Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[morrik5]

Thank-you everyone,I think I was having a moment of panic...I am an excellent Educational Resource Facilitator BUT I know my limits when it comes to certain legal and financial planning. I also am not a patient person and want things done now instead of later ,,I think I am going to learn a bit about patience in this matter. This estate is just too complex and detailed for me to do it on my own. I am going to go with RBC estate planning and a lawyer.
I have been told I can access funds to pay for the estate assistance and lawyer which is a great relief to me. Tomorrow I head to the accountant to file taxes and hopefully as time goes on I will have a clearer understanding of the whole process.
All of this is making me rethink my own plans for a Will.
Thanks for letting me divert this thread.......now back to airmiles hunting.
Hugs Mel

I am assuming you are an Estate Executor vs. Power of Attorney? From working in a bank for over 25 years I know that a Power of Attorney ceases upon death. But everyone is right, the best way to go is by using a lawyer to assist and an accountant to file a final tax return IMO. Good luck, I've seen my DH go through it after taking over from his brother who wasn't able to fulfill the Executor duties.

 

[hdrolfe]

I got an email congratulating me for getting Gold again this year... which is weird because when I check it says I haven't gotten enough yet? Though if you add in the STB miles I am well over. Oh well! I need to keep going. Haven't been working that hard at it lately. Rexall is a bit too far and out of the way. I did hear on the radio it will be spent $50 get 100 AM on the weekend. But we'll be visiting my parent's for the weekend so not sure I'll get to any stores!

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Did anyone else get the Home Outfitters/ The Bay offer? Spend $50, get 100 miles until April 30th. I need new towels, yay!

 

[Donald - my hero]

Did anyone else get the Home Outfitters/ The Bay offer? Spend $50, get 100 miles until April 30th. I need new towels, yay!

NO!! is this targeted or do you have a link to share? We're in London this week and I can see a Home Outfitters from my hotel window and would love some new pillows

 

[star72232]

I got an email congratulating me for getting Gold again this year... which is weird because when I check it says I haven't gotten enough yet? Though if you add in the STB miles I am well over. Oh well! I need to keep going. Haven't been working that hard at it lately. Rexall is a bit too far and out of the way. I did hear on the radio it will be spent $50 get 100 AM on the weekend. But we'll be visiting my parent's for the weekend so not sure I'll get to any stores!

I got exactly the same email today. I tried to do a chat, but it doesn't seem to be working for me right now.

 

[pigletto]

I really need to know what Disney is charging per day to add days to these airmiles tickets. I got one before the Canadian discount, and two after the Canadian discount through airmiles. They are all five day tickets. I want to add two days to them. If I lose the discount, it isn't worth it.

If I won't lose the discount, I'm going to stop waiting for free dining, book at a Deluxe with a discount and pay OOP for dining, and it will cost me the same as free dining or less.

This is all been discussed so much. Does anyone know for certain yet or does it depend on which castmember you get? I literally can not make a decision about where we are staying unless I know.
I've read so many things my head is spinning.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I really need to know what Disney is charging per day to add days to these airmiles tickets. I got one before the Canadian discount, and two after the Canadian discount through airmiles. They are all five day tickets. I want to add two days to them. If I lose the discount, it isn't worth it.

If I won't lose the discount, I'm going to stop waiting for free dining, book at a Deluxe with a discount and pay OOP for dining, and it will cost me the same as free dining or less.

This is all been discussed so much. Does anyone know for certain yet or does it depend on which castmember you get? I literally can not make a decision about where we are staying unless I know.
I've read so many things my head is spinning.

Sadly this is a case of right hand/left hand ... It really depends on who you end up dealing with on the actual day you are standing at a guest service counter. If you manage to get a CM who is "earning their ears" AND is from another country (adding a language barrier) like we did it's really confusing --that was before CDN discount!! It's not a very easy decision anymore

My thought? I would snag the best deal on the best resort at a discount and go OOP for dining all the way! We found it very freeing to eat what we wanted when we wanted this past trip. But that's my 2 cents.

 

[pigletto]

Sadly this is a case of right hand/left hand ... It really depends on who you end up dealing with on the actual day you are standing at a guest service counter. If you manage to get a CM who is "earning their ears" AND is from another country (adding a language barrier) like we did it's really confusing --that was before CDN discount!! It's not a very easy decision anymore

My thought? I would snag the best deal on the best resort at a discount and go OOP for dining all the way! We found it very freeing to eat what we wanted when we wanted this past trip. But that's my 2 cents.

Thanks
The problem is that if we go Deluxe and OOP for dining, it really hinges on the cost of these tickets. If I get there and it's like $500 to upgrade I'm stuck. I won't pay that, and then I'm on a 10 day trip with five day tickets. Too risky. If I can't find out what the cost will be ahead of time, I'll go with free dining. I'll know that I have seven days of tickets and the cost is fixed.

 

[ottawamom]

pigletto, Robo over on the Theme Parks Board "All about WDW tickets" has a great summary of what to expect. Given that you would be upgrading after the Canadian offer is finished there is no way to know how that upgrade will be handled yet.

The one before the Canadian Discount you will be adding the incremental cost of the 2 extra days plus the price increase that went through on Feb 12. They will assign a value to your ticket of the gate price of a 5 day base ticket on Feb 11.

I don't know what they will do with the Canadian discount tickets once the discount is done. They are reasonable at the moment but the discount is still available.

I'm afraid no matter what way you cut it it is going to be $$$$$$. I have decided it's not worth it to upgrade my 7 day base (pre Feb 12, non discount) tickets to park hopper+ tickets. We will do that trip without hopping.

Personally, I would make plans based on the worst case scenario and go from there. You will be able to make use of those 5 day tickets later if need be.

 

[ottawamom]

I got an email congratulating me for getting Gold again this year... which is weird because when I check it says I haven't gotten enough yet? Though if you add in the STB miles I am well over. Oh well! I need to keep going. Haven't been working that hard at it lately. Rexall is a bit too far and out of the way. I did hear on the radio it will be spent $50 get 100 AM on the weekend. But we'll be visiting my parent's for the weekend so not sure I'll get to any stores!

That is an email relating to your collection of AM in 2016 for your status in 2017. I got the same email, then a few days ago I got my new ONYX cards which are good until Mar 31 2018. When you make ONYX in 2017 (calendar year) your status will be good until Mar 31 2019. For some unknown reason they wait until 3 months into the next year to "officially" assess your status for the previous year.

My STB AM are still not counting towards my ONYX for 2017. I don't know if they ever will!

 

[bgula]

For our family, I am cashing in for another 5d am ticket before may 20. As long as we can live with not hopping, the value of the ticket is currently $394 us x 1.33 exch = $524 cdn which is 17.76 cents per point. When the next increase comes, it will be worth more. I'm expecting after May 20, the airmiles required to cash in for a 5d ticket could be around 4500 since the pre promo amount was 3950 am (someone correct me?) and disney increased the 5d ticket price 15%.

Our family has always hopped. We see value in splitting time between epcot and dhs since we can walk between these two parks, we usually go back to the resort during the day for a break and will return to a close park in the evening to minimize crowds and transit. And while I just added hoppers to a number of tickets at the $55 cdn rate, I don't see purchasing hoppers in our future. Current Disney rate for family of 5 $79.87 x 5 = $399.37 x 1.33 exch = $531. Just to hop. It's not in our budget.

The value of a CDN 5-day is $271.58 not $394 - that is the value of a US ticket. The CDN tickets are not a good value if you're using them for the $ amount as they come in around 9 cents per mile whereas the US tickets we used to be able to get were around 11 cents per mile. I'm hoping when the US tickets come back in stock they'll be offered for 4000 AM or less if they will be keeping the same ratio. However, it is AM, so they'll probably try to screw us like with the CDN tickets. The CDN 5-days should be worth ~2485 AM.

 

[ottawamom]

Thanks for finding that post @bgula, I searched and searched for it last night and just wasn't seeing it.

There is another post by Days in the Sun where she tells us about her original upgrade. There is a breakdown the $ involved. I'll redo the calculation when my brain is awake and thinking clearly.

Edit to add the math:

5 day pre Canadian pre Feb 12 - $362.10
7 day current online - $436.65
5 day Canadian - 271.58 (current as there was no increase)

upgrade pre Canadian ticket (436.65-362.10) = 74.55 they could possibly add $20 gate fee
upgrade Canadian discount (436.65-271.58) = 165.07

1. 165.07x2 + 74.55 = $404.69
2. 404.69 + 3x20 = $464.69

These are worst case scenarios. You might get lucky and get a more favourable amount

edit to correct gate fee

 

[AussieAsh]

Hi,
The $271.58 for the CDN 5 day pass is in US dollars. When you convert it it comes to about $360 CDN.

Thanks for finding that post @bgula, I searched and searched for it last night and just wasn't seeing it.

There is another post by Days in the Sun where she tells us about her original upgrade. There is a breakdown the $ involved. I'll redo the calculation when my brain is awake and thinking clearly.

Edit to add the math:

5 day pre Canadian pre Feb 12 - $362.10
7 day current online - $436.65
5 day Canadian - 271.58 (current as there was no increase)

upgrade pre Canadian ticket (436.65-362.10) = 74.55 they could possibly add $40 gate fee
upgrade Canadian discount (436.65-271.58) = 165.07

1. 165.07x2 + 74.55 = $404.69
2. 404.69 + 3x40 = $524.69

These are worst case scenarios. You might get lucky and get a more favourable amount

 

[ottawamom]

Hi,
The $271.58 for the CDN 5 day pass is in US dollars. When you convert it it comes to about $360 CDN.

Sorry I wasn't very clear. 5 day Pre-Canadian discount, pre Feb 12, 2017 this ticket was purchase way back in the summer of 2016 so the price that Disney will value it at is the US price of $362.10 (includes tax)

 

[ottawamom]

Some of this weeks flyers are out. Nothing wonderful at Sobey's but Foodland has a deal worth mentioning. Bicks pickles buy 2 get 75AM (the jars are large 750 ml). Still waiting for Rexall to come.

 

[bgula]

Sorry I wasn't very clear. 5 day Pre-Canadian discount, pre Feb 12, 2017 this ticket was purchase way back in the summer of 2016 so the price that Disney will value it at is the US price of $362.10 (includes tax)

Huh?

 

[Days In the Sun]

The value of a CDN 5-day is $271.58 not $394 - that is the value of a US ticket. The CDN tickets are not a good value if you're using them for the $ amount as they come in around 9 cents per mile whereas the US tickets we used to be able to get were around 11 cents per mile. I'm hoping when the US tickets come back in stock they'll be offered for 4000 AM or less if they will be keeping the same ratio. However, it is AM, so they'll probably try to screw us like with the CDN tickets. The CDN 5-days should be worth ~2485 AM.

What I was trying to say is that if you buy a 5d ticket later this year, it will cost you $394. True, I could buy the ticket right now for $271, but for me that is also good value knowing in a few weeks they will cost much more.

IMHO, it makes sense to redeem now if you know you can live with not changing the ticket ie use 2950 am instead of 4000 am, both for a 5d ticket. If you are planning to upgrade, I agree, you may be better to wait.

 

[Days In the Sun]

Sadly this is a case of right hand/left hand ... It really depends on who you end up dealing with on the actual day you are standing at a guest service counter. If you manage to get a CM who is "earning their ears" AND is from another country (adding a language barrier) like we did it's really confusing --that was before CDN discount!! It's not a very easy decision anymore

My thought? I would snag the best deal on the best resort at a discount and go OOP for dining all the way! We found it very freeing to eat what we wanted when we wanted this past trip. But that's my 2 cents.

I think they are almost at the point where they are getting it right most of the time, or at least someone at each location knew what they were doing. I was getting consistent numbers at dhs and epcot matching my expectations.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

NO!! is this targeted or do you have a link to share? We're in London this week and I can see a Home Outfitters from my hotel window and would love some new pillows

It was an email, both DH and I each received it. It was in the "April Newsletter" from Air Miles. You need to cut the coupon and give to the cashier:

 

[ottawamom]

Hi,
The $271.58 for the CDN 5 day pass is in US dollars. When you convert it it comes to about $360 CDN.

Sorry I wasn't very clear. 5 day Pre-Canadian discount, pre Feb 12, 2017 this ticket was purchase way back in the summer of 2016 so the price that Disney will value it at is the US price of $362.10 (includes tax)

Huh?

I was replying to AussieAsh's post with a clarification of value of the 5 day base ticket purchase pre Feb 12 without a Canadian discount