Those who (recently) used a Travel Agent for a WDW trip

[sam_gordon]

I won't go into the history of why a TA was used, it doesn't really matter for the subject of the thead...

Did your TA require your (or a member of your party) MDE logon information?

Ours did and I and DBiL had issues giving that information out considering it's used for Hulu and ESPN, as well as MDE. "Give it to me for the trip, then change it after" was what the TA's response was, but we ended up giving her DW & DSis (two reservations).

Was it really necessary though? Couldn't the TA make whatever reservations, give us the reservation numbers, then we add to our MDE?

She did:
* Room reservations
* TS reservations
* Added Park tickets to the account.

We did LL reservations.

Just curious other's experiences/expectations.

 

[EACarlson]

I know we were asked for ours last year when we allowed a TA to book our room and tickets. I believe my wife gave hers as all of our other things Disney related are associated with mine. I agree there should be no reason it's necessary for the TA to have your password, and would probably refuse to give mine. Disney should be able to associate the reservation with the account with just the username.

 

[gottalovepluto]

She needed your MDE info to do all that. TAs can’t just make dining reservations with no MDE account, especially if you have 60+ privileges.

That level of trust isn’t for everyone, and not all TAs even offer that level of service. You just put a temporary password on the account for when the TA needs access to link stuff and then change it when they don’t. There is no need to have access for the whole time you’re trip planning, just when links and ADRs and MP booking. As soon as any of that is done, kill the temp password and then reinstate it when the agent needs access again.

 

[PAGA2003]

We use DVC for our Disney World trips so no TA for those but we do use one for our Disney cruises and yes we give her our login information. That is the only way the reservation will show in your account with you being in control of it. Otherwise she would need to drop the reservation and you pick it up which is time consuming and risky. Or if she makes it and just adds you as a guest you would not own the reservation and be able to make changes.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I know we were asked for ours last year when we allowed a TA to book our room and tickets. I believe my wife gave hers as all of our other things Disney related are associated with mine. I agree there should be no reason it's necessary for the TA to have your password, and would probably refuse to give mine. Disney should be able to associate the reservation with the account with just the username.

It’s not necessary for just room and tickets. It’s part of a full service in that they wanted to link it for you but they can make room and ticket reservations and give you the info to link.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We use DVC for our Disney World trips so no TA for those but we do use one for our Disney cruises...

OP did not book a cruise.

 

[PAGA2003]

OP did not book a cruise.

Correct but I was letting them know my experience with giving login info to my TA for booking purposes on DCL for the same reasons they were requested to provide for a land trip. That is the only way the TA can book reservations for you in both situations.

 

[Dave006]

I agree there should be no reason it's necessary for the TA to have your password, and would probably refuse to give mine.

It is not mandatory or necessary but to provide all the offerings listed, Yes the TA needs to have your MDE Account information or be included in your MDE profile as a Family & Friend Member sharing all plans.

Unfortunately not all TAs are that technical, and their skill set is focused on the the Vacation side of things.

Disney should be able to associate the reservation with the account with just the username.

Disney is not part of this discussion since now 99% of all WDW guest options are now made, and managed by guest in their MDE profile.

Dave

 

[EACarlson]

It’s not necessary for just room and tickets. It’s part of a full service in that they wanted to link it for you but they can make room and ticket reservations and give you the info to link.

We did ask them to monitor for certain dining reservations. Either way. It should be upon Disney to come up with a system that does not require the TA, that Disney is paying, to use a guests login information for reservations to get to them. Think of it as say an airline flight, the TA doesn't need to know your login to United in order to link the flight to the account, they only need the MileagePlus number. Especially when Disney is requiring you to use that same login information for everything else under the Disney corporate umbrella. And providing it is an explicit violation of the Disney Terms of Use.

OP did not book a cruise.

Why the need to gatekeep someone else's thread? Especially someone that is perfectly able to gatekeep their own thread? OP did not exclude DCL from the conversation. The question was "Did your TA require logon information?" PP stated that they did for DCL.

 

[PAGA2003]

It is not mandatory or necessary but to provide all the offerings listed, Yes the TA needs to have your MDE Account information or be included in your MDE profile as a Family & Friend Member sharing all plans.

Unfortunately not all TAs are that technical, and their skill set is focused on the the Vacation side of things.

When booking as Family and Friends the TA would still be the only one that could make changes to the reservation though and would be the lead guest unless they have changed that? You can't directly transfer ownership I believe.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We did ask them to monitor for certain dining reservations.

OK, well that makes a lot more sense as to why they needed your information.

If you want Disney to set up a different system, make sure to leave Disney your feedback. They don’t give a whit what TAs want (and TAs would love to not need your login info).

 

[Dave006]

When booking as Family and Friends the TA would still be the only one that could make changes to the reservation though and would be the lead guest unless they have changed that? You can't directly transfer ownership I believe.

The TAs don't ever become the lead guest. They don't make room or package reservations using MDE. They use the dedicated TA Web Portal, and yes they own your Reservation. That's how it is designed to work.

If you are referencing other "reservations" they have full access as long as you give them full access in the MDE Family & Friends list, and Yes you still retain the ability to modify or even delete selected items: Dining reservations, Disney Extras, and even LLMP and/or LLSP or LLPP purchases.

Dave

 

[PAGA2003]

The TAs don't ever become the lead guest. They don't make room or package reservations using MDE. They use the dedicated TA Web Portal, and yes they own your Reservation. That's how it is designed to work.

If you are referencing other "reservations" they have full access as long as you give them full access in the MDE Family & Friends list, and Yes you still retain the ability to modify or even delete selected items: Dining reservations, Disney Extras, and even LLMP and/or LLSP or LLPP purchases.

Dave

We're talking about different things. I meant if they made a dinner reservation for a client through a different MDE account (not the client's account) and added the client to the reservation as Friends and Family. They would still own it because there is no way to directly transfer it to the client.

I made a reservation for a friend once using Friends and Family and they didn't show up for the reservation and didn't ask me to cancel (since they could not) and I got the no show fee charged to my card. A TA definitely wouldn't risk that with clients.

 

[Dave006]

I made a reservation for a friend once using Friends and Family and they didn't show up for the reservation and didn't ask me to cancel. I got the no show fee charged to my card. A TA definitely wouldn't risk that with clients.

A TA would not have made a dining reservation, and use their own Credit Card to guarantee it for a No-Show fee. They would have used the Client's Credit Card since they already have the CC information, and if they used MDE they would have used the Client's Credit Card. You can add (6) Payment methods to a MDE Account profile.

You also could have added your friend's Credit Card to your MDE Profile, and used it to secure the dining reservation. In your case, either of you could have modified the dining reservation or cancelled it. The fact that neither of you cancelled the dining reservation that's why you got charged the no-show fee. You were doing your friend a favor but got caught in the process.

Dave

 

[Lewisc]

Tv

They would have used the Client's Credit Card since they already have the CC information,

I hope not. The agent should be entering the cc into the booking system. You think the TA should write your cc on a post-it and keep it. That would scare me more then giving the TA a temporary password.

. It should be upon Disney to come up with a system that does not require the TA, t

That assumes Disney wants to facilitate 3rd party restaurant booking business.

Friends and family isn't a great solution. I've had reservations dissappear from famlies MDE. Wouldn't it be harder if the lead wants to modify or cancel the reservation while on vacation?

Real easy. If you want your TA to make reservations set up a temporary password for a few days.

Posters are afraid the TA will use your Hulu login but want to let the TA use your credit card as a payment option in the TAs personal MDE account. Think about it.

Aren't your going to wind up being friends and family with the TAs other clients?

 

[Dave006]

I hope not. The agent should be entering the cc into the booking system. You think the TA should write your cc on a post-it and keep it. That would scare me more then giving the TA a temporary password.

No a TA is not going to be using MDE. Please see my earlier post about the TAs having a Dedicated portal for making Client reservations of all types from 9:37 AM Post.

If you find a TA using post-it-notes vs their own agency system or the Disney TA Portal then you have the wrong TA.

Friends and family isn't a great solution. I've had reservations dissappear from famlies MDE. Wouldn't it be harder if the lead wants to modify or cancel the reservation while on vacation?

They do sometimes drop out of the MDE mobile DB but they are still in the legacy system that CMs can access and push out. The only way for them to actually be deleted is for you or someone in your Family & Friend list that is fully sharing to delete it.

Aren't your going to wind up being friends and family with the TAs other clients?

No, a real TA is not going to need to link to your MDE profile. If a TA want's to use MDE to make your additional reservations beyond the initial room or package make sure you understand exactly why they need access to your MDE account, and what Security they have implemented at their agency.

Any TA that I have heard about wanting MDE access was just to make the extra reservations via the Guest Web interface, and LLMP and/or LLSP or LLPP which is only allowed via the MDE app.

In the initial post by @sam_gordon their TA handled the following items:

She did:
* Room reservations
* TS reservations
* Added Park tickets to the account.

Only the addition of Park tickets would be needed to be done via by a MDE account sign-in that has full access to the reservations via the Family & Friends list with full access or using the Guest's MDE account.

Dave

 

[sam_gordon]

It makes me feel better that giving the TA access to our MDE was the "right" way to do it. I don't understand why Disney would require it though. As PP said, if a TA makes an airline reservation, a cruise reservation, or a hotel reservation, they just need the account number to match it up to. In MDE's case, that should be the email address (no password).

I don't think giving a "temporary" password is a good solution, because it's associated with so many other devices. I wouldn't want to:
1) Change the account to a temporary password.
2) Give that temporary pw to the TA,
3) Change the devices I use that account on (Hulu, ESPN, etc)... tablets, phones, computers, Roku's etc.
4) After things are set (could be more than a few days), change the password back
5) Change all the devices to use the old password again.

 

[Lewisc]

Dave

No a TA is not going to be using MDE. Please see my earlier post about the TAs having a Dedicated portal for making Client reservations of all types from 9:37 AM Post.

If
Dave

I'm missing something. Assume the "TA" is making dining reservations, pre-paid dining experiences and tours. Assume the client wants the online ability to modify or cancel the reservation. Assume the TA wants the clients credit card used in case of no shows.

Can this be done via the dedicated TA portal?

A poster in this thread solution was using friends and family with the clients credit card being one of 5 cards on the MDE account

 

[Dave006]

Can this be done via the dedicated TA portal?

The item(s) the TA would own would be the room or package reservation. The Guest will not be able to change or cancel either a room or package reservation since the TA owns the reservation but the TA uses the TA Web Portal to make or manage the room(s) or package with or without tickets.

Specificity any dining reservation pre-paid or otherwise will be in the Guest (Client's) name using their CC information, and they will have full control over this as well as any Tours or other Disney Extras. These booking would be via the phone. Not all TAs offer this level of service since they don't receive any additional payment for these personal add-ons.

Again to perform booking of personal items like LLMP and/or LLSP or LLPP, the reservations would require access to a MDE profile.

Dave

 

[pooch]

I could and probably am wrong but the only reason I know of that your would need access to your MDE account is to make dining, LL, experiences reservations. I’ve used a TA a few times but never ask them to make the additional reservations so never gave them access to my MDE account.