I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 (see first page for add'l details)

[DogCat]

Not sure how Chase views retired folks, but both my kids got approved for Freedom cards (not student cards) whilst they were college students with part-time income of less than $20k with credit scores in the low 700s.

Thanks! My college kid got the Discover student card last year. As soon as the year is up, I was planning for her to apply for a regular (non-student) card. Based on that, I guess she should try for one of the Freedom cards.

 

[djmeredith]

I don’t have a Costco membership. Is that required? I’ve pretty much talked myself into not using Turo. It just seems too risky. I actually just checked Alamo. You’re right, it was about $70 less than enterprise. If it were up to me, we’d stay at Aulani and never leave, but my family tends to get stir crazy so we will definitely venture out some. I know we plan to go to Pearl Harbor. Thinking about Kualoa Ranch. DS wants to go skydiving. We are all overwhelmed and don’t know what to do, but also trying to stay budget friendly, which seems impossible at the moment. DH says this may be a once in a lifetime trip so we should not try to be cheap, but I think we are going to love it there and will definitely go back again. This is why we have DVC after all !!

Yes, a Costco membership is required. I've saved enough on car rentals over the past year to justify my membership cost. I also saved a lot on my prescription eyeglasses. It may not be worth it to you though.

 

[djmeredith]

I think this is what we'll do, after all. We could swing the vacation package, but I'm having trouble spending so much when we can do the same things with a bit more work on our own by getting premier access for rides, etc. Since we haven't been before, we also don't want to focus too exclusively on Fantasy Springs but we'd feel like we need to take advantage of unlimited rides there to make the vacation package worth it. I just want to try to do everything at least once over the 3.5 days we'll have at the parks.

I hope we're able to get a room at the Miracosta, though. Don't care about the view much, just want to be able to walk out onto Disney Sea.

I booked Miracosta Harbor View for my May trip. You should be able to get a room if you are not picky about which room you get. I practiced several nights before my booking night. The Harbor View go instantly (or at least they did before the FS hotels opened). The rest of the rooms seemed to stay available for at least a few minutes on most nights. Often, a room category will appear to have sold out, but become available again if you keep refreshing. I was able to get Harbor View by doing the refresh method. I think it was maybe 15-20 minutes after the release time when a room popped back up. I just kept refreshing over and over. Good luck!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I booked Miracosta Harbor View for my May trip. You should be able to get a room if you are not picky about which room you get. I practiced several nights before my booking night. The Harbor View go instantly (or at least they did before the FS hotels opened). The rest of the rooms seemed to stay available for at least a few minutes on most nights. Often, a room category will appear to have sold out, but become available again if you keep refreshing. I was able to get Harbor View by doing the refresh method. I think it was maybe 15-20 minutes after the release time when a room popped back up. I just kept refreshing over and over. Good luck!

Was the harbor view worth paying more? I feel like we'll hardly be in the room. I guess I'll just see if I can snag it when the time comes. Trip is November

 

[djmeredith]

Was the harbor view worth paying more? I feel like we'll hardly be in the room. I guess I'll just see if I can snag it when the time comes. Trip is November

Personally, it was worth it to me even though it was a big splurge. They cancelled the night show both nights we were there, so we didn't even get to enjoy the benefit of watching that from our room. I would still do it again. The convenience of having the hotel right there in the park is the most important thing, We got super lucky and our room was close to the elevators by the hotel's park entrance. So we were in our room within 2 minutes of entering the hotel from the park. All that being said, if the cost is a financial stretch and not just a splurge, I would just do a regular room.

I highly recommend practicing the booking process several times as your booking date approaches.

 

[elgerber]

So once again, I need an MSR. Where does all my darn money go LOL? I saw the DoC article on the rumored CIP increase. I haven't had a CIP in my name since early 2020. I got my last Chase in mid January 2024. I have 4, yes 4, open Inks. Only one of which was opened a year ago. The others were all opened less than 12 months ago. If I close the one from May 2023, do you think I'd have a shot at the CIP when it becomes public (assuming it comes via support links)? I think they have been more open with the preferred than the other two lately, from what I have read. Thoughts?
I have an upgrade offer from Delta from Gold to Plat, and I really need more Delta miles, but it's only 20k for a $3k spend. No way I could hit $11k with both cards. I guess I could wait a month or two on the Ink if it stays that long, and start the Delta immediately. I have a vet bill coming next week, not a huge one though. My biggest spends are coming in mid-late September when insurance on both cars/house and property taxes are due.

 

[afan]

It had been over 13 months since my last retention on my gold card and the af will post in August so I chatted. It was only 10k for 2k in spend but I took it. I wasn't planning to cancel and I need something until I can get a new card.

The drain work is finally happening tomorrow but since I didn't know when it was going to happen until Monday I had met more of my Ink msr with other stuff. It's why I used the nll Surpass earlier than I'd intended. I'll finish the ink and meet the Surpass with the drain work. They charge a small fee for using a cc so I figure they can split it.

I still have my 6 months car ins to pay next month so I wanted something hence the retention. The one I got on the gold in 2022 was 20k for 2k so given some offers I've seen lately the 10k was ok enough.

 

[djmeredith]

I would love to take advantage of the upcoming CIP elevated offer, but I am not sure my pacing will let me. I'm 3/25 (I think). Here are the cards I have received in the last 24 mos:

Sept 2022 AmEx Plat
Nov 2022 CIC
Feb 2023 Hilton Aspire
July 2023 CIP
Sept 2023 CIC
Nov 2023 SW Personal
Dec 2023 SW Biz
April 2024 AmEx Biz Gold

That is 3/24, right? Should I close the first CIC and/or the CIP when it is after the 1 year mark?

 

[amcc]

I need help with Amex retention and Hilton questions:

- My Amex Plat was opened in April 2019 and the annual fee was charged at that time. I've received one retention offer over the years (dumb me). Is it worth asking for a retention offer 2 months after my annual fee posted? I don't have any other Amex charge cards although I need to at the least PC this to a lower annual fee card.

- Delete...ETA: Further googling indicates I will get the points for the cash stay if I make the reservation under my HH account. I'll keep myself as the lead in all 3 rooms. Diamond should get me a 100% bonus for the cash stay.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I would love to take advantage of the upcoming CIP elevated offer, but I am not sure my pacing will let me. I'm 3/25 (I think). Here are the cards I have received in the last 24 mos:

Sept 2022 AmEx Plat
Nov 2022 CIC
Feb 2023 Hilton Aspire
July 2023 CIP
Sept 2023 CIC
Nov 2023 SW Personal
Dec 2023 SW Biz
April 2024 AmEx Biz Gold

That is 3/24, right? Should I close the first CIC and/or the CIP when it is after the 1 year mark?

Yes you are 3/24…I would close the CIC from 2022 if you aren’t maxing out the 5x categories

 

[afan]

I need help with Amex retention and Hilton questions:

- My Amex Plat was opened in April 2019 and the annual fee was charged at that time. I've received one retention offer over the years (dumb me). Is it worth asking for a retention offer 2 months after my annual fee posted? I don't have any other Amex charge cards although I need to at the least PC this to a lower annual fee card.

- Delete...ETA: Further googling indicates I will get the points for the cash stay if I make the reservation under my HH account. I'll keep myself as the lead in all 3 rooms. Diamond should get me a 100% bonus for the cash stay.

You can ask, just know that if you accept one you have to keep the card open for 13 months after you accept it so you lock yourself into another af.

I like to try it 2 to 3 months before the af hits because it gives you the potential for 2 to 3 years of retention offers before you get stuck with one offer and 2 as. If that makes sense.

 

[mmmears]

Nope, packages are 1 or 2 nights, that's it. Can't add a night to it, have to book it separately.

Huh. I was listening to a podcast and I heard 2, 3, and 5 day packages. Good to know. I think I want 3 nights (which I guess is impossible as a package).

Read up about meds and Japan, if it's something you need you both want to make sure you can bring it and that you don't need approval before.

You can buy access similar to lighting lane at wdw. I bought access for beauty and the beast and splash (I didn't want to wait in the long line). I also bought a spot for the electrical parade because I didn't want to stake out a spot. It was my first electrical parade at any park so it was important for me. I can't remember if I bought any others, they were also doing free fp on some rides for the 40th and I utilized that too. Not sure if that's still there, I stopped following everything after my trip. TDR Explorer is the best resource.

So they have something like LL that I would have to work at in the park? I think they are doing it so much better at DLP where you can just buy it ahead of time and then not have to worry about those rides. Oh well. I have a ton of research to do when I finish my 2024 travels.

The paid fast pass is called Premier Access. We used it for Beauty and the Beast, Splash, Baymax, Fantasy Springs rides, Soarin, and Tower of Terror

And this is something I have to work to get once in the park? Or can I buy it in advance?

So I'm going to Fiji thru SFO- at this point I can't find clear info online, so I'm planning to take the minimum I can live with for 2 weeks, and I'll purchase smaller bottles special for this trip and carry each one separately...(I take a lot of targeted supplements for some health stuff) I usually carry it all in a multi container that holds everything compactly.

I honestly haven't had any issues with pills being in a pill box (in other words, I have traveled without the original bottles but with the paperwork that came with them). It shouldn't be a problem at SFO, especially with GE which gives you precheck, but as others have said it is important to look up the rules for the country you're planning to visit. My issue is that I travel with some liquid meds that won't fit in that one quart bag. SFO never has any issues with my gallon bag but LHR did.

Paris Planning - Flights

Any Virgin Atlantic experts? We have MR and UR to transfer.

I have been watching Air France for awhile and it was 88k one way for business for days leading up to when we want to travel. Our booking window opened and now it's 154k (+$200)! I looked into Virgin Atlantic and there are a few options in the weeks leading up to when we want to go (end of May), but they haven't released award space yet for the end of May. Only one day a week is available for Air France or KLM at 48.5k (+$300). Seems too good to be true to book the same flights at a third of the points cost. What am I missing? When Virgin shows Upper as a booking category is that equivalent to Business or First for AF or KLM?

United wants 395k one way business. ONE WAY! British Airways keeps giving me an error or they are not showing any AA space. Is that normal?

My advice is to check again. AF and KLM play with the number of points they are asking for and it often goes up and down. That happened with our 2023 and 2024 flights on Flying Blue. With the 2023 return flight, the points cost never went down (it was bouncing between something like 200k to 300k per person one way) so I pivoted and booked BA through LHR even though it wasn't the most convenient.

I would love to try VA, but they drop their flights so late in the game that I'm not willing to wait to book (and lose out on a BA or an AF flight for a reasonable number of points). The only time we booked VA it was for a return flight from Europe booked with one day notice (Covid evac at the beginning of the pandemic) so the flight was showing up by then. DD said VA Upper Class may have been her nicest flight out of KLM, AF, AA, and UA Polaris so I wanted to try it but I'm more a "bird in the hand" kind of travel planner.

I think this is what we'll do, after all. We could swing the vacation package, but I'm having trouble spending so much when we can do the same things with a bit more work on our own by getting premier access for rides, etc. Since we haven't been before, we also don't want to focus too exclusively on Fantasy Springs but we'd feel like we need to take advantage of unlimited rides there to make the vacation package worth it. I just want to try to do everything at least once over the 3.5 days we'll have at the parks.

I hope we're able to get a room at the Miracosta, though. Don't care about the view much, just want to be able to walk out onto Disney Sea.

What does the package give you other than 15 minutes of early entry? Sorry for the basic question. I'm trying to plan this trip (plus one this summer to Europe) and I'm a bit overwhelmed.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

@mmmears It's easy to see the packages on the website. Basically, 3 day tickets: Disneyland on day 1, Disneysea on days 2 and 3. Day one you get 3 fastpasses, Day 2 you get unlimited fastpass access to Fantasy Springs (the biggest draw, it seems, for most bloggers), Day 3 you get 3 or 4 fastpasses to Disneysea (can't remember exactly how many. Two nights at a resort with breakfast included. There's a second version that also includes a character meet and greet.

ETA:: You can't add a third night to the package, but if you book the night separately and get the same room category, you can ask at the hotel to be allowed to stay in the same room.

 

[Haley R]

Huh. I was listening to a podcast and I heard 2, 3, and 5 day packages. Good to know. I think I want 3 nights (which I guess is impossible as a package).

So they have something like LL that I would have to work at in the park? I think they are doing it so much better at DLP where you can just buy it ahead of time and then not have to worry about those rides. Oh well. I have a ton of research to do when I finish my 2024 travels.

And this is something I have to work to get once in the park? Or can I buy it in advance?

I honestly haven't had any issues with pills being in a pill box (in other words, I have traveled without the original bottles but with the paperwork that came with them). It shouldn't be a problem at SFO, especially with GE which gives you precheck, but as others have said it is important to look up the rules for the country you're planning to visit. My issue is that I travel with some liquid meds that won't fit in that one quart bag. SFO never has any issues with my gallon bag but LHR did.

My advice is to check again. AF and KLM play with the number of points they are asking for and it often goes up and down. That happened with our 2023 and 2024 flights on Flying Blue. With the 2023 return flight, the points cost never went down (it was bouncing between something like 200k to 300k per person one way) so I pivoted and booked BA through LHR even though it wasn't the most convenient.

I would love to try VA, but they drop their flights so late in the game that I'm not willing to wait to book (and lose out on a BA or an AF flight for a reasonable number of points). The only time we booked VA it was for a return flight from Europe booked with one day notice (Covid evac at the beginning of the pandemic) so the flight was showing up by then. DD said VA Upper Class may have been her nicest flight out of KLM, AF, AA, and UA Polaris so I wanted to try it but I'm more a "bird in the hand" kind of travel planner.

What does the package give you other than 15 minutes of early entry? Sorry for the basic question. I'm trying to plan this trip (plus one this summer to Europe) and I'm a bit overwhelmed.

You can’t buy passes in advance with a room only reservation. I think vacation packages give you some and you get to choose what times you want. I’m not really sure though since we didn’t do a package. When we got into the park we bought our first premier access (paid) and I believe you have an hour before you can book your next one. The app will tell you though when you’re eligible for another pass. We also booked our first priority pass (free) right when we entered the park. You have to be scanned into the park to do all of this.

You get the 15 minutes Happy Entry if you do room only also. So you don’t have to book a package for that.

 

[amcc]

You can ask, just know that if you accept one you have to keep the card open for 13 months after you accept it so you lock yourself into another af.

I like to try it 2 to 3 months before the af hits because it gives you the potential for 2 to 3 years of retention offers before you get stuck with one offer and 2 as. If that makes sense.

Thank you. I think I'll wait until early next year (and add a reminder to my phone) to ask for one as your strategy makes perfect sense.

 

[Nala83]

Huh. I was listening to a podcast and I heard 2, 3, and 5 day packages. Good to know. I think I want 3 nights (which I guess is impossible as a package).

So they have something like LL that I would have to work at in the park? I think they are doing it so much better at DLP where you can just buy it ahead of time and then not have to worry about those rides. Oh well. I have a ton of research to do when I finish my 2024 travels.

And this is something I have to work to get once in the park? Or can I buy it in advance?



What does the package give you other than 15 minutes of early entry? Sorry for the basic question. I'm trying to plan this trip (plus one this summer to Europe) and I'm a bit overwhelmed.

I suggest checking out the Tokyo Disney forum. It's a wealth of knowledge around vacation packages, all of the different passes, booking strategies, etc. Lots of great help over there, including several just-back reports in progress!

Also know that things in Tokyo will likely continue to evolve between now and next year, as things with Fantasy Springs settle in and adjustments are made.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Has anyone done a long layover through Tokyo, changing airports? I am considering a 19 hour layover, which lands in NRT and departs from HND. Also not sure on logistics.... would we have to transport any checked luggage between airports, or is that handled for us?

Tbh, the only reasons I'm considering this is to be able to stock up on Japanese food items we miss, and my DH loves the shoes available in Japan so we'd like to hit up an ABC Mart. Last trip we bought 7 pairs of sneakers for an unbelievably affordable price, and he still talks about wanting to go back just to shop. So the only reason I'm considering this awful flight schedule/layover is to fill a suitcase really. Is this ridiculous? LOL. I have a feeling it's a lot of hassle. We would probably transit from NRT to HND, leave our stuff in an airport hotel, and then go out in the evening to buy some stuff, and early the next morning before our flight departs as well.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Has anyone done a long layover through Tokyo, changing airports? I am considering a 19 hour layover, which lands in NRT and departs from HND. Also not sure on logistics.... would we have to transport any checked luggage between airports, or is that handled for us?

Tbh, the only reasons I'm considering this is to be able to stock up on Japanese food items we miss, and my DH loves the shoes available in Japan so we'd like to hit up an ABC Mart. Last trip we bought 7 pairs of sneakers for an unbelievably affordable price, and he still talks about wanting to go back just to shop. So the only reason I'm considering this awful flight schedule/layover is to fill a suitcase really. Is this ridiculous? LOL. I have a feeling it's a lot of hassle. We would probably transit from NRT to HND, leave our stuff in an airport hotel, and then go out in the evening to buy some stuff, and early the next morning before our flight departs as well.

Nothing is ridiculous if it makes a family member happy!

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Nothing is ridiculous if it makes a family member happy!

LOL, I'm trying to tell myself this to get behind it. I don't even wanna ask DH, I already know it will be an emphatic YES. I'm trying to be the voice of reason and logic here, haha.

 

[sky13]

Has anyone done a long layover through Tokyo, changing airports? I am considering a 19 hour layover, which lands in NRT and departs from HND. Also not sure on logistics.... would we have to transport any checked luggage between airports, or is that handled for us?

Tbh, the only reasons I'm considering this is to be able to stock up on Japanese food items we miss, and my DH loves the shoes available in Japan so we'd like to hit up an ABC Mart. Last trip we bought 7 pairs of sneakers for an unbelievably affordable price, and he still talks about wanting to go back just to shop. So the only reason I'm considering this awful flight schedule/layover is to fill a suitcase really. Is this ridiculous? LOL. I have a feeling it's a lot of hassle. We would probably transit from NRT to HND, leave our stuff in an airport hotel, and then go out in the evening to buy some stuff, and early the next morning before our flight departs as well.

I've done similar in London in the past a couple of times (Gatwick to Heathrow, though with even shorter layover of about 10-12 hours or so during the day, so no hotel room). Would get to Heathrow, leave luggage at left luggage storage (need to pay fee), then go into London and do a bit of shopping, stock up on chocolate and all the snacks I love, have a meal somewhere. Then head back to Heathrow, get luggage, pack stuff I bought into luggage, and check in for next flight.

I've not done this in Tokyo but would be very happy to spend a few hours shopping in Tokyo!

I transited through both Narita (T1) and Haneda (T3 I think) last year (didn't enter Japan either time). Will add that I found the duty free selection extremely good in both airports (may be cheaper than downtown - not sure as I think you can also get tax refund for items purchased elsewhere), and bought a slightly ridiculous amount of snacks there which went into my carry on for the flights! Off the top of my head stuff they had included Tokyo Banana, Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory, Kit Kats, Hangetsu, Press Butter Sand, Royce, Shiroi Koibito and then also stuff where I don't remember the brands of but various savoury crackers, chocolate coated strawberries, matcha snacks, mochi, ramen... Basically the selection was really good and I had so much fun shopping for all these snacks (especially as I didn't actually enter Japan)!

But would also love to actually enter Tokyo, I have a very long shopping list of items I want in Tokyo!

Edit to add - although no idea about the transportation logistics needed to get between Narita and Haneda though...