AAA discount - lots of hoops...

[jaross]

I'm sure I'm making this more difficult on myself than I need to. But,

I've made reservations for Boardwalk using the AAA discount with Disney directly. I saved 15% for room only.

I want to eventually add tickets and dining to make this a package. I knew I had to book with AAA to receive discounts on the tickets and dining. But, I thought I could add it to the Disney reservation without the discount.

I wanted to do this because, AAA wanted full payment 45 days out. I didn't realize that so would Disney when I booked a package.

Disney told me that I could call AAA right up to a 3-5 days before arrival and use my confirmation number from Disney to add the tickets and dining and then I would pay in full at that time. Five days is way better than 45 days paid in full.

Has anyone ever done this? How did it work out for you? Are there any tricks or tips I should know?

I cause more trouble for myself trying to do this the cheapest way possible!

Chris

 

[beth_cam]

the problem here is that you can't just add tickets to a room only reservation. What ends up happening is that you cancel your room only and book a new reservation for a package. Always make sure you have your new reservation booked before canceling the old one. SO if you wait till 3-5 days prior to make this a package there probably won't be any availability with the aaa discount, or even another room at full price available. And, if you cancel your room first then try to rebook it someone could scoop up that room in the minute it takes the person booking you to rebook. Very small chance but certainly not one I'd want to take.

TO keep things as little out of pocket money at the moment as possible, the route I would go is to book a package with one day tickets for one person in the room. So you would need to pay for your room and 1 adults 1 day ticket by 45 days out (you would need to pay 200 when you book it). Then if you wait until 5 days out - You definitely want to do this atleast 5 days out especially if you want to add dining - you can add the rest of your party and dining and pay the rest of the money.

I know you can move your reservation to aaa but I also understand it may not be the easiest thing to do... and as I said that original reservation will be cancelled, the deposit refunded and you will have to make a new deposit anyway...they dont seem to be able to move your deposit to the new reservation. So I'd suggest going ahead with my above suggestion through aaa, or booking through disney without the aaa discount, then just canceling the original bw reservation now...Dont forget you do have two weeks to make the deposit on your reservation so that should be enough time for the original deposit to be refunded before making the new deposit.

Did that make any sense?

edited to add that while aaa can get you some tickets at a discounted rate, and get you the room at a discount there is no dining discount and when you get a package through them there is no discount on the tickets.