I love credit cards so much!

[CyndiLouWho]

The dunes in Traverse City? That's a national park isn't it?

Not sure but Traverse City is probably 6-8 hr drive so probably too far for a weekend. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in Porter IN is an hour or so, we’ll probably hit that one weekend.

 

[wendow]

Somebody commented on my r/churning post that you can book Disney hotels with AA miles at 1cpp. I checked that out and it is true - not something I ever realized before. Has anybody ever done that?

I saw that comment! Um, so can we all hop on the grAAvy train and then redeem for Disney?!?! If so, let's go!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I saw that comment! Um, so can we all hop on the grAAvy train and then redeem for Disney?!?! If so, let's go!

That’s kind of what I’m thinking. You can apparently get 1 AA biz bonus every 95 days thru those mailers so you could apparently earn a ton of points without even affecting your 5/24 status. If you look at personal cards it’s potentially even more lucrative. You can get on there and price them yourselves (at 1cpp) on the AA website and it appears as good as advertised

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Why am I so scared to try for the Aspire? I've never been denied by Amex. I'm sure I'll hit the spend. So why why why am I scared? LOL

 

[jhoannam]

Plans for 2019.
DH and I are at 3/24.

DH: 12/20 & 12/21 DD SW cards (finger crossed it works). DH 5/24
Me: 2/19 CSP (after we finish the SW spend) 4/24
DH: 4/19 CIU
Me: 6/19 CIU back down to 2/24
DH: 8/19 Amex Biz
Me: 10/19 Hyatt 3/24
DH: 11/19 CIP
DH: 12/19 United 5/24
DH: 12/19 GrAAvy train if still around

We'll probably sprinkle some more amex biz cards in there. I need to stay under 5/24 for the next round of SW CP. We are slow churners, can only do 4K every 2 months.

Planned Trips: Denver camping in June 2019, Disney August 2019. Hope to make it back to San Diego for a couple of long weekend trips.

2020: We are going to Spain, I don't care what DH says.

 

[elgerber]

My plans for 2019 are pretty much nil at this point, with the job loss. We were going to Savannah with old friends in April, and while air and hotel could be covered, spending money and vacation time are up in the air now.
I do have an Arrival + question. I should know this as I had this card for a few years before. If I got one for dh, he is at 4/24 and this would kill Chase for him for several months, and put a large international air purchase on it ( as part of the MSR) could I use the bonus miles towards this once my full MSR is done? Or would the travel purchase have to be after the points have been earned?
I am so nervous to try any apps at this point after my SW personal fiasco. Does Barclays look at anything in particular other than 6/24? We have had 2 Barclays cards but both have been closed for awhile now.

 

[wendow]

@SouthFayetteFan I can't find any Disney resorts through the AA site. How do you search and bring them up?

ETA: I got some to come up. Not sure I was in award travel before...

 

[mmmears]

I saw that comment! Um, so can we all hop on the grAAvy train and then redeem for Disney?!?! If so, let's go!

Oh, this is going to be fun!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

@SouthFayetteFan I can't find any Disney resorts through the AA site. How do you search and bring them up?

ETA: I got some to come up. Not sure I was in award travel before...

Yeah, glad you figured it out - it's not all resorts either. Not sure what drives that limited availability...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I wish MRs transferred to American. That would make the AA thing a bigger deal in my mind...

 

[wendow]

I wish MRs transferred to American. That would make the AA thing a bigger deal in my mind...

Right. Just looking at the points needed for even a 3-night value hotel stay seems rather daunting. Maybe cause I'm still thinking of UR's in my mind, the point cost seems like a lot.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Right. Just looking at the points needed for even a 3-night value hotel stay seems rather daunting. Maybe cause I'm still thinking of UR's in my mind, the point cost seems like a lot.

So I did a search for 1/30 thru 2/2 (which is the second part of our split stay dates).

A room is available at the Grand Floridian for 154,800 AA miles. It is an Outer Building Garden View. It says save up to 25% off which means the Disney discount for that period is even being triggered (which is cool!).

I found the exact same room on the Disney website for $1,539.80 on the discount. That comes to 0.994cpp (so just shy of 1cpp). The math works out...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Do we have anybody in this thread participating in the (I cringe to type this) grAAvy train?

 

[speedyfishy]

Do we have anybody in this thread participating in the (I cringe to type this) grAAvy train?

I’m working on it. I have two citi AA Biz, a barclay AA Biz, a barclay AA personal. My first citi AA personal is pending.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I’m working on it. I have two citi AA Biz, a barclay AA Biz, a barclay AA personal. My first citi AA personal is pending.

How did you get the 2nd AA Biz? Did you get a targeted offer sent to you or did you trade/purchase a code?

 

[speedyfishy]

How did you get the 2nd AA Biz? Did you get a targeted offer sent to you or did you trade/purchase a code?

I got one for free off reddit.

 

[mmmears]

Do we have anybody in this thread participating in the (I cringe to type this) grAAvy train?

I'm not, but I have an AA card and a bunch of miles. DH and DD constantly get those credit card mailers because we all have AAdvantage numbers and DD flies AA all the time. I have to say, though, that to me 150K AA miles means a free first class trip to Europe so I'm not sure I could part with it for $1500 worth of a room at the GF, although those miles are much harder to use than MRs for flights. I ended up using all MR redemptions for Europe this year because AA wouldn't let me book partners when they were availably - they wanted me to wait 2-3 weeks until AA opened up their overseas flights and by then the partner flights were likely to not be available anymore. So... my longwinded post (sorry) is trying to say that maybe hotels aren't an awful idea after all, especially if you start the train and have tons of miles to burn.

 

[mom2elal]

I do have an Arrival + question. I should know this as I had this card for a few years before. If I got one for dh, he is at 4/24 and this would kill Chase for him for several months, and put a large international air purchase on it ( as part of the MSR) could I use the bonus miles towards this once my full MSR is done? Or would the travel purchase have to be after the points have been earned?

Yes, you will be able to apply the bonus to a purchase you made before earning the bonus. We just did it on dh's Arrival (put it towards WDW tickets!). I believe you have 90 days from when you made the charge.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

So there's a dummy booking offer for the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum. It offers 40,000 Miles after $2k in purchases PLUS a $250 statement credit on AA purchases in the first year. Seems like you could use the statement credit to buy an AA card and sell it on Raise. Is that viable? (I think this is a record for questions from me, lol)

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I'm not, but I have an AA card and a bunch of miles. DH and DD constantly get those credit card mailers because we all have AAdvantage numbers and DD flies AA all the time. I have to say, though, that to me 150K AA miles means a free first class trip to Europe so I'm not sure I could part with it for $1500 worth of a room at the GF, although those miles are much harder to use than MRs for flights. I ended up using all MR redemptions for Europe this year because AA wouldn't let me book partners when they were availably - they wanted me to wait 2-3 weeks until AA opened up their overseas flights and by then the partner flights were likely to not be available anymore. So... my longwinded post (sorry) is trying to say that maybe hotels aren't an awful idea after all, especially if you start the train and have tons of miles to burn.

Yeah, I should acknowledge that with no viable use for AA miles (due to not traveling internationally AND having SW RR's out the wazoo) that a hotel use at 1cpp would be great for me (but possible not for everybody )

**Oh and should add it seems that you can get matched to 60k miles somehow, but I haven't exactly researched those comments enough yet