Bad AP renewal experience

[Robo]

I find it very interesting, and generous, of Disney to allow you to use another park ticket to renew an AP. They are losing money on the deal, and it really negates the 'must buy a ticket' clause of free dining. I wonder if they are supposed to do it, or not? Could be that they are not supposed to do it, but management at EPCOT has things mixed up?

WDW will be making more money if a guest renews and uses an AP than if they just buy a "minimum ticket."

It is in the same vein as when WDW charges progressively (and very substantially) less money per day for MYW tickets if a guest buys "more days."

In general, the longer a guest spends at WDW, the more money WDW will make from that guest.

In business, it is better/easier to keep (and reward) a loyal repeat customer than it is to try to create a "new" customer.
(Although, I have some doubts as to whether all entities at WDW have that axiom in mind.)

 

[vinotinto]

On the last bounceback, the FD minimum ticket requirement has increased to 4 days. That's a lot of $ to have tied up into a renewal process that the CMs are not trained to do and that is not officially in the books. It would make me pause.

 

[bumbershoot]

OP if you wish to bother, send a letter with what you said here with a copy of your receipt. They'll know exactly who it was and can offer some "retraining" to them.

Agreed.

As I've said here before, applying a ticket towards an AP renewal is not a standard procedure, not something that's in our operating guides, and not anything that any CM is trained in how to do. It's not against any rules, but there's literally no reason why any given CM should know how to do this, because we don't teach it to them and it's not an intuitive process by any means. I've figured out about three potential ways to do it and none of them are particularly simple. Some will attempt to figure it out, but many will assume because they've never been told how to do it that it's something that isn't allowed. Regardless of how many people on these boards have had it done for them, it's exceedingly rare in the grand scheme of things, as I've encountered exactly one guest in almost four years who wanted to do it.

It’s so weird that it’s so rare.

But it does happen, so they should have a procedure.

In business, it is better/easier to keep (and reward) a loyal repeat customer than it is to try to create a "new" customer.
(Although, I have some doubts as to whether all entities at WDW have that axiom in mind.)

Agree with both sentences.