Best CC card to get for trip

[kjasmin]

Hi, all. I am new to this forum and I have a question... My family loves to travel to Disney a lot. Now I would like to get a CC card to use that would be beneficial to us in the long run. Question is, should we get a card that has points that would apply to flights or get the Disney CC? Does anyone have any suggestions? Does this make sense?

 

[HenDuck]

As much as I love Disney, I like to travel to other places too. That's why I have not gotten the Disney credit card. I have 3 airline credit cards right now. We usually build up miles on one airline until we have what we need, then switch to another if necessary. I have had my United Mileage Plus card for years. Only down side is that most of these card have an annual fee. Otherwise, I think an airline card is the way to go.

 

[the kabuki]

Get the airline card, I looked into both. Think about it, you can only redeem at Disney, what if you want to go somewhere else (heaven forbid)?!

 

[swilphil]

I debated about the Airline Card or the Disney Card, but ended up going with the Disney Card.

Here's why I don't want an airline card:

1. We usually fly Southwest and your points with them expire after a year. We don't fly every year.

2. I've heard of people having a hard time booking the flights they want with their airline points.

3. The airline industry is just a little too unstable for me.

4. Sometimes other airlines do have better rates than Southwest.

5. We've talked about driving to Florida in the future.

Here's what I like about the Disney card:

1. The points don't expire for 5 years.

2. You can use the rewards card at any Disney business--resort, restaurant, ticket purchases, all the shops in the park, Disney Store.

3. You get a few extra perks: discount on rental car, tickets to free movie screenings.

4. The first 6 months of the card is interest free and there's no annual fee.

5. You get 50 bonus reward dollars for signing up for the Disney Visa at www.50disneyrewards.com. You need to order and use your card by Dec. 31, 2004, so hurry!

After our 6 months and our upcoming Disney trip, I may switch to a CC that gives cash back, but I don't think I will go the airline route.

 

[NotUrsula]

IMO, the best would be the American Express Starwood affiliate card. 40K pts. gets you 5 nites free at the Swan or Dolphin at any season; if there is a room available when you make the ressie, it's yours. Lots of programs to accumulate pts at more than 1=$1, and pts. don't expire as long as you spend one night at a Starwood property SOMEWHERE each yr. Remember that hotel points can be redeemed for a room that 4 people can share, while a free airline seat only holds one person.

The Southwest Visa is worth it if you fly SWA a few times per year, but not enough to normally get a earn a free ticket. It takes a lot of pts. to earn a free ticket strictly through purchases, but most people use it more to "top off" the credits they get by flying. SWA's card is the best of the airline cards b/c you can always use your credits for seats as long as any seats are available on the flight you want; they don't have to be "eligible" seats. If you can't fly SWA for whatever reason, next best is the bank cards that offer airline dollar value for pts.; not with a specific airline, but with any airline you want to use them on. Bank One's Value Miles card is an example of this kind. They are best b/c you just exchange the cost of the tickets for pts. with a travel agent; you are not attempting to redeem seats from the airline directly.

 

[all4fun]

Hi,
I agree with what SwilPhil said about the downside of some airline CC's. We usually fly Delta to Florida and have had a Skymiles Amex card for years. Recently they have restricted the flights you can get with your miles, or you have to have more points to get a better route. For instance the last time we tried to get a flight from the West coast to Florida, for the minimum amount of points you can "spend" for a flight (I believe it's 25000) the only flights we could get had two layovers, each way - yuck! We would have to spend more points to get a better route (the one we would normally pay cash for) with only one layover. (Unfortunately where we live, direct flights are uncommon).

We have the Disney Visa and love it. We have gone to several movies for free, we use it everywhere and it hasn't been hard for us to build up points. (note: we also pay it off every month.) Of course the downside is that you can only use your reward with Disney & affiliates, but the same can be said of most airline cc's and it's harder to build up enough miles to actually use your reward if you don't fly that much.

Just my 2cents. Hope it was helpful.

Cheryl

 

[MelodyMack]

I have had both a Skymiles Visa and a Disney Visa, and my vote is with the Disney Visa.

Obviously if you fly often, the skymiles card is the way to go, but lately my family has been doing more road trips than flights and using the miles before they expire has become almost a burden.

Lately we have been using our Disney Visa to prepare for our upcoming trip and it has been a lot of fun. We have over $150 Disney reward dollars saved up, and we have really enjoyed figuring out how to maximize our points (double points etc). Also, the card gets a lot of attention! Retailers always crack up at my mouse eared card!

The Disney Visa offers a $1.00 for every $100 you charge, so it's not a HUGE benefit, but for our family we look at it as just FUN. Every Disney dollar is one dollar closer to our trip together at the Mouse's House....

Hope this helps!
Mel

 

[kkleiner]

We use the FLEET Savings Bond card for EVERYTHING Disney and
not Disney, you get $50 in savings bonds
for each $2500 spent (maybe less than that needed, can't remember).

No annual fee!!

Don't have their web site info, but a quick google search gave
me this :

http://www.cardweb.com/perl/cardlocator/card/682/en

 

[lindaso]

We have the Toys R Us Visa card and you get the same 1% back for every dollar spent. We charge everything, pay off the balance every month and I haven't paid for a birthday party present in years!!!

 

[disneysteve]

We opted against an airline card because we rarely fly, maybe once every couple of years. Instead, we've got 2 reward cards. Marriott Visa and AOL Visa. Thanks to points earned, we haven't paid a penny for AOL for about 7 or 8 years. And we've earned about a dozen free hotel nites with the Marriott card in the past couple of years. I think frequent flyer programs are too restrictive and need too many points for a free flight. Plus with the condition the airline industry is in, I'd hate to build up a bunch of points and have the airline go out of business. I think Marriott will be around.