Use this Strategy to Get FREE Disney World Park Tickets

by 30 Comments  Richmond Savers has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Richmond Savers and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Disclosures.

Walt Disney World EntranceWe’ve written extensively about how to take your family to Disney World for free using credit card rewards, and we’ve helped thousands of families take this dream trip. You can download this free checklist for the full plan, but we want this post to focus specifically on getting the park tickets. We were so excited when we found a great way to get free Walt Disney World park tickets for our family vacation and wanted to show you exactly how to do this for your family trip.

With this plan, you and a spouse will be able to open one new credit card, earn the early spending bonus and easily redeem those miles on for $500 – $1,000 off your Walt Disney World tickets. No blackout dates or frustrations with these miles! You and your spouse can BOTH do this, for double the savings!

Our own Elsa and Anna

Our own Elsa and Anna love this trick!

We already tested this out personally so all you have to do is follow these step-by-step instructions to save big on your Disney trip.

 

Step 1

Capital One VentureThe first thing to do is open a Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card You’ll earn 100,000 bonus miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months after you open the account. Or you can still earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. There is a $95 annual fee. The bonus is worth either $1,000 or $500 of free, flexible travel. The redemptions on this card are incredibly simple. Just reimburse yourself for qualifying travel expenses (by “erasing” them).

Learn more about this card

Step 2

When your new credit card arrives, go to UndercoverTourist.com’s Disney World park tickets page. They are an official authorized reseller of Disney World tickets and this charge counts as a “travel expense” that you can erase with your Venture Miles. This is critical to know as buying from Disney will not count as a travel expense.

Undercover Tourist Logo

Purchase your Disney World park tickets at Undercover Tourist and pay for them with your Venture card.

Step 3

The Disney World tickets you bought count as part of the minimum spending requirement on this card, so you’re a good part of the way there already. You then just put your normal spending on this card until you get to spending requirement in total (and you are of course paying your credit card off on time and in full every month!) and Capital One will award you the bonus miles

When you log into your account, you’ll see the charge from Undercover Tourist, which you can erase within 90 days of the purchase date.

This will show up as a statement credit in the next few days and reduce the amount you owe on your credit card, essentially making $500 or $1,000 of your WDW park tickets completely free!

Just like that you saved BIG from this one credit card!

Laura and I each opened a card with this same method so we saved over $1,000 in total on our Disney World tickets. We just split the ticket purchase across these two credit cards (free shipping!).

Disney World, Here We Come!

Now you know how to land free tickets to Disney World, so what are you waiting for? We hope you have an awesome vacation. And if you want more help visiting Disney on the cheap, be sure to read our full guide.

Get Our Best Tips Sent to Your Inbox

We'll Help You Slash Your Budget and Travel for Free

Richmond Savers has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Richmond Savers and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Filed Under: Travel Rewards

Take Your Family to Disney for Pennies on the Dollar!

We did it, and you can too. This guide will show you everything you need to know.

Want more help? We'll walk you through all the steps for free in our program called Keys to the Magic Kingdom Challenge. Join now here -- we're taking the first 500 families who sign up.

Comments

  1. Thanks for this site, it’s been a great help as I’m trying to maximize rewards for our trip in January of 2018. Your tip on using the Barclaycard with Undercover Tourist was a “missing link” in my planning. I have found a cheaper option though, Official Ticket Center, also a legitimate 3rd party ticket vendor. Do you know if this company would also qualify as “travel expense” through Barclay and Capital One? We need 4 adult tickets and 1 child ticket (my 13 and 10 year olds are “adults!) and Official Ticket Center comes in $100 less through a special link I have access to. Is there a way to verify this before I make the purchase? Thanks, and BTW my brother and sister-in-law live in Richmond!

    Reply

    • Ben,

      Great to hear that Richmond Savers has been helpful to you! I’ll chime in on this one, but Brad may add some insight later. To answer your question, I don’t think Official Ticket Center is going to code as travel. I actually called them to ask, and while they didn’t sounds 100% certain in their response, they indicated that they wouldn’t be listed as travel. I think that’s the unique value of Undercover Tourist–that it’s the only authorized WDW ticket seller that counts as travel. But maybe there is a way you can use OTC for one discounted ticket if you can’t grab that one with points, or the Capital One Venture card referenced in the article might help pick up any remaining slack. Let us know what you do and if you find out anything different from OTC!

      Very cool about your family in Richmond. Maybe you’ll make it there in the Spring–it’s beautiful that time of year.

      Reply

  2. It doesn’t look as though UndercoverTourist.com sells DISNEYLAND tickets. Just DW. We are hoping to go to DL. Do you know of any authorized dealers who’s codes would work with the above mentioned credit cards and sell DL tickets? Arestravel.com or getaway today.com are the places I normally purchase our DL tickets from.

    Thank you.

    Reply

    • I’m not familiar with that company, but it looks like it may work. You might call them to double check how they code transactions to know for sure.

      Reply

    • That’s awesome, Andy! Best of luck, and let it know how it goes. You might check out our Challenge group if you haven’t already.

      Reply

  5. As I read this statement:
    “You’ll see the charge from Undercover Tourist (all travel expenses made in the last 120 days will appear on this page, so make sure you do this within 120 days of your purchase) and then redeem all your miles to offset that expense.”
    It made me wonder…do I need to avoid paying off the tickets? And not pay for them until I redeem the miles?

    Or will not paying them off, cause me to miss out on any of the rewards?:
    “You then just put your normal spending on this card until you get to $3,000 in total in the first 90 days (and you are of course paying your credit card off on time and in full every month!) and Barclaycard will award you the 50,000 mile bonus.”

    Reply

    • Hey Allison, I see where this is confusing! You can go ahead and pay off the tickets. If you didn’t do that, and you waited 90 days (for example), you’d be subject to interest and we don’t want that at all. Basically, pay off your account in full every month, but then once you have the points, you go in and reimburse yourself for the payment. Hope that helps!

      One of the best things about this method is that the tickets also count toward the $3,000 minimum, making it much easier to meet. Good luck!

      Reply

  6. Hi! We are getting ready to go to WDW and need to save some money. Does the Capital One Venture Card strategy still work? Thanks for your insight!!

    Reply

    • Hi Julie, this is a good question and might be another good topic for an upcoming post. Going through a travel agent typically does count as a travel expense, but I’m guessing there are multiple ways to purchase the packages, and they might be treated differently. One good rule of thumb if you’re unsure is to contact the company and see if they know the merchant code used for the particular transactions.

      Reply

    • Yep! Only problem is that the card isn’t open for new applications. But if you already have it, yes it should still code that way.

      Reply

  9. Why is not open for new applicants? We just used the card and got our tickets for free this past spring break and were hoping to do it again for next year…. you can’t open this card again?

    Reply

    • They decided to remove this credit card, and it is no longer available. You can still do the exact same thing (erase your “travel” expense through Undercover Tourist) with the Capital One Venture and/or Capital One Spark Miles for Business. So hope is not lost!!!

      Reply

      • From what I can tell, the Barclaycard Arrival Plus is available online at this time. Can you confirm? We already have the Venture One with 20,000 points, but looking to further our discount by possibly opening this card. Thanks for the great tips!

        Reply

  10. I read above that the Barclay arrival plus card was not available in April 2017, but I am seeing it available now… Is that your understanding? And from what I read of the terms and conditions it sounds like it would work to use bonus points to redeem for travel on Undercover Tourist. Can you confirm? Thanks for the great tips!

    Reply

  11. I have had my Capital One Card for 30 days and have already spend $3,000 which doesn’t include purchasing the tickets through Undercover Tourist. Can I still take advantage of $560 statement credit by purchasing the tickets through Undercover Tourist ?

    Also my wife has NOT opened a card yet. If I personally can still take advantage of the $560 statement credit, do I need to wait for my wife to spend her $3000 before we purchase the tickets on Undercover Tourist ?

    Reply

    • Sorry for the delayed response, Robin, but yes you would still be able to use the statement credit. Once your bonus posts, you can use it on any travel purchase (just no further than 90 days in the past). I don’t fully understand your second question…your wife could put a ticket purchase on her card as part of her minimum spend, but you just need to get the timing done right so that she gets the bonus and erases the charge before the 90-day period expires.

      Reply

      • ok. thanks!

        In reference to my second question: I have my own personal Capital One Card card and have spent the $3000 within the first 90 days and I received my 50,000 bonus points. My wife now has her own personal Capital One Card and we’re working on getting her to spend the $3000 within the first 90 days to get the 50,000 bonus points. Should I wait on her to reach her 50,000 bonus points before we buy the tickets from Undercover Tourist? We’re family of 4. Or should I buy half tickets now and the other half when she gets her 50,000 bonus points?
        Many thanks in advance and apologies for the confusing question.

        Reply

  12. I purchased my disneyland tickets from undercover tourist but for some reason capital one is not counting it as a travel category (has a suitcase icon). I’ll be calling them to see if they are able to change the merchant codw

    Reply

    • Lu did you get this resolved? Would love to hear the outcome, and hope they switched it for you as we have never heard of it not working. Thanks.

      Reply

  13. Hi!
    I just called Capital One and they said they were not aware of Under Cover Tourist and don’t think it would count as an expense. I am wondering if people are still having luck with this?

    Thank you so much for all your hard work Thomas, you have saved many families lots of cash 🙂 Greatly appreciated!!

    Carolyn

    Reply

    • Apologies for the late reply! I’m not surprised that a rep at Capital One may not have heard of UT, but yes this should still work as we have folks in our challenge group who do it all the time (including very recently). If you hit any snags, let us know!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge