ABD trips are definitely something I'd love to try in the future. And can someone explain the Amex discounts for Disney stuff. I bet I'll be kicking myself after learning about them. We just paid off this summer's cruise last month and it would have been great to get extra points for this one since it wasn't cheap.
@mmmears, somewhere upthread, we encouraged you to list all your credit cards and when you opened them (month and year). We're trying to get a sense of what cards you have so we can dissect their benefits, including spending categories that might earn you bonus points. We want to know when you opened each of your cards so we can get a "5/24 count" -- how many cards you opened in the past 24 months (including cards on which you're an authorized user) -- so we can advise you on which Chase cards you might eligible and for which you should apply.
You seem very attached to your Amex card(s) and Membership Rewards points. I get it. I love Amex too. Before I got into this hobby, my wallet consisted of an old fee free Citi ThankYou card, a United MileagePlus card that I put all my United flights on when I traveled a lot more, and an Amex Premier Rewards Gold that I thought was earning me tons of points because I used it at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants! My one Amex card even got me enough points for two round trip tickets to Japan (best redemption ever) and a Vitamix (dumbest redemption ever). I’ve earned more points in the past year and a half than in the 15 years before that combined. You don't even know how far this rabbit hole can take you. Membership Rewards points can be a fantastic value for transfers to one of Amex's many airline partners, but Amex cards and MR points generally are not "built" for saving or earning points on Disney vacations. That crown goes to Chase's Ultimate Rewards points.
@calypso726 hinted at how she does it earlier today:
I just wanted to say hi from China and share a couple of pics with the nicest thread on the Dis and my fellow travel hacking peeps! But I will make it relevant. The number one travel hacking reason I love
Adventures by Disney is because
we can pay our trips with Disney gifts cards. We use the Ink+ and Freedom to get them at 5x UR/$ or Amex offers that get us discounted Disney gift cards.
Here's an earlier post where
@calypso726 goes into more detail:
You’re welcome.
@1GoldenSun I’m going to likely answer this in segments. I’m going to start with spending a fair amount with Disney. Here is our spending with Disney so you can use as a gauge for yours. We have 1300 DVC points which means we spend $8,000 per year in annual dues. Add 2 annual passes per year for $1300. Then add at least one Adventures by Disney trip for 2 each year which is somewhere between $8,000 - $14,000 per year. Then add 1 to 2 short Disney Cruises each year which is between $3,000 - $6,000. So conservatively speaking we likely spend $20,000 per year at a bare minimum on Disney trips. So I’m going to use $20k as the number to work with.
If I use a no fee Disney Visa I would earn 20,000 points and might get a $200 bonus for a sign up in a new card. So that’s $400 for my spend. I’d get the same on a 2% no fee cash back card. If I use my CSR which is 3x on travel and all of these code for travel I’d get 60,000 points which I could transfer to airlines and hotels. I could also use them to purchase travel on the CSR UR portal and they’d be worth $900. That’s way better than $400 but still isn’t good enough for me. Instead, I pay for my Disney expenses with Disney gift cards. I can purchase Disney gift cards at an office supply store with my Ink business card which has a 5x spending bonus category for Office Supply stores. I will also use my Freedom card to do the same thing when the bonus category is a place that sells Disney GCs. At a bare minimum my $20k in Disney spend will earn me 100,000 UR points every year. But I take it a step further. For example, next quarter the Freedom bonus category includes Chase Pay. So, I will purchase $1500 in Walmart gift cards online and use Chase Pay to get my 7500 UR points. Then, I am going to use those Walmart gift cards to purchase Disney gift cards at Sam’s which sells them for nearly 5% off. So now I get a discount on top of the UR points I earned. But I’m still going to take it another step further. I would access Sam’s dot com through the American Airlines shopping portal (AA is the airline I use most since Miami is a hub) so that I can earn an additional 1 AA mile per dollar spent at Sam’s with my gift cards. So now, I would have earned 7500 UR points, bought $1500 in Disney GCs for about $1431 and earned 1431 American Airline miles. This is called stacking. Sometime I alternate with Amex Membership Rewards if there’s an Amex offer on one of my cards that makes more sense than using Chase. More answers later but hope this helps.
Don't you have a no fee Disney Visa?
Not many of us have 1300 DVC points to maintain, nor dedicate as much of our budget to Disney vacations as
@calypso726, but she shows you how having the right card can get you better rewards.
The Chase Ink Business Plus ("Ink+") that calypso726 mentions is no longer available to new applicants, but Chase does have a very similar business card called the Chase Ink Business Cash (or just "CIC") that earns 5x UR at office supply stores, where as you see from calypso726's example you can buy Disney gift cards; as well as 5x UR on internet/cable/phone transactions, which also includes eGift card apps like Gyft and Swych, which sell gift cards to Walmart, Target, and other merchants. Fortunately for you, the CIC is available right now at an all-time high offer (for that product) of 50,000 UR points after a $3k/3 months MSR. The big obstacle is your reluctance to applying for business cards.
But buying gift cards at a discount or while maximizing credit card rewards is only one way to save on Disney vacations. There's a whole 'nother thread on the Budget Board called Disney Gift Card Deals (I used to be quite the regular there too!). And we have tips on churning for Disney on our DISchurners reddit page.
I'm going to have to cut it short right here -- family time.
Want to know more? Take the red pill -- you stay in Wonderland, and we show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all we’re offering is the truth.
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