Be persistent with some AAA TAs about new discount

Terry's Angels

Living My Life Like it's Golden
Joined
Oct 22, 2006
Messages
240
Hi All,

I'm by no means a veteran here but I wanted to share my story with those who are also new and have booked through AAA. I started trying to reach my AAA agent yesterday when I learned of the new code. I called again this morning and eventually learned that she was out sick until the middle of next week,at best. One of the other TAs said that they would help me and offered to call WDW to find out if the ZHE code would be save us more money that the AAA discount. The TA called me back 15 mins. later and said that there were no discounts available for my travel dates (5/7-5/14) or for my resort (BC) and then she told me that if it was available AAA rates are always cheaper than WDW. Something just didn't seem right about the whole conversation, but I had tons of other things to do today so I just left it alone.

When I got home I decided to call WDW to check for myself, after reading here on the DIS the number of people who got the discount at deluxes. Well a truly nice CM went through the whole thing and told me that the package was availabe for our vacation time and over $400 cheaper. I was shocked. The CM put the package on a curtesy hold and I called the AAA about 15 mins before they closed not expecting much. I got the manager who was the only one in the office who first told me that WDW was probably not giving the same benefits that AAA was and she would get back to me sometime next week after my TA got back from sick leave. By this time I was little frustrated with the whole thing. I told her that I would just would need to cancel the AAA ressie and book directly with WDW since I didn't believe the benefits were worth over $400 She then told me that she would try to contact their WDW person and see what she could do. She called me back about 30 mins later and told me that I would be saving $434 dollars - a credit back to my cc since our package was already paid in full. She apologized for the "confusion" of the other TA and the "miscommunication" about the availability of the discount for my package.

So... the moral of the story is this --- All those Disers who have good recommendations for good AAA agents, use them!!! There is a world of difference between AAA agents and true Disney AAA agents.

Ok and the second moral is -- the DIS rocks:banana: :banana:
 
So what do you do when you have booked through a AAA agent (and have already paid in full) that says you can't get the 40% off code? Is this code tied to some person or AAA or what exactly?
 
Sorry - I don't know anything about the 40% code. The discount I got on our package was the ZHE that was opened to the public late last week. I think that code's availabilty has more to do with your resort and when you're traveling. Maybe some others have ideas?:confused3
 
Congrats! It seems AAA are a bit sketchy when it comes to Disney bookings....I haven't used them but I'm not impressed with what I've heard.

The discount you used the is the new one (the thread about the April/May discounts) and is seperate from the 40% off pin code that was sent out.
 

Is it too early to apply AAA rate to my room for Jan 1st - Jan 4th? I am new to onsite resort, codes and AAA....


Thank you

Charleyann

PS....Just when I think I get this whole Disney thing figured out. They drop another Mickey on me!!!!!
 
I have found if you want to get the best price you need to book everything yourself.
A lot of agents have no clue to what discounts have just come out and whats available.
Too get the AAA rate all you have to do is tell the CM that you have AAA and they will give you the discount.
You can find out all the codes and deals on these boards and others.
When you see the codes come out call disney direct and tell them the code.
I have found my AAA agent knows less than half about disney then I do.
I read this board everyday and the AAA agents problably never heard of Disboards.
 
I have found if you want to get the best price you need to book everything yourself.
A lot of agents have no clue to what discounts have just come out and whats available.
Too get the AAA rate all you have to do is tell the CM that you have AAA and they will give you the discount.
You can find out all the codes and deals on these boards and others.
When you see the codes come out call disney direct and tell them the code.
I have found my AAA agent knows less than half about disney then I do.
I read this board everyday and the AAA agents problably never heard of Disboards.

I really agree with this!! If I had to do it all over again, I would do the booking myself. The problem is that it is my understanding that you can only book a room-only ressie with AAA membership yourself and AAA TAs are required to book a package with AAA discount. That said, for me the AAA TA was far more trouble than the discount I was getting. I know others have had excellent experiences with AAA TAs so I really believe that it it depends on the agent.
 
So what do you do when you have booked through a AAA agent (and have already paid in full) that says you can't get the 40% off code? Is this code tied to some person or AAA or what exactly?

I would do a few things
1. call Disney directly like you were making a brand new reservation and see if the discount is available for your dates / resorts. It could be that the hotel or view you have chosen isn't available for your dates

2. If it is available hold the new reservation just in case. Call your AAA agent and tell them that you called Disney directly and it is available, give her/him the new price

3. Never use that agent again, next time go with an agent that really knows the in's and out's of Disney like Dreamsunlimited.com or wdwvacations.com
 
I have found if you want to get the best price you need to book everything yourself.
A lot of agents have no clue to what discounts have just come out and whats available.

Not if you use a Disney specialist TA, not necessarily AAA but other agencies that only book Disney travel. A lot of them read these boards and other Disney message boards
 
I have had many clients who end up going with AAA because they have to in order to get the dining plan and the AAA discount on the room portion. I have also had more then 1/2 of them come back to me on their next Disney vacation because they said it wasn't worth the headaches they had to get AAA to change to other discount codes, etc. Most of them have told me that in most instances Disney released a discount that was open to anyone and could get dining included anyway so in the end it wasn't worth going through AAA to begin with. Of course there are many AAA agents that really do know Disney but since most people use local AAA offices they don't really know if the agent is a Disney specialist or not until things that are being discussed on this thread happen
 
My suggestion for this is not to use your local AAA agent unless you know they are Disney friendly. I tried to work via my local agent and they were quoting me the rack rate for a resort that did have AAA rates available. :sad2: They were very slow and seemed not to care so I finally asked for a suggestion on this board of a good agent. I got a suggestion immediately and by the end of the day, my vacation was booked. It is easy as pie if you have the right AAA agent.
 
Hi guys. Does the ZHE code still work? What kind of discount do you get? Is it available for any of the deluxe resorts in august? We are going August 7th-10th. Please help me! We booked a vacation during this time period for the polynesian using AAA. Is the ZHE code a better deal? Any help would be appreciated. You guys are so knowledgeable. I have alot to learn:):hippie:
 
Hi guys. Does the ZHE code still work? What kind of discount do you get? Is it available for any of the deluxe resorts in august? We are going August 7th-10th. Please help me! We booked a vacation during this time period for the polynesian using AAA. Is the ZHE code a better deal? Any help would be appreciated. You guys are so knowledgeable. I have alot to learn:):hippie:

This code ended on either 3-14 or 3-15...sorry!
 
This code ended on either 3-14 or 3-15...sorry!

I read in the May Code Watch thread that someone got the code applied yesterday, so YMMV:confused3 But to the poster who was asking, the code was only good for travel in April and May, so it wouldn't apply to your trip anyway. Keep looking for August codes ;)
 





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