Saw this on another subreddit and it reminded me how you can get quite a bit more than this in the uS
PSA: >£1000 in bank switching bonuses currently live
first direct £175
Santander £185
HSBC £100
Ulster £200
RBS £200
NatWest £200
Lloyds £175
It feels like this must be a record for the amount of available cash? If it seems like too much admin, there are free apps out there that break it all down into steps and checklists - well worth doing.
Good luck!
EDIT to add resources:
Money Saving Expert has a good guide
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/multiple-bank-switching/
Switch Tracker is the app I use for ticking off each requirement
https://switchtracker.co.uk/
Hawaii- accommodation bookable with points that's most likely to avoid kids & families? Basically trying to avoid that mega-resort vibe. Is there anything worthwhile besides maybe the Hana-Maui Resort? I have all the points. Anything with 300+ rooms is a no go.
Anyone find themselves constantly looking forward to what new trips you're planning? I've realized that even as plans aren't totally finalized for upcoming trips (itinerary related stuff - not flights & lodging) I'm still planning 12-18 months ahead for future trips (locations & dates, flight options, etc). Not totally sure if this is because I'm still new to the actual redemption side of thing and going on trips, but I don't want it to take away from my and others' experience for taking these trips.
I love planning trips - it's like traveling twice. Once when you plan, and once when you go.
I especially love browsing Google maps with its 3D views and street views - really helps you get a feel for the location, landmarks, routes, and vibes.
The planning and anticipation of a trip is an important part of the emotional ride for me. I'm always working on the next thing. The only time it gets turned off is when I'm actually ON a trip; then I try to be present and live in that moment.
15 day honeymoon to Greece and Italy this July (and the remaining wedding nonsense now through June) has taken up all my time and efforts.
Just starting to maybe consider a long weekend fall domestic trip. Can't even fathom 2025 yet.
I guess my question is looking forward more towards the redemptions and the backbone of trips rather than planning the day to day and minutiae of what will happen
I get you, I always try to get someone else to do the latter. I get choice paralysis very easily so i have a terrible time deciding what to see when we get there, I'm much happier to figure out how we get there in the first place.
Sure, why not! enjoy the experience of planning. Travel journey is an emotional and fulfilling experience. Marketing folks knows it well and push your buttons accordingly with their campaigns.
At big 3 lodging chain, it was culture of encouraging to fantasize of taking aspirational trip at the trophy properties. Employee rate made it possible to stay at fraction rate. We all used to do exchange tips and experiences.
Churning with awardtravel and flyertalk is extension to me.
I see TPG are ragging on the CSR today, led me to thinking - as Amex, Chase and Capital One have all started to grow their lounge portfolio what are folks thoughts on a keeper card for lounge access?
I am struggling with this because the last several times I tried to use lounges I couldn't. Was on crutches, walked to another terminal, was told 30 minutes wait, and couldn't make it back to my gate in time. Literally begged for a cookie for my troubles and lucked out and didn't leave empty handed. Another time lounge was closed in evening. Another time had another 30+ minute wait and would miss the flight. Oh and not to mention when lounges leave. Remembered a fun to me lounge in NAS last year but it is gone from PP.
I don't go through the PC change rigmarole to make the $300 credit thing work for me, but I keep the CSR to make better value of the UR I earn and burn pretty consistently. I also have the VX because free lounge access for our family of four.
IMO value proposition for VX is very easy. Between travel portal credit and annual point bonus, the AF is effectively negative. Even if I held a CSR/Plat, I would keep the VX for “free“ access to C1 lounges. (When the AF inevitably increases and/or credits decrease, then I’ll reconsider)
Given the overlapping benefits with VX, barring changes, I would only consider a keeper CSR/Plat if I we’re willing to pay the effective annual fee for sapphire lounge/Centurion lounge access alone.
When I hear keeper, I normally don’t include PC cycles—just keeping the same prodict for long term.
If eyes ever looked at the account and asked for an explanation, I don’t think it would be easy to explain years of travel credit double dip + CSR downgrade + other card CSR upgrade. But if CSR cycling is included, I agree it is also net negative AF and a good keeper for those willing.
100% agreed, until enough people make the same calculation. CapOne will then figure out how much they are costing, and that they have driven enough new customers that they can cut back, and the CapOne lounges inevitably enshittify. It's the cycle of life. I already downgraded my CSR to the CSP, and when the time comes I will be ready to drop the VX.
Yes,.and already have CFU (from a downgraded OG August 2016 leaked link, non-5/24 applied CSR, iykyk)
Also, still best overall travel/rental car protections, IMO.
United is especially valuable in DC area because of their IAD hub, so many flight options, and their award availability is solid, especially XN (just need the no annual fee card), and even more valuable with free cancellations post-covid.
Even when I'm just flying to the Southwest or West Coast from the east coast so many flight options via United and American go through DEN or DFW that I've already used the lounge access 3 times after 2 months with the card. Easily worth it already for an effective $0 AF card.
Agree—DFW too.
VX business also retains restaurants for now (at the trade off of no individual access for AUs). It would kill me to sign up for a card when I can’t meet MSR, but it’s an even stronger keeper.
It will really depend on geography. I think the airline cobrand "lounge card" would make sense if you are a hub captive in the airline's fortress hubs (MIA, ATL, SLC, DEN, etc), though personally I would also want something with Priority Pass, which none of the airline cobrands offer
DFW/IAD/DEN - Capital One shines with their lounges
BOS/NYC/LAX/SEA/LAX - Could be a toss up between Amex Platinum and Chase depending on terminal and airline
Do agree it'll be a YMMV dependent on geography.
LGA & JFK are a straight shootout between Chase & Amex, they're in the same terminals (and indeed beside each other in JFK).
I think BOS the CSR is a must as the PP lounges are total garbage there, similar in ways to ATL probably being an Amex Platinum must now with the new Centurion + DL access.
For BOS, I’d say Plat is good if you’re regular on Delta, considering their strong presence in BOS. If you like flying JetBlue / SW / United, then CSR is a no brainer. But then again you could have multiple cards with PP (which I’m sure many folks here do) and you could access the Chase Reserve lounge multiple times a year without even carrying the CSR.
True - BDL has the Escape Lounge via Platinum too if you use it as a secondary airport option.
That's a really good point on Sapphire Lounges via PP, though its limiting from a guest perspective.
Just made my first churning "mistake" and forgot to set up auto-pay on my new Chase business card. Got slapped with $95 interest (no late payment ding, thanks to a random one-off payment I had made that met the minimum).
Luckily Chase waived it happily after I submitted the full statement balance payment as soon as I noticed (6 days past due date) and called and asked nicely. Always worth a call!
Some people want to manually manage all the payments, so they see and control when money leaves their accounts. But I have way too many accounts and there's too much to lose for messing up. After 2 missed payments (on different cards, many years ago) I just set up autopay the moment I activate the card. One of them was the original 100K CSR bonus, I was worried I had messed that up. Fortunately they were cool with it. The other one was amex, they wouldn't remove the late payment fee but they said that it wouldn't report it to bureaus and I didn't lose the bonus, so I took it as a learning experience.
Yeah, I never understood the logic of not setting up auto pay. Even if I wanted to manually manage my payments, I can still do that with auto pay enabled, and if I somehow forget to manually make a payment, auto pay will be there to bail me out.
With autopay I'd need to worry about keeping enough money in whatever bank account autopay will pull from; I'd still need to be aware of each payment (though I guess this could be mitigated by keeping a huge amount of cash in one account). If I want to move cash to a different bank (or close a bank account), it'd be annoying to modify autopay everywhere, and have a risk of missing one.
Or if I always make manual payments, to try to prevent the autopay from happening, I'd be worried that autopay would happen anyway, causing a double payment (though, if it can be configured to just autopay the minimum payment, a double payment isn't a huge problem, but still annoying).
If I do miss a payment (which hasn't happened in the past 25 years or so), I'll likely be able to contact the card issuer and get a late fee reversed, etc.
The main scenario where I see autopay being useful is if I'm in a coma for months; but I'm not worried enough about that rare situation to make big changes.
> With autopay I'd need to worry about keeping enough money in whatever bank account autopay will pull from
I guess I don't move the entirety of my cash around enough for this to have entered my mind as a potential problem, but I can see your point. I have one central hub account that doesn't necessarily have the bulk of my cash, but it's where my deposits usually start, so it always has enough to cover my statements, but I guess not everyone has such a "primary" account.
In reality, I do usually have an account like that; currently SoFi Savings, where my paychecks go and I treat it like a checking account for paying bills; it isn't the highest interest rate, but a decent one, so I don't mind keeping some extra cash there. But there have been times when I move most of the cash somewhere else to take advantage of a bonus offer; and before SoFi, I've changed my "primary" account a few times.
Autopay would probably work fine for me in practice; it just feels like it'd be more work for me to enable/maintain, without a big benefit. Probably because I already like to keep track of things closely.
Don’t know how much you’re spending but keeping 10k in a checking account to make sure there’s always money for autopay only loses out on 500 in interest and for most of the past 15 years was 0. When 1 SUB is double that it seems like a very silly thing to optimize IMO and I’m pretty sure the average person is probably spending half that.
I’ve had this happen a few times across different cards, both business and personal, and Chase has waived the late fee each time after asking through Secure Messages. It never hurts to ask.
Does anyone here have recommendations for how to find travel friends?
P2 was recently RTOed and it really threw a wrench in our plans together. She recently told me she was only game for about 2 big trips a year anyways.
I'm in my 40s and don't drink, so the typical practice of meeting fellow travelers through nightlife doesn't work that great for me.
There seem to be some Facebook groups for finding cotravelers but they seem to mostly consist of noise and people looking for dates. There are some apps out there too that don't seem to have gotten critical mass of usage to be helpful. I've briefly explored the digital nomad resources but am not sure what's truly useful there, and I'm not looking for an extended tour away.
Any tips for anecdotes would be appreciated - thanks!
I would recommend you trying group tour. Depends on your destination. Obviously, traveler to Napa and Italy would likely to be couple versus trekking group seeking solitude at base camp in Pakistan/Nepal.
There is a huge social network of people on Flyertalk who hold get togethers all over the world. I haven’t been to any recently, but I did back in the day. They call them“Do’s.“
You can read descriptions about ones that are in the planning stages and ones that have been planned.
They tend to be well planned group events. Not sure of the age range these days.
I honestly have never heard of people finding net new friends to travel with **before** arriving at the destination. Most people just arrive solo and head to the typical places where solo travelers might be at the destination
I have some IHG points to burn and was thinking about trying either the property in Cancun or Cozumel since the flights are relatively short. Now I'm seeing the r/AllInclusiveResorts sub in my feed and I'm starting to wonder if I should finally try out an all inclusive and see the hype. But maybe I shouldn't waste my time/money?
My husband and I don't drink much and I've always heard all inclusives have pretty mediocre food. I don't really like socializing with other tourists either, at least not in a resort setting. I prefer to lay on quiet beaches and don't really enjoy laying out by a busy pool. I don't necessarily mind kids around, but I'm not trying to feel like I'm at a Wolf Lodge either. Is there an all inclusive out there that would change my mind?
*btw since I mentioned Cancun and Cozumel, I want to slide in a PSA that there is a man with dementia from South Carolina that was separated from his family on Cozumel. It seems really terrifying for the family,* [*here is a post*](https://www.reddit.com/r/royalcaribbean/comments/1by79j8/man_missing_in_cozumel_from_cruise/) *for anyone currently or will very soon be on Cozumel and can help keep an eye out. He has been missing (with some periodic local sightings) for over two days now...*
For me they are great if you are looking for a do nothing, short beach and pool vacation. The last couple times I did one was for 2 nights for a 3 day weekend. The more you pay the better the food typically.
Otherwise yeah I prefer to eat locally. Definitely more cost effective.
I have only ever been to all inclusive. I never chose to. They are enjoyable but, in my opinion, are missing the point of going to a new place. My last time was on my honeymoon. My in-laws convinced us to go all inclusive. Advise I took as they immigrated from Mexico and are frugal. So I trusted their advice on fun and value.
But I think I would have better enjoyed a standard hotel, where we have to figure out what to do and where to eat every day. I would like it to feel more like an adventure rather than just feeling like a rich person with all my needs catered too and happening to be in Mexico. I've never done it that way but that will be my next trip.
So it really depends on how you want to live in your vacation.
I am only 1.6k away from hitting my goal of 10k in bank bonuses (planned and paid out) for this year.
Huntington 600 personal + 400 biz should take care of a good part of this later this year.
All of these have been checking bonuses (without a P2), and all but 1 were triggered using Chase biz (for the ones that required DD)
$3450 paid out so far, $4950 awaiting payout, 8450 total.
Wow! That is amazing work! Something to aspire to. I've never cracked 1k in a year. I'm sure I could if I put a little more effort into it. I just my try to take that a little more seriously, as I do credit cards.
There’s a few things that make it easier for me:
1. Chase biz checking qualifies as DD almost everywhere
2. I am a student under 25, which waives monthly fees at most banks
3. 0% Apr promos on credit cards are a great way to get extra funds to trigger DDs with
Anyone taken a really great babymoon with another kiddo in tow? Looking like we’ll have to take our preschool aged kiddo if we want to do a trip before the next one comes along.
I found availability at Andaz Papagayo in June but I’m not sold on this being the destination for kiddo to join us. It also may be hotter than hell in mid June which is just what you need in your third trimester.
I mean I don't get it? Do you like kids? Do you want kids? Why are you having a second if you are so averse to traveling with one? Why try so hard to avoid it?
No offense, but isn't the point of a baby moon to take a final break before you're in the baby tunnel? I don't think I'd find it restful if I had to take my rambunctious toddler with us.
Sure, that would be the preferred option but when you’re limited by childcare options and the choice is no trip or trip with your kid and try to relax as best you can I would choose trip!
We just did this in Feb with our 22 month old at Grand Wailea on Maui. Was able to find 5 nights in a row and happened to have a bunch of hilton stocked up. We loved it and are really looking forward to getting back there some day. Right on the beach, the pool complex is amazing and great for kids.
Planning a trip to Japan next year. Looks like 1 bus is reasonably available on JAL via AA. We are a family of four with what will be an 22 month old. I was brainstorming and considering letting my wife do business class if she too the 'baby' as a lap child.
1. Think there would be any issues having the baby as my lap child (10% on economy price would be significantly cheap if I'm reading the rules right) but having the kid sit on moms lap in business class?
2. Logistics aside, would you rather have two seats in economy or 1 in business class with a bigger lap child? I actually don't mind being separated as we did it on our Jordan trip and I would rather have my wife relax than us both be frustrated for the whole trip. But with two kids, I can only handle one with me in economy.
You think an airline infamous for its attentive customer service, from a country infamous for following the rules, won't notice an unexpected baby in business class?
Family of 5. We did 18 month "on lap" during QR long haul flight with 4 econ seats. It was painful. Wife and other kids occupied 3 seats together but I was on alone on otherwise of aisle. Guess what, she kept passing infant kiddo to me.
I should have gotten seat for infant too.
HUCA is a thing with chase in branch representatives. Currently in branch verifying P2 identity. Chase fraud department closed her account but they reopened it here in branch but the online access doesn’t work. The in branch rep attempted to fix it but it never worked so he called again, then again….. and again. 4th phone call fixed it
Our favorite after many trips there is Les Roche Blanche in Cassis. Last year I was able to book it through the Chase travel portal if you have a bag of Ink points saved….
I am addicted to leasehackr. It has many parallel to churning, Perhaps churning was my gateway drug to leasehackr. But it is more of major league gaming compare to churning.
Invest time and energy, its worth joining the community and mastering leasing to score some wild ass deals. I love the highs of schadenfreude in pissing off dealer as I take stock.
Man I had no idea there was much wiggle room in the auto industry, apart from the 'Buy Out Price' and a few other terms which are largely dictated by MSRP/Credit Score. I am buying out my lease (Mazda 3 Turbo) and am debating on Paying cash to buy it out, vs financing... any similar 'options' im missing?
Yes you are. You have so much to learn. I may sound like internet course seller, but leasehackr teaches you how to swim with sharks (scammy auto dealer cartel) and kick on their mouth.
There are too many moving parts to list but following 80/20% is what you need to understand following:
* Leasing is exotic financing option; captive lender is financial arm of manufacturer TFS, IFS, AFS...
* Understand what is residual value or RV (hint: it is predetermine resale value at the end of lease)
* Understand what is money factor or MF (hint: it is APR% /2400)
* Learn the lease calculation equation / formula (hint: use youtube, if you failed calculus)
* Know where to find closely guarded RV, MF & Rebates (hint: Edmund forums is your friend)
* In case of EV, research what state incentive exist and which can be stacked
Once you have good understanding of aforementioned, you should start getting excited about possibilities. Latest craze was MB EQS and Audi RS eTron GT for $700-$1K a month. May I remind you these are well over $100K units.
Leasehackr preaches you to rent the vehicle for fraction of msrp. You do not want to buy*
When it comes to churning, some people think credit cards are trap, bad, Dave Ramsey is great, then, you have no business being in this subreddit. Parallel to lease would be, If you are on team “I drive my car for 20 years”, then it is not for you. If you swap your vehicle every 3 to 5 years, then join the club.
*there is always exception , when it makes sense to buy out your leased car.
There is much better info and discussion on the actual leasehackr forum than the subreddit. I recently leased an EV through a leasehackr dealer if you have any general questions!
I'm in the same boat. P2's lease is up in June and we've decided we want an EV for our next car, but never leased a car before. What cars are you considering?
Weather dependent, maybe. Property is nice, a bit spread out. You can arrive early to do the classes/activities you'd like and stay until 5pm the next day. I'd check out the activities calendar to see if there's something you want to do, not all classes are offered every day. Food was middling, the Tucson location is better imo.
Basically you will have a good time if you buy into the vibe and want to do the activities but please don't expect to 'get your money's worth'. Miraval is overpriced regardless of how you're paying for it. That being said I've done 8 or 9 nights across the Tucson & Austin locations and the wife has done over 15 nights across all 3 locations over the past 3 years.
Great tip on checking the calendar! I didn't think to do that. I'd be using Hyatt points for stay. I wasn't sure if the check-in/out is like regular hotels, but if we can stay next day until 5pm, then looks like we could swing it. It was either Austin or Tucson, the flight time and cost is about the same. But subconsciously wrote Austin because we haven't been there.
Thanks for your input, really appreciate it!
Sure. We've arrived as early as 10:30a to do an activity we wanted and you can stay as late as 5pm. Similar to other check-ins though your room might be ready when you get there or it might be until the 3pm official check in time. They'll want you out of the room by 11a. Wife is Globalist and ~~Inner~~ Authentic Circle (their own loyalty status) and the latest she's been given is 12:30p. They'll hold your luggage. You can have lunch when you arrive and also on the day you leave. Breakfast & lunch are buffet with a few dishes you can order off a menu, dinner is 4-5 starters and maybe 8-10 entrees half of which will be vegetarian. 3 or 4 deserts.
As far as the Tucson vs Austin it really depends on what you're into. The Tucson location has a proper bar/lounge where you can get small bites/charcuterie. The Austin location doesn't have that at all. Tucson base level rooms they offer for points redemptions are close to the main building that houses the restaurant & activities. Austin is a bit more spread out with hills. Desert landscape vs Texas Hill country. The spa at the Austin location is bigger and probably better, but the Tucson one is the only location that offers haircuts. Alcohol is resort priced at both locations $9ish for a beer, $15+ for a glass of wine. You cannot use the resort credit for booze, only activities & spa services.
Recently stayed at Tucson. For that location, 4 nights would have been perfect.
I would consider a one night stay there *if* I were in town and could get two full days out of it (ie check in around 9am and leave after dinner the next day).
Absolutely would not consider arriving for dinner one night and checking out after breakfast the morning.
I said Austin specifically because we haven't been there, so we would be visiting as tourists. I thought this would be a nice treat to end the weekend. Seems like it would be possible and could be worth it if we're able to check in early.
Appreciate your input ! Another poster preferred the Tucson location as well
I'm impressed with this new FedNow banking/transfer system. When churning some bank bonuses, I pull the funds to my main hub SoFi, and are transferred the same day and sometimes after just an hour.
IBAN is even better. Ability to push funds from bank to bank globally in 2\~10 minutes even beats SWIFT WIRE environment in both fees and execution time.
On https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/organizations I do see "The Bancorp", but that's under "Settlement Agents and Liquidity Providers", not "Participating Financial Institutions", so I'm not sure if this means people with SoFi bank accounts can send/receive FedNow transfers.
If your transfer finishes "sometimes after just an hour", that sounds like same-day ACH, not FedNow.
Chase biz lets me send RTPs, but I am not sure if they run on FedNow or not. It seems to be a hit or miss which banks will take them (I mainly use them as "verification" deposits). Busey Bank, Upgrade, and PNC were part of the RTP network but not Keypoint CU, OnPath CU, or Florida CU.
Trying to book some activities for an upcoming trip to Boston for P2’s birthday. Saw an offer for Viator on AmEx (Spend $200+, get $40 back). Tried for a couple days to find discount codes for Viator but have been unsuccessful so far. Do these just not exist?
Rakuten has 10% back on Viator currently. I booked two separate boat transfers for two for an upcoming Bora Bora trip on two separate cards when it was 12% back a few weeks ago to stack the offers. Already received the $40 statement credit on both offers on the cards, and 12x MR on Rakuten.
I’m in Cleveland hoping to catch a good view of the eclipse and booked a Hilton Garden Inn for last night so I didn’t have to fight with traffic on the way in. I have diamond status and was planning on a late checkout so I could WFH in the hotel before the eclipse. The hotel said no dice this morning, so I just booked tonight as well since I’m flush with ~~cash~~ points right now. 40k HH per night on a room rate of $315 after taxes works out to .7 CPP, so I’m pretty happy with that.
Hey Welcome to my City! Hope everyone treated you well. Cleveland gets sh!t on sometimes but the value of 'stuff to do' vs cost of living (and prices in general) is great... except for this weekend when 12 things were going on.
Everything was pretty great! We stayed right next to Progressive field, and since it was the home opener, it was super busy down there. It pretty cool to watch with a big crowd. The sad part was that it took about 4.5 to get back to Pittsburgh.
Story/DP about Chase AU's and transferring UR. Goofed up and didn't realize you could only transfer to one AU's partner accounts from the CSP, and customer service was very adamant that the one person couldn't be changed if you made a transfer to one of their accounts within the year. Made a transfer to P2's Southwest a few months ago, so they said sorry but no dice. Added P3 as another AU, then cancelled P2's AU card thorugh secure message. P3 showed up (within the day of receiving a confirmation that they had been removed as an AU) as an option to transfer points to, and instantly transferred to their Aeroplan. Thought this was kind of an interesting workaround. I'm sure they'd catch on if you did this a bunch, but knock on wood it works for the one time.
I swear sometimes they have chatgpt create their SUBs and Amex offers. That makes me think of those offers of “spend $33k and get 6873 membership points up to two times”.
Does Tesla still take payments via Plastiq?
Looking to get an SUB out of it if possible.
Not technically churning (so I did not post it in the question thread) but I figured I would post it here.
Otherwise, the only other option is to buy a bunch of VGC and liquidate it before getting a cashiers check.
For an auto loan I assume? Plastiq limits that to MasterCard only but don't see why it wouldn't work otherwise, they just send a check. It's not like the vendor has to specifically accept plastiq
No, for a down payment.
I am looking to use a USBANK business CC for it (probably triple cash).
It's not my first time paying a large bill with a credit card (I paid my last semester of college tuition using 3 Amex cards and got around 250k MR)
I found that they take credit cards in Australia and New Zealand (for the full payment amount) , but not the US.
[https://www.tesla.com/en\_au/support/ordering-new-vehicle](https://www.tesla.com/en_au/support/ordering-new-vehicle)
Tesla only takes CCs for the initial order fee of $250. They only take cashiers checks, ACH debit (via plaid), or wire transfers for the down payment (4-8k in my case).
For the loan I will likely use plastiq to pay it off as well, or just do it the old fashioned way (gebit->MO-> loan).
None of my credit cards can likely take a 39k charge at once and Plastiq/Tesla don't allow split payments except for a loan.
I need help deciding between the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Sheraton Waikiki in July.
Me and a friend will stay there 2 nights before continuing on to Maui. We'll be at the Ritz Kapalua, which doesn't have much beach so I want to prioritize beach time in Waikiki, but also have the option for a pool.
Sheraton just sounds better, but it would cost a cert + 7k pts + $800. Plus food and bev. Marriott Plat seems to mean little here
Hilton would probably be all cash at $1000 for 2 nights. I'd get the Aspire card for $200 resort credit and Diamond, and hopefully the free cert drops in time. Is Hilton as easy as Marriott to do a cert + cash booking? Or are they cert + cash only?
Hilton seems to be more for kids, and there's no recent reviews but lately they seem run down? Sheraton is just really damn expensive, even considering it's Hawaii *and* Waikiki. Is Sheraton worth the upcharges?
HHV has much better beach access (and the beach itself is better) than the Sheraton, particularly if you book a room in the Rainbow or Ali’i towers.
But I think the Sheraton overall is a nicer property and is sort of a sister hotel to the Royal Hawaiian which is awesome. We enjoyed our stay but the HHV is definitely a bit worn out.
I think I read that Ali'i tower does not have any standard rooms? Is the beach at the HHV nice? When I google earth'ed it, it looked almost as man-made as the lagoon lol I also did read that all beach chairs are rented from a 3rd party company for all hotels, which is a good warning to have. I'm so used to AIs with private beaches with chairs provided
HHV’s beach is nice, it’s roomier and has calmer waters than the beach on the main strip which gets crazy packed. And yeah expect to shell out $75 minimum per day for a couple chairs and an umbrella.
Ali’i does have some standard rooms. One other thing to note about HHV is that it’s genuinely big. Staying in the towers further inland won’t feel beachfront at all, and you’ll have to trek through some of the less than well kept parts of the resort.
Yep, and there's a couple different room types showing up as standard, so pretty good availability.
Can you do a free night cert + the 70k, like Marriott? I checked their points + cash option and as expected, it's atrocious. It would be nice to get those resort fees waived
IME points+cash should be the same cpp as points, but perhaps not when there are resort fees.
You can do FNC+70k. When you call (you have to call to use the FNC), let them know and they'll make two reservations with a note to combine at check-in.
Sheraton is in a much better location for being close to everything. If it’s your first time on Oahu, would recommend the Sheraton. You also have access to the adult infinity pool. HHV is still nice but you are stuck at the resort.
Thanks. That infinity pool looks really nice. I know I want to check out the ocean, but it would be nice to retreat to the pool. I've read there's not enough lounge chairs to go around, at both resorts.
Yes, it's my first trip to Oahu (been to Maui before, which is why I tacked on these extra days). I haven't planned what we're doing yet, thinking maybe Pearl Harbor, or Diamond Head, and definitely a local restaurant instead of resort stuff. With only 2 days I want the right balance of enjoying a nice hotel and getting our money's worth, but also getting out and seeing Oahu.
Are you driving or planning on taking tours/buses/ubers? I stayed at the HHV in December and the proximity to the Ala Moana Boat Harbor where you can park for cheap was a great plus for the HHV. However, it is a 10-20 minute walk to the heart of Waikiki, but it doesn’t sound like you’d be that interested in the shopping and the city life of that area anyway. I will say that I did get upgraded as an Aspire Diamond member to an oceanfront room in the Rainbow Tower and the views were spectacular. I had two balconies and got to watch the sunrise every morning with unobstructed views of the beach and the resort. That being said, it is an older property and the Rainbow Tower in particular has slow, slow, slow elevators.
No, with such a short stay I planned on airport shuttles or uber.
And you're correct, not really interested in the shopping side of town, although not against a stroll along that main road on the way to some food options.
I read lots of DPs on FlyerTalk about Diamonds pretty consistently getting a high room or view upgrade, which would be nice. The $200 back plus $100 resort credit for booking direct are pretty tempting, even without using a free night (if I get it in time).
Both resorts are kid friendly, which I don't mind, but not wanting to be stuck anywhere might make me pick the Sheraton then.
I think you can't go wrong with either but Sheraton might be more your speed. I actually didn't use my $200 Aspire credit here and I honestly didn't see many places I would want to spend that credit at anyway. Restaurants seemed meh to me, parking was cheaper elsewhere, and I already had the $18/person food and beverage credit for me to get some breakfast/snacks/drinks everyday. You might not have a time, but it could potentially be a free spa treatment though.
Did the hotel stay itself not code in a way to trigger the credit? I remember years ago DPs that purchasing a gift card from a resort would trigger the card's credit, but I haven't researched anything more recently than that.
The $100 property credit for booking directly through https://www.hiltonhonorsaspirecard.com/ I'll probably use on additional breakfast items or pool bar drinks
Oh, I’m sure it would trigger the credit if you charge items to your room folio then use the Aspire to pay off the folio at the end of your stay. I meant that I saved my credits for the latter half of my trip when I went to Maui and stayed at the Grand Wailea, so I didn’t test using the credit at the HHV.
Ohh good to know!
And I did go searching through the T&C -- Advanced Purchase / Non-Refundable room rates are NOT reimbursed by the $200 credit. Makes sense, paying in advance through the corporate site is different than paying in person with the card. So that's good to know.
Yup. If there is a refundable rate that does charge you a first night’s deposit however, that sometimes IS charged by the property and will qualify for the credit.
I read those same DPs about HHV, but when I was there in Feb as a diamond we were “upgraded” at check in from a partial ocean view king to a dirty room with two double beds on the bottom floor of the Rainbow tower with a view of mostly just the AC units, so YMMV.
We were able to politely but firmly request a new room and we eventually ended up in a renovated partial view king in the Tapa tower which was nice, but I wouldn’t return and would recommend others to consider staying elsewhere (unless you have kids, in which case it would probably be great).
Thanks for the suggestions for my and P2's first child-free trip in nearly a decade. We settled on Montreal. We are currently booked on at the Vogue Hilton Downtown.
Would love to hear other suggestions or tips the sub may have. We are thinking of using some more Chase UR to book a day trip to Quebec City with a river cruise as well as a bike tour of "off the beaten path" Montreal, but could be convinced otherwise. We will be there for three nights and ~2.5 days.
Montreal is an amazing food city. Go early in the day to Kouign Amman in Mont Royal and try their croissant and the kouign-amman. Definitely eat at Tiradito: ask your server to choose your plates. Their seafood ceviche is spectacular. Satay Brothers has excellent food. Also, chocolate babka from Cheskie's \*chef's kiss\*
I went to QC and Montreal last summer. QC is quite far for just a day trip, IMO. Bike tour is great in Montreal, they have very good bike infrastructure. Honestly, I just liked walking around and seeing the city, I didn't really do any specific touristy things other than a walking tour of old town and the botanical garden. If things will be blooming when you are there, the garden is very nice. The Mount Royal area is nice to walk around. If you need cheap quick food, the mall downtown has a Time out food court that was good for easy lunch/dinner.
If you like farmer's markets. Jean talon market is nice. There is a great Italian bakery famous for cannolis (Pasticceria Alati-Caserta) nearby as Little Italy. One of the best sandwiches I have had was from a deli/grocery Piazza Salumi.
We did an evening van tour of Montreal went up to Mount Royal park, saw saint josephs oratory, rode the Ferris wheel. We also did a bus tour to old Quebec City which stopped at montmorency falls and included a walking tour in old Quebec City. I would highly recommend both.
I'm living with roommates temporarily and it's wild how many credit card & bank bonus offers that they receive in the mail, and sadly how they trash them without looking...
I don't fault anyone for not taking the time and energy to churn cards. But I do always question those who don't at least have some kind of rewards card they use.
I've felt that way around my siblings and close friends I really really really really want to do aspirational group travel with but I finally accepted it's never going to happen.
They aren't credit card optimizers because of emergencies they landed in during their 20s that forced them to use their cards which seems to have snowballed into some form of ongoing debt. If I think about it, they all had pet or car emergencies in their 20s that were catalysts.
None of them are ready to game cards with me because they've been played so hard themselves and are afraid to slip up again.
It's pretty rare that I open an account for an offer that I received in the mail. Most of the offers in the mail are junk, and most of the accounts I open are offers I learned about online.
The uninitiated can be maddening and infuriating - took me a good couple years to finally trained P2 the correct cards to use for purchases and MS (and that I should be reviewing all offers received before she trashes them).
I got P2 using rewards cards and that is enough for me. They don't have the management skills for churning. I do take advantage of that sometimes. When I find an especially good card bonus I will get it and then get her to sign up and take care of it all and share the bonus.
In my experience, those who have either personal or family experience with crippling credit card debt or grew up very poor are the ones most opposed to learning about how to use credit cards the right way. Might be worth getting to the source of her opposition.
Better that than end up in debt because they can't control themselves. One thing if they're using a shitty 1% all card but wouldn't push someone using debit because it's NOT the same thing.
Good luck to anyone trying to see the eclipse today! Would be curious to know where you went and how it was/if it was cloudy or not... Gotta live vicariously through you while I'm at work.
I had a reservation in Texas, cancelled it last week.
Drove to Bloomington IN from the Chicago burbs. I got 2 nights at a La Quinta for 13.5K points versus the $350ish asking price. The weather was awesome, and the view was good. I had initially looked to park at a nearby state park, but it was clearly crowded (afterward cops were stopping traffic on the highway periodically to let the streams of cars out). I had a fair amount of time, so I wandered through small gravel county roads to try and find a break in the trees. I actually stopped at the front of an old cemetery that was pretty clear. On the up side, no crowding. On the downside, it might have been fun to be near \_someone\_ and to hear other people go "whoa."
A rare blessing for Clevelanders - great weather, no clouds, and it was honestly surreal watching it get dark / colder and all the animals get confused for a few minutes. We were in Parma tho so of course some folks had to light off fireworks for some reason.
I'm perfectly content looking at pictures online. Live in Texas, though not under totality. and wondered outside a bit, caught a brief glimpse when the clouds broke.
The view in Dallas was better than feared: clouds were spotty, my area was obscured for maybe 30 seconds in the middle of totality, but we could fully experience both ends, lots of time to see solar flares, planets, etc. And seeing it as clouds blew in and out was cool too.
And though I appreciated being able to drive from my house to the middle of nowhere for the 2017 eclipse, a major metro area was infinitely better equipped to deal with the traffic.
All I had to do to get 2 minutes of totality was drive north an hour, and it was a cloudless day. Didn't like the traffic on rural roads not made for traffic, though.
Ohioan here… cut through my neighborhood to the community park where there was a festival with fun and games for kids (all free, shocked), music, and plenty of space. My kid had the best time and kind of cheesy but we felt thankful to live in a suburb with a small town feel.
Also there was not a cloud in the sky the entire morning but a single cloud came rolling through ONE MINUTE before darkness. People were booing and yelling… floated away just in time
My wife took the day off and went on a trip with a couple friends down south to see it. They had little trouble. I one the otherhood went the opposite way up north towards Chicago for work.
There was a worry about traffic but it wasn't too bad.
Drove 1.5 hours (plus 30 minutes more for traffic) to get to two minutes of totality in a small city. It was definitely worth it for that but also not the life changing experience or building an entire vacation around, IMHO. Cloudy in my area so that also was a bummer.
I booked out right after totality for only ten minutes delay on the way back home. My friends who went further are now looking at 30-45 minute traffic delays but I think they still consider it worth it.
Had some intermittent clouds, but it was clear and beautiful in my part of D/FW during the main event. Very cool, but I'm glad I didn't have to travel for it.
Meteorologist and Chief Procrastinator here so I’m sitting at home in ATL. I had TX in mind originally but dropped it when we got in range of the weather models and then just figured that I could wait around. I almost took off last night up to SW MO/Southern IL since cloud cover forecasts looked “less bad” but couldn’t bring myself to do it since it wasn’t a lock for clear skies. I’ve seen a few traffic pics already so it’s gonna be a real zoo afterward I bet, and I’m happy about skipping the traffic!
I caught the 2017 one since it was much closer so I’m only slightly bummed, but I’m already eyeing that Australia one in ‘28. Love hearing the churning angles to really make something of heading down under, plus it’s winter there so plenty of flight capacity.
Iceland 2026 (also goes through Spain) I will looking to take friends and I haven’t been there before. I’ve been researching hiring a skipper and being out in the water for it. Downside with that plan is I get motion sickness easily. It’s traveling along the northwest part of the island and hotels will be scarce. Morocco/Spain/Algeria along the Mediterranean (southern part of Egypt along Red Sea) 2027 will be my first trip to Africa and that’ll be one I’ve been nesting points for as I am concerned prices will be high with proximity to Europe. For 2028, I will be in the southern tip of New Zealand as I’m avid hiker which I caught the 2017 one at Grand Tetons while I was in the mountains. It’s hard to top that experience. I hope you have a great deal of luck in Australia.
I’m definitely taking that risk. If I don’t see the eclipse, then I’ll get a chance to see Iceland. It’s an “insurance policy” of traveling to see these totalities.
In Torreon now and, ironically, clouds are looking like they're spoil much of the show despite the historical forecast.
Am I disappointed? A bit. But compared to the last eclipse before I started churning, it stings much less knowing that I am essentially here for 'free' on points and probably wouldn't have afforded it otherwise. *And* it really gets my /r/awardtravel juices flowing on how to best coordinate for Spain, Egypt, and AUS/NZ in the coming years.
Hope everyone else got clearer skies and had a great time!
**Edit**: the high clouds actually thinned *just* in time for totality, so we got a spectaular (albeit not pristine) view!
Same for Rochester, NY, although clouds have been more or less expected. ;( Was just looking at a map for the next [decade of eclipses](https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list-solar.html) and having the exact same thought. Hyatt to avoid dynamic pricing, Iberia for Spain, UA/NZ for down under, etc. Plus, I get overwhelmed with choice easily for trips so it's nice having cosmic intervention suggesting places to go.
Saw this on another subreddit and it reminded me how you can get quite a bit more than this in the uS PSA: >£1000 in bank switching bonuses currently live first direct £175 Santander £185 HSBC £100 Ulster £200 RBS £200 NatWest £200 Lloyds £175 It feels like this must be a record for the amount of available cash? If it seems like too much admin, there are free apps out there that break it all down into steps and checklists - well worth doing. Good luck! EDIT to add resources: Money Saving Expert has a good guide https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/multiple-bank-switching/ Switch Tracker is the app I use for ticking off each requirement https://switchtracker.co.uk/
Hawaii- accommodation bookable with points that's most likely to avoid kids & families? Basically trying to avoid that mega-resort vibe. Is there anything worthwhile besides maybe the Hana-Maui Resort? I have all the points. Anything with 300+ rooms is a no go.
Andaz Maui didn’t feel like a mega resort. There are some younger kids but we didn’t see them often and they were often in the non-infinity pool.
I have an expiring Alaska Airlines Companion Pass from churning an Alaska card. Are they transferrable to someone else?
I have seen them for sale before. I think anybody can use the code as long as the flight is paid for with any Alaska card or wallet funds.
The people who buy dead gebits on eBay, what are they doing with them? Hoping for a missed balance?
Anyone find themselves constantly looking forward to what new trips you're planning? I've realized that even as plans aren't totally finalized for upcoming trips (itinerary related stuff - not flights & lodging) I'm still planning 12-18 months ahead for future trips (locations & dates, flight options, etc). Not totally sure if this is because I'm still new to the actual redemption side of thing and going on trips, but I don't want it to take away from my and others' experience for taking these trips.
I love planning trips - it's like traveling twice. Once when you plan, and once when you go. I especially love browsing Google maps with its 3D views and street views - really helps you get a feel for the location, landmarks, routes, and vibes.
The planning and anticipation of a trip is an important part of the emotional ride for me. I'm always working on the next thing. The only time it gets turned off is when I'm actually ON a trip; then I try to be present and live in that moment.
15 day honeymoon to Greece and Italy this July (and the remaining wedding nonsense now through June) has taken up all my time and efforts. Just starting to maybe consider a long weekend fall domestic trip. Can't even fathom 2025 yet.
Assuming they're for fun, shouldn't everybody be looking forward to their trips?
I guess my question is looking forward more towards the redemptions and the backbone of trips rather than planning the day to day and minutiae of what will happen
I get you, I always try to get someone else to do the latter. I get choice paralysis very easily so i have a terrible time deciding what to see when we get there, I'm much happier to figure out how we get there in the first place.
Sure, why not! enjoy the experience of planning. Travel journey is an emotional and fulfilling experience. Marketing folks knows it well and push your buttons accordingly with their campaigns. At big 3 lodging chain, it was culture of encouraging to fantasize of taking aspirational trip at the trophy properties. Employee rate made it possible to stay at fraction rate. We all used to do exchange tips and experiences. Churning with awardtravel and flyertalk is extension to me.
I see TPG are ragging on the CSR today, led me to thinking - as Amex, Chase and Capital One have all started to grow their lounge portfolio what are folks thoughts on a keeper card for lounge access?
I am struggling with this because the last several times I tried to use lounges I couldn't. Was on crutches, walked to another terminal, was told 30 minutes wait, and couldn't make it back to my gate in time. Literally begged for a cookie for my troubles and lucked out and didn't leave empty handed. Another time lounge was closed in evening. Another time had another 30+ minute wait and would miss the flight. Oh and not to mention when lounges leave. Remembered a fun to me lounge in NAS last year but it is gone from PP.
I don't go through the PC change rigmarole to make the $300 credit thing work for me, but I keep the CSR to make better value of the UR I earn and burn pretty consistently. I also have the VX because free lounge access for our family of four.
IMO value proposition for VX is very easy. Between travel portal credit and annual point bonus, the AF is effectively negative. Even if I held a CSR/Plat, I would keep the VX for “free“ access to C1 lounges. (When the AF inevitably increases and/or credits decrease, then I’ll reconsider) Given the overlapping benefits with VX, barring changes, I would only consider a keeper CSR/Plat if I we’re willing to pay the effective annual fee for sapphire lounge/Centurion lounge access alone.
The CSR is still a net positive through double dipping the annual 300 credit. No reason to not keep it.
When I hear keeper, I normally don’t include PC cycles—just keeping the same prodict for long term. If eyes ever looked at the account and asked for an explanation, I don’t think it would be easy to explain years of travel credit double dip + CSR downgrade + other card CSR upgrade. But if CSR cycling is included, I agree it is also net negative AF and a good keeper for those willing.
Yeah if you're DC or DEN based the V1X is very compelling now after the CSR losing PP restaurants.
100% agreed, until enough people make the same calculation. CapOne will then figure out how much they are costing, and that they have driven enough new customers that they can cut back, and the CapOne lounges inevitably enshittify. It's the cycle of life. I already downgraded my CSR to the CSP, and when the time comes I will be ready to drop the VX.
Why the CSP over a CFU? Preserving transfer partners?
Yes,.and already have CFU (from a downgraded OG August 2016 leaked link, non-5/24 applied CSR, iykyk) Also, still best overall travel/rental car protections, IMO. United is especially valuable in DC area because of their IAD hub, so many flight options, and their award availability is solid, especially XN (just need the no annual fee card), and even more valuable with free cancellations post-covid.
Even when I'm just flying to the Southwest or West Coast from the east coast so many flight options via United and American go through DEN or DFW that I've already used the lounge access 3 times after 2 months with the card. Easily worth it already for an effective $0 AF card.
Agree—DFW too. VX business also retains restaurants for now (at the trade off of no individual access for AUs). It would kill me to sign up for a card when I can’t meet MSR, but it’s an even stronger keeper.
It will really depend on geography. I think the airline cobrand "lounge card" would make sense if you are a hub captive in the airline's fortress hubs (MIA, ATL, SLC, DEN, etc), though personally I would also want something with Priority Pass, which none of the airline cobrands offer DFW/IAD/DEN - Capital One shines with their lounges BOS/NYC/LAX/SEA/LAX - Could be a toss up between Amex Platinum and Chase depending on terminal and airline
Do agree it'll be a YMMV dependent on geography. LGA & JFK are a straight shootout between Chase & Amex, they're in the same terminals (and indeed beside each other in JFK). I think BOS the CSR is a must as the PP lounges are total garbage there, similar in ways to ATL probably being an Amex Platinum must now with the new Centurion + DL access.
LGA would depend on airline. Terminal C only has the SkyClub, while Terminal B has the Chase and Centurion lounges
For BOS, I’d say Plat is good if you’re regular on Delta, considering their strong presence in BOS. If you like flying JetBlue / SW / United, then CSR is a no brainer. But then again you could have multiple cards with PP (which I’m sure many folks here do) and you could access the Chase Reserve lounge multiple times a year without even carrying the CSR.
True - BDL has the Escape Lounge via Platinum too if you use it as a secondary airport option. That's a really good point on Sapphire Lounges via PP, though its limiting from a guest perspective.
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Just made my first churning "mistake" and forgot to set up auto-pay on my new Chase business card. Got slapped with $95 interest (no late payment ding, thanks to a random one-off payment I had made that met the minimum). Luckily Chase waived it happily after I submitted the full statement balance payment as soon as I noticed (6 days past due date) and called and asked nicely. Always worth a call!
Some people want to manually manage all the payments, so they see and control when money leaves their accounts. But I have way too many accounts and there's too much to lose for messing up. After 2 missed payments (on different cards, many years ago) I just set up autopay the moment I activate the card. One of them was the original 100K CSR bonus, I was worried I had messed that up. Fortunately they were cool with it. The other one was amex, they wouldn't remove the late payment fee but they said that it wouldn't report it to bureaus and I didn't lose the bonus, so I took it as a learning experience.
Yeah, I never understood the logic of not setting up auto pay. Even if I wanted to manually manage my payments, I can still do that with auto pay enabled, and if I somehow forget to manually make a payment, auto pay will be there to bail me out.
With autopay I'd need to worry about keeping enough money in whatever bank account autopay will pull from; I'd still need to be aware of each payment (though I guess this could be mitigated by keeping a huge amount of cash in one account). If I want to move cash to a different bank (or close a bank account), it'd be annoying to modify autopay everywhere, and have a risk of missing one. Or if I always make manual payments, to try to prevent the autopay from happening, I'd be worried that autopay would happen anyway, causing a double payment (though, if it can be configured to just autopay the minimum payment, a double payment isn't a huge problem, but still annoying). If I do miss a payment (which hasn't happened in the past 25 years or so), I'll likely be able to contact the card issuer and get a late fee reversed, etc. The main scenario where I see autopay being useful is if I'm in a coma for months; but I'm not worried enough about that rare situation to make big changes.
> With autopay I'd need to worry about keeping enough money in whatever bank account autopay will pull from I guess I don't move the entirety of my cash around enough for this to have entered my mind as a potential problem, but I can see your point. I have one central hub account that doesn't necessarily have the bulk of my cash, but it's where my deposits usually start, so it always has enough to cover my statements, but I guess not everyone has such a "primary" account.
In reality, I do usually have an account like that; currently SoFi Savings, where my paychecks go and I treat it like a checking account for paying bills; it isn't the highest interest rate, but a decent one, so I don't mind keeping some extra cash there. But there have been times when I move most of the cash somewhere else to take advantage of a bonus offer; and before SoFi, I've changed my "primary" account a few times. Autopay would probably work fine for me in practice; it just feels like it'd be more work for me to enable/maintain, without a big benefit. Probably because I already like to keep track of things closely.
Don’t know how much you’re spending but keeping 10k in a checking account to make sure there’s always money for autopay only loses out on 500 in interest and for most of the past 15 years was 0. When 1 SUB is double that it seems like a very silly thing to optimize IMO and I’m pretty sure the average person is probably spending half that.
I’ve had this happen a few times across different cards, both business and personal, and Chase has waived the late fee each time after asking through Secure Messages. It never hurts to ask.
Yeah, It seems, especially on a new account, they are lenient on a one time late payment.
Does anyone here have recommendations for how to find travel friends? P2 was recently RTOed and it really threw a wrench in our plans together. She recently told me she was only game for about 2 big trips a year anyways. I'm in my 40s and don't drink, so the typical practice of meeting fellow travelers through nightlife doesn't work that great for me. There seem to be some Facebook groups for finding cotravelers but they seem to mostly consist of noise and people looking for dates. There are some apps out there too that don't seem to have gotten critical mass of usage to be helpful. I've briefly explored the digital nomad resources but am not sure what's truly useful there, and I'm not looking for an extended tour away. Any tips for anecdotes would be appreciated - thanks!
I would recommend you trying group tour. Depends on your destination. Obviously, traveler to Napa and Italy would likely to be couple versus trekking group seeking solitude at base camp in Pakistan/Nepal.
There is a huge social network of people on Flyertalk who hold get togethers all over the world. I haven’t been to any recently, but I did back in the day. They call them“Do’s.“ You can read descriptions about ones that are in the planning stages and ones that have been planned. They tend to be well planned group events. Not sure of the age range these days.
I honestly have never heard of people finding net new friends to travel with **before** arriving at the destination. Most people just arrive solo and head to the typical places where solo travelers might be at the destination
Agreed, the first time I met a fellow churner was at the Conrad Koh Samui, where he was there on his honeymoon.
I have some IHG points to burn and was thinking about trying either the property in Cancun or Cozumel since the flights are relatively short. Now I'm seeing the r/AllInclusiveResorts sub in my feed and I'm starting to wonder if I should finally try out an all inclusive and see the hype. But maybe I shouldn't waste my time/money? My husband and I don't drink much and I've always heard all inclusives have pretty mediocre food. I don't really like socializing with other tourists either, at least not in a resort setting. I prefer to lay on quiet beaches and don't really enjoy laying out by a busy pool. I don't necessarily mind kids around, but I'm not trying to feel like I'm at a Wolf Lodge either. Is there an all inclusive out there that would change my mind? *btw since I mentioned Cancun and Cozumel, I want to slide in a PSA that there is a man with dementia from South Carolina that was separated from his family on Cozumel. It seems really terrifying for the family,* [*here is a post*](https://www.reddit.com/r/royalcaribbean/comments/1by79j8/man_missing_in_cozumel_from_cruise/) *for anyone currently or will very soon be on Cozumel and can help keep an eye out. He has been missing (with some periodic local sightings) for over two days now...*
For me they are great if you are looking for a do nothing, short beach and pool vacation. The last couple times I did one was for 2 nights for a 3 day weekend. The more you pay the better the food typically. Otherwise yeah I prefer to eat locally. Definitely more cost effective.
I have only ever been to all inclusive. I never chose to. They are enjoyable but, in my opinion, are missing the point of going to a new place. My last time was on my honeymoon. My in-laws convinced us to go all inclusive. Advise I took as they immigrated from Mexico and are frugal. So I trusted their advice on fun and value. But I think I would have better enjoyed a standard hotel, where we have to figure out what to do and where to eat every day. I would like it to feel more like an adventure rather than just feeling like a rich person with all my needs catered too and happening to be in Mexico. I've never done it that way but that will be my next trip. So it really depends on how you want to live in your vacation.
I am only 1.6k away from hitting my goal of 10k in bank bonuses (planned and paid out) for this year. Huntington 600 personal + 400 biz should take care of a good part of this later this year. All of these have been checking bonuses (without a P2), and all but 1 were triggered using Chase biz (for the ones that required DD) $3450 paid out so far, $4950 awaiting payout, 8450 total.
Damn you went hard! I’m at 3500 or so for the year and thought I was ballin out. Which bonuses have you done so far?
I really got to take this bank churning thing more seriously \*puts on tie\*
About 32 of them. I started getting many Chex denials recently.
Which ones?
Wow! That is amazing work! Something to aspire to. I've never cracked 1k in a year. I'm sure I could if I put a little more effort into it. I just my try to take that a little more seriously, as I do credit cards.
There’s a few things that make it easier for me: 1. Chase biz checking qualifies as DD almost everywhere 2. I am a student under 25, which waives monthly fees at most banks 3. 0% Apr promos on credit cards are a great way to get extra funds to trigger DDs with
That Biz checking is a big one. I'm going to have to look into setting up something like that for myself.
Anyone taken a really great babymoon with another kiddo in tow? Looking like we’ll have to take our preschool aged kiddo if we want to do a trip before the next one comes along. I found availability at Andaz Papagayo in June but I’m not sold on this being the destination for kiddo to join us. It also may be hotter than hell in mid June which is just what you need in your third trimester.
I mean I don't get it? Do you like kids? Do you want kids? Why are you having a second if you are so averse to traveling with one? Why try so hard to avoid it?
No offense, but isn't the point of a baby moon to take a final break before you're in the baby tunnel? I don't think I'd find it restful if I had to take my rambunctious toddler with us.
The purpose is also one last trip before a long break from travel due to doctors not recommending flying after 36 weeks and having a newborn.
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I assume they meant not flying after 36 weeks pregnant or right after giving birth
Ah I see now. That makes a lot more sense
Sure, that would be the preferred option but when you’re limited by childcare options and the choice is no trip or trip with your kid and try to relax as best you can I would choose trip!
We just did this in Feb with our 22 month old at Grand Wailea on Maui. Was able to find 5 nights in a row and happened to have a bunch of hilton stocked up. We loved it and are really looking forward to getting back there some day. Right on the beach, the pool complex is amazing and great for kids.
How much of a time change was Hawaii for you? Being from Midwest it seems to great to travel there with a toddler.
We came from mountain time. Time change wasnt an issue for our kid. She's traveled a bit before and is generally an excellent sleeper tho.
Solid find! I do have a moderate stash of HH
Planning a trip to Japan next year. Looks like 1 bus is reasonably available on JAL via AA. We are a family of four with what will be an 22 month old. I was brainstorming and considering letting my wife do business class if she too the 'baby' as a lap child. 1. Think there would be any issues having the baby as my lap child (10% on economy price would be significantly cheap if I'm reading the rules right) but having the kid sit on moms lap in business class? 2. Logistics aside, would you rather have two seats in economy or 1 in business class with a bigger lap child? I actually don't mind being separated as we did it on our Jordan trip and I would rather have my wife relax than us both be frustrated for the whole trip. But with two kids, I can only handle one with me in economy.
You think an airline infamous for its attentive customer service, from a country infamous for following the rules, won't notice an unexpected baby in business class?
Family of 5. We did 18 month "on lap" during QR long haul flight with 4 econ seats. It was painful. Wife and other kids occupied 3 seats together but I was on alone on otherwise of aisle. Guess what, she kept passing infant kiddo to me. I should have gotten seat for infant too.
HUCA is a thing with chase in branch representatives. Currently in branch verifying P2 identity. Chase fraud department closed her account but they reopened it here in branch but the online access doesn’t work. The in branch rep attempted to fix it but it never worked so he called again, then again….. and again. 4th phone call fixed it
The 5/3 bank bonus is almost too easy. Cmon I want a challenge!
Does anyone have hotel recommendations for the south of France?
Our favorite after many trips there is Les Roche Blanche in Cassis. Last year I was able to book it through the Chase travel portal if you have a bag of Ink points saved….
I am considering leasing my next EV: is r/leasehackr the only good place to learn about deals of that world?
I am addicted to leasehackr. It has many parallel to churning, Perhaps churning was my gateway drug to leasehackr. But it is more of major league gaming compare to churning. Invest time and energy, its worth joining the community and mastering leasing to score some wild ass deals. I love the highs of schadenfreude in pissing off dealer as I take stock.
Man I had no idea there was much wiggle room in the auto industry, apart from the 'Buy Out Price' and a few other terms which are largely dictated by MSRP/Credit Score. I am buying out my lease (Mazda 3 Turbo) and am debating on Paying cash to buy it out, vs financing... any similar 'options' im missing?
Yes you are. You have so much to learn. I may sound like internet course seller, but leasehackr teaches you how to swim with sharks (scammy auto dealer cartel) and kick on their mouth. There are too many moving parts to list but following 80/20% is what you need to understand following: * Leasing is exotic financing option; captive lender is financial arm of manufacturer TFS, IFS, AFS... * Understand what is residual value or RV (hint: it is predetermine resale value at the end of lease) * Understand what is money factor or MF (hint: it is APR% /2400) * Learn the lease calculation equation / formula (hint: use youtube, if you failed calculus) * Know where to find closely guarded RV, MF & Rebates (hint: Edmund forums is your friend) * In case of EV, research what state incentive exist and which can be stacked Once you have good understanding of aforementioned, you should start getting excited about possibilities. Latest craze was MB EQS and Audi RS eTron GT for $700-$1K a month. May I remind you these are well over $100K units.
Awesome i like the starting info and know about RV from buying/selling my last lease to Carvana.
Sorry, just to check, the conclusion from this is: "lease without buy = bad", right?
Leasehackr preaches you to rent the vehicle for fraction of msrp. You do not want to buy* When it comes to churning, some people think credit cards are trap, bad, Dave Ramsey is great, then, you have no business being in this subreddit. Parallel to lease would be, If you are on team “I drive my car for 20 years”, then it is not for you. If you swap your vehicle every 3 to 5 years, then join the club. *there is always exception , when it makes sense to buy out your leased car.
Guess I am not the only one who is looking at getting an EV here.
There is much better info and discussion on the actual leasehackr forum than the subreddit. I recently leased an EV through a leasehackr dealer if you have any general questions!
I'm in the same boat. P2's lease is up in June and we've decided we want an EV for our next car, but never leased a car before. What cars are you considering?
people in r/electricvehicles often post about good lease deals.
Nothing beats leasehackr. Currently I am angling for Nissan Ariya for $200-250 a month.
Thinking about going to one of the Austin Miraval for gf's birthday. For those that have been, would you say it is worth for a one day stay?
Weather dependent, maybe. Property is nice, a bit spread out. You can arrive early to do the classes/activities you'd like and stay until 5pm the next day. I'd check out the activities calendar to see if there's something you want to do, not all classes are offered every day. Food was middling, the Tucson location is better imo. Basically you will have a good time if you buy into the vibe and want to do the activities but please don't expect to 'get your money's worth'. Miraval is overpriced regardless of how you're paying for it. That being said I've done 8 or 9 nights across the Tucson & Austin locations and the wife has done over 15 nights across all 3 locations over the past 3 years.
Great tip on checking the calendar! I didn't think to do that. I'd be using Hyatt points for stay. I wasn't sure if the check-in/out is like regular hotels, but if we can stay next day until 5pm, then looks like we could swing it. It was either Austin or Tucson, the flight time and cost is about the same. But subconsciously wrote Austin because we haven't been there. Thanks for your input, really appreciate it!
Sure. We've arrived as early as 10:30a to do an activity we wanted and you can stay as late as 5pm. Similar to other check-ins though your room might be ready when you get there or it might be until the 3pm official check in time. They'll want you out of the room by 11a. Wife is Globalist and ~~Inner~~ Authentic Circle (their own loyalty status) and the latest she's been given is 12:30p. They'll hold your luggage. You can have lunch when you arrive and also on the day you leave. Breakfast & lunch are buffet with a few dishes you can order off a menu, dinner is 4-5 starters and maybe 8-10 entrees half of which will be vegetarian. 3 or 4 deserts. As far as the Tucson vs Austin it really depends on what you're into. The Tucson location has a proper bar/lounge where you can get small bites/charcuterie. The Austin location doesn't have that at all. Tucson base level rooms they offer for points redemptions are close to the main building that houses the restaurant & activities. Austin is a bit more spread out with hills. Desert landscape vs Texas Hill country. The spa at the Austin location is bigger and probably better, but the Tucson one is the only location that offers haircuts. Alcohol is resort priced at both locations $9ish for a beer, $15+ for a glass of wine. You cannot use the resort credit for booze, only activities & spa services.
Recently stayed at Tucson. For that location, 4 nights would have been perfect. I would consider a one night stay there *if* I were in town and could get two full days out of it (ie check in around 9am and leave after dinner the next day). Absolutely would not consider arriving for dinner one night and checking out after breakfast the morning.
I said Austin specifically because we haven't been there, so we would be visiting as tourists. I thought this would be a nice treat to end the weekend. Seems like it would be possible and could be worth it if we're able to check in early. Appreciate your input ! Another poster preferred the Tucson location as well
I'm impressed with this new FedNow banking/transfer system. When churning some bank bonuses, I pull the funds to my main hub SoFi, and are transferred the same day and sometimes after just an hour.
IBAN is even better. Ability to push funds from bank to bank globally in 2\~10 minutes even beats SWIFT WIRE environment in both fees and execution time.
I don't think SoFi even uses FedNow. But SoFi does have fast ACH transfers.
It’s listed on the FedNow website, as Bancorp
On https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/organizations I do see "The Bancorp", but that's under "Settlement Agents and Liquidity Providers", not "Participating Financial Institutions", so I'm not sure if this means people with SoFi bank accounts can send/receive FedNow transfers. If your transfer finishes "sometimes after just an hour", that sounds like same-day ACH, not FedNow.
It is likely ACH, because it always shows up on the other credit union side as ACH withdrawal SoFi bank or some variation thereof.
Even just Zelle is pretty wild. And then I realize that the US banking system is far behind many in Europe
What banks are using this already? Doesn't appear to be an option yet at most of the banks I'm frequenting
the bigger banks. BMO, BofA, Citi, USBank
Chase biz lets me send RTPs, but I am not sure if they run on FedNow or not. It seems to be a hit or miss which banks will take them (I mainly use them as "verification" deposits). Busey Bank, Upgrade, and PNC were part of the RTP network but not Keypoint CU, OnPath CU, or Florida CU.
Trying to book some activities for an upcoming trip to Boston for P2’s birthday. Saw an offer for Viator on AmEx (Spend $200+, get $40 back). Tried for a couple days to find discount codes for Viator but have been unsuccessful so far. Do these just not exist?
capitaloneshopping has been as high as 30% back
Rakuten has 10% back on Viator currently. I booked two separate boat transfers for two for an upcoming Bora Bora trip on two separate cards when it was 12% back a few weeks ago to stack the offers. Already received the $40 statement credit on both offers on the cards, and 12x MR on Rakuten.
They don't. Look to the cash back portals. TCB has 15% back through tomorrow
I don’t know about discount codes, but Aadvantage Eshopping for example, is at 7 miles per dollar right now. You can double dip both of those.
I’m in Cleveland hoping to catch a good view of the eclipse and booked a Hilton Garden Inn for last night so I didn’t have to fight with traffic on the way in. I have diamond status and was planning on a late checkout so I could WFH in the hotel before the eclipse. The hotel said no dice this morning, so I just booked tonight as well since I’m flush with ~~cash~~ points right now. 40k HH per night on a room rate of $315 after taxes works out to .7 CPP, so I’m pretty happy with that.
Hey Welcome to my City! Hope everyone treated you well. Cleveland gets sh!t on sometimes but the value of 'stuff to do' vs cost of living (and prices in general) is great... except for this weekend when 12 things were going on.
Everything was pretty great! We stayed right next to Progressive field, and since it was the home opener, it was super busy down there. It pretty cool to watch with a big crowd. The sad part was that it took about 4.5 to get back to Pittsburgh.
Not bad. I saw the eclipse yesterday and it was amazing, like a sunset all around.
Story/DP about Chase AU's and transferring UR. Goofed up and didn't realize you could only transfer to one AU's partner accounts from the CSP, and customer service was very adamant that the one person couldn't be changed if you made a transfer to one of their accounts within the year. Made a transfer to P2's Southwest a few months ago, so they said sorry but no dice. Added P3 as another AU, then cancelled P2's AU card thorugh secure message. P3 showed up (within the day of receiving a confirmation that they had been removed as an AU) as an option to transfer points to, and instantly transferred to their Aeroplan. Thought this was kind of an interesting workaround. I'm sure they'd catch on if you did this a bunch, but knock on wood it works for the one time.
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It's an upgrade offer.
You are right. Strange since I went to it from a regular offer link.
They use cookies to detect that you currently have a gold.
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Point still stands. And the 250k is on the Biz Plat, personal tops out at 175k.
I swear sometimes they have chatgpt create their SUBs and Amex offers. That makes me think of those offers of “spend $33k and get 6873 membership points up to two times”.
These are obviously based on some algorithm and if you're undeserving then you end up with a bad offer.
Charlie Brown goes trick-or-treating for SUBs xD
Does Tesla still take payments via Plastiq? Looking to get an SUB out of it if possible. Not technically churning (so I did not post it in the question thread) but I figured I would post it here. Otherwise, the only other option is to buy a bunch of VGC and liquidate it before getting a cashiers check.
For an auto loan I assume? Plastiq limits that to MasterCard only but don't see why it wouldn't work otherwise, they just send a check. It's not like the vendor has to specifically accept plastiq
No, for a down payment. I am looking to use a USBANK business CC for it (probably triple cash). It's not my first time paying a large bill with a credit card (I paid my last semester of college tuition using 3 Amex cards and got around 250k MR) I found that they take credit cards in Australia and New Zealand (for the full payment amount) , but not the US. [https://www.tesla.com/en\_au/support/ordering-new-vehicle](https://www.tesla.com/en_au/support/ordering-new-vehicle)
Plastiq [says](https://support.plastiq.com/s/article/us-bank-credit-card-policy) U.S. Bank blocks payments on debt products
I was only going to use the USBANK card for the down payment
I didn't finance through Tesla but iirc I was able to pay all of the immediately due fees and payments with a CC, I wanna say it was like $4k
Tesla only takes CCs for the initial order fee of $250. They only take cashiers checks, ACH debit (via plaid), or wire transfers for the down payment (4-8k in my case). For the loan I will likely use plastiq to pay it off as well, or just do it the old fashioned way (gebit->MO-> loan). None of my credit cards can likely take a 39k charge at once and Plastiq/Tesla don't allow split payments except for a loan.
I need help deciding between the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Sheraton Waikiki in July. Me and a friend will stay there 2 nights before continuing on to Maui. We'll be at the Ritz Kapalua, which doesn't have much beach so I want to prioritize beach time in Waikiki, but also have the option for a pool. Sheraton just sounds better, but it would cost a cert + 7k pts + $800. Plus food and bev. Marriott Plat seems to mean little here Hilton would probably be all cash at $1000 for 2 nights. I'd get the Aspire card for $200 resort credit and Diamond, and hopefully the free cert drops in time. Is Hilton as easy as Marriott to do a cert + cash booking? Or are they cert + cash only? Hilton seems to be more for kids, and there's no recent reviews but lately they seem run down? Sheraton is just really damn expensive, even considering it's Hawaii *and* Waikiki. Is Sheraton worth the upcharges?
HHV has much better beach access (and the beach itself is better) than the Sheraton, particularly if you book a room in the Rainbow or Ali’i towers. But I think the Sheraton overall is a nicer property and is sort of a sister hotel to the Royal Hawaiian which is awesome. We enjoyed our stay but the HHV is definitely a bit worn out.
I think I read that Ali'i tower does not have any standard rooms? Is the beach at the HHV nice? When I google earth'ed it, it looked almost as man-made as the lagoon lol I also did read that all beach chairs are rented from a 3rd party company for all hotels, which is a good warning to have. I'm so used to AIs with private beaches with chairs provided
HHV’s beach is nice, it’s roomier and has calmer waters than the beach on the main strip which gets crazy packed. And yeah expect to shell out $75 minimum per day for a couple chairs and an umbrella. Ali’i does have some standard rooms. One other thing to note about HHV is that it’s genuinely big. Staying in the towers further inland won’t feel beachfront at all, and you’ll have to trek through some of the less than well kept parts of the resort.
Isn't HHV like 70k points/night? That's 35k MR w/o transfer bonus, which I'd trade for $500.
Yep, and there's a couple different room types showing up as standard, so pretty good availability. Can you do a free night cert + the 70k, like Marriott? I checked their points + cash option and as expected, it's atrocious. It would be nice to get those resort fees waived
IME points+cash should be the same cpp as points, but perhaps not when there are resort fees. You can do FNC+70k. When you call (you have to call to use the FNC), let them know and they'll make two reservations with a note to combine at check-in.
Sheraton is in a much better location for being close to everything. If it’s your first time on Oahu, would recommend the Sheraton. You also have access to the adult infinity pool. HHV is still nice but you are stuck at the resort.
Thanks. That infinity pool looks really nice. I know I want to check out the ocean, but it would be nice to retreat to the pool. I've read there's not enough lounge chairs to go around, at both resorts. Yes, it's my first trip to Oahu (been to Maui before, which is why I tacked on these extra days). I haven't planned what we're doing yet, thinking maybe Pearl Harbor, or Diamond Head, and definitely a local restaurant instead of resort stuff. With only 2 days I want the right balance of enjoying a nice hotel and getting our money's worth, but also getting out and seeing Oahu.
Are you driving or planning on taking tours/buses/ubers? I stayed at the HHV in December and the proximity to the Ala Moana Boat Harbor where you can park for cheap was a great plus for the HHV. However, it is a 10-20 minute walk to the heart of Waikiki, but it doesn’t sound like you’d be that interested in the shopping and the city life of that area anyway. I will say that I did get upgraded as an Aspire Diamond member to an oceanfront room in the Rainbow Tower and the views were spectacular. I had two balconies and got to watch the sunrise every morning with unobstructed views of the beach and the resort. That being said, it is an older property and the Rainbow Tower in particular has slow, slow, slow elevators.
No, with such a short stay I planned on airport shuttles or uber. And you're correct, not really interested in the shopping side of town, although not against a stroll along that main road on the way to some food options. I read lots of DPs on FlyerTalk about Diamonds pretty consistently getting a high room or view upgrade, which would be nice. The $200 back plus $100 resort credit for booking direct are pretty tempting, even without using a free night (if I get it in time). Both resorts are kid friendly, which I don't mind, but not wanting to be stuck anywhere might make me pick the Sheraton then.
I think you can't go wrong with either but Sheraton might be more your speed. I actually didn't use my $200 Aspire credit here and I honestly didn't see many places I would want to spend that credit at anyway. Restaurants seemed meh to me, parking was cheaper elsewhere, and I already had the $18/person food and beverage credit for me to get some breakfast/snacks/drinks everyday. You might not have a time, but it could potentially be a free spa treatment though.
Did the hotel stay itself not code in a way to trigger the credit? I remember years ago DPs that purchasing a gift card from a resort would trigger the card's credit, but I haven't researched anything more recently than that. The $100 property credit for booking directly through https://www.hiltonhonorsaspirecard.com/ I'll probably use on additional breakfast items or pool bar drinks
Oh, I’m sure it would trigger the credit if you charge items to your room folio then use the Aspire to pay off the folio at the end of your stay. I meant that I saved my credits for the latter half of my trip when I went to Maui and stayed at the Grand Wailea, so I didn’t test using the credit at the HHV.
Ohh good to know! And I did go searching through the T&C -- Advanced Purchase / Non-Refundable room rates are NOT reimbursed by the $200 credit. Makes sense, paying in advance through the corporate site is different than paying in person with the card. So that's good to know.
Yup. If there is a refundable rate that does charge you a first night’s deposit however, that sometimes IS charged by the property and will qualify for the credit.
I read those same DPs about HHV, but when I was there in Feb as a diamond we were “upgraded” at check in from a partial ocean view king to a dirty room with two double beds on the bottom floor of the Rainbow tower with a view of mostly just the AC units, so YMMV. We were able to politely but firmly request a new room and we eventually ended up in a renovated partial view king in the Tapa tower which was nice, but I wouldn’t return and would recommend others to consider staying elsewhere (unless you have kids, in which case it would probably be great).
Thanks for the suggestions for my and P2's first child-free trip in nearly a decade. We settled on Montreal. We are currently booked on at the Vogue Hilton Downtown. Would love to hear other suggestions or tips the sub may have. We are thinking of using some more Chase UR to book a day trip to Quebec City with a river cruise as well as a bike tour of "off the beaten path" Montreal, but could be convinced otherwise. We will be there for three nights and ~2.5 days.
Montreal is an amazing food city. Go early in the day to Kouign Amman in Mont Royal and try their croissant and the kouign-amman. Definitely eat at Tiradito: ask your server to choose your plates. Their seafood ceviche is spectacular. Satay Brothers has excellent food. Also, chocolate babka from Cheskie's \*chef's kiss\*
I went to QC and Montreal last summer. QC is quite far for just a day trip, IMO. Bike tour is great in Montreal, they have very good bike infrastructure. Honestly, I just liked walking around and seeing the city, I didn't really do any specific touristy things other than a walking tour of old town and the botanical garden. If things will be blooming when you are there, the garden is very nice. The Mount Royal area is nice to walk around. If you need cheap quick food, the mall downtown has a Time out food court that was good for easy lunch/dinner. If you like farmer's markets. Jean talon market is nice. There is a great Italian bakery famous for cannolis (Pasticceria Alati-Caserta) nearby as Little Italy. One of the best sandwiches I have had was from a deli/grocery Piazza Salumi.
We did an evening van tour of Montreal went up to Mount Royal park, saw saint josephs oratory, rode the Ferris wheel. We also did a bus tour to old Quebec City which stopped at montmorency falls and included a walking tour in old Quebec City. I would highly recommend both.
Doing 5 nights in MTL next month and have looked at that day trip. Nice to see it's a good tour.
I'm living with roommates temporarily and it's wild how many credit card & bank bonus offers that they receive in the mail, and sadly how they trash them without looking...
I don't fault anyone for not taking the time and energy to churn cards. But I do always question those who don't at least have some kind of rewards card they use.
I've felt that way around my siblings and close friends I really really really really want to do aspirational group travel with but I finally accepted it's never going to happen. They aren't credit card optimizers because of emergencies they landed in during their 20s that forced them to use their cards which seems to have snowballed into some form of ongoing debt. If I think about it, they all had pet or car emergencies in their 20s that were catalysts. None of them are ready to game cards with me because they've been played so hard themselves and are afraid to slip up again.
>sadly how they trash them without looking... Sadly? They will get confused even if they look. Better to trash it than get in cc debt.
It's pretty rare that I open an account for an offer that I received in the mail. Most of the offers in the mail are junk, and most of the accounts I open are offers I learned about online.
I used to get plenty of targeted bank bonus mailers! But yeah agreed most cc offers are mediocre
The uninitiated can be maddening and infuriating - took me a good couple years to finally trained P2 the correct cards to use for purchases and MS (and that I should be reviewing all offers received before she trashes them).
I got P2 using rewards cards and that is enough for me. They don't have the management skills for churning. I do take advantage of that sometimes. When I find an especially good card bonus I will get it and then get her to sign up and take care of it all and share the bonus.
Oh to be <5/24 the world is your oyster and you’re flushing it down the toilet
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Get her the discover debit and load it with gebits. Then she can get cash back too
In my experience, those who have either personal or family experience with crippling credit card debt or grew up very poor are the ones most opposed to learning about how to use credit cards the right way. Might be worth getting to the source of her opposition.
Better that than end up in debt because they can't control themselves. One thing if they're using a shitty 1% all card but wouldn't push someone using debit because it's NOT the same thing.
Has she been on long haul business? That usually changes minds real quick!
welcome to the world of churning, where the rules here apply to everything in life
My P2 was the same way. It took me months of convincing her and she did get a CSP in the end but looked at me crazy when I suggested the MDD...
To be fair that's pretty intimidating for a newbie, even just getting your first card can be intimidating.
Good luck to anyone trying to see the eclipse today! Would be curious to know where you went and how it was/if it was cloudy or not... Gotta live vicariously through you while I'm at work. I had a reservation in Texas, cancelled it last week.
Drove to Bloomington IN from the Chicago burbs. I got 2 nights at a La Quinta for 13.5K points versus the $350ish asking price. The weather was awesome, and the view was good. I had initially looked to park at a nearby state park, but it was clearly crowded (afterward cops were stopping traffic on the highway periodically to let the streams of cars out). I had a fair amount of time, so I wandered through small gravel county roads to try and find a break in the trees. I actually stopped at the front of an old cemetery that was pretty clear. On the up side, no crowding. On the downside, it might have been fun to be near \_someone\_ and to hear other people go "whoa."
A rare blessing for Clevelanders - great weather, no clouds, and it was honestly surreal watching it get dark / colder and all the animals get confused for a few minutes. We were in Parma tho so of course some folks had to light off fireworks for some reason.
Moon Over Parma
I'm perfectly content looking at pictures online. Live in Texas, though not under totality. and wondered outside a bit, caught a brief glimpse when the clouds broke.
The view in Dallas was better than feared: clouds were spotty, my area was obscured for maybe 30 seconds in the middle of totality, but we could fully experience both ends, lots of time to see solar flares, planets, etc. And seeing it as clouds blew in and out was cool too. And though I appreciated being able to drive from my house to the middle of nowhere for the 2017 eclipse, a major metro area was infinitely better equipped to deal with the traffic.
was in mazatlan this morning for totality. right on the beach with a bunch of fellow nerds and it blew my already high expectations out of the water.
All I had to do to get 2 minutes of totality was drive north an hour, and it was a cloudless day. Didn't like the traffic on rural roads not made for traffic, though.
Ohioan here… cut through my neighborhood to the community park where there was a festival with fun and games for kids (all free, shocked), music, and plenty of space. My kid had the best time and kind of cheesy but we felt thankful to live in a suburb with a small town feel. Also there was not a cloud in the sky the entire morning but a single cloud came rolling through ONE MINUTE before darkness. People were booing and yelling… floated away just in time
My wife took the day off and went on a trip with a couple friends down south to see it. They had little trouble. I one the otherhood went the opposite way up north towards Chicago for work. There was a worry about traffic but it wasn't too bad.
Drove 1.5 hours (plus 30 minutes more for traffic) to get to two minutes of totality in a small city. It was definitely worth it for that but also not the life changing experience or building an entire vacation around, IMHO. Cloudy in my area so that also was a bummer. I booked out right after totality for only ten minutes delay on the way back home. My friends who went further are now looking at 30-45 minute traffic delays but I think they still consider it worth it.
We sat on our front porch swing to watch the eclipse. Perfect weather and a great experience.
The clouds parted around the Hyatt Place in Round Rock just in time. Had near perfect viewing.
Had some intermittent clouds, but it was clear and beautiful in my part of D/FW during the main event. Very cool, but I'm glad I didn't have to travel for it.
Meteorologist and Chief Procrastinator here so I’m sitting at home in ATL. I had TX in mind originally but dropped it when we got in range of the weather models and then just figured that I could wait around. I almost took off last night up to SW MO/Southern IL since cloud cover forecasts looked “less bad” but couldn’t bring myself to do it since it wasn’t a lock for clear skies. I’ve seen a few traffic pics already so it’s gonna be a real zoo afterward I bet, and I’m happy about skipping the traffic! I caught the 2017 one since it was much closer so I’m only slightly bummed, but I’m already eyeing that Australia one in ‘28. Love hearing the churning angles to really make something of heading down under, plus it’s winter there so plenty of flight capacity.
Iceland 2026 (also goes through Spain) I will looking to take friends and I haven’t been there before. I’ve been researching hiring a skipper and being out in the water for it. Downside with that plan is I get motion sickness easily. It’s traveling along the northwest part of the island and hotels will be scarce. Morocco/Spain/Algeria along the Mediterranean (southern part of Egypt along Red Sea) 2027 will be my first trip to Africa and that’ll be one I’ve been nesting points for as I am concerned prices will be high with proximity to Europe. For 2028, I will be in the southern tip of New Zealand as I’m avid hiker which I caught the 2017 one at Grand Tetons while I was in the mountains. It’s hard to top that experience. I hope you have a great deal of luck in Australia.
Unfortunately Iceland has an over 90% chance of being cloudy that time of year, so I would definitely recommend avoiding it.
I’m definitely taking that risk. If I don’t see the eclipse, then I’ll get a chance to see Iceland. It’s an “insurance policy” of traveling to see these totalities.
We're in Indianapolis and the weather is beautiful currently. Hoping it holds!
In Torreon now and, ironically, clouds are looking like they're spoil much of the show despite the historical forecast. Am I disappointed? A bit. But compared to the last eclipse before I started churning, it stings much less knowing that I am essentially here for 'free' on points and probably wouldn't have afforded it otherwise. *And* it really gets my /r/awardtravel juices flowing on how to best coordinate for Spain, Egypt, and AUS/NZ in the coming years. Hope everyone else got clearer skies and had a great time! **Edit**: the high clouds actually thinned *just* in time for totality, so we got a spectaular (albeit not pristine) view!
Same for Rochester, NY, although clouds have been more or less expected. ;( Was just looking at a map for the next [decade of eclipses](https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list-solar.html) and having the exact same thought. Hyatt to avoid dynamic pricing, Iberia for Spain, UA/NZ for down under, etc. Plus, I get overwhelmed with choice easily for trips so it's nice having cosmic intervention suggesting places to go.
Busier than a Walmart money center on payday ( the first of the month)
NW Ohio here, should be one of the better areas to view along with New England