Last minute change of guests for room only res

[ruadisneyfan2]

So we had plans for our family of 4 to take a short 3-nt escape to WDW next Mon-Thurs. Now ds20 can't get off work. We could invite ds17's friend instead, who has been there with us before, and might still have his MB. I know I could reassign the tickets from one person in my profile to another but would we lose the FPs that we booked in the process?
I think it would be easier to just let the friend use ds20's MB but it would cost me more since the friend is still a minor and Disney charges extra for a 3rd person >18 yrs old. So right now we are booked as 3 adults + 1 child (17). We could legitimately change to 2 adults+ 2 children (17+17) and the room would cost less.

I haven't even asked the friend's parents yet or inquired about a name change for the flight but we only paid $29 each way so if we end up eating that, not much else we can do about that. Most likely the change fees are more than just buying another seat. I'm sure airlines are swamped with Irma-related issues so I'd rather not call them just yet.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

 

[hiroMYhero]

So we had plans for our family of 4 to take a short 3-nt escape to WDW next Mon-Thurs. Now ds20 can't get off work. We could invite ds17's friend instead, who has been there with us before, and might still have his MB. I know I could reassign the tickets from one person in my profile to another but would we lose the FPs that we booked in the process?
I think it would be easier to just let the friend use ds20's MB but it would cost me more since the friend is still a minor and Disney charges extra for a 3rd person >18 yrs old. So right now we are booked as 3 adults + 1 child (17). We could legitimately change to 2 adults+ 2 children (17+17) and the room would cost less.

I haven't even asked the friend's parents yet or inquired about a name change for the flight but we only paid $29 each way so if we end up eating that, not much else we can do about that. Most likely the change fees are more than just buying another seat. I'm sure airlines are swamped with Irma-related issues so I'd rather not call them just yet.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

You can just keep everything as it is booked and have the friend use the "new" MB. There's no need to make changes to the room or FPs that way.

 

[ktate82]

I would call Disney on Tuesday and have him switched on the room. You have up to 5 days before to make changes. You can also transfer the ticket to him (it won't do anything to the FP right away), then go into your FP and select to change the party. Remove your DS20 and put the friend in his place. Since you are just swapping out people, it won't cause issues. I don't know what airline you fly out of, but most do not allow name changes, so you are probably out that money. The good thing is it doesn't sound like it was that much.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I felt that way too until now I just looked at ds20's tickets. One of the park days comes from his old non-exp ticket. We did convert it from paper to new card the last time he came with us. (Many, many trips ago.) but I just reassigned it to him for this last trip. It tells me it cannot be reassigned, of course. I don't know if the fingerprint technology is the same as the old gates and maybe it will give the friend an error or maybe it will reassign the friend's fingerprint to ds20. This ticket also has prob. 8 or so waterpark visits remaining.
The WDW website just went blank, I'm assuming due to Irma.
My head is spinning. I should just buy a new ticket but fp's would be messed up? Or we can reassign them?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I would call Disney on Tuesday and have him switched on the room. You have up to 5 days before to make changes. You can also transfer the ticket to him (it won't do anything to the FP right away), then go into your FP and select to change the party. Remove your DS20 and put the friend in his place. Since you are just swapping out people, it won't cause issues. I don't know what airline you fly out of, but most do not allow name changes, so you are probably out that money. The good thing is it doesn't sound like it was that much.

We're flying Frontier and their website does explain their name change policy. We'd pay the difference in fares between then and now plus $75. This is actually $20 more than if I just buy the friend his own ticket, though he probably wouldn't be seated with us and that's ok. Well, that's how my ds17 would feel but I ask his friend if he feels ok sitting separately.

 

[GoofyMB]

We're flying Frontier and their website does explain their name change policy. We'd pay the difference in fares between then and now plus $75. This is actually $20 more than if I just buy the friend his own ticket, though he probably wouldn't be seated with us and that's ok. Well, that's how my ds17 would feel but I ask his friend if he feels ok sitting separately.

I assume DS20 has a seat with you. Couldn't the friend just sit in that seat?

For the tickets if you buy a new ticket for the friend and link it you can again still go in and change party on the fastpass without issue.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

So, you have a few tickets in your DS20's profile, is that correct? Can any of them be reassigned to the friend? If so, I would just reassign what you can to the friend and then upgrade that ticket to include any other days you need (to make up for the non-expire you can't transfer). In terms of FP+, once tickets are linked to the friend, just change party for the FP+ from your DS to the friend. If you don't have enough tickets now to change party for all FP+ days, do the front-end days first and then try to copy FP+ to the days you'll need to upgrade the ticket to (I hope that makes sense). Guest Services can always help you with this. You may lose those FP+ for the extra tickets you need to buy, but, unless they are for 7DMT, FEA, FOP or Nav'i, it really shouldn't be much of a problem to copy the FP+. Or, save yourself a massive headache and save DS20's ticket for another time and ask the friend to simply buy his ticket for the parks? That would then be a simply change of party FP+ transfer.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I assume DS20 has a seat with you. Couldn't the friend just sit in that seat?

For the tickets if you buy a new ticket for the friend and link it you can again still go in and change party on the fastpass without issue.

The friend can't pose as ds20. Anyone over 18 must show photo ID to fly. They will expect him to produce ID.

The friend's mom suggested that with the tickets too.
I think that's the simplest solution too.

 

[GoofyMB]

I was suggesting that you purchase the new airline ticket but since DS20's seat would be vacant then friend could sit in seat assigned to DS20.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

So, you have a few tickets in your DS20's profile, is that correct? Can any of them be reassigned to the friend? If so, I would just reassign what you can to the friend and then upgrade that ticket to include any other days you need (to make up for the non-expire you can't transfer). In terms of FP+, once tickets are linked to the friend, just change party for the FP+ from your DS to the friend. If you don't have enough tickets now to change party for all FP+ days, do the front-end days first and then try to copy FP+ to the days you'll need to upgrade the ticket to (I hope that makes sense). Guest Services can always help you with this. You may lose those FP+ for the extra tickets you need to buy, but, unless they are for 7DMT, FEA, FOP or Nav'i, it really shouldn't be much of a problem to copy the FP+. Or, save yourself a massive headache and save DS20's ticket for another time and ask the friend to simply buy his ticket for the parks? That would then be a simply change of party FP+ transfer.

Thanks! I'd rather not take a chance of losing our FPs. It would put ds17 in an awkward position to have to choose to ride with us or wait standby with his friend.
Much easier to buy another ticket. Sooner or later ds20's ticket that can expire will be used by him or reassigned to one of us.

I was originally planning to pay for the friend when I invited him so using one of ds20's tickets would mean not as much OOP to add the friend but his family has offered to pay for his expenses. They are going in Jan and just invited ds17 so we have agreed both of us will pay for our own kids main expenses (flights + park tix).

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I was suggesting that you purchase the new airline ticket but since DS20's seat would be vacant then friend could sit in seat assigned to DS20.

I see what you mean.
Once they assign us seats, let the friend use ds20's seat. Hopefully the airline doesn't reassign it to someone else when they realize he did not board. Maybe we can just explain to the gate agent so they don't start paging ds20 all over the airport. Lol