A TA can only rely on the following WDW vacation benefits:
1.) 50% room discount, sometimes restricted to room type and resort, subject to availability. Though they say "no blackout dates", like the airlines they just make the rooms unavailable during holiday or really peak times. I know enough NOT to ask for Christmas/New Year's week.
2.) a discount on a full PH & WPF ticket with no expiration up to 10 days OR one free day (just one) PH. The ticket benefits are just once per year. Since I generally use just basic tickets and don't park hop or use the water parks the one free day is the only one that works for me. We aren't allowed to add no expiration to our discount tickets, and both tickets are good for only 14 days from pick up with emailed confirmation from Disney.
Both these benefits are granted after Disney reviews my agency booking volume and they have reviewed my submitted paperwork.
Other times of year we've been offered promotions to fill rooms during slack periods. The PP took advantage of one of these, and I am too in the next few weeks. Keep in mind these are not always offered, just now and then during times when Disney has rooms to fill. I remember several deals after 9/11 when people didn't want to travel, and I took advantage of one of those in Nov. 2001. The current deals are due to the poor economy. Disney has lots of beds to fill every night, and heads in beds means money spent in the parks. They know a TA will often travel when others won't.
Same with
Disney Cruise Lines, good discounts during off peak weeks to fill the cabins. Nearly every resort/ship will offer someting in their off periods.
I'm only listing these lest some DISer's think we get great deals all the time. The deals are decent, not always great. A room only discount means no
DDP, and I like to use the basic DDP. Sometimes I compare the offers to the general public ones and they pretty much work out close to the same pricing when I deduct the agency commission from the cost. I book the public offers for myself too sometimes, no need to submit paperwork. And the TA offers generally come out close to the travel dates, no long term planning or coveted ADR's! The discount the PP is referencing is 50% off room, basic tickets, and QSDP. It's just one discount code, not stacked discounts, and any add ons (for PH, DDP, DxDP, etc.) are at the full difference in price. It's a great deal, but only available for a very short time for TA's personal travel for non-peak weeks.
As far as TA's getting deals from Disney to offer to clients not available to the public, the answer is just sometimes. And that sometimes is often for a special group rate, large number of pre-paid discounted room nights, ect. In the normal course of things, other than negotiated room rates (such as
AAA) or a large pre-paid block of rooms (most of these can't be made into a true package), or a group rate we have, we pretty much have access to the same offers everyone else does. Some of us have a little more advance notice than others for promos, but we can't book them any sooner than you can. That said, there are so many TA's who are not well versed in things Disney (none of us here!), so if you choose to use a TA make sure they know their Disney stuff.
