Refund?

We booked our package back in January, park hopper tickets for 8 days and 8 nights at ASMo with QS dining plan for myself, my DH, our daughter and my DH's nephew. Our airfare was through American Airlines.

Unfortunately, our nephew has decided that he does not want to go (a week beforehand). He has been skipping school and getting into trouble.. to the tune of about $2000 of our money down the toilet. I know that the fine print says that tickets and packages are nontransferable and non-refundable.. but then it says that if we purchased a non-expiration option we may be able to use them toward a later vacation. I'm pretty sure we did not purchase this option, but if we did, does the 14 days start after the individual uses their ticket or after someone included in the package uses theirs?

If refund in not an option, can we at least use the meals and fast passes?

We did purchase travel insurance, but I am not sure an unruly teen qualifies us for a refund that route.

Could really use some pixie dust.. this has been an extremely disappointing day. I am angry that we passed up an opportunity to have some more expensive meals and a better resort to make the trip affordable to include him. What the heck is wrong with kids these days?!

Thanks for any help you may have, I plan on calling the TA Monday AM but I thought maybe you guys could ease my anxiety. It is going to be a long weekend.. lol

I believe the non expiration is no longer available with the new ticket pricing this year. It had to be explicitly requested in the previous year.

The 14 day window only starts when that particular ticket has been scanned for admission the first time. A ticket can be assigned to anyone until the biometrics for the holder are logged into the system. At worst you could use the ticket later. If I understand correctly, currently a ticket does not have to be scanned into the park to work for FP+. It seems unlikely that the admission aspect would be lost if that is the case. There are several people on the Theme Park Strategies board that closely follow these issues.

I'm far from an expert on dining plans. You may be able to spread your nephew's credits to other members of the party. There is a sub thread for the dining plan under the restaurant board. You can most likely get a better answer there.

You could always call Disney and see if they can accommodate. I know in some circumstances they can be flexible. It might be worth a 20 minute call.

Sorry to point you in other directions. Good luck.

If you're a week out you can drop him off the reservation. You'll get a $50 change fee and a $15 document fee but the rest would be refunded.

I'd probably do that and have the majority of the money back.

His ticket won't expire if it doesn't get used, and I don't see why the ticket couldn't be saved for a future trip (tickets being nontransferable only refers to after they've been used at least once, because then a finger scan is associated with the ticket). It's my understanding that Magic Bands don't have to be scanned for admission into the park in order to use the FPs associated with them, and you can definitely use the meal credits any way you want. (Well, you can't order four meals at one sitting with only three of you now in the group, but you can use the extra credits for meals that you would've originally had to pay out of pocket, since the meal plan doesn't give you enough credits to cover 3 meals a day.)

aaarcher86 said:

If you're a week out you can drop him off the reservation. You'll get a $50 change fee and a $15 document fee but the rest would be refunded.

I'd probably do that and have the majority of the money back.

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Our week was actually yesterday.. is 1 week the cut off for editing your reservation?

MommaRN said:

Our week was actually yesterday.. is 1 week the cut off for editing your reservation?

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No you still could do what I suggested.

Thanks

siskaren said:

His ticket won't expire if it doesn't get used, and I don't see why the ticket couldn't be saved for a future trip (tickets being nontransferable only refers to after they've been used at least once, because then a finger scan is associated with the ticket).

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As was previously pointed out, the No Expiration Option is no longer an option. If you did however have it, it would be honored. Even if you used the ticket, the No Expire option means the remaining days not used are still valid. However, if you do not have the No Expire option, the tickets are good for 1 year from date of purchase and only 14 days from date of first use. It's the individual ticket that is the issue, so if you don't use his ticket, it will be good for 1 year from date of purchase. Also you could give it to someone else to use up until the Biometric data is recorded. Once it's recorded, it is no longer transferable and of course you now have 14 days to use it.

siskaren said:

It's my understanding that Magic Bands don't have to be scanned for admission into the park in order to use the FPs associated with them,

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I am not so sure about this. I would think the FP+ is associated with the Band which is associated with a ticket. If this was not the case, then people might be using alternate MagicBands to abuse the FP+ System. Personally, I wouldn't chance it. Is an extra 3 FP+ for a day worth the risk or effort?

siskaren said:

and you can definitely use the meal credits any way you want. (Well, you can't order four meals at one sitting with only three of you now in the group, but you can use the extra credits for meals that you would've originally had to pay out of pocket, since the meal plan doesn't give you enough credits to cover 3 meals a day.)

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I agree and disagree. You can use the DDP any way you want. One person can use all the "Credits" or you can divy them up. Disney doesn't care. I am pretty sure that you could also use 4 Table services for 3 people if you wanted to. It doesn't matter to Disney one way or the other. They got paid for them. If 3 people are that hungry that they want to share a 4th meal, then they could certainly do it.

All that being said, I would opt to try and get the refund first. It's probably more worth it then trying to use up all the extra DDP's. Again, the tickets are good for a year.

peg110 said:

the tickets are good for 1 year from date of purchase . It's the individual ticket that is the issue, so if you don't use his ticket, it will be good for 1 year from date of purchase.

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This is not correct. As long as the ticket is completely unused it will remain valid until first used so it can be saved and used on a trip next year or many years from now or given to someone else to use. Once the ticket is used for the first time it will expire 14 days later.

peg110 said:

I agree and disagree. You can use the DDP any way you want. One person can use all the "Credits" or you can divy them up. Disney doesn't care. I am pretty sure that you could also use 4 Table services for 3 people if you wanted to. It doesn't matter to Disney one way or the other. They got paid for them. If 3 people are that hungry that they want to share a 4th meal, then they could certainly do it.

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The dining credits are allocated to the room so anyone in the room could use his dining credits. Since the OP has the QS dining plan, they could easily order 4 meals if they wish since at most QS restaurants not everyone has to be in the ordering lines and their MBs indicate there are 4 people on the dining plan. Probably the same would apply at TS meals if they had the regular DDP even if only 3 people are seated at the table, but more likely the extra credits would be used to pay for additional meals or to cover 2 credit meals such as dinner shows or signature restaurants.

peg110 said:

However, if you do not have the No Expire option, the tickets are good for 1 year from date of purchase and only 14 days from date of first use.

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Since when? Everything I've ever read says that unused tickets never expire.

peg110 said:

I am pretty sure that you could also use 4 Table services for 3 people if you wanted to. It doesn't matter to Disney one way or the other. They got paid for them. If 3 people are that hungry that they want to share a 4th meal, then they could certainly do it.

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Again, I've always read that Disney will not let you use more credits than there are people on the reservation (which used to be indicated on the KTTW cards and I would assume is also indicated when the Magic Bands are swiped) because dining credits are not to be used by people who are not on the reservation, although actually, if the fourth person isn't removed from the reservation, then Disney wouldn't have any way of knowing that only three people are using the credits. I was actually thinking of the opposite scenario, where there's only 3 people on the reservation, but they're trying to use the credits for four people, which is definitely not allowed.

I stand corrected. I seem to recall that when I had purchased tickets previously that I was told that they expire 1 year from date of purchase. I tried to find a "Resource" online that confirmed this, but was not able to. In fact all I could really find is that if a part has been used, then you do have 14 days to finish it. So I decided to call Disney. A pleasant CM did confirm that if you have not used the pass at all, it does not expire. There are a couple of exceptions (most notable is for Florida Residents) but essentially, it doesn't expire if you don't use it.

I am still pretty confident about the meal plan though. I guess the only real advantage of only allowing you to use the amount of TS for the amount of guests at your table is to prevent you from "Sharing" your DDP with someone that doesn't have a DDP. Either way, it's something you purchased. There is no real discount to using the DDP. It's more about convenience then anything else. I suppose the only real exception is if you are taking advantage of a "Free" DDP offer. But as I understand it, that is usually only QS and/or Snacks. As pointed out, often times, one or 2 person/people will get the food for the "Group" as such they don't really know how many are with you (at that time). Maybe they know how many are in your group, but that doesn't mean they are all with you at the location where you are getting food.