New Ticket Upgrade Policy?

[DisneyFansInLINY]

That's what I don't get. Wouldn't they want you back in the parks spending more money on food and merchandise? Otherwise people are going to spend their money outside of the parks doing other stuff.

Maybe they figure you will go to Downtown Disney errr "Disney Springs" and spend money there?????

 

[digiMom]

As for the stress - prepare to pay the amount disney raised the price and be pleasantly surprised if you get something lower !

Good point!

 

[mars315]

But the legit resellers we are talking about don't raise prices when disney does. They sell out their stock at old prices. So you get the gate price from when the reseller bought the ticket. All the complainers are trying to figure out how to beat the new rule and get a double discount. You get the reseller discount once - period. Buy from UT after price change while they have old stock you get the prior price but old bridge. Buy after UT raises, you get new gate price but pay difference to UT. Basically , you still save buying from reseller but you can no longer insulate yourself from price hikes by buying early if you plan on changing your ticket.

I agree with what you have said here. And if Disney is, in fact, making the change that I think they are, it's not really that confusing either. You will still be able to bridge your ticket, but you will get credit for the gate price in effect the day your ticket was purchased from Disney. If you bought from a reseller a ticket which had a gate price of $400 and the reseller sold it to you for $350, you have saved $50. Say the gate price of your ticket has gone up to $500. When you go to bridge the ticket you purchased from the reseller, you should get credit for $400, still a savings of $50. You would not get credit for $500, and really, why should you? You will still realize the original savings that was in effect when you bought your ticket, although the longer you wait, the more that dollar figure has devalued. As David said, I think Disney is removing the allure of purchasing tickets on a speculative basis.

Now, if someone can show that they have tried to bridge their ticket and was NOT given the gate price in effect on the day the ticket was purchased from Disney, then that would turn out to be a very big deal. But why don't we wait and see if that even happens? According to one poster, they were able to actually get the current gate value, even though their tickets were purchased when the gate price was lower.

And yes, I know that there are always problems with CMs not knowing how to bridge tickets. This happened to my husband and me in January, and I just politely said, "Has the ticket been bridged?" and after a moment we were able to upgrade for exactly what I had calculated. That scenario is completely different from Disney making the proceduaral change to STOP bridging.

Cheers everybody!

 

[tarak]

I'll still purchase from resellers. I generally buy what I know we'll use. We hadn't bothered with park hoppers in years because we never used it. Until our last trip. So I thought I'd add the PH feature to our five-day tickets next time we go. But if it's going to cost us more than the PH price in effect the day we're at the park, we'll skip it. I have five day passes from 2011 and 2012 (purchased before the price hikes). Buying single day passes would likely be cheaper than paying the difference between the gate price then versus now plus the PH feature. And if we're buying one-day passes for somewhere, we're probably going to go check out Universal.

 

[Robo]

I disagree with 2. I think this is easy to enforce in the booth with the computers and basically serves to make it so that the only resellers worth dealing with are those that sell tickets based on the price THEY paid to disney. Like UT who sell out of old stock before raising. I presume - but would like to confirm - that UT returns any remaining old tickets to WDW before raising their price.

Computer automatically gives credit for gate price at time they sold ticket to reseller...

That is not the way it has worked in the past.
I have doubts that's what will be happening in the future.

Anything is possible, of course.

 

[Robo]

If you bought from a reseller a ticket which had a gate price of $400 and the reseller sold it to you for $350, you have saved $50. Say the gate price of your ticket has gone up to $500. When you go to bridge the ticket you purchased from the reseller, you should get credit for $400, still a savings of $50. You would not get credit for $500, and really, why should you?

Because any money "lost" by Disney is already water under the bridge.
They "lost" it when they sold the ticket to the reseller.
Disney has already agreed to the wholesale price and made that sale.

They are not "losing" any MORE money by price-bridging to the current gate price when upgrading that previously-sold ticket.

 

[rt2dz]

Computer automatically gives credit for gate price at time they sold ticket to reseller.

That is not true. The CM must do it. Which means they must know it is possible to be able to do it AND know how to do it. There are many, many posts on here--and I have personal experience--where a CM does not know one or both of those things. Including managers. That is problem number 1 in my eyes.

Problem 2 is Disney does not know when the guest purchased the ticket. Only the reseller. Even if your assumptions about UT is correct, which I'm not sure it is, there are many, many resellers out there who may have much lower stock movement. I highly doubt tickets are being returned by all with new tickets being purchased. It just doesn't make sense to me. I've worked retail. We did not return old stock in exchange for the exact same new stock simply because it was in our inventory. That is a lot of work for the seller and the supplier. You could be right, but I don't see it as reasonable. You could very well lose money if the ticket you happen to receive is much older. Many resellers will raise prices on a certain date, old or new inventory. I've often seen where resellers advertise they are keeping their old prices even though Disney raised theirs until they run out of inventory OR a certain date, whichever comes first. I think that may very well support what I'm guessing. That, and when I've upgraded to APs, I've had incorrect expert ion dates (always corrected) that are based on ticket sales. It's very possible to lose money based on frequent price changes and massive jumps at times. It's not always just about the bridging to save more.

Problem 3, no matter how well thought pity I think I have something, I've had my plans change. Length of trips have increased or trips have been added.

In the midst of this, it is no longer worth it to upgrade to APs to take additional trips. It's a much bigger cost than I was planning on. That changes other things. And now I have bigger tickets than I will be using on this trip. I had various tickets purchased/left over that I will need to fully replace. That is all more money out of Disney's pocket. I look at each bottom line.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I just thought FP+ broke the camels back. Now, I have a handful of legitimately purchased park hoppers and I have no idea, what they are worth.

We've reduced our trips to Disney drastically. Too many changes, that impact our vacations. Maybe, not one individual modification, but the totality of the change. I guess, the next step is to decide, whether or not to keep our DVC. We may be totally done with Disney.

 

[HookdonWDW]

I just thought FP+ broke the camels back. Now, I have a handful of legitimately purchased park hoppers and I have no idea, what they are worth.

I'm not seeing how this really makes a major difference. If you had a 5 day PH before, you can still PH for 5 days - regardless of what you paid for it. The only difference is, if you paid $5.00 for it, and you want to upgrade to a pass that costs $10.00 now, you have to pay the $5.00 difference. What they were allowing before is that if you're old $5.00 ticket now costs $7.00, you would only pay a $3.00 difference. Sure, it was nice to be able to take advantage of an extra discount, but the ticket isn't actually losing value, and they're still allowing you to upgrade...

 

[txwdwmom]

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

No more resellers for me either and I certainly won't recommend them either! I have a friend there today who was not able to upgrade the UT tickets she bought in November. The cm flat out told her it couldn't be done anymore. No one seems to know what's going on there!

 

[TLSnell1981]

I'm not seeing how this really makes a major difference. If you had a 5 day PH before, you can still PH for 5 days - regardless of what you paid for it. The only difference is, if you paid $5.00 for it, and you want to upgrade to a pass that costs $10.00 now, you have to pay the $5.00 difference. What they were allowing before is that if you're old $5.00 ticket now costs $7.00, you would only pay a $3.00 difference. Sure, it was nice to be able to take advantage of an extra discount, but the ticket isn't actually losing value, and they're still allowing you to upgrade...

So maybe, I've misunderstood. Supposedly, I will receive credit for the price, that the authorized reseller paid, or gate price the day the seller purchased the tickets? I have no idea...and that stinks.

I purchased the tickets with the intent of upgrading. We really have no idea, what the "new rules"will be. There have been SOOOO many changes, and I HATE the Iger years!!!

 

[Missyrose]

No more resellers for me either and I certainly won't recommend them either! I have a friend there today who was not able to upgrade the UT tickets she bought in November. The cm flat out told her it couldn't be done anymore. No one seems to know what's going on there!

Wow, really?!? Just when I thought this was getting straightened out. Do you know where she tried to do the upgrade?

 

[DavidNYC]

That is not true. The CM must do it. Which means they must know it is possible to be able to do it AND know how to do it. There are many, many posts on here--and I have personal experience--where a CM does not know one or both of those things. Including managers. That is problem number 1 in my eyes.

Problem 2 is Disney does not know when the guest purchased the ticket. Only the reseller. Even if your assumptions about UT is correct, which I'm not sure it is, there are many, many resellers out there who may have much lower stock movement. I highly doubt tickets are being returned by all with new tickets being purchased. It just doesn't make sense to me. I've worked retail. We did not return old stock in exchange for the exact same new stock simply because it was in our inventory. That is a lot of work for the seller and the supplier. You could be right, but I don't see it as reasonable. You could very well lose money if the ticket you happen to receive is much older. Many resellers will raise prices on a certain date, old or new inventory. I've often seen where resellers advertise they are keeping their old prices even though Disney raised theirs until they run out of inventory OR a certain date, whichever comes first. I think that may very well support what I'm guessing. That, and when I've upgraded to APs, I've had incorrect expert ion dates (always corrected) that are based on ticket sales. It's very possible to lose money based on frequent price changes and massive jumps at times. It's not always just about the bridging to save more.

Problem 3, no matter how well thought pity I think I have something, I've had my plans change. Length of trips have increased or trips have been added.

In the midst of this, it is no longer worth it to upgrade to APs to take additional trips. It's a much bigger cost than I was planning on. That changes other things. And now I have bigger tickets than I will be using on this trip. I had various tickets purchased/left over that I will need to fully replace. That is all more money out of Disney's pocket. I look at each bottom line.

I'm not saying that's how the computers work now. I'm saying if that's the new policy they're implementing, it should be a simple matter of having the computers do that consistently rather than having to create multiple step processes depdning on various factors. Could they screw it up - sure. But if the new policy is "credit for gate price on day of initial sale (defined as first sale to either reseller or end customer)", then it's a simple reference to ticket price database in the system.

As for point 2 - returning paper or plastic tickets is not like returning large retail items. And they're not the same - they have unique identifiers on them. Returning old stock is not a hard matter when you're talking about 1 or 2 times a year. And you don't have to return the old stock if you don't want to - just sell them. Just don't try to cheat the customer by raising the price on old tickets. Do what UT does by selling them at the old price for a bit until they have a small enough supply to return (I'm sure someone knows whether that's how UT does it). If you lose money - you were cheated out of it by the reseller who sold you an old ticket for a new price. Very easy for good ones to track batches and prevent this from happening.

 

[DavidNYC]

So maybe, I've misunderstood. Supposedly, I will receive credit for the price, that the authorized reseller paid, or gate price the day the seller purchased the tickets? I have no idea...and that stinks.

I purchased the tickets with the intent of upgrading. We really have no idea, what the "new rules"will be. There have been SOOOO many changes, and I HATE the Iger years!!!

Based on the most recent comments from UT (which is who I'm trusting), you get credit for the gate price the day the seller purchased the tickets from Disney for resale. Which, if you had a good reseller, should have been a discount off of that price. This is also the only interpretation that makes sense and would never result in purchasers having to ultimately pay MORE than what they would have to pay if they purchased direct from Disney (barring a seller selling an old ticket at a new price).

 

[MamaBear58]

Because any money "lost" by Disney is already water under the bridge.
They "lost" it when they sold the ticket to the reseller.
Disney has already agreed to the wholesale price and made that sale.

They are not "losing" any MORE money by price-bridging to the current gate price when upgrading that previously-sold ticket.

You seem to forget the basics of a for-profit business, which is that the company is in business to MAKE money, not to NOT LOSE money.

Disney makes more money buy not giving 3rd party purchasers the ability to insure against a price increase--both because there will be less 3rd party purchasers (people who want that insurance will buy directly from Disney, at gate price) and because they know that there are good number of folks (maybe even the majority of folks) who once there will in fact suck up the increase because they want to make a change or add a day or two. Yes, despite all the threats that they won't do so, I think the crowds show that this will happen. And to the extent it doesn't, then maybe Disney has done something about the crowds. So a win-win for the business.

 

[txwdwmom]

Wow, really?!? Just when I thought this was getting straightened out. Do you know where she tried to do the upgrade?

MK. She's heading to Epcot now to try it there.

 

[Jack15129]

I'm not seeing how this really makes a major difference. If you had a 5 day PH before, you can still PH for 5 days - regardless of what you paid for it. The only difference is, if you paid $5.00 for it, and you want to upgrade to a pass that costs $10.00 now, you have to pay the $5.00 difference. What they were allowing before is that if you're old $5.00 ticket now costs $7.00, you would only pay a $3.00 difference. Sure, it was nice to be able to take advantage of an extra discount, but the ticket isn't actually losing value, and they're still allowing you to upgrade...

Since we are leaving in less than ten days and already have a trip budget, yes it does make a difference. If it was only a few dollars by your example then no, not a big deal. It's quite a bit more to now add 2 days to our tickets, if I have figured it right. Also we are still getting reports of people being told that you can't add days at all! Disney needs to get their act together and have everyone trained properly.

 

[damo]

MK. She's heading to Epcot now to try it there.

Had she already used the tickets at least once?

 

[dani77]

MK. She's heading to Epcot now to try it there.

The CMs at MK ticket windows and geust relations seem to be the worst when it comes to ticket upgrades. I got a "no" a few times trying to upgrade my UK ticket last year. Tried on different days, different CMs. The onex with the most knowledge as far as tickets go seem to be at the downtown disney ticket windows. They always knew how to get it done. Tell her to try it there if they refuse to do the upgrade at epcot.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Based on the most recent comments from UT (which is who I'm trusting), you get credit for the gate price the day the seller purchased the tickets from Disney for resale. Which, if you had a good reseller, should have been a discount off of that price. This is also the only interpretation that makes sense and would never result in purchasers having to ultimately pay MORE than what they would have to pay if they purchased direct from Disney (barring a seller selling an old ticket at a new price).

Which is what $$$ amount? We are basing our information on "should"....and I'm still dealing with unknown ticket value.

I don't like companies, that change the rules in the middle of the game. Disney did this with cruises, that I booked onboard with a specific date in mind. A couple of months later, they changed the rules. We had to cancel 4 cabins because our date was 19 months out...not within the new 18 month requirement.