so at least there is that.

Guess I need to start using my Amex cards a bit more. I have concentrating on URs as I found them so much easier to use.

That sucks, but what about the Hilton Biz card? Everything I’ve read says that the link that Doc has doesn’t get the pop-up… and it comes with a FNC, plus you’ll earn another FNC after you spend $15k.

 

[AndreaDM]

Happy to see all the Alaska cruise talk! I have us booked on the NCL encore in June 2024. Would have loved to do Disney but it is $13,000+ where NCL is 6300.

I also checked out HAL and Princess but NCL leaves on a Sunday which works well for us. I can’t take off more than a full week and maybe an extra day. Most of the other cruises leave on a Fri, Monday or Tues.
I also looked at Royal Carribean but NCL does go to Glacier Bay which is a plus.

Princess did have one sailing that would have worked but it was over another $1000 more. Our excursions are looking to be at least another 3000 so I figured I’d stick with NCL. Hoping it turns out ok. Sometimes I’ll come across a negative review and it makes me want to change bc it is the best option for us.


@AndreaDM- did you do any fun excursions you would recommend?

I briefly looked at Princess but we travel with DS8 and Dd6. Did you see any kids on your trip?

We honestly didn't do a ton of excursions, in Juneau we took a shuttle to Mendanhall, then it was about a 2 mile r/t hike to the waterfall and to see the glacier closer. There were also some other little trails around there we hiked, got to see a porcupine, and apparently had just missed seeing a mama bear and 2 cubs. In Skagway we did the train which I think at least 90% of our ship did. In Ketchikan we just walked/hiked around as well, I wish we would have had more time there but is was back onboard by 12:30 so we felt rushed.

We did not see a lot of kids at all, some, but not many, mostly toddlers. However I think that was due it to being the last week of May and most schools were still in session. We did see a family who home schooled though.

 

[ten6mom]

I have "save 10% up to $11 back" at Office Max/Office Depot on two of my Inks. It's not a store I go to often (maybe never).
Does anyone know whether OM/OD typically offer a $100 DGC? I need to stock up for a few fall and winter trips this year.

 

[Psychodisney]

Not sure if this was posted here or not: I saw on FM there is a Barclay AA promotion for 5K mile bonus for spending on your card once in June, July and August. I didn't get the email but found it on my AA login under my account->promotions.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I have "save 10% up to $11 back" at Office Max/Office Depot on two of my Inks. It's not a store I go to often (maybe never).
Does anyone know whether OM/OD typically offer a $100 DGC? I need to stock up for a few fall and winter trips this year.

They normally have the ones where you choose the amount of the gift card. So you can ask for $110 to get the full $11