Using Air Miles????

[weewuvvdisney]

Good evening all,

We have just booked our flights and were wondering about using airmiles for our park passes or hotel. Has anyone done this?

I was on the Disney website the other day and a cust. serv. rep was on and I asked him about upgrading 7 day base tickets at the park. Not a problem. When I asked him what the cost would be, he said we could only find out at the park with our tickets in hand. Has anyone upgrade to "Park Hopper" or added additional days while at Disneyworld? Was it hard? Was it very expensive?

Also, has anyone booked their Disney Hotel with airmiles? If we do that, are we able to use the Magical Express Bus? No one seems to be able to answer this. I wrote Disney an e-mail on Friday but haven't heard back.........


Would appreciate any info on using our airmiles for our trip...

Thanks in advance,




Jan

 

[ABCanada]

We have upgaded to AP a number of times without any difficulty. I would go to the guest service window not the regular ticket window at any of the parks.
I have seen posters recommend that you use it before you upgrade, something about the value on a discounted ticket, but we have not had an issue.
They charge you the difference between the listed price, see the prices on the tickets page. (Just over $50 for park hopper and only a couple of dollars a day after four days)

ME is only available for Disney Hotels and I am not certain that you can use airmiles to book them. The Swan & Dolphin are Starwood so you would be able to with them.

Depending on when you are going you may want to look at the specials available. Often these require that you book a vacation package (room and tickets) but can decrease the cost by over 40% versus the rack rate.

 

[cab0899]

We always have used airmiles for our flights and passes but not for the hotels. I believe the only way to get the hotels is to book a package through airmiles but I'm not sure about that.

We have added days to our airmiles passes twice. Seems to work better to do it at the parks then the hotels as at the hotel he wanted to charge us the difference between discounted and regular price tickets and then the $3 for the extra day. At the park we upgraded from 5 to 6 days and it was $3 a ticket. The CM was having trouble with her computer and it was taking awhile so apologized and only charge $2 a ticket to compensate us.

Another option is to book a package passes/hotels through Marlin travel and then redeem airmiles for Marlin gift certificates to pay it off.

 

[weewuvvdisney]

A few years ago I had asked about booking our hotel (All Star) with airmiles and we were given an amount of miles per night. We didn't have enough airmiles after our flights so we just booked it through Disney.

A couple of weeks ago, I enquired about the hotel and we were told that the contract for 2010 hadn't been finalized and that they were waiting for the info any day. Will call back tomorrow and if they don't have it, will book directly and will use the airmiles for the passes.

Thanks for your help.



Jan

 

[weewuvvdisney]

We have upgaded to AP a number of times without any difficulty. I would go to the guest service window not the regular ticket window at any of the parks.
I have seen posters recommend that you use it before you upgrade, something about the value on a discounted ticket, but we have not had an issue.
They charge you the difference between the listed price, see the prices on the tickets page. (Just over $50 for park hopper and only a couple of dollars a day after four days)

ME is only available for Disney Hotels and I am not certain that you can use airmiles to book them. The Swan & Dolphin are Starwood so you would be able to with them.

Depending on when you are going you may want to look at the specials available. Often these require that you book a vacation package (room and tickets) but can decrease the cost by over 40% versus the rack rate.

Just wondering what you meant by upgrading to an AP?

thanks,



Jan

 

[ABCanada]

Annual Pass

 

[weewuvvdisney]

ABCanada, that is what I thought but just wanted to make sure.

I only wish we could go more often to Disneyworld and have annual passes.

Thanks,




Jan

 

[DutchsMommy]

We have done this and can confirm (for us at least) that if you do not use the airmiles-purchased park pass at least once, then the difference between teh value of the pass and the AP (or whatever upgrade you want) is based on the discounted value of the pass granted to Airmiles (becuase they buy in bulk I assume they pass less per pass??). If you use the pass, then the upgrade cost is the difference between the 'actual' cost of the remaining days left on the pass and whatever ticket you are upgrading to.

Also - interesting to note that right now on the Airmiles site, the cost for the 5 day base is less than the cost of the 3 day base.....I just bought a 5 day base the other day. I also *think* that if you dont have enough miles, but have move the 50% of the cost in miles, you can purchase the rest at 30 cents per mile....but worth double checking with Airmiles. I am hoping to have enough miles to get at least one more pass before we go (January). I acutally blew most of my miles on a cookware and knife set before we decided to go down again so soon - darn it!!!!!

 

[My 2 princesses]

but anyway, here goes...........

I just did this in September. Since I wanted to save airmiles, I just redeemed for the 3 day base ticket and upgraded to the 7 day at Guest Services at MK. It cost me 15 bucks for an adult and 14 bucks for a child. To add the hopper, it is an additional 50 bucks, just like if you were to buy the regular ticket and add on hoppers.

I'm guessing not many ppl actually do this, cause I had 2 questions and the lady at Guest Services did not know the answer and had to ask her supervisor. What I was told is that you can upgrade only 1 time, meaning if you upgrade and then need to add additional days, you can't. And also, this ticket could not be put onto the KTTW card, so had to carry a paper ticket around - no big deal, but would have been nicer to have it all on one card. Also, the lady I upgraded with had no problem, but when DH went to upgrade his, they wanted to know where he got it from . Not sure why, but then once we told them it was from Air Miles, they were fine and just upgreade.

If you can't book a room with Air miles, then just redeem for a gift card and pay like that.

Good luck.

 

[CdnCarrie]

There are 2 ways to use Airmiles to pay for Disney resorts.

1.) Phone Airmiles and book with them and apply the Airmiles to the total cost.

2.) Go to the Airmiles.ca website and order $50 vouchers for Marlin travel for 375 Airmiles. They can be used to pay for a package booked through Marlin travel.

You can also get discounts such as the 4/3 offers that are applicable to your time of travel on top of using Airmiles to pay for the cost of the package.

We have redeemed AM for passes several times and had no problems upgrading them. We usually just get 5 days and upgrade to 7 days once there. Takes lot less Airmiles and it's minimal amount to go from 5 - 7 days in cost.

You can also use Airmiles for passes to Universal Studios.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I found an awesome code online for National and booked a rental car -- then called AIRMILES for a coupon and our car rental is now FREE --- just something different to think about

 

[ManitobaDad]

If you can't book a room with Air miles, then just redeem for a gift card and pay like that.

Are you able to order Disney Gift Cards with your Air Miles?? We have already booked & paid for our vacation, but Gift Cards would be nice to give to the kids for spending money instead of cash.

 

[My 2 princesses]

Are you able to order Disney Gift Cards with your Air Miles?? We have already booked & paid for our vacation, but Gift Cards would be nice to give to the kids for spending money instead of cash.

Not specifically Disney, but you can get a prepaid card like Amex/MC etc and pay from that. I think Aeroplan has that as well. So much nicer to pay from points.

 

[petbren]

At the park we upgraded from 5 to 6 days and it was $3 a ticket. The CM was having trouble with her computer and it was taking awhile so apologized and only charge $2 a ticket to compensate us.

That's good to hear, I to purchased 3- 5 day base tickets and am hoping to upgrade to probably 7 day when we get there.I guess it should be about $5-6/ticket for the extra two days. Did you do this at guest services, or the ticket window and before or after you used it the first day? we will be at BCV the first night, I assume there is a guest services window at the International Gateway enterance.

 

[maxie]

That's good to hear, I to purchased 3- 5 day base tickets and am hoping to upgrade to probably 7 day when we get there.I guess it should be about $5-6/ticket for the extra two days. Did you do this at guest services, or the ticket window and before or after you used it the first day? we will be at BCV the first night, I assume there is a guest services window at the International Gateway enterance.

I've always heard you should use one day of the pass before upgrading it. Not sure why but I've always done so just to be on the safe side. We always upgrade at the resorts.

 

[My 2 princesses]

It is recommended to do it after you enter the parks so the ticket will be priced at todays value and not what it was when purchased. It is very easy to do. Just enter the park like everyone else and you can even use the parks and when exiting you can go to Guest Services as I found that they are less busy at that time. I know in MK Guest Services is open one hour after park closing so that would the best time so you can let the crowd leave and the buses won't be that crowded too.

 

[weewuvvdisney]

Thanks everyone for your responses..... certainly helps making sense of all these things.


Jan