Disney Gift Card Deals

[CMNJ]

anyone know if I can purchase ebay physical gc using an ebay gc(email)?

I don't think eBay allows the sale of eBay GC with any type of eBay GC (only ebucks)

 

[CMNJ]

Have you done this recently? I had two orders cancelled today while trying to combine 4 smaller cards into egift cards.

I don't do it regularly but I did do it about a week and a half ago and had no problem

 

[Eighty8Keys]

Have you done this recently? I had two orders cancelled today while trying to combine 4 smaller cards into egift cards.

Yes, just now I purchased a $10 Target e-gift card and paid with another Target gift card. The e-gift card just arrived. Took 17 minutes to arrive.

ETA: June 1 was the last time I took four smaller gift cards and purchased a larger gift card.

 

[Winston Wolf]

Yes, just now I purchased a $10 Target e-gift card and paid with another Target gift card. The e-gift card just arrived. Took 17 minutes to arrive.

ETA: June 1 was the last time I took four smaller gift cards and purchased a larger gift card.

Hmmm. Wonder why mine were cancelled then? I'll give it another try and select a physical card this time.

 

[cheerupem0kidx0x]

So does target occasionally run out of the disney gift cards online or is this a rare thing? Just started doing the gift card deal and now I'm worried they won't have them back before I run out of time to buy for our trip!

 

[wendow]

Since Ebates says they don't payout on the portion of the purchase paid for with gift cards, I won't send in a report if I don't see the cashback. If the cashback shows up I consider myself lucky, if not, I don't want to draw attention to my transaction and invite any further scrutiny. Fortunately there's only been a couple of times when I haven't received it. I wouldn't hesitate to report it if I paid with a credit card and thought I was entitled to it.

I agree. I have only done one order so far through BB and I did not receive ebates. I paid $6 OOP so not gonna bug ebates for that measley amount. The rest was paid for with GC's.

 

[wendow]

I just went to "Contol Panel" on my computer to see if anything has been added. Today "dell foundation services" has been installed. My Dell laptop is only a few months old. I scanned my computer for malware, nothing.
If you google "dell foundation services" it sounds like it some kind of phishing or computer hack thing. A security flaw.
First I went to "task manager" to "dell foundation services" then "stop service". The internet told me to do that.
I decided to just uninstall it.

Man, oh man, the grief is never ending for you right now! I am so sorry. That stinks!

 

[pillow]

Hotels.com is probably advertising the rack (standard base) rate, while the hotel directly is offering a discount off of the rack rate. I always always always recommend booking through the hotel directly, but with gift card churning a.k.a free hotel stays with hotels.com, it's a no brainier to take the free stay if you aren't set on changing anything.

I think that depends on what other things could have been purchased with ebucks. Its an opportunity cost thing I think. If I can find ways to reduce everyday expenses (cheap toilet paper?), then I think it makes more sense to spend ebucks on those things if I can pay cash out of pocket for the hotel (only if at a cheaper rate). The overall money spent would be lower I believe following this formula. Now of course that depends on what I can find to spend ebucks on (struggling with this - would still love ideas/suggestions!). The lack of/slower churning these days has forced me to re-evaluate. Too bad I can't pay DS's college tuition with ebucks!!

We'll be in your neck of the woods this summer. Spending 2 nights in Vegas at the end of our vacation. Can't wait!

 

[PopGirl26]

I think that depends on what other things could have been purchased with ebucks. Its an opportunity cost thing I think. If I can find ways to reduce everyday expenses (cheap toilet paper?), then I think it makes more sense to spend ebucks on those things if I can pay cash out of pocket for the hotel (only if at a cheaper rate). The overall money spent would be lower I believe following this formula. Now of course that depends on what I can find to spend ebucks on (struggling with this - would still love ideas/suggestions!). The lack of/slower churning these days has forced me to re-evaluate. Too bad I can't pay DS's college tuition with ebucks!!

We'll be in your neck of the woods this summer. Spending 2 nights in Vegas at the end of our vacation. Can't wait!

Gas cards? Prescription cards? To me, those are both as good as cash and can often be gotten at a discount.

 

[MommaBerd]

Gas cards? Prescription cards? To me, those are both as good as cash and can often be gotten at a discount.

By this, do you mean GCs to places like CVS?

 

[PerfessorZ]

So does target occasionally run out of the disney gift cards online or is this a rare thing? Just started doing the gift card deal and now I'm worried they won't have them back before I run out of time to buy for our trip!

They run out periodically. How soon they come back in stock can vary greatly. Sometimes they're back in a week, but other times they take a month or more.

If they don't come back in stock online, you always have the option of buying them at your local brick & mortar Target, albeit without the extra 5% off.

 

[MrInfinity]

I think I'm tapping out. All of this stuff with BB gift cards is too stressful! I've been sitting on $600 BB gift cards and $300 Ebay for a few weeks now. I think I may just cash in for Disney - going in September so I probably only had a good month left anyways!

I think that's a good idea. There is so little remaining that's profitable with the Ebates glitch closed and no Disney cards on the Target site. Churning for EBucks at BB and GS is about it... Kmart and Kroger maybe, but that's YMMV, not near me, and low volume. If an in-store deal saves a few dollars but you have to go to a store, you have to figure in the gas and the hour of time which kills the value.

I cashed out last week, and with all that's going on, it's relaxing to read out here and not be in the thick of it. I'm at $4825 for the 6 mo period... I'd like to squeak out another $175 somewhere in the next 2 weeks. I still have $124 that Target owes me from an error like @Marionnette went thru where they did not fully refund an order to some cards, but I was unable to get that fixed so I gave up back in the hayday. Maybe I'll revisit that.

When it works, it's within a few hours. When it doesn't work, I send in a report, they tell me "This could take 7-10 days" and then within a day, they send me a reason for it not going through or the rebate. EXCEPT FOR last week. I have sent in 2 requests and they are dragging their feet.

I never send in the requests. I just wait it out. Last thing I want is a human looking at my account and seeing the high dollars there, then spot checking transactions to see most of the funds came from GC purchases. Not worth it to get one extra trip credited if your whole account gets noticed by a person.

Today "dell foundation services" has been installed. My Dell laptop is only a few months old. I scanned my computer for malware, nothing. If you google "dell foundation services" it sounds like it some kind of phishing or computer hack thing. A security flaw.

DFS is not a hacking thing -- it's actually from Dell, and is harmless. However, disabling or removing it will not be a problem either. If you have PC problems, it's not from that.

 

[HHMcG]

Curious to know people's experience with hotels.com. The last couple times I checked pricing, the pricing on hotels.com was substantially higher than what I could get booking directly with the hotel. I don't get it!

The hotel I just booked was the same rate as on the hotel's website. But I was looking at rack rate. I know hotels.com shows discounted rates for hotels at Universal. (I don't have a Disney trip planned so I haven't run their numbers.)
I guess it is YMMV but it is worth a check.

I think that depends on what other things could have been purchased with ebucks. Its an opportunity cost thing I think. If I can find ways to reduce everyday expenses (cheap toilet paper?), then I think it makes more sense to spend ebucks on those things if I can pay cash out of pocket for the hotel (only if at a cheaper rate). The overall money spent would be lower I believe following this formula. Now of course that depends on what I can find to spend ebucks on (struggling with this - would still love ideas/suggestions!). The lack of/slower churning these days has forced me to re-evaluate. Too bad I can't pay DS's college tuition with ebucks!!

Aren't the prices 'higher' at most of our churning outlets. Most people are churning towards Disney cards. I know Disney hotels can be gotten cheaper thru Orbitz or other sites (at least 15%) but people still pay higher at Disney because it is with 'free' churned funds. Tickets are cheaper (only slightly) at many site but again people pay higher at Disney with their 'free' churned $.
Just my point of view on this it.

 

[CMNJ]

The hotel I just booked was the same rate as on the hotel's website. But I was looking at rack rate. I know hotels.com shows discounted rates for hotels at Universal. (I don't have a Disney trip planned so I haven't run their numbers.)
I guess it is YMMV but it is worth a check.


Aren't the prices 'higher' at most of our churning outlets. Most people are churning towards Disney cards. I know Disney hotels can be gotten cheaper thru Orbitz or other sites (at least 15%) but people still pay higher at Disney because it is with 'free' churned funds. Tickets are cheaper (only slightly) at many site but again people pay higher at Disney with their 'free' churned $.
Just my point of view on this it.

However many travel agents (including those with agency exclusive deals) take Disney gift cards as they do not process the payment (Disney does)
We recently stayed at CR in a garden wing room. The deal with the TA was $2050 for 7 nights but I used churned/discounted gift cards deposited into a DVA to pay and saved at least 25% total so we stayed 7 nights at CR for less than $1600. I don't think I could have gotten CR from orbitz for anywhere near that.
ETA but you are right with churning avenues drying up people definitely need to look at UT/ticket resellers and Orbitz/Travel agencies to determine the cheapest route
Direct from Disney may not be best if you can only get gift cards at a 5-10% discount

 

[PopGirl26]

By this, do you mean GCs to places like CVS?

Yes, CVS.

 

[robinb]

However many travel agents (including those with agency exclusive deals) take Disney gift cards as they do not process the payment (Disney does)
We recently stayed at CR in a garden wing room. The deal with the TA was $2050 for 7 nights but I used churned/discounted gift cards deposited into a DVA to pay and saved at least 25% total so we stayed 7 nights at CR for less than $1600.

I also used Disney GCs through a TA with agency exclusive deals two years ago and it worked fine. I did the same with using my Disney Vacation Account.

 

[JKalai]

Aren't the prices 'higher' at most of our churning outlets. Most people are churning towards Disney cards. I know Disney hotels can be gotten cheaper thru Orbitz or other sites (at least 15%) but people still pay higher at Disney because it is with 'free' churned funds. Tickets are cheaper (only slightly) at many site but again people pay higher at Disney with their 'free' churned $.
Just my point of view on this it.

With the horror stories I've seen here at work with rooms booked through third party websites, I would pay 15% more and book through the hotel to avoid third parties if I had the option or if I was paying out of pocket.

Front desk agents also stereotype people who book through third party websites. They tend to usually cause more problems for the hotel as they weren't aware of the hotel's policies when booking since said third party has it in really small text (resort fees/security deposit etc.). I can't tell you how many times I've had to argue over the phone with someone who booked through Expedia because they booked the cheapest room type (one bed) when they needed two beds. We have different rates for one and two beds, but people just assume that they can get the room with two beds for the one bed price.

 

[JamieOak]

With the horror stories I've seen here at work with rooms booked through third party websites, I would pay 15% more and book through the hotel to avoid third parties if I had the option or if I was paying out of pocket.

Front desk agents also stereotype people who book through third party websites. They tend to usually cause more problems for the hotel as they weren't aware of the hotel's policies when booking since said third party has it in really small text (resort fees/security deposit etc.). I can't tell you how many times I've had to argue over the phone with someone who booked through Expedia because they booked the cheapest room type (one bed) when they needed two beds. We have different rates for one and two beds, but people just assume that they can get the room with two beds for the one bed price.

While I haven't actually used a third party website, I was considering it for the Universal Studios portion of my upcoming trip. But after googling each website and seeing the numerous bad reviews, I decided against it. Too many people wrote in their review that they showed up to the hotel only to find they did not have a reservation on record at the hotel! Plus the customer service to rectify the issue was also mentioned as being difficult and aggravating to people. I'm sure there are plenty of people who book and have no issues, but with the large amount of negative reviews and complaints, I wasn't going to risk it.

 

[MinMou]

Ebates is showing 15% cashback today on ebay for collectibles only. Trying to figure out whether this is worth it for me.

 

[JKalai]

While I haven't actually used a third party website, I was considering it for the Universal Studios portion of my upcoming trip. But after googling each website and seeing the numerous bad reviews, I decided against it. Too many people wrote in their review that they showed up to the hotel only to find they did not have a reservation on record at the hotel! Plus the customer service to rectify the issue was also mentioned as being difficult and aggravating to people. I'm sure there are plenty of people who book and have no issues, but with the large amount of negative reviews and complaints, I wasn't going to risk it.

Yeah, sometimes our computer systems don't talk to each other correctly. Some websites also do it the old school way via fax machine. They literally send fax over to us for a reservation that has been booked through them. Someone then has to go and book it manually, although sometimes that fax doesn't reach us for whatever reason.

It sucks because people always blame the hotel for the mistakes these websites make which causes bias towards the employees who service them. I can't tell you how many times I see reservation agents eyes rolling whenever we get a guest who gets upset about a problem with their reservation because they booked through a third party, haha.