New Ticket Upgrade Policy?

[JanaDee]

So I asked the Mom's Panel on the Disney website about upgading my 7 day hopper to an annual pass and I got this:

"Certain discounted and promotional ticket types may not be upgraded to an Annual Pass, so be sure to read the fine print on the ticket or visit the main entrance ticket booths outside any of the theme parks for clarification."

I don't have the ticket with me but I guess I should check the fine print???

The Mom's Panel is the last place you want to go for accurate information.

 

[POOHsie]

Thanks- I have spoken to Disney over the phone, via chat, and now Mom's Panel and it seems like I have gotten three different responses.

If you call or write Disney representatives 10 more times, you will get 10 more Disney answers.

 

[Crystal824]

This is really getting ridiculous. I think Disney has recently lost their collective minds. While I agree Disney is a business and should be making a profit, I'm happy to contribute to the that profit if I feel as though I'm getting value. Part of that value is a great guest experience. For the past 10 years, we have been at least once a year (one year we went three times). Recently Disney seems to be downgrading that guest experience.

Disney has always promoted the idea that you could use unused tickets at any time in the future. While I suppose, you still can use them, it just seems odd to not allow them to be upgraded or changed giving you the current full value for that ticket. Disney has also promoted the idea of upgrading tickets if you decide you need more days or want to park hop making it seem easy to do either.

This new policy (if there is one) seems to go against those prior stances. Also it is confusing and would seem to difficult to implement for the guest and for the CM.

I don't even have a trip planned right now and this is stressing me out since we typically use UT for tickets. Typically we buy what we need, but we have been known to upgrade.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

If there's a CM that isn't aware of how to do this, then fine. Annoying, but fine. But people are saying that even the supervisors don't know about it? Or how to do it? That doesn't seem right ...

Yes, I encountered a supervisor (when I say "CM" I mean anoyone employed by Disney working in the parks/resorts, regardless of rank) who didn't know about price bridging in October. It's frustrating but again...supervisors are human, too.

 

[Tickanee]

My only suggestion is if you haven't already linked your tickets to your MB's then perhaps hold onto them. Buy the DVC PAP's and use them for your next few trips - then use your other tickets later. As I mentioned earlier - I am heading to WDW soon. I will report back what I find out, but then again whatever happens when I try to "bridge" my daughters tickets might not happen for someone else. If I hadn't already linked their tickets - I would just buy PAPs for them and use the tickets another time. This is the first year buying AP's for us - and I don't know if we would be able to make use of them again anytime soon.

Yeah, they are already linked. Just did it a couple weeks ago in preparation to schedule our FP+. Guess I am the mercy of a CM at ticketing. Eek!!

I will say that we have never had a problem or question in the past upgrading to an AP.

 

[deniden]

Subscribing. Planned on bridging to AP on our trip.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

If you lose your tickets and you have the numbers from the back does Disney replace them? Where would this put people?
Also, last fall they just traded out my tyvek tickets for RFID tickets no questions asked.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

If you lose your tickets and you have the numbers from the back does Disney replace them? Where would this put people?
Also, last fall they just traded out my tyvek tickets for RFID tickets no questions asked.

On our 2012 trip, I left my tickets (purchased from UT) at home, but I did have the ticket numbers. The hotel conceirge was able to look them up, confirm they were valid, unused tickets, and attached our tickets to our KTTW card. A physical ticket isn't really the ticket, a ticket is a file stored in Disney's computer. The number helps Disney point to the right file for a particular guest. That's how Disney knows so much about each ticket that is sold (date of sale, price for which it was sold, etc.). It's all stored there in the ticket file.

 

[POOHsie]

On our 2012 trip, I left my tickets (purchased from UT) at home, but I did have the ticket numbers. The hotel conceirge was able to look them up, confirm they were valid, unused tickets, and attached our tickets to our KTTW card. A physical ticket isn't really the ticket, a ticket is a file stored in Disney's computer. The number helps Disney point to the right file for a particular guest. That's how Disney knows so much about each ticket that is sold (date of sale, price for which it was sold, etc.). It's all stored there in the ticket file.

Just to get technical, Disney knows its ticket date of sale to the third party reseller (before the third party reseller sold the ticket at retail) and Disney knows the price for which the ticket was sold to the third party (wholesale price). Disney must have info somewhere about its gate price on the sale date to the third party. But Disney does not know what price the third party reseller sold the ticket for retail, or the date of that retail sale.

Currently on ticket upgrade transactions involving third party tickets, if the ticket is used first, the value of the ticket is upgraded from the wholesale price Disney was originally paid, to the current Disney retail gate price. OTOH, If the ticket is not used first before upgrading, it is only given its wholesale value that Disney originally paid. That could mean a big difference in ticket value, per ticket, especially if the ticket is older than the last few price increases. That's why WDW visitors to this website are told repeatedly to USE YOUR TICKET FIRST TO ENTER A PARK BEFORE UPGRADING.

 

[SUSIEQ]

Any updates on the person who was unsuccessful yesterday in upgrading? I wonder what can be done to stop this from happening if there really isn't a no-upgrading policy?

Wondering the same thing.

 

[DebbieB]

This is really getting ridiculous. I think Disney has recently lost their collective minds. While I agree Disney is a business and should be making a profit, I'm happy to contribute to the that profit if I feel as though I'm getting value. Part of that value is a great guest experience. For the past 10 years, we have been at least once a year (one year we went three times). Recently Disney seems to be downgrading that guest experience.

Disney has always promoted the idea that you could use unused tickets at any time in the future. While I suppose, you still can use them, it just seems odd to not allow them to be upgraded or changed giving you the current full value for that ticket. Disney has also promoted the idea of upgrading tickets if you decide you need more days or want to park hop making it seem easy to do either.

This new policy (if there is one) seems to go against those prior stances. Also it is confusing and would seem to difficult to implement for the guest and for the CM.

I don't even have a trip planned right now and this is stressing me out since we typically use UT for tickets. Typically we buy what we need, but we have been known to upgrade.

I think they want to avoid people buying a large number of tickets and then bringing them year after year and getting credit for the current gate price for them.

Except for DVC and FL Residents, Disney does not give discounts on APs. So it's been promoted over the internet to buy tickets from a discounter and then get a back door discount on an AP by upgrading it. Again, you could use an old unused ticket and get a bigger discount with it bridged to current price. I can see Disney wanting to stop that.

 

[cel_disney]

We are DVC. Last year before the price increase, we purchased 8 10 day NE park hoppers....we are a family of 4 - this will last us a few years (because we have DL and Aulani in the mix) but the ROI was pretty good compared to a basic savings account! I am glad we don't plan to upgrade them - although I do hope we don't have issues if our 7 year old ages up to adult with an active partially used ticket!

 

[Robo]

We are DVC. Last year before the price increase, we purchased 8 10 day NE park hoppers....we are a family of 4 - this will last us a few years (because we have DL and Aulani in the mix) but the ROI was pretty good compared to a basic savings account! I am glad we don't plan to upgrade them - although I do hope we don't have issues if our 7 year old ages up to adult with an active partially used ticket!

If you have 10-day NE hoppers, the only upgrade possible would be to add Water Parks Fun and More (or to an AP.)

It is unlikely that you would not be able to do that upgrade now or in the future, if you decide to, and do so within the first 14 days following the first use of each new ticket.

 

[DebbieB]

Just to get technical, Disney knows its ticket date of sale to the third party reseller (before the third party reseller sold the ticket at retail) and Disney knows the price for which the ticket was sold to the third party (wholesale price). Disney must have info somewhere about its gate price on the sale date to the third party. But Disney does not know what price the third party reseller sold the ticket for retail, or the date of that retail sale.

Currently on ticket upgrade transactions involving third party tickets, if the ticket is used first, the value of the ticket is upgraded from the wholesale price Disney was originally paid, to the current Disney retail gate price. OTOH, If the ticket is not used first before upgrading, it is only given its wholesale value that Disney originally paid. That could mean a big difference in ticket value, per ticket, especially if the ticket is older than the last few price increases. That's why WDW visitors to this website are told repeatedly to USE YOUR TICKET FIRST TO ENTER A PARK BEFORE UPGRADING.

There have been so many posts, maybe I missed it. I thought Undercover Tourist confirmed you would get the gate price as of the day you bought the ticket, not the current gate price. Do you know for a fact that they will still make it the current price if you use it first? Or are you just saying that was the prior policy?

 

[michelle06]

Alright, can someone check my figures.

Last year's price increase was June 2, 2013. I bought our tickets on the 3rd.

So, if we are allowed to upgrade to current gate price at time of purchase my tickets would be worth $348 plus tax $22.62 for a total of $370.62. Which would mean I would pay $198.09 each or a total of $396.18 to upgrade to DVC annual pass.

If we are allowed the current gate price when we go the tickets would be worth $387.66 (including tax). This means $181.05 each or a total of $362.10 to upgrade to the DVC annual passes.

This is with the DVC AP costing a total of $568.71 each.

Sound right?

Remember that there was another price increase in February. I didn't realize that either! So, your tickets aren't worth gate price (depending on how this all works out).

 

[michelle06]

I like math.

Today's gate price on my ticket is $304. So now Disney makes up for their 7 year loss on $20 by charging me $58 to make my ticket current, plus $10 for an additional day adding in sales taxes I come up with $72 to enjoy an extra day at Disney.

So for $72 I take my family off property and spend the day at Sea World instead. How much money has Disney lost now?

regards

On the flip side to all of this, Disney hasn't lost anything on that $20. In fact, they made interest by you not using the ticket all those years! They have your money in advance and are earning money on it. This is why government and business always want money up front, i.e. savings bonds, gift cards, etc. They get your money now, and earn interest on it until you choose to cash in. I believe Disney is ahead and hasn't lost anything!!

 

[Weluvdizney2]

I purchased my tickets on February 23 (the day of the price increase) from UT. If I were to upgrade, should I go to a park first? If so, will my ticket be worth the Disney gate price now or the UT price then for upgrading purposes? Or will I not be able to upgrade? Or does anyone really know?

 

[Order66]

I would tend to agree, but apparently they do not.

I was replying in sarcasm, but that is the truth according to reports of the new policy. Your ticket is only worth what it was on the day it was bought. So it's not enough they had your money all these years....now you get penalized for having the nerve to cash it in and ask to pay extra for more days. They want what they got and then some.

I'm still waiting to hear the who's and the how's of deciding the gate value of my ticket. If they couldn't get things right previously......HTH are they going to now mix in wholesale dates, resale dates, weeks....months....years between purchase and use. This whole thing is turning into Mickey's Nightmare!

regards

 

[POOHsie]

There have been so many posts, maybe I missed it. I thought Undercover Tourist confirmed you would get the gate price as of the day you bought the ticket, not the current gate price. Do you know for a fact that they will still make it the current price if you use it first? Or are you just saying that was the prior policy?

Current Disney policy is as I stated in my post. There has been no official notice from Disney about a change of upgrade policy. When there have been official Disney policy changes in the past, this website had the info that day or the very next day. UCT cannot confirm what you will get from Disney in the future. That can only be decided by Disney.

One rumor of potential change is to give third party tickets the gate value of the ticket based on its original sale when doing a ticket upgrade at a WDW ticketing facility. Does that mean the date UCT bought the tickets from Disney at wholesale or the date UCT sold the ticket to a buyer at retail? In your post, you write that the gate price would be from the date you bought your tickets. However, Disney does not know when UCT sold you or me a specific ticket. I think we all need to hear from Disney officially, the sooner the better.

 

[kenly777]

Yeah, they are already linked. Just did it a couple weeks ago in preparation to schedule our FP+. Guess I am the mercy of a CM at ticketing. Eek!! I will say that we have never had a problem or question in the past upgrading to an AP.

When I called about this exact scenario, I was told that if you go to Guest Services before going into the parks, they can prioritize which ticket should be used first on their computers. Just be sure to go there first.