In the first part of my series on saving money on your Walt Disney World vacation, I discussed how you can save money by buying Disney gift cards at Target using the Target RED Card, driving instead of flying, and staying off property. Originally, I was going to use Part Two to provide suggestions on saving money on dining and souvenirs. However, instead I am going to do a deeper dive into using “reward points” to stay on property.
But First, My Disclaimer
The strategy that I am going to talk about involves earning points through signing up and using credit cards to earn points. However, this only really works if you have good credit AND you intend to pay off your credit card bill completely at the end of each billing cycle. This last point is super important, as any interest and late fees that you pay will offset most, if not all, of any savings that you might have.
Second, many of the offers described might have a limited shelf life. They are valid as of the time I write this, but they may have changed by the time you read this. Therefore, please do your own homework before trying anything, and don’t just rely upon my word!
What are Reward Points?
“Reward Points” is a generic term for rewards that you can earn for staying at a particular hotel, using a certain credit card, flying with a particular airline, etc. Generally, the more you use the product, the more points you will earn. You can use points that you have earned for free hotel stays, free airline tickets, room/seat upgrades or other freebies. Businesses offer this to reward their most loyal customer, which makes sense.
Each hotel or airline or bank calls their loyalty programs different things: Hilton Honors, United MileagePlus, American Express Membership Rewards, etc. However, they all basically adhere to the concept of “the more you use them, the more points you earn, and the more freebies you get”.
Using Rewards to Stay On Property
Almost all Disney “on property” hotels don’t offer any sort of loyalty program. You don’t get a free stay at Bay Lake Tower after you have stayed there ten times or whatever. However, there are three exceptions: the Swan, the Swan Reserve, and the Dolphin. Even though these hotels technically are considered “on property” by Disney, they are operated by Marriott and thus are eligible for Marriott’s reward program: “Marriott Bonvoy”. So any points that you earn by staying at a Marriott-affiliated hotel can be redeemed at the Swan and Dolphin!
At first, this sounds really great until you get into the details. Generally, you need around 50,000 Marriott points to get one free night at the Swan and Dolphin (more during peak season). For every dollar you spend at a Marriott hotel, you can earn anywhere from 2.5 to 10 points. The exact amount depends upon which hotel you stay at. Even if we assume that you are staying at 10 point/dollar hotel, that means that you need to spend $5,000 in order to earn just one night at the Swan and Dolphin. Unless you are a frequently traveller, it will probably take you a long time to earn points for one night, let alone for a week long trip! However, there are ways that you can supercharge your point earning capacity.
Marriott Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses
The fastest way to earn a lot of points quickly is to sign up for a Marriott credit card that offers a sign up bonus (SUB). Generally, if you are a new cardholder, you can earn X bonus points if you spend a certain amount on a card within a certain period of time.
The Marriott website lists the current SUB offers. They change from time to time, but the best one currently is for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card from Chase. With this card, you can get a 100,000 point SUB if you spend $3,000 in the first there months after opening the account. 100K points = two free nights!
This card does have a $95/year annual fee, but the bonus more than offsets the fee. Before you go and sign up, please read the terms and conditions of the offer. There are some restrictions based upon whether you are currently have certain credit cards, or if you have gotten the bonus in the recent past. However, if the restrictions don’t apply to you, this could be an easy way to earn enough points for two nights at the Swan and Dolphin.
This card also offers some other benefits: ability to earn additional points based upon the purchase category, automatic “Silver Elite Status” which allows you to earn 10% bonus points for every Marriott stay (so up to 11 points per dollar instead of 10).
Marriott has some other credit cards that offer different benefits, so check them out as well. Unfortunately, you cannot earn a SUB for multiple Marriott cards at once. You can only earn it once within a certain time frame. So choose wisely!
An Important Note
Of course, to make this work, you need to be able spend the $X within Y months to earn the bonus. Depending upon your spending patterns, this might be easy or it might be impossible. If you fall into the “impossible” category, this strategy might not be for you. You do not want to use earning the bonus as an excuse to spend beyond your means. However, if you fall somewhere in between, you might want to see if there are any bills that you normally pay from your bank account that you can pay with a credit card. That way, you can get closer to the bonus threshold without increasing your overall budget.
Chase Sapphire and/or AMEX Membership Rewards Sign Up Bonuses
If you want to supercharge your quest for points even more, you can earn a sign up bonus for certain Chase or American Express cards, and then leverage the ability to transfer points from Chase and/or American Express to Marriott. By doing this, you can earn yourself enough points for some additional nights!
Sign Up Bonuses at Chase
Currently, there are only two Chase cards that allow you to transfer points to Marriott: Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve. Therefore, you need to start with one of these cards. Currently, both offer a SUB of 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points if you spend $4,000 within the first three months of opening the account. Once you earn your SUB, you can then transfer your Chase Ultimate Reward points to Marriott on a one-for-one basis.
Both cards have an annual fee, so you need to weigh that into account.
As always, read the terms and conditions to make sure you qualify for the offer. In particular, you cannot earn this SUB for both cards, since you can only have one of these cards at a time. Additionally, Chase has what is known as the “5/24” rule. This means that you can only be approved for a new Chase credit card if you have opened less than 5 accounts with any issuer (not just Chase) within the last 24 months. If you have already opened 5 new accounts within the last 2 years, then you likely are going to be denied. As always, it pays to read the fine print before you commit to a card.
Sign Up Bonuses at American Express
As with Chase, American Express also allows you to transfer their Membership Rewards points to Marriott. There are several AMEX cards that offer SUB’s currently. See here for details. As you would expect, the cards with the highest bonus also have the largest annual fees, so you need to factor that into the equation.
Based upon reading the fine print, it looks like you may be allowed to open multiple AMEX cards of different types to earn multiple bonuses. However, the language is pretty vague. Here is the disclaimer that AMEX has for the Gold Card’s sign up bonus:
Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card or the Premier Rewards Gold Card. We may also consider the number of American Express Cards you have opened and closed as well as other factors in making a decision on your welcome offer eligibility.
Based upon this, if you already have or had a Gold Card, for example, you cannot earn the bonus if you apply for another Gold Card. That is pretty clear. However, what isn’t clear is if you already have a Gold Card and apply, say, for a Platinum Card, would you would get the sign up bonus. The wording regarding considering “the number of American Express Cards you have opened and closed” is very vague. In other words, your mileage may vary!
Strategy Summary
Here is a possible strategy that you can use to earn yourself a five night stay at the Swan and Dolphin, based upon what’s available at the time this is being written.
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card SUB ($95/year annual fee) = 100K points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred SUB with transfer to Marriott ($95/year annual fee) = 60K points
- American Express Platinum Card SUB with transfer to Marriott ($695/year annual fee) = 125K points
- Total points = 285K = 5 night stay!
The $695/year annual fee is a tough one to swallow for some. You can substitute the Gold or Green Card. Both have a lower annual fee, but less of a sign up bonus (Gold = $250/year, Green = $150/year).
Of course, I need to reiterate the following caveats:
- You need to have good credit to qualify for these cards.
- You need to be able to meet the spending threshold to earn the bonus.
- The information about the bonuses may not be current by the time you read this.
- READ the fine print to make sure there aren’t any gotchas that might apply.
- If you intend to carry a balance from month to month on your card, the interest charges could wipe out the value of this strategy.
For More Information
There is an entire sub-culture dedicated to “travel hacking”, or traveling for free or a discount by earning points. The above only scratches the surface of what some people can do. You can imagine using similar strategies for earning free plane tickets, car rentals, and so forth. It can be a lot of work, but if you play your cards right (no pun intended), you can save quite a lot of money!
If you are interested in this sort of thing, here are some web sites that you might want to check out:
The Points Guy (great site if you are starting out)
One Mile at a Time (the “deals” and “guides” page are particularly useful)
Flyer Talk (the community forums are a great source of info, but some people delve into some pretty advanced strategies so they are not for the faint of heart)
Doctor of Credit (this site also covers other deals… banking deals, gift card offers, shopping/coupon deals)
AD: We hope you enjoyed this post. If you are coming to Central Florida and need a place to stay, please consider the Encore Magic Villa. It sleeps up to 12 and features a game room, theater room, themed bedrooms, and private pool… located within a short drive to the Magic!
