I'm assuming I have no recourse--the UT and AP debate :(

[alicat07]

After our vacation debacle a little over a month ago, I had to take a little "Disney break"...and I am just starting to catch up here now on the boards.

Now I am reading that upgrading the UT tickets I bought to an AP may end up making you pay more. We did buy from UT (7 day park hoppers) in June of this past year for our Nov/Dec trip, and on the first day of our trip upgraded to the AP--I had called UT the week before to confirm that I could do this. I DID think at the time that the additional pricing we were paying to upgrade was high, but since we had 11 people with us, I didn't question it at guest services and just paid it.

Now looking over my receipts, the debate is right--I paid $285 per pass through UT, yet only was credited $268.04 from Disney per pass, then had to pay the difference. I paid an additional $30 for our AP's....and this is just adding to my huge mess-up that week.

I am assuming that since my vacation happened already I have no other recourse, right? Just wanted to ask, this makes me sad again that yet another thing went wrong during our trip.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Was the difference sales tax?

 

[Dacky619]

Was the difference sales tax?

That's what I'm thinking, often times when you exchange something, the credit you are given for is just the item. Then you end up paying tax on the difference, and everything does work out evenly.

 

[alicat07]

What is the FL sales tax? Can someone here help me figure out if the difference was sales tax? I paid $284.95 per ticket to UT, 2 tickets= $569.90.

Disney charged me $424.94 per AP (including sales tax), so 2 AP equaled $849.88.

I received a credit of $536.08 (so $268.04 per ticket), making my balance that I paid to Disney $313.80 for the upgrade.

My brain is not working tonight LMAO, can someone help me out here?

 

[TagsMissy]

Did you use your tickets to enter the park before you upgraded?? you need to use them first before the price of the ticket bridges up to the price at Disney's current gate price.

Tax is 6.5%... what you were credited was the cost - tax which was probably then made up in the final tally.

 

[LewisToo]

The UT price you paid included sales tax. If they gave you less credit than what you paid to UT, then they credited it based on the price that UT paid to Disney and not what you paid for the tickets.

I don't think you have any recourse other than a lesson learned the hard way. I think this happens more than more people realize.

 

[alicat07]

Did you use your tickets to enter the park before you upgraded?? you need to use them first before the price of the ticket bridges up to the price at Disney's current gate price.

The tax I believe is 6.5%

No I did not Missy....I wasn't aware that I had to use them first--UT told me to just bring them to guest services and upgrade them, so we went to downtown Disney first and did it there. I guess that's why then...

Thanks Missy for the info. Wish I had questioned it at the time, but with 11 people in our party waiting for us in Downtown Disney, we didn't want to make them wait any longer (we had such a mess at check in and our day was already delayed over an hour).

 

[LewisToo]

Ah, that's too bad. But Missy is right. If you didn't use them first than you are charged the difference and they aren't bridged to the gate price.

 

[alicat07]

Thanks guys! Live and learn...though I am not sure I will do this in the future anyway. Watching the UT thread anyway to see the outcome.

Thanks again!

 

[Brian Noble]

I don't know what thread you mean, but this has been the policy for a few years at least now. I don't know that there is any "outcome" other than the live-and-learn one to be expected.

 

[kristenrice]

In June 2009, I bought tickets from UCT. I used them our first day and then went to guest services on the way out to upgrade them to DVC AP's. The price difference was more than I'd figured so I asked about it. They told me that since my passes were bought at a discount, I would only receive the discounted value for them. I was a little confused since I DID use them first, but at that point, there was no point in debating it. I guess it all depends on who you get at the counter.

 

[tkillini99]

I had a similar situation happen to me. I had purchased my tickets from UT, used them to enter the gates at the MK, and then went to upgrade. The girls behind the desk tried to give me only the credit for what I paid, and not the gate price, even though I had used the tickets. This girl seemed to be a little unsure, and not very experienced, so I explained to her the situation, and asked to see a manager. She obliged, and the manager did have her fix the situation. She ended up messing up the expiration dates on my tickets though, after all that! But I did get the correct price! Unfortunately, if you did not use the tickets to enter the parks before upgrading, you only get credit for the price you paid.

 

[bumbershoot]

In June 2009, I bought tickets from UCT. I used them our first day and then went to guest services on the way out to upgrade them to DVC AP's. The price difference was more than I'd figured so I asked about it. They told me that since my passes were bought at a discount, I would only receive the discounted value for them. I was a little confused since I DID use them first, but at that point, there was no point in debating it. I guess it all depends on who you get at the counter.

Well, there was a point, because that wasn't (and isn't) their policy. They were supposed to bridge the price. You could have stopped the transaction and gone elsewhere, or gone elsewhere to have the situation fixed, or even written once you got home. Plenty of people have done those things, and had it fixed.

Unfortunately, if you did not use the tickets to enter the parks before upgrading, you only get credit for the price you paid.

Well it seems you get credit for the price the discount place paid. UCT has stated that they do not report the price WE pay to Disney, so they have no way of knowing that.

 

[Deb & Bill]

...Well it seems you get credit for the price the discount place paid. UCT has stated that they do not report the price WE pay to Disney, so they have no way of knowing that.

You don't think Disney checks their website?

 

[Brian Noble]

You don't think Disney checks their website?

No, I don't. It's easier to just use the price that was recorded for the sale of that particular ticket to the discount broker---and, presuming the brokers do not work for free, that is less than you paid. But, even if they were to look at the website, which one would they use? The "regular" one? The "mousesavers" one?

 

[Sandisw]

I don't know what thread you mean, but this has been the policy for a few years at least now. I don't know that there is any "outcome" other than the live-and-learn one to be expected.

There is a thread in the Theme Park and Strategies discussion about someone who had difficulty upgrading a UT MYW ticket to a DVC AP renewal ticket.

It got all messed up, UT had to get involved, and the outcome at this time is UT is recommending, until they can get confirmation from Disney that their tickets are upgradeable to AP's, like they always have been with the bridging intact, that people just buy AP's if that is there intent.

 

[Brian Noble]

Ah. Interesting. And, a little surprising, but not necessarily shocking. Even though Disney was willing to bridge the price yesterday, that's no guarantee that they will do so tomorrow.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

There is a thread in the Theme Park and Strategies discussion about someone who had difficulty upgrading a UT MYW ticket to a DVC AP renewal ticket.

It got all messed up, UT had to get involved, and the outcome at this time is UT is recommending, until they can get confirmation from Disney that their tickets are upgradeable to AP's, like they always have been with the bridging intact, that people just buy AP's if that is there intent.

UT confirmed today that Disney has told it that there is no change to the current policy regarding bridging the price of a used ticket when upgrading. The OP in the other thread was the victim of very poor CM training. UT is no longer recommending that you not buy a MYW ticket if you think you might upgrade. -- Suzanne

 

[Duke&Tree]

We were recently at the Magic Kingdom for a quick trip over marathon weekend. Since we were also going to be going for a longer trip with my mother and our kids in October, I decided that it would be a great idea to get Annual Passes for my wife and I. The price just worked out better than No Expiration Tickets or two separate ticket packages.

So I bought the UT 5-day Park Hopper, No Expiration tickets for $384.95 per person.

I brought them to MK Guest Relations after using them that morning to enter the park. I'm not sure who my initial CM was, but she seemed to have no problem with doing the transaction. The problem came up in what she charged us. She actually charged us $90.34 PER TICKET to upgrade to an Annual DVC Pass. It was near lunchtime and I was confused and wanting to head back to SSR because I wasn't sure that I had my math right. I was expecting the upgrade to only cost about $30 total. Not $180.

So I went back to the resort, pulled up my documentation and the DIS and verified that I had my ducks in a row. While reviewing the APs I noticed something else that was far worse than the overcharge. Our APs were only good until August! So not only did we pay MUCH more for them than anticipated, they were only good for 6 months! (This is where I was actually glad they overcharged me, because otherwise I wouldn't have even noticed the expiration date.)

We then went back to the Magic Kingdom guest relations department and explained what had happened. I had a GREAT CM named Neal. This guy was the best. It took over 30 minutes to resolve, but we had done a touringplan that morning and were just back in the park for cruising and relaxing, so were not stressed about it. Neal was a whiz. He had questions and really brought together the management to resolve our problem.

We got a refund on our initial up-charge and the expiration dates were fixed. We ended up only spending $13.85 per ticket for the upgrade. That pretty much saved us the $26.00 per ticket of tax over buying direct from Disney.

I will be writing a personal letter and mailing it for Neal's file. He also gave us an "anything" fastpass for spending so much "quality time with him".

Also, since we were going back in October, I used the opportunity to buy a Tables in Wonderland card.

We were friendly, calm and the Disney team helped us resolve the issue very nicely. Neal had to have a manager come over to double check everything he did, and she stated that she wanted a copy of the original transaction because there was going to be follow up with the original CM. So I think it was followed up on.

Lesson for me: If you think it's wrong when they are giving you the charge, then push back a little bit (nicely) or get a different CM to come in and take a look. Would have saved us 30 minutes inside City Hall!

 

[keishashadow]

Ah. Interesting. And, a little surprising, but not necessarily shocking. Even though Disney was willing to bridge the price yesterday, that's no guarantee that they will do so tomorrow.

i still miss the ability to combine more than one ticket into the mix. It's an accommodation, nice they still offer the DVC discount with another form of "payment" i.e. the ticket imo.

now if they'd just give a flat DVC% discount on all ticket media vs APs for members i'd be thrilled....