Disney World on Points, Part 1: Flights & Park Tickets

Anyone with kids (and even some people without) has probably thought about taking a trip to Disney World at one point or another – it’s every kid’s dream vacation!

But when people discuss  planning a Disney trip, they either respond with resounding enthusiasm or a look of horror. That’s because planning a trip to Disney World, in some ways, is as complicated as booking a multi-segment flight around the world. To make matters worse, it comes with a hefty price tag.

So for this two-part series, let’s go through the process of booking a family trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida and break down some of the costs involved to see how we can make it more affordable.

The Best Time to Go to Disney World

When is the best time of year for a trip to Disney World? Disney World is a year-round destination but if you’re flexible, there are definitely a few things you should take into consideration.

First are the crowd levels. There are certain times of the year that Disney World will be busier than others. Do a quick search for “Disney crowd calendars” and you’ll get a few sites that will give you their predictions for the coming year. Generally, times around American holidays are the busiest.

Next, consider the weather. If you’re looking for the sunny, dry, comfortable weather, March to May is your best bet. The heat starts picking up in May until late September. And don’t forget hurricane season.

My family has visited the Disney at end of January, mid-May, and mid-November. The weather in May was quite hot and humid already, but in November and January, it was very pleasant.

Tips for Saving on Flights to Disney World from Canada

Now let’s look at how to get there. You could drive for 20+ hours from Canada, but if you’re into Miles & Points or can afford it, you’ll likely be flying.

The good news is that Air Canada, WestJet, Porter Airlines, plus other airlines offer non-stop flights from most major cities across Canada.

If you’re in the mindset of wanting to maximize the value from your points, then always compare the cash value of a flight to its cost in points.

Sometimes a cheap award redemption may look enticing, but if the cash fare is also cheap, you may not be getting great value out of your points and it may actually make more sense to save your points for another more trip.

Orlando is one of those destinations where cheap flights can often be found, unless you are travelling during holiday periods or peak season.

Fortunately, plenty of airlines fly to Orlando, which means that there are many options for booking with points.

Booking with Aeroplan Points

Air Canada offers flights to Orlando from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, and Halifax (depending on the time of year). 

For example, a flight from Toronto to Orlando can be booked for as few as 9,000 Aeroplan points plus $123 in taxes and fees.

This sounds like a great deal, since it’s lower than the expected range of 10,000–15,000 Aeroplan points for the distance band of this flight. However, the same flight might also cost only $229.

After taking into account the taxes, you would only be getting a value of 1.2 cents per point, when we value Aeroplan points at 2.1 cents per point. In this case, you may want to save your points for a higher value redemption, but you might also be happy to save the cash and spend it at Disney World instead.

Conversely, if you’re travelling during peak season, like around Christmas or March Break, the price of a non-stop round-trip ticket from Toronto to Orlando can be close to $1,000 or more!

For example, a round-trip itinerary over the Christmas holidays might price out at $1,337 (CAD). 

If you’re looking to fly with Air Canada, you may be shocked by the amount of Aeroplan points you’ll need to redeem for direct flights on this round-trip itinerary. In this case, and due to dynamic pricing on Air Canada flights booked with Aeroplan points, the $1,337 flight will cost 72,700 points!

Because the cost of the flight is so significant, you’ll get 1.6 cents per point on this booking, since the cost in points rose with the cost in cash.

Cheaper flights can be found if you can find a connecting flight with United, however, since its redemptions are becoming dynamic imminently, this will no longer apply.

Booking Flights with Fixed-Rate Charts

Depending on how expensive a flight is, it may make more sense to redeem points at a fixed rate, like through the RBC Air Travel Redemption Schedule, CIBC Aventura Airline Rewards Chart, or Amex’s Fixed Points Travel Program.

In all these programs, any Canadian city to Orlando would qualify under the Long-Haul Canada/US category, which costs 25,000–40,000 points for a round-trip flight, plus taxes and fees, up to a maximum base fare of $700–800.

This means that if your flight is between $700–$800 before taxes and fees, but your points redemption is more than 40,000 Aeroplan points, you may want to look at a fixed value points program instead.

Booking Flights with WestJet

What about WestJet Rewards? WestJet allows you to reduce the cost of your flight using WestJet dollars (WJD), which you can easily accumulate through the WestJet RBC® World Elite Mastercardǂ. 

If you’re short on points and find yourself needing to pay cash for your flight, then you could offset the cost with a 2-for-1 WestJet companion voucher (or Air Canada annual worldwide companion pass for that matter).

The WestJet voucher is a complimentary feature of either of its co-branded credit cards, while the Air Canada pass must be earned through meeting a spend threshold on Aeroplan’s top tier credit cards, like the American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card.

Let’s look at an example of how to maximize WestJet companion voucher and WestJet dollars for family travel to Florida.

A flight from Toronto to Orlando over Christmas break next year might cost $930 for one adult, and at this rate for a family of four, it would cost over $3,720.

If you signed up for the WestJet RBC® World Elite Mastercardǂ you would have earned a sign-up bonus (which tends to range from 450–700 WestJet dollars) and an annual companion voucher that can be redeemed for any flight between Canada and Contiguous US for $119 plus taxes and fees.

Making a booking for two people (yourself and one child, for example), without the companion voucher would cost $1,860. With the companion voucher, it brings the total cost for two passengers in this example to $1,220.31, a savings of 34% off.

By applying WestJet dollars to this booking, your savings add up even further (depending on how much you redeem).

Now what about your partner and second child? Well, if  your partner were to apply for the card too, you could just make a separate booking for the same itinerary using another companion voucher. In this example, it would bring your total cost for the flights to $1,940.62, a savings of 47% off (or more, depending on how many WestJet dollars you redeem).

The easiest way to make the two bookings is to call into WestJet. Let the agent know you want to book for a family of four, and both you and your partner have a companion voucher you want to use.

The agents can make both bookings for you and seat your whole family together. If you are travelling with kids, they can help you select seats over the phone free of charge.

Lastly, don’t forget the free baggage allowance that comes with the card, which will save you up to an additional $65 or more per checked bag.

Booking WestJet Flights to Orlando with Delta SkyMiles

Alternatively, when cash fares for WestJet are high, be sure to check award availability through Delta SkyMiles. In general, SkyMiles redemptions on WestJet to Orlando don’t give the greatest value but if the cash fares are high, then it may make sense, since the cost in points is fixed.

For example, a one-way flight from Calgary to Orlando can be booked for only 12,500 SkyMiles. The same flight might cost $336 (CAD), which would yield a value of 2.05 cents per SkyMile (which is great).

Canadian American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points can be transferred to Delta SkyMiles at a rate of 1:0.75, meaning for 12,500 SkyMiles, you would need to transfer 16,667 MR points.

This amount is still less than the amount of MR points needed to book the flight through Amex’s Fixed Points Travel program (recall it would cost 40,000 MR points for a round-trip or 20,000 MR points for a one-way long-haul Canada/US flight).

WestJet award availability can be hit or miss on Delta SkyMiles, so you’ll want to check for and confirm award space availability before transferring the points.

Booking Flights with Cash

If you’re travelling off-peak, keep in mind that cash fares can often be cheap, where you can score a roundtrip flight for under $300. In this case, it may make more sense to buy the cash fare and save companion vouchers and points for a more valuable use in the future.

In these situations, consider a fixed value points program where you can redeem points against travel purchases for a fixed value, such as with Scene+ points earned through the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card or TD Rewards Points earned through the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card.

Tips for Buying Disney World Admission Tickets

Probably just as expensive as your flights, or maybe even more so, will be your Disney World park tickets.

Unfortunately, substantial discounts for admission tickets are hard to come by. There are several reputable third-party vendors like Undercover Tourist that will sell Disney tickets at a small discount (usually in the range of a few dollars per ticket).

The easiest way to buy tickets is directly off the official Disney website. Disney typically runs a Canadian resident sale annually that historically can offer up to 30% off 4-day+ tickets, but most recently the discounts have been less.

The site sells the tickets in US dollars, so unless you have a US credit card or a Canadian credit card that doesn’t charge foreign exchange fees, you’ll be paying an additional 2.5–3% more.

One way to get around the foreign exchange fee is buying Disney gift cards to pay for your tickets.

Stacking discounts on Disney gift cards is a great way to save on your trip to Disney, and they do go on sale at various times of the year, especially in the US. These can be bought online or in-store, like at grocery stores. You’ll want to use a credit card that has a good multiplier at whichever vendor you choose to buy them from.

Gift cards purchased in Canada are loaded in Canadian dollars when you buy them, but when they are used on Disney’s website or at the Disney parks, the conversion to US dollars will be calculated based on the market-close exchange rate of the day prior.

You can also register them online and merge balances up to $1,000 so you’re not carrying a wallet full of cards on your trip.

Aside from tickets, Disney gift cards can be used to pay for the following:

• Almost everything in the Disney parks or downtown Disney: souvenirs, food, etc.

• Stays at official Disney hotels (not including the Disney Swan and Dolphin or the Disney Swan Reserve)

• Disney’s PhotoPass service

Save on Disney World with AIR MILES

AIR MILES is another rewards program that can help save some money at Disney. When you collect AIR MILES, you have the choice of collecting Dream Miles or Cash Miles, or a mix of both. As of 2024, they can also be converted freely from one to another.

Dream Miles can be redeemed for multi-day tickets at Disney World or Disneyland. These tickets aren’t always available but often are so it’s worth checking the AIR MILES site if you’ll be spending more than a few days at Disney and have some AIR MILES to burn.

You also don’t need to have enough AIR MILES to cover the full cost of the tickets, as long as you have enough to cover 50% of it.

Although AIR MILES can be difficult to earn from regular spending, there are often bonus offers and events that can boost balances significantly.

There are also a few credit cards that can give you a good starting balance, like the BMO® AIR MILES®† World Elite®* Mastercard. Sign up for one or more of these, and you’ll be well on your way.

Conclusion

We’ve now looked at how to choose our dates, book our flights, and buy our park tickets for your family trip to Disney World.

Aeroplan and WestJet Rewards can reduce the cost of your flight significantly, especially if you have a companion voucher or pass to use. When redemptions and cash rates are high, don’t forget to check fixed redemption charts to see if there if a worthwhile redemption can be made.

When cash rates are low, consider fixed value point programs to offset your cash cost. Lastly, when it comes to admission tickets, AIR MILES can be leveraged to reduce the cost.

Next, we’ll explore accommodation options around Disney World and how to make them more affordable using reward programs and other money-saving strategies.

We’ll also cover transportation around the area and provide guidance on how to start planning your itinerary.