Tag Archives: Marriott Hotels

10 Things I’m Thankful for in 2020

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Good morning everyone, Merry Christmas Eve!  As 2020 winds to a close, I wanted to share 10 things I am thankful for this year.  I hope you can relate to some of these things and have other things you are thankful for as well.  If you want, please share what you are thankful for in the comments.  Without further ado, here is what I am thankful for in 2020:

Laura

It goes without saying, but I am very thankful for my wife, Laura.  She has been my constant stay at home companion and has made this year special.  I don’t know what I would do without her.  I’ve enjoyed watching TV shows, Hallmark movies, BBQing and making dinner, baking cookies, going for walks around our neighborhood, helping me with puzzles, and much more.  I am also very proud that she finished her Masters Degree this year.  She is incredible and I love her so much. Continue reading →

My December Credit Card Retention Calls: 2 out of 4 Successes ($300 Statement Credits Total)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I called about retention offers on a few different credit cards today and wanted to share my results.  Please make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post and read my tips on making retention calls.  I took a page out of Frequent Miler’s playbook (My $575 phone call (complete in 20 minutes)) and called about these 4 credit cards:

  • Chase Hyatt Credit Card ($75 annual fee posted December 1)
  • JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite Credit Card ($450 annual fee posted July 1)
  • Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card ($99 annual fee posted May 1)
  • American Express Business Platinum Charge Card ($595 annual fee posted December 2)

Since the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card is product changing to the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card on January 11, 2021, I decided to call Chase and ask about a retention offer.  This is a huge ask that I knew was never going to fly, but I tried anyways.  I told the Chase rep that I was planning on closing my old Hyatt credit card and was going to apply for the new World of Hyatt credit card in a few weeks since I could earn up to 50,000 World of Hyatt Points with the new sign up bonus.  Instead of going through the process of closing one card and applying for the other card, I asked if Chase could provide some bonus World of Hyatt Points to forgo the sign up bonus.  Nope, that was not possible.  At that point, I asked the rep to close that credit card and transfer the credit limit over to another Chase personal call.  I am 0 for 1 at this point, onto the next call.

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How to Redeem Marriott Bonvoy 50K Point Free Night Certificates (Some Issues, Then Success)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  At the end of October, my wife applied for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card.  At the time, the sign up bonus was for 5 Free Night Certificates good for up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points per night after spending $5,000 in 3 months.  Many bloggers (including my friends Nick and Greg at Frequent Miler) said that this sign up bonus was a great deal, but only for those who knew how to get great value out of the certificates and could use them all within 12 months.  Since Laura has never had any Marriott (or SPG) credit cards, she decided to apply for the credit card.  She was not instantly approved, but after calling the Chase reconsideration department, she was approved for the credit card.  In this post, I will show you how to redeem the Marriott 50K Free Night Certificates and show you some of the trouble Laura experienced in the booking process.

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Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card Application Process & Reconsideration Phone Call

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few days ago, I wrote My October 2020 Credit Card App-O-Rama Results.  In that post, I wrote about my experience applying and getting approved for 2 business credit cards: Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card and American Express Delta SkyMiles Gold Business Credit Card.  In today’s post, I will talk about my wife’s application and approval process for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card.  When Laura applied 2 weeks ago, the sign up bonus was for 5 free night certificates (up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points per night) after spending $5,000 in 3 months.  Unfortunately, that offer ended on October 28.

According to my calculations, Laura had a Chase score of 3/24, so I assumed she would be instantly approved for this credit card.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.  Here is what I learned about the approval process and how she was able to get approved for the new credit card.

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JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card: Redeem $300 Travel Credit for Restaurants & Grocery Stores via Secure Message

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  Earlier this month, Frequent Miler wrote Ritz card: Double Dip Restaurants 10X + $300. In that post, Greg covered 2 overlapping promotions available on the JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite Credit Card:

  • Earn 10x Marriott Bonvoy Points at restaurants and gas stations through September 30, 2020
  • Use the $300 annual travel credit to reimburse purchases made at grocery stores and restaurants though December 31, 2020

Before the Coronavirus Pandemic, I used $84.67 of my $300 annual travel credit, so I still had $215.33 remaining that I needed to use by December 31, 2020.  With the above information in mind, I decided to use my Ritz Carlton Credit Card for purchases at grocery stores and restaurants until I spent at least $215.33.  I made the necessary purchases and clicked the pie chart icon to confirm that the purchases fell into the right categories.

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