Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[bababear_50]

Happy Tuesday!
Hugs Mel

 

[kuhltiffany]

My DH is back country canoeing with his sister right now, he’s not a Disney fan! But the kids and I, thanks to Air Miles and PC points, are headed to WDW this afternoon. We’re using our last set of non-expiring tickets, used AM for flights, and paid for our hotel, water park and MNSSHP with PC Points converted to GC, plus another $1250 for food.

Oh and the $300 in Starbucks for drinks from AM cash too. Thank goodness for points! Disney has gotten so expensive, I’m not sure when we’ll go back…

 

[hdrolfe]

My DH is back country canoeing with his sister right now, he’s not a Disney fan! But the kids and I, thanks to Air Miles and PC points, are headed to WDW this afternoon. We’re using our last set of non-expiring tickets, used AM for flights, and paid for our hotel, water park and MNSSHP with PC Points converted to GC, plus another $1250 for food.

Oh and the $300 in Starbucks for drinks from AM cash too. Thank goodness for points! Disney has gotten so expensive, I’m not sure when we’ll go back…

That is awesome! And a great way to make it more affordable for sure. Enjoy your trip!

 

[ottawamom]

I was just reviewing the offers on various AM accounts. I thought I had opted in to the one for airmilesshops on DH account. I shopped at Staples (online) and order some software (download). The points posted for the shop. Today when I was looking at the account I notice that the airmilesshops offer is not opted in. I look into it further and I may not have opted in prior to the purchase (I thought I did). I read the terms and conditions and they seem to imply that so long as I opt in before Aug 31 it may still work. It doesn't say I have to opt in before the shop (like Metro does). Any thoughts?

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I have a bunch of miles I need to chase down on Sept 1. Irving has a 10x multiplier that owes DH 90 miles, and two different Shell offers - the one from the bonus miles day (34 miles) and then downloading the app (200 miles).

This is the part of the program that I hate - the inconsistency of posting miles. I will end up staying in the chat for an hour or so. I ended up just creating a new gmail account for DH's account as I was getting really tired of them harassing me about sharing the same email.

 

[bababear_50]

My DH is back country canoeing with his sister right now, he’s not a Disney fan! But the kids and I, thanks to Air Miles and PC points, are headed to WDW this afternoon. We’re using our last set of non-expiring tickets, used AM for flights, and paid for our hotel, water park and MNSSHP with PC Points converted to GC, plus another $1250 for food.

Oh and the $300 in Starbucks for drinks from AM cash too. Thank goodness for points! Disney has gotten so expensive, I’m not sure when we’ll go back…

Have an absolutely fantastic Holiday Hon!!!
Enjoy
Hugs Mel

 

[Donald - my hero]

Just saying,,,I might have peeked and this weekend coming still has availability at SSR in a studio for 3,4,5 nights....

We pretended briefly that we would be happy spending a long weekend somewhere closer to home and during our pre-dinner wander hubby said "NO, I want to go to Florida!"
So ... can you peek again at let's say the last weekend of October or the 2nd weekend of November?? I'm madly trying to put together something to give us both the break we need

 

[bababear_50]

Well I would say Mr Duck knows what he wants and you need to comply!! LOL
Get cooking up a storm Hon.
Hugs Mel

Also have a look here

https://dvcrequest.com/dvc-guests/dedicated-reservations-for-rent
https://dvcrequest.com/

 

[dancin Disney style]

We pretended briefly that we would be happy spending a long weekend somewhere closer to home and during our pre-dinner wander hubby said "NO, I want to go to Florida!"
So ... can you peek again at let's say the last weekend of October or the 2nd weekend of November?? I'm madly trying to put together something to give us both the break we need

Beware of Jersey Week which is somewhere in that time frame.

 

[kitntrip]

Beware of Jersey Week which is somewhere in that time frame.

We went in that time frame last year and didn't even notice any bigger groups, the only massive crowding we had was getting into AK after everything shut early/opened late due to a hurricane threat.

 

[Donald - my hero]

all we care about is a chance to be in the bubble, food that I can eat without cooking, no one able to just show up at our front door, no business interruptions, just not here! We might or might not go to any of the parks, probably not.

Beware of Jersey Week which is somewhere in that time frame.

 

[bababear_50]

Metro Flyer
https://flyers.smartcanucks.ca/canada/metro-on-flyer-august-24-to-302/all

 

[cari12]

AM experts- for this AirMileshops offer, if I purchase from Amazon over $150 but it is not a qualifying category, will I still get the bonus even though I won’t get any base miles?

 

[Donald - my hero]

AM experts- for this AirMileshops offer, if I purchase from Amazon over $150 but it is not a qualifying category, will I still get the bonus even though I won’t get any base miles?

no, you need to earn base miles for any of these promotions to work and with Amazon, the same as any other retailer, your entire $150 transaction needs to earn miles. Example - you can't spend $20 to earn a mile and then buy a gift card for the remaining $130 and have that trigger the 150 miles. Your entire transaction must be eligible to earn miles.

I Have a love/ hate relationship with Amazon that leans heavily towards the hate during promotions. When it's just a run of the mill time, all of my miles post seamlessly, even if Amazon has a multiplier, but as soon as there's a big promo I end up needing to chase down the miles. I'm currently waiting for the 75 day mark from prime days to chase down miles for a $200 purchase.

 

[mort1331]

We pretended briefly that we would be happy spending a long weekend somewhere closer to home and during our pre-dinner wander hubby said "NO, I want to go to Florida!"
So ... can you peek again at let's say the last weekend of October or the 2nd weekend of November?? I'm madly trying to put together something to give us both the break we need

Sorry,,,high time for timeshare due to low points....but that doesnt mean that POP or others dont have availability.good luck

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

@Donald - my hero Jacqueline, if not going to the parks, why not stay at one of the Universal value resorts? They are so much better than WDW ones. Cabana Bay has a great pool/resort feel. And if you really want to go on the cheap, their new Dockside/Surfside resorts are only like $96/night.

 

[tinkerone]

@Donald - my hero Jacqueline, if not going to the parks, why not stay at one of the Universal value resorts? They are so much better than WDW ones. Cabana Bay has a great pool/resort feel. And if you really want to go on the cheap, their new Dockside/Surfside resorts are only like $96/night.

I'll add on to this. They have an amazing bus service which runs every 5 minutes or so. The restaurants at City Walk are amazing and half the price of the ones in Disney Springs. The I-Trolley picks up right outside of Dockside/Surfside, price is .25 for seniors, and it goes to both of the outlets in Orlando. Vineland and International.
I know Jacqueline has issues with food but if she could make this work for her, it would be a great getaway. We really enjoy the Universal hotels.

ETA--Not to insinuate Jacqueline is a senior when I mentioned fare, my hubby was able to use it and it is a bargain.

 

[ottawamom]

What age is considered Senior in Orlando. I find some States often consider 60 to be senior.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Says 65 for I-trolley

 

[Donald - my hero]

Sorry,,,high time for timeshare due to low points....but that doesnt mean that POP or others dont have availability.good luck

Yeah I noticed that! Discovered that one of the DVC rental companies actually lets you look at the availability calendars geeze, nothing open. HOWEVER, I'm looking at several other options now!

@Donald - my hero Jacqueline, if not going to the parks, why not stay at one of the Universal value resorts? They are so much better than WDW ones. Cabana Bay has a great pool/resort feel. And if you really want to go on the cheap, their new Dockside/Surfside resorts are only like $96/night.

No-go for the number one requirement on our list: Safe food that I don't need to cook. Hubby's only request is to be within the Disney bubble.

I didn't get much sleep last night, too many thoughts swirling around so I just got up and started crunching numbers. Looking for thoughts, opinions and any experience with the options I'm looking at. I'll add my questions at the end of each rambling section

First up is dealing with flight costs: Airmiles for our fall trip and apply for a WestJet Mastercard to help with the Feb/March trip. They have a current "deal" to get up to $450 WJ Dollars, not sure if we'll earn all of those before the Black Friday sales crop up but we'd have the companion fare after the first transaction to use for the trip in 2024 (as mentioned earlier, WJ is our preferred airline) I'll need to carefully balance the offer from BMO while still spending the required amount to get the full $450
Those who have this card - how long does it take for that companion fare to pop up and can you still book online yourself?

Next accommodations for the Fall trip: Reason for initial consideration of DVC was 2 fold- ability to cook something more than a regular room allows AND possibility of being closer to the Ale & Compass (Chef there went out of her way to source foods for me and gave me her business card to alert her about any future trips so they can get in even more choices so they can even BAKE for me!!!) That fell flat on it's face, back to the drawing board at 5 this morning when I remembered we have 4 free nights available at any moderate resort PLUS Disney has gone back to offering BounceBack offers!!! AND depending on which weekend we go with there are several discounts we're eligible for, I love a bargain.

Options for this trip I'm looking at since they're all on the Skyliner Route: CBR for free (given as a "do-over" from the staff at POFQ) POP or AoA with a preference of POP since the standard at the other one is heavily themed and doesn't appeal. OR POFQ for free since we love staying there and then using UBER (gawd the stories I've haven't shared, can't believe I'm even considering that!! We had a trip so down-right scary and unsafe that ALL of our charges for the entire trip were refunded and that one driver has been banned from both UBER and LYFT) but probably just go the route of eating breakie in the room and using Disney transit to get to the Boardwalk area later in the day. Paying for POP comes in under $1000 CDN
Thoughts here? Pay for POP, using our free nights at CBR to have access to the Skyliner or use our free nights to stay at our Preferred POFQ?

Options for the "Real Trip": Before we started down this rabbit hole we were looking at a full 2 weeks using the Airmiles for 4 nights at one of the Swalphin resorts, 6 nights we'd pay and then the 4 free at POFQ. However as I mentioned somewhere in this jumbled post, Disney has brought back the BounceBack offers and our dates are included with POFQ coming in at the 25-30% mark by most accounts so we'll just spend the whole trip there! That explains why I'm willing to use Airmiles for the flights for the fall trip.

Willing to entertain any other suggestions that will let us have a long weekend at some point this fall (Thursday-Monday anytime starting on Oct 26 thru to December) as well as our 2 weeks in Feb/March