Planning a trip with reward miles

[Golden Amik]

Hi people!

We are planning a trip to the World March 2013. We are hoping to book our flight with Air Miles , our hotel with Avion points (through travelocity) and park tickets with Aeroplan points. Having just built a house we will have accumulated plenty of points with each to have enough.

Has anyone booked a Disney vacation or part of a vacation using reward miles, and how successful were you in doing so?

Thanks in advance!

 

[alohamom]

Well, i just booked airfare to Cali/Disneyland with Delta using their frequent flyer points. I thought it was going to be a huge issue and it was so simple, I actually could not believe it. I also redeemed airmiles for 1 - 3 day hopper and again no problems. I have heard and read here that airfare through airmiles can be tricky so plan and read as much as you can. I think the problem is the fees for cancelling and also taxes are the unexpected thing people tend to post about here. Good luck!

 

[Sprockie]

We just returned a week ago from a 2 week trip to Kissimmee. Our 2 weeks car rental was paid fully by Aeroplan and our 7 day park tickets (4 of us) were paid with Airmiles. I figure it saved us at least $1500.00

 

[shaynar]

How did you get that many airmiles??

 

[Golden Amik]

We are about 75% complete building our house. Our building package was through TimBr-Mart. I paid our bill with our Airmiles Master card and double dipped every time I did. We also put our daycare and most other expenses on that card so we accumulate miles quickly regardless.

We have used the CIBC Visa Infinte Aeroplan card for some house purchases as well -- I think I paid all our plumbing and foundation with that card, so again, the points accumulate quickly.

I recently added an RBC Avion card to the mix, having already accumulated points that don't expire through other banking activities, I have about 120, 000 points (which will translate to a $1200 hotel booking). I have some work to do to be able to 'afford' a better moderate resort for the week we are going. I also need to figure out what their cancellation policies are if I book, then find a better deal and switch my reservation. When I called the redemption centre the other day they said it works like a regular hotel booking, so there might be a cancellation fee to change a reservation based on when it occurs.

I anticipate spending about $800 or so on taxes and fees to book our flights, and I'm ok with that. I know that there are only so many designated seats for Airmiles bookings and the most desirable flights sell out first. I have figured out that I can book our flights April 18 -- which I will be doing at midnight! :lol: We can go direct from Winnipeg or Thunder Bay via Toronto. Winnipeg direct will cost us more, which I will still have to earn -- plan on hitting up Safeway for as many Airmiles deals I can find this weekend! If I book Thunder Bay, we have enough right now with a cushion that will allow me to reward myself with the waterproof/shock proof camera they have on their site right now!

Everytime I pay a bill for the house on credit card, I imagine us that much closer to Disney!

 

[Golden Amik]

Well, i just booked airfare to Cali/Disneyland with Delta using their frequent flyer points. I thought it was going to be a huge issue and it was so simple, I actually could not believe it. I also redeemed airmiles for 1 - 3 day hopper and again no problems. I have heard and read here that airfare through airmiles can be tricky so plan and read as much as you can. I think the problem is the fees for cancelling and also taxes are the unexpected thing people tend to post about here. Good luck!

I plan on having our travel agent call for us. She doesn't pay the booking fee for Airmiles -- which if I do it is $50 per ticket, I believe. She charges a small fee, but I'd rather pay it to her than AM. I'm prepped for the tax and have it saved already. I will have to look into cancellation insurance. We wouldn't change our dates, but would cancel if a life event happened that would interfere with the trip. Thanks for the reminder to look into that!

We just returned a week ago from a 2 week trip to Kissimmee. Our 2 weeks car rental was paid fully by Aeroplan and our 7 day park tickets (4 of us) were paid with Airmiles. I figure it saved us at least $1500.00

We have been Airmiles collectors for years and are new to Aeroplan. I'm hoping we will have enough to get tickets with them, but it might end up being two with Aeroplan and two with Airmiles. I still have about $30,000 worth of house stuff to charge to TimBr-Mart, as well as pay the rest of our bill which is currently around $20,000. So...divided by 40, X 2 and I'll have a few more before March!

Do your tickets for the park come via Purolator? How long does it take to arrive upon ordering?

Has anyone else booked hotels through RBC/Avion points? The booking through travelocity directly through their site is a very recent thing, so I haven't found any feedback elsewhere on reserving vacation packages, hotels, airfare, or car rentals.