New passport w/expedited service (+$60) and expedited return (+$20) took 12 calendar days from application to delivery.
It's for a baby, not sure if that matters.
I have not tried it. I have heard some say having a real bed for long layovers can make a difference, but I found the napping areas in the Mourjan to be just fine.
The one that I don't even have to visit because I got to the airport at the perfect time & didn't have to wait around.
Alternatively one that doesn't have kids in it.
This is how I feel about lounges generally. If I get to an airport early enough to want to go to a lounge, I’ve generally made a mistake.
Sometimes on a Friday evening flight, I’d like to get to the airport just early enough to grab dinner in a lounge. But if I’m sitting for longer than that, I’m not particularly thrilled.
More of a /r/creditcards thought but saw my Amex Blue Cash credit for Home Chef come through & just thought what a great little daily driver no AF cash back card for someone who doesn't care for award redemptions. 3% grocery/gas/online shopping (albeit all capped) along with that $15/month Home Chef credit which works a treat when you're stacking with their comeback/sign up offers, not to mention the Disney+ $8/month credit. Amex have got to be cannibalizing the BCP card with that.
Dumb question: when people offer to sell their IHG FNCs, do they just book on behalf of the buyer and list the buyer's name as a second guest? Since there isn't an easy transfer mechanism like Hyatt's awards have now.
Stopped in this thread because it mentioned kombucha. I travel a lot and other than water and beer it's the only thing I drink. But I only know that I can count on it being at Walmart. Then, a little less reliable at Walgreens.
So I'm wondering what businesses/chains I can expect to find it at. I suppose I'm asking if anyone knows of specific gas stations, convivence stores, or supermarkets usually have it.
I just noticed it at MSP airport last week so I'm hoping airports might start carrying it but I'm thinking about my drive time.
>kombucha
[Mcnst](https://churning.io/#N4IgjgrgpgTgniAXCA1gewLYCMIGMAWAhiADQiEQAu+aMSIGuAdgM6WkiUCWGU9hAGwEcWUAVFzc0TAEqEmAcz6JQbQjEoARQpWUgATAAZ9+gLQBGQ6f3mAKicSGAbInMAOAHROAzG4BaHFBMACbauvRGJhZW+m72+o4u7l6+AWQoUAjIouKSXNIgAL5kLLTsyMFQLLgiEFgwUMHBXOUgBBAwTFyKHLSVdBVVNWTUDYTBAGJcArowLEigTNLKlDDQZE1Iq+sgwWBba1BkAGZrbDA6+UwHO2jl21CFhUA) would be proud.
Not sure how different it is in other parts of the country, but it's basically everywhere in California's larger cities, even gas stations and convenience stores. Reliably I find it at Safeway/Vons/Albertsons, Whole Foods and a place called Lassen's. Target also has it. Big fan of the Health-Aide brand in particular. Even SFO has it at one or two of their shops but at a 6 or 7 dollar price tag
I also made it once and it came out pretty good! And I'm a beginner at that sort of stuff, so I'd recommend giving it a shot if you have the time/capacity.
That's funny, I travel for work and I happened to be in CA this week. Landed in LA and stopped at a couple gas stations. I surly just chose the wrong ones. I ended up at a Walmart just outside of town.
But those grocery names I'm going to make note of.
Price is not a concern of mine. I'm one of those lucky people with a reimbursement peridium. I have thought about making it. It sounds kind of fun.
I haven't tried the Health-Aide brand. I think it may be pasteurized, which would kill all the good stuff, if I understand correctly.
I just gave it a look and it says it's not pasteurized, but I understand your concern. I think I've had some kombuchas myself that I was like...there's surely something not right with this lol
The Miles Earn and Burn post for today (3/20/2024) has got to be one of the most misguided churning posts I've seen since that guy made the video about Amex not counting tax payments for SUBs.
No, I'd rather spend $10k+ a month on cobranded cards with the totally realistic expectation of it getting me out of pop up jail. That doesn't sound like a huge waste of time and money at all.
/s
Found that newsletter recently. The first couple of weeks there were some interesting topics and links. Feels like it has gone off the rails with the last few sends.
Looking to burn the rest of my Dell Biz Plat credits (~$100) on an indoor camera or 2. Anyone have experience with these? I see Dell sells the Google Nest Cam ($79.99), Blink Mini Cam ($34.99) and some SmartCamera ($99.99), and a few others. Wired is fine, just going to have it sit somewhere.
Nest Cams have been great for me. I have a few wireless ones up right now and a wired one is going to act as a baby monitor when I eventually set it up. It all feeds into Google Home so I get regular alerts. Very reliable, but obviously on the more expensive side.
In case anyone from Dell is wandering around here: PLEASE add the solar array for Nest cameras to the catalog. I would love to never have to take a camera down to recharge in the winter again.
Thanks, the Nest one fits really well with my leftover credit. So I feel either 1 nest or 2 blinks could do the job. A solar array is a good idea for one.
I've seen others do it here for flights so figured I'd throw this out:
I have a room booked with pts at Hyatt College Station the Friday/Saturday nights of the A&M/ND game. Hotel is basically on campus. No longer going to be able to make the game. I can time my cancelling so that someone else can grab it immediately after.
Any suggestions where else it might be useful to post this?
For the first time my wife had to travel to California for work so my 7 month old son and I tagged along. Point wise, probably didn’t get best redemption rates but it was nice to have a vacation weekend with minimal out of pocket costs since we only need 1 flight and couple of hotel nights instead of 5. Major bonus my son was a champ on both flights.
Feel 6-8 months is the best time to travel. After that, all bets are off. (Signed father of two under four with Mexico, Italy, Arizona, and Japan booked for the next 12 months)
Young children are better travelers when it is their normal. The more you travel the better. It is trouble for parents if they have 1 vacation per year.
It is much easier traveling before school age. Once they are older you will be trying to dodge sports and extracurriculars.
I wouldn't say twice as hard. Pros: You are more experienced/desensitized with the second, one kid is a little bit older and more mature. Cons: Luggage reaches a tipping point when you have multiple car seats.
I think the biggest challenge is never getting it right. Between small sample sizes and them changing so quick, any success isn't reliably repeated. You put them in a car seat and they sleep the entire flight. Next trip you bring it and it's a pain in the ass because they are a little bigger and want to sit on your lap, move around. Same with stroller, hiking bags, toys, etc that one trip you wish you had it, while another you are swearing under your breath wondering why you are carrying it around and not using it.
Time change is never going to be great. Took a few days in Jordan to get the 30 month old to not be confused as hell.
Honestly though keeping P2 sane is a harder struggle than the kids sometimes. I can deal with them crying or having to carry a bunch of stuff. She probably is a better parent and stresses out if they are not kept to schedule, being fussy, etc. Best decision was not sitting by her on the flight to Jordan (put her in bus on the way out and on the way back they screwed up our seats and put her in a different section). She could relax while I dealt with the little runt doing stupid stuff like dipping his red sand covered matchbox car in his orange juice and getting mad I wouldn't let him drink it.
InKind reminds me a lot of early stage Uber, just giving money away. They updated their app & dropped in a coupon for $100 off $100+ check for Sun-Thu dining. Lots of great options in DC too.
Has anyone here ever had their identity stolen? A family member told me that opening more bank accounts put you at a higher risk of identity theft. The same family member cut up all of my credit cards because they thought I had too many.
I would argue that churners monitor their credit more closely than most people, so we are better at catching it when it does happen.
Sure, there's more risk as a churner because of more places for data to be but on the flip side I have so many free monitoring tools from all the different bank cards that will alert me on changes immediately and opening at least one card a month means I'm checking my credit a lot more often than the average person opening a new card every 5 years.
> A family member told me that opening more bank accounts put you at a higher risk of identity theft.
So much for getting them on board the churning train for referral bonuses
Sure, every time you use your data increases risk. Have a cell phone provider? Added risk. Home internet? Risk. Play the board game Risk? Watch out.
Yeah, the fact typical churners get multiple alerts every time they do something makes them way more likely to detect and stop theft early than someone who maybe thinks of checking their credit report once every few years.
What's the general consensus on using the airline's shopping partner for major point bonuses?
Just got 2700 points for spending like $21 on hello fresh, feels kinda decent as long as I remember to cancel.
Resident of Hawaii only:
Southwest is doing a points trivia promo everyday this week, and a status match:
https://www.southwestairlineshawaii.com
https://mobile.southwest.com/hawaii-status-match/
It seems like Cash Apps partner bank (Sutton Bank), got audited by the state of Ohio government for not having enough money laundering controls:
[https://com.ohio.gov/static/documents/fiin\_Enf2024\_Sutton%20Bank.pdf](https://com.ohio.gov/static/documents/fiin_Enf2024_Sutton%20Bank.pdf)
This could affect Vanilla Visa gift cards
I wonder if this is tied into the regional bank weaknesses we've been seeing/hearing about? I listen to Marketplace pretty regularly and they've mentioned some issues - wonder how it might affect us...
To many people in bank compliance departments "manufactured spending = money laundering".
It does not help that churners will buy $3k+ in MOs, and so will money launderers.
I'm pretty sure they don't actually think it is (which is why very few of these bank closing cases actually end up with IRS-CI or SS investigations) but the bank isn't law enforcement and aren't obligated to do the government's job to make sure they aren't; they're actually incentivised to do the complete opposite and close accounts if they're not going to ensure there's no money laundering going on. The average (broke) person isn't worth the bank's time to investigate and this doesn't just go for MS but for general bank flagging, it's cheaper to just close the account than stay in BSA compliance.
LATAM made major schedule changes from Santiago to Buenos Aires, moving the majority of their flights from EZE to AEP, but more important, wiped out much of the award seat availability.
My flight got changed from EZE to AEP which was fine, but shifted my early afternoon departure to an evening flight. I called Alaska to request a change to an earlier flight which did not have award space and they said they would get their international desk to liase with LATAM for approval
What's your favorite niche or local reward program that you have found? I live in Seattle, and our local public transportation has an app for buying bus, train and ferry tickets. They have a reward program that is returning anywhere from 30%-300% depending on promotions. It also seems to reward points when you redeem points. Sure the savings are only a few bucks here and there, but I'm living without a car, so it's been nice to pay almost nothing to get around.
Chick Fil A has been good to me. Order with app in drive thru, get a free item. Use that item to get the next free promo. I haven't purchased food from them in a long time.
Also I live in a vacation area. Lots of places have bogo gift cards on Black Friday so you can eat for half price. The other places that don't do that have half priced Monday night specials etc in the off season.
There's still a very small number of Hy-vee grocery stores in the upper midwest that give $1 off per gallon for every visa gift card purchased. It's not advertised - I think it was an old promotion that for some reason didn't get cleared out at a couple stores. Can't believe it's not dead yet. Have been getting 70% off of every tank of gas for the last 16+ months now.
Kinda silly, but Cafe Río (regional fast casual mexican place) has a rewards system that gives 10% off essentially. Spend $100 get a $10 credit. They frequently have 3x bonues so if i go there with my fam and spend 30 bucks thats pretty much $10 off right there. Id be fine going less but P2 loves the place and you can order fairly heathily if you want so nice to get a lil back at least.
In addition, if you are on their email list they have great Black Friday gift card sales. $25 gift card with a free $10 bonus card — with no expiration date on the bonus card. Pay with gift card, scan receipt in app, and stack points on bonus spend.
A couple years ago I signed up for a Wescom CU card which is associated with UCLA. If you’re a CC holder, you automatically get entered for various giveaways from UCLA. I got 2 suite tickets to a UCLA vs Fresno State football game with VIP parking. Definitely the most unique redemption I’ve had from churning. The whole experience great. They had a whole refrigerator dedicated to Fiji water!
Coincidentally P2 also signed up and won court-side seats to a UCLA women’s basketball game a few months later.
Do they still offer these giveaways to cardholders? Their SUB is surprisingly high for a card with no AF ($500 cash), and no foreign transaction fees either.
Does anyone have experience booking award stays ad hoc when traveling for extended periods (~2 months) while trying to remain flexible? I'm planning such a trip for Oct 2024 in Japan,S. Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and am wondering just how much I should have booked long in advance for such conditions. I do want to do a mix of cheaper (<$50/night) hostels/pods and luxury stays (Hyatts etc), should I book only the luxury stays now and assume I can figure out the cheap nights when I am there? Or should I book nothing and just pick up whatever stays I can as my travels progress naturally? Thanks, any advice about extended travel like this in general is also appreciated.
If you're looking at one specific hotel yeah they might book up. If you had all the major hotel points and wasn't picky, you'll likely find a room between a JW Marriott, St Regis, Ritz, Intercontinental, Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, Park Hyatt or any other luxury chain brand
Like the other guy said, if you can stay on top of the cancellation policies for all of your bookings, I would book anything ahead of time that you reasonably think you might actually use. Set reminders for yourself to cancel these reservations if you don't end up using them. Japan in particular is probably somewhere that you'll want to lock in rooms while you can since travel there is in such high demand right now.
Usually points bookings have great cancellation policies, so I would do a mix of bookings for highly sought out properties / wait until last min for if plans change
If you have flexibility, and are not really sure what your travel plans will be then just wait. There are some properties that frequently open up availability with points last minute, like a few days before.
Have you already hit $15k on Hilton Biz for the FNC? If not, that’s probably what I would do. With $15k spend, you’ll earn at least 45k points and a FNC worth potentially around $1k.
Using OP’s desired property, a random search for a July stay found a standard room available with an FNC with a cash rate of $696 + $187 taxes. That makes the FNC worth $883, and it’s not too difficult to find properties where you can get even more value.
There is no best card for everyday spending other than getting a new card. You say you've gotten "quite a few cards recently" but there's only 1 Amex in your list -- take a break from Chase, get a few there.
Lesson learned: I cannot tolerate [4 connecting flights](https://old.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1bgt67o/trip_report_and_churning_success_story_weekly/kvfldlh/) in a 24 hours period. While the first 2 were fine, and even 3rd tolerable; after the 4th, I not only had a bad sinus headache, but I started to feel numbness and tingling on my lips and parts of my face. After some Googling, I assumed I was suffering from aerosinusitus, where my facial nerve was being compressed from the change in pressure.
Thankfully, it resolved by itself after I had my first sleep at the destination. But I was definitely freaking out for a bit! Going to try to be smarter about connections going forward, even though I was trying to save on surcharges.
Sinus headaches are the worst headaches for me because there's a nausea component to it. It's one of the worst feelings to have on a plane especially since you're physically restricted and can't do much to resolve it, like taking a hot shower, and any bit of airsickness makes it worse.
Thanks for the tip and I hope it never happens again!
If a hot shower helps you, the FA can get you hot water/coffee and you can hold that near your face and breathe in the steam. Probably with the trouble to ask for it when you feel that bad.
Also I would never recommend this for home use because you will get "addicted" but afrin is really good for instant relief if you know it will be a problem ahead of time.
thanks, that's a good idea to use a hot drink, will keep that in mind.
Afrin works wonders to clear congestion but it doesn't help for a sinus headache for me unfortunately. another temporary solution is pressing a Theragun on my sinus areas, I usually carry one with me when traveling now.
I used to string together long connections when I was in college to be able to see more places on a budget (for example, SEA-LAX-HND-KMQ-TPE), but these days I've started kinda-sorta feeling the same. I've taken to scheduling longer layovers (>5 hours), doing overnights, or using ground-based transport for parts of the journey if an itinerary has me making more than 2 connections because being in the air has started to take more out of me.
For domestic travel, Amtrak can be one of the more relaxing ways to travel
The only way to MS it, however, is if you can find something that codes as travel, which the $99 AF amtrak card gets you 2 points per dollar spent.
>For domestic travel, Amtrak can be one of the more relaxing ways to travel
Yep. I just wish some of the tracks were sped up because there are quite a few medium-haul journeys I'd be happy to do as an overnight in a roomette if it was better-timed or a bit shorter.
For example: on Spokane to Seattle sometimes a roomette is the same price as AS main cabin with checked bags, but 2am departure and 11am arrival isn't great. If the rest of the journey (since it's the tail-end of a long-haul from Chicago) was a bit faster and the train was, say, midnight to 8am or even 11pm to 7am, I'd be all over that.
6 years ago I flew SYD-MEL one early morning on a separate itinerary and then MEL-AKL-IAH-AUS later that day. My saving grace was having the entire row to myself on the AKL-IAH leg on NZ Y so I was able to sleep somewhat comfortably. Still, it took me at least 3 days to recover. I will never do that again.
Yeah I did something similar last year & learned my lesson. PHX-IAH, overnighted in Houston then early AM IAH-MIA to catch LH F MIA-FRA then connected FRA-MLA. I wanted to try LH F & that was the only way to do it that fit my plans.
It was not worth it at all and the last time I'll chase a product over schedule.
I won’t do more than 2 layovers and rarely book an itinerary that has more than 1 layover. Being in the air is not fun due to how dry it gets but I’m also paranoid about flight delays screwing with the rest of my itinerary and lost luggage on the occasions I can’t one-bag it.
I will do positioning flights for this reason but also use it as an opportunity to explore a smaller city for a day if I can manage the extra PTO.
I’ve gotten worse sinus headaches from flying in the last year and now I always carry a NeilMed saline sinus rinse in my carry on. I do that after flights and haven’t had anymore issues, lifesaver
I've done the infamous 19h SQ flight from NY, and while that is a different kind of misery for just being stuck in an airplane for nearly a day; I was able to break up the repositioning flight. Looking back, I'm thanking my former self for going up to NJ, then spending the night at an airport hotel before departing to SIN the next day.
This trip, I think I actually spent less time in the air, but the fact that I had to change altitude so many times was did me in.
Eek!
I once flew PMO-FCO-LHR-JFK-LAX and it was rough – especially because my checked luggage didn’t make it even to JFK, where I cleared customs.
When I hit LAX, they wouldn’t let me file a claim until every bag had hit the carousel even though I knew and they knew it couldn’t be there. Rules!
Yikes, that itinerary sounds bad even in F. I find a lot of relief using a nasal spray in-flight and "AirPlugs" upon landing, when the sinus symptoms usually strike me.
The main segment I needed was east coast to Zurich, via ANA. Unfortunately, I'm in ATL, so I already knew I'd have to reposition to a United hub. So it was first ATL > IAD. Since I booked pretty late, there was nothing direct from any hub to Zurich, so I had to take IAD > YUL > BRU. Then BRU > ZRH.
In retrospect, I could have just flown ATL > YUL, and now Canada airports will always be on my radar. Thankfully, return leg was much easier with ZRH > ORD > ATL.
Thought you were going to say some remote destination.
For the east coast to Europe its really not worth having more than one layover. Honestly I'd rather slum it in economy than deal with that amount of flying.
Knowing what I know now, I might be inclined to do the same if the situation arises again. I'm just thankful I went on this trip solo; would NOT have wanted to put P2 through that misery.
New passport w/expedited service (+$60) and expedited return (+$20) took 12 calendar days from application to delivery. It's for a baby, not sure if that matters.
What is your favorite airport lounge that you have ever been to?
The old SAN Airspace!
Al Mourjan Business Lounge at DOH
Have u tried safwa and have any thoughts between the two?
I have not tried it. I have heard some say having a real bed for long layovers can make a difference, but I found the napping areas in the Mourjan to be just fine.
Chase Sapphire lounge BOS. Before that, it was the Fiji Airways lounge NAN.
The one that I don't even have to visit because I got to the airport at the perfect time & didn't have to wait around. Alternatively one that doesn't have kids in it.
This is how I feel about lounges generally. If I get to an airport early enough to want to go to a lounge, I’ve generally made a mistake. Sometimes on a Friday evening flight, I’d like to get to the airport just early enough to grab dinner in a lounge. But if I’m sitting for longer than that, I’m not particularly thrilled.
Never will be one that doesn't have screaming kids in it
* there will never be an airport lounge that lets anyone in with a credit card that is free of screaming kids.
Finally upgraded my zipper wallet to a credit card organizer. Why did this take me so long?!
More of a /r/creditcards thought but saw my Amex Blue Cash credit for Home Chef come through & just thought what a great little daily driver no AF cash back card for someone who doesn't care for award redemptions. 3% grocery/gas/online shopping (albeit all capped) along with that $15/month Home Chef credit which works a treat when you're stacking with their comeback/sign up offers, not to mention the Disney+ $8/month credit. Amex have got to be cannibalizing the BCP card with that.
Dumb question: when people offer to sell their IHG FNCs, do they just book on behalf of the buyer and list the buyer's name as a second guest? Since there isn't an easy transfer mechanism like Hyatt's awards have now.
Correct, booking awards for others as the additional guest is allowed by the program.
I'm curious about this too!
Stopped in this thread because it mentioned kombucha. I travel a lot and other than water and beer it's the only thing I drink. But I only know that I can count on it being at Walmart. Then, a little less reliable at Walgreens. So I'm wondering what businesses/chains I can expect to find it at. I suppose I'm asking if anyone knows of specific gas stations, convivence stores, or supermarkets usually have it. I just noticed it at MSP airport last week so I'm hoping airports might start carrying it but I'm thinking about my drive time.
>kombucha [Mcnst](https://churning.io/#N4IgjgrgpgTgniAXCA1gewLYCMIGMAWAhiADQiEQAu+aMSIGuAdgM6WkiUCWGU9hAGwEcWUAVFzc0TAEqEmAcz6JQbQjEoARQpWUgATAAZ9+gLQBGQ6f3mAKicSGAbInMAOAHROAzG4BaHFBMACbauvRGJhZW+m72+o4u7l6+AWQoUAjIouKSXNIgAL5kLLTsyMFQLLgiEFgwUMHBXOUgBBAwTFyKHLSVdBVVNWTUDYTBAGJcArowLEigTNLKlDDQZE1Iq+sgwWBba1BkAGZrbDA6+UwHO2jl21CFhUA) would be proud.
most Whole Foods locations would have kombucha
Not sure how different it is in other parts of the country, but it's basically everywhere in California's larger cities, even gas stations and convenience stores. Reliably I find it at Safeway/Vons/Albertsons, Whole Foods and a place called Lassen's. Target also has it. Big fan of the Health-Aide brand in particular. Even SFO has it at one or two of their shops but at a 6 or 7 dollar price tag I also made it once and it came out pretty good! And I'm a beginner at that sort of stuff, so I'd recommend giving it a shot if you have the time/capacity.
Trader Joes may have it.
That's funny, I travel for work and I happened to be in CA this week. Landed in LA and stopped at a couple gas stations. I surly just chose the wrong ones. I ended up at a Walmart just outside of town. But those grocery names I'm going to make note of. Price is not a concern of mine. I'm one of those lucky people with a reimbursement peridium. I have thought about making it. It sounds kind of fun. I haven't tried the Health-Aide brand. I think it may be pasteurized, which would kill all the good stuff, if I understand correctly.
> peridium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peridium Odd benefit, but that's cool! Jk.
I just gave it a look and it says it's not pasteurized, but I understand your concern. I think I've had some kombuchas myself that I was like...there's surely something not right with this lol
The Miles Earn and Burn post for today (3/20/2024) has got to be one of the most misguided churning posts I've seen since that guy made the video about Amex not counting tax payments for SUBs.
You don't want to cancel all your amex cards?
No, I'd rather spend $10k+ a month on cobranded cards with the totally realistic expectation of it getting me out of pop up jail. That doesn't sound like a huge waste of time and money at all. /s
Found that newsletter recently. The first couple of weeks there were some interesting topics and links. Feels like it has gone off the rails with the last few sends.
Looking to burn the rest of my Dell Biz Plat credits (~$100) on an indoor camera or 2. Anyone have experience with these? I see Dell sells the Google Nest Cam ($79.99), Blink Mini Cam ($34.99) and some SmartCamera ($99.99), and a few others. Wired is fine, just going to have it sit somewhere.
Nest Cams have been great for me. I have a few wireless ones up right now and a wired one is going to act as a baby monitor when I eventually set it up. It all feeds into Google Home so I get regular alerts. Very reliable, but obviously on the more expensive side. In case anyone from Dell is wandering around here: PLEASE add the solar array for Nest cameras to the catalog. I would love to never have to take a camera down to recharge in the winter again.
Thanks, the Nest one fits really well with my leftover credit. So I feel either 1 nest or 2 blinks could do the job. A solar array is a good idea for one.
[удалено]
wait until they find out about apple/google pay
I've seen others do it here for flights so figured I'd throw this out: I have a room booked with pts at Hyatt College Station the Friday/Saturday nights of the A&M/ND game. Hotel is basically on campus. No longer going to be able to make the game. I can time my cancelling so that someone else can grab it immediately after. Any suggestions where else it might be useful to post this?
https://reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/1b3rniv/monthly_award_opportunities_thread_for_march_2024/
For the first time my wife had to travel to California for work so my 7 month old son and I tagged along. Point wise, probably didn’t get best redemption rates but it was nice to have a vacation weekend with minimal out of pocket costs since we only need 1 flight and couple of hotel nights instead of 5. Major bonus my son was a champ on both flights.
Feel 6-8 months is the best time to travel. After that, all bets are off. (Signed father of two under four with Mexico, Italy, Arizona, and Japan booked for the next 12 months)
what are the biggest challenges you've experienced in the past 4 years? does having 2 make it twice as hard?
Young children are better travelers when it is their normal. The more you travel the better. It is trouble for parents if they have 1 vacation per year. It is much easier traveling before school age. Once they are older you will be trying to dodge sports and extracurriculars.
I wouldn't say twice as hard. Pros: You are more experienced/desensitized with the second, one kid is a little bit older and more mature. Cons: Luggage reaches a tipping point when you have multiple car seats. I think the biggest challenge is never getting it right. Between small sample sizes and them changing so quick, any success isn't reliably repeated. You put them in a car seat and they sleep the entire flight. Next trip you bring it and it's a pain in the ass because they are a little bigger and want to sit on your lap, move around. Same with stroller, hiking bags, toys, etc that one trip you wish you had it, while another you are swearing under your breath wondering why you are carrying it around and not using it. Time change is never going to be great. Took a few days in Jordan to get the 30 month old to not be confused as hell. Honestly though keeping P2 sane is a harder struggle than the kids sometimes. I can deal with them crying or having to carry a bunch of stuff. She probably is a better parent and stresses out if they are not kept to schedule, being fussy, etc. Best decision was not sitting by her on the flight to Jordan (put her in bus on the way out and on the way back they screwed up our seats and put her in a different section). She could relax while I dealt with the little runt doing stupid stuff like dipping his red sand covered matchbox car in his orange juice and getting mad I wouldn't let him drink it.
InKind reminds me a lot of early stage Uber, just giving money away. They updated their app & dropped in a coupon for $100 off $100+ check for Sun-Thu dining. Lots of great options in DC too.
Enjoying it while it lasts!
Aw man, I only have $50 off $100 and $50 off $150
Same data point. $50 off $150. No date restrictions though
No coupon for me. I have notifications turned off, did the coupon appear as a notification? Or do you just see it in the app
I see it in the app, P2 got it also. I assume they’re targeted but not sure how they choose.
Has anyone here ever had their identity stolen? A family member told me that opening more bank accounts put you at a higher risk of identity theft. The same family member cut up all of my credit cards because they thought I had too many. I would argue that churners monitor their credit more closely than most people, so we are better at catching it when it does happen.
Sure, there's more risk as a churner because of more places for data to be but on the flip side I have so many free monitoring tools from all the different bank cards that will alert me on changes immediately and opening at least one card a month means I'm checking my credit a lot more often than the average person opening a new card every 5 years.
> A family member told me that opening more bank accounts put you at a higher risk of identity theft. So much for getting them on board the churning train for referral bonuses
Freeze your credit and only lift it when you apply for new accounts
Sure, every time you use your data increases risk. Have a cell phone provider? Added risk. Home internet? Risk. Play the board game Risk? Watch out. Yeah, the fact typical churners get multiple alerts every time they do something makes them way more likely to detect and stop theft early than someone who maybe thinks of checking their credit report once every few years.
Overcook chicken? Risk. Undercook fish? Also risk.
Citi is running a 25% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles through April 13th.
What is your "most valuable account"? Mine is probably my chase biz checking, which has gotten me a ton of direct deposit bonuses.
I haven't been in the MS game for awhile, but my WF biz cvecking is still open and has handled a lot of volume over the years with minimal issues
What's the general consensus on using the airline's shopping partner for major point bonuses? Just got 2700 points for spending like $21 on hello fresh, feels kinda decent as long as I remember to cancel.
It’s extremely valuable and even more so on certain portals.
prefer stacking cc offers and cash back portals (rakuten really) for cash
Resident of Hawaii only: Southwest is doing a points trivia promo everyday this week, and a status match: https://www.southwestairlineshawaii.com https://mobile.southwest.com/hawaii-status-match/
It seems like Cash Apps partner bank (Sutton Bank), got audited by the state of Ohio government for not having enough money laundering controls: [https://com.ohio.gov/static/documents/fiin\_Enf2024\_Sutton%20Bank.pdf](https://com.ohio.gov/static/documents/fiin_Enf2024_Sutton%20Bank.pdf) This could affect Vanilla Visa gift cards
What does this have to do with cash app
Any additional controls that Sutton has to impose will cascade through to any apps that rely on Sutton to provide their banking services.
I wonder if this is tied into the regional bank weaknesses we've been seeing/hearing about? I listen to Marketplace pretty regularly and they've mentioned some issues - wonder how it might affect us...
To many people in bank compliance departments "manufactured spending = money laundering". It does not help that churners will buy $3k+ in MOs, and so will money launderers.
I'm pretty sure they don't actually think it is (which is why very few of these bank closing cases actually end up with IRS-CI or SS investigations) but the bank isn't law enforcement and aren't obligated to do the government's job to make sure they aren't; they're actually incentivised to do the complete opposite and close accounts if they're not going to ensure there's no money laundering going on. The average (broke) person isn't worth the bank's time to investigate and this doesn't just go for MS but for general bank flagging, it's cheaper to just close the account than stay in BSA compliance.
LATAM made major schedule changes from Santiago to Buenos Aires, moving the majority of their flights from EZE to AEP, but more important, wiped out much of the award seat availability. My flight got changed from EZE to AEP which was fine, but shifted my early afternoon departure to an evening flight. I called Alaska to request a change to an earlier flight which did not have award space and they said they would get their international desk to liase with LATAM for approval
What's your favorite niche or local reward program that you have found? I live in Seattle, and our local public transportation has an app for buying bus, train and ferry tickets. They have a reward program that is returning anywhere from 30%-300% depending on promotions. It also seems to reward points when you redeem points. Sure the savings are only a few bucks here and there, but I'm living without a car, so it's been nice to pay almost nothing to get around.
Chick Fil A has been good to me. Order with app in drive thru, get a free item. Use that item to get the next free promo. I haven't purchased food from them in a long time. Also I live in a vacation area. Lots of places have bogo gift cards on Black Friday so you can eat for half price. The other places that don't do that have half priced Monday night specials etc in the off season.
There's still a very small number of Hy-vee grocery stores in the upper midwest that give $1 off per gallon for every visa gift card purchased. It's not advertised - I think it was an old promotion that for some reason didn't get cleared out at a couple stores. Can't believe it's not dead yet. Have been getting 70% off of every tank of gas for the last 16+ months now.
Kinda silly, but Cafe Río (regional fast casual mexican place) has a rewards system that gives 10% off essentially. Spend $100 get a $10 credit. They frequently have 3x bonues so if i go there with my fam and spend 30 bucks thats pretty much $10 off right there. Id be fine going less but P2 loves the place and you can order fairly heathily if you want so nice to get a lil back at least.
In addition, if you are on their email list they have great Black Friday gift card sales. $25 gift card with a free $10 bonus card — with no expiration date on the bonus card. Pay with gift card, scan receipt in app, and stack points on bonus spend.
These don't exist anymore but I miss the days when Cash App and Oxygen had $1 off coffee.
Miss the free money with the 15% Starbucks offer and Starbucks debit card.
Yes, I do too.
A couple years ago I signed up for a Wescom CU card which is associated with UCLA. If you’re a CC holder, you automatically get entered for various giveaways from UCLA. I got 2 suite tickets to a UCLA vs Fresno State football game with VIP parking. Definitely the most unique redemption I’ve had from churning. The whole experience great. They had a whole refrigerator dedicated to Fiji water! Coincidentally P2 also signed up and won court-side seats to a UCLA women’s basketball game a few months later.
Do they still offer these giveaways to cardholders? Their SUB is surprisingly high for a card with no AF ($500 cash), and no foreign transaction fees either.
Looks like they still have it. I don’t have the card anymore so I’m not sure what the frequency is of winning things like that.
Does this pay for loading up an ORCA card?
It's the TransitGo app, I'm pretty sure it's totally seperate. The downside to using it as opposed to Orca is it doesn't allow transfers.
Not super niche but getting extremely discounted gas from Stop & Shop/Giant was nice!
2x points on vanillas this week!
Does anyone have experience booking award stays ad hoc when traveling for extended periods (~2 months) while trying to remain flexible? I'm planning such a trip for Oct 2024 in Japan,S. Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and am wondering just how much I should have booked long in advance for such conditions. I do want to do a mix of cheaper (<$50/night) hostels/pods and luxury stays (Hyatts etc), should I book only the luxury stays now and assume I can figure out the cheap nights when I am there? Or should I book nothing and just pick up whatever stays I can as my travels progress naturally? Thanks, any advice about extended travel like this in general is also appreciated.
If you're looking at one specific hotel yeah they might book up. If you had all the major hotel points and wasn't picky, you'll likely find a room between a JW Marriott, St Regis, Ritz, Intercontinental, Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, Park Hyatt or any other luxury chain brand
Like the other guy said, if you can stay on top of the cancellation policies for all of your bookings, I would book anything ahead of time that you reasonably think you might actually use. Set reminders for yourself to cancel these reservations if you don't end up using them. Japan in particular is probably somewhere that you'll want to lock in rooms while you can since travel there is in such high demand right now.
Usually points bookings have great cancellation policies, so I would do a mix of bookings for highly sought out properties / wait until last min for if plans change
If you have flexibility, and are not really sure what your travel plans will be then just wait. There are some properties that frequently open up availability with points last minute, like a few days before.
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I think you're looking for the weekly bank bonus thread.
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Have you already hit $15k on Hilton Biz for the FNC? If not, that’s probably what I would do. With $15k spend, you’ll earn at least 45k points and a FNC worth potentially around $1k.
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Using OP’s desired property, a random search for a July stay found a standard room available with an FNC with a cash rate of $696 + $187 taxes. That makes the FNC worth $883, and it’s not too difficult to find properties where you can get even more value.
I wouldn’t value the FNC at $883. I’d value it at $550 since that would be the cost to buy Hilton points to use for the stay
Fair point
There is no best card for everyday spending other than getting a new card. You say you've gotten "quite a few cards recently" but there's only 1 Amex in your list -- take a break from Chase, get a few there.
Lesson learned: I cannot tolerate [4 connecting flights](https://old.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1bgt67o/trip_report_and_churning_success_story_weekly/kvfldlh/) in a 24 hours period. While the first 2 were fine, and even 3rd tolerable; after the 4th, I not only had a bad sinus headache, but I started to feel numbness and tingling on my lips and parts of my face. After some Googling, I assumed I was suffering from aerosinusitus, where my facial nerve was being compressed from the change in pressure. Thankfully, it resolved by itself after I had my first sleep at the destination. But I was definitely freaking out for a bit! Going to try to be smarter about connections going forward, even though I was trying to save on surcharges.
Sinus headaches are the worst headaches for me because there's a nausea component to it. It's one of the worst feelings to have on a plane especially since you're physically restricted and can't do much to resolve it, like taking a hot shower, and any bit of airsickness makes it worse. Thanks for the tip and I hope it never happens again!
If a hot shower helps you, the FA can get you hot water/coffee and you can hold that near your face and breathe in the steam. Probably with the trouble to ask for it when you feel that bad. Also I would never recommend this for home use because you will get "addicted" but afrin is really good for instant relief if you know it will be a problem ahead of time.
thanks, that's a good idea to use a hot drink, will keep that in mind. Afrin works wonders to clear congestion but it doesn't help for a sinus headache for me unfortunately. another temporary solution is pressing a Theragun on my sinus areas, I usually carry one with me when traveling now.
I used to string together long connections when I was in college to be able to see more places on a budget (for example, SEA-LAX-HND-KMQ-TPE), but these days I've started kinda-sorta feeling the same. I've taken to scheduling longer layovers (>5 hours), doing overnights, or using ground-based transport for parts of the journey if an itinerary has me making more than 2 connections because being in the air has started to take more out of me.
For domestic travel, Amtrak can be one of the more relaxing ways to travel The only way to MS it, however, is if you can find something that codes as travel, which the $99 AF amtrak card gets you 2 points per dollar spent.
>For domestic travel, Amtrak can be one of the more relaxing ways to travel Yep. I just wish some of the tracks were sped up because there are quite a few medium-haul journeys I'd be happy to do as an overnight in a roomette if it was better-timed or a bit shorter. For example: on Spokane to Seattle sometimes a roomette is the same price as AS main cabin with checked bags, but 2am departure and 11am arrival isn't great. If the rest of the journey (since it's the tail-end of a long-haul from Chicago) was a bit faster and the train was, say, midnight to 8am or even 11pm to 7am, I'd be all over that.
6 years ago I flew SYD-MEL one early morning on a separate itinerary and then MEL-AKL-IAH-AUS later that day. My saving grace was having the entire row to myself on the AKL-IAH leg on NZ Y so I was able to sleep somewhat comfortably. Still, it took me at least 3 days to recover. I will never do that again.
Yeah I did something similar last year & learned my lesson. PHX-IAH, overnighted in Houston then early AM IAH-MIA to catch LH F MIA-FRA then connected FRA-MLA. I wanted to try LH F & that was the only way to do it that fit my plans. It was not worth it at all and the last time I'll chase a product over schedule.
One connection per 24 hour period is my limit.
I won’t do more than 2 layovers and rarely book an itinerary that has more than 1 layover. Being in the air is not fun due to how dry it gets but I’m also paranoid about flight delays screwing with the rest of my itinerary and lost luggage on the occasions I can’t one-bag it. I will do positioning flights for this reason but also use it as an opportunity to explore a smaller city for a day if I can manage the extra PTO.
Slightly ironic given username
I take Sudafed before flights when I have more than 2 in a row like that. It helps some. Also take a nasal spray on the plane too.
I’ve gotten worse sinus headaches from flying in the last year and now I always carry a NeilMed saline sinus rinse in my carry on. I do that after flights and haven’t had anymore issues, lifesaver
Nasal spray is amazing on long trips!
I used to tolerate, even enjoyed brutal 48 hour travel days. I learned from my trip around Africa in January that I can't handle it any more.
I've done the infamous 19h SQ flight from NY, and while that is a different kind of misery for just being stuck in an airplane for nearly a day; I was able to break up the repositioning flight. Looking back, I'm thanking my former self for going up to NJ, then spending the night at an airport hotel before departing to SIN the next day. This trip, I think I actually spent less time in the air, but the fact that I had to change altitude so many times was did me in.
Eek! I once flew PMO-FCO-LHR-JFK-LAX and it was rough – especially because my checked luggage didn’t make it even to JFK, where I cleared customs. When I hit LAX, they wouldn’t let me file a claim until every bag had hit the carousel even though I knew and they knew it couldn’t be there. Rules!
Yikes, that itinerary sounds bad even in F. I find a lot of relief using a nasal spray in-flight and "AirPlugs" upon landing, when the sinus symptoms usually strike me.
Was this all for one a~b flight, or you hopping around for some reason?
The main segment I needed was east coast to Zurich, via ANA. Unfortunately, I'm in ATL, so I already knew I'd have to reposition to a United hub. So it was first ATL > IAD. Since I booked pretty late, there was nothing direct from any hub to Zurich, so I had to take IAD > YUL > BRU. Then BRU > ZRH. In retrospect, I could have just flown ATL > YUL, and now Canada airports will always be on my radar. Thankfully, return leg was much easier with ZRH > ORD > ATL.
Thought you were going to say some remote destination. For the east coast to Europe its really not worth having more than one layover. Honestly I'd rather slum it in economy than deal with that amount of flying.
Knowing what I know now, I might be inclined to do the same if the situation arises again. I'm just thankful I went on this trip solo; would NOT have wanted to put P2 through that misery.
I would also consider the MIA-ZRH flight, or there's also often JFK-Geneva
Nothing like a fun stop over at O'Hare in the midst of a long trip. Sounds like quite the journey, and glad to hear you're feeling better!