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Feb 15 2018

Daring to Disney: When a Disney annual pass makes sense

Trying to figure out whether an annual pass makes financial sense for your Walt Disney World trip? Are there times when it’s better to buy one than individual tickets? This post will explain what you need to know to make the best financial decision for your Disney World vacation.

Update: With the new 2019 ticket prices going into effect as of 3/12/19 and the new annual pass prices going into effect 6/18/2019, this is an update of my article from 2016 about how an annual pass often makes financial sense. Since Disney World has gone calendar based, I can’t account for every single ticket available. What I’ve done is used the median ticket price for calculations. I’ve updated the Annual Pass calculator with these median prices – add in your trip lengths and options to see if buying the Disney Annual Pass makes sense for you! The annual pass has gone up a LOT, so it’s starting to make less financial sense. Scroll to the bottom.

So I mentioned in my last post that I saved money by staying off site, but I should have saved more. It’s downright shocking to me, but it would have made a ton of sense to buy an annual pass on my Disney World trip. Haley Bach (a Disney Expert who is going to be on the next episode of the Observation Deck!) summed it up perfectly with this tweet:

@asthejoeflies 😱 yeah, ticket math often makes an AP a good call.
— Resist Vote Vaccinate not feeling calm rn (@BachFancy) January 11, 2016

So what ticket math would make an annual pass a good call? I think I read somewhere that if you are spending at least 12 days in the parks over a calendar year an AP is probably worth it, but to me, it’s even less than that. Towards the bottom of the post I have created a simple tool that you can use to calculate costs for your own situation if you want to skip ahead!

What you get with an annual pass

The basic Disney annual pass is called the Disney Platinum Pass and costs $1191.74 (after-tax) for a 366 day period (so you can use it from 6/18/2019 – 6/18/2020, wait, do you get 367 days in a leap year!?). Here’s what you get:

Unlimited admission to the four Walt Disney World theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom)
Park hopping privileges (you can go to multiple parks in the same day)
Free theme park parking
Free Disney Photopass downloads
10% off merchandise
10-20% off dining depending on location (excludes quick service, thanks Haley!)
Various discounts on lodging

Let’s take these one by one before we go through the ticket math, in order of importance in my mind from least to greatest.

1. Lodging and dining discounts

For discounts on lodging and dining, my guess is take it or leave it. There are often sales during off periods available to everyone of up to 30%, I read online AP discounts are usually up to 30% as well on hotels. My guess is during peak times you’re probably looking at paying close to the rack rate anyway, it’s just simple supply and demand. I’d love to hear people’s experiences in the comments though. Dining discounts can add up, Disney annual pass holders have had a running 10% discount for a few months. Penny pinchers bringing their own food obviously might not save as much with an annual pass.

2. Park Hopper

Park hopping is great, but to me it’s usually more of a luxury than anything else. If you are staying for a week, like we did, spending one day per park is definitely enough. If you’re thinking about getting an annual pass, then you definitely have the time to spread things out and visit one park per day. I’d say the only exception is dealing with the Magic Kingdom and young children: taking the ferry or monorail across the Seven Seas Lagoon adds like 15-20 minutes to your commute each way and makes going back home for a nap really annoying. The luxury of park hopping to Epcot for dinner is very tempting. But I still think it’s a luxury (more on that later).

When does a Disney annual pass make financial sense? Compare the features your family needs for your next Walt Disney World vacation and save money on your travels with this free tool. — Disney’s professionals probably wouldn’t get the hand in the picture

3. Photopass downloads

Free Disney Photopass downloads are another luxury, but you can glean a lot of value out of this benefit. Unlike Memory Maker (subject of my next post), you don’t get automatic downloads of your friends and family pictures. However, that’s pretty easy to circumvent – anyone who is linked as family and friends to your My Disney Experience account effectively receives your Photopass privileges. You can download their photos as if they are your own.

If you don’t want to make people your friends and family, grab a Photopass card (say, from a character meet and greet or something). Scan the same Photopass card for whatever photos they take. Then link all those Photopasses to your account and for a little extra work you should be able to download everyone’s photos (in theory at least).

4. Free theme park parking

If you’re saving money by staying off site, free theme park parking is huge – $25 a day adds up quickly. Doesn’t mean anything if you’re staying on site, but it adds up quickly if you’re trying to save money by staying off site. Sometimes it might make sense for at least one person in your party to grab the annual pass just for this benefit.

Why the math on my ticket meant I probably should have bought an annual pass

Of course, getting admission to all four theme parks for a year is great. And that’s where the ticket math comes in.

Here’s a quick tip that a lot of first time Disney goers might not know: as long as you have at least one unused day left on your ticket, you can use the value of your ticket to “upgrade” to a more expensive ticket at any time. Put a pin in that and we’ll get back to it.

Anyway, let’s take a look at my costs compared to an annual pass (note these were prices from Jan 2016):

Item	Our Trip	Annual Pass
7 park days	$335	Included
Park hopper	$65	Included
Parking	$120	Included
Memory Maker/Photopass	$169	Included
Total Cost	$689	$749

As you can see, with all the things I ended up tacking on to my tickets, I spent only $60 less than I would have spent if I had gotten an annual pass. That year, I visited Orlando again for FT4RL4, so bought another ticket – that cost more than $60. So you can see how ticket math can really hurt you. And even if I hadn’t visited a park, I probably would have gotten close to $60 back with the dining and merchandise discounts.

I would have spent less money if I had bought an annual pass in 2016.

Is an annual pass the right decision for you?

Should you get an annual pass? In my case, I think we should have bought at least one annual pass. There are also some pretty easy rules of thumb.

You should almost always buy an annual pass if:

You plan to visit the parks on three separate occasions in a calendar year
You plan to visit the parks for at least twelve days total across two trips

However, if you want to mess around with some calculations yourself, here’s a simple tool I made. You can input trips you plan to take and ticket types you plan to buy, along with Memory Maker and parking. At the bottom of the table, you’ll see how much you will save with an annual pass or how much more you’ll spend. The tool is in beta so please let me know if you see any errors! You can either click the link below or I’ve embedded the tool at the bottom of the post.

Update 10/16/2018: Since I obviously can’t account for all of Disney’s variable pricing, I’ve done my best to take the AVERAGE ticket prices for the year. So this Annual Pass calculator tool should be in the ballpark, but if your number is close, you might want to throw your actual dates into Disney World’s website.

Disney Annual Pass Calculator Tool!

If you want to go deep down the rabbit hole, check out this very amazing and very in depth spreadsheet made by Touring Plans forum user JJT. It includes a bunch more options plus info on ticket discounters.

Note: Only use the tool if you’re not a Florida resident, since Florida residents get discounted rates on everything.

Upgrading your ticket

As I mentioned above, as long as you have one unused day on your ticket, you can upgrade it to a more expensive ticket. This includes adding park hopper options, water park options, or even upgrading to an annual pass.

If I had figured all this out about the annual pass before I had gotten to the parks I probably would have upgraded to an annual pass on the first day. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until day six, meaning I had already paid $120 for parking.

But if you have a trip planned and you’ve already bought tickets but want to upgrade them, you can totally do it before you pay for all the parking and make it worth it. You can upgrade at the ticket booths at the park, but that of course would require you to pay for one day of parking. You can also do it at any Disney hotel or at guest relations at Disney Springs. I think if you bring your parking receipts they can be applied to the cost of the pass as well.

Final Thoughts

If you’re going to Disney World for close to a week, you should definitely think about upgrading to or buying an annual pass, especially if you are going to have to pay for theme park parking. The math often makes it worth it – feel free to use my table if you’re too lazy to do the math yourself!

Never miss a post! Subscribe and receive and e-mail for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Can’t get enough Disney? Check out our Disney planning podcast, Disney Deciphered (latest episode embedded below)!

Other Posts in this Series

Flights, Hotel, and Car

Making Disney Dining Reservations

Saving Money on Disney Tickets

Using Touring Plans (the non-touring plan parts)

Optimizing a visit using Touring Plans’ touring plans

Saving money by staying off site

When a Disney annual pass makes sense

Touring Epcot attractions with a toddler

Touring Animal Kingdom with a toddler

One perfect day at the Magic Kingdom

Dining Reviews

Tips for parents of toddlers and infants

Things I wished I knew before I went to Disney

Feb 12 2018

Current miles and points earning strategies for this father of three

So now that the dust has settled and our family zone defense has been set up after the third child, I’ve spent some time the past few weeks taking stock of my current miles and points earning strategies. Let me start by saying don’t take these as recommendations. My goal for this article is for you, the reader, especially if you are potentially a parent with limited time like myself, to have some food for thought about your miles and points earning strategies.

I’ll outline three earning strategies that I’m using regularly and three that I’m mostly ignoring these days. To provide context, as a father of three, my time outside the house alone has become extremely limited. The free time I have exists mainly at home – kids napping, asleep for the night, etc. I probably get the most “work” done after 9 PM.

So, my strategies are tailored to what I can do online without making too many detours. I can probably afford one 15 minute detour a day on average after I drop of the kids but I prefer not. Also, I haven’t stepped foot in a Wal-mart in three years and have no regrets. Let’s take a look at strategies I’m using/not using.

Since all these strategies are viable (even the ones I don’t use), when applicable I’ve tried to list some sources for those getting started. Feel free to add in the comments!

Strategies I currently use

1. Credit card sign up bonuses

Try as I might, I can’t get away from çredit card sign up bonuses. They still remain the fastest way to earn miles and points since I can clear spend naturally. At this point I generally only clear one card bonus at a time which I can more or less do naturally. Plus I use #2 and #3 below to help clear bonuses.

One thing to note, I’ve finally managed to get away from what I can best describe as credit card sign up bonus hype. I try to make sure I have a goal in mind before earning miles and points, which means passing on “great” offers sometimes. Example, I decided to pass on the American Express Hilton Aspire card since it didn’t fit with our current travel plans (through 2019). I can’t take on another $450 card!

If you want to learn more about credit card sign up bonuses, you pretty much can find information at any miles and points blogs. Just beware of the hype and make sure the latest it card works for you.

There are tons of different miles and points earning strategies out there. Different strategies will work for different people, make sure you know your earning options and what works best for you. — There are lots of great credit card sign up bonuses still out there, even though I passed on this one

2. Gift card reselling

I hit gift card reselling hard in Q4 last year, mainly because it dovetails very nicely with my need not to leave the house. You can buy and sell giftcards from the comfort of your home office (online arbitrage). In generally, I stick to deals that are breakeven or slight money makers and take home the points (this of course is very easy in Q4 when lots of gift cards go on sale for the holidays). I also generally only buy when I know that I can sell immediately, reducing the amount of money I need to float.

I have taken a break from gift card reselling, partially because of some of the liquidity concerns at The Plastic Merchant, my preferred vendor. I plan to still use them but also diversify to other platforms when I get back into it (which I should have been doing all along). But if you’re interested in getting into gift card reselling you should follow people like Doctor of Credit, Danny Deal Guru, and Miles to Memories on Twitter, they generally post deals. Then it’s up to you to figure out whether you can sell them at a good enough price to justify the points you earn. The Plastic Merchant has great deal alerts as well, provided they have figured out their issues of course.

3. Ticket reselling

One of my newest miles and points earning strategies is ticket reselling. Like buying Justin Timberlake tickets and selling them for a profit. The pros of ticket reselling is you’re likely making more money than you are with gift card reselling. The cons are you have a lot longer float time with your money and a lot more risk, especially if you don’t understand the market economics of concert tickets.

To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t resell tickets without my partner, who does the majority of the work for a share of the profits. And I generally stick to stuff that I figure won’t have a problem selling (Hamilton) and don’t get too greedy about profits. Another real danger about ticket reselling is you have to float large amounts of money for long periods of time, which I personally limit pretty severely. So I’m not raking by any means, it’s more of a trickle.

If you want to get in on this, I’d highly recommend reading Miles Per Day, he is all about ticket reselling these days (when he’s not getting shut down). I do worry that market saturation will eventually take its toll, but I guess we’ll see. I don’t resell tickets aggressively, so I wouldn’t personally recommend this as a primary miles and points earner (because I don’t have enough experience with it to say either way).

Strategies I currently stay away from

1. Product reselling

Reselling products using Fulfillment by Amazon or even Ebay seems pretty lucrative. I have friends who have been doing it for years and of course my partner in crime on the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast, Trevor of Tagging Miles, makes reselling a good side business. But I have neither the time, organization skills (what little organization energy I have gets applied elsewhere), or even space in my house to deal with reselling. If you want to get into reselling, definitely check out Trevor’s site, but make sure you’re in it for the cash profit, not just points and miles. (Or so I hear.)

2. Manufactured Spending

Like I said, I refuse to go to Wal-mart, so my MS options have been limited for years. I hear rumors Wal-mart might be even tougher now too. My two main avenues of MS died within the same month and I feel no strong pull to get back into it for now. If something comes along that I can do in my pajamas, I’ll get back into it, but I can’t be running around town all day.

If you want to get into MS, my best suggestion? Attend one of the ubiquitous frequent flyer slash miles and points junkie meetups. While some meetups are better than others, as long as you’re willing to reach out a little you should be able to find like minded people and that can help you get started. If you’re a family guy or gal, Dia’s Family Travel for Real Life conferences attract more hardcore MS people than you might think – and I appreciate the family bent of those conferences.

3. Bank bonuses

I spent one year signing up for a bunch of bank bonuses. Hands down they probably present one of the simplest ways to earn cold, hard cash, but the reality is I just didn’t enjoy all the housekeeping. Keeping track of all the accounts, cancelling them, not cancelling them, paying attention to bank mergers, etc. etc. Plus 1099s and all that jazz. So I’ve given up chasing bank bonuses for the time. On the other hand, if you’re interested, bank bonuses sometimes provide more value than credit card sign up bonuses. Cash also has the added benefit of being able to do crazy things like pay your bills. Doctor of Credit posts bank bonuses all the time and updates that list every month, including niche local ones. Be sure to find the ones that make the most sense to you if you choose to go down this route.

4. Bitcoin

Just…no. Unless you enjoy gambling, in which case be my guest. But crypto = gambling. Also, tough to generate credit card spend or points buying crypto anyway (though not impossible, I hear?). Never gamble what you can’t afford to lose, when the fun stops, etc. etc. (Full disclosure I have been known to enjoy gambling from time to time).

Final Thoughts

Remember, your miles and points earning strategies (and burning strategies) should be tied to your local opportunities. Make sure you earn the miles you use, and what works for you may be completely the opposite of what works for me. But hopefully this at least gives you some food for thought, especially if you’re just starting out.

What preferred miles and points earning strategies do you use? Let me know in the comments!

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Feb 08 2018

Quick Hits: Using the Chase Sapphire Reserve to buy Disney World Tickets with Ultimate Rewards Points

The common school of thought posits that you can’t use miles and points to offset your Disney World vacation. The advice lots of big blogs defer to generally revolves around cards like the Barclays Arrival+ or Capital One Venture where you get one cent per point. But as I’ve written elsewhere, you can save money on Disney tickets and hotels if you buy Disney World tickets with Ultimate Rewards points using your Chase Sapphire Reserve. So how do you use Chase points to buy Disney World tickets?

Update: Chase has told its cruise and tours department they can no longer book anything Disney related. Crushing news.

Did you know you can use Chase points to buy Disney World tickets? Instead of using cash, you can use your hard earned Ultimate Rewards points to save money on your Disney vacation! — Huzzah! You can pay for your Disney tickets with points!

Before we start, the common retort I’d expect to hear at this point is “you could get so much more value using your Ultimate Rewards points for hotel rooms (Hyatt) or for first class flights (Korean, United, etc.)! You’re dumb for this!” I’m not going to get into it, but suffice it to say, use points in a way that will make you happy. If you want to redeem for 1.5 cents per point (if you have the Reserve) for flights, hotels, cars, or Disney World tickets, you just do you.

Now I’ve confirmed this works with Chase Sapphire Reserve (1.5 cpp), Ink Plus (1.25 cpp), Freedom (1 cpp). I sort of assume it will as well with the Chase Sapphire Preferred at a rate of 1.25 cents per point but I cannot confirm this as I ditched my Preferred years ago. If you have any experience please let me know!

Anyway, here’s how to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points to buy Disney World Tickets if you have Chase Sapphire Reserve.

1. Call 1-855-234-2542

This is the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel agency number. You’ll need your card with you to input the number.

If you are using Ink or Freedom the number is 1-866-951-6592.

2. Select option “2” – Cruise or Vacation Package

Normal business hours are Mon-Fri 9 AM -9 PM EST and Sat 9 AM – 5 PM EST.

3. Tell the agent you are interested in booking Disney World tickets

You may have to clarify you are interested in tickets only. The agent should also ask you whether you are interested in Disney World (Florida) or Disneyland (California), make sure you know where you want to go! You can book room packages as well if you’d like, though I won’t go into that here (see this post for some details on that).

4. Figure out which type of ticket you’d like and confirm price is where you want it to be

One quirk is that you cannot buy one day tickets – Disney wants you to just buy those at the gate. Other than that, you can buy pretty much any ticket you’d like. The base Magic Your Way tickets allow you to visit one park per day. Add a Park Hopper option and you can visit multiple parks in one day. You can also add the Park Hopper Plus option which allows you to visit the water parks.

For some reason, the prices Chase quoted were a little bit off from what I saw on Disney’s website. (Don’t forget, you should be comparing the price to ticket discounters who usually knock a few bucks off).

You’ll need to decide whether you value the points more or cash, but these days I like to redeem points first. If you can earn Ultimate Rewards at a cost of 1 cent each (not too difficult overall), then you’re effectively getting a 33% discount on park tickets. That’s tough to beat.

One important note: Chase can book through two avenues, Disney itself and this company called Funjet. Ask the agent to book you through DISNEY – that way you don’t have to wait until 60 days before your trip to confirm your tickets in My Disney Experience.

Anyway, here are the prices from Chase Travel compared with Disney and Undercover Tourist as of Feb 2018 (including tax):

Ticket Type	Chase Travel price	Chase Travel price in points (w/ CSR)	Disney World price	Undercover Tourist price
2-Day Magic Your Way	$222	14,800	$211.94	$217.76
4-Day Magic Your Way	$373	24,866	$372.75	$356.95
3-Day Magic Your Way	$325	21,666	$324.83	$309.99
5-Day Magic Your Way	$395	26,333	$394.05	$373.95
6-Day Magic Your Way	$416	27,733	$415.35	$394.35
Mickey Not So Scary Halloween Party 2018 (Select Dates)	$85	5,609	$84.14	$79.88

As you can see, Chase Travel prices are basically the same as Disney rack rates, but you can pay for them with points! Easy peasy. Also, note that Disney doesn’t offer discounts for 1 and 2 day tickets for buying in advance.

Final Thoughts

While Citi’s travel concierge won’t sell you Disney World tickets outside of a package, you can use your Ultimate Rewards points to buy tickets with your hard earned points from the Chase Sapphire Reserve. So don’t let anyone tell you you can’t use points to offset costs on your Disney vacation (if you want to). If you have any experience with this, I’d love to hear it, let me know in the comments!

Update: I just called last week (4/21/2018), and confirmed that you can also use Ultimate Rewards to book holiday parties like Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party. Also, reader Judah Wilkins e-mailed me to say that Chase told him they could do Annual Passes as well!

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Can’t get enough Disney? Check out our Disney planning podcast, Disney Deciphered (latest episode embedded below)!

Jan 25 2018

American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card Review for Families – should I take on another $450 annual fee?

Whenever a new credit card hits the market, it generates a ton of buzz in the miles and points community, rightfully so. How much value can we get out of the new card? Is it worth getting? I have admittedly not been paying attention to the new Hilton cards from American Express. Noah from Money Metagame told me he had signed up for the American Express Hilton Aspire credit card on the last episode of the podcast (releases 1/30), so I decided to take a look at the card.

Feeling lazy? Just look at each heading, each of which outlines a card benefit, and the questions I think you should ask yourself about how beneficial that feature might be for your family.

As I outlined in my last post, I’m trying to be more focused with this blog. That means as I look at this and other credit cards, I’ll be looking at it with a family focus – my family’s, actually! As I start this post I haven’t actually decided whether to get the card yet. I find most credit card reviews to be too generic so I’d like to take a look at how the benefits would meet my situation. (If you’re unfamiliar, two parents, three kids five and below). I have no credit card links or anything like that, so if for some reason this review persuades you to get the card, just use the Google for the application link. If you want to support other affiliate bloggers it’s as easy as “Hilton Aspire Card (insert blogger name here)”.

Before evaluating a new credit card, be sure to…

Aside from the usual reminder about being responsible with your credit (do it) and not carrying a balance to avoid huge rewards destroying interest charges (don’t do it), one suggestion.

If you’re new to this game, or even if you’ve been in it awhile like me, large credit card sign up bonuses often feel like catnip. I think my body might actually release endorphins when I get approved for a new credit card. That means I’m often sitting down to look at a new credit card looking for ways to convince myself to apply.

To help combat that, make sure you sit down and make a demand schedule. Milenomics talks about making one here and Bob Dwyer discusses the practical aspects of making a physical one here. A demand schedule basically helps you figure out how much you’re going to actually be traveling. In other words, if you’re not going to be going anywhere, that should change your evaluation of whether you need Hilton hotel points or not. After all, Hilton points don’t pay your rent or mortgage.

I’d suggest at the very least thinking about whether you will have the opportunity to stay in a Hilton in the next two years. That’s probably a generous enough timeframe.

A review of the new American Express Hilton Aspire credit card, specifically geared towards families and family travel. What you need to know before you apply. — Suite at the Elara in Las Vegas – would be great for a family

Looking at the Hilton Aspire card benefits for families

As always, Doctor of Credit has done a great write up of all the card benefits here. Let’s take a look at the positives and negatives of this card for a family. I’ll end each section with some questions to ask yourself (aka the questions I’m asking myself) before you consider applying.

Sign up bonus: 100,000 Hilton points after $4K spend in 3 months

To me, a realistic price of a Hilton hotel room that I can get is about 50,000 points per night. Yes, I can do better, but since I don’t currently have a specific property in mind, I can’t guarantee that I will. I also can’t guarantee that I won’t do worse!

So, to me, the sign up bonus is worth two free hotel room nights, which, due to my current family situation, I might even consider using for adjoining rooms on one night only. (Though it’d be great if I could find a Doubletree or Embassy Suites or something, then I wouldn’t have to get adjoining rooms).

I think I can realistically stay in a Hilton for two nights in the next two years, but I have no brand loyalty to other hotel chains. However, even two nights is dicey, because we often like to rent apartments now. So it’s not a guarantee that I could fit two Hilton nights into my demand schedule, but it’s a safe bet.

Do you think your family will have the chance to spend two nights at a Hilton in the next two years or so?
Do you have other hotel demands like loyalty to another brand or the desire to book apartments over hotel rooms that might lower that chance?

$450 annual fee

Do I really want another $450 annual fee card? I’ve cut down since that post but if I apply for the Apsire I’m adding a new one. Am I really going to be able to maximize the benefits, or am I going to be too busy? After the questions to ask, let’s take a closer look at the benefits people generally look at as “off-setting” the annual fee.

How much in annual fees are you already paying per year?
Do you have the time and energy to make sure you off-set this one?

$250 annual airline credit

Like the American Express Platinum and Gold cards, there is an airline credit associated with the Hilton Aspire credit card. Like the Platinum and Gold cards, I bet many people will use this credit to buy airline gift cards or engage in other shenanigans to get the credit. I’m currently personally sitting on like $500 of Delta credit. You have to make sure you use this credit.

This credit actually doesn’t appeal to me very much, due to the aforementioned Delta credit. Also, even though our family is getting pretty big, we travel less due to the whole newborn baby situation. So I can very realistically book every single flight on my current 2018 demand schedule with points. So how valuable is this airline credit to my personal, situation, really? Not sure…

Do you have airline credits that you still need to use?
Were you even planning to book flights with cash in 2018 in the first place?

$250 Hilton Resort credit

This benefit is pretty nice since it applies to the cost of your stay. Unfortunately, it only applies to select Hilton properties. It’s a decently big list and most of them are lovely, warm beach destinations, but you can’t just go to Joe Average Hilton and receive the credit. The credit seems fairly easy to use, but it does restrict your demand schedule due to the list of hotels.

Do you have a stay planned at one of the hotels on Hilton’s resorts list?
If not, are you willing to plan part or all of an entire vacation around said list?

Complimentary Hilton Diamond Status

Hilton Diamond status is great if you’re traveling overseas, and only so so in the States. If you’re a sweet talker you probably can leverage it into more upgrades than I’ve been able to, and free breakfast even if it’s continental is always appreciated. Still, status means less to me as a parent of young kids (except for the free milk). Also, Hilton can be a bit inconsistent in applying benefits, or rather, you will never be just quite sure how special you will be made to feel. 😛

Do you really need Hilton Diamond status?

Free Weekend Night on signup and each year thereafter (F, Sa, Su)

This is a nice little benefit that you can squeeze some value out of (plus you can earn another when you hit $60K of spend). A free night is a free night for the most part, but again, this will put some restrictions on your demand schedule. Here is yet another night that you are committing to Hilton.

Same questions as the sign up bonus section

Priority Pass Membership

Do you have this on another one (or six) of your credit cards already?

14X points at Hiltons, 7X points on flights booked through AMEX and restaraunts, 3X everywhere else

Don’t you have better daily earning options?

Will I sign up for the card?

I don’t know, I’m still on the fence. I probably can maximize the airline and resort credits, but do I really want to restrict my demand schedule like that? My wife and I both hate sort of being locked into certain properties or locations, or even airlines. And seriously…swimming in Delta credits.

Then again, there are the credit card approval endorphins to consider. So, I’m still on the fence. I’m seriously considering cutting my AMEX Platinum (because while in theory using the 50% points rebate was great, I only used it once). If I do that I think I can replace it with this card.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully this review has been slightly helpful in giving you a framework with which to evaluate the Hilton Aspire credit card in the light of your family’s needs and wants. Overall, I think the card is solid with a lot of nice benefits, provided you can maximize them all. There’s the rub though – will you be able to maximize the benefits while dealing with your (I assume if they’re anything like mine) crazy kids? Make sure you do, to get that “value.”

Are you planning on applying for the card? What amazing benefit did I totally miss? Let me know in the comments!

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Jan 22 2018

Outlining my 2018 points biases, needs, and wants – a blog refocusing

One thing I always loved about the blog Milenomics was Sam’s deep thinking when it comes to matters of miles and points. Thanks to asthejoeflies (and everywhere else) contributor Robert Dwyer, Milenomics is back! I’ve been thinking all week about Sam’s article about his miles and points needs and wants.

He hits the nail on the head when he says “Learning a little about my needs and wants will help you to align with what I say or skip things that just don’t apply to you. I think it is important that writers are clear about their inherent bias, especially when time and money are involved.” If you don’t understand a bloggers inherent bias, how can you objectively analyze her or his advice?

Outlining my miles and points needs and wants so that you know what you're getting when you read the blog. Needs and wants determine how you should act! — Life comes at you fast.

So, as my life has changed quite a bit, I thought it important to take a look at my inherent biases, needs, and wants when it comes to travel. I think this might be something worthwhile to do every year, to see how things have changed. Hopefully this helps you decide whether reading my blog is useful or useless to you (or somewhere in between)!

Overall, if you read or skim this article, you’ll have a good idea of where I’m coming from when I’m posting in 2018. I’m sure some of you are in similar boats, so hopefully this helps.

Life changes

I started this blog a few months before the birth of our first child. Now our baby turns five soon and we tow around a two year old and a two month old. Thankfully, our biggest fears for #3 didn’t come to fruition, but we still have some medical appointments to work around.

In addition, traveling as a family of five presents its own logistical challenges that I haven’t quite worked out yet.

So I’m keeping my goals for the year simple. Two or three trips as a full family, and I’ll count a road trip if I have to. One or two trips with just myself and the older two kids (hopefully we do better than last time we did this), and maybe – MAYBE one of these trips will be international. I’ll get the baby a passport just in case (here’s my simple guide for that).

If we can swing it, I’d love to go on a trip with just my wife, but we’ll see. Three (plus a dog) is a large number to ask anyone to babysit.

My Needs vs. My Wants

Given my modest goals, I don’t need huge amounts of points necessarily but even in coach the costs add up. So to be quite honest, I am still in the process of reevaluating my miles and points needs and wants in light of what kind of point totals I’ll need. But here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

Needs

Flexibility and the ability to change/cancel for minimum or no fees.
Flight times that work for the kids – no super early or super late flights
A minimum of one stop, or stopovers
Lodging with at least two beds and a crib

Wants

Business class on flights over five hours
Seats altogether
Seat for the baby
Lodging with two or more rooms

Business class used to be a “need” on international flight, but with the amounts of points it will take and more importantly the availability, I’m not going to pigeon-hole us by making that a “need”.

Everything else is pretty straightforward. At hotels/apartments having space to spread out can be the difference between vacation and insanity, though we can handle a single room for a short amount of time. My wife and I go back and forth whether all of us need to sit together as a family or split the team, but I think we lean towards all staying together. If flying domestically, we’ll grab a seat for the baby if the price is right. And I’m not going to take a 6:00 AM flight with my kids unless…well, I can’t think of a situation where I’d CHOOSE that.

My plan to address my travel needs.

Overall, my biggest “need” is flexibility. I have a lot of that due to Jetblue Mosaic status (from Jetblue card spend). I plan to keep that for the foreseeable future because I get flexibility (free changes/cancellations), can generally ensure the family sits together, and I can leverage the flexibility into flight times I want. An added bonus is the ability to buy up to Even More Space seats with points (generally <1000 pts each).

Here’s a good place to insert that I am Boston based, which is important! I loved what Sam said about travel hacking being local. Jetblue has such a large presence here it makes sense for me to invest a lot in the program, but that might not be the case for you. Find the solution that best addresses your local travel needs. I think it’s worth iterating, things touted as “amazing deals” on national blogs might not be amazing for your particular circumstance.

In terms of lodging, we are moving more towards renting apartments or getting double hotel rooms. Obviously the latter can be done with miles and points, the former will require more cashback earning.

I also need to think about how to deal with traveling with five hundred car seats…but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

How my miles and points wants and needs will influence the blog in 2018

I’ve spent the past few months thinking about what I want to write about here, and I think my 2018 is coming into focus. I’ve long said this blog is mostly a creative outlet, which still rings true, though I’m going to try to be a little more focused. So what kind of blog do I want this to be?

I definitely don’t plan to make asthejoeflies a “news” blog. There are plenty of sites out there that cover all the miles and points news as it breaks. I’ve never been good at that and I’m not about to start posting daily so that’s a nonstarter. If I post twice a week I consider that a good week already! (I’ve been writing this particular post for a week now…)

Let me crystallize my goal for the blog in a single sentence. My goal is to help readers fly their family further for less money and with less stress. What does that look like? I hope you can expect four main types of articles:

1. Practical tips for traveling with children

Since I’m still traveling with young kids, I’d like to help out other families who are looking to travel with young kids. Obviously, my tips are what work for my family, but my goal for posts like this would be to give you food for thought as you plan the logistics of traveling with kids. Example: my kids seem to hate the CARES harness (we returned it) but other parents swear by it, so YMMV.

Posts in this category would be similar to my musings about car seats, travel gear for your kids, or how to apply for an infant passport.

2. Touring tips for families at various destinations

I love writing trip reports so I can look back on my family’s travel, so I may continue to do those, but I generally find them very time intensive. What I think might be more useful to readers is to give some insight into places to go/things to do/stuff to eat in various locations, especially abroad. If I have time, maybe I’ll even go back and write about places I’ve visited in the past.

And of course, posts about Disney World, one of the biggest family destinations, will fall into this category. So expect some more tips about making those trips more magical. (Full disclosure I’ll be there next week so you may see more Disney posts in the short term).

Posts in this category would be similar to my post on free Chicago kids activities, my review of the Hello Kitty restaurant in Hong Kong, and Disney Fastpass+ Tips and Tricks.

3. Using miles and points to save money on family travel

Sad but true, but travel hacking posts aren’t my number one priority here anymore. (But I’d like to think I still make a small contribution to the travel hacking community at large through the podcast.) Like I said, it’s just too much for me to keep up with all the news, so I am planning to focus the majority of my travel hacking posts on how families can save money on travel using miles and points. Of course, what I write about would be applicable to larger groups of adults, too!

I plan to write a bit about how miles and points “needs” change (like what I referenced above). If I ever see lots of award space that works well for families, I hope to write about that too. And I may even write about how (gasp*) I think I could handle coach if it gets us to Europe.

The other side of the miles and points equation is miles and points earning, which I mostly try to do from home now. So expect some thoughts on that as well.

Posts in this category would be similar to planning to travel with five, cheapest lap infant award tickets, and expediting Jetblue Mosaic status earning.

4. Random musings on parenthood and family travel

My final type of post features some of my posts I’ve most enjoyed writing. Parenting creates a lot of feels, and sometimes I just need an outlet to write about them. Whether it’s how my wife keeps us from falling apart on the road, why I believe travel with young children is worth the headache (written for TDAD), or just thoughts on what it means to be a parent in general – every once in awhile I’ll just…write.

Final Thoughts

I guess in the end, this is a bit of a reset/refocus of the blog. And I think that’s a great thing because I still want to write. Hopefully you all keep sticking along for the ride and enjoy what you read.

My travel needs and wants will inform what I write, but I’d love to know what your travel “needs” and “wants” are too! What can you not live without when traveling? What do you consider a luxury? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

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