Should I book with AAA, and if another offer is available later, could I apply it?

[Jenny Wren]

We are lookin to going on Dec 2, and I am hoping for free dining. I know that may be wishful thinking but, my sister-in-law informed me today that she has AAA, they will be traveling with us. I am not sure what the discount is with AAA since I have never dealt with that, but, could we book with AAA then if free dining becomes available, would we be able to apply that to the current AAA package, or how would I do this? What is the best way I should ask?

We would really like to stay at CBR, we stayed there last time, but not sure if we can swing it this time around. We only stayed there last time cause we got an upgrade.... It was really nice!

What should I do?

 

[Melanie230]

We booked our vacation last year through AAA. I didn't see any perks to doing it. Other than our TA was really sweet and sent us little gifts in the mail before we went...i.e luggage tags, and coupons. You can always call AAA and ask them what you could do. They are really nice to deal with. Good luck!

 

[maverickj44]

I have traveled through AAA~ to Disney many times. Each time, I have booked with whatever the deal at the time was... and then if and when a better one came up, we changed it to the best deal out there. Sometimes they were very forthcoming with better deals, others I had to call and request. Either way, they have been wonderful in getting me the best possible deal for our trip. Last time I changed 4 times, and at no added cost to me!

 

[kittycat9]

We're currently booked with AAA during the same time frame you're looking to travel. It's nice knowing we have the room and package we want no matter what, with a good AAA rate, but if a better deal comes along - we can contact our Agent right away and get that applied.

 

[francie57]

We use AAA TA every trip. We always save quite a bit over going through Disney. I priced our next trip with Dreams Unlimited and told them we had AAA for the discount. Their price came back over $800 more than what the AAA TA gave me as a price. We have a 2 bedroom villa at the BW reserved. If they offer free dining, price your trip both ways because depending on the classification of resort free dining isn't always the best bet since you have to pay full rack rate for the room. We had our AAA TA price it both ways for last Aug. and we made out better with the AAA room discount over the free dining. Think the free dining works out better at the values and maybe the moderates.

 

[Jenny Wren]

Thank you all for the help. I am going to call AAA in the morning and see what price they give me. Does anyone know what there discount amount is?

 

[kittycat9]

Thank you all for the help. I am going to call AAA in the morning and see what price they give me. Does anyone know what there discount amount is?

It varies by hotel category (Value, Mod, Deluxe, Villa), and sometimes within the category depending on seasonality and popularity (IE. There are some % differences occasionally within Deluxe & Deluxe Villa I noticed in the WDW booklet that AAA sent me - OKW & SS often have higher % off, CR had the least). We're going during a value season, but staying AKL CL on a Stnd Savannah View - our savings came to around $525 on the room rate. There might be different rates available at different levels depending on what rooms Disney is trying to push - so it never hurts to call your AAA agent and have them check the rates for you

What is important to keep in mind is that your rate is flexible. You can still apply discounts that come up with disney, but we avoid adding the trip insurance until later in our trip to ensure that if we have to cancel a ressie (rare) and rebook, we don't lose it. Second thing to keep in mind - AAA owns the ressie, so you work with them, except on your ADRs. You need to remember that if you get a pin or something, and want it applied to your ressie - you need to call them. Until you go to check in - everything related to your ressie is handled through your AAA TA. It's always helpful the make sure your AAA TA is a Disney Pro. Which is why we use an agent several states away to handle our Disney vacation planning

 

[Disney-&-Baseball]

We are currently booked with AAA and we have used them on a previous trip. That being said this will probably be the last time we will use them. We have gained enough knowledge just from these forums to be confident we can do just as good on our own. The AAA discount if that is all there is, is very small. Right now we are booked with the Disney 25% off discount from this spring and we could have done that ourselves with Disney. We already had a trip booked and had to bring the discount to our T.A.'s attention. Also when you book through AAA you don't own the reservation, they do. So any changes you want to make you have to have them do it.