help me figure out best ticket plan/Military Salute

[WendyisDarling]

I am certain Dis experts will be able to see through this haze and be able to give best advice.

Our family of 4 (all considered adults) needs 15 days of park tickets.
I had a plan but am now wondering if there is a better way to go about it (save the most money)

Original plan:
DH is active duty military. Get his free military salute 5 day ticket. Purchase 3 companion tickets with PH add on at military installation. Companion tickets cost is $124 each (no tax). AND
Purchase four 10 day PH tickets at military installation $282 each.

It is not likely we will return to Disney in the next year, so an AP would not provide that value (but you never know ). We are planning on using DP for first 4 nights, but not remaining 10 so Tables in Wonderland Card could provide a savings.

I see several offers for the 10% savings off an AP Dis members are offering to give away. Our arrival date is July 31 (the last day of the offer).

I'm getting so confused. What makes most sense. Stick with original plan and forget AP? Upgrade one or more tickets to AP? If we purchase 10 day tickets at military installation and save on sales tax, would we be able to upgrade those tickets using the 10% AP savings promotion or would we need to simply buy AP at Disney?

SOG site says AP (reg. not premium) is $460 (no tax).

Thanks to anyone who can help. I truly have a headache from trying to figure this out on my own.

 

[singnring]

Hey, Back from the grad party.

OK, I read your reply in the other thread, and I apparently did not explain well.

Now I know you are looking for reg AP's - tht helps!

I pulled out my visa statement to verify my costs exactly.
I paid a TOTAL of $305.56 for the AP's.

At SOG, I paid $149 for each companion ticket with both upgrades.
Then I went to TTC window and upgraded those to AP's.
I paid another $156.56 for each AP ($147 for upgrade + $9.56 tax each)

So if you need three companion tickets upgraded to AP's, you will pay $447 @ SOG.
Then you will pay an additional $469.68 @ THe TTC window to upgrade to AP's.
Then you will need the $282 10-day ticket for DH.

SO total costs for you will be:
$447.00 @ SOG
$469.68 @ WDW
$282.00 @ SOG
$1198.68

Your scenario will run you $1500.

 

[WendyisDarling]

Sorry that you are writing Upgrades for Dummies

Is the final price less than the regular $469 (regular annual ticket price) because the companion tickets have a greater value after they have been activated than the true cost and Disney is crediting the true cost for the upgrade not what we actually paid?

If that is correct, shouldn't we purchase 5 day companion tickets with PH and WP making them more valuable or would that require our upgrade to be a Premium AP instead of the Standard AP?

ETA: From reading below it seems we MUST use the tickets at least once before upgrading to get the actual ticket value rather than the price we paid.

Am I starting to catch on?


Thank you so much for helping me (I owe you a Mickey Bar )

ETA: I went back and found this wonderful thread that maybe answers one of my questions...
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684

This is stated : If you purchased your MYW ticket at a price less than the current gate selling price for that ticket (such as from a discounter/broker or Advance Purchase) and you wish to do any upgrade, Disney will not penalize you for the discount provided the ticket has been used. We will make an "intermediate" ticket at the current gate price, charging the difference between your old ticket and the intermediate one to an internal voucher account. Then we will take the intermediate ticket, which is at the current gate price, and upgrade it with the additional days and/or options you want, and you will only be charged for the differences in the current gate price plus tax. Note if you had paid full current gate price for your old ticket the intermediate step is not done.

If you purchased your ticket at less than the current gate price, and your ticket has not been used, you will have to pay the difference between what Disney actually sold the ticket for and the current gate price of the ticket you are upgrading to. It is always best to use one day from the old pass prior to taking it for an upgrade; you will then have locked in the current gate price as the value of the old pass.




(Of course, if anyone else wants to chime in, that's great as I am sure Singnring has a life that involves more than explaining this to someone who is dense about this ticket stuff )


If I am getting this right this is VERY good news for us. (Plus, DH said last night if we have AP's, we may be able to make another trip )

One more question
I think this is pushing it...anyway can DH use a companion ticket on himself to upgrade to an AP? I know he cannot upgrade his freebie. But if he paid for one more companion, can he use it for himself even though he is the active duty military member?

Thanks again.

 

[WendyisDarling]

Reading through the thread I posted above, there is a section specifically about the military tickets. It says...

The Companion Tickets may be upgraded to Annual Passes, Premium APs, or Florida Resident Seasonal Passes (with proper Florida ID). The normal 14 day upgrade period does not apply. However, there will not be “price bridging”; this means that the value of the ticket will be what was paid for it ($99, $124, or $149) and not the current gate price of an equivalent MYW ticket. If the ticket is upgraded to an annual product the expiration date will be one year from the date of first use of the Companion Ticket.

So, what's the deal? Anyone else able to upgrade the companion ticket to AP with "price bridging"?

 

[singnring]

Hm-m-m...

I got my passes in Jan, which was right after this whole promotion kicked off.

Possible that they had a lot of people upgrading and decided to change the policy?

Doesn't seem right though.
What's the difference of a discount from a broker and this discount?

You may as well buy the AP and be done with it. They take all the discount away if there's no "bridging".

My advise would be to call SOG and ask them how it will be handled.
THey are up on all the latest changes and can give you the best advise.

As to DH using a companion, don't see why he couldn't do it.

You are entitled to up to 5 companion tickets and when you purchase them @ SOG you do not have to specify who they are for. That happens @ the ticket office @ WDW.

We did not have to activate my SIL's freebie ticket when we upgraded our tickets to AP's.

I guess you could use your military ID (instead of his) @ the WDW window to upgrade the 4 companions, and just don't activate his freebie.

My DD did all of our tickets and most of the family was nowhere around. So they obviously aren't worried about who is getting the companion tickets.

As far as the question about adding the hopper and wp to the companions, yes, we paid for all the upgrades on the original tickets, thus, increasing their value when we then upgraded to the AP's.

That's why I said to add those upgrades and pay the $149 @ SOG. You lose the WP when you turn it into a reg AP, but it still saves more money in the end.

As I said, final cost for AP's were $305.56 ea.

The only way that would be otherwise is if you find that they are not "price bridging" anymore.

 

[WendyisDarling]

Thank you singnring.
I truly appreciate your patience with me and answering so many questions.

 

[singnring]

Not a problem at all!

It is a confusing process and unfortunately, they do seem to be changing things a the promotion goes along.

Good luck and I hope I've been SOME help to you!

 

[WendyisDarling]

I tried calling SOG to ask, but you have to leave a message and sounds like it will take a while for them to get back to you.

So, I called Disney. First CM didn't know, so referred me to someone else. This CM told me what I didn't want to hear. He said you only get credit for what you paid for the ticket ($99 or $124 or $148) toward the AP. AND (this was surprising) he said they may only give you partial credit according to how many days you have used. He said they would divide the amount by 5 and take off the daily amount for each day the ticket was used and then that amount would be applied to AP.
Now that doesn't sound right to me.

I was very polite and asked just to clarify..."so, if I plan to purchase an AP, there really is no value for me getting the military salute ticket, right?" He paused and said "well, it is a nice promotion". I agreed and said "oh yes, I think it is very generous of Disney and much appreciated by troops and their families. But, I am just trying to figure out if I should go through the process getting a military salute companion ticket and then upgrading it to an AP. It seems that I will spend the same money. He then agreed that there is no point in it.

So...hmmm...I do think it is a nice promotion and if it doesn't work for us, then that's OK. I know others are getting great use from it.
It does say on the Disney site they can be upgraded. I think it is very odd that they will take off for the days used before issuing a credit and am not sure if I believe this one.

?--when you upgrade to an AP does Disney scan the ticket or something to see how much you paid for it? How is it when a ticket is bought from a discount broker the full amount is still credited. I'm just curious and well, it doesn't make sense that they aren't credited the discounted price. But, I haven't a clue how this works. I have never purchased an AP before.

Anyone else have experience with upgrading military salute tickets to AP?

Oh well, a wonderful Dis member is sending me a 10% off AP savings card