TA vs WestJet Vacations vs CAA

[YYCPoohFan]

Hi folks,

DH and I are in the planning stages of a September 2015 trip to WDW. It will be my third time there, but the first for my DH, plus my birthday will happen during the week we'll be there so we're pretty excited!

A few years ago, we went to Disneyland and booked through a friend who is a Disney specialist TA. It was nice having someone who is very knowledgeable about Disney sort everything for us which is why we've contacted her again for this trip. The costs are the same as if we book through Disney directly though and payment is in USD, which is not great due to our current exchange rate.

DH saw an ad for WestJet Vacations a short while ago for WDW so I checked this morning and we can get the same resort (POP) plus 8-day park hopper passes plus flights for approx. $700 less than booking through the TA, mainly all due to the exchange rate. I haven't checked CAA, but I'm wondering if they will be similar to WestJet, plus we can pay all in CAD.

My question is that if we book through WestJet or CAA, would we be able to apply any discounts Disney releases that may be relevant during our stay? For example, I understand free dining has come out for that time in the past so we're wondering if we'd be able to add it to a WestJet reservation. This is not critical for us as we don't plan to book a DP anyway and would only add it if free.

Just wondering if anyone else has done this. TIA!

 

[YYCPoohFan]

As an update to the above, I did contact CAA yesterday and was told we could book through the AAA with them and pay USD, exactly the same as if we book direct through Disney but with the added bonus of being charged $39 each just for booking through the CAA. This would allow us to still be eligible for discounts if any applicable ones were released. The other option they offered was to book through an unnamed Canadian supplier where we would pay in CAD, but the cost was exactly the same as the USD converted to CAD, and there would be no eligibility for discounts.

Since the WestJet deal is for much less than either of these or what the TA is able to offer, and discounts are not our number one priority (although they would be nice), I think we may just go that route.

 

[hihohiho]

I booked Westjet once with the free dining in December, it gets added as a room selection option, I would be surprised if you could get the free dining added after booking without it though, since generally vacation packages are not modifiable or refundable. I would hold out for free dining personally, or at least wait for a seat sale, since Westjet Vacation prices fluctuate with the flight prices. I have booked Westjet vacation packages where the flight+hotel is much less than the separate flight and hotel would have been.

 

[YYCPoohFan]

Thanks hihohiho! The combo price with WestJet is definitely much cheaper than booking resort and park tickets with Disney and then flights with WestJet separately.

I've read on these boards somewhere that those who waited to book packages with WestJet in order to get discounts were out of luck as the flights were already full for the timeframe they wanted to go. We don't want to risk that and free dining won't make much of a difference for us anyway, especially since we're already saving just by booking in CAD.

I think we're pretty much decided at this point, but were just wondering what other people had done.

 

[Hockey6657]

I would book tickets and hotels through disneyworld.com and find the best flight for you each way. It is usually the best to book 2 one way flights on 2 different Airlines. Usually the cheapest are United American US airways or Air Canada