In this post, we’re going to explain how people planning those awfully expensive Disney vacations can find a bit of relief—through credit card signup bonuses. Earning a signup bonus is a quick way to build a stockpile of valuable points and could even save you over $500 on your trip. Read on to learn a bit about how expensive vacations and signup bonuses go together!
All the Necessary Disclaimers
We are not financial advisors, and the information on this page isn’t intended to substitute for expert advice. Rather, it’s intended to show simply “proof of concept”—that a Disney vacation can help you earn a large number of points.
You’ll need to consider more carefully the details—is opened a new card right for you at the moment? If the card has an annual fee, will you be okay closing it if you don’t want to pay the fee and the bank won’t change it to a no-fee card?
To that end, this post assumes two important things:
You are actively planning an expensive vacation
You can pay off the cost of that vacation immediately without accruing interest on your credit cards
While we don’t encourage going into debt to finance trips (because doing so would not only be financial advice, but bad financial advice), I will point out here that the Chase Disney Visa Credit Card has limited 6-month 0% financing for Disney vacations (restrictions apply).
Finally, remember that the examples given herein are exactly that—examples. The exact terms between you and a credit card company will vary, and it’s up to you to understand them fully.
Disney Trips Are Expensive
Let’s start with something you already know—Disney vacations are expensive. Our post on how much a Disney World vacation costs pegs the expense at somewhere around $5000 for a family of four.
Even if you book cheap flights, save on your Disney hotel, and get discount Disney tickets, chances are your vacation is still going to cost thousands of dollars.
Earning A Credit Card Signup Bonus
One of the best things about making a big purchase is the chance to earn a credit card signup bonus. Here’s an example of how one of those might look:
You apply for a credit card through an offer link that offers, for example, 50,000 points for spending $4,000 in three months
You get approved for the card
You spend the required amount in the required time
The bonus points post to your account
It’s incredibly common to find bonuses worth at least $500, which is how we chose the title for this post. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a period when you couldn’t earn at least $500 in points from some card (or some simple combination of cards).
Here’s a look at a pair of offers from Chase (screenshot from Feb 2020):
You can see Chase’s current offers here. There are lots of reasons not to pursue a signup bonus, here are a few:
you can’t immediately pay off the balance (so you’ll get hit with interest)
you’re unorganized
you have poor credit and should be messing with new cards
you don’t have enough spending to hit the minimum spend
You can probably guess with what we’ve bolded where we’re going next…but first a diversion…
What About Annual Fees?
It’s worth mentioning quickly here that simply “that card has an annual fee” usually won’t be a good reason to skip the signup bonus. Yes, the annual fee will cut into what you earn, but if it’s offset by, say, a travel credit then it won’t be as bad as it looks.
In the above Chase example, the Sapphire Preferred has a $95 fee, but the 60,000 points will be worth $750 toward travel (including flights but not Disney-operated hotels) booked through Chase. The $95 isn’t a huge amount, and you can close the card after a year (if that fits your financial situation) or change it to a no-fee card (if Chase lets you).
Conversely, the Sapphire Reserve has a $550 annual fee and a $300 travel credit not mentioned on that page. That leaves you out $250. Now—the card does have other perks you may value at $250. But if your vacation is going to earn you a signup bonus, you’d want to think carefully about picking the current Sapphire Reserve offer (which, because of a difference between the cards, earns 50,000 points also worth $750).
We covered both of these cards in our Chase Ultimate Rewards guide.
Earning Signup Bonuses With Your Disney Vacation
Well, now we’ve got two things:
A need for $3000 to $5000 of spending in a short of amount of time
A vacation that costs about $5000 that we’re planning to book
So if you can open the new card and pay for your trip on that new card, you’ll use the trip to earn a signup bonus! Let’s run through an example.
Spending To Hit the Bonus
On January 1 you open a Chase Sapphire Preferred using a link which clearly spells out the signup offer. Keep in mind the above-pictured offer might not still be around, but we’re going to use it. You’ll have until about April 1 to spend $4000.
You’ll always want to be careful about the exact end date (the terms and conditions will tell you how to calculate it, but to be safe just give yourself a few weeks buffer).
As we’ve mentioned a few times—we only recommend this if you can pay for the entire trip up front. If you’re going to need to pay interest on the balance, this isn’t worth it!
Your annual fee will hit in the first month, costing you $95. The annual fee usually won’t count toward the minimum spend.
In January, using the figures from our “How Much Does It Cost To Go To Disney World?” post, you book your hotel and tickets for $2993. This leaves you needing $1007 to get to the $4000 minimum.
Now—if you booked the dining package, you’d pay $1,323, getting you past the $4000 spending minimum. I’m actually not a fan of dining plans.
If you didn’t have a dining plan, you could book the flights, too. For about $800 they wouldn’t get you quite to $4000 minimum, but you’re within $207, or a few trips to the grocery store over three months.
But you might want to cover the $1007 without flights (you’ll see why next). In that case you’d want to put any other regular expenses—groceries, restaurants, Starbucks, etc.—on that card. Just make sure you’ll get to $4000!
The bonus can take a few weeks to post once you’ve hit the minimum. When it posts, in our example, you’ll have 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points in your account.
Spending That Bonus
It’s important to point out here that there are plenty of “better” ways to use the points than what we outline here. But for the sake of our example, this fits in well, and it isn’t an awful use of the points.
Those 60,000 points are worth $600 if you redeem them as a statement credit, but you don’t want to do that. Instead, you’ll want to use the Chase travel portal to book your flights. The points are worth 1.25 cents there, and you’ll spend 60,000 points + $50 to book $800 in flights.
Obviously if you booked the flights to get to the signup bonus this won’t work. It also won’t work if you’re booking on short notice because prices might fluctuate too much, or you might not get the bonus in time to cover the flights. In that case, you’re left to use the 60,000 points later. (We have a post that talks about, for example, how you can use Chase points to book hotels near Walt Disney World.)
Summary
In the above example, the trip we’d budgeted for would typically cost:
$1139 hotel + $1854 tickets + $1323 dining plan + $800 flights = $5116
We spent:
$1139 hotel + $1854 tickets + $1323 dining plan + $95 annual fee + $50 flights = $4461
That’s savings of $5116 - $4461 = $655, or the $750 signup bonus minus the $95 annual fee.
Looking Back (It Wasn’t That Complicated)
This is a long post, but if you look back at what is actually required to execute this, it isn’t complicated:
Signup for and be approved for the card
Book your hotel, tickets, and dining plans
Wait for bonus to post
Login and use bonus to book flights
Altogether, it would take less than an hour (minus the waiting a few weeks for the bonus to post).
Closing Things To Know
With the basic outline out of the way, let’s close with some odds and ends.
Pay Attention to Deposits vs. Payment In Full
Many Disney vacations only require a deposit up front. That’s great, but—as should be clear by now—in this case you generally want to pay the entire amount at once.
If you have to spend $4000 by April 1, a $500 deposit in January for a $3500 trip in August won't get you there! If you’re going to be paying for the bulk of your vacation later, make sure that payment will occur in the window when your signup bonus is available.
Or Break It Up To Earn Multiple Bonuses
But maybe you don’t want to put the entire balance on a single card at once. Let’s say I spend $500 each month on my credit on things like groceries, my cell phone bill, etc.
I might sign up for a card, pay for $2500 of my $5000 trip on that card, and spend $1500 on that card over three months (on groceries, cell phone bill, etc.). That gets me to $4000, a typical requirement for a signup bonus.
Then, after I’ve earned that bonus, I pay off the balance of my trip—about $2500—on a second new card. Then I spend $1500 over three months and hit $4000 again.
(Yet another disclaimer: this will almost always have to be two different cards, though a couple could each get the same card. There are lots of rules around who can and cannot earn bonuses, though, so you’ll need to keep an eye on those.)
Signup Bonuses to Consider
There’s a lot that goes into picking a credit card, and you’ll need more information then we can cover in this post to make the right decision. But I’ll talk through a few examples. If you'd like a more thorough listing, click here to visit the Doctor of Credit listing of best available offers.
Cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards are good because, as we’ve shown, you can easily get more than 1 cent per point of value out of those points.
Cards that earn Citi ThankYou or Amex Membership Rewards are good for many travelers, but they usually won’t have the immediate value of Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Cards that earn airline miles are a mixed bag. Southwest points are usually worth about 1.5 cents each. If Southwest has reasonable fares from your airport, this could be a good use. Other airline miles tend to be worth less for domestic flights, but can be very valuable if you’re traveling internationally.
Cards that earn hotel points are a last resort. We do have a post on booking your Disney stay with points that explains some options near Disney World for using points. If that fits perfectly into your planning, go for it. But keep in mind those same hotel rooms might be cheaper booked with, for example, Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.