Has this ever happened to anyone?

[B&WMickey]

My wife and I and our 2 children, DS 3 and DD 1 are planning on going to WDW in January 2007. We’ve anticipated taking this trip for a couple of years now and have been putting away a little bit of money every month for about 2 years, even before my wife got pregnant with our DD.

I like to plan vacations out in advance, especially ones like this where you want everything to go off without a hitch and you have your heart set on everything being perfect. Also by planning things this far out I wanted to assure myself that I would get a AAA discount on my room and help in offsetting our costs.

We had decided to help with the costs that we would stay at POR. I remember hearing that if you book through AAA they will automatically adjust your reservation to reflect the new prices for the year and any AAA discounts. Since I’ve also heard that the AAA discounts are limited in number and may go quickly I figured why wait around till the new rates and discounts are announced and went ahead and made room only reservations in March of 2006.

I admit I didn’t shop around for a AAA travel agent I just walked in off the street to the one closest to my house. The person I worked with was very polite and courteous and seemed to know what he was doing. I knew exactly what I was looking for so I think I made things fairly easy for him. I kept asking him if it was true that when the AAA discounts became available that they would be automatically applied to my rate. He kept assuring me that they would.

After that I kind of pushed things to the back burner in my head and figured I had every thing covered. Of course over the last couple of weeks there has been quite an increase in chatter on the DIS Boards over AAA discounts. People were clamoring over when the new rates would come out. I kept thinking that my discount was assured and I had nothing to worry about. But as the date for the release of the discounts got closer I figured I would call my AAA agent back and confirm my adjusted discounted price and verify it had been applied.

Well today being the first Monday after the new discounts were announced I made the call into my AAA agent and was essentially blown out of the water!!!!

I informed him that I was interested in knowing what my new rate was and to verify that the discount was applied to my reservation. He put me on hold for a minute or 2 and got back to me and informed me that there was no discount for my reservation. He tried to sell me a package telling me that it was a good way to save money.

I did a remarkably good job of keeping my cool and I said I didn’t want a package I just wanted the AAA discount applied to my reservation. At which point he said AAA did not discount room only reservations. He then said he would check with his manager. When he got back to me he said his manager confirmed that AAA does not give discounts on room only reservations. Once again he started in on packages and what a great deal they were.

I resisted the urge in me to either start screaming at him or to start crying and told myself when I got home from work that I would call CRO directly and check into the rates. If one was available I would book through CRO and cancel my reservation with AAA. Of course I was panicked and sick to my stomach that I had lost out on getting the discount entirely.

When I got home I called CRO and informed them of my situation. The lady helping me was excellent. She got me the room and dates I wanted at the price I knew I had coming using my AAA discount. $200 cheaper than what the AAA agent was telling me. She seemed amused by my dealings with AAA but not entirely surprised.

I called AAA back and cancelled my reservation with them since I had gotten a cheaper rate using my AAA discount and calling CRO directly. I was assured that I would receive a full refund of my deposit. However, I have to admit my confidence in that happening without any headaches is a bit low at this time.

My purpose here isn’t to flame on AAA or the individual that helped me but my story is more of a cautionary tale to others. I admit that being as vigilant as I was and considering the dates we were looking at going I had little to worry about. But if I had my heart set on getting a big discount at a Deluxe resort during a busy time of the year I could have been shut out.

I don’t think the individual AAA agent I dealt with had a hidden agenda to sell me a package and make more money either. I just think he truly didn’t know what he was talking about and was trying his best to help me save some money.

Sorry for my huge story here but I had to vent and I figured that if anyone understood it would be the people here.

 

[dementia412]

I doubt he talked to his manager... more likely he was off finishing his game of solitare or sharpening his pencils. I always doubt someone when they say they're going to ask a manager because it's such a common blow off line.

 

[mamacatnv]

I am using a travel agent who is not AAA and yesterday she sent me an
e-mail telling me that she had applied my AAA discount and my savings was x.

I was thrilled and I have a room only ressie at this point in time. I am still considering how to purchase our tickets as we don't want the Dining Plan, so at this point a package is not necessary. If Disney introduces some sort of incentive for our January trip that would include a package, we could convert it then.

Good for you for cancelling, although I know there are lots of folks out her with good AAA TA's. Personally I chose to use Magical Journeys to handle things, I don't have to monitor the discounts, they do it for me.

Good luck & Happy Planning!

 

[bab31]

I booked room and ticket package with AAA on Monday - no dineing

 

[Gary M]

It seems to happen all to often with travel agents. Most know very little about WDW and the discounts. A few years ago I went into our local AAA office and asked about a trip to WDW. I was taken to a cubical where a nice young lady was sitting. I looked around and saw all kinds of posters and certificates about WDW. It took about 30 seconds to find out this "Disney Specialist" wasn't familiar with WDW and offers available for WDW. I was nice to her and left to make my own reservations. I now use DU and don't worry about things.

 

[Mcbruns]

Hello -
Sorry to hear about that.
Just wondering why you would not get a package ? I assume you will be going to the parks and will need tickets.
We booked a package thru AAA last year and saved 17% from what the Disney site quoted.
The more days you book, the cheaper the tickets are.
Are you planning on purchasing your tickets when you arrive? Just curious.

 

[Mcbruns]

I am using a travel agent who is not AAA and yesterday she sent me an
e-mail telling me that she had applied my AAA discount and my savings was x.

I was thrilled and I have a room only ressie at this point in time. I am still considering how to purchase our tickets as we don't want the Dining Plan, so at this point a package is not necessary. If Disney introduces some sort of incentive for our January trip that would include a package, we could convert it then.

Good for you for cancelling, although I know there are lots of folks out her with good AAA TA's. Personally I chose to use Magical Journeys to handle things, I don't have to monitor the discounts, they do it for me.

Good luck & Happy Planning!

You can still get a package that does not inlcude the dining plan. They have many packages. You can get park hoppers with or without water parks. The dining plan is an another package (a GREAT DEAL). We always do a package with our room and I think it's a good deal. Plus you have it all paid for before you go.
Just my 2 cents

 

[mamacatnv]

You can still get a package that does not inlcude the dining plan. They have many packages. You can get park hoppers with or without water parks. The dining plan is an another package (a GREAT DEAL). We always do a package with our room and I think it's a good deal. Plus you have it all paid for before you go.
Just my 2 cents

Yes I could, but at this point in time there is no reason too. Last fall the perk Disney released included a room discount and upgraded park tix to include the water park options. Per my TA when Disney does this, they(the TA) crunch the numbers to see what is a better deal and then we will either stay with what we have, purchase tix separately or convert it all to a package.

All I need are tickets. I agree the DDP is a great deal, but it is not our style and we don't want it.

If Disney comes out with an incentive then it may be in my better interest to convert to a package at that time. Due to the stricter cancellation policies regarding packages, we are not loosing anything by just hanging out to see what comes along.

The only real disadvantage at this point is that since I have paid off my rooms, I can't continue to make payments on the tickets, so I opened a separate acct. at my Credit Union and instead of payments to Disney I make the payments there so that when the time comes everything will still be paid for.

 

[B&WMickey]

Hello -
Sorry to hear about that.
Just wondering why you would not get a package ? I assume you will be going to the parks and will need tickets.
We booked a package thru AAA last year and saved 17% from what the Disney site quoted.
The more days you book, the cheaper the tickets are.
Are you planning on purchasing your tickets when you arrive? Just curious.

I’m not entirely opposed to a package. At this time I wanted to make sure I had locked down the AAA room only discount since those can go quickly. I figured after that I could take some time and evaluate the package options that were out there and decide at a later date if I wanted to switch my reservation to a package.

The thing about my experience that scared me the most was that my AAA agent seemed to have no knowledge regarding applying a AAA discount to my room only reservation. At that point I completely lost faith in him and couldn’t really trust anything that he was telling me.