That's a fair perspective, but
Disney, or any company, is not normally in the position of encouraging their customers to spend LESS money and LESS time consuming their products and services. It's just not good business.
Now, obviously, there WAS a business decision made to eliminate these ticketing options. And it might very well be as simple, as the options were not popular enough with consumers outside of those who purchased the tickets for fraudulent usage. And, in that case, they calculated that the loss of, or simply angering of, customers who legitimately used larger than five day tickets out-weighed the expense of fraud. That the fallout was worth it in the larger financial perspective.
Unfortunately, fraud will always exist, with any product or service, but it's usually a very small percentage, and when company's punish legitimate users for the bad actions of the few, it's usually a really bad call if, for nothing else, public relations reasons. (See: onerous music, movie or video game "digital rights" schemes, etc.) And almost always it is the LEGITIMATE customers that suffer from these decisions. It takes the "bad guys" about five minutes to find a new way around the obstacles thrown up, leaving only those who wanted to do the right thing in the first place stumbling along.
Disney's problem/gripe in California is that their policies contradict California law. Contractually, they can dictate that the tickets are not transferable, but because they lack the overwhelming political power they hold in Florida (where pretty much everything Disney wants, Disney gets), they've been unable to make "renting tickets" or use of said transferred tickets a crime. They can legally refuse to the honor the tickets based on breach of contract, but they can't do anything, legally, to stem what they consider gross mis-use and loss of profit.
Quizzing guests about use patterns, asking for ID and signatures ... All are OK, I guess, until they become onerous. For instance, if you accidentally say first use of your ticket was on the 5th, but it was really the 3rd and you just misspoke, which leads to 10 minutes of additional questioning and fear you'll lose your tickets, plus longer waits for everyone in line behind you. Or accidentally forgetting your ID means you can't enter the parks, even though you've done nothing wrong. Because, remember, for every 100 legit guests they delay or, perhaps, make uncomfortable/annoy/etc., they'll intercept MAYBE one or two fraudsters.
That's basing numbers on general numbers of fraud/theft that most businesses experience. Perhaps the
Disneyland projections now greatly exceed that, hence the new (reduced) ticket offerings and increased security measures at the gates.
I have no intention of doing anything other than legitimate things with my tickets, no matter how long, or short, the ticketing period is, and I definitely don't endorse or condone fraud or theft of ANY kind, at Disney or anywhere else BUT
I'm very unhappy to hear that my legitimate usage is being curtailed due to a few bad apples. And that Disney prioritizes protecting themselves from POTENTIAL fraud, over serving their most loyal customers.
Right on! Very well written, really good stuff, thanks!
