Undercover Tourist Tickets and Price Bridging

[erineab]

I have read through the "Everything About WDW Tickets" sticky, but I just want to clarify that I am understanding this correctly.
I am looking to buy my tickets through Undercover Tourist. I expect that we will need 7 day base tickets for our upcoming trip (we only have 5 park days planned currently but would like some flexibility to go to the parks for fireworks or Fantasmic, even on our "pool" days).
I'm wondering if we are further ahead to just purchase the 5 day MYW tix from UT (at a savings of 16.00 off the gate price) instead of buying the 7 day MYW (which is only a 6.00 savings). If we are not penalized for price bridging, wouldn't it make more sense to just buy a 5 day ticket and price bridge once we have used the tickets?
Has anyone had any recent experience with price bridging? There was a thread a few weeks ago about someone who tried to price bridge to an annual pass, but was only given credit for what was paid for the original ticket (the discounted value, rather than the gate value).
I'm a little perplexed!! Any clarification would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Jestocost]

I have read through the "Everything About WDW Tickets" sticky, but I just want to clarify that I am understanding this correctly.
I am looking to buy my tickets through Undercover Tourist. I expect that we will need 7 day base tickets for our upcoming trip (we only have 5 park days planned currently but would like some flexibility to go to the parks for fireworks or Fantasmic, even on our "pool" days).
I'm wondering if we are further ahead to just purchase the 5 day MYW tix from UT (at a savings of 16.00 off the gate price) instead of buying the 7 day MYW (which is only a 6.00 savings). If we are not penalized for price bridging, wouldn't it make more sense to just buy a 5 day ticket and price bridge once we have used the tickets?
Has anyone had any recent experience with price bridging? There was a thread a few weeks ago about someone who tried to price bridge to an annual pass, but was only given credit for what was paid for the original ticket (the discounted value, rather than the gate value).
I'm a little perplexed!! Any clarification would be greatly appreciated!

You should be able to get the current gate value of the ticket as credit toward an upgrade of any kind even if you purchased the ticket at a discount from UT provided you use the ticket at least once first. There are reports of CMs who don't know or are too lazy to apply the price bridging procedure--I had that problem once myself--but if you run into that problem just ask for a manager or, if all else fails, take your ticket back and try again at another time and/or place. Just make sure you know what you should be paying for the upgrade you want in advance.

Since the five-day ticket represents a larger savings over the gate price than the seven-day ticket, you would "lock-in" a larger savings by purchasing that ticket vs. the seven-day if you decide to upgrade. Also, if you're not sure if you want to add the days or not, it's smarter to buy fewer days, save the money (albeit not much when you're talking five versus seven days) and add one or more days only if and when you need to.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

I had no problem with upgrading my 6 day + hopper to an AP. I just verified with the CM that was how he was going to do it, and I knew how much the price difference was.

 

[cjnix29]

I was planning to do the same thing, but was wondering if there would be any changes/trouble to do this after the price increase. With the phasing out of the non expiring tickets, wondered if there would be additional changes. We aren't going until June, so I am hesitant to buy now.

 

[Jestocost]

I was planning to do the same thing, but was wondering if there would be any changes/trouble to do this after the price increase. With the phasing out of the non expiring tickets, wondered if there would be additional changes. We aren't going until June, so I am hesitant to buy now.

Unfortunately nobody knows what the future holds as far as any of the current ticket policies. I assume that no tickets will lose existing entitlements, so existing non-expiring tickets will continue to be valid even if the non-expiring option is no longer available on new tickets. Whether or not they will continue price bridging or other current practices that aren't entitlements isn't clear. As long as they continue to support discount resellers it would seem that they might have to but they could make other changes to deal with those issues.

 

[buckeev]

I had no problem with upgrading my 6 day + hopper to an AP. I just verified with the CM that was how he was going to do it, and I knew how much the price difference was.

That's exactly what I did last visit, and It went very smooth. Shout out... I can honestly say the CMs at MK City Hall were outstanding In dealing with us!....(we can sometimes be a bit of a challenge to handle!)

 

[jennyjinx3]

just bumping this up to ask again, if UT is still selling NE tickets, will Guest Relations honor them when upgrading to AP's??? Anyone done this recently??

 

[ghtx]

just bumping this up to ask again, if UT is still selling NE tickets, will Guest Relations honor them when upgrading to AP's??? Anyone done this recently??

No, I haven't done this myself, but I can't imagine any scenario in which they would not allow you to price bridge and upgrade them, as long as you're within the rules (e.g. the 14-day limit). I would think that if they stopped honoring UT NE tickets, we would be hearing about it (a lot) on the DIS.

 

[cigar95]

I upgraded two non-expiring tickets from UT just two weeks ago, and the bridging was handled correctly. One was upgraded to an AP, and the other to a ten-day ticket.

Non-expiring tickets will continue to be accepted for admission - however, it is conceivable that if such tickets are no longer offered for sale, they might no longer be "bridgeable", as there would no longer be a current price to bridge them to.

In the larger picture, nothing prevents WDW from removing bridging entirely. In that sense, it's a bit of a risk to buy from UT, as the price they paid WDW for the ticket is a LOT less than what you pay them for it.

 

[seashoreCM]

When tickets went out of style, as did Park Hopper Plus tickets in 2005, historically ...

1. Partially used ones could not be upgraded at all, but could be used as-is*.
2. Unused ones could be traded in and valued at roughly (usually a little less than) what you paid, or used as-is*.

* If they did not fit in the turnstiles, they would be exchanged at no charge for tickets that did fit and with equal (remaining) privileges;

 

[BonnieA]

Just hope you get a knowledgable CM when you do the transaction. I was given a hard time at Epcot Guest Relations. He wanted to charge over $100 for three days cause he said my tickets were promotional tickets (bought them from UT). He finally checked with a manager and I was charged the correct price. This happened in November.