Are they trying to pull a fast one?

[ashkash]

Ugh, I should have known better than to book online.

I booked a hotel-only reservation for 4 nights at SS, followed by 2 nights at Poly. This was done online through AAA's website. Got my confirmation, which stated a rate of $424 per night plus 12.5% tax at SS, and $289 per night plus 12.5% tax at Poly.

Well, today I called AAA to convert my hotel-only reservation to a package, to include tickets & the DDP. Lo & behold, they are trying to tell me that Disney doesn't know exactly how much the tax rate is, but my nightly rate at SS, including tax, is now $596. Um, WHAT?! Someone tell me Disney doesn't actually charge almost 50% in taxes.

The AAA agent has gone back & forth with her person at Disney, but keeps coming back with the same thing.

And oh yeah, her quote for tickets is almost $100 more than what I can get through undercover tourist.

I'm so frustrated with these people right now, I could scream. I just faxed my confirmation to AAA, because of course they can't find anything that states the taxes are 12.5%, even though it's very clearly stated on my confirmation from them. Grrr.

Any advice on what I should do?

 

[Ilovestitch]

Did you lose the AAA discount when booking the package? You are leaving in next month, are they charging you rack rate? Technically they don't "convert" the room only to a package, they are canceling your room only and making a whole new reservation.

Take the total package price, subtract the cost of dining, and subtract the ticket price (you can find the price Disney charges if you pretend to buy the tickets on disneyworld.com, make sure you add in the taxes). What's left is the room portion and it should be the same as your room only was as long as you still have the same discount on it.

Somewhere along the way you and the AAA agent aren't comparing apples to apples. Is Disney automatically adding in the insurance? They usually do that. Maybe they are adding the deluxe dining.

 

[ashkash]

Yep, that's what we did. We subtracted out the tickets & DDP, and came up with a much higher rate for SS. Disney supposedly is telling AAA that the difference is taxes, not the actual room rate. It makes no sense. If they can't figure it out, I'm just going to forgo the dining plan, buy my tix elsewhere, and stick with my original hotel-only reservation.

 

[Booyakasha]

A lot of the AAA discounts are room only. If you switch to a package you loose that room only discount. I did the same thing and it was a 30-40% difference on the nightly room rate.

b.

 

[ashkash]

That may be it, that we're losing the room discount. I broke it all down, and they're doing the same thing for our stay at the Poly. Our rate is going from $289 + tax, to $476 including tax, which would be an absurd tax rate.

This is the sort of thing AAA agents should tell a customer up front, though. I can't believe they don't know that if I convert from room-only to a package, that my rate is going to skyrocket.

 

[MAKHayes-DisneyDiva]

Has it always been the case that the AAA discount is for room only? We got a package 2 years ago from AAA and got a discount. I was going to book our upcoming trip with them as well, but will change the plan if there is no discount for a package.

 

[JenSop]

For our trip in the summer of '06 we booked a package through AAA and were still able to get the 15% discount on the room portion of the package.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I think it all depends on availability if there is a discount or not.
As someone mentioned the room only res is cancelled, then WDTC package is booked. Very well could be depending on how soon and what dates the discounted rooms for the what the OP wants are not available.
But odd a AAA agent cannot figure out the resort tax is 12.5% (Orange Co). (Osceola Co is 13%.) I almost think you are not getting the whole story.

 

[Ilovestitch]

This is the sort of thing AAA agents should tell a customer up front, though. I can't believe they don't know that if I convert from room-only to a package, that my rate is going to skyrocket.

It doesn't always go up-- the AAA discount is probably just sold out since you are a few weeks away. I don't see how they could have anticipated you'd change your reservation to a package. All discount codes are subject to selling out.

 

[CleveRocks]

Ugh, I should have known better than to book online.

I booked a hotel-only reservation for 4 nights at SS, followed by 2 nights at Poly. This was done online through AAA's website. Got my confirmation, which stated a rate of $424 per night plus 12.5% tax at SS, and $289 per night plus 12.5% tax at Poly.

Well, today I called AAA to convert my hotel-only reservation to a package, to include tickets & the DDP. Lo & behold, they are trying to tell me that Disney doesn't know exactly how much the tax rate is, but my nightly rate at SS, including tax, is now $596. Um, WHAT?! Someone tell me Disney doesn't actually charge almost 50% in taxes.

The AAA agent has gone back & forth with her person at Disney, but keeps coming back with the same thing.

And oh yeah, her quote for tickets is almost $100 more than what I can get through undercover tourist.

I'm so frustrated with these people right now, I could scream. I just faxed my confirmation to AAA, because of course they can't find anything that states the taxes are 12.5%, even though it's very clearly stated on my confirmation from them. Grrr.

Any advice on what I should do?

I'll bet it's just an error of comparing apples and oranges.

The problem is the nightly rate can be calculated in all sorts of ways, and it gets very confusing. That nightly rate of $596 can't possibly be rack rate for SSR. It is the SSR room rate plus park tickets plus the Dining Plan.

There's no other explanation. Well, I guess the only other explanation is that the package quote includes a more expensive room category than your room-only reservation.

My advice is dig deeper. The AAA office HAS TO BE doing something wrong here. Look, they couldn't even figure out the tourism tax rate, which is something they should be able to do in their sleep.

Dig deeper. I'll bet Disney is doing nothing wrong, and your AAA office is being somewhat obtuse.

 

[JC0712]

I thought I could convert my room only AAA discount reservation to a package and keep the discount. That it just had to be made with AAA. So AAA would cancel my existing reservation and book a new one with the possiblity of no discount? If that were the case I'd just go with Disney directly so I would be in charge of my reservations. Has this happened to a lot of people? Have you lost your discount upon conversion to a package?

Thanks,

 

[noahdove]

I booked my package thru AAA, and I only got the discount on the room..My agent made it very clear about this when I had all my questions
Good luck.

 

[Turtlegirl]

Splitting your stay combined with the the dining plan increases your price as you have to have park tix associated with each ressie in order to buy the dining plan. For example, 4 nights SSR & 4 nights Poly with the meal plan would require you to have a 7 day ticket on one ressie and a 1 day on the other. This is the least expensive way to buy tix. You can't just buy an 8 day ticket with a split stay and dining plan. You can view ticket prices, including tax at many websites. Tax on hotel is 12.5%. AAA discount is usually between 15-20% off rack rates. You can view rack rates at many web sites, deduct the AAA discount and add the tax and you'll get the hotel rate you should be paying. They also probably added in trip insurance. The dining plan is $38.99/day per person, ($19.99 ages 3-9) It's complicated, I know, but you CAN break it down in order to make sure you're being charged correctly.

 

[Native NYer]

When I called for info, I was told that if I book through CRO I could get the AAA discount on a room only reservation. If I wanted to book a package that included the AAA discount on the room, I would have to book through AAA.

I just booked a one night stay at the CR and used my AAA discount. The CM at CRO just told me to show my AAA card when I check in even though the room is paid in full.

 

[ashkash]

I'm still not certain I'm getting the full story either.

What the AAA agent finally came up with was that they couldn't do the package with my original room rates. I think that is utter b.s., personally. They shouldn't have to cancel my room just to add on to my vacation. Apparently, they were giving me a new, ridiculous room rate for both SS & Poly. They were splitting the park tickets (like a pp mentioned above), but this was only adding around $50 to the amount I'd estimated.

I had them cancel the package & go back to room-only, which the AAA was fine with. I may try again tomorrow, hopefully with a different agent.

Otherwise, I'll buy my tickets at undercover tourist & forget the DDP. I wasn't sure we were going to save much with the dining plan anyway.

What bothers me about all this is that people don't know that they can't add tickets & dining plan at the last minute. We hear that you can add the dining plan up until a couple days before your arrival in WDW, but no one mentions that doing so might drastically increase the cost of your room as well. I just don't get it.

 

[Ilovestitch]

I'm still not certain I'm getting the full story either.

What the AAA agent finally came up with was that they couldn't do the package with my original room rates. I think that is utter b.s., personally. They shouldn't have to cancel my room just to add on to my vacation.

What bothers me about all this is that people don't know that they can't add tickets & dining plan at the last minute. We hear that you can add the dining plan up until a couple days before your arrival in WDW, but no one mentions that doing so might drastically increase the cost of your room as well. I just don't get it.

This has nothing to do with AAA--- Disney has 2 departments: one for room only and one for packages. Disney does NOT let you add dining to a room only reservation. You CAN add dining to a package. They are two totally different types of reservation. There's no such thing as adding dining to a room only. When you hear people say they added dining at the last minute they are talking about adding it to a package.

 

[Native NYer]

I'm beginning to think AAA isn't worth it unless you book room only. I was under the impression (from AAA travel agents and CRO CMs) that if you wanted your package to include the discount for the room, the entire package had to be booked through AAA directly. If AAA travel agents don't apply the discount to packages, what's the point in booking through AAA? In that case, you can book a room only ressie through CRO and get your AAA discount. I'm so confused!!!

 

[Matt'sMom]

I was under the impression (from AAA travel agents and CRO CMs) that if you wanted your package to include the discount for the room, the entire package had to be booked through AAA directly. If AAA travel agents don't apply the discount to packages, what's the point in booking through AAA?

The issue here is that the AAA discounted packages appear to have been 'sold out' for the OP's resort & dates of travel, before they notified their TA that they wished to switch from a 'room only' ressie to a MYW package ressie. There are limited numbers of rooms and packages available at the discounted rates (for any given resort & date)--and when they are all booked/gone, they are gone. The AAA discounted rates are not an automatic discount that can be freely applied to just any ressie. It is limited availability.

IF one books a MYW package through AAA, while there are still discounted packages available, then yes, you can receive the AAA discount on the room rates of your package. The key being that those pacakages are not yet sold out for your specific resort(s) and dates of travel. Anyone can book 'room only' at AAA rates, dependent on availability. But only an AAA TA can book the AAA packages (which include a discount on the room portion)--again, dependent on availability.

 

[Native NYer]

Thanks for the info. I was getting so confused. I thought that the AAA discount was available all the time on any room. We didn't use AAA to book our last trip and are using the bounceback discount for our August trip. We booked a one night room only ressie using our AAA discount but through CRO. I guess we lucked out that the room we wanted was available with the discount.

I love the DIS! I've gotten so much helpful info!!!

 

[ashkash]

I understand what has happened - I just really disagree with it, I guess. I don't think it's right to require a complete rebooking, just to add tickets & dining. I understand that's Disney's fault, not AAA, but it's something AAA should be aware of. And if the AAA agent was being truthful when she relayed what the Disney agent told her, the Disney agent blatantly lied to her regarding the room increase. The Disney agent claimed that they have no way of knowing what the taxes are on each room, and that my price increase was solely due to taxes.

Anyway, I don't get how Disney can be sold out of the package but not sold out of the room, but that's apparently what has happened. They had no trouble cancelling the package & rebooking my room at the original, discounted rate.