Help! Cancelled trip. Need to figure out what to do with conference tix.

[wendow]

Thanks, Marionette, for sharing that. My dh bought the tickets over the phone though the conference people so we never received anything like that. He is going to call back in the morning and talk to them again. Hopefully, someone else!!

 

[wendow]

Agree. Sharing with a coworker is just not how it works/or should work if the travel is mandatory. If the conference is voluntary and the terms of the accommodations are known in advance, that is another story.

It is mandatory that he go. He has known for a couple of months that he would be attending. His boss (which is the woman attending) had said she just wanted to send him this year and see how it was. SO that was the thinking and we decided to have me go as a small anniv. trip. This past Friday was the last date to book the rooms at conference rate and all of sudden, four more people signed on to go

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

It is mandatory that he go. He has known for a couple of months that he would be attending. His boss (which is the woman attending) had said she just wanted to send him this year and see how it was. SO that was the thinking and we decided to have me go as a small anniv. trip. This past Friday was the last date to book the rooms at conference rate and all of sudden, four more people signed on to go

Does the boss know that he planned accordingly by purchasing your plane ticket and park tickets, all of which is presumably non-refundable? Was it clear up front that the conference was open to other people or did she just last minute say oh by the way we are sending more people? I can't see how four more people signed up when the boss said she was only sending one person. Seems like someone had to give the other 4 people permission (of which one is the boss, right?).

 

[Julylady]

Okay. I will take this from the perspective of the boss/non-profit agency. When we send an employee to a conference and pay the expenses, we don't expect it to double as an anniversary trip. That being said.....if I had an employee who was the only person attending from our organization, I would have no trouble if their spouse went along and shared the hotel room. But if we were sending multiple people, I would expect them to have dinner together at least part of the time and discuss how what they had learned applied to our organization. If bringing the spouse resulted in needing to upgrade the room or reserve an additional room, I would expect the employee to pay for that out of pocket.

OP...I am sorry you purchased tickets that you now can't use, but I don't see this any way the employer or boss's fault.

 

[wendow]

Does the boss know that he planned accordingly by purchasing your plane ticket and park tickets, all of which is presumably non-refundable? Was it clear up front that the conference was open to other people or did she just last minute say oh by the way we are sending more people? I can't see how four more people signed up when the boss said she was only sending one person. Seems like someone had to give the other 4 people permission (of which one is the boss, right?).

The boss knew I was going but my dh thinks she thought I was arriving after the conference was over (even though he never said that). She does not know about us already having purchased park tickets. My dh is still using his plane ticket. Mine was purchased with our personal SW airlines miles so those were just credited back.

His boss did plan on just sending my dh. The day before the hotel conference rate went off, my dh's boss was talking to the vendor and found out they had 4 free conference admissions so she decided to send more people and then it turned into 5 total going.

 

[wendow]

Okay. I will take this from the perspective of the boss/non-profit agency. When we send an employee to a conference and pay the expenses, we don't expect it to double as an anniversary trip. That being said.....if I had an employee who was the only person attending from our organization, I would have no trouble if their spouse went along and shared the hotel room. But if we were sending multiple people, I would expect them to have dinner together at least part of the time and discuss how what they had learned applied to our organization. If bringing the spouse resulted in needing to upgrade the room or reserve an additional room, I would expect the employee to pay for that out of pocket.

OP...I am sorry you purchased tickets that you now can't use, but I don't see this any way the employer or boss's fault.

Yep, you are thinking exactly like his boss. It isn't a long conference. So between the already scheduled evening events and his boss expecting him to have dinner/network with others there, it leaves no free time.

It isn't my dh's employer or boss's fault. It is totally ours. I never said differently. Things just changed suddenly and we are trying to figure out what our options are for tickets we already purchased.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

The boss knew I was going but my dh thinks she thought I was arriving after the conference was over (even though he never said that). She does not know about us already having purchased park tickets. My dh is still using his plane ticket. Mine was purchased with our personal SW airlines miles so those were just credited back.

His boss did plan on just sending my dh. The day before the hotel conference rate went off, my dh's boss was talking to the vendor and found out they had 4 free conference admissions so she decided to send more people and then it turned into 5 total going.

Are you able to get a discounted room rate for the conference and just meet your DH after the conference? That might be cheaper than going later in the year and apparently his boss already expected him to be doing this so time off shouldn't be an issue. I am glad you were able to get the airline credits back but the $$$ for park tickets is still a considerable amount. It's unfortunate her being uninformed about the conference admissions cost you this money.

 

[wendow]

Are you able to get a discounted room rate for the conference and just meet your DH after the conference? That might be cheaper than going later in the year and apparently his boss already expected him to be doing this so time off shouldn't be an issue. I am glad you were able to get the airline credits back but the $$$ for park tickets is still a considerable amount. It's unfortunate her being uninformed about the conference admissions cost you this money.

No, we cannot go before or after due to either other plans on our part or other plans on grandparents part.

My dh's boss is known for changing her mind a lot so really, we should have thought of that and not done anything that wasn't refundable. Just wanted to go ahead and get those FP's booked!

 

[wendow]

So, my dh called and talked to the Disney conference people again. A different person confirmed everything the other CM said on Friday. She said we can use the tickets by end of this year and we could give them to someone else. My dh asked about them being 'non-transferable' and she said b/c we bought a couple of days as 'after 2pm' tickets, those cannot be separated. But the full day tickets are separate from those.

 

[Allison]

I would hope that if he is required to spent all his "free" time with his coworkers, then the company is paying him and his coworkers overtime for that time. If he is salaried, would his salary be based on a 7.5-8 hour work day? Anything over that would be overtime or his time to do with as he pleases. I would look into laws about the having to share a room as well. I know that when I book rooms for our employees working out of town, each must have his/her own room and we pay a per diem for meals on top of the room. If they "choose" to go to the bar or whatever after hours that is their choice and not payed for by the company.

This is off-topic but...

He isn't going to get overtime if he is an exempt employee being paid a salary. There aren't any laws about sharing a room.

 

[wendow]

This is off-topic but...

He isn't going to get overtime if he is an exempt employee being paid a salary. There aren't any laws about sharing a room.

I missed that post. No, he won't be paid overtime. He works over 40 hours a week all the time and doesn't get paid overtime. Yes, he is salaried.

 

[Julylady]

An idea. A couple of years ago I bought two 1-day park tickets from someone who worked at the same organization I do. They were conference tickets similar to ones you have but with an expiration date that was about six months in the future. She advertised them on the internal Post it board. I needed two single day tickets for friends who were joining us on a cruise. We had annual passes, but they needed one day tickets.

I paid her $70 for a ticket that was worth $90. She told me that if the tickets weren't good, she would reimburse me. Although I didn't know her, I knew where she worked! The tickets worked out just fine. Perhaps you could do something similar?

 

[Marionnette]

So, my dh called and talked to the Disney conference people again. A different person confirmed everything the other CM said on Friday. She said we can use the tickets by end of this year and we could give them to someone else. My dh asked about them being 'non-transferable' and she said b/c we bought a couple of days as 'after 2pm' tickets, those cannot be separated. But the full day tickets are separate from those.

You will still run into the problem that the tickets are already linked to your MDE account. You can reassign the tickets to anyone in your account but right now they are attached to you and your husband. If you give them to someone that you know, you can send an email invitation to that person so that you can link the names in their MDE account to yours and then you can reassign the tickets to those names. But you will retain control of the tickets and could reassign those tickets at any time before they expire or get used for the first time. The recipient would not be able to reassign them to anyone else in their MDE. If they don't have Magic Bands, they would need physical tickets to be used at the gate and all FP entrances, so your husband would have to get them from will call when he is there for his conference.

 

[HM]

You kno, this is where Disney making you load tickets to do FP+ far in advance of a trip does the public a disservice. If your plans change, you are stuck. OP looks to lose out completely on her ticket purchase. I hope flights were able to be postponed or refunded.

I'd definitely be having the DH talk to management at work about their changing the plans on him and how it's affecting him financially. Maybe they will recind the changes and allow him to get the room he'd planned on with his wife.

 

[Julylady]

I'd definitely be having the DH talk to management at work about their changing the plans on him and how it's affecting him financially. Maybe they will recind the changes and allow him to get the room he'd planned on with his wife.

I would strongly advise against having your husband complain to his boss or management. It sounds like the boss didn't know there were four registrations comped when she originally talked to your husband. That's unfortunate, but she needs to do what's best for the organization. It probably never crossed the boss's mind that you would turn this into an anniversary trip. I think you are just going to need to cosnsider this a lesson learned.

 

[supersnoop]

I'd definitely be having the DH talk to management at work about their changing the plans on him and how it's affecting him financially. Maybe they will recind the changes and allow him to get the room he'd planned on with his wife.

My companies travel policy requires approval from the president of my division before I'm allowed to take a guest on a business trip with me. It doesn't sound like there was any official approval here. Without knowing the actual policy, it's difficult to advocate complaining.

 

[ibob52]

I hope you find ... a good resolution of the ticket dilemma... Good Luck

 

[wendow]

You will still run into the problem that the tickets are already linked to your MDE account. You can reassign the tickets to anyone in your account but right now they are attached to you and your husband. If you give them to someone that you know, you can send an email invitation to that person so that you can link the names in their MDE account to yours and then you can reassign the tickets to those names. But you will retain control of the tickets and could reassign those tickets at any time before they expire or get used for the first time. The recipient would not be able to reassign them to anyone else in their MDE. If they don't have Magic Bands, they would need physical tickets to be used at the gate and all FP entrances, so your husband would have to get them from will call when he is there for his conference.

So, you think the tickets will still be good later this year? I am considering calling in the morning and asking again. So far, my dh has called both times. I just want a clear answer.

 

[wendow]

My dh won't complain. It really is our fault. And yes, lesson learned big time!

 

[wendow]

I hope you find ... a good resolution of the ticket dilemma... Good Luck

Thank you!