Airmiles Question

[Skjhjb]

Hey all!

As you can see by my ticker - I've 3 years before I get to return to Disney (unless DH decides in another year or so that he wants to go again!)

So I've moved my scale on my air miles account to be 70% dream and only 30% cash.

How does it work for tickets? Am I best to use them towards air?

Assuming there is some kind of fall free dining offer when we go (like this year) - you need to buy a package deal to get that. So the air miles are useless for park tickets right?

 

[Donald - my hero]

Hey all!

As you can see by my ticker - I've 3 years before I get to return to Disney (unless DH decides in another year or so that he wants to go again!)

So I've moved my scale on my air miles account to be 70% dream and only 30% cash.

How does it work for tickets? Am I best to use them towards air?

Assuming there is some kind of fall free dining offer when we go (like this year) - you need to buy a package deal to get that. So the air miles are useless for park tickets right?

1st .. WOOT, planning a trip is awesome ... doesn't matter how long till you go, just planning is fun!

There are all kinds of discussions over what is or isn't a "good use" of those wonderful Airmiles ... we have done everything from Christmas gifts one year when hubby was out of work, flights to Orlando at least 3 times, rented cars, stayed in hotels, bought a camera for our last trip. The only way you can determine the "validity" of using it for flights VS something concrete is to look closely at the cost of taxes you still need to pay and what a flight would cost if you just pay out right.

You are correct about getting any sort of package through Disney (free dining) tickets you get would NOT work. BUT, you could get some for Universal ...
Pay close attention to all the deals that are out there, sign up for e-mails with every place that is connected to Airmiles (rexall, metro, sobeys ....) making sure you get "targeted" deals. Read the flyers carefully and plan your shopping and you can pile on those points in a hurry! We've earned over 8,000 in the last 10 months with little effort.

 

[Skjhjb]

THanks! Of course, I'm not super close to Rexall, Sobeys or Metro - they are all a good half hour + away....but I can certainly make the effort when there are coupons!!

I just printed off the Old Navy & Metro one (spend $100 and get 110 points) so I'll be making sure I use that one for Metro, and back to school should be good for the Old Navy.

Question about the flights - do they have to be from a Canadian airport? Or could we do out of Buffalo?

 

[MidnightParade]

Yay, I agree with Jacqueline, woot for trip planning!

Right now we are planning on using our air miles for plane tickets, that way we can fly out of Pearson. We flew out of Buffalo last trip and had a great experience but it will be nice to be a little bit closer to home. We'll see how it goes. Flights for us cost less miles then the seven day park ticket. also this way we don't need to worry about adding days or the hopper once we get there. But it all depends on where you are flying from, when and the kind of park tickets you want.

I would think you could only fly out of Canada when using air miles. (Although American Airlines is an option when I was checking out flights but I think that's just cause they are part of the flight alliance with AC and west jet)

also, so that you know it CAN happen, we weren't going back to Disney until 2017..... And then DFi said we should just go back next year!! Admittedly I was dropping some subtle points as to why we should return sooner but I think he is just just slowly becoming Disney-fied!!

 

[Skjhjb]

Oh I SO wish the hubby would want to go again sooner....I'm the true Disney freak in the house, so it probably won't happen. BUT we have long range plans to purchase a rental property in Orlando (yay me) - so the next few years all spare $$ is going to adding equity to the house (finally doing the backyard, decorating, updating things) so that when we go to buy, we can draw on that.

We'd fly out of Pearson for sure. I'd prefer Kitchener, I checked and airmiles does qualify for that, but they only fly Thursday-Thursday, so that would add extra to the park package. And the girls are paying their room/tickets part, so it would need to be chatted about for sure. But the airmiles calculator did give the same miles number for each selection at both airports. But I can only get to the first step, because I don't have enough miles to even get one ticket, so I can't tell for sure.

Thanks all!

 

[Donald - my hero]

HEY! You must be close to me since my airport of choice would be K/W as well for a multitude of reasons! To confirm what has been said, yup, you can only fly out of CDN airports. Other thing to know about the flights from that airport is that this is a trial and they only go from mid December - mid April. REALLY hoping it continues to happen. If you want to check about the miles needed for sure just make sure you only set it for one person, stupid system can't seem to handle figuring out how to split between miles & cash consistently (one day yes, the next day not so much)

 

[isabellea]

I got all kind of stuff from Airmiles (gift certificates, flights, earphones, lens for my DSR and Disney tickets). Before the increase, I would have said that Disney tickets were a very good value but I would have to do the calculations again with the new number of miles needed. I personally don't find that flights are worth it (flew Mtl-Victoria and Mtl-Orlando on airmiles before) because of the taxes and they rarely have direct flights available. I'm now collecting my miles for tickets at DL or for car rental while in California in summer 2017.

Have fun planning! To me it's half the fun!

 

[Skjhjb]

HEY! You must be close to me since my airport of choice would be K/W as well for a multitude of reasons! To confirm what has been said, yup, you can only fly out of CDN airports. Other thing to know about the flights from that airport is that this is a trial and they only go from mid December - mid April. REALLY hoping it continues to happen. If you want to check about the miles needed for sure just make sure you only set it for one person, stupid system can't seem to handle figuring out how to split between miles & cash consistently (one day yes, the next day not so much)

I'm in Fergus - so way closer to Kitchener! the girls and I are aiming for early November, so hopefully in three years we will see a year round flight!!

Off to play with airmiles quotes!

 

[Aladora]

Off to play with airmiles quotes!

I use a pretty simple calculation.

$ amount saved for flights minus any $ you have to pay for taxes, etc. divided by # of airmiles needed = $ saved per airmile.

$ amount of Disney tickets divided by # of airmiles needed = $ saved per airmile.

For example:
Flights would be $600 normally but you have to pay $100 in taxes and you would have to cash in 6000 airmiles them your $ per airmile would be $0.08 saved.

Disney tickets would normally cost $531 and you have to cash in 3200 airmiles then you $ per airmile would be $0.16 saved.

Whichever number has you saving more per airmile is the better one, in this example the Disney tickets are a better use of airmiles.

Note: I made up these numbers as an example!

 

[Skjhjb]

I use a pretty simple calculation.

$ amount saved for flights minus any $ you have to pay for taxes, etc. divided by # of airmiles needed = $ saved per airmile.

$ amount of Disney tickets divided by # of airmiles needed = $ saved per airmile.

For example:
Flights would be $600 normally but you have to pay $100 in taxes and you would have to cash in 6000 airmiles them your $ per airmile would be $0.08 saved.

Disney tickets would normally cost $531 and you have to cash in 3200 airmiles then you $ per airmile would be $0.16 saved.

Whichever number has you saving more per airmile is the better one, in this example the Disney tickets are a better use of airmiles.

Note: I made up these numbers as an example!

Thanks!

We've only ever driven, so the flight thing is totally new to us. But my oldest won't do the drive again (she can't read or watch movies or play ipod games because of motion sickness), and I'm not comfortable driving all that way myself without DH.

And we've never used airmiles for anything - just a few movie coupons here and there. So my view is saving them for three years and not having to pay the bulk of the flight cost would be great!!

 

[Donald - my hero]

I'm in Fergus - so way closer to Kitchener! the girls and I are aiming for early November, so hopefully in three years we will see a year round flight!!

Off to play with airmiles quotes!

Guelph here, my entire family lives in Fergus though and both of our kids were born in Groves.

 

[Skjhjb]

Guelph here, my entire family lives in Fergus though and both of our kids were born in Groves.

Small world isn't it?

We've been here 18 years now...totally love it here. I've told DH if he ever gets a new job he can commute!

 

[CdnCarrie]

If you have free dining you can just book the package and pay with Air Miles. You can also redeem for Marlin Travel vouches and book the package with them.

 

[BLAZEY]

We got our (2 adult & 1 child) Disneyland Tickets (5 day PH) in 2013 free from airmiles, and earlier in the spring I got our Disney World Tickets from our upcoming November trip (7day base). No way was flying a good use of the Air Miles. I am now saving them for Starbucks gift cards for us to use in the airports, and at Disney World. I used SB cards for our breakfast when we were in the UK last year.