I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[ten6mom]

Global Entry is always US side only. You can take advantage of TSA Pre as you go to Japan.
Now Japan also has their own Global Entry. I think having Global Entry will get u a fastrack on their program, im not sure whats involved. here is a link --> http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/ttp2/en/outline/index.html

Oh thank you- I was confused because the Global Entry list of airports does list several in foreign countries!

I will look into that link... interesting! Thanks!

 

[wanderlust7]

Ok, but just one credit per account, correct? (I'm just starting to read up on it now, since I rarely travel by air). So if I had a card that offered a Global Entry credit as part of its perks, that is only enough for one person. There would have to be some other card that also had a Global Entry credit for both of us to go together?

To get a second credit, your DH could also get a CSR. Or here are some other cards with TSA/Global credit that also have sign-up bonuses (from my spreadsheet I don't actually have all of them).

Capital One Venture
Bank of America Premium Rewards
U.S. Bank Altitude
American Express Platinum
American Express Platinum Business
American Express Bonvoy Brilliant

All except the AmEx Plat Biz are personal cards and will add to your x/24. And all except the first 2 have very high annual fees, which have ways to be recouped but the AmEx ones are more complicated than the CSR. They all have their caveats, so you'll want to look into more or ask here if you plan to apply for any of them.

 

[afan]

Oh thank you- I was confused because the Global Entry list of airports does list several in foreign countries!

That's because you go through US customs in some foreign airports before coming back to the US.

 

[tink1970]

As many of you know, I've been checking flights to Australia very regularly. Some might say obsessively Based on some of the flights I've been following, I have a couple of "what would you do" questions:

• How much layover time would you prefer to have before the connecting international flight?
• Would you rather fly in an entire day before? Would you give the same answer if the only daily international flight leaves at 10pm and there are multiple flights to the connecting airport from your home airport?
• How likely is bad weather to affect flights in Houston during the months of September or October? I know to avoid certain connecting airports during the summer, especially as the day goes on, but I don't know how Texas weather works.
• How are the lounges at IAH? We'd be flying J on United. As of now, no Amex Plat but that's on the list lol

Q1 and Q2--I usually schedule a positioning flight and almost always fly in the day/night before. It's not worth it to me to run through an airport or miss out on the first day of an expensive tour/cruise to chance flying out the same day. That's just me though and I'm risk adverse! Also, I don't mind hanging out in airports and requesting late check out from the hotel. (Correction-I love airports and people watching!)

Q3--impossible to predict but I never (ever) travel in September since that's when weather is typically the worst in the Gulf of Mexico. I try not to travel in Oct for the same reason but will for the first time in ?15 years this October.

Q4--unlike @afan I much prefer TX to CA so I intentionally spent 10 hours or so at IAH on my layover in March I'm sure @Lain knows where my comment is mentioning the several PP access lounges to which I didn't have access having blondely left mine at home. That said I do remember there's an AF and KLM lounge with PP access and the Centurion Lounge was busy and often crowded but the food was good and I was happy there.


That said, I know lots of people take the first flight out and have no problem connecting. You also need to consider where you're flying in from and if there will be weather. DH just came home this weekend from family in CA and he ended up spending the night at IAH (well a Marriott there) b/c there was weather in DEN which delayed his plane arriving to IAH, so then he missed his PNS flight. More than likely it will be fine flying in the day of.

 

[WVMomof3]

This confirms what I thought, but was hoping I misunderstood. I was hoping to use for travel but didn't want to be limited. Thank you so much for the reply.

Hmm, now I am worried I scared you away. lol Are you now thinking the CIP is a bad card for you?

 

[GusGus16]

Good news tonight was just approved for the Hilton honors business card! used a support link from dischurners.

 

[Alexle2007]

To get a second credit, your DH could also get a CSR. Or here are some other cards with TSA/Global credit that also have sign-up bonuses (from my spreadsheet I don't actually have all of them).

Capital One Venture
Bank of America Premium Rewards
U.S. Bank Altitude
American Express Platinum
American Express Platinum Business
American Express Bonvoy Brilliant

All except the AmEx Plat Biz are personal cards and will add to your x/24. And all except the first 2 have very high annual fees, which have ways to be recouped but the AmEx ones are more complicated than the CSR. They all have their caveats, so you'll want to look into more or ask here if you plan to apply for any of them.

I believe there’s also the Navy Federal card that several people have that comes with it and any AU cards.

And I believe the AmEx Plat, you can get AU Gold cards for no fee that comes with the GE. I believe @wendow did that for her older girls since you need to be at least 13 years with AmEx to be an AU.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Returned late Saturday evening from our 8 night stay at the Poly. I'm always sad to end a WDW trip, but this one was worse than usual. We loved our first experience there so much and I can't wait to go back!!

I didn't realize anyone from this thread was there the same time as me. We should've had a dischurners meet. I checked out Thurs from a 7 night stay. What building were you?

 

[Alexle2007]

I didn't realize anyone from this thread was there the same time as me. We should've had a dischurners meet. I checked out Thurs from a 7 night stay. What building were you?

Oooo, I could have my own Dischurners meet at Sheraton Clearwater Beach in a couple of weeks. Pretty sure one of the other Dis’ers is there at that time my family. If we can just get through the last 10 1/2 days of school.

 

[Mopedmom1]

With RCCL, we have 60 days from booking to transfer and PIF for this specific cruise is 3 months before departure so 12/16/19. So 6 months from now. I currently have all of the needed URs but my balance will make me sad

I am going to be real sad later this week.....I will be using ALL my UR to book this cruise as well as most of my DH's newly reset $300 TC. Once it posts I will transfer our cruise to Chase, use his CSR to pay for the Daily service charges, add a water package and buy some OBC to use up the whole $300 credit. THEN I need to figure out how I am going to pay for our excursions, get myself, DH, and my parents to Kodiak, Alaska in September, book two rooms and a rental car! Addicted to churning? Who, me?

a friend of mine also uses his UR exclusively for cruises... but i could of sworn i heard a rumor that chase will only let u book up to 2019... im not 100% sure if this is correct or not.

Heard someone here ??? was able to talk with a Chase TA about booking for next year, so it may not be dead after all. When I transfer my cruise later this week I will TRY to remember to ask.

Ah, specific to Norwegian, OK thank you. I cannot say for sure but it looks like Princess is going to a favorite of ours. I do have 2 future cruise credits with Princess that I bought on our cruise in March. Wonder if there is a way to use those with points somewhere. Ahhh, so many options to process!

Those cruise credits, I believe, can only be used to book a cruise with Princess (At least that is how it works with NCL). I am not sure if a Chase TA would be able to apply them to your account if you book directly with Chase. That is why I always book with NCL first. This is another question I need to try to remember to ask!

 

[Gretav]

Hmm, now I am worried I scared you away. lol Are you now thinking the CIP is a bad card for you?

Yes, I think so. Disney and Royal Caribbean are our main vacations so I don't think it will be useful to us. I really like my Barclay card because I can redeem it on any sort of travel. It will be for my husband who is an authorized user on my card, so I don't even know if he can get his own card. Also, preferably it should be in the company name, which I don't know if I can do on a Barclay card. I will keep looking

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Just off the Wonder this morning. Our trip was awesome with few hiccups.
Here is the view from our current room. Somehow I can’t post any pics that aren’t landscape or they get rotated 90 degrees
Trying to catch up on the thread, but it will take awhile. Thanks for the Reddit news thread, especially @Lain hard work.

 

[GusGus16]

Yes, I think so. Disney and Royal Caribbean are our main vacations so I don't think it will be useful to us. I really like my Barclay card because I can redeem it on any sort of travel. It will be for my husband who is an authorized user on my card, so I don't even know if he can get his own card. Also, preferably it should be in the company name, which I don't know if I can do on a Barclay card. I will keep looking

CIP is a great card for almost everyone, given you can cash out at 1cent per point and use the cash for anything. UR's are extremely versatile even with not being able to book disney directly on the portal. CIP is one of the most lucrative sign up bonuses 80,000 for $5,000 spend in three months. I would hate for you to overlook this card because you can't book things directly through the UR portal. You could buy discounted disney gift cards and then cash out your UR's to cover the cost. I would take another look at the CIP.

 

[wenpop]

I want to book 3 seats on SouthWest I have almost 80,143 UR's from my CSP and I need 81,489 points for the flight, If I transfer my points would that cover the flight or would I need to buy more points? I am new to this, and never transferred points before and would almost be scared to transfer them..... I checked Chase for airfare but Southwest is not showing up yet. And Delta I need 110,000 or more for the flight, plus I would have to pay for bags. Any help would be great, we are going to Vegas in December.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Just off the Wonder this morning. Our trip was awesome with few hiccups.
Here is the view from our current room. Somehow I can’t post any pics that aren’t landscape or they get rotated 90 degrees
Trying to catch up on the thread, but it will take awhile. Thanks for the Reddit news thread, especially @Lain hard work.

View attachment 406049

Can’t wait to hear all about it. Especially since we were originally going to be on that sailing.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I want to book 3 seats on SouthWest I have almost 80,143 UR's from my CSP and I need 81,489 points for the flight, If I transfer my points would that cover the flight or would I need to buy more points? I am new to this, and never transferred points before and would almost be scared to transfer them..... I checked Chase for airfare but Southwest is not showing up yet. And Delta I need 110,000 or more for the flight, plus I would have to pay for bags. Any help would be great, we are going to Vegas in December.

If you need 81,489 RR for the flight, then that’s how many UR you need to transfer as well. They are 1:1.

 

[GusGus16]

I want to book 3 seats on SouthWest I have almost 80,143 UR's from my CSP and I need 81,489 points for the flight, If I transfer my points would that cover the flight or would I need to buy more points? I am new to this, and never transferred points before and would almost be scared to transfer them..... I checked Chase for airfare but Southwest is not showing up yet. And Delta I need 110,000 or more for the flight, plus I would have to pay for bags. Any help would be great, we are going to Vegas in December.

UR transfers to Southwest RR 1:1, and I think only in 1,000 point increments. So you could transfer 80,000 points to SW. The SW flights should be showing up in the chase UR portal, I have never booked that way before so not sure what you would need to search.

Positives for booking directly with SW on RR points is you rebook if the flight drops and you get RR points back into your account, not a travel refund that you only have 1 year to use or loose.

Positives for booking directly with UR portal-counts as a cash booking so you should earn RR points for the flight.

You are in a hard situation as you don't have enough points to transfer to cover the flights, not sure what would be best at this point and how much it would cost to buy the additional needed points.

 

[Alexle2007]

Yes, I think so. Disney and Royal Caribbean are our main vacations so I don't think it will be useful to us. I really like my Barclay card because I can redeem it on any sort of travel. It will be for my husband who is an authorized user on my card, so I don't even know if he can get his own card. Also, preferably it should be in the company name, which I don't know if I can do on a Barclay card. I will keep looking

I am not sure why the Chase URs would not be useful for RCCL? I have the Harmony of the Seas booked for 3/15/20. I put the deposit on my Arrival + to use the bonus points I have there. I am now left with a balance of $3500. I’ll transfer that booking to Chase and use 233334 URs to pay the balance since I have a CSR that gives me 1.5 for each point. If I used the CIP points, it would cost me 280000 URs since the CIP is 1.25 for each point when using Chase travel. Boom, free Spring Break cruise! I pool all of DH and my URs on my CSR since it gives me the highest value.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I want to book 3 seats on SouthWest I have almost 80,143 UR's from my CSP and I need 81,489 points for the flight, If I transfer my points would that cover the flight or would I need to buy more points? I am new to this, and never transferred points before and would almost be scared to transfer them..... I checked Chase for airfare but Southwest is not showing up yet. And Delta I need 110,000 or more for the flight, plus I would have to pay for bags. Any help would be great, we are going to Vegas in December.

You have transfer URs to your SW RR account to book...if you have 80,143 URs...you will be able to transfer 80,000 URs...and will have to buy the rest

 

[Psychodisney]

I want to book 3 seats on SouthWest I have almost 80,143 UR's from my CSP and I need 81,489 points for the flight, If I transfer my points would that cover the flight or would I need to buy more points? I am new to this, and never transferred points before and would almost be scared to transfer them..... I checked Chase for airfare but Southwest is not showing up yet. And Delta I need 110,000 or more for the flight, plus I would have to pay for bags. Any help would be great, we are going to Vegas in December.

I think you will need to call in for SWA flights. I don’t think they show up on the UR page...but I might be wrong...