I love credit cards so much!

[chattadisser]

It wouldn’t go back on the voucher...the difference will be a credit attached to the person the ticket was issued to and will have to be used within 1 year of the date you bought the ticket

I've only used the voucher once, so not real expert on it, but I believe you'd get a travel credit like if you booked a non refundable with cash. I don't believe they reissue vouchers. SW usually has a "earliest expiration date" concept going on, so it's possible the travel credit would expire on the date of the voucher and not necessarily based on the date of the ticket purchase. I'd have to look up the expiration dates on the tickets we did with the voucher last year to be sure. I didn't really pay much attention to it as we got the vouchers just a couple months before we were set to buy our tickets for this last trip in Jan, so I knew it'd all be used quickly.

Thank you @miztressuz and @palhockeymomof2, that was what I was expecting but I just wanted to check. We're booking for October so somewhat last minute and the flights might not go down but if they do we wanted to know what to do. Trying to stretch those vouchers as far as we can. We just so used to booking with RR points.

 

[snugglebug]

Ugh that stinks That predicament is begging for a HUCA! I'm still holding out a sliver of a hope that they will allow at least one category upgrades on old certificates. This process is making me hate them a little though.

Also, if @Calfan declares you winner of the advanced maternal age award I think I get dibs on the other end of the spectrum. Although I don't think they give out awards for teen pregnancy . Married at 18 and pregnant 3 weeks later. Very much an accident but I still think the people I married and made are pretty likeable so it's all good in the end. We are very spoiled in having lots of grandparents available to us to keep the kids for us for a date night or even a few days /week. I think it would have been much harder without that since we didn't get much (any) time on our own before kids.

Weeelll, I kind of do things my own way lol My oldest was born about 2.5 weeks before we got married, I was 18 (and a half at point). I did graduate high school before I got pregnant so at least I have that. I had even started college, but quit after the first semester. Since she graduated from A&M, where I was when I learned she was on the way, I figure we've come full circle. I wouldn't change it for anything.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Heading to LAX for my flight back home. My SO proposed this trip! I’m going to need some honeymoon ideas lol.

The Disneyland hotel was amazing. Worth 200k+ URs for the package. I could have gotten a better value out of them if I redeemed for first class travel somewhere or transferred to a Hyatt, but I prefer using URs for Disney trips.

It was so nice being on property and going back to the hotel for naps. Lol
We had so much time so we got to go slow and relax a bit. I do prefer the Grand Californian over the Disneyland hotel if you have some extra URs you want to burn. lol

We somehow spent $1125 on food for a five night trip. We only did one table service a day. We snacked a lot tho. You guys have to teach me your food tricks so I can lower this. SO has a new philosophy that there are no budgets in Disney so idk if I’ll be able to convince him to cut down.

We ate at Steakhouse 55, Blue Bayou, Cafe Orleans, Carnation Cafe, Jazz Kitchen, and Wine and Country Tratoria. I loved Steakhouse 55, Blue Bayou, Carnation Cafe, and Jazz Kitchen. SO and I agreed we would not go back to Wine and country tartoria. I didn’t like Cafe Orleans, but he did so we will be back lol. They gave us two extra beignets and a cute little Mickey made out of whipped cream for our engagement, that was very nice of them, so I will try them again.

We did a DVC tour for a $100 giftcard and four fastpasses each. It was about 40 mins so worth it for us. We also got to see an Aulani room, which was gorgeous. They didn’t use high pressure sales tactics and I simple said we couldn’t afford it right now. It’s real clever how they break the payment down to monthly payments over 10 years, like yeah we can afford $185 a month, but paying 12% interest goes against my FIRE plans. We will most likely buy dvc in the future though, but will pay cash and buy resale.

During the tour we said we couldn’t afford DVC. The guide asked where we were staying and how long. We said the Disneyland hotel and five nights. The guide said that’s like $3,000 how can you afford that and not DVC. I was like credit card points. He was like oh the Disney Visa. lol if only he knew...

OMG CONGRATS! Very exciting!!! We're definitely all here to help with those honeymoon plans and what cards for the wedding charges

Disney Visa- hahahaha!

Food at DL- yeah, same boat. (Except I got sick at WCT years back and had horrible service, I've dabbled with the idea of returning but the reviews are still hit and miss so I pass.) The way I see I don't go all the way there to skimp on my food, dining is a part of the DLR experience for me. As a result, I have go to DL with a healthy budget even on a solo trip. The only way to cut down is to buy Disney gift cards on discounts so I'm ALL over that!

 

[jhoannam]

Heading to LAX for my flight back home. My SO proposed this trip! I’m going to need some honeymoon ideas lol.

The Disneyland hotel was amazing. Worth 200k+ URs for the package. I could have gotten a better value out of them if I redeemed for first class travel somewhere or transferred to a Hyatt, but I prefer using URs for Disney trips.

It was so nice being on property and going back to the hotel for naps. Lol
We had so much time so we got to go slow and relax a bit. I do prefer the Grand Californian over the Disneyland hotel if you have some extra URs you want to burn. lol

We somehow spent $1125 on food for a five night trip. We only did one table service a day. We snacked a lot tho. You guys have to teach me your food tricks so I can lower this. SO has a new philosophy that there are no budgets in Disney so idk if I’ll be able to convince him to cut down.

We ate at Steakhouse 55, Blue Bayou, Cafe Orleans, Carnation Cafe, Jazz Kitchen, and Wine and Country Tratoria. I loved Steakhouse 55, Blue Bayou, Carnation Cafe, and Jazz Kitchen. SO and I agreed we would not go back to Wine and country tartoria. I didn’t like Cafe Orleans, but he did so we will be back lol. They gave us two extra beignets and a cute little Mickey made out of whipped cream for our engagement, that was very nice of them, so I will try them again.

We did a DVC tour for a $100 giftcard and four fastpasses each. It was about 40 mins so worth it for us. We also got to see an Aulani room, which was gorgeous. They didn’t use high pressure sales tactics and I simple said we couldn’t afford it right now. It’s real clever how they break the payment down to monthly payments over 10 years, like yeah we can afford $185 a month, but paying 12% interest goes against my FIRE plans. We will most likely buy dvc in the future though, but will pay cash and buy resale.

During the tour we said we couldn’t afford DVC. The guide asked where we were staying and how long. We said the Disneyland hotel and five nights. The guide said that’s like $3,000 how can you afford that and not DVC. I was like credit card points. He was like oh the Disney Visa. lol if only he knew...

Congrats!!!

 

[miztressuz]

only downside so far is that for some reason the hotels aren't showing up as the sale price. It is weird, b/c before the resorts went missing from the portal they did used to show the sale prices.

that's weird. at least with the tickets it was showing the same pricing with the discounts if there was one. hopefully just a bug with the rollout process and the discounts start showing up again.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Rundown on booking Cathay with AS (south africa to usa)...
You can google this, but I got conflicting info and was just really confused for a while. Cathay screwed up parts of their online availability at some point earlier this year and it took all sorts of tricks to get around that but it all went back to normal a month or two ago- so ignore ALL those articles from that transition time.

Search one leg at a time using the BA site. You'll have to join their FF program to do so. If you try searching the whole route it won't show availability. You need availability on Cathay Pacific. Cathay Dragon is not allowed (not that I ever saw it). I had to be flexible, there was nothing showing on weekends for business, some flights did have more than 1 seat available and BA shows you how many are available. They say AS doesn't get all the availability BA does but AS saw the seats I saw, it's recommended to call with a backup plan but idk if I would wait around to develop a backup plan if I saw what I wanted! I think I could have tacked on a flight to my home airport on AS if saver level space was available (AS only- or AS subsidiary like Horizon) but I couldn't find any availability with Cathay in/out SEA where that would have been possible. I'm heading into SFO and will use other miles for my short hop home with plenty of time between flights!

When you get it nailed down grab your credit card and call AS. Be ready to HUCA. The first rep sounded like she totally knew what she was doing and looked up multiple things and then informed me that there was no availability on Cathay & that they couldn't book Cathay Dragon (? I never mentioned a Cathay Dragon flight), she said searched the whole month I was looking at there were no flights JNB-HKG. I said thanks and headed over to FT being one very sad churner. As I was typing up my "wth happened to me?!" q on the thread regarding booking Cathay with AS "HUCA" dawned on me. Guys, HUCA is life. I called again, got the same Boise call center but a different agent. She was very careful, looked for the segment I was after and FOUND IT. She then found the next leg and gave me a price of over 90k AS. I said that wasn't right because AS allows free stopovers, "of 9 days?" she asked obviously not believing me, I said yes and she went to look up some other codes or something and came back with the right estimate of around 65k((?) it was whatever the site said it should be) and then went to put it in the computer. Verified everything multiple times, she was being very careful and at the end she said "the computer agrees it's 65k miles- it's nice when the computer agrees, it doesn't always!". So that was weird, sounds like the agents price it and then the computer prices it or something. I was caught off guard that the taxes and fees were around $120 for one person. $100 was Cathay, the rest was AS. Cathay fees have gone up from the research I'd seen but still it's a steal of a deal imho. She said it didn't seem like she could book my seats but I told her that was fine, I had heard that and can handle that myself. She gave me the AS confirm # and the Cathay #.

The agent mentioned how unusual it was to be able to actual book Cathay that usually people call but AS can't access the seats, the BA trick was great for avoiding that for me.

I'm now searching flights to SA but I'm hoping to use TY and/or UR or AA points for that one. Fwiw: I've found lots of saver availability for business level- business for the one hour flight and economy for the 2 long haul flights. Yeah right UA/AA... (interesting thing to note with UA awards: Swiss apparently shows phantom availability on UA frequently so call UA and make sure the seats are actually available BEFORE transferring points to UA)

 

[linzjane88]

Well @speedyfishy the Disney After Hours wedding package starts at 50K so your gonna need to get to churning

 

[gottalovepluto]

Maybe you will get lucky and they will play lets make a deal at the airport. They did this at the gate last time at the airport. They started at $250 and then they were up to $1000 after 7 minutes.

I dream of that day- alas I know it will happen only on a flight I will absolutely need to take...

 

[liloca]

Congrats!!! Was it a surprise? Took me reading twice to figure out he proposed to you. Lol. At first I thought you meant he suggested (proposed) the trip.

OMG I also ready the same way! I did not get that he proposed....like really proposed on the trip!
Congrats @speedyfishy

 

[Calfan]

Rundown on booking Cathay with AS (south africa to usa)...
You can google this, but I got conflicting info and was just really confused for a while. Cathay screwed up parts of their online availability at some point earlier this year and it took all sorts of tricks to get around that but it all went back to normal a month or two ago- so ignore ALL those articles from that transition time.

Search one leg at a time using the BA site. You'll have to join their FF program to do so. If you try searching the whole route it won't show availability. You need availability on Cathay Pacific. Cathay Dragon is not allowed (not that I ever saw it). I had to be flexible, there was nothing showing on weekends for business, some flights did have more than 1 seat available and BA shows you how many are available. They say AS doesn't get all the availability BA does but AS saw the seats I saw, it's recommended to call with a backup plan but idk if I would wait around to develop a backup plan if I saw what I wanted! I think I could have tacked on a flight to my home airport on AS if saver level space was available (AS only- or AS subsidiary like Horizon) but I couldn't find any availability with Cathay in/out SEA where that would have been possible. I'm heading into SFO and will use other miles for my short hop home with plenty of time between flights!

When you get it nailed down grab your credit card and call AS. Be ready to HUCA. The first rep sounded like she totally knew what she was doing and looked up multiple things and then informed me that there was no availability on Cathay & that they couldn't book Cathay Dragon (? I never mentioned a Cathay Dragon flight), she said searched the whole month I was looking at there were no flights JNB-HKG. I said thanks and headed over to FT being one very sad churner. As I was typing up my "wth happened to me?!" q on the thread regarding booking Cathay with AS "HUCA" dawned on me. Guys, HUCA is life. I called again, got the same Boise call center but a different agent. She was very careful, looked for the segment I was after and FOUND IT. She then found the next leg and gave me a price of over 90k AS. I said that wasn't right because AS allows free stopovers, "of 9 days?" she asked obviously not believing me, I said yes and she went to look up some other codes or something and came back with the right estimate of around 65k((?) it was whatever the site said it should be) and then went to put it in the computer. Verified everything multiple times, she was being very careful and at the end she said "the computer agrees it's 65k miles- it's nice when the computer agrees, it doesn't always!". So that was weird, sounds like the agents price it and then the computer prices it or something. I was caught off guard that the taxes and fees were around $120 for one person. $100 was Cathay, the rest was AS. Cathay fees have gone up from the research I'd seen but still it's a steal of a deal imho. She said it didn't seem like she could book my seats but I told her that was fine, I had heard that and can handle that myself. She gave me the AS confirm # and the Cathay #.

The agent mentioned how unusual it was to be able to actual book Cathay that usually people call but AS can't access the seats, the BA trick was great for avoiding that for me.

I'm now searching flights to SA but I'm hoping to use TY and/or UR or AA points for that one. Fwiw: I've found lots of saver availability for business level- business for the one hour flight and economy for the 2 long haul flights. Yeah right UA/AA... (interesting thing to note with UA awards: Swiss apparently shows phantom availability on UA frequently so call UA and make sure the seats are actually available BEFORE transferring points to UA)

So glad you were able to make the AS/Cathay work! And very interesting about phantom Swiss availability showing on UA. I would never transfer points without calling first to make sure the award seats I want are still available, but having just booked Swiss Business flights from SFO to JNB, that obviously got my attention. As it happens, I had all but less than 1,000 United miles I needed to complete the upgrade, and I transferred 1K UR to my United account while on the phone with the United agent who had confirmed the Business Savers I saw online were actually available.

 

[speedyfishy]

Well @speedyfishy the Disney After Hours wedding package starts at 50K so your gonna need to get to churning

Lol I’m definitely getting married at Disney. Probably can’t swing that tho lol

 

[marsh0013]

Lol I’m definitely getting married at Disney. Probably can’t swing that tho lol

Congrats! Are you in any of the Disney brides groups on Facebook? I got married at sea breeze Point in October 2016. We had our reception in Epcot during/after Illuminations. I know @amalone1013 got married at Disney as well. (I know I'm not very active on this thread but I'm churning away behind the scenes)

 

[linzjane88]

Guys, I NEED to start cleaning my house but my chaise lounge, the Dis, and a cup a coffee feel just so amazing. Besides, I am going to clean 1 toilet and come back 50 pages behind . It's probably best I stay in my pajamas for a bit longer and keep refreshing for the latest comments.

 

[afan]

Maybe you will get lucky and they will play lets make a deal at the airport. They did this at the gate last time at the airport. They started at $250 and then they were up to $1000 after 7 minutes.

I wish! The flight monday isn't even close to sold out and I'm not willing to give up a couple of hours of my short 2 day trip for it. Hopefully it won't even be an issue since the flight isn't sold out. I do dream of being able to do this sometime though.

 

[speedyfishy]

Congrats! Are you in any of the Disney brides groups on Facebook? I got married at sea breeze Point in October 2016. We had our reception in Epcot during/after Illuminations. I know @amalone1013 got married at Disney as well. (I know I'm not very active on this thread but I'm churning away behind the scenes)

Thank you! I’m not on any Facebook groups, but I have lurked on the wedding forums over here. I’m so undecided on what I want still. Part of me wants to just elope with SO at Disney. Less money and no family drama, but idk if I want to miss out on a “big wedding”

 

[SBWB48]

Thanks! It wasn’t really a surprise. I picked the ring out with him. Lol but when and how he did it was a surprise.

CONGRATS!! DH is also very shy and his proposal was also just the two of us (plus a mountain of Disney stuffed animals in our living room). Wouldn't have asked for anything different

So, are you going to churn your Disney dream wedding and invite every one of us that contributes ideas?

 

[marsh0013]

Thank you! I’m not on any Facebook groups, but I have lurked on the wedding forums over here. I’m so undecided on what I want still. Part of me wants to just elope with SO at Disney. Less money and no family drama, but idk if I want to miss out on a “big wedding”

As much as I loved our wedding, it did get bigger than we originally planned and sometimes I think it would be nice to not have spent all that money. But then again, it was a once in a lifetime experience and I'm so glad we did it! My husband wouldn't have agreed to elope. He wanted the big to do. Funny how it's usually the other way around. And we did keep it very low key for Disney standards. We just ended up having a lot more people say yes than we were expecting to attend.

 

[speedyfishy]

CONGRATS!! DH is also very shy and his proposal was also just the two of us (plus a mountain of Disney stuffed animals in our living room). Wouldn't have asked for anything different

So, are you going to churn your Disney dream wedding and invite every one of us that contributes ideas?

Thank you! If I have a big Disney wedding everyone here is welcome to attend. For my wedding gifts I’ll accept any unwanted airline giftcards and UR points (I’ll be willing to move in with any of you for a few months). I won’t accept any priority passes or global entry credits. lol

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Thank you! I’m not on any Facebook groups, but I have lurked on the wedding forums over here. I’m so undecided on what I want still. Part of me wants to just elope with SO at Disney. Less money and no family drama, but idk if I want to miss out on a “big wedding”

What an exciting time for you...lots to decide...since my daughter grew up going to Disney she always wanted to get married at the Boardwalk...our DVC home resort. But after she got engaged and realized her grandparents would miss the wedding since they weren’t able to travel, she had it here on Long Island so they could attend...

 

[speedyfishy]

What an exciting time for you...lots to decide...since my daughter grew up going to Disney she always wanted to get married at the Boardwalk...our DVC home resort. But after she got engaged and realized her grandparents would miss the wedding since they weren’t able to travel, she had it here on Long Island so they could attend...

I have some family that won’t be able to travel either, but I’m pretty selfish and I’m not super close with those family members. LI weddings are just as expensive as Disney lol