Disney Erased All my FP+ and Won't Reinstate Them

[mom2rtk]

I just bought my plane tickets on MyMagic Airlines.
They were a bargain!

I understand that their jets arrive at their destination most of the time.

And I'm going to tell Disney my system for paying for my trips works most of the time. They'll be good with that, right?

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I was surprised they didn't show up on page one!

I'm still waiting for "If you don't like it, don't go"

 

[DVCMomBLT]

I think you're missing the bigger picture. Riddle me this...should adding a dining plan to an existing reservation *ever* wipe out a guest's FP+???? Why would you design a system that is intended to work that way??? Seems a little silly, no?

Either way, this is *Disney's* fault/issue...not OP's.

No, I'm not. I don't think that should happen at all. But I am saying that if your reservation is cancelled (be it by accident or not), your FP+ will be deleted. There are enough actual technical issues with FP+ that we don't need to add user error (even if the user is a CM) to it.

Again, I NEVER said it was the OP's fault. I just said it wasn't a "glitch" with MDE like many implied. People were talking about taking pictures of your FP+ in case they "mysteriously" disappear. There is no mystery here.

 

[notnothin]

I'm sorry, but the "system" includes the human element of implementing it. One cannot divorce the techno part of the equation from the human part of the equation. If the CM said that nothing would be affected, and that turned out to be false, then the "system" failed.

Mission Control to Spacecraft: "Go ahead and press the blue button for re-entry"

Spacecraft to Mission Control: "I did that and we are now in irreversible self-destruct mode. We're doomed."

Mission Control to Spacecraft: "Oops. Sorry. I meant to say the green button. You're right. You are doomed. But look on the bright side. The system worked exactly as it was supposed to and the blue button performed flawlessly."

In this scenario, did the "system" work?

Man this is rich. Good one!

 

[Robo]

And I'm going to tell Disney my system for paying for my trips works most of the time. They'll be good with that, right?

I have a credit card that I think works.

At least the transaction goes through at the time.
Then, money gets transferred most of the time.

 

[flatlandcycle]

No, I don't think they deleted them. I think exactly what happened happened. Their reservation was cancelled and a new one created. That cancelled the associated fastpasses. That was not an error. That is how it is designed to work. And the OP probably DID get bad advice from the CM. I am just saying it is not a flaw in the MDE or FP+ system like many people implied. Those systems did EXACTLY what they were supposed to do.

I would say, by design, this makes people unhappy. If the goal is to disenfranchise, mission accomplished. This could have been programed in a way to preserve FP+, or repopulate the new reservations with the prior FP+ selections. Fail!

 

[surferdave]

No, I don't think they deleted them. I think exactly what happened happened. Their reservation was cancelled and a new one created. That cancelled the associated fastpasses. That was not an error. That is how it is designed to work. And the OP probably DID get bad advice from the CM. I am just saying it is not a flaw in the MDE or FP+ system like many people implied. Those systems did EXACTLY what they were supposed to do.

That's even worse than a code error, which can typically be patched. That's a fundamental design flaw. A guest can plan an entire trip, and decide shortly before it begins to add a dining plan, and they have to start over with a new reservation? Nothing prompts the guest that this act of feeding Disney more money will eliminate all their FP+ planning and reservations?

Sadly this looks like it's a carry over effect from the already in place resort booking code that was integrated into MM+. Before they tied FP+ to it there was probably no consequence to creating a new reservation number and deleting the old one, but now there's potentially a big one. This is exactly what I keep describing when I say that data from one component corrupts data in another when they are linked. The worst part (for those of us who haven't suffered the direct consequences like the OP) is that this is probably something that won't be easy to fix with a patch; they would have to revise the reservation software that probably hasn't been revised in years.

 

[DVCMomBLT]

I'm sorry, but the "system" includes the human element of implementing it. One cannot divorce the techno part of the equation from the human part of the equation. If the CM said that nothing would be affected, and that turned out to be false, then the "system" failed.

Mission Control to Spacecraft: "Go ahead and press the blue button for re-entry"

Spacecraft to Mission Control: "I did that and we are now in irreversible self-destruct mode. We're doomed."

Mission Control to Spacecraft: "Oops. Sorry. I meant to say the green button. You're right. You are doomed. But look on the bright side. The system worked exactly as it was supposed to and the blue button performed flawlessly."

In this scenario, did the "system" work?

Yes, of course it did. What if you are at a stop light and you put your put on the gas instead of the brake. Is the car to blame for that?

Again, the "blame" exists in one of only two places:

1) CM for giving wrong info
2) OP for misunderstanding

FWIW, I vote for #1.

 

[ghtx]

It is utterly insane that they implemented a system that works most of the time. Because Disney expects payment from guests 100% of the time, I expect them to deliver the service they promise 100% of the time. This is exactly what happens when you move to a high tech system in a company known for tech issues.

To be fair, it is "utterly insane" to expect that any system will work all of the time rather than most of the time. What's important is that when the (inevitable) mistake occurs it is corrected (i.e. OP should get his/her FPs back!)

 

[DVCMomBLT]

I have a credit card that I think works.

At least the transaction goes through at the time.
Then, money gets transferred most of the time.

Where did this "most" of the time nonsense come from? If the CM cancels your reservation, it will cancel your FP's 100% of the time.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

I'm still waiting for "If you don't like it, don't go"

That's in the greedy thread.

 

[DVCMomBLT]

That's even worse than a code error, which can typically be patched. That's a fundamental design flaw. A guest can plan an entire trip, and decide shortly before it begins to add a dining plan, and they have to start over with a new reservation? Nothing prompts the guest that this act of feeding Disney more money will eliminate all their FP+ planning and reservations?

Sadly this looks like it's a carry over effect from the already in place resort booking code that was integrated into MM+. Before they tied FP+ to it there was probably no consequence to creating a new reservation number and deleting the old one, but now there's potentially a big one. This is exactly what I keep describing when I say that data from one component corrupts data in another when they are linked. The worst part (for those of us who haven't suffered the direct consequences like the OP) is that this is probably something that won't be easy to fix with a patch; they would have to revise the reservation software that probably hasn't been revised in years.

Agreed.

 

[DVCMomBLT]

It is very much an MDE issue if a CM advised a guest of how the change would work and this happened instead.

No, it is an employee training issue. MDE isn't to blame.

 

[mom2rtk]

To be fair, it is "utterly insane" to expect that any system will work all of the time rather than most of the time. What's important is that when the (inevitable) mistake occurs it is corrected (i.e. OP should get his/her FPs back!)

All the more reason why ride access never should have been tied to this system. I pay for my ticket 100% of the time. I expect reasonable access to rides 100% of the time. If low tech (like legacy FP) works better, then it needed to stay low tech.

Or as you say, they needed reasonable guest recovery options. This "sorry we can't fix it" stuff is a steaming pile of crap. I can't believe anyone at Disney really thinks that's OK.

 

[jiminykrikkit]

Mission Control to Spacecraft: "Go ahead and press the blue button for re-entry"

Spacecraft to Mission Control: "I did that and we are now in irreversible self-destruct mode. We're doomed."

Mission Control to Spacecraft: "Oops. Sorry. I meant to say the green button. You're right. You are doomed. But look on the bright side. The system worked exactly as it was supposed to and the blue button performed flawlessly."

In this scenario, did the "system" work?

I'm still waiting for "If you don't like it, don't go"

No, it is an employee training issue. MDE isn't to blame.

All jokes aside, I do get what DVCMomBLT is saying. It's not okay for it to happen, but that is what happened, and will happen every time (until they change it) a reservation number gets changed (for whatever reason), and the CMs *should* be trained to warn a guest that it will happen. I don't think she was implying it was the OP's fault (and then she confirmed that she wasn't implying that).

Such a cruddy situation all around.

 

[DVCMomBLT]

All the more reason why ride access never should have been tied to this system. I pay for my ticket 100% of the time. I expect reasonable access to rides 100% of the time. If low tech (like legacy FP) works better, then it needed to stay low tech.

Or as you say, they needed reasonable guest recovery options. This "sorry we can't fix it" stuff is a steaming pile of crap. I can't believe anyone at Disney really thinks that's OK.

The problem is, most people WANT the ride access tied to this system. People staying on site get a 60 day window to book FP+. If it wasn't tied, you wouldn't have that benefit.

Like other people have said, the real issue is the way it is implemented. There is nothing wrong with "tying" together rides with rooms, but it needs to be done smarter. Ways to migrate FP+ from one res to another, warning messages, etc etc etc.

 

[surferdave]

No, it is an employee training issue. MDE isn't to blame.

I was all ready to say that you had it right when you agreed with "fundamental design flaw", I'm glad I read this first.

Training employees to cope with a silent, fundamental design flaw is the worst possible solution, typically carried out by penny pinching managers in greedy organizations (and there's a good example of greed that can't be explained away with "hey they're in business to make money!" for anybody visiting from the greed thread). It's a temporary stop gap measure at best.

Disney should definitely issue whatever type of all points bulletin they have to CMs to at least try to keep them from doing this again, while they have IT promptly installing a patch to at least put in a pop up window that warns guests and CMs that adding a dining plan will change the reservation number and changing the reservation number will eliminate all previous Fastpass planning.

Personally I'm guessing that Disney will be at least a little conflicted about having to tell guests that buying a dining plan will foul up all that planning that they have promoted so much since it may reduce the number of dining plans purchased, so any solution that actually involves sharing this info with guests won't be welcome news to them. For that reason I'm guessing Disney lets this one fester until they have to revise the reservation system for some other reason.

 

[mom2rtk]

All jokes aside, I do get what DVCMomBLT is saying. It's not okay for it to happen, but that is what happened, and will happen every time (until they change it) a reservation number gets changed (for whatever reason), and the CMs *should* be trained to warn a guest that it will happen. I don't think she was implying it was the OP's fault (and then she confirmed that she wasn't implying that).

Such a cruddy situation all around.

But you won't convince me that the system was designed so that FPs get wiped out by making a change to the reservation, and that the issue here was the failure of the CM to warn the guest that would happen. I mean, when would anyone EVER be ok with that?

 

[flicx]

If Disney knows there is a problem they should be all over it. This kinda situation gives Disney a bad rap for customer service. They were once known to be really good in that department! I will guarantee you if it cost Disney money the problem would have been fixed pronto!!!!

 

[DVCMomBLT]

But you won't convince me that the system was designed so that FPs get wiped out by making a change to the reservation, and that the issue here was the failure of the CM to warn the guest that would happen. I mean, when would anyone EVER be ok with that?

Much more often than you think. I've worked on dozens of poorly designed software systems.