I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[platamama]

So here is a minor question.... will my American flight show up in my American account and app even though I booked it through BA? It would be handy dandy to have it on the AA app but I don't see it yet and it's been a few hours. I have no idea if that's normal.

It's been a few years so my recollection is hazy, but I think you should see it in your AA account. I'd give it 24 hours. Congrats on getting a good redemption!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

AA and JetBlue partnership. Wonder if we'll be able to use AA miles on JetBlue soon...

This is a very interesting development...

Here’s a link for those who want to read a bit about it:
http://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...ce-for-Customers-in-the-Northeast-NET-ALP-07/

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Is anyone here from Wisconsin or familiar with Wisconsin Dells? Just asking because we're considering it for a quick family trip next month. Long story short, I work in a PA nursing home. If we go to one of about 18-20 states, I have to come back and quarantine 14 days before going back to work. We are already going to be in SC the last week of July for softball's junior olympic cup for DD, so I'm stuck with a 14 day quarantine after that. During those 2 weeks we want to squeeze in a family trip- I had already scheduled vacation time for one of those weeks before all of this came about, so I'm only missing an extra week of work. Problem is, it was for the second week of what is now my quarantine time, and it was to WDW. If we keep that, then that adds two more weeks of quarantine and I just can't do that to my facility. So we're looking for a state that's not on the quarantine list. Also, looking for a place without a mask requirement that is for everywhere you go- indoors and outdoors. Mask requirement or not, we will wear one anywhere we can't distance appropriately, but I don't want to have to wear it 24/7. A friend of mine mentioned the Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells and I see it's got great reviews. Also it seems like there is a nice assortment of outdoor activities we could do along the Wisconsin River. But I've never been anywhere near Wisconsin so I know nothing about it. I would appreciate anyone's insight/experience, or any other thoughts on places to go that are in states I wouldn't have to quarantine when I return.

We live about 6hrs away from the Dells and go there twice a summer. Ill be there from Aug 4-14. It is a nice little town with a lot of touristy things to do. I think they are still about 50% occupancy for their hotels. We have been to Noahs Ark and it is a lot of fun. Haven't gone the last 7 years as mom's mobility issues have increased. We spend our first 3 days at the Wyndham timeshare of the Wilderness Resort and then continue to use or wristbands to use their pools. There are places that sell touristy packages for experiences. I avoid anything related to Mount Olympus and the lodging that gets you free tickets. It is my understanding that someone has purchased many of the area hotels and offers free Mount Olympus wristbands. I've heard on other boards that those hotels are not well run. The Wilderness only allows the guests that are staying there to use their water parks. The other two nicer water park hotels are the Kalahari and Great Wolf Lodge. However, depending on when you are there and how many you need, I likely will have extra wristbands for Wilderness. The Dells is four hrs from Chicago or MPLS so lots of people coming from those places. What would your dates be and how many traveling?

 

[happ]

@happ On my wife's card, we applied on the 3rd of June and had the card in hand using it on the 10th. Also, I applied for mine on July 13th and it showed up in my WF account yesterday. Should have it in hand next week.

Thanks!

 

[Minnie368]

I'm from MN and have been to WI dells a bunch of times. We've always had a great time! What do you want to know?

We live about 6hrs away from the Dells and go there twice a summer. Ill be there from Aug 4-14. It is a nice little town with a lot of touristy things to do. I think they are still about 50% occupancy for their hotels. We have been to Noahs Ark and it is a lot of fun. Haven't gone the last 7 years as mom's mobility issues have increased. We spend our first 3 days at the Wyndham timeshare of the Wilderness Resort and then continue to use or wristbands to use their pools. There are places that sell touristy packages for experiences. I avoid anything related to Mount Olympus and the lodging that gets you free tickets. It is my understanding that someone has purchased many of the area hotels and offers free Mount Olympus wristbands. I've heard on other boards that those hotels are not well run. The Wilderness only allows the guests that are staying there to use their water parks. The other two nicer water park hotels are the Kalahari and Great Wolf Lodge. However, depending on when you are there and how many you need, I likely will have extra wristbands for Wilderness. The Dells is four hrs from Chicago or MPLS so lots of people coming from those places. What would your dates be and how many traveling?

We would be going the first week of August. I think Noah's Ark Waterpark is a definite stop. We would look at some of the other water parks in the area too as both my kids love the water (even thought they're now 18 and 20 yo). Thanks for the heads up on Mount Olympus. I haven't read anything about the Wilderness Resort so I will look at that. I read somewhere about renting kayaks/canoes to explore along the Wisconsin River so would be interested to hear about info/tips for that. DD read something about a wizard quest or something like that?? We love escape rooms and she seemed to think it was something like that. Has good reviews but not sure if it's too juvenile?

 

[brownhaired_girl]

For those with SW flights, I'm noticing many of my flights have gone down in points.

 

[lsutigers03]

Fee free $200 MC will be back at Staples next week. The deal is on page 12 of the July 19-25 weekly deals.

https://weeklyad.staples.com/Staple...ader#!/store/2415704/promotion/Staples-200719

 

[happ]

This is a very interesting development...

Here’s a link for those who want to read a bit about it:
http://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...ce-for-Customers-in-the-Northeast-NET-ALP-07/

For some reason this disclaimer "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" struck me as sad and funny at the same time.

 

[Judique]

There was a blip on our local news (Wash, DC) that AA might be in trouble. Not sure how accurate the info was and didn't really catch details.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

For some reason this disclaimer "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" struck me as sad and funny at the same time.

If you’ve read any annual reports from public companies you’re probably used to that wording but I can totally see how it would sound funny the first time. Basically, as an investor you can’t take anything they just said to be true

 

[Artygal90]

After talking with my mom we’re canceling our August Universal trip We each have travel booked for September that would be impossible to reschedule if we got sick or had to quarantine after visiting Orlando and we want to be safe. I am thinking of rescheduling for October to hopefully be able to hit up HHN. Our Universal hotel is booked on an AP rate and I can get that refunded. Should I rebook 1) an AP rate with cash direct through Universal and get a $50 resort credit? Or 2) Book with URs at 1.5cpp through the Chase portal?

edit: removed my ? About PYB as I forgot travel wasn’t one of the categories

 

[wanderlust7]

Hi! My husband and I are attempting to get free business class flights to Paris next year using sign up bonus miles. Just wanted to get some extra eyes on my plan before we take the plunge. My husband is also concerned about his credit score, so if anyone knows how big of an effect the below plan would have, that would be great to help me convince him to do this . We both have credit scores around 790.

My credit cards:
01/16 - Wells Fargo Platinum $1.5k limit
02/16 - Discover IT - $16k limit
09/18 - Chase Sapphire Preferred - $17k limit

My husband:
01/16 - Discover IT
01/15 - First Bankcard Sheetz Visa

We really only use the two Discovers and the CSP, the other two are only open because they're our oldest accounts. Currently put about $1,000 a month across all the cards. All cards are paid off every month. We're looking to take a trip Aug 2021 from PIT-CDG (as long as COVID cooperates). American seems to be our best/easiest bet to earn the miles we need to get business seats.

The plan: my husband and I will each sign up for two cards - Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select and Barclays Aviator Red Mastercard. One of us will sign up for the Citi card first and hit the minimum spend ($2,500). We should be able to hit that in 3 months, could easily do it in 1 if we use Plastiq for rent. After we get that minimum spend, we'll sign up the other person for the Citi card (potentially refer one another?) and hit the minimum spend. After that we'll both sign up for the Barclays card. It does not have a minimum spend, we just need to make one purchase so that will be an easy one to hit.

We don't fly American often (we mostly do domestic travel on SWA), so we'll likely downgrade the Citi cards to no-fee cards. The fee is waived for the first year, so we'll make sure to do it before the fee hits. We'll likely cancel the 2 Barclays cards before the second year fee hits, since we won't really use it and the downgraded version gets pretty horrid returns.

Is this a solid plan? We don't plan on taking out any loans for at least 2 years, so I figured the small hit from applying and canceling would be fine and our scores would bounce back in that time period.

Barclay cards are true chip and pin, it might come in handy for things like ticket machines in Europe. Also, it may be better for your credit score if you downgrade and keep the card, it'll increase your available credit. Just be sure to remember to use it at least once a year or it might get closed.

AA releases seats at 331 days. I'm not sure what the pandemic has done to award availability, but usually you want to stalk the release. Hopefully you'll have all your miles by then.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

We would be going the first week of August. I think Noah's Ark Waterpark is a definite stop. We would look at some of the other water parks in the area too as both my kids love the water (even thought they're now 18 and 20 yo). Thanks for the heads up on Mount Olympus. I haven't read anything about the Wilderness Resort so I will look at that. I read somewhere about renting kayaks/canoes to explore along the Wisconsin River so would be interested to hear about info/tips for that. DD read something about a wizard quest or something like that?? We love escape rooms and she seemed to think it was something like that. Has good reviews but not sure if it's too juvenile?

For that age, if you are willing to do something inside I would highly suggest checking out The House on the Rock. It is a couple hr drive but pretty amazing. Also, for that age you might want to consider an annual pass at Noah’s Ark so you can play a bit and then do something else for the day.

 

[winnieofpooh]

Barclay cards are true chip and pin, it might come in handy for things like ticket machines in Europe. Also, it may be better for your credit score if you downgrade and keep the card, it'll increase your available credit. Just be sure to remember to use it at least once a year or it might get closed.

AA releases seats at 331 days. I'm not sure what the pandemic has done to award availability, but usually you want to stalk the release. Hopefully you'll have all your miles by then.

I didn't realize that about the Barclays card. I remember when I went to Ireland it was such a pain not being able to use my card some places. Maybe we'll just downgrade then to keep the chip and pin and hold onto it, even if the rewards are bad.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Oh ok... so no penalty/concern with closing prior to a year? (I don't have any relationship with Citi beyond this one card). Thanks!

No penalty for closing before the year. I was auto approved for another citi card a couple months ago.

 

[Albort]

So here is a minor question.... will my American flight show up in my American account and app even though I booked it through BA? It would be handy dandy to have it on the AA app but I don't see it yet and it's been a few hours. I have no idea if that's normal.

yes, it should issue u an AA reservation number and you can do everything via AA app.
i recall boarding a flight to Seattle using AA app which i booked via BA.

 

[mmmears]

Hi! My husband and I are attempting to get free business class flights to Paris next year using sign up bonus miles. Just wanted to get some extra eyes on my plan before we take the plunge. My husband is also concerned about his credit score, so if anyone knows how big of an effect the below plan would have, that would be great to help me convince him to do this . We both have credit scores around 790.

My credit cards:
01/16 - Wells Fargo Platinum $1.5k limit
02/16 - Discover IT - $16k limit
09/18 - Chase Sapphire Preferred - $17k limit

My husband:
01/16 - Discover IT
01/15 - First Bankcard Sheetz Visa

We really only use the two Discovers and the CSP, the other two are only open because they're our oldest accounts. Currently put about $1,000 a month across all the cards. All cards are paid off every month. We're looking to take a trip Aug 2021 from PIT-CDG (as long as COVID cooperates). American seems to be our best/easiest bet to earn the miles we need to get business seats.

The plan: my husband and I will each sign up for two cards - Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select and Barclays Aviator Red Mastercard. One of us will sign up for the Citi card first and hit the minimum spend ($2,500). We should be able to hit that in 3 months, could easily do it in 1 if we use Plastiq for rent. After we get that minimum spend, we'll sign up the other person for the Citi card (potentially refer one another?) and hit the minimum spend. After that we'll both sign up for the Barclays card. It does not have a minimum spend, we just need to make one purchase so that will be an easy one to hit.

We don't fly American often (we mostly do domestic travel on SWA), so we'll likely downgrade the Citi cards to no-fee cards. The fee is waived for the first year, so we'll make sure to do it before the fee hits. We'll likely cancel the 2 Barclays cards before the second year fee hits, since we won't really use it and the downgraded version gets pretty horrid returns.

Is this a solid plan? We don't plan on taking out any loans for at least 2 years, so I figured the small hit from applying and canceling would be fine and our scores would bounce back in that time period.

We've done that with AA in the past, but the last few years it's been very hard for me to find seats on AA with miles. In 2018 and 2019 my family flew AF to Paris (and then connected to other cities) and we had biz seats for 2020 to/from Paris, but those of course got cancelled. Personally I prefer to use Chase or Amex points since it gives us more flexibility since we can transfer points to a long list of airlines. If you want AA I would suggest booking ASAP.

ETA - I don't know enough about the cards you mentioned to comment, but hopefully someone who does will help with those options.

 

[winnieofpooh]

We've done that with AA in the past, but the last few years it's been very hard for me to find seats on AA with miles. In 2018 and 2019 my family flew AF to Paris (and then connected to other cities) and we had biz seats for 2020 to/from Paris, but those of course got cancelled. Personally I prefer to use Chase or Amex points since it gives us more flexibility since we can transfer points to a long list of airlines. If you want AA I would suggest booking ASAP.

ETA - I don't know enough about the cards you mentioned to comment, but hopefully someone who does will help with those options.

This is my first time trying to book with miles on AA, but I've been able to find availability for all the random dates I've been searching (Aug '20, Nov '20, April '21, May '21) so I'm hopeful that the same will hold true for our dates!

 

[alryan]

Is anyone here from Wisconsin or familiar with Wisconsin Dells? Just asking because we're considering it for a quick family trip next month. Long story short, I work in a PA nursing home. If we go to one of about 18-20 states, I have to come back and quarantine 14 days before going back to work. We are already going to be in SC the last week of July for softball's junior olympic cup for DD, so I'm stuck with a 14 day quarantine after that. During those 2 weeks we want to squeeze in a family trip- I had already scheduled vacation time for one of those weeks before all of this came about, so I'm only missing an extra week of work. Problem is, it was for the second week of what is now my quarantine time, and it was to WDW. If we keep that, then that adds two more weeks of quarantine and I just can't do that to my facility. So we're looking for a state that's not on the quarantine list. Also, looking for a place without a mask requirement that is for everywhere you go- indoors and outdoors. Mask requirement or not, we will wear one anywhere we can't distance appropriately, but I don't want to have to wear it 24/7. A friend of mine mentioned the Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells and I see it's got great reviews. Also it seems like there is a nice assortment of outdoor activities we could do along the Wisconsin River. But I've never been anywhere near Wisconsin so I know nothing about it. I would appreciate anyone's insight/experience, or any other thoughts on places to go that are in states I wouldn't have to quarantine when I return.

Hi! I’m from Wisconsin and have been to the Dells many times. Cases in the state have been going up so individual cities have started to require masks, but not the Dells that I’ve heard. I haven’t personally been to Noah’s Ark for quite a few years, but it was always fun. When we go we stay at the Wilderness and just use their water park. It’s your typical small vacation town, mini golf and shops. But it is also very pretty and you could outdoor activities as well.

DH may still have to quarantine as well, so I’m considering changing our August vacation from Florida to the Dells for a few days. Any other questions I can help with, let me know.

 

[alryan]

Instant approval for Aspire for meI was a little worried about the pop up since I just canceled the Hilton Biz this month, but I guess my 30k for 2 FNC helped.

When I started this 2 years ago I never would have believed that I’d be getting a card with a $450 AF and now I’ve got 2. I’ll use the $250 for restaurants and the airline credit for taxes on SW flights to the Dominican Republic with the next release date. And if Hawaii happens that FNC will get me a $650 room.