Help! Do I book with no code or wait???

[babybunny223]

See if you can follow this anxiety filled situation...

I get PINs to my email--they are linked to my mother of all people so I can't use them. I called Disney to see if I could get this fixed...kind of.

We are planning a trip for Sept. 24 and I am praying for free dining. I have been checking daily and have a feeling that a dining discount would come at the end of the month. I have a Disney Visa so there is a twinkle of a chance that I may get the discount before the general public. Disney Travel said that I could book today and add discounts as they become available. Sounds good? Yeah, but I need airfare so if I book and then need to cancel or change my dates, the airfare gets screwed up because it does not technically come through Disney and you have to prepay it when you book a trip. She said a guest services person would get the PIN situation sorted out (not that I quite believe that because they tend to be tricky with their PINs.) so that I would receive them from now on.

So on to the anxiety filled questions. If Disney offers free dining for fall, like everyone is speculating, will it be for everyone or just by PIN? How has it been in the past? Does anyone have any insight on how to handle this? Should I book now and chance the airfare or wait and get a concrete deal first. I think I would feel better if I had an actual deal in hand but there are none available for fall yet (current ends August 14).

Thanks for your help!!

 

[ateam79828592]

Free dining generally comes as a general public offer for mid-august to September. I am in the same place looking to book end of september. I will not book flights thru Disney. We will book those ourselves. I will wait until we get a discount or 181 days (So that I can book dining reservations for 180+10)

that being said they should be able to add the general free dining code to an existing package reservation when/if free dining becomes available.

 

[mlittig]

babybunny223, to the DIS and good luck getting a pin

 

[a1tinkfans]

Not exactly sure I follow.
Are you trying to book your air WITH your disney pkg? Personally I have found that costs more...their goal is Not to get you the cheapest air (thats your goal ), so...
I would immediately book your room only reservation, thats a deposit of just one night.
Then Book you Dining (180 and you can do your whole trip up to ten days) after that, you call back each day...
THEN
WHEN free dine comes out And I think it WILL all you'll do is Call disney back, they will change out your reservation. Just keep in mind that you will pay Rack rate for your room to get the "free" dine .
You will need at least a 1 day tix to "build" your pkg.

I would book your airfare when you know your dates...only SW will let you make any changes for FREE, I love them...but if that is not an option for you, book air when you can...further out seems to get the best rates...that or two weeks before ..when they are trying to fill those empty seats.
Hope this helped, this PIN thing is very overwhelming to many people ...even seasoned disney visitors, you are not alone...most important to me is to have that room, because IF you wait you RISK not getting a room if it gets sold out!
Pixie dust to ALL