The best credit cards for Disney World and Disneyland tickets

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A trip to Disney World and Disneyland is quite magical. The pixie dust is flowing and the happy faces are priceless. But, as my family recently experienced firsthand, a visit to Disney is not cheap. Of course you can use your hotel points, airline miles, and other travel rewards to cover hotel stays and airline tickets, but one of the biggest expenses we came across was the park tickets.
Even if your flights and hotels are covered by travel rewards, the price of tickets alone could put a Disney trip out of budget for many. For example, you can easily spend over $1,000 to simply enter the park during a two-day visit for a family of four.
Fortunately, there are many credit cards you can use to save money on your Disney tickets. And you might even find that the best credit card for you isn’t even branded as a Disney credit card. Let’s take a look at your options.
The best credit cards for Disney World and Disneyland tickets
While there’s no one-size-fits-all credit card for Disney trips, there are a handful of good options. Which card you should pick depends on your travel goals. For example, there are cards you can use to get discounts on Disney tickets, while other cards let you redeem points for tickets.
These are our favorite credit cards for Disney World and Disneyland tickets:
Bilt Mastercard: Best for using points to pay for theme park tickets
You can use Bilt Rewards points to purchase Disneyland tickets. LordRunar/iStock Unreleased/Getty Images
Heading to Disneyland? If so, you can redeem Bilt points for Disneyland tickets through the Bilt travel portal. In addition to booking travel through the Bilt portal, you’re also able to book activities, such as theme park tickets. Disney World tickets aren’t currently available through the portal, but you can book tickets for Disneyland (California), Disneyland Paris, Disneyland Tokyo and Disneyland Shanghai.
There are also many variations of tickets to purchase, such as those with Genie+ and park hopper options, allowing your points to truly cover your entire ticket cost. However, some of the tickets tack on a 5% convenience fee when purchased through the app, which means you’ll be paying slightly more — albeit in points — versus purchasing directly with Disney.
Earning points within the Bilt program is also incredibly easy, especially for those who rent an apartment. This is because the Bilt Mastercard is the only card which allows you to earn rewards when you pay your rent without any additional fees, even if your landlord doesn’t accept credit cards.
The Bilt Mastercard awards a strong 1 point per dollar spent on rent payments (up to $100,000 per year), 3 points per dollar on dining (including food delivery services) and 2 points per dollar on travel when booked directly with an airline, hotel, car rental or cruise company. All other purchases earn 1 point per dollar. However, you must complete five or more transactions per billing cycle on your card to earn points.
The Bilt Mastercard also offers cell phone insurance, purchase protection, rental car insurance, trip cancellation and delay coverage, up to $60 per year in Lyft credits, a three-month DashPass membership and Mastercard World Elite Concierge services (see rewards and benefits).
And in addition to redeeming points through their travel portal, you can also transfer your points to 14 travel partners at a 1-to-1 ratio. This includes popular hotels and airlines like as American Airlines AAdvantage, United Airlines MileagePlus, Air Canada Aeroplan and World of Hyatt.
Capital One Venture: Best for purchasing tickets from authorized resellers
You can use Capital One miles to cover any purchase that codes as a travel expense. FrozenShutter/iStock Unreleased/Getty Images
Instead of purchasing your theme park tickets directly through Disney, there are many authorized sellers where you can purchase your park tickets — and sometimes at a discounted cost. One of them is Undercover Tourist.
Not only can you potentially save money when purchasing through Undercover Tourist (the savings vary depending on the option purchased), you can also redeem your Capital One Reward miles to ultimately wipe away your cost. This is because Undercover Tourist purchases code as “travel” (whereas Disney codes as “entertainment”) and the Capital One Venture lets you to redeem miles for any travel purchase. Just note that not all authorized resellers code as travel.
Your miles are worth a fixed 1 cent towards travel expenses. So if you purchase $500 worth of theme park tickets from Undercover Tourist, you can redeem 50,000 Capital One miles to cover the purchase. Redemptions can be made online through your Capital One account, however, it must be done within 90 days of purchase.
With the Capital One Venture, you can currently earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 within the first three months of account opening. This lets you purchase $750 worth of tickets from Undercover Tourist, all on points.
With this card, you’ll earn 5 miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 2 miles per dollar on all other purchases. Other card benefits include a $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck statement credit every four years and the option to transfer your miles to 18 partner loyalty programs.
Ink Business Cash: Best for purchasing Disney gift cards
Use the Ink Business Cash to earn 5% cash back on Disney gift cards purchased at office supply stores. Willowpix/iStock Unreleased/Getty Images
Have you even been to your local office supply store and found there’s a carousel where you can purchase a gift card for another merchant? Well, here’s a little secret: with the Ink Business Cash, you’ll earn 5% cash back on all purchases at office supply stores.
So if you purchase a Disney gift card at Staples and pay with an Ink Business Cash, you’re ultimately buying it at a 5% discount. You can then use that gift card to purchase your Disney theme park ticket. Just note that the 5% cash back is capped at the first $25,000 spent at office supply stores and on internet services, cable services and phone services each cardmember year (then 1% cash back).
Additionally, if you pair the Ink Business Cash with a premier Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card like the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card or Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can turn your cash back into Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Then, you can transfer points to Chase’s various travel partners like United MileagePlus and World of Hyatt.
New Ink Business Cash card holders can earn $750 cash back after spending $6,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening the account. This is an excellent welcome offer, especially for a card that doesn’t charge an annual fee. And if you have another Chase card, you can turn this into 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
Chase Freedom Flex: Best for rotating purchase categories
Many wholesale stores sell discounted Disney gift cards. slobo/iStock Unreleased/Getty Images
One of the best perks of the Chase Freedom Flex is its quarterly rotating categories. Every quarter, Chase releases a few categories where you’ll earn an increased 5% cash back (up to $1,500 in purchases each quarter). While there’s no yearly calendar posted ahead of time to know which categories will receive the increased bonus well in advance, it’s common to see categories listed for merchants that sell Disney gift card. This includes grocery stores, home improvement stores, and drugstores.
This means that when one of these categories is listed for the quarter, you can purchase a Disney gift card and receive 5% cash back with your Chase Freedom Flex — similar to what we described above with the Ink Business Cash.
There are times when “wholesale clubs” is listed as a quarterly category — although we haven’t seen this since 2021. The benefit to purchasing a Disney gift card at a wholesale club is that you’ll typically be able to purchase the gift card for less than its actual value.
For example, at BJ’s Wholesale Club, club members can purchase a $500 Disney gift card for just $479.99. Likewise, Sam’s Club often sells discounted Disney gift cards. With the high cost of Disney theme park tickets, this is a great way to use both your credit card and wholesale club membership to your advantage.
Similar to the Ink Business Cash, if you happen to have a premier Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card, you can get a higher value from your rewards by transferring your points earned to a partner travel program.
Now, if wholesale clubs isn’t listed as a quarterly category, you can still purchase these discounted gift cards at BJ’s Wholesale and Sam’s Club with any credit card that’s accepted. While you might not receive the increased 5% cash back, you can still earn 2% cash back with the Citi Double Cash® Card. And if you’re able to purchase the gift card online, there are credit cards that earn bonus rewards on online purchases.
Target REDCard: Best for gift card purchases at Target
Use your Target REDCard for 5% off everything at Target, including Disney gift cards. JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial/Getty Images
The Target REDCard works somewhat similar to the two above when it comes to purchasing a Disney gift card at a discount. However, instead of receiving the savings as cash back, you’ll reap the savings immediately. This is because the Target REDCard offers an automatic 5% discount on all Target purchases — both in-store and online. All you have to do is pay for your purchase with the card and you’ll see the savings right away.
Fortunately, the 5% discount can be used for third-party gift cards sold at Target (not including Target gift cards). And similar to many other large merchants, Target sells Disney gift cards. So let’s say you’re looking to purchase a $100 Disney gift card, as long as you pay with your Target REDCard, you’ll only pay $95 at check out.
There are three Target REDCard options — a credit card, a debit card and a prepaid card. You’ll receive the same 5% discount with any of these cards, with the main difference being that with the debit card, the cost of your purchase comes out of your bank account.
Other card perks include free 2-day shipping on Target.com orders and an additional 30 days for returns and exchanges. Throughout the year, you might also receive special promotions for even higher savings on your Target purchases.
Disney Premier Card: Best credit card for Disney park savings
The Disney Premier card offers special discounts on merchandise for its card members. JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial/Getty Images
With the Disney Premier card, you’ll earn Disney Reward Dollars on every purchase you make, which can immediately be applied to your Disney ticket purchase. The card earns 5% back on purchases made directly at DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com or ESPNPlus.com, 2% back at gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, and at most U.S. Disney locations. All other purchases earn 1% cash back in the form of Disney Reward Dollars.
Plus, new Disney Premier card members can earn a $300 statement credit after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. For a card with a small $49 annual fee, this bonus is an easy way to offset some of the cost of your Disney tickets.
And while we’ve included the Disney Premier card due to it being a Disney-branded credit card, you might find that other credit cards offer more value towards the cost of the tickets. An extra $300 in your pocket is great, but there are many welcome offers out there that will earn you a significantly higher value.
However, there are some unique card perks that you won’t find amongst any of the other credit cards, which will benefit you during your time visiting Mickey and Minnie.
For example, card members save 10% off select merchandise purchases of $50 or more at select locations and 10% off select dining locations at both Disneyland and Disney World. You’ll also receive 10% off on select merchandise purchases at shopDisney.com. And if you’re staying on-property, being a card member will save you 10% on select activities.
Bottom line
With plenty of ways to put your credit card rewards and benefits to use, there’s no reason to pay full price on your Disney theme park tickets. In fact, you can use many of these same concepts to save on other areas of your Disney vacation as well, such as dining, souvenirs and even travel to and from the parks.
Check out CNN Underscored’s list of the best credit cards available right now.
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