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

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Hilton price match success:
My sister’s family is joining for our trip to Hawaii, but they don’t take advantage of cc points, and have been burned trying to meet the spends. A stay at the Grand Wailea was out of budget for them, so since I am planning the trip, I figured we’d just pay the difference between a reasonable rate and the Grand Wailea rate, since our room is free with points.
I booked their room directly with Hilton. Then I saw the same room on Orbitz for significantly cheaper, same terms, etc. Hilton has a price match policy that if you find the rate cheaper within 24 hours of making a ressie, they’ll honor the lower rate, plus discount it 25%. I called reservations, they confirmed all of the Orbitz conditions and adjusted the stay down $932!!!!
So yesterday our family saved nearly $4,000! My husband challenged me to $5,000 today...

 

[alryan]

Long post from a lurker. I recently left my high demand job to find more balance and am happily home with my kiddos while we remote school. In making this transition, my husband has been SOO supportive. His only question “will we be able to afford to travel?”
We have a trip to Hawaii for spring break 2020, which I considered canceling because it can be an expensive destination. Here’s how that expensive trip is now costing us very little:

Flights: We flew on Southwest this summer To FL The night before an agent called an offered is $400 pp to take another flight so they could keep capacity down. Five people on this ressie meant $2000. We even got the credit for my husband who flies on my companion pass.

So we used those credits and companion pass to secure nearly free flights to Hawaii on Southwest for Spring break.

Hotel score: I read a lusty post about staying at Grand Wailea in Maui on points. https://millionmilesecrets.com/guides/grand-wailea-hawaii-free-vacation-hilton-honors-points/
I had $100,000+ Amex points from Amex Plat signup awhile back. Transferred this to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio while they were offering a 40% transfer bonus. 3 nights at Grand Wailea is $2800 including all taxes and resort fees! I just had to score “standard room“ availability at this highly desired resort. And then, nothing. No availability. Almost nothing until the end of 2021.
Then I read a post about hotel alerts. A few weeks ago I set one up for this room type at Open Hotel Alert and BAM, yesterday it showed availability. So I scored $2800 in award rooms on Hilton for about $100,000 Amex points. And Amex Plat gives Gold elite status, so fingers crossed for an upgrade.
This thread is fun to lurk on and spark ideas, as are all of the point websites. Thanks all for helping each other’s travel dreams come true.

Now to score Aulani on the cheap????

Coming up- how I successfully Hilton priced matched to save $932 dollars!

I wonder if we are there the same time. I just happened to check my spam folder looking for something else and saw the alert from hotel alerts that they sent yesterday. So I was able to use a free night certificate and get 95K Hilton points back. Now fingers crossed for both of us that we actually get to take these trips.

Keep reading and asking questions, you will find you are able to travel as you'd like and still enjoy your more balanced life. Welcome!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Wow! 22? I've only ever had 5-6 on my cards but, use them is the key. I just have a habit of using my 3 favorite cards for almost everything - My NFCU Flagship, my Citi Visa at Costco most of the time, and my Amex Gold. The Marriott Brilliant claimed more spend this year and of course the CSP got it's 4K in one transaction. How soon will they let you product change a new card?

I'm not sure why that card has so many. My other cards have 1-13 offers. They Disney is the 1, clearly I use it a lot. DH has 21 offers on his CSP. Sadly most of them are useless for us. On DHs, the only one we might use are Clark's shoes, but I ordered shoes from shoes.com with a 15% from Rakuten.

I took it as an opportunity to use every single reaction

You and @Albort Thanks for the love.

 

[disneybirds]

In other news I spent a few hours today writing things down for my DH in case I die. Since I take care of everything he would be totally lost. He joked that he would have to run to the grocery store, etc for my MS. I said if you have a question just ask on here Also made sure to tell him not to close or tell any reward programs that I died, just continue using points until they are gone. Felt good to get it done.

I created an instruction document as well. It ended up being a long document, but hopefully I covered everything. It did feel good to get it done.

 

[Albort]

I'm not sure why that card has so many. My other cards have 1-13 offers. They Disney is the 1, clearly I use it a lot. DH has 21 offers on his CSP. Sadly most of them are useless for us. On DHs, the only one we might use are Clark's shoes, but I ordered shoes from shoes.com with a 15% from Rakuten.

You and @Albort Thanks for the love.

i was missing one... :\

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

i was missing one... :\

@Albort - glad we’re still on the same page after all these years my guy!!

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

I wonder if we are there the same time. I just happened to check my spam folder looking for something else and saw the alert from hotel alerts that they sent yesterday. So I was able to use a free night certificate and get 95K Hilton points back. Now fingers crossed for both of us that we actually get to take these trips.

Keep reading and asking questions, you will find you are able to travel as you'd like and still enjoy your more balanced life. Welcome!

We’ll be there at the end of March. I have been toying with:
5 nts instead of 3 to get 5th night free
And/OR
Applying for Hilton

i just got two Bonvoys so am working through the spends, so I want to be careful not to over-commit myself with the Aspire. But I also know now would be the time to get it to maximize the calendar year airline credit.

We have zero debt, paid off our house this year, blah, blah, thanks to that old crazy unbalanced, high demand job. Now we just need to adjust to our new lifestyle. I’m beginning to realize how much we spent in convenience and how our wants are still getting met, just in different ways. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Anyone do this status match with Frontier? Southwest Companion pass showed as eligible for the 100k tier. Rarely fly frontier but I could see more domestic trips in our future...

https://thepointsguy.com/news/match-frontier-airlines-elite-status/

 

[Alexle2007]

Not sure why but Hilton generously upgraded DH to Diamond status.

 

[happ]

Anyone do this status match with Frontier? Southwest Companion pass showed as eligible for the 100k tier. Rarely fly frontier but I could see more domestic trips in our future...

https://thepointsguy.com/news/match-frontier-airlines-elite-status/

It stinks that they charge a fee for a status match.

 

[Judique]

We have zero debt, paid off our house this year, blah, blah, thanks to that old crazy unbalanced, high demand job. Now we just need to adjust to our new lifestyle. I’m beginning to realize how much we spent in convenience and how our wants are still getting met, just in different ways. Thanks for the encouragement.

This was my experience upon retirement. It's still different for everybody but getting your time back is priceless!

 

[Judique]

Offer I see today on my old SPG Bonvoy card:

Spend $50 or more, get $40 back. Up to 2 times (total of $80).
AT&T TV
EXPIRES
12/31/2020
Add to Card

 

[Disneyonmymind]

Now that the 1.5 UR deal is over from Apple/Chase, I am thinking I can achieve equal/better results by using CSR to buy Apple GC at grocery store and then do PYB. This would also enable me to purchase some gifts at the local Apple store instead of having to wait for the longer shipping times. Is my math correct?

 

[jenmsmith]

I applied for a CIC last week and just saw the card show up in my account this morning! Now to work on that $7,500 MSR...

 

[becauseimnew]

Now that the 1.5 UR deal is over from Apple/Chase, I am thinking I can achieve equal/better results by using CSR to buy Apple GC at grocery store and then do PYB. This would also enable me to purchase some gifts at the local Apple store instead of having to wait for the longer shipping times. Is my math correct?

Yup!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I applied for a CIC last week and just saw the card show up in my account this morning! Now to work on that $7,500 MSR...

Congrats

 

[becauseimnew]

I was approved for CIC 11/16... I still don’t have the card and I really need it today. I really didn’t think it would take this long to arrive, should have had it expedited.
Oh well, I’ll just have them split the payment on 2 cards.

 

[Disneyonmymind]

I was approved for CIC 11/16... I still don’t have the card and I really need it today. I really didn’t think it would take this long to arrive, should have had it expedited.
Oh well, I’ll just have them split the payment on 2 cards.

It took a long while for DD's CSP to arrive also. We didn't have it expedited because she didn't need it immediately and thought it would be here quickly anyway. We were wrong!

 

[havaneselover]

I got another 10% off offer on gas and groceries on my WF Rewards Visa (up to $40 back).

 

[becauseimnew]

It took a long while for DD's CSP to arrive also. We didn't have it expedited because she didn't need it immediately and thought it would be here quickly anyway. We were wrong!

I should have known better... oh well, I just went ahead an pulled the trigger on the Plat card. Hopefully it FedEx gets here before we leave for Universal tomorrow.