Disney Gift Card Deals

[LadyD]

I guess it depends on the situation, but I personally don't feel it is worth it to buy the gift cards from Best Buy. Many Disney hotels can be gotten cheaper using promo codes on Orbitz and park tickets can be cheaper through Undercover Tourist. Only thing left is food and I can cover that with gift cards from Target at the 10% off day in December or gift cards that I get through Amex offers.

In the situation above, the person said they were planning a last minute trip - In that situation, the small savings from Best Buy might be worth it.

If you have access to an AP or you’re able to take advantage of one of the room only offers through Disney, you can often get a better deal than what you can get through Orbitz too, and using Disney Gift Cards obtained through ebates, swagbucks, rewards points, etc converted from a retailer to Disney then gets you more of a discount. It definitely takes some effort, but it is nice vacationing for a fraction of the listed rate on the Disney website for the trip.

 

[bbsearchlight]

If you have access to an AP or you’re able to take advantage of one of the room only offers through Disney, you can often get a better deal than what you can get through Orbitz too, and using Disney Gift Cards obtained through ebates, swagbucks, rewards points, etc converted from a retailer to Disney then gets you more of a discount. It definitely takes some effort, but it is nice vacationing for a fraction of the listed rate on the Disney website for the trip.

The room only offers from Disney are the exact same price as Orbitz, and many times you can get 15% off on top of that from Ornitz without doing any of the work of collecting gift cards, etc.

 

[bbsearchlight]

I’m currently saving 21% by buying visa gift cards at Kroger and using those to buy Disney gift cards at Best Buy with the swagbucks qr. I wouldn’t call 21% a small discount.

Of the 21% you say you are saving, how much of that is from Best Buy itself. What percent specifically is the Swagbucks QR giving you? The savings you are getting from the visa gift cards at Kroger has nothing to do with Best Buy, you would get that savings no matter where you used it.

 

[LadyD]

The room only offers from Disney are the exact same price as Orbitz, and many times you can get 15% off on top of that from Ornitz without doing any of the work of collecting gift cards, etc.

I’ve had better room only offers through Disney than orbitz. Not all Disney room inventory is available through orbitz for room only discounts too, and the discounted amount of gift cards I typically acquire is greater than 15%. For me, the work is worth the extra 5%-10% savings I can get. That is a typically a couple extra days of meals we’re not having to pay for out of our pockets.

 

[FoxC63]

The savings you are getting from the visa gift cards at Kroger has nothing to do with Best Buy

I totally disagree with this!
Kroger: Visa/MC gc's as purchased in increments of $100, $100 and $50 = $35 in gas savings
Then at Best Buy: Disney gc's purchased from those Visa/MC gc's in $50 increments using SB equates to 5 x 500 SB = 2,500 points
When purchasing a monthly discounted $25 GC from SB at 2,200 points. Remaining points can be deposited into your bank account that's more then what your getting by simply using a Kroger transaction.

Costco also does an awesome job with booking Disney vacations and they accept Disney Gift Cards. Not sure why you're so in-tuned to bring this thread down.

EDITED!

 

[pillow]

When purchasing a monthly discounted $25 PayPal GC from SB at 2,200 points

The Paypal gc’s get discounted??? Didn’t know that.

 

[amalone1013]

The Paypal gc’s get discounted??? Didn’t know that.

I believe Paypal is about the only one that isn't discounted

 

[FoxC63]

The Paypal gc’s get discounted??? Didn’t know that.

I believe Paypal is about the only one that isn't discounted

Edited! No matter, it's still a better deal then what @bbsearchlight was thinking!

 

[Scoobie]

I recently purchased 3 giftcards from bj's, after getting the $10 online only membership. Got that in the mail, then decided to put 5 in my cart and purchase to see if it allowed more then the 3 card limit the website states. That purchase went through, they are now being shipped. Will do it again in a few days with a bigger order to see what happens, then report back.

 

[bbsearchlight]

Thank you for explaining that your Kroger savings were in fuel savings, which was what I suspected. Those are personal savings, versus absolute savings. What I mean by that is the value of fuel savings changes from person to person. Someone who has a smaller car or doesn't live near those gas stations will find those points way less.

I'm sorry if you think I'm being negative, but I have contributed to this board with many posts and have used many of the posts on this board that are useful. But I disagree when people post a savings that for most people aren't going to be anywhere near that. We had this same discussion about 50 pages back when someone started saying how chase ultimate rewards points were worth 2.5 cents each and many people disagreed since that value is going to be different with each person.

 

[bbsearchlight]

I’ve had better room only offers through Disney than orbitz. Not all Disney room inventory is available through orbitz for room only discounts too, and the discounted amount of gift cards I typically acquire is greater than 15%. For me, the work is worth the extra 5%-10% savings I can get. That is a typically a couple extra days of meals we’re not having to pay for out of our pockets.

That is good to know; I personally have not had any room offers from Disney better than Orbitz. (at least not in the past 3 years since they got rid of the personal offers they would mail you) I guess it might depend on the time of year or which hotel, but when I priced out the cost of a room in August the Disney price with the incredible summer room offer was exactly the same as Orbitz. So on Orbitz I would save 15% on top of that plus assume your credit card gives you 2% back, that is a toatl of 17% (I won't include orbitz rewards, as they probably aren't much value to anyone). So if I can get 17% off without any work at all by booking on Orbitz, for me personally my savings on Disney gift cards would have to be a minimum of 22% to make it worth it considering.

Again, if you can get better room only rates from Disney, that changes the equation - I personally have not experienced that.

 

[havaneselover]

Of the 21% you say you are saving, how much of that is from Best Buy itself. What percent specifically is the Swagbucks QR giving you? The savings you are getting from the visa gift cards at Kroger has nothing to do with Best Buy, you would get that savings no matter where you used it.

13 percentage points of the 21% is from Best Buy. I suspect your anti bb bias because of their recent policy change is coloring this discussion.

I can also turn around and buy Disney gift cards at Kroger with visa gift cards but MY total savings there is only 16%.

And of course these discounts depend on the credit card you use, the size of your fuel tank, your bb reward status, etc. that’s been discussed numerous times on this thread.

As I’m collecting gift cards for our summer Alaska cruise (for a fairly expensive excursion and onboard purchases), the 21% discount I enjoy is helping considerably.

 

[bbsearchlight]

Also, this is from the mousesavers website (probably one of the most definitive guides on Walt Disney World):

"

• Book through CheapTickets and get an extra 16% off bookings for stays through 12/31/18. CheapTickets’s base room rates are generally the same as Disney’s discounted rates, and those rates can be further discounted with this special code with a maximum savings of $150 per booking. To find the official Disney hotels, search “Walt Disney World Resort” and 3 star or higher hotels. The discount code is SQUADGOALS. The code is entered on the final checkout screen; look for “Enter a coupon or promotion code” and click it to show the coupon code field. Expires 6/17/18. "

Note the language that "CheapTickets’s base room rates are generally the same as Disney’s discounted rates". That has been my personal experience, that Cheaptickets and Orbitz have the same discounted rates as Disney plus you can stack codes on top of them.

 

[bbsearchlight]

13 percentage points of the 21% is from Best Buy. I think your anti bb bias because of their recent policy change is coloring this discussion.

I can also turn around and buy Disney gift cards at Kroger with visa gift cards but MY total savings there is only 16%.

And of course these discounts depend on the credit card you use, the size of your fuel tank, your bb reward status, etc. that’s been discussed numerous times on this thread.

I do not have any bias at Best Buy because of their recent changes, in fact, if they had a decent sale on something I would still buy it there (otherwise, the only one I hurt is myself). It is the same with Amazon, I personally do not like them as a company, but thats not going to stop me from buying from them if they are cheaper.

If you are getting 13% from Best Buy that is great, I personally haven't done the swagbucks but people were saying they were worth 5 - 7% savings, so I don't know how you got from there to 13%. If the swagbucks are worth, 13% then yes, that might be a different story.

 

[havaneselover]

I do not have any bias at Best Buy because of their recent changes, in fact, if they had a decent sale on something I would still buy it there (otherwise, the only one I hurt is myself). It is the same with Amazon, I personally do not like them as a company, but thats not going to stop me from buying from them if they are cheaper.

If you are getting 13% from Best Buy that is great, I personally haven't done the swagbucks but people were saying they were worth 5 - 7% savings, so I don't know how you got from there to 13%. If the swagbucks are worth, 13% then yes, that might be a different story.

It’s 500 swagbucks for $50 plus 2%. 500 sb = $5 (unless you are redeeming for a discounted gift card then it’s worth more). That’s 12%. Then you get Best Buy rewards which at the lowest rewards level are another 1%.

You have been pretty vocal about BB lately but like you, I’m too frugal to not buy where I’m getting the best deal

 

[amalone1013]

My company gives us access to the Corporate Perks at Work site. When I've looked in the past I haven't seen any deals, etc that are really that great, but I remembered they have a car buying service so I filled that out a few weeks ago (along with Costco's and USAA's) when looking for a new vehicle for DH. Imagine my surprise when I got an email saying I'd earned 2500 points because we ended up going through a dealer from the Perks site Now that's only worth $25, but apparently I can use them to buy a $25 Disney GC from Best Buy and just pay $3.99 for shipping (if I had more points I could cover shipping too). I did give DH some crap because if he had waited two more days it would have been $200 worth of points for Memorial Day

Just thought I'd mention it, since a few others have also found random rewards programs they can cash out for Disney.

 

[Jimsig]

As I’m collecting gift cards for our summer Alaska cruise (for a fairly expensive excursion and onboard purchases), the 21% discount I enjoy is helping considerably.

Went to Alaska on a cruise with NCL a few years ago. Are you going DCL and getting Dis GC's for that?

Depending on the cruise line you might find it a lot cheaper to book excursions on your own as some lines mark them way way up. On 2 excursions alone we saved a total of $300 for 3 of us (2 adults and 1 child) by booking ourselves. One was the train/shuttle combo to the Yukon in Skagway, we used an outside vendor, and the other was the Aleutian Ballard Deadliest Catch Crab Boat tour in Ketchikan and we booked directly with them

We had a blast in Alaska and want to go back and do it again.

 

[MrInfinity]

@bbsearchlight is right in that fuel points are not really travel hacking. If anything, this could be "life hacking".

1) 35 gallons is not typical. @FoxC63 said buy $250 in GC and you'll save $35 (14%!) but that's not realistic unless you're filling an RV. A more realistic fill is (and saving-sites recommend) between 15 and 20 gallons, whatever you typically fill. This could make the savings only $15 or 6%.

2) These savings are only valid if Kroger has the cheapest fuel in town. $1 off at Kroger may only be $.80 below cheaper stations' prices.

3) They're capped and low volume. Want to buy a $5k used car? You'd think you would just buy $5k worth of GC at Kroger and save 14%. Why not? $700 off that car would be nice. But you don't actually save that, you get limited-spendable fuel points. You would have to fill that RV 20 times and the points won't accumulate like that.

4) You should do this in everyday life. If you weren't taking a Disney trip, you should still do this to get enough gift cards to fund your daily life. Since this is capped at a level where you cannot fund your entire life, allocating the savings to Disney instead of whatever else you bought is simply claiming you saved on Disney trips when you would have saved this otherwise on something else.

Point is these definitely are savings and are something you should do, but it's just a savings in your general life, and whether you want to look at is as though you got $35 off your Disney spend or $35 off your (whatever else you bought) is arbitrary.

 

[Jax1023]

I do not have any bias at Best Buy because of their recent changes, in fact, if they had a decent sale on something I would still buy it there (otherwise, the only one I hurt is myself). It is the same with Amazon, I personally do not like them as a company, but thats not going to stop me from buying from them if they are cheaper.

If you are getting 13% from Best Buy that is great, I personally haven't done the swagbucks but people were saying they were worth 5 - 7% savings, so I don't know how you got from there to 13%. If the swagbucks are worth, 13% then yes, that might be a different story.

I booked my trip though a travel agent that offers
Special discounts. Way way below anything I could get with orbitz, which has otherwise been my go to booking method. The TA takes disney gift cards as payment.

This quarter my chase freedom card is offering chase pay as a bonus category, 7500 points worth 75 dollars in cash, or as I plan to use them with my other sapphire reserve card to buy my disney tickets at 1.5 cents per point, $112.50. This is on $1500 worth of disney gc purchased at Best Buy.

I also do the Swagbucks thing- 600 Swagbucks per $50 purchase. So a total of $180 on the $1500 in disney gift cards.

So I’m getting $212.50 back on my $1500 purchase. That’s 14%. Its 112 dollars toward my tickets and enough sb cashed out to pay for my ohana dinner and a few drinks or snacks.

It’s worth it to me. It’s not that much work. I did it over 5 trips to Best Buy, 6 separate transactions each time

 

[havaneselover]

@bbsearchlight is right in that fuel points are not really travel hacking. If anything, this could be "life hacking".

1) 35 gallons is not typical. @FoxC63 said buy $250 in GC and you'll save $35 (14%!) but that's not realistic unless you're filling an RV. A more realistic fill (and saving-sites recommend) using a value between 15 and 20 gallons, whatever you typically fill. This could make the savings only $15 or 6%.

2) These savings are only valid if Kroger has the cheapest fuel in town. $1 off at Kroger may only be $.80 below cheaper stations' prices.

3) They're capped and low volume. Want to buy a $5k used car? You'd think you would just buy $5k worth of GC at Kroger and save 14%. Why not? $700 off that car would be nice. But you don't actually save that, you get limited-spendable fuel points. You would have to fill that RV 20 times and the points won't accumulate like that.

4) You should do this in everyday life. If you weren't taking a Disney trip, you should still do this to get enough gift cards to fund your daily life. Since this is capped at a level where you cannot fund your entire life, allocating the savings to Disney instead of whatever else you bought is simply claiming you saved on Disney trips when you would have saved this anyways on something else.

Point is these definitely are savings and are something you should do, but it's just a savings in your general life, and whether you want to look at is as though you got $35 off your Disney spend or $35 off your (whatever else you bought) is arbitrary.

In my area, you are not limited to $1 off / gallon. So right now I can use 2,700 fuel points / fill up. I easily fill up three times per month, so I have no problem spending 8,000 fuel points a month. So for me, these limits don't really apply. Again, I've never seen anyone claim their situation isn't unique.

And thankfully having a Kroger next to Sam's and very close to Costco keeps Kroger's fuel prices extremely competitive.