HOW TO VISIT DISNEY WORLD FOR LESS WITH MILES AND POINTS

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HOW WE FLY FREE, STAY FREE AND SAVE UP TO $1,600 ON DISNEY TICKETS!

Let’s face it. Disney is expensive. My daughter is an all-star cheerleader and every year, for the past four years, we have had to go to Disney World in Orlando for her competitions. Every year I’m shocked by how expensive the tickets and hotels are so I decided to do a little research to see if I could offset some of the costs of our trip this year. I found that with these three cards I could eliminate the majority of the costs of our trip, flight, hotel and park tickets. Let’s break it down!

Traveling to Disney World every year means we need to get creative with using our miles and points!

For Flights: You can expect to pay around 7k-12.5k each way for a domestic flight. We like to fly AA (if you live a short distance from Orlando, consider searching on the British Airways site which has a distance-based award chart and flights on AA can be found for less here) or flying Southwest. There are three different Southwest personal credit cards and each often have a low minimum spend of just $1,000. I feel this is very attainable for most families. That’s just a little over $300 a month.

For Hotels: If you want to stay on Disney property and have all the benefits of doing so, you’ll want to look at the Disney Swan, Swan Reserve or Dolphin. They are Marriott properties. While redemptions vary wildly based on the time of year you’re visiting, rooms are bookable with Marriott points. I’m seeing award nights starting at 42k points a night to over 80k points a night during peak holiday season. So you’ll really want to plan ahead on this one.

Both Chase and American Express have co-branded Marriott cards. The application rules can be tricky so make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully before applying.

If you want to stretch your miles by staying off property, there are many choices outside of Disney property.

Some of our faves are:

• Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress - This off-Disney property books for just 15k Hyatt points a night. You can stay four free nights there by signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card.

• Orlando World Center Marriott (a Marriott property)

• Gaylord Resort & Convention Center (a Marriott property)

FOR DISNEY TICKETS:

These credit cards allow you to use your points to erase the cost of a purchase that codes as travel. It’s important to read instructions below because purchasing directly from Walt Disney World Resorts does not code as travel.

• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

• Citi Strata Premier Credit Card

• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

FLIGHTS:

Just about every airline flies to Orlando (or Tampa) from within the United States. The average domestic round trip award flight with “The Big Three” is about 25k points. While Southwest Airlines doesn’t have an award chart, I’ve found one-way flights from Dallas to Orlando for as little as 6,500 points. That’s half the price of American, Delta and United. 

There are three personal Southwest credit cards that earn Southwest Rapid Rewards, the standard welcome bonus is 50K points and has a low minimum spend of just $1,000 in three months. That’s doable for many families.  There are times during the year where I’ve seen the sign-up bonus go up to 75k-80k points. As it’s increased, so is the minimum spend. It’s worth it to wait if you can meet the spend.

Keep in mind that Chase limits applicants to one personal Southwest credit card at a time and you can only receive the bonus every 24 months. If you and your Player Two both apply for this card that will give you 100K Southwest Rapid Rewards which should be enough for four free flights to Orlando.

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card

• Perks: Two Early Bird Check-In® every year, earn 3k bonus points every anniversary

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card

• Perks: Two Early Bird Check-In every year, earn 6k points every anniversary

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card

• Perks: Four Upgraded Boardings per year, $75 Southwest travel credit each year, 7500 bonus points each anniversary. 

Pro Tip: If you qualify for business cards, consider grabbing one of the Southwest Rapid Rewards business credit cards or earning the Southwest Companion Pass for Two for One flights for two years.

HOTELS:

While there are dozens of point hotels near Disney World in Orlando, the only hotel on Disney World property that is bookable with points is the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin and the new Swan Reserve. The Swan and Dolphin are both Marriott properties that book anywhere from 50k-85k points a night.

By staying here you’ll receive the same perks as staying at any other Disney Deluxe property like early (and late) park access, ability to select individual Lightning Lanes at 0700 and both properties are walking distance to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Keep in mind that although your lodging will be free, you will be charged a daily resort fee and parking fee (most big resorts in Orlando charge this).

Please note that Marriott recently transitioned to dynamic pricing on award stays. That means that award prices go up and down based on cash prices. You will find if you’re traveling during peak summer or holiday season, the award price may be over 70k points a night.

The good news is that Marriott now allows us to top off free night certificates with up to 15k points. So, if the free night prices out at 65k points, you can use your free 50k night cert plus 15k points to book. This is the only time I would transfer Chase points to Marriott to top off a free night award.

HOW TO EARN MARRIOTT POINTS:

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card: Earn Three Free Nights (up to 50k points per night) after spending $3,000 on eligible purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. Annual fee: $95.

• Perks: You’ll receive an annual 35k free night award (we used ours to stay at the Springhill Suites Flamingo Crossing ten minutes from Disney World last year) at your cardmember anniversary.

American Express has several personal and business co-branded Mariott cards as well. There are intra-bank application rules on the Marriott co-branded cards so read the T&C carefully before applying.

• Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card -Earn 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you use your new Card to make $5,000 in purchases within the first 6 months.

• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card - Earn 95,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you use your new Card to make $6,000 in purchases within the first 6 months.

While staying on-Disney property is ideal, there are many Disney Good Neighbor Hotels that are bookable with points where you get many Disney perks like the Early Entry (let me tell you, those extra 30 minutes are so huge!) and free shuttle to the parks. These hotels require much fewer points per night which means your points can go a lot further.

Some Disney Good Neighbor Hotels that you can book with points are:

• Hilton properties: DoubleTree in Disney Springs, Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace, Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista (bookable with Hilton points)

• Holiday Inn Orlando in Disney Springs (bookable with IHG points)

• Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista and Wyndham Lake Buena Vista (bookable with miles from Capital One Venture or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card)

DISNEY TICKETS:

Being able to offset the cost of Disney tickets with points is not new. For many years, we were able to do this with our Barclay Arrivals+ card (no longer available), so it’s great that we have two more options to bring that hefty price down. Let’s go over each option and how to book. 

There are two Capital One Venture cards that allow you to use points when making a travel related purchase with your card. This includes purchasing Disney Park tickets. It’s very important to know that the purchase must code as travel. If you purchase your tickets directly from Disney, the purchase will not code as travel, and you will not be able to erase the cost with your miles.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card:

• Earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.

• After meeting the minimum spend, you’ll have 83k miles which is equal to $830

• Perks: Two annual complimentary visits to the Capital One Lounge

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card:

• Earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.

• After meeting the minimum spend you’ll have 83k miles which is equal to $830 (Venture miles earn 2x points on all purchases, so your $4k min spend would equal 8k miles)

• Unlimited complimentary access to over 1,400 airport lounges with Priority Pass Membership and unlimited access to Capital One Lounges

• $300 travel credit for travel purchased through the Capital One Travel portal - you could use this book a rental car through the Capital One travel portal

If you and your partner both apply for a Venture card, you’ll have double the miles to erase off your Disney Tickets purchase. Remember, when you are playing in ‘Two Player’ mode, you are alternating applications (unless you can meet the spend in the required time).

For example, I would apply for the Capital One Venture X, meet the minimum spend in three months and then my husband would apply for the Capital One Venture X, meet the minimum spend and earn the bonus. This method would take us about 5-6 months to earn two bonuses that would net us over $1600 to redeem for the cost of Disney tickets.

HOW TO BUY DISNEY TICKETS WITH CAPITAL ONE MILES:

The most important thing to remember when purchasing your Disney tickets, is that the purchase must code as travel in order for you to use your miles. Buying your tickets directly from Disney will not code as travel (it codes as other or entertainment) and therefore you wouldn’t be able to erase the cost with miles. 

In order to use your points to purchase Disney Tickets you must purchase them from a Third-Party site that sells Disney World tickets like Undercover Tourist or Getaway Today. Both of these sites sell discounted, refundable tickets. They have been around forever and are highly reliable. We have used Undercover Tourist before in the past and had no issues linking our tickets to the app as soon as purchase went through.

One credit card sign up bonus is almost enough to erase the cost of two adult three day park hopper tickets!

CITI STRATA PREMIER:

The other option we have to erase the cost of Disney Tickets is with points earned from the Citi Strata Premier. This one takes a little more work because you have to call in to purchase the tickets. But it’s very simple and straightforward.

How to earn Citi ThankYou Points:

Citi Strata Premier® Card (non-affiliate link)

• After meeting the minimum spend, you’ll have 74k points which is equal to $740 to use towards Disney Tickets

How to book Disney Tickets with Citi ThankYou points

Update: It appears as if you no longer have to call the 800 number to book your tickets. Now you can purchase your tickets through the third-party vendors above and you’ll be able to redeem points for a statement credit in the app when the statement closes. This is good news!

In order to purchase tickets, you have to call in to the Citi ThankYou Servicing Center at 1-800-842-6596. You will then follow a series of prompts:

• Select Help with Travel Rewards

• Enter last four digits of your card

• Select ‘Travel Rewards’

• Select ‘Cruises and Tours’

You’ll receive a confirmation email and be able to link your Disney tickets to the Disney app soon after. Just like above, if you and your partner both apply for the Citi Premier, you’ll be able to take over $1600 off the price of Disney tickets. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

We love using miles and points to erase the cost of flights and hotels when we travel. Being able to use miles and points to erase the cost of expenses such as theme park tickets is a game changer and a huge money saver for families making that Disney vacation just a little more magical!

Happy Travels!

Find out how your Family can Fly “Two for One” for Two Years with the Southwest Companion Pass here!

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