Upgrade to AP ? Pixie Dust or was I "right"?

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Upgraded to APs again today (we do this yearly). Question is was I right to stand my ground or did I get Pixie Dust as the supervisor tells me

We had saved 1 day PH passes from a 'free dining' package from 2010.

Last September I upgraded those tickets to 10 day PH tickets so that I could make FP + for this trip (wanted to have 10 day tickets in MDE instead of 1 day tickets for obvious reasons)

Today went to Epcot before opening and told a CM at a ticket booth that we wanted to upgrade to an AP. She told us the tickets were only worth $449 "what we paid for them" a year ago (vs the $499 ish I was expecting them to be worth). I told her that they were originally purchased as part of a package and she should price bridge them. She said that they had been purchased in Sept 2015 (when I upgraded them) and they could not be price bridged.

I told her we'd do the upgrade somewhere else thank you anyway. She got a firm look on her face and waved over a supervisor who then told me that the tickets had already been price bridged in Sept 2015 and that was it for us.

She (supervisor) then told us that "we do NOT do this but just this once" she would do this for us but I "had" to fill in a form so they could record the fact that I now know their policy (short form: name address phone number etc.)

SO ... was I right should they still price bridge them even now after I upgraded them? or was she right ... that once I upgraded them to the 10 day passes that was it? I know it doesn't matter for these tickets but we do have other 2 day passes saved and I need to figure out if I'm going to upgrade them in advance (maybe closer to the visit next time?) or if I'm going to just go with 2 day passes and upgrade them straight to an AP (when the time comes) and just take whatever FP are still available for the other days of our visit

thoughts?

 

[Robo]

Gray area.

When you did the original upgrade (with the price bridge) it could be said that you (at that time) upgraded to tickets that were purchased "directly from Disney."

And, tickets purchased "directly from Disney" are not eligible for price bridging.

Using that logic, you would not be entitled to a price bridge in the case of a ticket price increase in the time between when you did the first upgrade and when you upgraded again.

 

[Alesia]

I'm pretty sure they were right.

 

[soniam]

If you had used one day on them, then it would have been fine. I think they make up all the rules as they go along anyway I can never keep up with all of the mumbo jumbo twister moves required to do this stuff. We upgraded earlier this year and will probably just renew from now on.

 

[HopperFan]

Upgraded to APs again today (we do this yearly). Question is was I right to stand my ground or did I get Pixie Dust as the supervisor tells me

We had saved 1 day PH passes from a 'free dining' package from 2010.

Last September I upgraded those tickets to 10 day PH tickets so that I could make FP + for this trip (wanted to have 10 day tickets in MDE instead of 1 day tickets for obvious reasons)

Gray area.

When you did the original upgrade (with the price bridge) it could be said that you (at that time) upgraded to tickets that were purchased "directly from Disney."

And, tickets purchased "directly from Disney" are not eligible for price bridging.

Using that logic, you would not be entitled to a price bridge in the case of a ticket price increase in the time between when you did the first upgrade and when you upgraded again.

Since her original tickets were part of a Free Dining Package .... so that would mean the tickets were originally purchased from Disney, so guessing they were never eligible for price bridging.

 

[Robo]

Since her original tickets were part of a Free Dining Package .... so that would mean the tickets were originally purchased from Disney, so guessing they were never eligible for price bridging.

Sorry, but that's not correct.

Tickets purchased as part of a RESORT package are not considered to be bought "directly from Disney."

The "resort division" of WDW purchases their resort package tickets "wholesale" from Disney ticketing (in much the same way that the off-site authorized ticket resellers/discounters do.)

Resort package tickets are therefore considered to be "discounted tickets" and are eligible to be price-bridged.

 

[HopperFan]

Sorry, bust that's not correct.

Not making a statement, more asking for clarification from you. You are say that tickets bought direct from Disney are not eligible for price bridging.

If she was using tickets from her Free Dining Package - I thought those tickets could only come from Disney if it's Free Dining and not a third party seller.

I don't know, just looking for a more clear answer for anyone hoping to do in the future.

Tickets purchased as part of a RESORT package are not considered to be bought "directly from Disney."

The "resort division" of WDW purchases their resort package tickets "wholesale" from Disney ticketing (in much the same way that the off-site authorized ticket resellers/discounters do.)

Resort package tickets are therefore considered to be "discounted tickets" and are eligible to be price-bridged.

Good to know. I think most think when they book a package from Disney, there are no other "interests". I stopped buying packages few years ago.

This is helpful info going forward. Thanks

 

[Robo]

Not making a statement, more asking for clarification from you. You are say that tickets bought direct from Disney are not eligible for price bridging.

If she was using tickets from her Free Dining Package - I thought those tickets could only come from Disney if it's Free Dining and not a third party seller.

I don't know, just looking for a more clear answer for anyone hoping to do in the future.

To add...
The reason for price bridging is that the ticket CM doing the upgrade has no way of knowing what a GUEST has paid for tickets from a third party.
The ticket CM can only see what the WHOLESALER paid for the tickets.
(This is also true of resort package tickets, as I described in my earlier post.)

If they charged the difference price from what the WHOLESALER paid and the current full price, the GUEST would be
royally cheated out of a lot of money (and make the wholesale tickets "less valuable" than tickets from Disney.)

Disney DOES want to keep their discounters' tickets (and resort tickets) fully as valuable as "regular Disney tickets"
so the price bridge takes care of the difference.

 

[Robo]

1. If you had used one day on them, then it would have been fine.
2. I think they make up all the rules as they go along anyway

1. Sorry, but that is incorrect. Using a ticket before upgrading is not required (nor does it affect the upgrade price.)

2. Well, in some cases that I've read on these boards, that's not too far off.

 

[Accident]

If you do this yearly, I'm curious why you upgrade tickets to a new ap instead of applying the ticket cost towards a the lower cost renewal?

 

[Robo]

If you do this yearly, I'm curious why you upgrade tickets to a new ap instead of applying the ticket cost towards a the lower cost renewal?

In many cases (don't know about OP,)
if a guest does not go back to WDW at the same time every year, buying a new AP might be more advantageous than paying for unused months worth of time between trips on a renewed AP.

 

[Alesia]

If you had used one day on them, then it would have been fine. I think they make up all the rules as they go along anyway

No and no (or, at least, not generally.)

Once a ticket is bridged, it's brought up to full gate price. At that point you have a brand new full price ticket. Full price tickets can never be bridged.

Or, to put it more simply, a ticket can never be bridged twice.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

No and no (or, at least, not generally.)

Once a ticket is bridged, it's brought up to full gate price. At that point you have a brand new full price ticket. Full price tickets can never be bridged.

Or, to put it more simply, a ticket can never be bridged twice.

Thank you everyone - you've answered my question and now I understand! We lucked out with the supervisor - I will not make this mistake again.

And yes, Robo is correct (for anyone who is wondering) about why we buy new APs rather than renewing - our 'old' AP expired in January - we bought new ones in September since we didn't have a trip planned in between. We will use this AP for 3 trips (sept 2016, Jan 2017 and Sept 2018) and then buy a new one the following January - hope that makes sense.