Dynamic Ticket Prices - What we thinking?

[sethschroeder]

What is it:
Pricing can change over time without any announcement. There would be various tiers of prices and they adjust it to maximize profit.

My thoughts:
I am not sure what to think. I do know though that Disney seems to be running away from making trips easy to plan. I got a short reprieve with being able to prebook lightening lanes at least this last summer.

I remember why we liked WDW to start though: self contained, just wear a magic band, walk/bus everywhere, straightforward FP, and variety of quality food.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I’m thinking AP’s are looking even better now.

 

[Brian Noble]

When I read the actual comments, my sense of reading between the lines was: The CFO was talking about in-park costs, not ticket prices. One site paraphrases it as:

Although he sought to distance the new strategy from the unpredictable “airline-style model,” he acknowledged the similarities. He explained that Disney already uses variable pricing for hotels and date-based tickets, and the plan is to simply extend this existing, careful approach inside the parks while minimizing any potential negative guest reactions.

So, it is likely that the budget-to-the-penny folks will be annoyed, but it may not be the case that the same day's admission fluctuates wildly based on when you buy it.

 

[davper]

I’m thinking AP’s are looking even better now.

I am thinking they are going to nerf APs.

 

[SL6827]

Great way to push an over priced dining plan!

 

[SL6827]

I am thinking they are going to nerf APs.

They may do it. I don’t put anything past them.

 

[lowlight]

Dynamic pricing ruined Marriott Bonvoy, which itself was already a ruined version of SPG. I guess it depends on the implementation, but it’s never a “good” thing for the consumer.

 

[SL6827]

Dynamic pricing ruined Marriott Bonvoy, which itself was already a ruined version of SPG. I guess it depends on the implementation, but it’s never a “good” thing for the consumer.

No, it's in favor of the vendor. Most definitely.

 

[Sandisw]

It’s done by a lot of travel suppliers, including Unviersal.

It will be interesting to see where and how Disney implements it.

 

[SL6827]

To be fair though, its coming everywhere.

 

[sethschroeder]

When I read the actual comments, my sense of reading between the lines was: The CFO was talking about in-park costs, not ticket prices. One site paraphrases it as:

Although he sought to distance the new strategy from the unpredictable “airline-style model,” he acknowledged the similarities. He explained that Disney already uses variable pricing for hotels and date-based tickets, and the plan is to simply extend this existing, careful approach inside the parks while minimizing any potential negative guest reactions.

So, it is likely that the budget-to-the-penny folks will be annoyed, but it may not be the case that the same day's admission fluctuates wildly based on when you buy it.

My take is he doesn't want to say they are going airline style as that would be massive negative press and they haven't decided to go that far yet.

If they went airline style then I could see for sure just stopping with WDW unless they make it easy to find the low priced dates on the calendar.

 

[sethschroeder]

To be fair though, its coming everywhere.

There will be places without all the extra tracking of pricing. I will go there or I will opt then for inclusive vacation.

 

[SL6827]

There will be places without all the extra tracking of pricing. I will go there or I will opt then for inclusive vacation.

Well I was referring to like grocery stores and such. Once that starts they all will follow. They will deny it of course.

 

[Moonspinner]

I actually find we get better airfare rates with dynamic pricing lol. I’m up for the challenge with Disney too. I guess the difference with Disney is that there isn’t any competition. Disney’s done a great job creating a monopoly. Any competition they have isn’t exactly direct.

 

[muppets3d]

They've had dynamic pricing for a while now - tickets to Magic Kingdom cost more over Christmas than they do in the middle of February for example. This is just making the pricing even more dynamic? I wonder if they'll also extend this to ADRs etc as well. Will a cup of popcorn cost more just before fireworks?

 

[lowlight]

They've had dynamic pricing for a while now - tickets to Magic Kingdom cost more over Christmas than they do in the middle of February for example. This is just making the pricing even more dynamic? I wonder if they'll also extend this to ADRs etc as well. Will a cup of popcorn cost more just before fireworks?

That’s date based pricing. Dynamic pricing means if you buy a ticket at 175 for May 4th at 1:30pm, then go back at 2:30pm to buy the same ticket, it may be 190. Now imagine the algorithm decides ten days before your trip that demand is slack so it slashes the price of everything, but you don’t check and now you’ve paid less than someone else. Dynamic pricing is such garbage it caused me to leave Marriott altogether.

 

[muppets3d]

That’s date based pricing. Dynamic pricing means if you buy a ticket at 175 for May 4th at 1:30pm, then go back at 2:30pm to buy the same ticket, it may be 190. Now imagine the algorithm decides ten days before your trip that demand is slack so it slashes the price of everything, but you don’t check and now you’ve paid less than someone else. Dynamic pricing is such garbage it caused me to leave Marriott altogether.

Right, the pricing will be even more dynamic. Rather than changing season to season or day to day (the schedule of which is released ahead of time) it will change much more frequently and likely without notice, like airline tickets.

It's everywhere these days, even Ticketmaster is using it when buying concert tickets. And at Walmart all the prices are on tiny wireless displays so they can change the prices whenever they want without having to pay someone to walk through the store and swap out paper tags.

 

[MillauFr]

They've had dynamic pricing for a while now - tickets to Magic Kingdom cost more over Christmas than they do in the middle of February for example. This is just making the pricing even more dynamic? I wonder if they'll also extend this to ADRs etc as well. Will a cup of popcorn cost more just before fireworks?

And now Christmas isn't the busiest time at Disneyland. Crowds were light last season. The object of dynamic pricing is to have the same crowd level on a rainy Tuesday in the middle of January as on New Years Eve.

 

[kilik64]

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