Getting to Orlando, Car Hire and other upgrades

[bernard301]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum and going to Orlando in June for 4 days with my partner and 4 month old daughter before moving on to Cape Coral for 10 days.

After a few days of browsing I'm realising we should probably have had at least another couple of days before going to the cost, but i now know that for next time (when DD is older and will appreciate it)

After browsing the forums I see I've followed the trend of most on here, joining Avis preferred, to make sure I skip the queues at the car rental desk.

I did however want to give some advice to others out there If I may. It reads as a bit of a chore but may be worth it for many of you.

My partner and I have become fairly obsessed with collecting air miles, so much so that we have paid for all of our PE economy flights with Virigin and the Avis car hire through our saved miles. through this we were introduced to the AMEX Platinum Charge Card. we found this to be exceptional value for our holidays. The card has a hefty annual fee (£450) but this is refunded pro rata on cancellation (or downgrade of the card) Whilst that sounds expensive, for that you get free travel insurance, free car hire insurance, elevated hotel status in a number of hotel chains (including starwood/marriott), presidents circle status with Hertz (and when you achive this status, AVIS will match it) as well as Priority Pass membership giving you free lounge access. They also have a very generous sign up bonus of 30,000 miles when you spend £2000, which while on holiday is very easily done.

We have tended to churn the card annually for our main holiday to hit the bonus and get the hotel and care hire status before cancelling the card on our return home. The benefits from what tends to work out as about a £75 investment are fantastic (just with the bonus points we saved £300 on our hire car this year and are due a guaranteed upgrade at MCO as well)

My apologies to the Mods if this seems to be me trying to sell the card but I have no affiliation with Amex, I'm just trying to pass on what I ee to be a great way to save money and add some extra beenfit to your holidays!