AAA ever mess up your reservations

[RWF]

Thinking about doing a package and using the AAA discount. Although I am tempted to forget the discount in order to work with CRO and make sure everything is okay. Anyone ever have trouble with AAA?

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

They send you a confirmation, just like CRO. Easy enough to verify or fix. By the same token, I have heard of CRO screwing up, too. Have faith!!!

 

[disnan52]

I have used AAA for 5 disney trips and I have never had any problems.

 

[yellowfish78]

Being an agent myself, it's very hard to mess up someone's reservations. Disney faxes over a confirmation, I review, then I take payment (only after I get that fax in my hand though!)
The only problem I seem to have with this "system" is that if there is air on the reservation, sometimes I don't receive schedule changes (if there are some). I've just gotten in the habit of checking 45 days out (when final payment is due) and then two weeks before clients travel.
If you're worried, just as for an agent thats familiar with Disney, not just booking them.
I hope this helps!

 

[Cindy B]

First we started with AAA with paid dining, room discount for Pop Century. Then changed to the Coronado.

Then free dining came out. I was concerned that it would fill up quickly, so I called CRO early at 7 am (my AAA office isn't open until 10 am!) just so we could get it going. CRO was able to do it.

At 10 am, I went with the confirmation in my hand for the free dining to the AAA office and they switched the reservation. Somehow, since we paid in full, we got a $500 credit on our dining portion which was credited to our account.

Somehow, the CRO with free dining also gave us the AAA rate on the room and the free dining. It was supposed to be one or the other. The AAA agent just said it was CRO's mistake.

Anyway, we used both on our last trip. We got confirmation, and everything just like using only CRO.

 

[tkldisney]

I just booked my first package with AAA and I would have no problem using AAA again to book another package.

 

[SkipperBubba]

DW and I have booked three packages through our AAA agent and we have had no trouble at all. Everything has gone smoothly and she has been more than accomodating. The last time we went to her office, we changed everything about our vacation (with the exception of the dates) and it has all been perfect.

 

[kerry34]

I also booked through AAA and have not had any troubles so far. We started off with CBR and then switched to the POLY. Everything was fine with that and the woman I have dealt with has been very accomodating with requests and any questions I have had. We will be paying off our trip next week so we are just waiting for our final papers. I am sure everything will be fine with that as well. I know of a few people who have booked through them and have not had much trouble, you should be fine if that is what you decide to do.

 

[SB in KY]

After years of doing my own booking via CRO we booked through AAA for our Nov.so we could get the room discount and have dining....it has gone like clockwork. I made the last payment a few weeks ago and the very next day in my mailbox was my statement saying it had been paid in full...the confirmation also has our room request on it....all in all it has been quite simple and it saved us a little over $200 on the trip vs the price of booking directly through Disney.

I did book my own air however (just because I got great rates on a SW DING)....I just called the flight info in to our agent and she added that to our ressies and set us up for Magic Express.

I would use them again in a heartbeat if it saved us some $$.

 

[vfb2girls]

We had a horrible experience with AAA for our March 2004 trip so I was worried about using them again for our March 2006 trip. Well I couldn't have found a better TA! She is great! She has answered all of are questions, help me find some good rates and overall this whole experience has been great. I will be using her again for any other vacations that we may take.

 

[RWF]

What problems did you have the first time? Some ideas on what I should look out for. Also, seems like the TA is the factor, rather than AAA itself.

 

[vfb2girls]

Well first off I really didn't know enough about booking at trip let alone a Disney trip so I pretty much took everything our TA said to be the truth. I had told him what we wanted and he told us no problem,quoted us a price and we paid it and that was that. Several months had gone by and when I would call him he would be very evasive about my questions. All I wanted to know is if we had a room and our tickets and all the other free stuff he promised us with our trip. We had planned our vacation for March 2004 so we had booked it and paid for it about 11 months in advance. I then had since then discover these boards so I knew about codes and such so when I would try to talk to our TA he would tell me not to worry that we had the best possible deal with our package and we were good to go. Come Febuary 2004 I called AAA and asked to speak with my TA and was told he had been let go. So of course I needed to know why and I was told that he made all these great deals with people and in reality what we thought was a package deal turn out to be just a full rack room with no tickets and no extras! So I was crying on the phone talking to this other TA and told her what this guy promised us and how could we possibly go to Disney without tickets and that we really couldn't afford to hand over huge amounts of extra money just to complete our package. I have to say that AAA made it right by giving us tickets but only for 4 days, we originally had booked for 7 but I was at least happy with that. Our trip in 2004 was great but I was hesitiant to book another trip through AAA until this year when I found the best TA from AAA. She has gone above and beyond with her skills and it is looking pretty good for our 2006 trip. So sorry this is so long but I think it is important to be comfortable with your TA and to be able to get direct answers to your questions is very important. Good luck with your trip planning and have a fun time!

 

[alicenwonder99]

I am another person who was hesitant on using a AAA TA because of things I've read on this board. But I wanted to use my AAA room discount and dining, so I had no choice. Well, the TA was very nice, but something didn't seem right about her. She didn't seem to communicate with me about things. I ended up calling Disney reservations yesterday just to confirm my hotel, and they didn't have all of my ME flight info!!! The woman at Disney didn't want to even check my ressie information for me once I told her I had a AAA package. She said she couldn't check ANYTHING for me (which wasn't true). She then said, "well, I can check your dates." Then little by little, she read off all of my info like which hotel, and my flight info. But she didn't have which airport we're coming from (Chicago has 2 airports). She wasn't going to take my info at first, but then she did. I still couldn't verify if I had my park tix and dining included.

I'm STILL waiting for a receipt from AAA and I've had the whole thing paid in full for over a month.

I should have just bought the AP like I was planning and I could have booked everything myself. I don't think I'll ever go with AAA again. They are more of a hassle than helpful. It would have all been easier to do all the bookings myself instead of going through the AAA TA...I had to do more work because of AAA.

Mary

 

[BankBunny]

I've boked two trip through AAA with no problem. The second trip we even removed one person and switched resorts after the original reservation was made. We had no problems at all and greats trips each time.

 

[Carrie772]

Just find a AAA agent that you like. I would even switch in the midst of planning.

And, always double check. I would call AAA for a ressie and then call CRO if they had it on file.

 

[imatoad]

I've had great success with AAA, if you need the number of a great TA, let me know, she's helped many DIS'ers. Just PM me, I'll give you her contact info.

 

[TheTexasKid]

Sometimes, but nothing serious. You just have to be aware of what they are capable of doing and not doing. In other words, it really depends upon the agent. I've used the same one at AAA for years, and she is really quite good. She has gotten me hotel upgrades, though not at Disney. And when Disney Cruise Lines wouldn't overnight my cruise tickets, and I needed them overnighted, because I was going to Hawaii, before I went on the cruise, she kept after them, till they agreed to overnight them.

As I said, she is quite good in most things, but there are some things I have learned to do myself.

I would also say, when the travel agent, whether at AAA or elsewhere, does a superior job, then reward them somehow. I always bring back something from any trip I take, as a reward for a job well done. I find they appreciate that, and that appreciation helps for any future trips, you might want to take.

 

[RWF]

I think it is a good idea to bring a gift back for the agent. Thanks!

 

[WDWBetsy]

For those who don't have confirmations/receipts from their AAA agent, call and request one either faxed or mailed to you. Whenever I make a change, my agent happily faxes a new confirmation to me. It's faxed from their Disney rep directly to the AAA agency, so they can in turn send you a copy. There's no reason they can't.