This post may contains affiliate links The owner of this blog may be compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog may receive compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed through these channels are purely the bloggers’ own.
How a Disney Trip Inspired Me to Travel Hack Again
As we were rolling out of the COVID lockdowns I developed a dream to take my daughter to Disneyland. As I started pricing the trip out I realized that it would be an absurd sum to do a Disney trip, even on a budget. This was not something that we had an infinite budget for, and if I wanted to make it happen, I needed to figure out a less expensive option. I’ve written about our previous travel hacking escapades, and I realized it was time to dust off my travel hacking hat and figure it out again.
Flights to LA –
$500Ubers – $150
Disney Tickets – $630
Hotel –
$900$500
While I didn’t officially travel hack this trip, I did pay for our flights with points and get exceptionally discounted hotel rates. By paying for even part of this trip with points it became more affordable and I was able to surprise my daughter the day before her 8th birthday with a trip to Disneyland. We were in Disney on her 8th birthday, just the two of us, and it was the best day!
Leaning In to Travel Hacking
However, I recognized during the pursuit of travel hacking information for this trip that it was time to fully lean in to travel hacking to help our family travel for less. We LOVE to travel, but unfortunately travel comes with high costs. I discovered that by leveraging credit card points and miles we could travel to more places we wanted without stressing our budget. This seemed like a win-win.
Thankfully, a short time after this trip, we started discussing Costa Rica and I was able to dive into travel hacking fully to plan that trip almost a year out. We are thrilled with all the ways that travel hacking has allowed us to save money in the last decade.
Planning for Disney
If I were planning this Disney Trip today for a first time travel hacker, here is how I would approach it:
Open Chase Sapphire Preferred Card – 60,000 points
Refer Player 2 – 15,000 points
Player 2 opens Chase Sapphire Preferred – 60,000 points
Chase Points = 135,000
Open Capital One Venture Card – 75,000 points
Capital One Points = 75,000
Transfer Chase Points to Hyatt – 60,000points for 4 nights
Transfer Chase Points to Southwest – 40,000points for 2 flights (always check the price before transferring)
Disney Tickets – Buy with your Capital One card with an agency that codes as travel like Undercover Tourist – then erase up to $750 with your 75,000 points.
If we had done all these steps, our only fees would have been uber, and food in the parks. This makes a trip to Disney one that does not take years to save for, and stress about, but one that can be easily enjoyed!
QUESTIONS
Have more people?
Work towards building those chase points with cards like the Ink Business, and refer your player 2 to the Capital One Venture card as well. That referral will give you a referral bonus, as well as another 75,000 points, giving you approximately $1600 total on Capital One to erase with points.
Want to reduce the food cost in the parks?
Choose the Hyatt House as your hotel, and have your instacart dropped off there with snacks and easily packable lunch items. Disney lets you bring food into the parks! You could also get some simple dinner items and run back for dinner in the evenings. The Hyatt House has a cooktop and a microwave so you can utilize both of those. The hotel is easily walking distance, or you can take the ART bus very inexpensively during your trip.
