I love credit cards so much!

[speedyfishy]

Yayy!! SO got approved for the SPG Biz. Let the MSing begin.

 

[Lain]

This thread just moves too fast for me to keep up with everything. Informed delivery showed me that my CIP card will be arriving in the mail today! I will be paying my friend $1150 for the sewing machine and paying $150 in eBay fees as well. Will be a good start towards the minimum, since none of that is out of pocket costs. Hoping to put some work travel on this card as well in the next 3 months.

Will your friend accept payment via Venmo? Venmo has a 3% fee, but earns 3x UR on CIP. eBay fees also earn 3x UR on CIP.

 

[Lain]

Yayy!! SO got approved for the SPG Biz. Let the MSing begin.

Congratulations!

 

[speedyfishy]

This thread just moves too fast for me to keep up with everything. Informed delivery showed me that my CIP card will be arriving in the mail today! I will be paying my friend $1150 for the sewing machine and paying $150 in eBay fees as well. Will be a good start towards the minimum, since none of that is out of pocket costs. Hoping to put some work travel on this card as well in the next 3 months.

After the CIP is done, I am not sure what I want to do. I was thinking of holding off to get a SW companion pass for 2019/2020 (to help with our 2019 WDW trip), but SW flights to Orlando all have a connection from our airport. Delta has nonstop and with a 17 month old, I feel like nonstop would be much better. I can book the flights next month. I have enough Delta points for 3 round trip tickets to Orlando, but it would wipe out most of what I have saved. Wondering if I should think about a Delta card, since it would also get us free checked bags too.

The Delta Business Cards are at high offers right now so I think that would be a good choice. You just have to determine if you want the gold or platinum. The offers expire in May so you have some time to decide.

 

[Ngwira]

I might try target today if I have time, I've got $50 in gift cards. Also trying to hit Best Buy today.


Yay! That's where we're staying in a couple weeks

Nice. Please let me know how you like it.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Will your friend accept payment via Venmo? Venmo has a 3% fee, but earns 3x UR on CIP. eBay fees also earn 3x UR on CIP.

They sent a Paypal invoice. I will have to talk to my friend to see if Venmo is alright. Not sure if there is any difference in fees.

 

[linzjane88]

Ohhhh Ok I thought you said you used the avios you found to rebook one of your tickets you just purchased..... I'm a little confused right now....wishing I knew better how to use Avios,since I think I could've gotten better flight times if I had more knowledge.

So for me on the West Coast I am in that Avios to Hawaii sweet spot. Alaska has direct flights from PDX to Hawaii (much better than a layover in California!). I found award availability on Alaska but it has to be the absolute cheapest award ticket so your days need to be flexible. Searching on American's website is actually a little easier I find because of the green color coding they use for their super saver awards. Anyway, you find the flight you want and write down all the details and then call BA. If I were to do it again I would call to confirm that they could see the flight I wanted before I transferred my UR's over just to be safe. They have to do the booking for you. They are supposed to charge a fee for the phone booking in addition to the flight taxes but they will typically waive it if you tell them you are unable to book the award flight on your own.

I had to read a zillion blogs before I felt comfortable doing it but it went super smooth....considering they never charged me miles for the flight it went smoother than I even realized . The only times I would do this are the flights to Hawaii because I can typically swing better deals through SW on the other travel I do. But, for going to HI, all the other carriers charge like 35k for a round trip where you can pull it off with 25k miles through the BA loophole.
https://wandr.me/avios-calculator/ That link is good for figuring out how many Avios it would cost for your trip. And don't forget that layovers DO count in the mileage count for BA so for me if I don't get the direct flight my Avios cost bumps up to 40k round trip making it a terrible value on top of being a terrible flight. Haha. I really dislike layovers...

 

[vanjust14]

Nice! Our dates will overlap quite a bit, we're there most of that week, too. We're staying at Swolphin on SPG points (I think I'm one of the few that has the SPG personal, but I did get the 30k offer, so that helped) and have airline loyalty points plus some vouchers from a trip that didn't go super well back in January (props to AA for trying to make it right). We did get our UT tickets before prices went up, and at the time they were running an add a fifth day "free" promo, so we saved there, too. Plan is to upgrade those to a 6-day parkhopper when we get onsite. Our trip is the last time our kiddo will be free, she'll turn three later that month.

My two year old granddaughter will turn 3 on Dec 31st, so they are only a month apart!

My daughter is turning 3 December 19th! This is the last time she will be free also. We are going to be in Disney World on her birthday, but we arrive a few days before

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

The Delta Business Cards are at high offers right now so I think that would be a good choice. You just have to determine if you want the gold or platinum. The offers expire in May so you have some time to decide.

I am seeing 4/11/18 as the date the offer ends, not May.

 

[Lain]

They sent a Paypal invoice. I will have to talk to my friend to see if Venmo is alright. Not sure if there is any difference in fees.

Venmo has a 3% fee, but earns 3x UR on the payment amount and fees with CIP. PayPal has a 2.9% fee + $0.30 per transaction, but earns only 1x UR on the payment amount and fees with CIP.

 

[speedyfishy]

For the Gold Biz or the Platnium Biz? If you use a support link on DISCHURNERS the Gold Biz expires May 16. This is the offer through a support link:Earn 50,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $2,000 in purchases on your new Card within your first 3 months and a $50 statement credit after you make a Delta purchase with your new Card within your first 3 months.†Plus, earn an additional 10,000 bonus miles after you make an additional $1,000 in purchases within your first 6 months. Offer expires on 5/16/2018.† With Pay with Miles for every 5,000 bonus miles redeemed, that is $50 off the cost of your ticket when booking on Delta.com.‡

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Venmo has a 3% fee, but earns 3x UR on the payment amount and fees with CIP. PayPal has a 2.9% fee + $0.30 per transaction, but earns only 1x UR on the payment amount and fees with CIP.

Yeah, I told my friend that I was happy to make up the difference in fees in cash if we could run it through Venmo. I don't know if they will be alright with this though because it is a sale through their business and they probably want to keep all of the transaction records in one place. We will see what she says.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I got the Amex Delta Gold in Oct and then the Amex SPG Biz in Jan. I feel like I should be ok going for the SPG personal now or am I asking for a financial review here? (99% sure this is Amex so credit cards = candy but... my spending wasn’t legit so I don’t want a review if it’s a known risk I might pass on this.) Gah! Idk on this, I feel i should do it before the card disappears but I don’t want to mess up what i have right now. Thoughts?

 

[wendow]

I am seeing 4/11/18 as the date the offer ends, not May.

That is correct for the Delta offers.

 

[wendow]

I got the Amex Delta Gold in Oct and then the Amex SPG Biz in Jan. I feel like I should be ok going for the SPG personal now or am I asking for a financial review here? (99% sure this is Amex so credit cards = candy but... my spending wasn’t legit so I don’t want a review if it’s a known risk I might pass on this.) Gah! Idk on this, I feel i should do it before the card disappears but I don’t want to mess up what i have right now. Thoughts?

I think it's fine. You've got nice spacing, not that it seems to matter as much to Amex.

I got the BGR in mid-Dec, Delta gold last week and going for spg biz in next week

 

[Judique]

I might try target today if I have time, I've got $50 in gift cards. Also trying to hit Best Buy today.


Yay! That's where we're staying in a couple weeks

(Post refers to the Anaheim Hyatt)

I'll be looking for a little report from you all! Daughter wants to go to Disneyland. It's got to be either hotel points or DVC. And Southwest points! I've got SPG, Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, Raddisson Rewards and will probably have Wyndham by then as I'm going to sign up for their program and try to book two nights to get the bonus they have right now. Oh and a teeny bit of Hilton but not worth talking about right now...lets say I'm diversified!

 

[amalone1013]

@Ngwira @Judique

I'll be sure to report back in with some pictures We transferred 36k UR points to Hyatt for 3 nights, cash price was around $800 for the 3 nights. The cash plus points option sounds awesome, I might have to investigate... I don't remember seeing it for our dates but I got frustrated trying to book - I didn't have a Hyatt account so made it in my new married name, but Chase accounts don't have the new name yet so I could transfer the points. So I had to make a Hyatt account for DH and do it through his account.

 

[hsmamato2]

So for me on the West Coast I am in that Avios to Hawaii sweet spot. Alaska has direct flights from PDX to Hawaii (much better than a layover in California!). I found award availability on Alaska but it has to be the absolute cheapest award ticket so your days need to be flexible. Searching on American's website is actually a little easier I find because of the green color coding they use for their super saver awards. Anyway, you find the flight you want and write down all the details and then call BA. If I were to do it again I would call to confirm that they could see the flight I wanted before I transferred my UR's over just to be safe. They have to do the booking for you. They are supposed to charge a fee for the phone booking in addition to the flight taxes but they will typically waive it if you tell them you are unable to book the award flight on your own.

I had to read a zillion blogs before I felt comfortable doing it but it went super smooth....considering they never charged me miles for the flight it went smoother than I even realized . The only times I would do this are the flights to Hawaii because I can typically swing better deals through SW on the other travel I do. But, for going to HI, all the other carriers charge like 35k for a round trip where you can pull it off with 25k miles through the BA loophole.
https://wandr.me/avios-calculator/ That link is good for figuring out how many Avios it would cost for your trip. And don't forget that layovers DO count in the mileage count for BA so for me if I don't get the direct flight my Avios cost bumps up to 40k round trip making it a terrible value on top of being a terrible flight. Haha. I really dislike layovers...

Thank you..... I already booked using my avios, so I decided I'll have to keep what I have to avoid any change fees. I did the 12,500k bookings each way so it's a good deal even if the flight time isn't ideal (american air) I'll roll with it! I just wish I could stay longer than 5 days....but that's what I got when I saw it,so I'm going to max that 5 days in Maui!

 

[miztressuz]

I have about $100 in target gc from rewards sites. Like you, I can use them for other things, but then I don't feel like I am really getting the Disney cards for "free."

I'm the same way! It's a much more accomplished feeling when I turn over free GC and get that Disney (or whatever) money. Even when I cash out for PayPal and then buy the gift card to get the points or discount on top, I know it's a better deal but it's not the same. Creative accounting just doesn't have the same rush.

I am up to 1820 IHG points on the Opinion check in surveys.

Not worth it at all in my opinion, but I am off and on this computer all day long so it's no big deal to play with it when I have nothing else to do. I get between 20-100 points a day, so maybe after a year I will have enough for the cheapest free room!

I usually give them about 10 minutes of my time and then if I'm not getting any points close it up. This morning I got 80 points in that 10 minutes and then it told me I have no more surveys. At first it took forever just to get a survey. Now it gives me a few chances and sends me away fairly soon.

The fun thing is the points are instantly credited to my IHG account, so even if its only 20 points I can see it.

I don't recommend this site to anybody. Way too slow!

I totally didn't realize the points posted already! I figured it would be delayed like the SW program, that takes up to 6 weeks before you get your RR from the survey's. Since the two companies that run the programs are part of the same corporation now I thought they'd have similar practices, I guess not yet. Little torn, I hate the SSI survey model IHG is using, but getting the points pretty instantly is a plus. I might give it a go again, until they annoy me again, and then after awhile when I've cooled off, repeat

 

[speedyfishy]

That is correct for the Delta offers.

Really? My support link for the Delta Gold Biz is saying 5.16? I wanna make sure I can wait since I want my SO to get this card too and with the 19k in spend from the SPGx2 and the CIP I want to wait as long as possible lol.