AAA discount and free quick service dining pin

[anjalee6]

Can someone that has more experience than me please help me figure this out? So we booked through AAA this year and I got a room discount through them, but a couple of weeks ago I recieved an email with a pin for free quick service dining. I called Disney and the first lady I talked to said that you could use both the AAA discount and the FD offer. The second person I talked to said, no you couldn't. I am really confused. Who is correct? Am I able to use both or do I have to pick one or the other? The AAA discount alone gives us about a $400 savings over just the FD. But I would still like to know if you can use both.

 

[DisneyDebbie]

I've never heard of anyone getting both discounts. It's been one OR the other.

 

[ccgirl]

PP is correct. You cannot combine discounts. Although it has happened on a very rare occasion.

 

[anjalee6]

Thanks for the info. I am going to stick with the AAA discount then since it is more of a discount.

 

[su_A_ve]

Thanks for the info. I am going to stick with the AAA discount then since it is more of a discount.

Do the math! Typically AAA discount is about 10% and on the room only portion. You should compare apples to apples - make sure your reservations include the same number of days and options, and that you already have a dining plan attached to it...

You cannot combine the discounts however. So if you currently have a package without dining but with a AAA discount, sure the PIN will make your total be higher. IE, your AAA discount does not apply, but you'll get free dining.

In any case, your AAA can apply a PIN offer to your reservation. Your TA will be able to tell you for sure which one will be better.

 

[anjalee6]

We booked our AAA reservation with deluxe dining and the rooms and all. When I talked to the Walt Disney Travel Company representative, they priced out the same room, days, options, and deluxe dining upgrade from the free quick service and the price was $400 more expensive then if we just did the AAA discount. So, since we can't apply both the Free Dining and the AAA discount, that would mean that the AAA is better unless I am not doing the math correctly, but that is what I got at least.

 

[beth_cam]

2 things come to mind.

1 - as the previous poster said, there may be something wrong with the reservation. I have seen many many many posts where the poster said they were absolutely sure that both the reservations were the exact same. Absolutely refused to believe us that something might be wrong with their reservation. Then they come back later with soemthing like "can you believe they left off one of my kids" or "can you believe that they the said they included delux dining but it turns out that they only put in regular ddp." Or on the other side the Disney travel company quote may have inlcuded extra things. Like how water parks and hopping on your tickets, or insurance which they automatically include unless you tell them not to. You need to double check the actual reservation you already have to be sure. Call AAA and ask them to read off the specifics of the reservation to you (or check any written conformation you have.

Check the math here -
Free quick service dining should save you $30/night/adult. Since you said we, I'm going to just assume that that is atleast two adults in the room, making your savings atleast $60/night.
To get $60/night savings with a AAA discount of even 20% (I believe that is the biggest % off they offer) your room would have to be $300/night. More often the discount is only 10 - 15% which means your room would have to be atleast 400-600/night. Then you are saying that that AAA discount is not only better than the free dining discount savings but $400 better. Which would mean your room would have to be that much more expensive.

2-If your original reservation was with AAA you can only access that reservation through AAA. If you decide to work through Disney, you will have to cancel your AAA reservation. SO again, I would call AAA. Verify what you have and ask them to price out what the change from AAA discount to the free quick service dining would be. They can change which discount you will use without cancelling your original reservation.

OOPS I know you were talking about free dining not free kids. I don't know why I typed that.

 

[kittycat9]

To begin with, you need to contact your AAA agent, not disney. Since they made your original ressie and not Disney - they have all your information. They know how many people you're dealing with, and they can get you an accurate quote with the pin. Just call them with the pin code and details, and they will call you back with the accurate estimate. Then you can easily compare apples to oranges and see where you would save or not. If you would save with the pin code, your AAA agent can apply it to your current ressie, dropping the AAA room rate discount and applying the dining discount if it does save you more. You will then be able to keep your AAA extras, as well (like the free story time, and special parade viewing, etc).

 

[beth_cam]

You will then be able to keep your AAA extras, as well (like the free story time, and special parade viewing, etc).

Some of that may be lost if you change codes.


My experience in previous years: Twice i did not receive the coupons for story time. The first time, I hadn't been planning to do story time. We changed our minds while at Disney World. The coupons weren't in my package of paperwork. Since I hadn't planned on it I thought it might be my mistake. Even so, the next time I went to Disney World, before I left the AAA office, I went through every sheet in the package. Sure enough the Story Time coupons weren't there. It took my AAA agent a few calls. She finally came back to me with the following. Some of the AAA extras are only if you get a AAA package - which is just the same package Disney offers but with a special AAA code. Not all of the Disney specials will have a matching AAA code. In my case, the codes I was using didn't have a matching AAA code.


The reason I said 'may' be lost is that I haven't looked close at what is included now. I did call and ask for information on booking the gift card package. I just wanted to know if I was going to get the perks. I was told that for that deal I would be able to get all the perks, and that AAA parking was always included with any booking through AAA. She also said that the perks are now given out in a 'book'. She implied that they were giving out the entire book for all bookings. I didn't count on that absolutely since she didn't know about me losing them in the past till I brought it up.