Which Credit Cards for Free Flights to Disney in Orlando

June 3, 2014 by

One of the most common questions that I get asked is about Disney vacations, whether it relates to where to stay, how to get a good deal, or which credit cards to get to make a Disney trip more affordable. In this post, I am going to focus on which credit cards for free flights to Disney in Orlando.

How to Get Free Flights to Orlando for Your Disney Vacation:

The easiest way to get free flights is by signing up for travel rewards credit cards and getting the bonuses for meeting the minimum spending requirements (for more information see here). Your ideal airline will not necessarily be the same as mine, as it is based on where you live (which airport you are using). I will give some examples from my home airport (PHL) so that you can go about doing your own research into which airlines may work for you.

Orlando International Airport (MCO) is a quick and generally easy flight for those of us who live near a major East Coast airport. Which is probably why I have lost track of how many times we have been to Orlando. Sometimes the flights are reasonable, and we pay the cash rate. Other times flights are more expensive (or we are miles-rich and cash-poor), and we choose to use Frequent Flyer Miles for our flights. Each individual family situation will be unique, and only you can decide when it is best for you to pay or to use miles.

I picked a random date and did a bit of research for direct flights from my location (PHL or nearby smaller airports).

As you can see, most of the airlines use a Low, High, Medium kind of a system, and the number of miles you will need can vary in a crazy kind of way. If your dates are flexible, you can look at the award calendar to try to choose lower redemption rates.  Here are some examples from USAirways and American Airlines:

The British Airways Avios “Trick”

But wait, there is yet another option! And it just may be the best one. It may sound complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it’s really not. Check out British Airways Avios (their frequent flyer program).

The difference between BA Avios and, say, American Airlines’ Aadvantage Miles, is that BA is a distance-based program. What that means is that instead of saying, for example, that any ticket within the Continental United States is 25,000 miles…British Airways bases the number of miles needed on the distance between 2 points. You can go to the British Airways Avios calculator to find out how many Avios you need to get from point A to point B. In our PHL-MCO (Orlando) example, you would need 7,500 Avios each way. So for 15,000 miles roundtrip, it’s obviously a bargain.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself…but British Airways doesn’t fly from Philly to Orlando (or most USA domestic flights, for that matter). This is your aha moment. You can use British Airways Avios on their PARTNER airlines’ flights. American Airlines is a British Airways partner. American Airlines is in the midst of a merger with USAirways.

What’s the catch? Well, in order to use your Avios on American Airlines (for example), there has to be SAVER level availability for the AA flight.  In the AA chart above, do you see the green highlighted dates that say 12.5K? Those are the saver dates available (in that example). Those are the dates that you can get using 7,500 Avios instead of 12,500 AA Miles. Yes, for the same exact flight.  This also applies to first and business class tickets, which are obviously more.

I have used this “trick” (it’s not actually a trick, but it sounds more fun that way) a bunch of times now. For West Coast to/from Hawaii for a total of 6 different flights, for flights to Florida, and to Aruba. It’s legit.

So which airline is the winner?

So even after my detailed description of the British Airways program, I would say that Southwest is the  winner in this situation. In fact, on our flight home from Orlando in January 2014, we flew Southwest. If you haven’t flown Southwest before, then you will want to know that it is a bit different than other airlines (like USAirways & American Airlines).

Things to know about Southwest:

• Seats are not assigned. When you check in online (as close to 24 hours before your flight if you are savvy), you will be given a boarding order number based on a number of factors, such as “first come first served” for the order in which you checked in online
• The other factors for getting a better boarding number: people who buy the more expensive tickets, you can pay $12.50 per ticket each way for automatic check in, and elite members who fly Southwest a ton
• To repeat the point: If your flight leaves at 9am, check in online at 9am the day before (if you don’t fit into one of those categories I just listed). The closer to 24 hours you check in, the better your boarding number will be (for example A45 or B33).
• Southwest will have everyone line up in order (there are sections A, B, C and then numbers 1-30 and 30-60)
• You then enter the plane in your order & choose your seat
• They give you snacks (last week we got peanuts and crackers) and soft drinks/water/juice. You can buy alcohol if need be.
• They tend to release their flights about 8 months out (unlike the 330 days of some other airlines). From their website:
  “We are currently accepting air reservations through January 4, 2015. On July 21, 2014, we will open our schedule for sale through March 6, 2015. This date is subject to change! Please check back frequently.”

We have flown Southwest a bunch of times, and even when I forgot to check in at 24 hours (gasp!),  we were still able to get seats that we were OK with. I’ll be honest, I’m not super picky about where I am resting my butt for 2 hours. As long as the kids are next to one of us parents, it’s all good. The guy who boarded at the end of the C group last week (and got the middle seat right behind me) was not happy though. He obviously did NOT know about Southwest’s seating procedures, and he was pissed that he got a middle seat. You snooze, you lose.

So why Southwest? I’d actually be happy with the British Airways scenario OR the Southwest scenario. I just tend to find it (sometimes) difficult to find the SAVER level availability. Plus I have a Southwest Companion Pass (I’ll write more about that someday), which allows me to bring someone for free when I fly. Until my pass expires, it’s a no-brainer for me.

As you plan your own Disney trip, you have to play around with your dates and your airports to see which strategy works best for you.

How can I get Frequent Flyer Miles?

The quickest and easiest way is through credit card sign up bonuses (after you make sure you are credit worthy, etc). So here are the current best offers (as of June 3, 2014 – these things can change at any time) for the airlines I mentioned (NOTE: I am not affiliated in any way with these & get nothing out of these suggestions). You can click on the links to get to the application page and also to read more about the other benefits of the card:

American Airlines:

Citi Platinum Select Aadvantage World Mastercard = 50,000 Miles after spending $3000 in 3 months ($95 annual fee waived first year)

Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite Mastercard =  100,000 Miles after spending $10,000 in first 3 months, plus $200 statement credit ($450 annual fee NOT waived the first year)

British Airways:

Chase British Airways Visa Signature Card = 50,000 Avios with $2000 in spending in first 3 months ($95 annual fee)

NOTE: I have gotten this card when it was a 100,000 Avios bonus, but that doesn’t come around too often.

Frontier Airlines:

Frontier Airlines Mastercard = 40,000 miles with $500 spend in 90 days

Southwest Airlines:

 Premier Card = 50,000 bonus points after you spend $2,000 in your first 3 months of opening your account ($99 annual fee not waived)

 Plus Card = 50,000 bonus points after you spend $2,000 in your first 3 months of opening your account ($69 annual fee not waived)

USAirways:

USAirways Mastercard = 40,000 miles after first purchase and payment of $89 annual fee

And just to make things even more complicated for you…..

There are credit cards that offer different types of miles/points that can be transferred to different airlines

• Any card that offers Chase Ultimate Rewards points (check out the Sapphire Preferred card for a 40,000 point bonus) – points can be transferred directly to some of your other frequent travel programs (like British Airways)
• Any card that offers American Express Membership Rewards points (can be transferred, often with a bonus percentage, to British Airways)
• SPG points can be transferred to many airlines. You can (for most) transfer 20,000 points and get 25,000 airline miles (if you email me at theamericantravelproject@gmail.com, I can send you the link for an offer of 30,000 SPG points that I got to send to people via email)

And if you have a business, you can pretty much double any of the above offers because there are business versions of most of these cards & you can get BOTH! I just blew your mind:0)

So how are you going to get to Disney?