Visit Disneyland Paris with Points

Categories: Redeeming Points, Where to Stay with PointsBy Last Updated: January 25, 2024

In March 2020, our family visited Disneyland Paris right before pandemic lockdowns took affect. We had a great time! We decided to go because we had been told it was less crowded and a smaller and more manageable park. Ticket prices are cheaper than US parks — and even better — US military members (including Veterans) get 50% off tickets. Here’s how we paid for it with points, and how you can, too.

Flights to Paris

The first part of planning a trip to Disneyland Paris with points for most people will be the flights to get there. We were in the midst of our family gap year when we went to Paris so we were just coming from London. We booked cheap flights on Vueling Airlines. It cost us 123 Euro for all four of us to fly from London to Paris, or about $150.

Your best option for round-trip flights to Europe will partly depend on your home airport and if it is a hub for a certain airline. Here are a few card combos that could get a family of 4 to Paris. There are some other options with airline partners and transferring points for more advanced award bookings, but these will be more straightforward for newer travel points earners.

American Airlines

A round-trip economy ticket from the US to Europe is typically 60,000 miles round trip, or sometimes as cheap as 45,000 miles round trip if you travel off-peak.

What I like about saving up American Airlines miles is that there are four different cards that can each give you a big chunk of miles. That makes it easier to save up for a family trip. Two of the cards are business cards and two are personal credit cards. If you and your spouse each open them all, that’s 8 possible cards! The cards are issued by both Barclays and Citi.

The Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is especially easy to earn a bonus on, usually you can earn 60,000 miles after your first purchase and paying the annual fee of $99. Just keep in mind the Chase 5/24 rule if you are new to applying to cards.

United Airlines

United flights can generally be found for 60,000 miles round trip from the US to Europe if you are somewhat flexible and can book in advance. Officially there is no award chart or standard price.

One nice perk when booking with United miles is that due to what’s called the “Excursionist” Perk, essentially you can add one more destination into your itinerary if you wanted to see another place in Europe. So you could fly from Chicago to Paris, then from Paris to Venice, and then from Venice all the way back to Chicago for the same price as a round-trip Chicago to Paris.

To save up United miles, I’d recommend the opening a United℠ Explorer, United Quest, and United℠ Business card. What’s nice about United is that once one person has a United card, they can refer their friends (or spouse) to another United card and get a referral bonus.

credit card

Current Bonus:

50,000 miles

Earn 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.

Annual Fee:

$95

$0 for your first year, then $95.

  • Enjoy priority boarding privileges and visit the United Club℠ with 2 one-time passes each year for your anniversary
  • Free checked bag for account holder and one companion on the same reservation
  • Free TSA Precheck or Global Entry credit
  • Get one-year complimentary DashPass, a membership for both DoorDash and Caviar that provides unlimited deliveries with $0 delivery fees and lower service fees on eligible orders.

United just quietly upped their pricing for flights booked with points, so that was a disappointment to see (though it is part of points inflation). This is a slightly higher than usual offer. I like that the annual fee is waived in the first year and those two guest passes to United Club are nice!

An offer expired in August 2022 for 70K after $3K spend. A standard offer is 50k bonus miles.

You can also get a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and transfer the points to United.

welcome offer:

60,000 points

Go> Earn 60,000 Ultimate Rewards® points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Annual Fee:

$95

  • No foreign transaction fees
  • $15 per quarter statement credit for Instacart
  • Great transfer options to Hyatt, United, Southwest, and more
  • Enjoy benefits such as 5x on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases, and $50 annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit, plus more.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of my top beginner cards for miles & points. This limited time bonus can get you at least $1000 of travel. The travel insurance it provides is top tier, too! Get this card early in your travel points journey, it’s a keeper.

A publicly available online offer for 80,000 points ran from March 2023-May 2023. Another 80,000 point bonus ended in Fall 2022. Standard bonus is 60,000 points.

An offer for 100,000 points ended in Fall 2021.

Delta

As a Christmas present, we flew my mom to meet us in Paris. We booked my mom a flight on Delta in Comfort + for 64,000 points round trip + $90. Delta has variable award pricing — I have seen round trip flights to Europe for as little as 32,000 points round trip, or much much more. Traveling off-season would definitely help.

American Express has 3 personal and 3 business cards that earn Delta miles. Bonuses often range from 60,000-90,000 miles.

Hotels Near Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Resort Properties

One of the big advantages of Disneyland Paris is that you can book into the Disneyland Resort properties on points! This gives you easy access to the parks with free shuttles and even better — Extra Magic Hours where you can enter the park an hour early. The best way to do this is with a Capital One Venture X. You will earn 10x miles (essentially like a 10% discount) on your hotel booking and then you can “erase” your purchase with your miles. Prices will vary based on property, season, and dates. These are some of the cheapest weekend rates I found in Spring 2022. There may be some dates that don’t show availability.

Disneyland Paris with points

welcome offer:

75,000 miles

Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel

Annual Fee:

$395

  • $300 annual travel credit when booking through Capital One’s portal
  • 10,000 points every year on account anniversary (worth at least $100)
  • Statement credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck
  • Easy airport lounge access for your whole family
  • Miles can be redeemed to erase any travel purchase. 75,000 miles = $750
  • Can be transferred to a variety of partners like Jet Blue, Wyndham, Avianca, Turkish Airways and more.
  • Get my downloadable checklist here so you can max your benefits

Don’t let the annual fee of $395 scare you. The $300 annual travel credit and a slew of other benefits make this card a keeper. Plus you’ll immediately up your travel game with airport lounge access and Hertz Presidents’ Club status. Read my complete guide here.

When this card was released in November 2021, it had a 100,000 miles bonus offered (with a $10,000 spend requirement over 6 months). Since March 2022, it has had the same 75,000 mile bonus offer.

Starting October 6, 2023 – a new 90k offer was available exclusively through select referral links. This ended early in December 2023.

You could also combine miles from two people’s accounts — or between a Venture and Venture X.

Marriott’s Village d’ile-de-France

This is the property our family stayed at while we were visiting Disneyland Paris. You can take the hotel shuttle to Disneyland Paris for about 2 euro per person or the public bus. We took the public bus because we had week-long Paris transport passes.

Disneyland Paris with points

As a Category 4 Property, rooms start at just 25,000 points per night. Standard rooms are Studio Suites that include a full kitchen. Unfortunately I cannot currently find even 1 date of availability on points at this property in the next year! We didn’t actually use Marriott points to book when we stayed because cash rates were low. Instead we used our Chase Ultimate Rewards® points to book through the online portal. This way we were also able to book a 3 bedroom townhouse which was incredibly spacious. We had a full kitchen and washer and dryer.

This property also has a drop-off kid’s club with free activities for kids. We even enjoyed complimentary adult activities — like wine tasting and painting.

Current Bonus:

Limited time offer! Earn 5 free night awards

Earn 5 Free Night Awards (each night valued up to 50,000 points) after you spend $5,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from your account opening.

Annual Fee:

$95

(Terms Apply)

  • Earn up to 17X total points per $1 spent at thousands of hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Card.
  • Earn 3X Bonvoy points per $1 on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining.
  • 1 Free Night Award annually after your Card account anniversary (up to 35k)
  • After holding this card for 1 year, you can upgrade to the Ritz Carlton card, which is one option for families to get airport lounge access.

If you like Marriott, this is a solid card to get and then hold on to — we find that the annual free night is easy to redeem at hotels that cost $250+ per night. That’s a half price hotel! Some people prefer the welcome bonus that includes certificates for up to 50k per night, but keep in mind these expire within a year of earning so you need to have a redemption in mind. Check out my map of family friendly Marriotts for inspiration.

Bonus fluctuates from 75,000 bonus points and up. Sometimes the bonus is 3 or 5 free night certificates for up to 50k per night. Note that personal referral offers often don’t match the best available offer.

Other Properties

There are a lot of properties in the vicinity of Disneyland Paris that can be booked through the Capital One portal and erased with miles. Just like the Disneyland Paris resort properties, you will earn 10x on your booking if you book with a Venture X and can erase your purchase with points.

welcome offer:

75,000 miles

Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel

Annual Fee:

$395

  • $300 annual travel credit when booking through Capital One’s portal
  • 10,000 points every year on account anniversary (worth at least $100)
  • Statement credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck
  • Easy airport lounge access for your whole family
  • Miles can be redeemed to erase any travel purchase. 75,000 miles = $750
  • Can be transferred to a variety of partners like Jet Blue, Wyndham, Avianca, Turkish Airways and more.
  • Get my downloadable checklist here so you can max your benefits

Don’t let the annual fee of $395 scare you. The $300 annual travel credit and a slew of other benefits make this card a keeper. Plus you’ll immediately up your travel game with airport lounge access and Hertz Presidents’ Club status. Read my complete guide here.

When this card was released in November 2021, it had a 100,000 miles bonus offered (with a $10,000 spend requirement over 6 months). Since March 2022, it has had the same 75,000 mile bonus offer.

Starting October 6, 2023 – a new 90k offer was available exclusively through select referral links. This ended early in December 2023.

Disneyland Paris Tickets

Disneyland Paris ticket prices vary based on dates. We purchased 2 day, 2 park tickets and found that was a good amount of time to explore both parks. We especially enjoyed the shows in Walt Disney Studios Park — the stunt show was great!

Disneyland Paris with points
Disneyland Paris ticket prices for 1 Day/1 Park in 2022. Sometimes winter sales will drop the prices even cheaper.
Disneyland Paris with points
To compare, here are the ticket prices for Disneyland California.

Currently, Disneyland Paris is not offering anything but 1 day, 1 park tickets online. Other options may be available at the gate.

US Military and Veteran Discount

Tickets are even cheaper if you have a US Veteran or military member in your group! You have to buy a 2 day, 2 park ticket to access this 50% discount. You can purchase your tickets at the gate and just show a military or veteran ID.

Some report says 5 is the maximum tickets you can purchase with this discount. We were able to buy 3 adult and 2 children’s tickets with no issue and my husband showing a veteran ID.

2 day/2 park tickets were about $200 each when we went, so after the discount we paid $100 each.

Using Points for Tickets

The easiest way to cover your ticket purchase with points would be to use a card that gives you a cash back bonus. The Bank of America Premium Rewards is an easy one and the one we used.

non affiliate link

credit card

welcome offer:

60,000 points

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening.

Annual Fee:

$95

  • $100 annual airline incidental credit

Miles and Points Strategy

Look at the categories above to determine which areas of the trip you want to cover with points. Take into account the Chase 5/24 rule when determining when to apply for cards. Apply for cards steadily, taking turns with a spouse. Then enjoy your trip!

Visit Disneyland Paris with Points
Visit Disneyland Paris with Points
Visit Disneyland Paris with Points
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Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

2 Comments
  1. Bettersafe January 4, 2022 at 12:09 pm - Reply

    Great content! Keep up the good work!

  2. […] For a lot of families, saving up for a Disney vacation is a big deal! And staying at Disney Hotels can make that vacation even more magical. There are lots of hotel options that allow you to stay near Disneyland in California, Disney World in Orlando, or Disneyland Paris on points. But here are some ways you can use your points to stay at a Disney Hotel. Or check out my post all about Disneyland Paris. […]

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