Upgrading undercover tourist tickets

[alex881]

Does universal price bridge the discount for UCT tickets? Or do you lose your discount if you need to add an extra day?

 

[damo]

Does universal price bridge the discount for UCT tickets? Or do you lose your discount if you need to add an extra day?

Universal gives you the difference in what you paid and the online price for the next up ticket. So, yes, you do lose your discount.

 

[Karebear]

Universal gives you the difference in what you paid and the online price for the next up ticket. So, yes, you do lose your discount.

I called Universal yesterday with this exact question. We are buying a 3 day through UT, but we might want to add a 4th day when we are there. Universal told me (on the phone) that we would just have to pay the difference between the 3rd and 4th day ticket price and NOT have to pay the difference between the Universal price and the UT price. Did they give me wrong info or has the policy maybe changed?

Thanks!

 

[damo]

I called Universal yesterday with this exact question. We are buying a 3 day through UT, but we might want to add a 4th day when we are there. Universal told me (on the phone) that we would just have to pay the difference between the 3rd and 4th day ticket price and NOT have to pay the difference between the Universal price and the UT price. Did they give me wrong info or has the policy maybe changed?

Thanks!

Could be either. Keep us posted! Policies change all the time.

A lot of the difference is in the taxes---which UT includes in their price but Universal adds on later. If you look at the two base prices before taxes, they really aren't that different. They may charge you the difference in the base prices and then add in the tax.

 

[Illinois2014]

Interested in the answer to this as well! Last fall we purchased 4-day tickets (buy 3 days, get 1 free, maybe?) through Best of Orlando for $140 or so. We went to Guest Services on our last day to see how much it would be to upgrade to the Power Pass and they ended up upgrading our tickets at no cost AND gave each of us $25 gift cards. Still not sure how that one happened

 

[alex881]

So I just called Universal and was told that we would lose our discount when adding a day at the park. Very frustrating that 2 people can call the same park and get 2 different answers.

 

[damo]

So I just called Universal and was told that we would lose our discount when adding a day at the park. Very frustrating that 2 people can call the same park and get 2 different answers.

The way it has normally been done it to credit you with the price that you paid for your tickets and charge you the difference in what the price of the park tickets would be using their online price. Then they add the tax onto that difference.

 

[johde]

So I just called Universal and was told that we would lose our discount when adding a day at the park. Very frustrating that 2 people can call the same park and get 2 different answers.

Unfortunately when it comes to ticket upgrades, that's true at both parks. Often times, the people who man the phones don't know all the ins and outs of every policy.

At Disney bridging of partially used tickets has been a long standing policy. But, in several threads it was recommended to calculate how much the upgrade was supposed to be because some ticketing CM didn't know how to bridge properly.

At Universal, like Damo said, the policy was upgrades went from price paid to current gate price. But, there have been several posts recently, especially since Diagon Alley has opened, where people have achieved at least some level of bridging of ticket prices. At this point, I'm planning on upgrading in January and expect to pay the difference between price paid and gate price and if I end up paying less I'll consider it some Universal "mummy dust". They may be trying to keep it quiet to keep too many people for getting discounted Annual passes.

 

[Karebear]

So I just called Universal and was told that we would lose our discount when adding a day at the park. Very frustrating that 2 people can call the same park and get 2 different answers.

Frustrating! I will report back if we do try to add a day to our tickets!

 

[frank808]

The way it has normally been done it to credit you with the price that you paid for your tickets and charge you the difference in what the price of the park tickets would be using their online price. Then they add the tax onto that difference.

Just upgraded orbitz 14 day 3 park tickets to premium annual passes yesterday. Showed guest services my voucher to get 14 day unlimited 3 park tickets. Then wanted to upgrade to premium annual passes. Fine I figure I would get what I paid orbitz per ticket and lose the discount from orbitz. What actually happened was really depressing. Guest services gave me a credit of about $34 less per ticket than I paid orbitz. I asked why that was so as I had calculated the price of annual passes minus price of premium passes and I needed $100 more than my estimate. I knew I was going to lose the discount I got from orbitz.

I lost out as guest services only applied the price orbitz paid for the 14 day passes to my premium annual pass. I pointed to the clerk what I paid for the tickets as it is stated on the voucher. I was told that sorry I see that you paid more than the credit we are applying. Yet we can only give you credit for what orbitz paid universal. We cannot give you more than what orbitz paid for the ticket. I was told I would have to get the money back from orbitz because they made the money off the tickets and not universal. I am perplexed about this policy.

 

[damo]

Just upgraded orbitz 14 day 3 park tickets to premium annual passes yesterday. Showed guest services my voucher to get 14 day unlimited 3 park tickets. Then wanted to upgrade to premium annual passes. Fine I figure I would get what I paid orbitz per ticket and lose the discount from orbitz. What actually happened was really depressing. Guest services gave me a credit of about $34 less per ticket than I paid orbitz. I asked why that was so as I had calculated the price of annual passes minus price of premium passes and I needed $100 more than my estimate. I knew I was going to lose the discount I got from orbitz.

I lost out as guest services only applied the price orbitz paid for the 14 day passes to my premium annual pass. I pointed to the clerk what I paid for the tickets as it is stated on the voucher. I was told that sorry I see that you paid more than the credit we are applying. Yet we can only give you credit for what orbitz paid universal. We cannot give you more than what orbitz paid for the ticket. I was told I would have to get the money back from orbitz because they made the money off the tickets and not universal. I am perplexed about this policy.

That's interesting that they upgraded that ticket at all. In the past they would not upgrade the three park ticket because it was shared revenue with another park. That may have something to do with the price that you got.

 

[cvjw]

I upgraded Costco 3 day tickets to annual passes last year, and Universal credited me EXACTLY what the Costco tickets cost for the upgrade.

I just tried to upgrade a power pass to a preferred pass last week at IOA guest services. I had called the annual pass number, and was told that I only needed to pay $25 to do the upgrade since it was a renewal. After an hour and a half at the guest services window, I finally paid them over $75 for the upgrade - which was a vast improvement over their original $170 upgrade fee.

Bottom line, 3 castmembers and 2 supervisors had ZERO knowledge on how to do the upgrade. After an hour and a half, I just relented and paid them the $75 to not waste any more of our day.

I went home and called the annual pass number again, and they were dumb founded about how the upgrade was handled. I was credited back the difference, and got a huge apology.

It was my experience that the guest services cast members were clueless, so be ready for anything There doesn't seem to be a set in stone ticket upgrade policy.