Bridging Parksavers tickets to AP - is this correct?

[wilkeliza]

I had the same thought about end of the day and ended up having to go through 5 different guest services locations before somebody did it correctly. Calling later if they got it wrong is a good move- I also lucked out with a crazy CM who actually made a note telling the other locations not to let me upgrade. After that I had a manager giving me a lecture on not coming to Disney if I am so cheap I can't pay the real price for my tickets! At the next places I went the CM made a face and immediately called the first CM to get their story and tell me the upgrade wasn't available to me personally. All I have to say is if you get a first person who doesn't get it, don't ask for their manager, don't call anybody, just silently walk away before they embark on a quest to ruin your vacation. DH and I tried to stop by as part of date night, end result was we spend over $100 on a babysitter so we could run around to different locations and I could sit on a bench bawling my eyes out because a group of CM's were bullying me and even called me names. All I wanted was to add days to our tickets before they expired. It took multiple calls to guest services after the trip for anybody to even acknowledge that they may have been rude to me.
My DH and I were thinking about adding days to our trip this year and honestly I don't think Disney could pay me enough to trust them to upgrade a ticket again.

Not all tickets can be upgraded that includes adding days. It is quiet possible that the first CM was correct when telling you you couldn't upgrade. However, the attitudes were not right but it is possible the CM was correct to no upgrade the tickets.

 

[mybabesuz]

I also had a bad experience when bridging tickets. I was trying to buy APs. They ended up only crediting me what Undercover tourist paid for the tickets!
Not even what I paid! I ended up having to call UT and get another receipt from them to show what I paid.
Then I had to fight to just get my original money back. It took THREE different times and hours to fix.
This was at MK guest services. They refused to fix it and said it was not their policy to Bridge Tickets any longer.
I finally got the Manager of the Animal Kingdom Lodge to understand me and refund my money!
Never again!

 

[wilkeliza]

If your AP date is wrong just be 100% sure of the details (i.e. first park you entered and date of first entry) and then call ticket services. You can get to them through AP phone number. Mine was wrong and at first I panicked. I called and first got a little push back but was very clear that I did not use the tickets in March and they were bought far before that (I think I canceled the room only reservation in march but nothing about tickets then) and I used them on June 9th at Hollywood Studios. After being very clear about that they called ticket services to cooperate the story and it was fixed.

My friend who is in GS even told me if your next vacation is before the wrong expiration date you can even wait to handle it in person.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Sorry for the confusion - I meant is bridging from the gate price, instead of the actual discounted price paid, official Disney policy? That's a make or break issue for me. I either save about $300 or zero.

I don't understand what you mean. The concept of price bridging is bringing a net rate or discounted ticket to its full current gate value.

 

[DebbieB]

Parksavers currently has a 5 day + 2 day free ticket which is about $75 less than gate price for a 7 day. I am interested in purchasing 4 of those and upgrading to a DVC AP, but want to be sure that the following statements are true:

- Guest services at Disney will see the ticket as a 7 day ticket.
- I will pay the difference between the current gate price of the 7 day ticket and the the cost of the DVC AP.
- I won't need the physical ticket when bridging as long as it shows in my MDE account.
- My wife and I will need to physically be at guest services to do this, but our kids will not.
- If I purchase the Parksavers tickets now and link them to my MDE account before Dec 31, 2016, I will still be able to bridge them to the DVC AP in April 2017 even if I don't use them until then. (The Parksavers site says that the tickets expire Dec 31, 2016, but I'm pretty sure tha just refers to redeeming or linking to MDE).
- The AP start date would be the date I first use the tickets (before bridging). So if I use the tickets on April 1, 2017, then go to GS on April 3, 2017 and upgrade to the AP, the AP would be valid from April 1, 2017 to April 1, 2018.

Also - is there a way to bridge an unused ticket to an AP voucher? It would be great if I could buy the Parksaver tickets now, upgrade them to an AP, and not use the AP until April 2017 and have the the start date be April 2017. Hope that makes sense.

TIA

If the tickets expire 12/31/16, I think the first use has to be by that date.

 

[Rash]

I don't understand what you mean. The concept of price bridging is bringing a net rate or discounted ticket to its full current gate value.

Okay, so I'm probably using the term bridging incorrectly. So now that you've explained it - and thank you - then I'd like to confirm that it is official Disney policy to price bridge the cost of a discounted ticket up to the gate price of that ticket. So that when upgrading to an AP, I will only have to pay the difference between the GATE price of the ticket and the AP, NOT the difference between the DISCOUNTED price of the ticket and the AP. Is that official Disney policy? A post above mentions that they were told that it is no longer the policy.

 

[mistysue]

Not all tickets can be upgraded that includes adding days. It is quiet possible that the first CM was correct when telling you you couldn't upgrade. However, the attitudes were not right but it is possible the CM was correct to no upgrade the tickets.

No, they were completely normal 5 day tickets from undercover tourist that we had used for 4 consecutive days and I wanted to add days. It truly was a huge mess caused by a single CM who didn't know what he was doing, wanted me to pay the difference between what undercover tourist paid and the new ticket and wanted to be damn sure I wasn't going to get out of this for any less. For my part, I approached the counter smiling and happy and was excited to do the transaction because we were extending our trip. I've played the game of "all the things I may have done wrong" and this sadly is a case of one CM being a nutcase.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Is that official Disney policy? A post above mentions that they were told that it is no longer the policy.

I had the written policy in front of me less than an hour ago and it had not been changed. I don't know when the previous poster received that information but the person who told them that was wrong.

 

[SUSIEQ]

We can sell AP certificates at the ticket booths, so I don't see why we couldn't upgrade an unused ticket to one. I've never tried it (I've only ever sold AP certs a couple of times at all, it's not a hugely demanded option) but they're in the same 'level' of the computer as the regular active APs...

EDIT: Just saw that this is DVC... I don't know if we have DVC certs in the system or not. I can check tomorrow?

Please let us know if this is possible.
Thanks for all your helpful ticketing posts.

 

[SUSIEQ]

- If I purchase the Parksavers tickets now and link them to my MDE account before Dec 31, 2016, I will still be able to bridge them to the DVC AP in April 2017 even if I don't use them until then. (The Parksavers site says that the tickets expire Dec 31, 2016, but I'm pretty sure tha just refers to redeeming or linking to MDE).

I believe you are correct, but I am wondering the same thing myself.

 

[wilkeliza]

No, they were completely normal 5 day tickets from undercover tourist that we had used for 4 consecutive days and I wanted to add days. It truly was a huge mess caused by a single CM who didn't know what he was doing, wanted me to pay the difference between what undercover tourist paid and the new ticket and wanted to be damn sure I wasn't going to get out of this for any less. For my part, I approached the counter smiling and happy and was excited to do the transaction because we were extending our trip. I've played the game of "all the things I may have done wrong" and this sadly is a case of one CM being a nutcase.

Yeah the that's terrible. Sorry that happened. I had the misfortune of trying to add on to tickets I didn't know were convention tickets (runDisney tickets) but sucked it up and bought the water park tickets for full price instead of the upgrade to water park and more option.

 

[Robo]

I had the written policy in front of me less than an hour ago and it had not been changed. I don't know when the previous poster received that information but the person who told them that was wrong.

Having been deeply involved on this board in dozens of these situations over the past decade and beyond, I can tell you of (and I've kept the links of) the many, many times when rogue ticket CMs will try to BULLY guests into paying the wrong amount for upgrades.
Some going so far as to destroy original tickets (back before MBs) and add notes to guests' computer files saying that
the guests were trying to cheat the system, and similar horror stories.
These bizarro CMs seem to think that they are "saving money for Disney" by intentionally trying to charge guests
higher amounts for upgrades.

The truth of the matter is that Disney has ALREADY "lost" the ticket income when they sold the tickets at a
wholesale price to the authorized ticket sellers (Undercover Tourist, ParkSavers, Maple Leaf, etc.) and this has all happened long before the GUEST was ever part of the equation.

DISNEY is the party who decided that selling the tickets at wholesale to the resellers was a good deal to
them (Disney,) as the authorized resellers market additional tickets to WDW and Disney makes more money
with less advertising and less in-house ticket handling.

Once those wholesale tickets have left WDW, it's up to the reseller to decide what they want to charge the guests,
and Disney doesn't get involved at that point.

All this means that if a guest wants to upgrade a ticket at WDW, its just MORE money that Disney makes...
not "losing" a cent more than when they sold those tickets at wholesale prices to the resellers.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Believe me, I'm well aware of CMs on power trips, which is why I wasn't commenting on that particular crazy story.

Also, to answer back about DVC AP certificates - they are not in our system, just regular and FL resident AP certs.

 

[wilkeliza]

Having been deeply involved on this board in dozens of these situations over the past decade and beyond, I can tell you of (and I've kept the links of) the many, many times when rogue ticket CMs will try to BULLY guests into paying the wrong amount for upgrades.
Some going so far as to destroy original tickets (back before MBs) and add notes to guests' computer files saying that
the guests were trying to cheat the system, and similar horror stories.
These bizarro CMs seem to think that they are "saving money for Disney" by intentionally trying to charge guests
higher amounts for upgrades.

The truth of the matter is that Disney has ALREADY "lost" the ticket income when they sold the tickets at a
wholesale price to the authorized ticket sellers (Undercover Tourist, ParkSavers, Maple Leaf, etc.) and this has all happened long before the GUEST was ever part of the equation.

DISNEY is the party who decided that selling the tickets at wholesale to the resellers was a good deal to
them (Disney,) as the authorized resellers market additional tickets to WDW and Disney makes more money
with less advertising and less in-house ticket handling.

Once those wholesale tickets have left WDW, it's up to the reseller to decide what they want to charge the guests,
and Disney doesn't get involved at that point.

All this means that if a guest wants to upgrade a ticket at WDW, its just MORE money that Disney makes...
not "losing" a cent more than when they sold those tickets at wholesale prices to the resellers.

Yeah upgrading makes Disney a lot no matter what. I was told by Guest Service friends that Disney giving away tickets as a we are sorry costs them roughly .50 cents a ticket or at least that is they consider as the lost revenue when they have to calculate it for what was lost due to the bad experience. Getting someone to upgrade guarantees Disney money on future trips. It makes no sense for them to fight against it.

 

[momtwoboys]

please please please let me get to a guest services CM that can upgrade my tickets easily! I will worry over this till April 17th ....

 

[SUSIEQ]

Also, to answer back about DVC AP certificates - they are not in our system, just regular and FL resident AP certs.

Well darn!
I went back and looked thru my records. In 2014, I was able to upgrade an unused MYW ticket to a DVC AP renewal voucher. I was at WDW in September, my AP would expire in November, and I knew I would be back in December. It worked perfectly, so I'm sad to hear that DVC AP vouchers are no longer in the system.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I just know they're not in MY system - Guest Relations has access to a lot of stuff I don't, I'd ask them if I were you.

 

[SUSIEQ]

I just know they're not in MY system - Guest Relations has access to a lot of stuff I don't, I'd ask them if I were you.

Yes, I definately went to the GR window at Epcot IG. Thank you for reminding me of that. And, I do appreciate your help and guidance on these ticket threads.

 

[DizDaD7]

We recently just did this....We bought the 7 day PH and alas saved roughly $300 for or family of 4...I got the confirmation instantly & linked them to MDE a week or so after that. The key here is that We will use them to enter into MK, & then immediately head over to city hall to upgrade to the DVC Gold.....I know some have said that you don't need to activate them 1st, but I'm not taking any chances.......

 

[Shroog]

So, we DON'T need to use the tickets first (5 day MYW tickets), before adding a day on or upgrading to AP's? But, we have to add the day on there at DW, we cannot do it from home before we go, correct? And, the current tickets will be "priced" at whatever the current 5 day MYW ticket cost is at that moment, right? (doesn't matter what we paid). Just trying to get this straight, because I have heard conflicting answers on all this.