Hmm, that wording seems like it could go either way!
I’d probably wait it out for a statement close and see if the points appear for your DW’s card. If not, I’d add your P3. I have a binder of cards my kids are AUs on but I just don’t give them the cards. (They each have my Sapphire for use out in the real world.)
Never a bad time to start building credit I suppose! Though I think adding them a no-fee card we can keep open long term is probably a best practice.
Sure, but both doesn’t hurt - you can always remove the fee-based card later and if it was open a shorter time than the no-fee, will just jump up the average age calculation and their score will likely bump up pretty quickly.
When they get their own cards and are weaned off off yours, their own first card being no fee is probably much more impactful.
I’ve got an old Discover that I’ll likely add both to at some point. Like 20 years old, old. Speaking of which, I should use that one day just to keep it fresh.
That discover card has been closed since 2023 
I still get a monthly statement though, due to have a credit of… sixty-seven cents.
There is a site that explains points differently.
Try Katie’s Travel Tricks or her podcast which is Points for Normal People. Family-oriented and looking at
making family travel cheaper, not maximizing point redemptions or traveling first class. She did a series on their trip to Disneyland recently.
I haven’t come across that site or podcast before. Good content, thanks for sharing
Why does Marriott want to play with my emotions? The Westin on Big Island has consistently ran 310k-330k for my dates, which is well out of range for my five free night certificates. Yesterday, this popped up:
I ran to check this new nightly rate only to get a punch right in the face
Another interesting positive wrinkle in the current Sapphire 100K sign up bonus:
Rakuten has a link that would boost your bonus by another 30K Chase UR!
I’ve never heard of Rakuten doing this before - I think the typical Rakuten link was a $50 bonus?
They also have similar links for the:
This is better than using a P2 referral from your spouse/friend/partner/veterinarian.
In case you weren’t aware:
The stacking play on this (and in general with Rakuten) is to attach an Amex MR earning card to your Rakuten account and set your profile to earn rewards in MR instead of cash back. The thought here is you can easily make those points worth 1.5 cents per point or much more by transferring them to travel partners.
It went the good way thankfully. DW and I both had 5k deposited into our UA accounts today, the same day the cards arrived.
I have struggles with this idea as well, as we sometimes buy gift cards to max out the sears deals. But already spent money that earned points is just as good as unspent and unearned points.
I almost always book my “ways” separately. Is there an advantage to booking round trip?
Me too. I need to use it before they close it. It’s one of my oldest lines.
Some Southwest info from the Miles Earn and Burn blog today pasted below.
On the targeted card linked offer for the 10% off SW up to $40:
I may have heard from “a friend” that one can book a FULLY REFUNDABLE fare >$400 and get the credit and if you cancel it later the $40 credit stays on the card.
Worth the effort or possibility of annoying Chase?
That’s between you and Chase. 
Looks like the Marriott Boundless card bonus has changed to a different and perhaps interesting new variation to some folks:
Depending on where you stay it can be difficult to find 50K nights - but when I checked the Swolphin this summer, there are definitely weeks where there are some deals to be had. (Some nights in any given week might need some points added on top of the certificate - you can add up to 15K points per cert if needed.)
Possible Downsides:
Certificates expire after a year, so you want to have a plan to use them.
| IMHO a pure points bonus is much betterer because they don’t expire - you can stretch your points value by booking 5 nights on points and getting the cheapest night free.* You cannot get a 5th night free with a points/certificates combo booking. |
ETA Later: Want to add a modifier to the statement above with my silly meme: In reality Marriott points CAN expire, I think with 2 years of no activity.
BUT: it is really easy to keep them alive: earn new points over time (spend on credit card), transfer some points in, even if just 1,000 points etc.
*Which reminds me: I wanted to write something up about stacking this tactic. (A Stacktic?)
In a more aggressive points game play, this and many cards would very likely be further down the list of cards to get when considering the Chase 5/24 rule.
But, if you’re going casual in the points game, maybe this helps you score a nice 3 or 4 night stay, I dunno.  |
 |
If you don’t have a friend or family with a referral link, check out the Liner Referral thread and spreadsheet here.
Quick write up of the thing I wanted to post:
I’m working on a couple of Deluxe It Up resort bookings this Summer - still have no idea when I can get all 4 of us together for a trip AND in between our massive front yard restoration, which we are still waiting for a start date on.
So, I’ve booked a 4-night splurge with free night certificates at the reportedly bodacious Conrad Orlando, as well as a 5-night stay at the Swan on some dates where the per night cost is at or under 50K points.
I have about 300K Marriott points out there right now waiting to be burned - not because I earned a ton of new Marriott points using my puny, puny, Boundless card or another bonus since my original free night certificates back in 2023 -
Last year Chase had a supreme 70% points transfer bonus to Marriott. (Discussed back in thread, I think around August?) Normally, it is not a great idea to speculatively send transferable points like Chase UR and Amex MR to a hotel or airline program, you want to have a plan to use it soon.
Also, usually the sooner the better since programs can devalue points at any given time.
But: SEVENTY PERCENT.
I had a good cache of points, so decided to bulk up my Marriott balance and hope we can sneak in another Crescent Lake Swolphin stay.
While booking my placeholder Swan stay for 197,000 points, it occurred to me my 70% transfer bet paid off:
You can see above, I only had to send over 116K Chase points to have enough to book that 5-night Swan stay.
Crunching the numbers: a $1901 out of pocket cost over 116K Chase points returned a 1.64 cents per point value.
While not the highest overall Chase value I’ve been able to book (Hellooo Hyatt!), considering that the typical estimate that Chase UR should be worth a reasonable 1.5 cpp, I’m happy with my bet.
By the way: While Marriott still charges you resort fees on points booking (a travesty), they do NOT appear to charge you for extra adults in the room on points. They added $350 to the gross cash price because my kids are both over 18. That’s a pretty painful add-on charge.
I like to suggest the Marriott free nights for people visiting Disneyland. A few resorts within a 15 minute walk that are within the 50k points per night. And a lot of people typically don’t visit more than 3 nights. That’s the way we have used those free nights in the past as well.
Just came to say that if you have flights booked to europe for this summer, check your redemptions. I had 4 in biz iad-cdg-fco through air france that i booked as soon as they opened and was able to get a penalty-free refund for those and get 4 iad-fco DIRECT on united through aeroplan. For return we had bcn-cdg-iad on air france and i was able to get that refunded penalty-free and get bcn-jfk direct on american through alaska and jfk to our home airport (1 hr flight or 3 hr drive to dulles). Cash fares are way down too
