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Disney Plus, the streaming service Disney launched at just the right moment to capture a lot of traffic during the pandemic, is set to increase in price next week. A reader named Derek pointed out that both new and current subscribers may be able to lock in a great deal now by stacking a streaming bonus or the Platinum PayPal credit with the Wyndham Rewards portal for either a new subscription or a gift subscription that could be sent at a later date. (Update: Reader burktech points out in the comments that the non-gift subscription requires a Hulu / ESPN bundle. Therefore, a gift subscription to yourself is the way to go.)
How to stack for a deal on Disney Plus
The first thing to know is that Disney+ is too new for me to know for sure that the option for existing subscribers is going to work as we hope it does. More on that in a second.
For new subscribers, this is very straightforward:
The Wyndham Rewards portal is currently offering 5,000 Wyndham Rewards points for a Disney Plus subscription. Given our Reasonable Redemption Value for Wyndham points is 0.7c per point, that’s a return of around $35 (give or take depending on your value for Wyndham points.Amex Platinum cardholders can check out via PayPal to use their monthly $30 PayPal credit, dropping the “net” cost to to $40 for a year of Disney Plus and 5,000 Wyndham Rewards pointsAlternatively, Chase Freedom cardholders can get 5x on select streaming services this quarter, which would be good for 350 Ultimate Rewards points (worth ~$5.25). The Citi Dividend and US Bank Cash+ also have streaming options this quarter.
Update: See the gift subscription information that follows as the new subscriber bundle above requires Hulu and ESP, whereas the gift subscription only requires Disney+ and it could be gifted to yourself.
While Wyndham Rewards may not be the most exciting currency out there, there is value in diversification. I needed a night near the start line of a road race a couple of years ago and the local Days Inn was going for $250 or 15K Wyndham points. I wasn’t excited with either option, but letting go of 15K Wyndham points was less painful that spending $250 on a Days Inn and less of a pain that staying farther out of town and having a hassle getting to the starting line.
For existing both new and subscribers, it might still be possible to lock in the current pricing with a gift subscription and an alternate email address. That’s because the Wyndham Rewards portal is also currently offering 5,000 Wyndham Rewards points for a Disney Plus gift subscription. Disney Plus will not allow a current subscriber to redeem a gift subscription, so you can’t stack this on to the end of your current subscription if you have one already (which will be a game-breaker for some).
However, if someone else in your household has not subscribed to Disney Plus, you may be able to gift a subscription to them. Interestingly, Disney will let you choose a future delivery date for the gift subscription.
There are several things I don’t know here:
- I don’t know how far in the future you can set delivery. I stopped hitting the “next” button when I got to a 2030 delivery date.
- I don’t know whether Disney will give you a full year subscription from that future starting date or whether they will simply give you $69.99 off of whatever the price is on that future date (the value that you pay today)
- I don’t know whether the Gmail trick will work here. If you don’t know what I mean, you can Google it.
There would be obvious downsides to the gift subscription method. While I could imagine gifting a future subscription today to my wife and each of my sons to lock in the current price for a few years, we’d then lose any subscriber preferences / watch history which might be an issue for some. There is also the time cost of money — is it worth pre-paying 3 or 4 years now to lock in a $10 discount per year for a service that could change completely and be less desirable? Probably not. In fact, definitely not in my case. I might gift a year to a family member for when our current subscription is set to end since I could use up the $30 Platinum PayPal credit now and I’d consider the year very close to a wash with the value of the Wyndham points. I probably won’t go beyond that.
Whether you’re a new subscriber or you are ultimately able to take advantage of the Gift Subscription, this is a pretty good deal given the ability to stack the Wyndham points and PayPal credit (or still decent with a streaming bonus).
Note that Doctor of Credit also posted an Ibotta deal for “75% cash back”, but that’s capped at $17.50 back (Ibotta is misleading in advertising that as 75% back in my opinion). Unless you value Wyndham points at about a third of a penny per point, the Wyndham points are a better deal.
H/T: Reader Derek
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Does freedom unlimited card not have the quarterly bonuses that you need to sign up for? I go to chasebonus.com enter the info but it gives an error. But not sure.
No, it doesn’t. The freedom unlimited card is 1.5x everywhere. The Freedom card is rotating 5x categories on up to 1500 spend per quarter.
My deal shows you have to subscribe to the Disney+ bundle (Disney+ Hulu and EPPN+). This costs a lot more than just Disney+ which makes the deal not so great.
You’re totally right. The solution is to gift yourself a gift subscription then. I’ll update the post, thanks.
Nick – So now I go the gift subscription page (Wyndham Rewards Shopping : Disney+ US – Gift Subscription – collect Points with Wyndham Rewards Shopping) and hit “Shop Now”. It takes me to the bundle page with no mention of a gift subscription. What a I missing?
I’ve run into this too. Can I just navigate to the gift page somehow?
Yeah, the Wyndham link isn’t directing to the right page. I have a workaround publishing shortly.
YMMV as to whether or not it works: https://frequentmiler.com/how-to-make-that-disney-deal-work-for-5k-wyndham-points/
I accidentally purchased the regular (not gift) subscription the first time I tried this using this original method and got this in my Wyndham account:
03/22/2021 Disney+ US – Gift Subscription
$69.99 Pending 6,248
So it provided more points for the regular subscription and still tracked. I guess that’s good if you are signing up for the first time.
By “regular subscription” do you mean you just signed up for a Disney+ only $69.99 yearly subscription for yourself? That’s interesting that you got 6,248 points while the gift subscription workaround only gets 4,998. Trying to decide with method to use!
Yes, sorry for the confusion. Disney+ only for $69.99/yr.
Road race? Do tell. . .
LOL. There was a time in my life where I was in the vicinity of fit. Not much more story than that. I was a competitive runner in a past life (ran Division I track & cross country what feels like a lifetime ago). My wife eventually convinced me to revisit that time and I ran a couple of marathons and a couple of 5K-15K road races. My toddler now runs circles around me and it takes at least 3 cups of coffee a day to keep up. End of story.
Ah. Thought you might have meant car racing a la cannonball run or road rallying.
This is a good tip, thanks.
One thing that I don’t necessarily agree with is that the Platinum Paypal credit should be included as cost-reduction for stacks. Given that PayPal is incredibly versatile, and almost anyone can find a way to use it on something they would have bought anyhow, it makes more sense to me to think of it as cash. In other words, the “net” cost here is not $40-(5000 Wyndham points), but rather $70-(5000 Wyndham points). That’s because there is an opportunity loss on that credit usage, and it’s pretty much 100% here (if I weren’t using the $30 credit here, I could fully utilize it elsewhere).
I think that applies to most people.
Good point. I agree that the PayPal credit is extremely easy to put to use. On the flip side, at least in my case, I haven’t bought anything yet this month where using PayPal would have been the convenient option. Now I’m kind of glad I didn’t go out of my way to do so because I’ll be happy to get $30 back on something I would have paid full price for. But your point is certainly valid.