Paying with gift cards?

[natolij02]

I saw recently in a post someone talking about purchasing gift cards at Sams or BJ's Wholesale getting them $150 of cards for $142. When you are paying a lot of money for a trip that $8 adds up for every $150 you spend. When I was checking out the gift cards I see Sams also carries gift cards for Southwest Airlines. If anyone has used this method to pay for their Disney trip and/or their flights please let me know your thoughts on doing it this way. My biggest question being, what happens if I utilize them now and my trip has to get cancelled (of which I have no intention of cancelling unless it's for a medical reason)?

 

[PUSH]

I saw recently in a post someone talking about purchasing gift cards at Sams or BJ's Wholesale getting them $150 of cards for $142. When you are paying a lot of money for a trip that $8 adds up for every $150 you spend. When I was checking out the gift cards I see Sams also carries gift cards for Southwest Airlines. If anyone has used this method to pay for their Disney trip and/or their flights please let me know your thoughts on doing it this way. My biggest question being, what happens if I utilize them now and my trip has to get cancelled (of which I have no intention of cancelling unless it's for a medical reason)?

We got some at Sams, but only $150 worth. Haven't used them as our trip is still in the future, but there's really nothing special to them other than they're discounted gift cards. They still act as a normal gift card, and as far as I know they have the same rules to them.

 

[NYwdwfan]

I saw recently in a post someone talking about purchasing gift cards at Sams or BJ's Wholesale getting them $150 of cards for $142. When you are paying a lot of money for a trip that $8 adds up for every $150 you spend. When I was checking out the gift cards I see Sams also carries gift cards for Southwest Airlines. If anyone has used this method to pay for their Disney trip and/or their flights please let me know your thoughts on doing it this way. My biggest question being, what happens if I utilize them now and my trip has to get cancelled (of which I have no intention of cancelling unless it's for a medical reason)?

I used discounted giftcards from both BJ's and Target (purchased with my Redcard so 5% off) to pay for the bulk of my last trip. You can enter the payment on the website, same as any other giftcard. I am not sure how it works if you need to cancel the trip - I once bought something with an AmEx giftcard and when I returned it they refunded it to the giftcard. I guess it would depend if you were canceling outright or rescheduling the trip for a future date. I'd imagine Disney would be more than happy to keep the money as a credit to a future trip. I also used discounted giftcards to pay for charges made to the room while we were vacationing. I just went to the concierge and they were able to apply them, no problem or issues with that either.

 

[DVCOwner]

I took $300.00 of Disney Gift Cards purchased at Sam's Club with me to the Food and Wine Festival. Use them at the food booths throughout Epcot. No problems at all. I have also had them place on my room bill before checking out. Never been a problem.

 

[Matt Deitz]

I saw recently in a post someone talking about purchasing gift cards at Sams or BJ's Wholesale getting them $150 of cards for $142. When you are paying a lot of money for a trip that $8 adds up for every $150 you spend. When I was checking out the gift cards I see Sams also carries gift cards for Southwest Airlines. If anyone has used this method to pay for their Disney trip and/or their flights please let me know your thoughts on doing it this way. My biggest question being, what happens if I utilize them now and my trip has to get cancelled (of which I have no intention of cancelling unless it's for a medical reason)?

I have used discounted Disney Gift Cards and Southwest Airlines Gift Cards for all my Trips to Disney. They are the same as paying full price. But I have saved for my my upcoming trip 16% on the total of gift cards I have purchased this way.

You must KEEP the zero value/used cards in case of a cancellation. Disney will refund the value back to the original gift card. They will not credit or create a new gift card for a cancellation.

For Southwest, they will issue a credit to your Rapid Rewards Account that can be used at any time in the future.

 

[Disnee4Me]

Pretty soon I will have $1000 on my Discover card. So I will get Disney gift cards at BJs Wholesale $96 for a $100. So that means 10 cards ... I wonder if I can exchange those ten cards for two $500 cards at a Disney Store, so when I pay for my trip I don't have to have so many gift card numbers???

 

[Daniel Johnson]

Pretty soon I will have $1000 on my Discover card. So I will get Disney gift cards at BJs Wholesale $96 for a $100. So that means 10 cards ... I wonder if I can exchange those ten cards for two $500 cards at a Disney Store, so when I pay for my trip I don't have to have so many gift card numbers???

I've never heard of exchanging them. For Christmas every year my grandmother gets me about 150 bucks worth of gift cards to Disney. It would be nice to have all the cash in one or two cards...but I doubt it's possible

 

[math mathson]

I just saved $175 paying with gift cards I bought at target with the red card. Only problem was they were $50 cards and I had to put each one in seperately. I did a few hundred dollars at a time and worth the savings. Now my target has $100 cards. September trip will be easier.

 

[Wags14]

I have used discounted Disney Gift Cards and Southwest Airlines Gift Cards for all my Trips to Disney. They are the same as paying full price. But I have saved for my my upcoming trip 16% on the total of gift cards I have purchased this way.

You must KEEP the zero value/used cards in case of a cancellation. Disney will refund the value back to the original gift card. They will not credit or create a new gift card for a cancellation.

For Southwest, they will issue a credit to your Rapid Rewards Account that can be used at any time in the future.

^This.

Exactly what we do for our vacation. Every little savings helps. Just save all those gift cards just in case. Good luck.

 

[Disvillain63]

We purchase gift cards at Kroger, so we get the points for gas discounts. We do most of our gift card purchase when they run the 4x the points. Just used them for our DLR trip. Time to start purchasing them for our next trip.

 

[natolij02]

Gift card use for vacation seems to be popular. Has anyone ever had a problem with getting a refund on one. I saw one poster say they got put back on the gift card but, just wondering if it has ever been an issue for someone

 

[WedwayPM]

I have used discounted Disney Gift Cards and Southwest Airlines Gift Cards for all my Trips to Disney. They are the same as paying full price. But I have saved for my my upcoming trip 16% on the total of gift cards I have purchased this way.

You must KEEP the zero value/used cards in case of a cancellation. Disney will refund the value back to the original gift card. They will not credit or create a new gift card for a cancellation.

For Southwest, they will issue a credit to your Rapid Rewards Account that can be used at any time in the future.

Yes they will. If you cancel and require a refund and no longer have the original gift cards, Disney will send your refund to you via new gift cards. I know, because I've done it. They can't refuse you your money back via gift cards just because you lost the originals. As long as you cancel before your 45 day window and you're entitled to a refund they will give you back your money the same way you paid. And if that means issuing new gift cards..so be it.

Just make sure you call and let them know you no longer have the originals. Don't cancel online.

 

[draybook]

We used a few cards on our last trip......

 

[ChadInOKC]

We used a few cards on our last trip......

WOW! Haha!

 

[natolij02]

We used a few cards on our last trip......

Just a couple.....lol

 

[Missymoe4]

I bought these at Sam's Club and saved about $300 for my last trip in November/December. Now, IT IS THE ONLY WAY I WILL PAY FOR DISNEY A little bit of work goes a long way.

 

[pug]

I saw recently in a post someone talking about purchasing gift cards at Sams or BJ's Wholesale getting them $150 of cards for $142. When you are paying a lot of money for a trip that $8 adds up for every $150 you spend. When I was checking out the gift cards I see Sams also carries gift cards for Southwest Airlines. If anyone has used this method to pay for their Disney trip and/or their flights please let me know your thoughts on doing it this way. My biggest question being, what happens if I utilize them now and my trip has to get cancelled (of which I have no intention of cancelling unless it's for a medical reason)?

I Tried it at target and If you use your redcard you can get 5% off I believe

 

[Maelstrom Troll]

Gotta try this for my cruise balance

 

[Disvillain63]

Yes they will. If you cancel and require a refund and no longer have the original gift cards, Disney will send your refund to you via new gift cards. I know, because I've done it. They can't refuse you your money back via gift cards just because you lost the originals. As long as you cancel before your 45 day window and you're entitled to a refund they will give you back your money the same way you paid. And if that means issuing new gift cards..so be it.

Just make sure you call and let them know you no longer have the originals. Don't cancel online.

They've credited money back to a new gift card for us too.

 

[Miceberg]

Just paid off my resort balance with gift cards from Sam's. It's $142.98 for $150 worth of cards. The Travel Co. lady I gave the card numbers to was so patient! It was pretty obvious that people pay this way often.