Unhappy experience upgrading with 4/3

[disneymom2one]

hi. We are at WDW right now. We had an awful experience yesterday. As part of the 4/3, we bought 9 day passes as many had suggested, paying for six day passes. (park hopper, no exp). We then used them once and tried to use them towards a PAP renewal (FL res).

They would only give us what we paid as credit - the six day passes. They accused us of trying to ull a scam. They said we were "cheating".

It was completely humiliating. Because we thought we right, we then tried to rectify at Epcot. It was worse and they really were mad because they felt like we were trying to get around what was said at the MK. There were lots of "back room" conversations.

To be honest, I wish we had just not bothered. I couldn't sleep last night because of it. It felt like we were treated like criminals. I still believe we were right but if we weren't, that's okay too. I just really thought I read here we could do it.

From now on, we'll just do AP rates. All the hassle of packages just isn't worth it.

 

[Frankiesmom]

That is a shame! I am not familiar with the upgrading passes-we always have 1 AP in the party.
Try to put it out of your mind; and have a great vacation! You're not a criminal!! People talk about doing exactly what you did all the time; I also thought that's how it's done
Enjoy your trip!

 

[fla4fun]

It sounds like they assumed you were trying to get credit for a 9 day pass, when you have said yourself that you were trying to get credit for a 6 day pass. Maybe it makes a difference on the tickets with complimentary days whether they have been used or not - as in, once your six day ticket was put through the turnstiles, the system was reading it as a nine day ticket and they couldn't override it. Also, I know complimentary tickets can't be upgraded, so maybe multi day tickets that include complimentary days fall into this category - I don't know. Still, that's no excuse for being rude or accusatory towards you. You were just trying to get the value of what you paid for.

I have an AP, and I always just book the packages with a one day base ticket. Even booking the 4/3 package, I only bought the one day base. That way, there shouldn't be any issue with the upgrade.

 

[DJ Disney Kid]

I agree its more headache than its worth with upgrading the passes and all that. Im an AP holder and will just continue to do the AP discounts as they are usually just as good as the other deals Disney offers.

 

[TJA]

I'm sorry you went through that. I do think you are right about your assumption as far as reading the procedure on this board because I almost did the same thing based on what I read on here. I believe the people who posted the info and that it has always worked in the past, but obviously disney is now aware of it....at least for the 4/3 deal.

 

[bonybroad]

We were going to do this too.
Maybe CHeshire Figment will be around shortly to help figure this out for us.

 

[gallam5]

sorry you had to deal with that I know they can be very accusing at times.
I hope that today is a better day for you.
I might also add - that WHILE you are there I would ask to speak to the hotel manager, they sometimes tend to be a bit more understanding. You paid money to go to Disney and you should be treated with the respect.
My DH had a bad experience like this and while there was no harm done - he really felt humiliated and no person should feel that way esp a paying guest.
We were compensated for the mishap, didn't take away that 'icky feeling' but it was resolved and dealt with in a professional manner. No we did not end up 'getting what we wanted' but there was a compromise.
In the end I hope that you are able to enjoy the rest of your stay!

 

[Alicnwondrln]

I am ont surprised. If you only paid for 6 days why would they credit you 9.
What was the price difference? Did you call Disney and ask about this before you left or just read on that you could do it? I did a few years ago and learned everything here isnt always right.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation.

 

[ttbell]

Why would they give you credit for 9 days when you only paid for 6? They're giving you 3 free days on the initial promotion. Were you trying to get monetary credit for the 3 free days? I don't think I understand.

 

[vicki_c]

The ticketing CMs and visitors who have done it have repeatedly posted that the 4/3 tickets will work like any other discounted tickets - if you use them once, they "take on" the full value of the ticket (so if you paid for 6 under the 4/3, but got 3 free - once you use it, it basically becomes a 9 day ticket). Therefore, if you upgrade to a longer ticket, AP, whatever - you pay less for the upgrade. It's not a scam, it's what WDW has been allowing. And not just on the 4/3, but basically forever with discounted tickets, like Undercover Tourist or other discounters.

Just check the Theme Parks boards for about 4 current threads on this (none saying it didn't/wouldn't work) or Mousesavers for information on what the best deal is when wanting to upgrade discounted tickets.

The OP is the first post I've seen where someone wasn't allowed to capture the full value of a discounted ticket when they had used it first.

In fact, I'm going to link this thread over to one of those posts to see what the "experts" think on that. It's always possible WDW has decided to close this loophole, or more likely, that the CM doing the transaction didn't know to bridge the ticket price to the new full value. That happens sometimes. Hopefully, it's an isolated incident caused by a CM who didn't know what to do (although I can't explain the Epcot part by that explanation).

 

[EEyorelover22]

I feel bad this happened to you.

I did this in December and was given gate price credit for the MYW tickets that I bought in August of 07. There were two price increases since then. We used the tickets once and I was given current gate price and upgraded to a DVC AP.

Maybe Disney isn't doing this anymore since they know they are losing money with the 4/3 deal.

 

[doconeill]

It has been policy for a while now that regardless of what was paid for the initial tickets, you would get full gate price for the ticket you have if you are upgrading within 14 days of first use. Everyone, including myself, believed that Disney treated these like any other "discounted" tickets. Once you had them in hand, they are what they are - 7 day passes, 9-day NE, etc.

This is the first report anyone has made that I have seen where they only gave credit for the "purchased" ticket, not the resulting ticket. The difference is only significant if using NE tickets to upgrade to a bigger ticket like APs. With other tickets the difference is only $9. $9 would not be an issue for Disney.

I can see why Disney may want to close this loophole in the case of the NE tickets, because in some cases the savings was a little over $100!

Hopefully we can get some confirmation soon on what the policy is supposed to be - although two different locations giving the same story is concerning, to say the least.

 

[WEDWDW]

I understand that Disney is not allowing the "bridge" on the Military discounted tickets so "maybe" they have stopped bridging the 4/3 tickets also.Hopefully someone with definitive information will be along soon.I REALLY need to know because I am planning on upgrading my 4/3 9 Day MYW NE ticket next month and I don't want to be embarrassed by Mickey thinking I am a SCAMMER!LOL

 

[WEDWDW]

I just wanted to add that if they do now have a "no-bridge" policy it could really hurt the licensed discount ticket brokers because I would think a lot of their business is form Guests intending to use the discount on an upgrade.

 

[poohgirl6]

sorry this happened to you on your trip. We had a similar issue once concerning a ticket (a free pass from American Express points) that they wouldn't honor and they kept sending us from one guest services booth to another. We ended up having to purchase a 5 day park hopper pass that we hadn't budgeted for (since we had the "free" Am Ex pass) and it sure sucked up alot of our time and emotion before the trip actually even got started. It took a little while to shake off the YUK and frustration but we still had a great trip.

 

[eliza61]

That sucks. Please let management know of your rude treatment and also send off an email.

I was there in May, I had a 7 day pass from undercover tourist. I paid for 5 days got 2 free. when I upgraded to my AP I was given credit for the 4 remaining days not the extra 2 free days. They were able to tell I had purchased my tickets from a discounted broker immediately. This was perfectly cool with me, I didn't pay for 7 days so I had no problems with not getting compensated for some thing I didn't pay for.
Maybe they are treating them now like stores do with gift cards. You know how you can no longer get the remaining balance back in cash.

Maybe some one has been running a scam, I find that a lot of disclosures and rule changes are usually the result of some one trying to get over on the system. Unfortunately what ends up happening is that the honest folks who do play by the rules get the headache.

Customer service should always be in effect no matter what.

 

[doconeill]

I understand that Disney is not allowing the "bridge" on the Military discounted tickets so "maybe" they have stopped bridging the 4/3 tickets also.Hopefully someone with definitive information will be along soon.I REALLY need to know because I am planning on upgrading my 4/3 9 Day MYW NE ticket next month and I don't want to be embarrassed by Mickey thinking I am a SCAMMER!LOL

The military ticket (both the standard ones sold at Shades of Green and the Salute program tickets) are not MYW tickets. SoG tickets can be upgraded only at SoG, and the Salute tickets have some special rules applied since they are not MYW tickets.

All the expectations were that since these were MYW tickets, the normal MYW rules applied, including price bridging.

People HAVE reported getting the full gate price in these upgrades recently...so this may be a brand new thing if they discovered so many people taking advantage of it...

 

[doconeill]

I was there in May, I had a 7 day pass from undercover tourist. I paid for 5 days got 2 free. when I upgraded to my AP I was given credit for the 4 remaining days not the extra 2 free days.

Two things here...

1) They did not give credit for the two free days...so it appears that Disney may NOT be giving any credit for any free days on tickets now! I wonder if they are somehow tagged "complimentary". I wasn't sure how UT provided the free days anyways.

2) You didn't even get credit for the day that was used?!? When was the effective date of the AP? If it is the date of first use, you should have gotten credit for the first day.

I'm concerned now whether Disney is completely changing upgrade policies in general due to the decreased revenue they are seeing...

 

[WEDWDW]

The military ticket (both the standard ones sold at Shades of Green and the Salute program tickets) are not MYW tickets. SoG tickets can be upgraded only at SoG, and the Salute tickets have some special rules applied since they are not MYW tickets.

All the expectations were that since these were MYW tickets, the normal MYW rules applied, including price bridging.

People HAVE reported getting the full gate price in these upgrades recently...so this may be a brand new thing if they discovered so many people taking advantage of it...

Thanks for the info on the Military tickets.I always wondered why Disney allowed the "bridge",but have understood it to be perfectly "legal" and a legitimate,acceptable practice by Disney.Does anyone know the OFFICIAL,CURRENT Disney policy on "bridging" or is it like a lot of things at WDW,it varies from CM to CM?

 

[Maxie86]

I upgraded my tickets from UT to an AP in December. I was given full price as far as I call tell. I used the tickets first then upgraded on my last day.