Money Saving Tips (flight, hotel, etc)

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone. I'm hoping someone here can contribute to my on going list of money saving ideas. A bit of back story, in recent years, I traveled to Disney in 2007, 2008, 2009 and Disney Land in 2010. At the end of 2010, our 1st daughter was born. Due to obvious new expenses, travel was put on hold. We were finally able to take her on her first trip this past Nov/Dec 2014 (the week after Thanksgiving). She was a few weeks shy of her 4th birthday. We all had an amazing time and my daughter still talks about Disney non stop and constantly asks when we are going back. I would love to go back sometime in 2016. I am currently pregnant with #2, due this Sept, and I think a trip would be better before she is mobile :) I am aiming for May 2016. Like our last trip, staying on a budget is an absolute must. I thought I would run through some things we did last time and see if anyone here has any further tips!

Flight- I checked several airlines, websites, etc and for our previous trip, we found Southwest to be the best deal. We booked directly through their website. Jet Blue, as well as sites like Expedia were always much higher. For our departure, we left at 6am because that was by far the cheapest flight of the day. It worked out great because we got to enjoy a half day at MK. I have since looked into Southwests rewards program but it looks like each person would have to take about 6 flights before earning a free flight. Any great rewards programs out there you use specifically for flights? The one mistake we did make was traveling Sat-Sun. Next time we will try to travel mid week to mid week as I've learned those flights are much cheaper.

Hotel- With budget in mind this past trip we stayed at Pop Century and we LOVED it. I am 99% sure we will stay there again. Too many positives to list and my daughter still talks about the Hippy Dippy Pool :) However, I recently came across a blog by someone who took out a Starwood Preferred Guest credit card specifically to earn points redeemable at the Swan and Dolphin. He was able to earn 4 free nights pretty quickly. Has anyone used this? Any opinions? I'm pretty sure I want to stay on property. There are just so many added benefits, I think its worth it in the long run. If you stay off property, sure it can be cheaper, but once you add in the cost of a rental car, parking each day etc, is it still really cheaper?

Tickets- better to buy a package through Disney or buy everything separately? We went the Disney route last time but I've heard it can be cheaper to say, buy your tickets through triple a and your hotel through Expedia. Has anyone done this? This just makes me nervous because if Disney offers a deal, I know you have to jump on it right away. If I hesitate to run various numbers, I worry I will miss out on a great deal.

Any other tips specifically for pre trip planning? I will hold off for on now for tips on spending less once you get there :) We used quite a few last time that worked wonderful for us. I am more concerned right now with what I should be doing ahead of time. Ideally, I am aiming for early May 2016. We want to check out the Flower and Garden Festival and hopefully miss the spring break crowds. Thanks so much!!!!
 
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KLeigh

Well-Known Member
Oh and great tip with the Target red card. I have known about that for awhile but have never used it. My husband and I have been working really hard in the last 5 years or so to eliminate all our debt. So I actually do not use a credit card anymore. Strictly cash/debit only. I still have my Disney Visa but rarely use it. So I was hesitant to open up the Target card. May be worth it though, just for the Disney gift card savings.

I have the Target debit card and love it. I have all the same benefits of the credit card, but it's linked to my checking account so I never have to worry about a balance.

Southwest is my preferred airline, so I participate in their rapid rewards program. I signed up for dining and shopping rewards and use them frequently. I also signed up to take surveys/do product testing through e-rewards and valued opinions, both of which are partners with Southwest. You earn "currency" for participating, and you can redeem it for Southwest points. In under one year, I've ready earned enough points for a round trip ticket to MCO - without spending any extra money or signing up for their credit card.
 
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DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I didn't realize Target had a debit card! That's great!
I've heard great things from several people about the Southwest card and the Jet Blue Amex. So I will definitely look into both.
I talked to the hubs last night about the Starwood card and he shot it down. He doesn't want to be limited to one hotel :( so that's out! Oh well.
Keep the tips coming, this is a huge help!
 
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DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I have the Target debit card and love it. I have all the same benefits of the credit card, but it's linked to my checking account so I never have to worry about a balance.

Southwest is my preferred airline, so I participate in their rapid rewards program. I signed up for dining and shopping rewards and use them frequently. I also signed up to take surveys/do product testing through e-rewards and valued opinions, both of which are partners with Southwest. You earn "currency" for participating, and you can redeem it for Southwest points. In under one year, I've ready earned enough points for a round trip ticket to MCO - without spending any extra money or signing up for their credit card.

So you can participate in rapid rewards without using their credit card? That's interesting. The 50,000 point sign on bonus is tempting, that's enough for one flight right there. Question, if I earn enough points for two flights, can I use half for myself and half for my husband?
 
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KLeigh

Well-Known Member
So you can participate in rapid rewards without using their credit card? That's interesting. The 50,000 point sign on bonus is tempting, that's enough for one flight right there. Question, if I earn enough points for two flights, can I use half for myself and half for my husband?

Yes! Rapid Rewards is the free loyalty-points program, no Southwest credit card required! (The 50,000 point deal is a really tempting signup bonus, but I'll wait until I really need it.)

This program is one of my favorites because points never expire as long as you earn points once every two years. By participating in their dining, shopping, and parter rewards opportunities I'm earning points at least once a month or more.

I haven't redeemed my points for a flight yet, but I would assume you are able to use points on your account to pay for multiple people. They have a great flight tracker tool that lets you see how many points (on average) you'll need to fly to your destination, and what your progress is.

I HIGHLY recommend setting up a rapid rewards account for each member of your family. When you have to purchase flights, you'll be able to enter everyone's RR number and they will all earn points for those flights. So when the time comes to redeem your points for a free flight, your family members can "gift" you the points they earned, and it will be added to your account total.
 
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dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
"I got rich by shrewdly managing my Discover points," said no rich person ever.

Eh, it's not so much the money, as its people signing up for the cards when they have enough bonus signup miles for 1-2 free tickets. Then drop the card, move to the next airline. Then once you have cycled through the carriers, they go back to the first one and normally are eligible for the bonus signup miles again.

So you can participate in rapid rewards without using their credit card? That's interesting. The 50,000 point sign on bonus is tempting, that's enough for one flight right there.

The credit cards for a loyalty program typically operate as an add-on to the rewards program, or completely independent from, but the rewards program doesn't require you to use their credit card. Basically the rewards program wants you to funnel as much of your spend through the company. So if you sign up for Southwest's Rapid Rewards, for many people the primary method of earning points is by booking flights. You earn 6 per dollar spent on the cheapest tier, and 12 per dollar spent on their business select tier. But you also can get points for doing things like booking rental cars, eating out, or sending someone flowers. Depending on each item, you simply get X number of miles per transaction, or it may be X per dollar. The credit cards work on a X miles per dollar, just like the Disney Visa. So if you had a Southwest CC, and used it on their site to book a rental car you would potentially get whatever points for booking the rental car, plus whatever points for putting X dollars on your CC. This is why sticking with a single program is key. If you can funnel absolutely everything through a single program, the points can add up.

Most rewards CC give 1-3% back, which they are really just taking out of their profits. So they make 5-6% (or whatever it is) when you use the card, they give you some of that back. This is why it is key to pay the card off on time each month. 2% back is pretty useless if you are having to pay 10-20% in interest each month. Rewards cards often have a higher interest rate than non rewards cards.

As I mentioned before, if you really want to try to maximize a rewards program, check out a board/website to doing so like FlyerTalk. People there know the ins and outs of the systems and post tips and hints on how to maximize any particular program.
 
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Cnetbuild

New Member
We used to fly to Disney and stay on property, just as you are. As our family grew, we had to come up with cheaper alternatives. This advice might not apply to your 2016 trip, but could get you thinking about saving money on future trips. We take two or three days and drive to Disney. We have our favorite stops along the way so that the drive is fun and part of the vacation. Next, we rent an off property vacation condo. Villas and condos can be a lot cheaper than staying on property. We then cook most of our meals at the villa. Since we drove and have our car, staying off property works well. We pay for everything with our Disney Visa (including auto bill pay) and can get $700-$900 per year toward our park tickets. Good luck!
 
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Figgy1

Premium Member
We used to fly to Disney and stay on property, just as you are. As our family grew, we had to come up with cheaper alternatives. This advice might not apply to your 2016 trip, but could get you thinking about saving money on future trips. We take two or three days and drive to Disney. We have our favorite stops along the way so that the drive is fun and part of the vacation. Next, we rent an off property vacation condo. Villas and condos can be a lot cheaper than staying on property. We then cook most of our meals at the villa. Since we drove and have our car, staying off property works well. We pay for everything with our Disney Visa (including auto bill pay) and can get $700-$900 per year toward our park tickets. Good luck!
Welcome aboard! We also drive. there's at least $400 in savings for us vs flying including the hotel down and back.
 
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DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We used to fly to Disney and stay on property, just as you are. As our family grew, we had to come up with cheaper alternatives. This advice might not apply to your 2016 trip, but could get you thinking about saving money on future trips. We take two or three days and drive to Disney. We have our favorite stops along the way so that the drive is fun and part of the vacation. Next, we rent an off property vacation condo. Villas and condos can be a lot cheaper than staying on property. We then cook most of our meals at the villa. Since we drove and have our car, staying off property works well. We pay for everything with our Disney Visa (including auto bill pay) and can get $700-$900 per year toward our park tickets. Good luck!

Great advice thanks! Could definitely help in the future. We live in Massachusetts, so for now, driving with 2 small children probably wouldn't be an option :) And work wise, I can only take off a week at a time so driving would take days off our actual Disney time. Good ideas though!
 
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You can always earn gift cards from the internet too depending on how much free time and truly frugal you are.

Earn Gift Cards
- Swagbucks - watch videos, take polls, take surveys etc... (redeem for Paypal cash that you move to checkings to buy Disney gift card.... / rainforest café gift cards (good at t rex, yak and yeti and I believe the boathouse in DTD is landrys own too / target gc as well). I can make a couple hundred from this site a year.
- Bing searches (mobile and desktop) - convert points to swagbucks "bucks" and then convert to paypal or whatnot...
- inbox dollars - 2 cents an email read
- mypoints - sign up for their emails, be interested in everything to get the most emails. 5 points an email. You'll make enough for a $25 to $50 a year to convert to rainforest gift cards. Think they have starbucks too.

- Starbucks - We don't drink coffee or tea but we have a starbucks gift cards because there is always a bunch of "$5 for $10 gift Starbucks gift card" deals from starbucks or groupon spread throughout the year that we use while at Disney to get muffins or whatnot for breakfast.

- Join the Landry's rewards club and get a landrys card if you are planning/willing to eat at Rainforest Café, T-Rex, Yak or Yeti or, and as I suspect...the new Boathouse (That's landry's too right?)

-Mycokerewards - if you drink soda / juice / water bottles, consider joining. We save our points for coupons for free 12 packs / juice / water bottles. Just make sure you order the coupons at least 2 months before your trip. We have people give us their caps and flaps. Its a nice way to get free soda, juice, water bottles for our trip with minimum effort. And if you are really frugal, feel free to pick up caps from the ground.

-Kellogg's family rewards - Same thing, we save these points for when we go to Disney and are able to get high value coupons like $2.50 off Morningstar (if you are a vegetarian) or $2 off of chewy bars.

- Walmart Savings Catcher. Join if you haven't, upload your receipts and get free cash. And if you are really frugal...

And then there is always ibotta, groupon's snap, starsaver, etc

Hotel Stays
We are Florida residents but live too far not to spend the night...and Florida / annual pass rates aren't always the best. On one of our 3 day trips last year we used a $50 off $200 hotel stay from Expedia and we stayed at the pop century for about $62 after Tax versus $77 using those other discounts. Keep an eye out those coupon codes. Plus trying price matching other sites.
 
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Flyersgirl17

Well-Known Member
These are great ideas everyone!!!!! The GC are a great idea. We went in October 2014 and my boys birthday are in October, so family just got them Disney GC and they used them for any purchases they wanted to make.

Going while the kids are in school - I say go for it. Less crowds for sure. We had no problems!!! Both the teaches were great with everything (being they are disney fans too) and gave us all the work to be completed. The boys got it all done AND they day they went back to school had test in which they got a 98 and a 97. Yeah I say go for it.

I also just wanted to throw in there with your park tickets, you need to decide if you want the park hoppers or the regular tickets. We (a family of 4) just got the plain tickets with no hoppers or water parks and it saved us around $300 so we used that money for the MNSSHP instead. Also, do you need to go to the park the day you arrive?? By the time our flight got in and the ME got us to the hotel to check in it was after 2pm. Being up since 5am the boys were exhausted so we just stayed at the pool for the day, did some pin trading at the hotel, and just relaxed before our adventures began.

Our flight was around $1000 or all of us with no baggage fees. We are looking at going January/February 2016 and I found tickets for non stop round trip for $784. BIG DIFFERENCE. Good luck to all us thrifty people!!!!!
 
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Supposed Flying tip -

Take this with a grain of a salt because I have yet to reproduce this result ever but this person claims you can get a cheaper ticket if you change your location to another country say Colombia. The article explains how to do it. This might help international people more so than Americans I suspect.

Here is the article below. Again, I have not been able to reproduce these results but I suspect this might only work best on International flights.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/map-happy/use-a-fake-location-to-ge_b_6315424.html
 
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CheshireCat12

Well-Known Member
If you are flexible with dates or open to very early or late flights, you can get really cheap points travel on Southwest if you have their card. Example- one flight I saw was less than 5000 points for one way travel per person. So you can make that initial 50,000 point promotion go a long way.
 
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