How to Book a Trip to Disneyland on Points

Anyone who has been to a Disney resort, be it Disney World or Disneyland, knows that it comes with a hefty price tag. With some careful planning, though, you can reduce the costs with some strategic moves.

Prior to the pandemic, I wrote a couple of posts on travelling to Disney World on points. This past summer, we spent a week in California and visited Disneyland, California Adventure Park, and Universal Studios Hollywood. 

Most of the tips and tricks for Disney World also apply to Disneyland, but we’ll also look at a few additional strategies in the current context. Let’s dive right in.

Diversify Your Points Currencies

Saving for a Disney trip requires the same strategy we’ve been employing all along: credit card welcome bonuses and maximizing earnings on daily spending. Specific to Disney, the difference is in which cards one needs to sign up for, and which points currencies one needs to earn.

Generally speaking, we tend to focus a lot on American Express Membership Rewards, Aeroplan, and RBC Avion for their versatility in flight and hotel redemptions. You’ll still need these currencies when it comes to booking your flights and hotels, but when it comes to other costs, you’ll need to focus your strategies elsewhere.

When booking a family trip to Disneyland, using points from a variety of programs comes into play. For flights and hotels, you can use the usual suspects, while to pay for Disney park passes and other incidentals, you can explore various flexible points programs.

Of course, the bigger the family you have, the more you may need to diversify your point currencies to cover the costs.

Use Companion Vouchers or Points for Flights to Disneyland

Flights to Disneyland are easy to book with cash or points, as Air Canada and WestJet both provide flights into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The only thing is that LAX is located up to over an hour’s drive from Disneyland, depending on traffic.

If you’re travelling from Calgary or Vancouver, WestJet runs a direct flight into John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, which can cut the drive to Disneyland by more than half. Air Canada also flies from Vancouver to Orange County, so if you’re based out of Western Canada, be sure to consider both options.

For most families, flying economy will be the way to go, given that most flights to Disneyland will only be three to five hours in duration.