AAA - using an agent & dining benefits?

[TwoAtDisney]

I thought AAA cost would be lower than WDW cost? Booked thru Disney for the free dining special, but today I called AAA just to check their prices. I got the same price. Does that sound correct? If so, what is the benefit of booking with AAA, when I can't change my reservation directly with WDW? Am I missing something here?

Anyone have a list of the AAA dining discount restaurants in & around WDW, & the amount of the discount for each? AAA agent said their office does not have a list & it would not be listed on the AAA website - seems strange.

Thanks, Julie

 

[vicki_c]

Except for AAA room-only discounts, the prices through AAA are usually not any better than you can get directly from Disney. Some people like to use AAA, they do have a few perks - AAA parking pass, AAA storytime, recently some special locations for parade viewing.

I don't know what locations give discounts for AAA memberships - I don't think there are that many from what I recall seeing posted around here at various times.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I'm not sure why you thought booking this package through AAA would be any less expensive. Disney doesn't allow 'stacking' discounts via any source. You're getting Free Dining; that's your discount. AAA can't also include any other discount.

 

[VickiVM]

We did book FD for August from our AAA travel agency and the package price is the same as Disney's price. You will get a booklet with other perks such as special parking (when available) @ the parks, free carseat if you rent a car through them from Hertz, the storytime perk and special parade viewing area. May be a few other little perks...but nothing remarkable, really.

However, we cancelled the package and are instead renting a 2 bedroom time share @ Bonnet Creek. No FD, but tons of room for our 3 teenagers @ a ridiculously low daily rate.

AAA will give you discounts on room only rates and sometimes may be the only way a discount can be had w/WDW (except for this year with all of the various pin codes).

 

[stmize]

AAA does give a discount unless the one Disney is running is a better offer but you have to choose which one is for you. We always use them and never have a problem with changing dates, resorts numerous times before our trip is final

 

[VickiVM]

AAA does give a discount unless the one Disney is running is a better offer but you have to choose which one is for you. We always use them and never have a problem with changing dates, resorts numerous times before our trip is final

And to that point, AAA will release and publish their annual discounts well in advance and you just never know with Disney's promotions. So many people will book a AAA discount (which you can do directly w/Disney and bypass AAA travel entirely) then wait for a better Disney promotion.

 

[Teacher510]

There are food discounts with AAA at the Swan/Dolphin. You show your card for either 10 or 20% off. Sorry I can't remember exactly.

 

[IDoDis]

The parking pass is a perk (although we never use it), and they usually have some kind of freebie like a Disney photo frame or a Disney coffee mug.

 

[Fire14]

I priced out a trip for Dec with DP and I was very disappointed to only be saving .29 cents. I thought I would get a discount on room portion of pkg. There is no free dining for Dec as of right now so there should be no conflicting factor involved in my case. As for AAA perks other than parade viewing spot the perks were lost on me.

 

[Fire14]

I thought AAA cost would be lower than WDW cost? Booked thru Disney for the free dining special, but today I called AAA just to check their prices. I got the same price. Does that sound correct? If so, what is the benefit of booking with AAA, when I can't change my reservation directly with WDW? Am I missing something here?

Anyone have a list of the AAA dining discount restaurants in & around WDW, & the amount of the discount for each? AAA agent said their office does not have a list & it would not be listed on the AAA website - seems strange.

Thanks, Julie

You can get a list of perks from book they have that lists hotels and bunch of other goodies in it. You can get it from any aaa office

If I can locate my book i'll type up list for you.

 

[nstem]

That is part of why we didn't use them. We talked to an agent that was pretty clueless. I than decided to "shop" the Disney specialist. We ended up with a great agent who know all about Disney, makes our dining reservations and even gives the kids lanyards with trading pins. We spoke with about 6 agencies, all the same rate as other mentioned so I went with service and freebies. The pins were a better value than the autograph books offered to us by another agency

 

[SarahKate]

The discount that AAA gives is on the room and there are only so many available. We have always saved a few hundred bucks on our package, however, if there is another discount then it's up to us to choose one and determine what's the better deal.

For our trip in May, we could have gotten the room discount OR the special offer w/ the free Disney gift card.....the latter was a better deal. You can't really double dip.

We've been very pleased with our AAA for our trips. We basically just use them to book our trip for us to get the discount. I do all the other planning, ADR's, etc. And if a bigger and better deal comes out before our trip, they will automatically rebook it for us and save us even more money.

The parking pass is GREAT to have if you'll be driving or renting a car.

 

[mad hatter fan]

I priced out a trip for Dec with DP and I was very disappointed to only be saving .29 cents. I thought I would get a discount on room portion of pkg. There is no free dining for Dec as of right now so there should be no conflicting factor involved in my case. As for AAA perks other than parade viewing spot the perks were lost on me.

I have found that you have to specifically ask for the AAA discount on a package or they will just quote the regular price. Also, they have a limited amount of discounted packages available.

 

[Fire14]

I have found that you have to specifically ask for the AAA discount on a package or they will just quote the regular price. Also, they have a limited amount of discounted packages available.

i thought i did ask she had my aaa card i mentioned several times i might as well use membership to save and i even called her again questioning price. and i doubt things are booked for early dec. but maybe as she had to call disney or whoever to get booked. plus was 3 diff resorts

 

[TwoAtDisney]

Interesting info; thanks. It appears we got the free dining discount which is the best one & according to the info I learned here, can't stack discounts.

Thanks again, Julie

 

[weHEARTmickey]

The parking pass is a perk (although we never use it), and they usually have some kind of freebie like a Disney photo frame or a Disney coffee mug.

Is this from WDW or your local AAA agent? We've never gotten this Although we always book through AAA for diamond parking, storytime, & the discount card at WoD

 

[bushdianee]

If you have littles ones the storytime is a good perk. We have used it twice now with good results both times. the first time was the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella and the second was Jasmine. Both times there weren't more than 8 or 9 kids and they got one on one time with the character. We tried to get the parade viewing but the whole week was already booked by the time I called. My AAA agent made all of my adrs and BBB reservations. ijust gave her a list of ts places we wanted and a few "2nd" choices. She got all of our 1st choices.

 

[dhardawa]

I'm not sure why you thought booking this package through AAA would be any less expensive. Disney doesn't allow 'stacking' discounts via any source. You're getting Free Dining; that's your discount. AAA can't also include any other discount.

Unless this has changed recently, this is not the case. Three years ago we priced through Disney with free dining and then priced through AAA with free dining also. AAA was almost $1,000 cheaper than going directly through Disney for the exact same package.

 

[BusyMom2Three]

We are saving about $200 with our AAA discount for our room at the Dolphin, and like another poster said, you can get up to 20% off at certain restaurants at S/D as well.