So pissed off with AAA

[MaleficentandGoons]

So we went yesterday to put more money down on our vacation. We also wanted to see if we could push back our arrival by 2 days and add it to the end because the flight prices have been insane!! The AAA rep who we are working with called US while we were there and was told that Royal Pacific was sold out for the dates we wanted. We wanted to arrive on Tuesday and leave on Tuesday vs the Sunday to Sat we have booked. Anyway I found it odd so I went home and tried to book it online and the dates were available. So then I called US and they said yup available would actually be $20 cheaper and that we could change through AAA and not receive a few. !

I don't know who to be upset with but I definitely feel like we were given a line of...well you know.
Is it me or are the US not so competent or should I blame my AAA rep?

 

[mjohnson96]

Sounds like the AAA rep was the ones that were having a hard time. Maybe they were sold out for what they had blocked but the hotel still had rooms available. I don't know how you were booking it, but sometimes packages are treated differently that room only.

If you can, sounds like booking it directly with the hotel might be cheaper. You can still apply your AAA rate and then have them fax you the Credit Authorization form so you can pay it off in advance if that is what you are wanting to do.

 

[daisy2jae]

we booked our WDW trip through AAA. She's been a handful. I think I know more about WDW than she does and she books trips everyday for WDW vacations. Everytime I asked her about something she didn't believe me. When free dinning came out she didn't believe me. I had to email her the promo before she'd call and add it to our package. Now that things are set I haven't had issues but that's probably because the only time I talk to her is to make a payment. I was very disappointed in AAA this time

 

[smahoney6]

Called AAA yesterday to book a trip- got the same rate as I could get on expedia or the hotel web site..so I called hrh directly and got a great rate on club level rooms (ironically AAA rate) that the AAA rep didn't bother to share...just glad I made my own reservations and did not let AAA handle!

 

[Metro West]

Sounds like the AAA rep was the ones that were having a hard time. Maybe they were sold out for what they had blocked but the hotel still had rooms available. I don't know how you were booking it, but sometimes packages are treated differently that room only.

If you can, sounds like booking it directly with the hotel might be cheaper. You can still apply your AAA rate and then have them fax you the Credit Authorization form so you can pay it off in advance if that is what you are wanting to do.

 

[Colleendoll]

Last week I was on the phone with Universal reservations to add one night to my stay. Everything was going fine until the lady read back my reservation. It was exactly the same and didn't add on the extra night. She went back to her previous screen and tried to book the room again. It wouldn't work. Then she checked all three on site hotels and every one of them showed completely booked!

She said there is no call back but I could keep checking the website to see if there are any updates. A few minutes later I checked the website. ALL THREE hotels had several rooms available. I think it is the system they are working with that has a glitch or stops reservations to recalculate.

 

[damo]

We seem to have come to the conclusion on this board that we know stuff before the travel agents do. I guess it makes sense considering how broad their knowledge must be. We had the same issue as you when trying to book a Disneyland vacation. There was much more helpful info to be found on the Disneyland boards here than through my auto association rep.

 

[MaleficentandGoons]

That's what I don't understand like they are the Official travel agent for WDW and US so how do you not know things like that.

 

[mjohnson96]

We seem to have come to the conclusion on this board that we know stuff before the travel agents do. I guess it makes sense considering how broad their knowledge must be. We had the same issue as you when trying to book a Disneyland vacation. There was much more helpful info to be found on the Disneyland boards here than through my auto association rep.

This is why I'm the offical travel agent for my friends and family. Anytime anyone wants to head out anywhere, especially Florida they come over and have a nice little chat at my desk.

I love the boards here, always finding something new I didn't know before. Or just enjoying seeing what others will say.

 

[MaleficentandGoons]

if anyone has any discount codes they want to share feel free. I don't think this lady is helping us.

 

[patster734]

This is why I'm the offical travel agent for my friends and family. Anytime anyone wants to head out anywhere, especially Florida they come over and have a nice little chat at my desk.

I love the boards here, always finding something new I didn't know before. Or just enjoying seeing what others will say.

In the past, I've had people ask me for advice about WDW and UO too. Unfortunately, my WDW info has gotten outdated, since my last trip there was in 2005.

 

[nmartin]

2 years ago when we went to WDW we booked through a travel agent at Sears in Canada. That was a huge mistake! The travel agent kept saying that the rooms were booked but when we called WDW ourselves they said that the room was available. After many, many phone calls the agent at WDW called our agent and had words with her and told her basically to "learn her job". Never again will I go through a travel agent for trips that are easy enough for myself to book. Just like the old saying goes"The only one that will take care of you is yourself." I have booked my trip to US myself and found it actually much easier then to try to reach someone else to solve my problems.

 

[brenda1966]

I agree. Booked a "room only" through AAA once and it was a huge hassle. Even getting my magic express luggage tags from them was a hassle! So much easier to book myself. those of us that haunt these boards know far more than your average travel agent.

 

[francie57]

Guess my AAA TA is the exception here. She is wonderful and is on top of every discount that comes out that we qualify for. I priced out our Aug. trip myself through Dreams Unlimited and Disney and my AAA TA came in over $800 lower than any price I was given, even when I told Dreams Unlimited and Disney I was a AAA member. We are staying and Universal at the HRH and actually have 2 rooms since our kids are older and we like the extra room and then move to Disney's Boardwalk Villas in a 2 bedroom villa. Sorry everyone on here is so down on their TA guess we lucked out.

 

[krissyh]

Is it possible for you to cancel your AAA ressie and rebook on your own?
That way, you will not have to go through them for anything you wish to do with your reservation.

I have had similar experiences. When I requested a quote for WDW a few years back, they came back with a higher price than I could get with a widely advertised code. When I said this, I basically received, "book it yourself, then."
While at WDW on that President's Week trip this poor woman booked through her office and had been told that was "a great week to go." She had taken her kids out of school for this only to get there and find out that it would have been significantly less expensive and much less busy to go two weeks earlier.
While I agree that it is best to do ones homework about any vacation, when an agency advertises itself as an expert, they really should know more than the average traveler.

Hope it all works out for you!

 

[missyek]

So I saw your post this morning and started getting a bit nervous because I had scheduled an appointment to meet with a AAA person this afternoon. When I made the call, I was automatically nervous because the agent that I worked with on my 2008 WDW trip was no longer there. She was fantastic and completely knowledgeable of Disney as she had been many times. I do not know if she was knowledgeable about Universal, but I have faith that she would have dome everything she could to help me. So, I met with a new person. Red flags automatically went up when I did not meet with the person I made the appointment with. The whole army of red flags came up when she was writing down the dates and said that she needed to be extra careful because earlier today she booked a man's July trip for June. She had no knowledge of the fact the Universal had its own three resort hotels--to her they were all partner hotels. She did not know the names of the three resort hotels and she had no idea about any of the perks of staying at the resort hotel--good thing I had the AAA/CAA Universal info book in front of me that I picked out of there stacks.... SIGH. The deal to NOT book with her was set when I asked for pricing info on a 1 night/2 day ticket package at RP. The total that she gave me sounded fishy so when I got home I checked it out and she included just 1 days worth of tickets instead of 2. Oh well, guess I will not be dealing with them anytime soon anymore. Too bad, I did have two great experiences there with both of my previous WDW trips.

 

[MaleficentandGoons]

We changed our dates and got another $50 off. When it's all said and done we are spending about $238 a day for tickets and room. I'm not sure if thats average or not but i'll take it.