My AAA rant and a ???

[TDS373X]

So for trip 23 I booked online with AAA for 12/8 thru 12/12 (first time booking with AAA) got a pretty good rate at ASMu. Went to the local AAA office with a couple of questions:
1) If I want to pay this off before I go (and I do) who do I pay?
they had no idea other then it wasn't them they don't take money! but they gave me a toll free number to call to find out.
2) There was no place for the magical express information it didn't even ask if I wanted it who do I give that info to?
again, see answer 1.
I come home and call the all knowing toll free AAA number and this woman didn't really want to talk to me since I was "room only". I asked my questions anyway. She put me on hold a couple of times and said "I don't know" let me call you back...At this point I am REALLY starting to wonder if I have ressies at all!!!! but wait for her call back. She called back in about 20 minutes and told me to call the DME number directly and they would take my info and I could send my payment to a place in Chicago...I ask what if I wanted to pay by credit card and she told me to call 1 407 wdwdisney. she then very quickly hung up. I called the 407 WDISNEY # and guess what they couldn't even tell me that I even have a reservation because it was made thru AAA and told me anything else I wanted to do had to go thru AAA- including ADR's and DME. I am not upset with Disney I get their whole situation as I deal with a similar thing in my work. AAA is their client not me I am AAA's client. I went ahead and tried calling the DME # and got a really nice CM who told me again I had to make it thru AAA but he also gave me a website to do it myseld and he at least confirmed for me I REALLY do have a ressie that's more then anyone else had done...so can anyone answer my question about who do I pay??? or is it that I can't pay prior to arrival because I need to show a valid AAA card at check in (this happened when I had an AP). Any help is appriciated as I am getting no where with AAA....and i do intend to tell them about it!!!

 

[DisneyDadNY]

I just made a room only reservation on Sunday although I called Disney directly to do it. If I wanted to make a payment via check for my deposit I would have to mail it to that Chicago address. I can make payments via calling them directly but I opted just to pay the whole thing at once.

I had to give my AAA number over the phone and my confirmation email (all 70 of them so far today!) says to show my card at check in.

Magical Express was included and I just have to call back with flight information. Any particular reason for booking via AAA as opposed to calling Disney direct for a AAA rate?

If you are having this much trouble already I would consider canceling via AAA and just calling Disney directly.

 

[susieq76]

You may not pay for a room-only in full until you get there.

 

[ajk912]

I don't think you can pay prior to arrival with a AAA or travel agent reservation, because they won't even get your ressie till 5 days prior, AAA holds the ressie till then. Unfortunately, I have read it many times- if you want to deal with Disney, you book with Disney, if you want to deal with AAA, you book with AAA.

 

[MzGemini]

This i my 2nd year booking through CAA/AAA and both times I went into the CAA office and gave my payment to my CAA TA. I pay by VISA and she calls Disney right infront of me to process the payment. I do not book my airfare through CAA/AAA, I do it myself then when I have the flight information I e-mail it to my CAA TA and she passes the info along for me.

Maybe you need to go right into your local AAA office and ask to speak with a travl agent. If that TA can't help you then tell them you want to speak to someon who can. I'm not sure why they are giving you such a hassel. Good luck!

 

[Mickey'sfriend]

You may not pay for a room-only in full until you get there.

Interesting if that is your experience. We made room on reservations with AAA for a trip this past January. We had to pay in full when we made the ressie. I then made all ADRs myself through Disney without any issues.

 

[TDS373X]

Thanks for the info!!!! Way more then I was able to get from AAA...and this will be the last time I book thru them...every other time I've booked thru Disney and have paid it off prior except for the year we had AP's and then they had to see the valid AP at check in or something anyway they would not take the $$ ahead of time no matter how much I begged. It wasn't a big deal but they explained it to me. AAA didn't and seemingly didn't know. To answer a question I wasn't sure I could get the rate I saw by calling Disney direct and asking for the AAA rate...even after 22 trips you still learn stuff!!! and like most of you I'm the person everybody goes to if they want to know how to do Disney and now I have yet another nugget of info. Thank you all so much for your input!!!!

 

[minie_meese]

Sorry to hear about your experience. i would be frustrated too. I guess I would call back the toll free number and ask to speak to a supervisor.

This is my experience is dealing with AAA. While it could be a lot better, I deal with the annoyances because of the discounts. I made my current reservation through AAA but did so over the phone. The TA has been great to work with. She has bent over backwards for me. At first we had a room only reservation and changed to a package. She treated me the same regardless of the reservation. Whenever I call, I call her directly and leave her a message. I never leave a message at the general answering service. One minor annoyance - the number is not toll free.

One thing I have noticed with AAA is that their way of doing things is quite antiquated and overburdened with paperwork, at least with the AAA in Central NY. Every time I make a payment for anything a 3-5 page set of papers needs to be signed and returned. I find this annoying and pretty ridiculous given the digital world we live in. I normally do everything online.

I get the impression that each of the AAA regions has their own way of doing things. I cannot make reservations online trough the Central NY web site but I can purchase tickets which goes directly to the Disney web site. I can only ask for a quote for rooms or a package through Central NY's online system but I have heard other people from different areas have made reservations online so I assume some regions can and others can't. Since I can only get a quote online I would rather talk to a person directly since it is a manual process.

I am guessing that the lack of continuity in AAA's process across regions has an impact on things and where they have automated, they have not always gotten it right. I am probably fortunate to have to deal with the paperwork and other annoyances. I would have a hard time dealing with the things you are experiencing.

Best of luck to you.

 

[beroh2253]

Interesting if that is your experience. We made room on reservations with AAA for a trip this past January. We had to pay in full when we made the ressie. I then made all ADRs myself through Disney without any issues.

Same with us, made reservations and paid total on the visa rewards card. Called Disney direct for the ADR's. Going in about a month and AAA called and said our itinary form Disney is in to come and get it.
Went last year and it worked the same way.
25 days and counting.

 

[aprile]

I had the same problem as the original poster about the Magical Express. I called AAA and they told me to call Disney. I called Disney and was told that AAA had to do it because my ressie was locked to him. He also told me at that time that next time I booked room only I could call Disney and get the AAA rate and not have this problem because then he'd have had access to my ressie.

I drove down to my local AAA office and the agent there had the same runaround I did. She finally bypassed everyone and got my magical express settled but it was a pain. Since I had booked two room onlys online, I had her take care of both magical expresses, which she did.

In the future I'll book through disney for just a AAA room.

I also paid everything in full before my trip.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

I checked rates, etc on the AAA website and then called WDW reservations directly to book room only for our September trip. Got the same price through WDW res. by telling them I had AAA, all I have to do is show my card at check in. WDW didn't even ask for my AAA number. Then I went to the Daytona AAA office & picked up my discounted FRSP. I never use AAA to book anything direct, I just call the resort directly (but I check the AAA website first to make sure what rate I should be getting) and book my room, etc.

Have fun on your trips............Under 30 days & counting down fast....

 

[GinaDice]

My DH and I have booked 3 World vacations and 3 Disney Cruise Vacations with our AAA office in VT and have had nothing but a good experience. I suppose we have not always gotten the most rock bottom price - but when there is a question our agent has always been able to get an answer. And if changes have to be made it has never been a problem. Yes, we always paid in full prior to leaving. Usually 45 days prior to check in. And as someone else said - yeah they are a bit heavy on the paperwork. But a small thing when you have someone making all the calls - getting the answers and dealing with issues. We have not always used Magical Express but when we have there has been no problem with AAA making all the reservations and confirmation.

Just wanted to put out a positive for AAA.

 

[Luv2Roam]

To the OP -- I wonder what AAA response would be if you just cancelled your res and rebooked through Disney.
Lesson learned I guess. Hope your trip goes better, that is certain!

 

[aprile]

I have never have a problem with the AAA offices (in fact, it was at my AAA office that I solved the problem caused by the website), it's the website that is the problem (and which the OP also had a problem with). They have no way of setting up Magical Express and it becomes a nightmare trying to get it done.

I've learned to either always go to AAA in person or call Disney and get the AAA price if I'm doing room only.