Any way to get APs cheaper?

[KalamityJane]

Other than way.com? Like, if I bought a regular ticket at a discount, they don't price bridge like they do at WDW, correct? I can buy 3 day PH at Fred Meyer's for the 4x fuel points (I have to check to see if these would count) but wondering if there was another way.

 

[SMD]

AAA sometimes has deals on APs. Some people use their Target card to get 5% off Disney cards and use that to buy APs at the gate.

 

[KalamityJane]

Yeah, I was planning on buying discounted Target gift cards and then buying Disney gift cards at Target to double the discount.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

I saved a lot on our APs last month. I think it ended up around 25% savings overall, but that included a couple hundred in rewards I had from our Disney Visas.
I got the Amex Blue Cash Preferred with the $150 bonus after spending 1k. It pays 6% at grocery stores up to 6k per year, so it's perfect if you're getting fuel perks as well for buying gcs. (It does have a fee; different people decide different ways on how they count the fee against the cashback/bonuses so that's up to you.)
It is best to buy Target cards at the grocery store, then buy Disney gcs on Target.com, but you will need a Red card to get the 5% off online (you don't pay with it if you're using the Target gift cards, you just have to have it as your default method of payment and you will get 5% off.) You will also need some time because with 4x fuel points you may get more points than you could use before they expire buying so many, and you can only buy $150 in Disney gcs at a time on target.com (though you can do several transactions back to back) and it takes about a week to get the Disney cards in the mail.
You will also end up with tons of $50 Disney gcs instead of fewer larger denomination (my Kroger sells the ones that go up to $500). That annoys some people, but I have paid for APs several times with $25 and $50 gcs with no problem.
I also counted my fuel points savings as cash back for my APs - If I saved $25, I put that $25 into my Disneyland fund, i.e., I did not count the discount twice by buying gcs and counting the fuel perks as part of my discount, then also thinking I got cheap gas.
$2076 4x Deluxe APs
-$150 Amex bonus
$1926

Buy $1926 in Target gcs with 2x points =3852 - bumped to 4000 with milk and whatnot for 4 fillups at $1 off/gallon = $25 savings per fill up [that's filling 2 cars at once for us] for $100 total fuel perks savings
-$100 fuel perks savings
$1826

-$115 6% grocery cashback Amex on $1926 Note: don't buy them all at once or they may not count it as a grocery purchase. Spread it out!
$1711

-$95 Target 5% savings on $1900 in gcs (they only sell $50 denomination)
$1616 out of pocket for $2076 value = save 22%.
You can do better than this with the 4x fuel points, and you will probably want to buy more gcs to fund food, merchandise, etc.

 

[KalamityJane]

You can put the gift cards into a Disney vacation account to combine them, that's what I do! Great idea on adding the money saved on fuel back into the fund! I was planning on doing that with the target RedCard and gift cards, I should get on that!

 

[Ryan120420]

Disneyland does not bridge prices.



1. Discount Tickets and Tours still has NEW SoCal passes for sale at the current renewal rate of $359.

2. Target Red Card. Buy Disney gift cards with a Target Red Card and get 5% off.

3. Costco and Sams club usually sell Disney Gift cards at a slight discount when you buy in bulk.

 

[LisaT91403]

3. Costco and Sams club usually sell Disney Gift cards at a slight discount when you buy in bulk.

I've never seen Disney gift cards at Costco. Did you see them there recently?

 

[aliceindisneyland]

You can put the gift cards into a Disney vacation account to combine them, that's what I do! Great idea on adding the money saved on fuel back into the fund! I was planning on doing that with the target RedCard and gift cards, I should get on that!

I haven't gotten the Disney vacation account yet because I'm never 120 days away from spending my money so I wouldn't get any $20/$1000 bonus!

It was quick and painless this time getting APs with several $500 gcs, but I am waiting to see next month if Amex credits me for the large purchase ($1600 in groceries at once!) but we were in a hurry so I did what I could. I'll be getting at least 11% off all future Disney spending, not counting fuel perks, by using the 6% Amex and 5% Target. It's about 16% off including fuel perks using the 2x points [always 2x points at Kroger for gcs.]

 

[KalamityJane]

I just use the DVA as a combining account, though I'm going to bust buns to try and get more in so that I can get the extra 2% off before our cruise and APs!

 

[KalamityJane]

Disneyland does not bridge prices. 1. Discount Tickets and Tours still has NEW SoCal passes for sale at the current renewal rate of $359. 2. Target Red Card. Buy Disney gift cards with a Target Red Card and get 5% off. 3. Costco and Sams club usually sell Disney Gift cards at a slight discount when you buy in bulk.

Do you have to be a SoCal resident to use those?

 

[Ryan120420]

Do you have to be a SoCal resident to use those?

You have to live in SoCal to use a Southern California Passport.

 

[chrisaman]

DVC offers excellent discounts from time to time. I got like 150 dollars off the AP for disneyland and disneyworld in April. They had a discount on the deluxe too at the time but currently it is not being offered.

 

[hjgaus]

DVC offers excellent discounts from time to time. I got like 150 dollars off the AP for disneyland and disneyworld in April. They had a discount on the deluxe too at the time but currently it is not being offered.

IS the poster a DVC member TO receive said discounts?
Usually the discount was just $25.00 per AP EXCEPT for the THIS year.
Hopefully they will give DVC members GREAT AP discounts EVERY year!!!

 

[MychaelP]

Yeah, I was planning on buying discounted Target gift cards and then buying Disney gift cards at Target to double the discount.

I use the Target mobile gift cards earned at SwagBucks all the time to buy Disney Gift Cards. Here is a trick (if you can call it that) to get 5% off RedCard savings on top of other savings:
discussed here is shopathome http://thecreativealternative.com/how-to-make-money-online/
Link through shopathome to get between 2.5% and 4% cashback (was 4% last week), add to your card Disney Gift Cards. Also add something that is NOT a gift card, it must be merchandise. Toothpaste is about $1 for an example. Then be sure you are charging to your redcard at least a few cents. I've gotten it to 7 cents before. They will give you 5% redcard savings on everything, even if you are using Target Gift cards. AND since you are buying merchandise, shopathome will give you your cashback. It typically shows up within 1 day of Target shipping your items.
Complicated, but I love doing it that way. It even works to change target mobile gift cards to normal target gift cards and you get cashback for doing it.
Once I tried doing it without merchandise and there is no shopathome credit. But still a great way to get 5% off while using mostly gift cards anyway. Can't do that at the store.

 

[sleepymouse]

Other than way.com? Like, if I bought a regular ticket at a discount, they don't price bridge like they do at WDW, correct? I can buy 3 day PH at Fred Meyer's for the 4x fuel points (I have to check to see if these would count) but wondering if there was another way.

Many people will tell you that DLR does not price bridge, but this is not true. If you upgrade a discounted ticket to an AP, you may or may not have the price bridged. I think it all depends on the source/type of ticket being upgraded.

 

[KalamityJane]

I use the Target mobile gift cards earned at SwagBucks all the time to buy Disney Gift Cards. Here is a trick (if you can call it that) to get 5% off RedCard savings on top of other savings:
discussed here is shopathome http://thecreativealternative.com/how-to-make-money-online/
Link through shopathome to get between 2.5% and 4% cashback (was 4% last week), add to your card Disney Gift Cards. Also add something that is NOT a gift card, it must be merchandise. Toothpaste is about $1 for an example. Then be sure you are charging to your redcard at least a few cents. I've gotten it to 7 cents before. They will give you 5% redcard savings on everything, even if you are using Target Gift cards. AND since you are buying merchandise, shopathome will give you your cashback. It typically shows up within 1 day of Target shipping your items.
Complicated, but I love doing it that way. It even works to change target mobile gift cards to normal target gift cards and you get cashback for doing it.
Once I tried doing it without merchandise and there is no shopathome credit. But still a great way to get 5% off while using mostly gift cards anyway. Can't do that at the store.

Ok, I LOVE this!! This is what I was talking about I use shopathome all the time, so I know what you mean. I will make sure to add some merch!

 

[KalamityJane]

Many people will tell you that DLR does not price bridge, but this is not true. If you upgrade a discounted ticket to an AP, you may or may not have the price bridged. I think it all depends on the source/type of ticket being upgraded.

Interesting... I will have to do some googling to see what types may or may not work.