Although "locking in today's prices" is an ok perk , for MY family it's the prohibitive cost of buying a 1 or 2 day ticket that makes the non expiring tickets so essential! I remember back in the day when the non expiring ticket wasn't priced so crazy high, BUT even with its high price tag it is still cheaper than shelling out $100 a day for a single or 2 (maybe even 3 ) day trip to the World. I am a single parent with one child who live in the Northeast. Although we are not "close" to WDW we live in an area that still is lucky to see reasonable or even bargain airfares to MCO. We have been lucky in the past to have MANY medium and LONG trips to WDW. We still LOVE it but don't usually feel the need for a LONG trip ( but it is still a nice luxury). We like to experience the special events : Christmas and Halloween. In fact we have been lucky to go just about Every year for the past several years to BOTH events yearly. This year I'm thinking of taking my son to a Star Wars weekend. I mention ALL of this because I wouldn't be able to consider these trips if I was paying 100+ a day in tickets. As others have mentioned, we always consider all ticket options. Several years we have had AP's but THOSE prices have skyrocketed in the past 8 years and are not such a good value for US...as stated our trips tend to be shorter. That's when I turned to non expiring tickets as an option. When we combine trips with party/event tickets and maybe even one of our bonus waterpark entrances, we can easily have a 3-5 day trip only using 1-2 tickets. Plus we sometimes have Seaworld/BG passes(thank you Sesame Place) APs and spend some (less costly) time there. When you factor in the Waterpark 10 admissions, this ticket becomes much more valuable. These will probably last us 5-10years, at a savings of $50+ an entrance! In the past couple of years have spent a decent amount of time on West Coast at DL...I did do AP there-more affordable plus with it being further away we typically spend many more days there! We love it BUT it is double the airfare, double the travel time, and triple the room cost ...bummer.
SOooooo...this is my REALLY long way to explain how non-exp's CAN save BIG money, and that I'm really bummed out that they are disappearing. I had heard several months ago that this was occurring at some point, so I'm not surprised . I think a previous poster was on track when they mentioned electronic tickets don't get "misplaced" and not used like their paper counterparts, so I'm sure this was one of the factors in Disneys decision.
Problem is...they have possibly now out priced me first in APs and now in single (or short stay) ticket prices-