November 8, 2023
I Bought a Disney Gift Card & Earned a Free Hotel Night
Jess
My family of six is going on a Disney cruise to Alaska next summer, and I am on a mission to rack up as many points as possible in the process of paying off our cruise. Last week I purchased a $500 Disney gift card from CVS, and in the process I earned enough points for a free Hyatt hotel night. Here’s how I earned a free hotel night by buying Disney gift cards…
The Card I Used
Each quarter, the Chase Freedom Flex offers 5x points (on up to $1,500 in purchases) in select categories. This quarter, those categories are PayPal, wholesale clubs, and select charities. You must activate the 5x option before shopping.
PayPal is one of my favorite 5x categories because I find it so easy to max out. Not only that, but the Freedom Flex also earns additional points at drugstores. I was able to use my Freedom Flex in conjunction with PayPal to earn 7x at CVS.
How I Paid
PayPal and CVS teamed up in 2020 to allow payment in-store via PayPal QR code. That means when you use your PayPal QR code at CVS and select your Freedom Flex as the payment card, you can earn 7x on purchases this quarter!
Here’s how to set up the QR code in your PayPal app. First, you will want to add your Freedom Flex card to your PayPal account. Once you login to the app, you will see the QR code icon in the top right corner.
After selecting the QR code icon, navigate to the “Show to Pay” tab and select “Get Started.” The app will walk you through the steps of setting up your QR code and adding a card; this is where you will want to add your Freedom Flex as the payment card.
Once it is set up, you will simply click “Show to Pay” at checkout at CVS and have them scan the QR code.
Points Earned by Buying a Disney Gift Card
I purchased a $500 Disney gift card (+ a candy bar 😜) and earned over 3,500 Ultimate Rewards points. That’s enough for a free off-peak night at a Hyatt category 1 hotel!
I am planning to purchase more $500 gift cards at CVS using this method to max out the $1,500 quarterly bonus spend on both my Flex and my husband’s. That means the $3,000 in Disney gift cards that I’ll put towards our cruise balance will net us 21,000 points that we’ll transfer to Hyatt! Pretty incredible.
I love coming up with ways to maximize the points I earn, and this quarter it’s even easier with the Freedom Flex + PayPal! Will you be testing out this method?
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Thank you for this post! We are going on a Disney cruise next summer, and this is so helpful. I had no idea you could use PayPal to pay for anything in-person!
This is SO HELPFUL! Thank you!!!
So clever! Do office supply stores sell Disney Gift Cards?
I believe so but you would need to check.
I’ve gone to several CVS’s and all get declined. I was trying to buy $500 visa gift cards. Anyone know why?
What do you mean you are declined? Your card is declined?
Did you get a text message for a fraud alert? My card was declined when I tried to buy gift cards at Best Buy then go right to CVS to do the same, but then I immediately got a text message asking if the purchase was me and to approve then try the charge again and it worked.