New Ticket Upgrade Policy?

[Order66]

So I bought my tickets on Feb 23 because of the increase. So if this is correct I should get today's price as that's the day of the last increase. But somehow I don't trust any of this working out.

I did also get a reply from UT but it still confused me. I asked her to clarify some more for me. I'm really feeling like I should just send these tickets back and not have to deal with this upgrade crap at all.

 

[rt2dz]

You apparently haven't read enough ticket upgrade stories.

Or better yet, lived through them!

 

[SUSIEQ]

I'm pretty sure, "at the CM's discretion" means "do whatever makes the customer happy," and not "screw 'em over."

I'm thinking it means exactly the opposite.

 

[rt2dz]

Ok, I sent out lots of feelers and received a few replies today. Been very busy and have just now been flipping through to figure this out. Here's how I see this:

All Ears posted that any upgrades of adding days OR options (park hopping and/or water parks) from third-party resellers were no longer possible on their website. Nothing about bridges. This turns out to be false. They posted that based on a rumor.

In emails questioning this, All Ears stated upgrading without bridging (at the wholesale cost), upgrading to APs was still possible. They also suggested buying everything you might need upfront. Not too helpful if you have old tickets you are sitting on from an authorized reseller or from a package (reseller). I'm sure Maple Leaf isn't too thrilled with that either since All Ears is an affiliate. This is the only place bridging should have been a question in the original thoughts.

All my sources, including the corrected UT email, say you may still upgrade anything and add options with all bridging at CURRENT gate price is still intact. The only place I'm hearing that upgrading will be at gate price at time of purchase (and I'm assuming when the reseller purchases), is here on this thread from MouseSavers. I would consider that a very reliable source, but until yesterday, I considered All Ears a reliable source. I'm taking it with a grain of salt now.

Why?

Because some authorized resellers move stock quickly, but others don't. I'm pretty positive AAA can vary depending on the office. I'm sure Maple Leaf and Undercover Tourist move it quickly, along with Tickets at Work, Reserve Orlando and quite a few others. HR departments with ties to Disney where they offer pretty good discounted tickets can move very slowly. The date disney sells the ticket for and the date a guest purchases the ticket *can* vary by a price increase! or two or three! depending on time between increases.

Currently, Disney can only see when they sold the ticket. That could change, but it can't be added retroactively now. Furthermore, Disney's own list of tickets in their computer without the numbers only go back a few years (2 or 3, I believe). After that, they dump it. I'm just not sure Disney wants to keep adding to the info they store. They store a lot.

Bottom line (IMO): All Ears jumped the gun and posted incorrect info, but what the real story is, is still to determined only because MouseSavers is saying something different from my other 8 inquiries (I still haven't heard from a couple). Experience anyone? Guest Relation CMs? Cheshire Figment come back!!!

 

[UnderCoverTourist]

Hi There,

You can upgrade tickets. Disney wants you to spend longer in the parks

The change is that they will credit you the Gate Price at the time the ticket was bought. i.e. So if you buy a ticket, then there is a price increase a few months later, you will not receive the new higher gate price as a credit.

You can still buy tickets in advance, even if you do not know the exact number of days, just don't expect to get the new higher gate price as a credit should there be a price rise after you purchase the tickets.

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

 

[Planogirl]

Hi There,

You can upgrade tickets. Disney wants you to spend longer in the parks

The change is that they will credit you the Gate Price at the time the ticket was bought. i.e. So if you buy a ticket, then there is a price increase a few months later, you will not receive the new higher gate price as a credit.

You can still buy tickets in advance, even if you do not know the exact number of days, just don't expect to get the new higher gate price as a credit should there be a price rise after you purchase the tickets.

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

Thanks for coming here to post this. There are so many stories right now and this actually sounds like an improvement over what some people thought.

(ETA: I need to finish my thoughts...)

 

[UnderCoverTourist]

You are welcome

 

[Robo]

Thanks for coming here to post this. There are so many stories right now and this actually sounds like an improvement.

An improvement?

 

[SUSIEQ]

As a general rule, the CM's couldn't even get it right price bridging to today's gate price. How are they ever gonna get this right????

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

As a general rule, the CM's couldn't even get it right price bridging to today's gate price. How are they ever gonna get this right????

That is exactly what I was thinking. And is what makes it a little difficult to believe. And the couple of people who have posted about upgrading in the last week seem to say that they were bridged to the current gate price.

 

[KalamityJane]

Between FP+ and now this...I'm starting to feel like the CMs are getting the short end of the stick.

Also, someone up thread asked when UCT switched to RFID tickets, I bought non RFID from them in May 2013.

 

[dani77]

You can upgrade tickets. You can still buy tickets in advance, even if you do not know the exact number of days, just don't expect to get the new higher gate price as a credit should there be a price rise after you purchase the tickets. Thank you Undercover Tourist

Thanks for coming here to clarify. I was so worried that the 4 day ticket I bought from you a few weeks ago is now pretty much useless since I definitely will need to add days to it. I just didn't know how many days I need at the day of purchase because that will depend on the dates of the halloween party. I don't care if tickets cant be price bridged to the current gate price anymore...I just need them to be upgradeble as far as adding days is concerned. Thanks for the info!

 

[MamaBear58]

Hi There,

You can upgrade tickets. Disney wants you to spend longer in the parks

The change is that they will credit you the Gate Price at the time the ticket was bought. i.e. So if you buy a ticket, then there is a price increase a few months later, you will not receive the new higher gate price as a credit.

You can still buy tickets in advance, even if you do not know the exact number of days, just don't expect to get the new higher gate price as a credit should there be a price rise after you purchase the tickets.

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

Thanks, but the gate price the ticket was bought by UT or the gate price the ticket was bought by the individual? Does Disney even know the latter?

 

[rt2dz]

Hi There,

You can upgrade tickets. Disney wants you to spend longer in the parks

The change is that they will credit you the Gate Price at the time the ticket was bought. i.e. So if you buy a ticket, then there is a price increase a few months later, you will not receive the new higher gate price as a credit.

You can still buy tickets in advance, even if you do not know the exact number of days, just don't expect to get the new higher gate price as a credit should there be a price rise after you purchase the tickets.

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

Thanks for another clarification. You may want to email this out to those who have questioned it via email. Not everyone who emailed may be at this thread and your clarification email was still incorrect.

Thanks for coming here to post this. There are so many stories right now and this actually sounds like an improvement.

How on earth is this an improvement!?

As a general rule, the CM's couldn't even get it right price bridging to today's gate price. How are they ever gonna get this right????

Not only that, but it can be a very big screw over. I have one set of tickets purchased right after a price increase in 2013. That means, I'd get the 2012 bridge because that is when Disney sold the tickets. I'll be out money.

No more buying from resellers for me!!! I would never recommend it anymore either. Plans change. We've had to reschedule due to hurricanes, death in the family, job change, and moving in the past. The next trip isn't always the same. Also, no more ever even considering taking advantage of a Bounceback because that might mean needing an AP

Luckily though, between FP+ and this, I don't see Disney as a regular trip. I was keeping this Thanksgiving trip, and possibly two short trips (an adult weekend and another parent-child birthday trip next summer), but not now. It's not worth the upgrade to APs. Which means doing math! I now have to see if the restocking fee is worth it for my over bought tickets v buying after two price increases. Heck, this Thanksgiving trip has dropped from 12 days to 10 days to 8 days and now probably 4 days. Just not worth it. Even at the same prices, Disney has lost a lot of value over the past 10 years (comparing Disney to Disney). THIS was the one thing that kept *value* to it. No more.

 

[SUSIEQ]

Thanks, but the gate price the ticket was bought by UT or the gate price the ticket was bought by the individual? Does Disney even know the latter?

Yea, how am I going to have my math correct before I try to upgrade my ticket??? I'll need to have a few calculations written out on my piece of paper and hope one of them is close to "correct" in the CM's eyes.

 

[SUSIEQ]

No more buying from resellers for me!!! I would never recommend it anymore.

Me either. I have always bought from & recommended UT to everyone. I won't do either of these anymore.

 

[rt2dz]

Me either. I have always bought from & recommended UT to everyone. I won't do either of these anymore.

Think about the poor sucker who gets a restocked ticket. They'd get my late 2012-early 2013 gate price in an upgrade and be buying at 2014 gate prices.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Also, someone up thread asked when UCT switched to RFID tickets, I bought non RFID from them in May 2013.[/QUOTE]

I also bought non RFID tickets last May 2013 from UT. I was planning to use them this April to bridge for our AP. On our trip last November, I went in to customer services at AK and they switched them out for me. I now have (Disney issued) RFID tickets. I am expecting there should be no problem bridging these tickets. At that time I also switched out a couple other paper tickets that I had. There were no questions asked at that time.

 

[digiMom]

Yea, how am I going to have my math correct before I try to upgrade my ticket??? I'll need to have a few calculations written out on my piece of paper and hope one of them is close to "correct" in the CM's eyes.

Exactly.. I already made up a table. I don't know how many days I need to add yet, so it has 5 day up to 9 day with a column for a full upgrade from my ticket to full gate price (thus one sucks), a column for upgrade by only current gate difference (the smallest and what I was expecting), and a column for upgrade from my ticket to the upgraded old gate price plus the difference of my ticket to the ticket's current gate price (what? Basically giving me $28 off each ticket instead of the $45 it now would be if I didn't add days) And who knows if any if those are right. My head is spinning.

I truly think this is ridiculous.

 

[lucyem]

You apparently haven't read enough ticket upgrade stories.

My not so lovely experience a couple of years ago is why I will do whatever I need to to avoid price bridging. Every CM seems to have their own idea in their head of how things should be done. Its a big frustrating mess. The fact that you can ask 5 different CM's about any Disney policy and get 5 different answers is a serious issue.