APs when you live flight distance away

[wilkeliza]

We are a flight away but spend a ton of our vacation time at Disney. We go 3-4 times a year. This was our first year with an AP and although we only broke even on the tickets between the two trips we saved on food, room, and merchandise. It also made our vacations more relaxing because we could come and go from the parks as we saw fit.

 

[Anal Annie]

Hi all. I am really close to deciding that 2017 will be year of Disney. But unless we stay a full week, it doesn't make sense to drive (Charlotte, NC).

My fear is spending $8k a year in flights to justify a $3k annual pass expense.

Anyone out there that still got value while living flight distance away?

If we lived that close we would definitely drive it more often. We buy AP's and plan 3 trips a year on them (we have DVC so it's easy because we know our accomdations are covered). We live near DC - about 15-16 hours drive-time away (depending on route & traffic) so we currently drive once / year on our longer summer trips (usually spend 8-10 nights at WDW in the summer). DH has a hybrid so we can drive it round trip for only $120!!! SAH-WEEET!!!! We'd be nuts not to take advantage of that mileage! We stop overnight going down in SC or GA and then finish up the next day so we can get there mid-day to check in and have some park time in the afternoon / evening. On our return trip we drive it straight thru which is just a nasty day but once we leave we just push to get home. We fly on our other trips as the 15+ hours is just too much for shorter trips and it adds extra time to what we need off just for travel days. There's only 3 of us (and sometimes only 2 since DS is in college now) but we've never come anywhere close to spending $8K a year on flights. DH & I just came back Thurs. night from a 5 night F&W trip and we ended up spending about $158 each round trip on air. I have the 3 of us booked for January for less than $200 each round trip. There is no way you should spend $8K on flights living that close! But if you don't have DVC you might have to budget that much for hotels...

And as others have noted - you WILL plan more than 1 trip a year OR you'll plan 1 reallllly long trip.

 

[tecdavidt]

We live in Des Moines, IA. We are DVC members since Aug. 2007. We have had AP's since then. We fly down every 6 weeks. We are not retired. My husband books flights when prices drop, we usually fly first class when it is almost coach price. Over NYE We use our airline miles or credit card miles because the flights never drop in price during that time. We ended up buying a condo back in 2010. Now we are in a house with our own pool 3 1/2 miles northeast of the castle. We still stay on property when we visit Disney. When we visit the house we know when it is 10:00 pm. We can also hear the booms from DHS's fireworks and sometimes Illuminations. We will keep AP's as long as they don't add restrictions such as black out dates. We have regular APs. We are here most holidays.

Yes, our trips increased after buying APs. We are empty nesters and my husband can work remotely. He has taken many client calls in the parks.

 

[OKW Lover]

Anyone out there that still got value while living flight distance away?

Before moving to FL I had AP's for probably 25 years. I could usually find cheap airfares to MCO and quick, long weekend trips became my preferred style. It allowed me to visit the parks at various times during the year. Some corresponding to special events like MCMCP and some just to get away for a while.

I guess the answer to your question lies within. What is your "value" equation?

 

[CandleontheWater]

We live just south of Charlotte in Fort Mill, and it is a really easy drive down to WDW. I don't even like to drive, and I find it a piece of cake. It is all straight, flat, highways and it goes quick! We are going to do a no parks trip with family and Legoland and a Disney cruise this year so no APs, but next year we are purchasing more DVC points and APs and it is game on! What we are officially planning is two long trips 11 months and 2 weeks apart, but I'll also be pushing for Spring Break and 4 day long weekends. Once you have those APs in your hand it is hard to stay away, they will not save you any money, fuzzy Disney math will come into play and there is always a good excuse to head to Disney!

 

[circus4u]

Also live in AZ. We made five trips on our Annual Pass the last time. We are retired, so it is a bit easier for us to schedule trips when airline fares are cheaper. Usually costs 2 of us about $400 each for round trip airfare on Southwest. Bought annual passes again this month for this past trip. With photopass now included, figure two trips and we have made money with the passes. Discounts on food and merchandise are a bonus.

 

[StuckInKS]

Looks like you're only 7 1/2 hours away. Im 12 hours away and I have an AP. Warning: once you get it you'll go more often.

We live 20 hrs away and have APs. On our drive, 7.5 hrs away = almost there!

We drive because $300 RT in gas is much cheaper than 8 airline tickets. We will get 3 trips out of these APs (leaving for trip #2 in less than a month!)

 

[BigAlsGal]

We live 20 hrs away and have APs. On our drive, 7.5 hrs away = almost there!

We drive because $300 RT in gas is much cheaper than 8 airline tickets. We will get 3 trips out of these APs (leaving for trip #2 in less than a month!)

Oh man! That's a long haul! We drive straight through over night and it's not for the faint of heart. My hats off to you!

 

[TCRAIG]

Something people may not realize - Southwest does not operate in Charlotte...I have never seen any cheap flights to Orlando from CLT.

 

[DanInMN]

We had APs last year and made 4 trips. We flew each time vs a 22 hour drive. Points or super low airfares each time.

One plus was the "free" parking. Combined with really cheap rental cars makes staying off site a great deal. Super nice places at Bonnet Creek, Reunion, and Bahama Bay at prices far less than Disney. For example we had a 3 bedroom condo at Bonnet Creek for $500/week! Car rental was just $100/week. APs for admission, and we had half our meals off site at non-Disney prices.

Our airline points are used up and our family grew by adopting 2 teens, so the cost of a trip is much higher now. Trip every year or two means no more APs for us.

 

[csjordan]

Hi all. I am really close to deciding that 2017 will be year of Disney. But unless we stay a full week, it doesn't make sense to drive (Charlotte, NC).

My fear is spending $8k a year in flights to justify a $3k annual pass expense.

Anyone out there that still got value while living flight distance away?

We live in Greensboro, and have had AP's for 3 years now. Last year, we went to WDW a total of 6 trips, one of which was a week, and and the others long weekends (anywhere from 3-6 nights). We drove down for the 6 night Spring Break trip and the NYE weekend, but flew Southwest for the others. SW out of Charlotte is more expensive than out of Raleigh, which is closer for us, anyway. But they have great prices! Allegiant out of Concord has EXCELLENT prices, but I've never flown out of that airport. I have used Allegiant out of Greensboro on more than one occasion, but prefer SW.

 

[soniam]

We are in Texas, and our APs seem to be working out this year, our first. We have had 2 trips on them and another at New Years. There are sometimes good hotel discounts that help. If you tend to do very long trips, longer than a week, the AP takes longer to pay off, since the tickets are cheaper per day. Shorter trips kind of pay off sooner, since the tickets are more expensive for a few days. There are other added benefits too, like early registration for runs, free photos. I would have never paid for Memory Maker, but I am finding it's pretty convenient. I wouldn't say though that the AP has benefitted us greatly though. WE have saved some money, but not a ton. You just have to calculate it out for yourself. You will look for excuses for trips though. We were only supposed to be doing 2 and now we are doing 3 We have 2 for next year as well, and I might sneak some in for just myself if the DIS does anything special like Disapalouza or a Halloween or Xmas o

 

[MichelleWDWfan]

I live in Pennsylvania and have had an AP for 3 years. I love WDW. I go 2-3 times each year.
I do fly because it's an 18 hr drive for me.
I find I go more often since I have had the AP. Disney gives nice room discounts for AP holders.
Paired with the free photopass downloads, merchandise and meal discounts, it is worth it for me.
If I was only a 7 1/2 hr drive I would go even more often then that for long weekends probably.
I'm heading to WDW next week for 8 days. This is my 3rd trip this year.
Got tickets for The Chew taping at Epcot!

 

[keishashadow]

Out of PIT or LBE - Makes me appreciate this year's plethora of $39 flights on Spirit, seeing same with Frontier. Allegiant not too shabby and we have buckets of points w/SWA.

Woohoo working the APs!

 

[MichelleWDWfan]

we have buckets of points w/SWA.

I fly out of PIT usually. I have been using SWA mostly because i take longer trips and bring 2 bags.
Free baggage is awesome.
Wanna share some of those buckets of SWA points?

 

[scrapquitler]

Hi all. I am really close to deciding that 2017 will be year of Disney. But unless we stay a full week, it doesn't make sense to drive (Charlotte, NC).

My fear is spending $8k a year in flights to justify a $3k annual pass expense.

Anyone out there that still got value while living flight distance away?

We live in New England, and we knew we were going to take two trips (april 2015 and April 2016) for a week each, so we bought AP's. We ended up taking 5 trips instead of 2 because we just kept justifying it saying "well, only the cost of the flights and the hotel for an extra vacation" LOL We had a ton of fun. We just made sure to add those extra trips at times when we were able to get reasonably priced flights (between $200 to $250 round trip). Yes we spent way more money than we would have on vacations, but it was totally worth it.

 

[JPKnapp]

Yes we spent way more money than we would have on vacations, but it was totally worth it.

So glad it was worth it, but that's what worries me a bit. I want to make sure I know what I am signing up for. Do you have an estimate of what you spent in total that year on Disney travel?

 

[keishashadow]

I fly out of PIT usually. I have been using SWA mostly because i take longer trips and bring 2 bags.
Free baggage is awesome.
Wanna share some of those buckets of SWA points?

I worked hard working that Credit Card haha

 

[PeasandCarrots]

Hi all. I am really close to deciding that 2017 will be year of Disney. But unless we stay a full week, it doesn't make sense to drive (Charlotte, NC).

My fear is spending $8k a year in flights to justify a $3k annual pass expense.

Anyone out there that still got value while living flight distance away?

We live in NC and get cheap flights (usually $400-600 total for both of us give or take). For us it's totally worth it as we go 2-4 times a year usually 1 week per trip (so 8-9 days of tickets). Even after 2 trips we come out ahead getting AP. However even worst case our flights cost no where near what you are quoting ($8k).

 

[kittylady1972]

Like others have already chimed in, living that close would be a no-brainer for us to get APs. We are about 14 hours away. We had APs two years ago and this Thanksgiving I've talked DH into upgrading them again while we are there. We'll get the DVC APs (sad they don't offer the really cheap ones with waterparks like we had before...they were awesome) and that gives us an excuse to go at least 2 more times before next Thanksgiving.

The cheapest RT flights I get around here, even on SW, are about $180 or so IF I'm lucky. Sounds like we need to drive up to Newark to get them closer to $100 RT like another poster here. Since we have FIVE people to fly, we try to drive. DH and I can switch off. Last few trips we leave in afternoon timeframe, and push until we hit at least Jacksonville. We have a hotel there we know we like that we've stayed in twice, so we aim for that one. This makes the next morning drive not so bad as we get up, eat the free breakfast and then hit the road.

We are considering a Memorial Day weekend trip on our APs but DH wants to try to fly for that one since it would only be 4 nights. Waiting for SWA to release those dates to see how bad they are but I would consider the drive but not so sure DH would go for it. We definitely prefer to stay at least 5 or 6 days if driving. We can do the drive home, if we leave early, in just one day.