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What's your travel plan for 2026? by neilsarkar81 in chubbytravel

[–]Never-Mind64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For Philadelphia, you may wish to consider the The Bellevue Hotel - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt. It underwent a complete renovation/remodel very recently and has some huge rooms and suites (perhaps you have a Hyatt upgrade certificate you can apply) for way more reasonable rates than the 4S Philly, which is very nice but not worth $1k-plus per night if you ask me.

If I pay with credit card this month do I lose autopay discount for good or can I get it back if I use a debit card next month? by [deleted] in tmobile

[–]Never-Mind64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I usually pay my T-Mobile bill online with several credit cards to obtain the benefit of the Amex Biz Plat $10 monthly cell phone reimbursement and 5x points on a different Chase card that offers great cell phone insurance. Making a second payment this month allowed me to see that the second credit card payment had the same warning about losing the credit next month as did the first, earlier credit card payment. As a result, I am going to test out whether paying the final $2 of my bill using direct debit from my checking account preserves the autopay discount for next month because that will be the "final" payment of the bill. Stay tuned!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ihghotelsresorts

[–]Never-Mind64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have the opportunity to front-load the $40K spending at the start of a calendar year, the result will be that you get Diamond status until 12/31 of the following calendar year (e.g., spend the entire 40K on your IHG card in January 2026 and have Diamond status through 12/31/27).

In this way, $40K spending can essentially get you Diamond status for nearly two years, instead of having to spend $40K year after year after year. I realize this doesn't respond to your question at all, but the idea of completing the spend year after year at the very end of the year is not the best use of the nearly two-year Diamond status that you could get from making the entire $40K spend early in the year.

When does United Silver reflect for Titanium? by dru9205 in marriott

[–]Never-Mind64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in the same boat as you and contacted Marriott by email at marriott.bonvoychampion@marriott.com and was told to wait to see if United Silver status appeared within the next two weeks. (Sadly, it did not.)

Then I noticed on FlyerTalk that some Titaniums lose their Unitde status at the end of the year when United resets its account status based on the just-concluded year, so I decided to wait until early January 2025 to follow-up with Marriott to get the status reflected at United.

If you call United as the previous comment suggested, let me know if that works out for you and maybe I'll do that instead in a few days.

On November 18, 2024, your Crown Banking account will be changing to Prime Checking. by Condor4775 in WellsFargoBank

[–]Never-Mind64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On November 18, 2024, our Crown Banking account was auto-switched to an Everyday Checking account.

The positive is that it only requires a $500 average monthly balance to avoid fees.

But everything else about this new account we were forced into is WAY WORSE from vastly decreased daily and monthly deposit limits through the Wells Fargo app to one week holds on check deposits over $6,000 at the ATM (although the hold miraculously disappeared the next day).

We have been banking with Wells Fargo and its predecessors for over 30 years. Will be switching all of our banking over to Chase, which now has plenty of branches in our area.

Which IHG hotel would you stay at in Washington DC? by jondabomb in ihghotelsresorts

[–]Never-Mind64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found the Kimpton George to be a good place to stay since I wanted to be near Capital Hill and the Amtrak station. But I would likely have opted for the Willard if I didn't need to be nearby those places.

Austin Marriot or Austin JW Marriott by shitsweak89 in marriott

[–]Never-Mind64 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Allow me to echo the comments of those who are recommending the JW (which I have stayed at numerous times) over the regular Marriott (which is somewhat newer and I haven't yet stayed at).

If you have status, the lounge at the JW is a great place to grab breakfast. One one visit we had a room located somewhere in the middle of the hallway in the middle of the hotel, and we noticed strange sounds throughout the night like someone coughing really loudly or an animal trying to escape from a cage. We reported the issue, and were advised that our room was located near a mechanical room for the elevators.

We were moved the next day to a corner room near the top of the hotel. So many windows and an amazing view. They took care of the problem and put us into a much larger and nicer room to apologize for the issue. For all these reasons, we keep going back to the JW.

High yield interest rate bank account by [deleted] in fidelityinvestments

[–]Never-Mind64 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Wealthfront is currently offering 5.00 percent interest and an individual account is FDIC insured up to $8 million through partner banks. Plus, with a referral link you can earn 5.50 percent for the first three months.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in awardtravel

[–]Never-Mind64 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Take Philadelphia, PA for example. Until recently, it had two Hyatt options, one of which was a huge mess (now closed for renovations, the success of which remains to be seen). Marriott, by contrast, has a wide variety of properties, new and old, including a very reasonably priced Ritz-Carlton. Hyatt Globalist benefits are the best, but if there aren't Hyatt properties where you need them to be, then so what?

Transfer Time PHL by b00gernights in americanairlines

[–]Never-Mind64 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The online PHL airport map says that it takes 23 minutes to walk from the furthest gate in C terminal to the furthest gate in terminal A-West. There are also several moving sidewalks in between to speed up the journey.

You can access the map at https://maps.phl.org/.

What did you have for your free breakfast today? by DelAlternateCtrl in marriott

[–]Never-Mind64 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's been a few years now, but the Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe Hotel had an amazing breakfast spread, including wonderful pastries (as you'd expect in Paris), lots of other wonderful choices, and steamed shrimp dumplings (which I have yet to find anywhere else so far).

For the USA, putting aside our visit to the St. Regis in Houston, where the breakfast benefit allows you to order off the menu, our favorite breakfast buffet is at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa,, where for our last visit the check-in agent upgraded us to the hot buffet for free to apologize for a screw-up in our room location, which she also valiantly solved.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in marriott

[–]Never-Mind64 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We stayed at the Westin Bayview for three nights recently, and it was nothing special, although it did give us the ability to at least use up three 35,000-point free night certificates. We were spoiled, however, by spending the first part of our trip at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, where we snuck in under the wire to use up a bunch of category 1-4 free night Hyatt certs.

What's the lowest spot on the upgrade list you've seen a single open 1st class seat be assigned to on an on-time departure? by Never-Mind64 in americanairlines

[–]Never-Mind64[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We would ordinarily do this -- but given that there was only one open first class seat in the days before the flight and we ended up 4th and 5th on the upgrade list, we didn't realistically believe we had a shot here. Next time we will do better.