I love credit cards so much!

[AmyAnne]

@peel I hope your cat is better soon.

Regarding credit cards, I'm trying to get up to speed on hotel cards. Airline points make sense to me because they seem to work more or less like miles. But hotel points just confuse me. From doing some preliminary reading, it seems that the AmEx SPG might be a good one to start with, since it might disappear after some merger takes place. The sign-up bonus is 25,000 points - I'm guessing these points would expire after a year?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

@peel I hope your cat is better soon.

Regarding credit cards, I'm trying to get up to speed on hotel cards. Airline points make sense to me because they seem to work more or less like miles. But hotel points just confuse me. From doing some preliminary reading, it seems that the AmEx SPG might be a good one to start with, since it might disappear after some merger takes place. The sign-up bonus is 25,000 points - I'm guessing these points would expire after a year?

I don't know how long before they expire, I used them at the Dolphin ASAP for a free trip. I did catch a higher signup bonus though. Don't forget to add another user for additional points. BTW SPG already merged with Marriott so you can get status with Marriott as well & transfer points back & forth.

 

[Ngwira]

Ive always wanted to do those single room up to Seattle from LA(1.5 day trip) but its so expensive ($600). Are those $200 seat only seats tolerable for a 1.5 days?

No they are not. You need a roomette. I'll only do coach if it's under 12 hours..we have roomettes going to Florida which is 19 hours from philly.
It was around 30k points for two roomettes.
You should churn the Amtrak card..the one with the annual fee was giving out 30k points a few weeks back. I think its back to 20k now..but you apply for the one with the fee and also the no fee one or do one and have a spouse apply for the other. The minimum spend is only $1k...so easy peasy..that was the first card I churned!

 

[Ngwira]

@peel I hope your cat is better soon.

Regarding credit cards, I'm trying to get up to speed on hotel cards. Airline points make sense to me because they seem to work more or less like miles. But hotel points just confuse me. From doing some preliminary reading, it seems that the AmEx SPG might be a good one to start with, since it might disappear after some merger takes place. The sign-up bonus is 25,000 points - I'm guessing these points would expire after a year?

There was a 35k bonus that expired last march..hotel points normally don't expire if there is some activity on the account in 24 months.

 

[Albort]

You should churn the Amtrak card..the one with the annual fee was giving out 30k points a few weeks back

i think ill just fly... haha. i got into the churning game late when chase was an amtrak partner. so sad... Even at $200, i could fly round trip on an airline... so its def a lot to consider.

 

[WDWRook]

Anyone know, if I cancel my spirit airline card, will my remaining miles expire? Don't really want to keep paying the annual fee on it.

 

[georgina]

So I thought I was ready to pull the trigger on the 2 SW cards, but I am a stay at home mom. I had read that you can include household income, but it asks for Source of Income and Employer. Any idea what to put? Also wondering if I should just do the CSR instead. We currently have no trips planned, but hopeful to make plans if I could get the companion pass. My husband currently has the CSR.

I didn't see anyone reply to your question, but I am also a non-working spouse, and applied and was approved for a SW card today (after being denied last fall because of too many new cards in the past 24 months). If you click on the income box, a pop-up says you can include money given to you by others to pay bills, so I just put our whole household income in there. For source I put 'spouse and investments', for employer 'none'.

 

[peel]

Sorry about kitty My pup ended up at an emergency clinic the weekend after I got my SPG card. Met over half the spend bonus that weekend. Fortunately she is doing better. Hope your kitty recovers.

Ouch. Emergency vets cost so much money just to walk in the door! I'm glad your pup is doing well.

@peel I hope your cat is better soon.

Thank you!

 

[calypso726]

For those collecting American Airlines miles and in need of luggage, packing cubes and what not. The AA shopping portal is at 14 miles/$ for Ebags today. I don't need anymore packing cubes as I have far too many in varying colors and sizes. I have already bought them for family as gifts in the past. I wish I needed packing cubes though but I am trying to stay away from the Ebags site. The struggle is real. Hi my name is Calypso and I am addicted to packing cubes

 

[hsmamato2]

For those collecting American Airlines miles and in need of luggage, packing cubes and what not. The AA shopping portal is at 14 miles/$ for Ebags today. I don't need anymore packing cubes as I have far too many in varying colors and sizes. I have already bought them for family as gifts in the past. I wish I needed packing cubes though but I am trying to stay away from the Ebags site. The struggle is real. Hi my name is Calypso and I am addicted to packing cubes

I JUST posted a love note about packing cubes on another thread lol when this post popped up..... (I bought Ebay cheapo straight from china ones) I LOVE them too!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

For those collecting American Airlines miles and in need of luggage, packing cubes and what not. The AA shopping portal is at 14 miles/$ for Ebags today. I don't need anymore packing cubes as I have far too many in varying colors and sizes. I have already bought them for family as gifts in the past. I wish I needed packing cubes though but I am trying to stay away from the Ebags site. The struggle is real. Hi my name is Calypso and I am addicted to packing cubes

So convince me I need some. What is the advantage?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Saved $54.00 on our Amtrak train to Montreal...forgot I had a companion fare coupon so once applied the total trip cost went from $388 to $338.00 roundtrip for 2 adults and 2 children. That $50 will more than pay for our Montreal Science Center tickets.

Looking at the Amtrak card for trip to Grand Canyon 2018. Can you explain the companion fare coupon?
When I look on Amtrak site, a family bedroom (2adults/1kid) is about 50k points. Would coupon reduce that?

 

[hsmamato2]

So convince me I need some. What is the advantage?

I roll my clothes- and put some in each cube. Since it's a nice square edged little bag, you fit a lot of things in,and keep it very compact. plus you can organize by type of clothes in each pack, like socks, etc. very very organized for traveling. I can fit a lot of clothes in 2 small bags. I'm a convert.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

For those collecting American Airlines miles and in need of luggage, packing cubes and what not. The AA shopping portal is at 14 miles/$ for Ebags today. I don't need anymore packing cubes as I have far too many in varying colors and sizes. I have already bought them for family as gifts in the past. I wish I needed packing cubes though but I am trying to stay away from the Ebags site. The struggle is real. Hi my name is Calypso and I am addicted to packing cubes

Hi Calypso, my name is eighty8keys and I'm addicted to packing cubes too. I have an Amex offer for eBags that is taunting me but I absolutely don't need any more. I love how I can take the cubes from my suitcase, set them in the drawers at my resort and be unpacked in very little time. Same for packing up. I take some empty ones to put dirty clothes in every day. Makes it easy to toss the clothes in the washer when we get home.

 

[havaneselover]

Anyone happen to know how chase codes purchases from park-tickets.com?

 

[MEM]

I roll my clothes- and put some in each cube. Since it's a nice square edged little bag, you fit a lot of things in,and keep it very compact. plus you can organize by type of clothes in each pack, like socks, etc. very very organized for traveling. I can fit a lot of clothes in 2 small bags. I'm a convert.

But they aren't waterproof, correct? I seem to recall they have mesh on one side? That's why I use SpaceBags - too many times my luggage has gotten wet.

 

[calypso726]

So convince me I need some. What is the advantage?

Well, for one thing, I have found I can fit more into my luggage when I pack stuff in the packing cubes first. It helps to keep things a bit more organized as well. This is very helpful when you are hotel hopping or packing for two different climates. Over the summer we went to Ireland for a week where it was in 50's (i'm from Florida so that is cold). From there flew to Budapest to go on the Adventures by Disney river cruise on the Danube where the temps were in the mid 70's. We had to pack for 2 climates. We also hopped around Ireland and stayed in 6 different hotels over 7 nights. So, we were living out of a suitcase for a week. Knowing exactly what items were in each packing cube made things much easier since we could pull out a cube, remove the clothing item for that day or activity and simply put the cube back in the suitcase. I can't imagine what digging through each suitcase each day and night, packing and unpacking everyday through clothing for two different climates would have been like. Plus, they come in pretty colors

Hi Calypso, my name is eighty8keys and I'm addicted to packing cubes too. I have an Amex offer for eBags that is taunting me but I absolutely don't need any more. I love how I can take the cubes from my suitcase, set them in the drawers at my resort and be unpacked in very little time. Same for packing up. I take some empty ones to put dirty clothes in every day. Makes it easy to toss the clothes in the washer when we get home.

Ugh, I have the same Amex offer on a few cards. But I really don't need any more packing cubes. Heck, I still have a few sets in the plastic wrapping. Still struggling to convince myself that we really don't need a few more medium sized ones.

I JUST posted a love note about packing cubes on another thread lol when this post popped up..... (I bought Ebay cheapo straight from china ones) I LOVE them too!

Oh I haven't seen those. Ok, I better stay away from Ebay too

But they aren't waterproof, correct? I seem to recall they have mesh on one side? That's why I use SpaceBags - too many times my luggage has gotten wet.

No they are not waterproof. While I haven't had any issues with luggage getting wet I can see how waterproof would be an advantage. Now I'm struggling to not go to Ebags and see if they carry SpaceBags

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Anyone happen to know how chase codes purchases from park-tickets.com?

No but if you're looking for WDW tix, undercovertourist.com is great & definitely codes as travel with Chase. Last minute travel also comes under travel.

 

[havaneselover]

No but if you're looking for WDW tix, undercovertourist.com is great & definitely codes as travel with Chase. Last minute travel also comes under travel.

Thank! I've used them in the past and they were great. Park-tickets.com has an explorer ticket for Universal which you can't currently get from Undercover Tourist--only through foreign ticket companies or if you buy a Universal package. I'm figuring they aren't coded as travel but was just checking to see if anyone has any first hand experience.

 

[afan]

I have the america air barclay card because it used to be us air. Now that I'm not living in a us air hub and it's switched to american, I'm flying barely flying that airline and would like to switch the card. Will barclay either downgrade it to their no fee card or switch it to their other travel card? I've never had experience doing this. I don't want to do it until after my trip in May because I am flying american clt to bwi because it was the cheapest nevermind that I wanted to fly into BWI. I want the free checked bag for that one flight and my annual fee isn't due until June.

Living back in Seattle, I may go back to Alaska's card, but I hate doing business with BofA, which is my hesitation. I finally cancelled the last card I had with them last week, even though it was my 2nd oldest. I paid it off with a lump sum a few years back and the reduced my CL from somewhere in the 3-5k range to $500. I wasn't amused. I'm still catching up with paying off debt from being unemployed and then underemployed for a few years and once the balance was gone the card went. I'm working on paying down the others and most likely won't add anything before I get rid of another balance, but I have been using the barclay card for vet bills, online purchases etc and paying all new charges and the current amount due each month. There are some things I won't use a debit card for and sometimes I want to be able to control when the money comes out of the bank.