How long is system upgrade supposed to last?

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

The key is that you did not book through Frontier directly to begin with. Had you done that, then I am sure they would honor their policy. However, you purchased the tickets through a 3rd party (Disney) who offers no such protections.

Agreed 100%.
Why would you buy airfare thru Disney anyway?
You will never get a better price that way, or a price adjustment if fares drop.
As Frontier told you, Disney travel company are buying bulk tickets.
Book your own airfare.
Afraid you will just have to use this $1000 as an expensive lesson.
By the way, the resorts, parks, travel company, etc, are all separate divisions.



Edit to add quote from you, OP:
"When I look online flyfrontier.com, I find that if you search for 3 tickets the price is in fact roughly $500 per ticket. When you search for an individual round trip flight, it's less than $175 per person."


Disney looked for 3 tickets, not "search for individual round trip flight", as would any travel agent. So by your own experience, the lowest it would be $1500 ($500 X 3), so what you actually got thru Disney. If you want to do as you suggest, again, you have to book yourself.
Airlines frequently advertise low prices---getting those to work for you is a different story.
To get what you want, do it yourself.

 

[bumbershoot]

Right about now I bet the Customer Service people aren't feeling the magic.

I've got a family vacation starting Friday.
I have been unable to do an online check in, our dinner reservations are a mess and the worst problem is the Airfare.

When I booked the package 4 months ago, DRC sold me Frontier Airlines for the flights. Frontier has a published fare of $80.90. Disney's total for 3 of us was $1,462. When I look online flyfrontier.com, I find that if you search for 3 tickets the price is in fact roughly $500 per ticket. When you search for an individual round trip flight, it's less than $175 per person.

I've been on the phone during the system outage since last week, trying to correct this, as it's worth just under $1,000 difference to me. Frontier Airlines is unwilling to help or change this, in spite of a published policy that if I find the airfare cheaper anywhere, they will refund the difference. WDW is unable to make it right because of their system problems.

What can I expect as a reasonable accommodation by WDW? What do the rest of you think I can ask for in compensation from WDW? I've been as nice as I can be. I've stopped for the day, each time I've felt frustration building after an hour or two on the phone for 5 sessions now.

Thoughts?

Thanks ;-)

I'm sorry; they owe you nothing. I went straight to the Frontier website and looked it up.

The guarantee offer works like this:

Purchase your ticket at FlyFrontier.com.

You didn't buy your ticket through them. Therefore, your tickets do not qualify for their guarantee.

When we buy tickets that do not qualify for a credit or refund, we owe it to ourselves to know this and to *stop looking*. If I book a ticket on Delta that's about $100, knowing that a change fee would be about that same $100, I'm NEVER going to look back once I book it. But if I book on Alaska, I will look, because they will give me a credit.

But if I book, for example, a Disneyland package through Alaska, I'm fairly certain that I will not qualify for that credit, and so I will NEVER check the airfare after I've booked.

I'm sorry you looked up the airfare.

On the other hand, since they seem to only have one ticket in that lower price "bucket", you wouldn't have been able to get them all for that cheap price anyway. Maybe you could have gotten one at that $175, but the other two would probably have been at the $500 mark, and that wouldn't have been much different.

It's just how airfares work. In the future, you'll know that you might very well be able to get that airfare for less by booking it yourself.

 

[aaarcher86]

Mimicking PPs with Disney not owing on this one.

I don't fly, but what the other posters have said makes absolute sense. It is my personal opinion that what you pay for airfare is what you pay for it. Costs may go up or down from the time of purchase - like gas. You either get lucky with the lower price, or feel like you should have waited.

But again, I don't fly. The reasoning posted above makes perfect sense for airlines that offer price changing.

But if Frontier won't make those tickets cheaper for Disney, they certainly shouldn't eat the cost which is what they would be doing if they refunded the difference before Frontier gave it back to the... and Frontier doesn't want to do that.

 

[loveshak22]

Right about now I bet the Customer Service people aren't feeling the magic.

I've got a family vacation starting Friday.
I have been unable to do an online check in, our dinner reservations are a mess and the worst problem is the Airfare.

When I booked the package 4 months ago, DRC sold me Frontier Airlines for the flights. Frontier has a published fare of $80.90. Disney's total for 3 of us was $1,462. When I look online flyfrontier.com, I find that if you search for 3 tickets the price is in fact roughly $500 per ticket. When you search for an individual round trip flight, it's less than $175 per person.

I've been on the phone during the system outage since last week, trying to correct this, as it's worth just under $1,000 difference to me. Frontier Airlines is unwilling to help or change this, in spite of a published policy that if I find the airfare cheaper anywhere, they will refund the difference. WDW is unable to make it right because of their system problems.

What can I expect as a reasonable accommodation by WDW? What do the rest of you think I can ask for in compensation from WDW? I've been as nice as I can be. I've stopped for the day, each time I've felt frustration building after an hour or two on the phone for 5 sessions now.

Thoughts?

Thanks ;-)

Disney can't do anything for you unfortunately and neither can Frontier. You could get the refund if you had purchased from Frontier and the reduced prices are for the same itinerary - this is when the Price Match Guarantee kicks in potentially (I'd have to read the policy). Disney just booked based on what prices they found at the time they looked for you. They aren't trying to find savings for you. They just look up the cost and basically book it for you. And with airfares what you get is pretty much what your stuck with.

I've never flown with Frontier but what I'd do is try to contact Frontier and tell them you want to change your tickets. You should be able to rebook your tickets at a cost of between $50 - $100 a ticket ($150 - $300 for 3 people) depending on what class ticket you have: http://www.flyfrontier.com/faqs/optional-service-fees-faqs. Then you should be able to get the cheaper tickets and get the refund for the difference in fare after you pay the fees. You won't save the entire $1,000 but if they let you do this then you could still save $700+.

Although they may also charge an external ticket handling fee if Disney issued your ticket: http://www.flyfrontier.com/faqs/change-cancel-tickets-faqs. But it looks like that's $25. So even paying the fee for the changes you should still come out ahead.

Worst case scenario, not knowing the airlines policies, you may not get the money refunded but you might get a credit for future flights.

 

[lylone]

I don't believe those were private parties at MK I'm pretty sure that was the fantasy land press event

MK was a press party event and HS was PopWarner event.
Both were not open to the public and hence were PRIVATE. So, after 7p traffic was a mess and we sat on a bus not moving for 30 minutes in the HS parking lot.
I think they should have had the events on different days. Only thing left to do was Epcot, DTD or run around screaming at the resort like most kids did that night.