I love credit cards so much!

[wendow]

On the AMEX offers one time I didn't get the email immediately and realized that I had never added the offer. I quickly got on and added it (so after the purchase). The rebate still posted but that might have been a fluke. I felt lucky I still got it.

I used the Walmart grocery offer three days ago. Never got an email and while the transaction has posted, the $20 credit still hasn't posted. I checked my offers ( I always double check before I use!) and it is in my added offers.

What's interesting though is I realized I get NO emails from Amex. Not an online statement, notification of transactions, nothing. I don't get paper statements either. So I do need to go take a look at my account to figure out why I'm not receiving anything from them.

 

[wendow]

On the AMEX offers one time I didn't get the email immediately and realized that I had never added the offer. I quickly got on and added it (so after the purchase). The rebate still posted but that might have been a fluke. I felt lucky I still got it.

Oh yeah, I didn't even think about that with Etsy. I was going to use the Etsy offer last night but decided not to. Wouldn't most sellers go through PP? Did you pay with your Amex but through PP?

 

[CoP Luv]

Thanks to everyone who as contributed to this thread by asking and answering tons of questions! I have been reading this for almost a year and am now at the point where I want to book something but am a little nervous.

Trip Details: Summer 2018

Option 1 (the only one I have really researched):
United Flights from ORD to Amsterdam, possible Amsterdam - Milan - ORD to include the open jaw on the back end of the trip - 100k miles each with economy for all except business coming home - $4k total for economy if paying cash
Amsterdam for 1-2 nights/Cruise from Amsterdam for 7 nights/Lake Como/Milan for 3 nights

Option 2:
Flights from ORD to Copenhagen round trip
1-2 nights precruise/11 Night Cruise

_____________________________

I have about 185K UR points from CSR/Freedom, 5K points on United.

For the first option, we are about 10K miles away from what we need for our flights. I picked United because its a hub, was easy to see award availability, and really all I know. I haven't had too much luck looking for award flights that were not round trip. I am completely open to other carriers though, but not sure what the best way to look for all of the segments that I would want. I checked Award Hacker this afternoon, but not having much luck.

I am in a little bit of a panic due to United's award charts changing in about a month. Since we are 10K away from what I would like to book, I would need those points to post by the end of my statement closing in October if I want to book by October 31st, right? My statement closes the first week of Oct. I could book our cruise with CSR and if I calculated it correctly, it would give us 10,052 points. I looked at booking on United Cruises and it would give me an additional 10K miles, but didn't specify if I would get those after sailing or even if my sailing was park of the "select dates". We have only ever booked a cruise with a travel agent.

1. Would you wait to book United award travel after November 1st or before just so I am not panicking to get this all booked this week?
2. Should I be using my UR for United/flights or would there be a better use of points?
3. Has anyone used an online 3rd party cruise vendor such as United Cruises, Chase Travel, etc.? How was your experience.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

[jhoannam]

Who has the Club Carlson credit card... Is it a good idea? I am planning a summer 2019 trip to Europe and most of the american chain hotels don't have good availability for families of 4 (unless we split 2/2).

 

[calypso726]

Who has the Club Carlson credit card... Is it a good idea? I am planning a summer 2019 trip to Europe and most of the american chain hotels don't have good availability for families of 4 (unless we split 2/2).

Dh and I each have our own. Love that card! Haven't paid for a hotel stay in Europe yet and have always used the Club Carlson card to stay at a Radisson Blu. Can't beat an annual 40,000 points.

 

[jhoannam]

Dh and I each have our own. Love that card! Haven't paid for a hotel stay in Europe yet and have always used the Club Carlson card to stay at a Radisson Blu. Can't beat an annual 40,000 points.

Am I understanding there signup bonus correct? 50K points after first purchase, 35K after $2,500 in 90 days and then 40K anniversary points?

 

[kmc8826]

Oh yeah, I didn't even think about that with Etsy. I was going to use the Etsy offer last night but decided not to. Wouldn't most sellers go through PP? Did you pay with your Amex but through PP?

No on my particular situation it was last December to an offshoot of Oriental Express Mindware. When the pending statement came in as billed Oriental Express that is when I added the offer. With paypal if it is coming up "paypal Etsy" it might be worthwhile to do an online chat with them or message them and ask if it is going to count.

 

[kmc8826]

Just signed DH for the new Delta Platinum Skymiles Business card since it has the 70,000 miles bonus again. After the drama to get the CIP a couple of months ago I am still in shock how much easier getting the Amex business card was. Now I will have three companion certificates coming my way (2 with personal platinum and now this one). We are stuck with Delta and have to fly 5 of us so although the Delta cards are not the best objectively they totally work for us.

 

[Dugette]

Just signed DH for the new Delta Platinum Skymiles Business card since it has the 70,000 miles bonus again. After the drama to get the CIP a couple of months ago I am still in shock how much easier getting the Amex business card was. Now I will have three companion certificates coming my way (2 with personal platinum and now this one). We are stuck with Delta and have to fly 5 of us so although the Delta cards are not the best objectively they totally work for us.

Thanks for the info! If I got the business version, would it count against my 5/24 (waiting to get back under)? Was it just an online app and approval?

 

[Albort]

Did anyone else get a strange email from Marriott? I am wondering if I'll still get the football points
Apologies — we weren’t able to award points for your recent post. Here are the most common reasons why this might have happened:

• Your Marriott Rewards account is configured to earn miles instead of points. Please change this in your Marriott Rewards account settings.
• You have reached the annual maximum of 2,000 points earned through #MRpoints. You can earn points through #MRpoints again starting next year.
• Your Marriott Rewards account may no longer be active. Please contact Marriott Rewards Customer Care to resolve the issue.

I got the email after i tweeted again today. They also said the promotion is no longer available via reply to tweet. I think we just have to keep track of it manually now.

Thanks to everyone who as contributed to this thread by asking and answering tons of questions! I have been reading this for almost a year and am now at the point where I want to book something but am a little nervous.

Trip Details: Summer 2018

Option 1 (the only one I have really researched):
United Flights from ORD to Amsterdam, possible Amsterdam - Milan - ORD to include the open jaw on the back end of the trip - 100k miles each with economy for all except business coming home - $4k total for economy if paying cash
Amsterdam for 1-2 nights/Cruise from Amsterdam for 7 nights/Lake Como/Milan for 3 nights

Option 2:
Flights from ORD to Copenhagen round trip
1-2 nights precruise/11 Night Cruise

_____________________________

I have about 185K UR points from CSR/Freedom, 5K points on United.

For the first option, we are about 10K miles away from what we need for our flights. I picked United because its a hub, was easy to see award availability, and really all I know. I haven't had too much luck looking for award flights that were not round trip. I am completely open to other carriers though, but not sure what the best way to look for all of the segments that I would want. I checked Award Hacker this afternoon, but not having much luck.

I am in a little bit of a panic due to United's award charts changing in about a month. Since we are 10K away from what I would like to book, I would need those points to post by the end of my statement closing in October if I want to book by October 31st, right? My statement closes the first week of Oct. I could book our cruise with CSR and if I calculated it correctly, it would give us 10,052 points. I looked at booking on United Cruises and it would give me an additional 10K miles, but didn't specify if I would get those after sailing or even if my sailing was park of the "select dates". We have only ever booked a cruise with a travel agent.

1. Would you wait to book United award travel after November 1st or before just so I am not panicking to get this all booked this week?
2. Should I be using my UR for United/flights or would there be a better use of points?
3. Has anyone used an online 3rd party cruise vendor such as United Cruises, Chase Travel, etc.? How was your experience.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

AwardHacker suggest going through BA, save u 10K per ticket. Flying AA, EI, QR(direct), BA(probably high surcharge). UA will cost u 10k more. Would suggest looking on both sites! QR is probably one of the best airlines out there, so would suggest that one!
you should look into Chase Travel. My friends find those tickets cheaper, for example, they are flying to Seattle. BA would charge 15k per person, while chase portal was 15900 for 2 of them rt.

edit: did a quick check. its like 35k points rt, but had a pretty big fuel surcharge. UA was like 60k. Ive also heard of Virgin Atlantic and their award flight is worth it, but i wasnt able to generate it. Should be like 40-50k range but also has a high fuel surcharge.

edit2: chase portal will cost u $660 or 42k pts with CSR's 1.5 discount. cheapest via iceland air. FYI date selection was June 11th week.

 

[kmc8826]

Thanks for the info! If I got the business version, would it count against my 5/24 (waiting to get back under)? Was it just an online app and approval?

My understanding is that it does not count. In fact, I applied through his current Amex account and it didn't even ask for his social security number. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

There was a part on the online application that said EIN number but then also said not necessary. So basic online application that just wanted income, extra income, and then business income. I said $1000 which is probably pushing it a bit but pretty close. I think it would have been instant approval but he has a fraud alert on his account so it came up call this number. Once we went through those hoops (Amex had to call him back on his number which is on the fraud alert) they told him he had been approved and that they would expedite the card and it should come in 2 or 3 days. Throughout process no questions at all about business. He hates to talk to them but trusts me to do it but I was still glad I did it when he was around and not at work. First purchase is to book the tickets to MCO for late January and Disney After Dark. So yippee!

 

[calypso726]

Am I understanding there signup bonus correct? 50K points after first purchase, 35K after $2,500 in 90 days and then 40K anniversary points?

Yes. The anniversary points post each year on your card anniversary.

 

[mefordis]

True to what everyone said, I got my Chase Inc denial letter today.

"Too many requests for credit or opened accounts with us."

Can someone refresh my memory - what should have been my waiting period before applying to this card? I think I would have gotten it if I had waited but for how long after applying for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (which was denied due to my CSP)?

Oh, the humility. So, I'm waiting how long to apply for the next card? What date would you say, and which should it be? United is my hub - perhaps the Chase United card?

Thanks so much!

 

[mhartman09]

So we got DH's denial letter in today for the CIP. I was surprised to see the denial was actually due to 5/24. I keep a spreadsheet with all our card info, but I must have missed something. Going to pull up CK to see if I can figure it out. Hoping whatever I missed is a card that will be dropping off soon, so maybe he can go for the CIP again once it does. I can't believe I missed something....LOL.

 

[CoP Luv]

AwardHacker suggest going through BA, save u 10K per ticket. Flying AA, EI, QR(direct), BA(probably high surcharge). UA will cost u 10k more. Would suggest looking on both sites! QR is probably one of the best airlines out there, so would suggest that one!
you should look into Chase Travel. My friends find those tickets cheaper, for example, they are flying to Seattle. BA would charge 15k per person, while chase portal was 15900 for 2 of them rt.

edit: did a quick check. its like 35k points rt, but had a pretty big fuel surcharge. UA was like 60k. Ive also heard of Virgin Atlantic and their award flight is worth it, but i wasnt able to generate it. Should be like 40-50k range but also has a high fuel surcharge.

edit2: chase portal will cost u $660 or 42k pts with CSR's 1.5 discount. cheapest via iceland air. FYI date selection was June 11th week.

Thanks for looking into this for me.

When you search Award Hacker, do you search all one ways since it is a multi city trip and not round trip? I have not looked into BA yet. Would you suggest I search award travel through BA's website or is there another site that I should look through? I checked AA before and it was no help at all (no award travel for the middle leg, Amsterdam to Milan). How would QA fit into all of this?

I was planning on using miles for the purchase, outside of the fees, since a cash economy ticket would be $2k. Miles on United would be 100K and that would give us our desired business class on the way back home.

Again, thanks for you time!

 

[belle1986]

I booked my Disney resort through the Chase portal. Do I call the wholesale line or regular line to add DH to the reservation?

 

[Ava]

I’m getting impatient waiting to see if I’m approved for the CIP, and it’s only been two days since I applied. I called to check the status this morning and it still just said they’d let me know by mail within 30 days. Didn’t really expect more info this quickly, but I’d really like to know so I can move on to the next if I’m not approved. This is my first time applying for a business card, and I’ve never not been instantly approved for a personal card, so this waiting is killing me!

 

[Albort]

Thanks for looking into this for me.

When you search Award Hacker, do you search all one ways since it is a multi city trip and not round trip? I have not looked into BA yet. Would you suggest I search award travel through BA's website or is there another site that I should look through? I checked AA before and it was no help at all (no award travel for the middle leg, Amsterdam to Milan). How would QA fit into all of this?

I was planning on using miles for the purchase, outside of the fees, since a cash economy ticket would be $2k. Miles on United would be 100K and that would give us our desired business class on the way back home.

Again, thanks for you time!

awardhacker shows the flight numbers and route for what u could potentially book. I wasnt able to generate any other stuff but BA, you may have to call BA and ask to see if they could book it. i did round trip searches, i wasnt sure of what your criteria was, but when i was looking at the BA tickets, there was an option for stopover. Im not sure how much more miles it would cost.

 

[Lain]

True to what everyone said, I got my Chase Inc denial letter today.

"Too many requests for credit or opened accounts with us."

Can someone refresh my memory - what should have been my waiting period before applying to this card? I think I would have gotten it if I had waited but for how long after applying for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (which was denied due to my CSP)?

Oh, the humility. So, I'm waiting how long to apply for the next card? What date would you say, and which should it be? United is my hub - perhaps the Chase United card?

Thanks so much!

Wait 31 days from the date of your last application for any card because CIP is subject to 0/30.

If you apply for the United MPE next, that will push you out another 31 days for the CIP. Which one do you want first?

I believe you could apply for the CIP in ~31 days, then apply for the United MPE before another 30 days are up because as a personal card the United card is only subject to no more than 2/30. But then you'd have two minimum spending requirements more or less overlapping.

Before you apply for the United MPE, you'll want to look into how to get targeted for the higher 60k miles offer right now. Don't shortchanged yourself by applying for the 40k public offer.

Look at the CSR and CIP denials as a lesson. You've submitted 2 applications in the last 30 days so you're frozen out of both Chase personal and business cards for now. Again, do some research and formulate a strategy that works for you.

 

[mefordis]

Wait 31 days from the date of your last application for any card because CIP is subject to 0/30.

If you apply for the United MPE next, that will push you out another 31 days for the CIP. Which one do you want first?

I believe you could apply for the CIP in ~31 days, then apply for the United MPE before another 30 days are up because as a personal card the United card is only subject to no more than 2/30. But then you'd have two minimum spending requirements more or less overlapping.

Before you apply for the United MPE, you'll want to look into how to get targeted for the higher 60k miles offer right now. Don't shortchanged yourself by applying for the 40k public offer.

Look at the CSR and CIP denials as a lesson. You've submitted 2 applications in the last 30 days so you're frozen out of both Chase personal and business cards for now. Again, do some research and formulate a strategy that works for you.

Thanks. I learned my lesson and I'm trying to formulate a strategy. My goal is to accumulate as many United miles as possible as soon as possible.

I think I'll apply for the CIP again in November, then the United card in early January. Do you know how I can try to get targeted for the higher mileage bonus? I'll then talk my husband into applying for his own Chase United card. In total that's about 160k bonus points that I believe transfer 1 to 1 to United. That, combined with the points we already have I think will give us over 200k which will buy two first class tickets.

With both of us having United cards we would get 4 club passes a year so the entire family could get into the lounge.