I just followed the step-by-step instructions and before I knew it my family and I were at Disney World! Only this time it felt different…I didn’t have to dread the huge Disney vacation bill waiting for me at home!
We followed the entire plan (stayed at the beautiful Swan hotel, flights to Orlando and 4-day Park Hopper tickets) and saved over $3,200 with very little effort. A pleasant surprise was how little opening the cards affected my credit score. I have since taken out other cards recommended on this site and now have over 200,000 reward points ready and waiting for my next vacation. Thanks Brad and RichmondSavers.com!
Destination: Disney World !!!!!!!!!!!! Our first trip to our favorite place in the world with our daughter, son-in-law and 2 granddaughters.
As a result of Brad researching travel rewards with different credit cards, we’re on our way to 5 days with Mickey and his friends at a total cost of $140. Yes, $140 is the total cost for airfare, hotel and 5 day park-hopper passes. Here’s how: My wife and I each opened Southwest Airline Rapid Rewards cards which covered airfare from New York to Orlando, non-stop. That’s about $400 of free flying.
Then we each opened Starwood Amex cards which gave us 5 nights at the Disney Swan. The $140 cost mentioned above comes from taxes on the hotel room which even Walt Disney would have had to pay! By the way, the Swan room retails for $400 per night so we’re talking about $2K that’s staying in my pocket. Finally, my wife and I each opened Capital One Venture cards which gave us travel credit that allowed us to purchase the park-hopper tickets and have the cost of the tickets removed from our statements. That’s about another $1K to spend on mouse ears and turkey legs.
So if you like to travel, (who doesn’t?) at the tiniest fraction of the real cost of a trip, follow Brad’s strategies and recommendations to see all of the places you’ve heard other people talk about. As simply as I can say it: it works!
A big thank you goes to Brad of RichmondSavers.com for helping us fulfill our plans for going with our son, daughter-in-law and grandsons to Disney this coming Christmas for “almost” free! It was very easy to follow his outline for the trip to Disney World; and we just started with our normal, budgeted spending – groceries, cable TV, cell phone bill, auto fuel, medical bills, etc.- and focused solely on the goal of going to Disney World. No dinning out every night or shopping excursions to accumulate those points (much to my chagrin), just normal spending.
What a wonderful time to visit for what will be the first time for our two pre-school grandsons and the first week long visit for our daughter-in-law. I can’t wait to see their faces when we step on the plane for their first airplane ride via Southwest (almost free except for taxes – courtesy of our Chase Sapphire); use our 7 day Walt Disney World passes (purchased through UnderCover Tourist at the MouseSavers.com reduced rate and then zeroed out on our ticket prices using our Barclay & Venture points) or check into the Swan for our free 7 nights (thanks to our AMEX Starwood credit cards (we only have to pay the nightly resort fee)). Now we just have to figure out the best card to use for purchasing our food while there to maybe get that for free too?????
I wanted to thank you personally for sharing your journey using credit cards to make a vacation more economical. We have booked the Disney Swan for 6 nights for free by using the Starwood cards and also saved $1000 on our 5 day park hopper tickets on undercover tourist for 4 people by using the Capital Venture cards and the purchase eraser. We are going on vacation over our Fall Break in October. THANK YOU!!!
“Thanks to Brad and the RichmondSavers.com our family of 5 has booked a trip to Disney World, staying on site for 5 nights this year for virtually free. Brad’s plan covered the cost of the resort room, park tickets, and even airfare. In the process we have earned points toward other free trips. Brad’s step-by-step plan was easy to follow and did not require us to spend differently than usual. We are believers in zero debt and we have been able to continue this practice by simply shifting our spending to travel reward credit cards and paying our balance in full each month.”
“I’m an auditor at a CPA firm so I approached this Disney deal with a lot of skepticism; but now we’re just about all set for Disney and things are working out much better than I’d planned. Before your help, I never quite understood the value of a reward mile but now we’ve saved $3,611.80 on our November Disney trip. To get these points, it only took me about 3-4 months. Big thanks to Brad and his online community for all the advice and help along the way. I’ve got a lot to learn, but honestly it only took about 20 minutes to really start catching on and saving a ton of money while doing things I was already doing.”
My husband and I have two boys that had been hearing from all of their friends how absolutely amazing Disney World is in Orlando, Florida. We had talked to many families that had been and couldn’t believe how much they spent on their Disney vacations!!! We felt like this will have to be a one and done deal for our family as it was just so expensive to travel there from Richmond, VA, not to mention the accommodations and the PARK TICKETS…phew!!!!
We went ahead and used a close friend’s timeshare and then searched for airline tickets. We have driven before, but we thought we would watch the airline prices for a couple of weeks before we purchased anything. Fortunately, we had allowed enough time to watch them lower to a point where we felt it was worth it! By this time, I talked to Brad and he told me all about the travel rewards through credit cards. My husband and I pay our credit cards off every month so it seemed like a no-brainer to earn free money!!!
Since we already had our flights and accommodations we were saving our rewards for the park tickets. We went with the Barclaycard Arrival Plus and each opened one. After the three months, we were able to purchase 5-day park passes for all 4 of our family members with no cost to us just by using these cards! This was over $900 worth of tickets!!! We have now just opened a Capital One Venture card to save for our next vacation. We are just waiting for it to come in the mail!!!