Best CC to use on WDW in-park/hotel charges?

[alon86]

Hi - we are heading to WDW on June 10. I have every AmEx card there is (basically) and Chase Preferred Reserve and Sapphire. I know the Chase cards will give 3x points for travel. When I check out from WDW, does it code as travel? We plan to put all charges on our magic bands and pay at check out on last day (I have some DGCs which I will use, but most in park charges will go on a CC). Are there any AmEx cards that provide more than 2x MRs for WDW charges? Is Chase my best option? Thanks!

PS. Do any WDW restaurants code as restaurants? If so, I'll use my Gold AmEx with 4x MRs for dinning when we are at restaurants. But if it codes as travel I think I only get 1 MR. Thanks!

 

[DL1WDW2]

Hi!
Read post #7 in Southwest CC thread posted by DisneyFan2 recommendations for
Chase Sapphire Credit Card at local Chase Bank offer...

 

[alon86]

Hi!
Read post #7 in Southwest CC thread posted by DisneyFan2 recommendations for
Chase Sapphire Credit Card at local Chase Bank offer...

Thanks - I have the Chase Sapphire card (and Reserve) and I'm really asking if WDW in park/hotel charges code as travel to get those 3x points (and if that's the best option for WDW charges during our trip) Thanks!

 

[DLgal]

Yes, the Disney hotel bill/room charge will code as travel on the CSR. I've done it numerous times. I use that card for all hotel stays. At WDW, I use it at all dining locations as well, when I can't use the magic band (non Disney owned places).

 

[alon86]

Yes, the Disney hotel bill/room charge will code as travel on the CSR. I've done it numerous times. I use that card for all hotel stays. At WDW, I use it at all dining locations as well, when I can't use the magic band (non Disney owned places).

Thanks! That's good to know. Do WDW restaurants (where I could use magic band) code as travel or restaurants? I can get 4x MRs on my AmEx Gold at Restaurants. Thanks!

 

[DLgal]

Thanks! That's good to know. Do WDW restaurants (where I could use magic band) code as travel or restaurants? I can get 4x MRs on my AmEx Gold at Restaurants. Thanks!

So, restaurants code as restaurants if you use the actual card there. Your meals will code as travel only when you charge them to your room using magicband. So, in your case, use the AMEX for all dining and DON'T use the magic band if you want to get 4%. Use the CSR for the room charge (and use the magic band at all retail locations so you get 3% for your retail spending via the room charge travel category).

 

[barkley]

TAKE A SPARE CARD WITH A DECENT LINE OF CREDIT. i emphasize this b/c we went through a nightmare with disney resorts when they would do the normal daily hold amounts for incidentals but something hiccuped and their staff was not removing them when they did the audit process and ran actual charges. as a result they had weeks worth of daily holds (we were on a 3 week vacations) in addition to our actual charges which caused the card we had on file to be declined. disney may say that they will never have the amount on the card exceed their current balance due plus $100 but no system is perfect. it was a nightmare b/c the resort staff kept telling us that auditing had to handle it but we found that auditing only had very restricted hours of contact. our credit card company could see exactly where the error was but they couldn't release the holds. absent another card to cover our charges it would have been a nightmare (it took a good few weeks for disney to drop those holds on our card which we chose b/c it had the best travel awards-many thousands of points lost due to being unable to use it to the dollar amount we intended).

 

[DLgal]

TAKE A SPARE CARD WITH A DECENT LINE OF CREDIT. i emphasize this b/c we went through a nightmare with disney resorts when they would do the normal daily hold amounts for incidentals but something hiccuped and their staff was not removing them when they did the audit process and ran actual charges. as a result they had weeks worth of daily holds (we were on a 3 week vacations) in addition to our actual charges which caused the card we had on file to be declined. disney may say that they will never have the amount on the card exceed their current balance due plus $100 but no system is perfect. it was a nightmare b/c the resort staff kept telling us that auditing had to handle it but we found that auditing only had very restricted hours of contact. our credit card company could see exactly where the error was but they couldn't release the holds. absent another card to cover our charges it would have been a nightmare (it took a good few weeks for disney to drop those holds on our card which we chose b/c it had the best travel awards-many thousands of points lost due to being unable to use it to the dollar amount we intended).

Wow, what a nightmare! No one should ever travel without at least 2 forms of payment available. You should always have a backup, and keep it secured somewhere. At Disney, we typically keep our full wallets in the room safe and only take our magic bands and one additional credit card along with IDs with us daily. I've also run into "the magic band readers are down, so we can only take credit cards, gift cards, or cash"

We've had a credit card we were using on vacation have fraudulent activity during the trip which necessitated cancelling out that card and having a new one reissued. Had we not had additional cards, we would have had a pretty big problem. But we had 3 other cards so we just switched to another one for the duration of our trip.

 

[alon86]

TAKE A SPARE CARD WITH A DECENT LINE OF CREDIT. i emphasize this b/c we went through a nightmare with disney resorts when they would do the normal daily hold amounts for incidentals but something hiccuped and their staff was not removing them when they did the audit process and ran actual charges. as a result they had weeks worth of daily holds (we were on a 3 week vacations) in addition to our actual charges which caused the card we had on file to be declined. disney may say that they will never have the amount on the card exceed their current balance due plus $100 but no system is perfect. it was a nightmare b/c the resort staff kept telling us that auditing had to handle it but we found that auditing only had very restricted hours of contact. our credit card company could see exactly where the error was but they couldn't release the holds. absent another card to cover our charges it would have been a nightmare (it took a good few weeks for disney to drop those holds on our card which we chose b/c it had the best travel awards-many thousands of points lost due to being unable to use it to the dollar amount we intended).

How terrible! That stinks, sorry you had to deal with that.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thanks - I have the Chase Sapphire card (and Reserve) and I'm really asking if WDW in park/hotel charges code as travel to get those 3x points (and if that's the best option for WDW charges during our trip) Thanks!

Yes! As recently as March it did for us with our CSP.

Wow, what a nightmare! No one should ever travel without at least 2 forms of payment available. You should always have a backup, and keep it secured somewhere. At Disney, we typically keep our full wallets in the room safe and only take our magic bands and one additional credit card along with IDs with us daily. I've also run into "the magic band readers are down, so we can only take credit cards, gift cards, or cash"

We've had a credit card we were using on vacation have fraudulent activity during the trip which necessitated cancelling out that card and having a new one reissued. Had we not had additional cards, we would have had a pretty big problem. But we had 3 other cards so we just switched to another one for the duration of our trip.

I do this too. Just in case something happens with one account, we have a spare that we keep in the safe. You never know when things will go wrong.

 

[lockets]

Maxivu app and AwardWallet have merchant lookup tools that reference how specific merchants will code