Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[Donald - my hero]

We received Metro (Ontario) offers of 5am wus $5 and 10am wus $20 (separate accounts) on top of our usual personal offers this week. Just a heads up.

Ours are for spend $5 get 5 and spend $50 get 25 (guess which card is the main one )

 

[TFC_UNTIL_I_DIE]

Just heads up that the Rexall $10 gift card from a few weeks back expires today

 

[Donald - my hero]

Just heads up that the Rexall $10 gift card from a few weeks back expires today

And there's also a one day only AM bonus coupon back a page

 

[Days In the Sun]

Ours are for spend $5 get 5 and spend $50 get 25 (guess which card is the main one )

lol, if it makes you feel any better my spend limit at Sobey's each week is $170, a big spend at Sobey's for me is usually $65. I bought a $500 Air Canada gift card last year when they had a 10% off Air Canada promo, well the spend level went to $180 the next week.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Do some price comparisons for rental cars for your days on Costcotravel.ca (if you have a membership) and some other car rental sites. Your airmiles plus tax works out to about $411 CDN. Plus like you said, you will have the insurance cost which also needs to be factored in.

I usually get US rental car insurance via Manitoba Public Insurance. 10 days would be $85. https://apps.mpi.mb.ca/Irc/intro_2.asp?Lang=0 Also curious to see what other people do for their US car rental insurance.

I've already checked prices...lowest right now is $350 USD. Really though I don't care so much what the cash comparison is to AM. As long as the number of miles is not obscene then it's free to me. I feel like 3000 AM for a 10 day rental is a decent number. It's the insurance that has me thinking.

 

[marchingstar]

One busy week and I’m almost 200 posts behind! Y’all are a chatty bunch!

Looks like I missed some decent miles offers too. I didn’t get the ‘rewarded again’ email. And although I got the AmEx one, we just bought a new car. Picking it up tomorrow, and lets just say it darn well better come with a tank of gas!

 

[Donald - my hero]

I'm not at all sure about wanting a car for the entire trip or just a few days. The last 3 or 4 trips we just picked up a car for 2-4 days so we could get out shopping and visit some fav restaurants. This might be the best option again with the new parking fees in mind at WDW resorts. Alternatively, I might need to book offsite accommodation to make things more budget friendly. So many things are up in the air....hard to make firm plans when you don't really know if you are going or not. This may sound weird but I'm considering the trip for my DD because we put our dog down last week and she is on me, hard core, to get another one. While I intensely miss the little guy I'm not sure I want another dog. Basically, the trip could be a bribe to stop asking for another dog. I figure a trip is less expensive than a dog

I'm playing around with dates of approx. August 24th -Sept 3.

I've already checked prices...lowest right now is $350 USD. Really though I don't care so much what the cash comparison is to AM. As long as the number of miles is not obscene then it's free to me. I feel like 3000 AM for a 10 day rental is a decent number. It's the insurance that has me thinking.

I haven't forgotten about you, just been trying to find the time to actually play around with numbers! I haven't been able to figure out what size car you were looking at based on the figures you quoted so I'm slightly lost .. BUT i used the dates you mentioned, and plugged in some dates based on the time period we would normally rent and picked compact cars to show you how small changes in dates can change only tax or make big jumps in miles. We rarely get the car the first day nor do we keep it thru the entire trip. So can you manage for just a week? if so you can bring it in under 2000 miles

• August 25th - September 1st 1,930 AM and $44.66 tax
• 26th - 1st still 1,930 but only $41.71 tax
• 27th - 1st still 1,930 but only $38.76 tax
• 26th - 2nd 1,930 and $44.66 tax
• 25th - 2nd 2,310 $52.41 tax

Now to confuse the issue even more .. if you play around with the TIME you pick up an drop off the car you can sometime save miles. Thing to remember here is that car rental periods are 24 hours regardless of when you actually show up!!

I agree with you regarding how i pay .. because of how we collect our miles we treat everything we redeem for as FREE ...a car for a week and pay only $50.. yup I'm fine with that!

 

[osully]

Wow I just stumbled upon PC Travel. It looks like if you have oh, about 100,000 PC points you can book a week long Disney Cruise! Unless I'm reading that wrong and a $4800 cruise will earn you that many?

 

[tinkerone]

Wow I just stumbled upon PC Travel. It looks like if you have oh, about 100,000 PC points you can book a week long Disney Cruise! Unless I'm reading that wrong and a $4800 cruise will earn you that many?

Are you sure that they are not the points that you get for booking the cruise. Doesn't sound right any other way.

 

[mab2012]

Wow I just stumbled upon PC Travel. It looks like if you have oh, about 100,000 PC points you can book a week long Disney Cruise! Unless I'm reading that wrong and a $4800 cruise will earn you that many?

Are you sure that they are not the points that you get for booking the cruise. Doesn't sound right any other way.

This is my take too. It's not very obvious, but it looks like the "points" they are posting are the points you will get if booking the cruise on your PC Mastercard. Fine print indicates that the earn rate is twice the normal rate of 10 points per dollar.

So one random cruise I looked at has a price tag of $4196, and "points" of 20 x 4196 = 83920.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Wow I just stumbled upon PC Travel. It looks like if you have oh, about 100,000 PC points you can book a week long Disney Cruise! Unless I'm reading that wrong and a $4800 cruise will earn you that many?

Are you sure that they are not the points that you get for booking the cruise. Doesn't sound right any other way.

This is my take too. It's not very obvious, but it looks like the "points" they are posting are the points you will get if booking the cruise on your PC Mastercard. Fine print indicates that the earn rate is twice the normal rate of 10 points per dollar.

So one random cruise I looked at has a price tag of $4196, and "points" of 20 x 4196 = 83920.

Yeah, that's how many you'd earn, my son is in the process of booking a trip to Mexico and says he'll earn 3X because he has the World Elite PC Mastercard. I've been looking at Costco because we will earn 2% back since we have an Executive membership and many of the resorts offer other bonuses like this


When i book thru Costco i don't need to include airfare to most packages which would let me use my AM for that portion

 

[TFC_UNTIL_I_DIE]

I hit Onyx today

 

[tinkerone]

Yeah, that's how many you'd earn, my son is in the process of booking a trip to Mexico and says he'll earn 3X because he has the World Elite PC Mastercard. I've been looking at Costco because we will earn 2% back since we have an Executive membership and many of the resorts offer other bonuses like this
View attachment 317859View attachment 317860View attachment 317861

When i book thru Costco i don't need to include airfare to most packages which would let me use my AM for that portion

We have our next two cruises booked with Costco. I like their reward system. I'll take a Costco cash card over points any day!

 

[FLVacationGirl]

Did pretty good at Rexall today. Spent $48.97 and saved $62.16 and got the $10 gift card for next time. 6 clearance items, 5 sale items, and 1 regular priced item.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I haven't forgotten about you, just been trying to find the time to actually play around with numbers! I haven't been able to figure out what size car you were looking at based on the figures you quoted so I'm slightly lost .. BUT i used the dates you mentioned, and plugged in some dates based on the time period we would normally rent and picked compact cars to show you how small changes in dates can change only tax or make big jumps in miles. We rarely get the car the first day nor do we keep it thru the entire trip. So can you manage for just a week? if so you can bring it in under 2000 miles

• August 25th - September 1st 1,930 AM and $44.66 tax
• 26th - 1st still 1,930 but only $41.71 tax
• 27th - 1st still 1,930 but only $38.76 tax
• 26th - 2nd 1,930 and $44.66 tax
• 25th - 2nd 2,310 $52.41 tax

Now to confuse the issue even more .. if you play around with the TIME you pick up an drop off the car you can sometime save miles. Thing to remember here is that car rental periods are 24 hours regardless of when you actually show up!!

I agree with you regarding how i pay .. because of how we collect our miles we treat everything we redeem for as FREE ...a car for a week and pay only $50.. yup I'm fine with that!

Thank you! I will for sure take some time and play around with dates etc. to see what the options are. It's funny my DD loves to ride WDW buses and I prefer to have a rental car. A car makes getting around so much faster and easier.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Thank you! I will for sure take some time and play around with dates etc. to see what the options are. It's funny my DD loves to ride WDW buses and I prefer to have a rental car. A car makes getting around so much faster and easier.

I use transit at home ALL. THE. TIME. and i hate it, like loath it. Our city transit could drive me to drink if i was able to do that!! It's so $$, extremely unreliable, doesn't cover the city properly and too inconvenient , primary example i give is I need to take 2 buses to get to our mall. That takes as long as 90 minutes if i miss a connection and to drive it takes less than 15 if we hit every red light. I can get from our downtown transit centre to downtown Toronto in (get this) 90 minutes and then hop on the TTC and pay the SAME $$ to ride that system. I chose to walk the 45 minutes to get downtown if i need to make a connection instead of the bus because i would need to leave the house at the same time

SO i much prefer a rental car in Disney because it's my holiday! Hubby however, has very different thoughts, he drives all the time and enjoys taking the bus even though it takes longer. BUT now that they've added parking fees, we'll more than either stay off site or I'll suck it up and ride transit.

When playing around with the system make sure you try different locations as well, there are several in the DS area that have shuttle services. I find it helpful to pull up the rental car sites to see what those hours/services are while comparing prices.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Reminder for tomorrow's one day bonus offer at Staples



Link to the "learn more"

Terms & Conditions

 

[dancin Disney style]

I use transit at home ALL. THE. TIME. and i hate it, like loath it. Our city transit could drive me to drink if i was able to do that!! It's so $$, extremely unreliable, doesn't cover the city properly and too inconvenient , primary example i give is I need to take 2 buses to get to our mall. That takes as long as 90 minutes if i miss a connection and to drive it takes less than 15 if we hit every red light. I can get from our downtown transit centre to downtown Toronto in (get this) 90 minutes and then hop on the TTC and pay the SAME $$ to ride that system. I chose to walk the 45 minutes to get downtown if i need to make a connection instead of the bus because i would need to leave the house at the same time

SO i much prefer a rental car in Disney because it's my holiday! Hubby however, has very different thoughts, he drives all the time and enjoys taking the bus even though it takes longer. BUT now that they've added parking fees, we'll more than either stay off site or I'll suck it up and ride transit.

When playing around with the system make sure you try different locations as well, there are several in the DS area that have shuttle services. I find it helpful to pull up the rental car sites to see what those hours/services are while comparing prices.

LOL....my DD has to use TTC at school and the Go bus to get home on Friday night. She HATES it with a passion so I find it very funny that she like the WDW bus. I drive all the time and still prefer to drive on vacay.

I've rented from a bunch of different places in and around WDW. Some are better than others. For ease, I prefer the airport and I like selecting my car. So far (knock wood) I have received really nice free upgrades at the airport too.

 

[Donald - my hero]

LOL....my DD has to use TTC at school and the Go bus to get home on Friday night. She HATES it with a passion so I find it very funny that she like the WDW bus. I drive all the time and still prefer to drive on vacay.

I've rented from a bunch of different places in and around WDW. Some are better than others. For ease, I prefer the airport and I like selecting my car. So far (knock wood) I have received really nice free upgrades at the airport too.

OOOH that explains why i couldn't find the rate you quoted ... i was looking at Disney proper, hubby prefers to take MDE and not worry about the hassle of getting & returning the car at the airport. We tend to take the last flight into and out of MCO and that would mean driving in the dark when tired, not his idea of how to start and end a trip.

 

[dancin Disney style]

OOOH that explains why i couldn't find the rate you quoted ... i was looking at Disney proper, hubby prefers to take MDE and not worry about the hassle of getting & returning the car at the airport. We tend to take the last flight into and out of MCO and that would mean driving in the dark when tired, not his idea of how to start and end a trip.

We often take the last flights in/out and as a result of some loooooong slow DME rides on arrival night I would rather not do it again. I'm a person that can drive a route one time (even in a strange city) and remember it for ever after. I've done the drive from MCO so many time now that it's like driving in my own neighbourhood....actually all around Orlando and Lake Buena Vista.