What is "nontransferable"

[lark]

I have two old park hoppers that have never been used. I was hoping to use them to upgrade for MYW tickets on an upcoming trip, but it appears that some are saying you can no longer do this. (There is massive confusion on this point -- some say you can some say you can't, but I'm not really into taking a chance.)

The back of the tickets say something like "nontransferable; all days must be used by the same person."

What exactly does that mean with respect to a ticket that has never been used? I get the second part, but does "nontransferable" mean that only the original purchaser and his or her family can use them? Or could I simply try to sell them and apply the funds to new tickets?

Trying to abide by the rules, but just not clear what the rules are. Is there anything that I agreed to when I bought the tickets that said I wouldn't resell them, or just this vague word "nontransferable"?

 

[Boncho]

Your best bet is to phone Disney. Non-transferable means -YOU use it, of lose it. Like I said, phone Disney and they will be able to tell you if there is anything you can do.

 

[lark]

Your best bet is to phone Disney. Non-transferable means -YOU use it, of lose it. Like I said, phone Disney and they will be able to tell you if there is anything you can do.

Well, who is "you"? I bought two park hoppers originally. They are, as I said, unused. Who is the "you" that must use the second ticket? Are you saying I must use them both? Obviously, that's wrong.

Can park hoppers purchased at the disney store not be given as gifts? That wouldn't be me using them.

I understand that once a ticket is used, that user must continue to use the ticket. That's a no brainer. My question is about unused tickets. I think that's a little more complex than your answer. Prior to use tickets are obviously "transferable" in the sense that the purchaser can give the ticket to someone other than herself, before it is used. But is there a separate prohibition on reselling the ticket?

 

[AJKMOM]

They don't want you to re-sell those tickets. However, they really don't know now if you ever did. As of last year, all park tickets are linked to a biometric scan of the ticketholders index and middle fingers. Since yours aren't linked, no one knows who they belonged to.

The problem with selling them is that people are wary about buying tickets because the only way one can tell what is on them is to be at a Guest Services office somewhere in WDW. You could wait until you get there and see about upgrading them, or buy what you will need for your next vacation and cut back the number of days that are on the old tickets. We have gone to the parks with old tickets and used them, no problem.

We just need to now keep track of who belongs with what ticket.

 

[shafke]

You should be able to convert them to the current My Way tickets... say you have two 5 day hoppers... you can convert them to two 5 day my way tickets... I believe these would also be non expiring since the original tickets were non expiring. This is usually the best route to take.

If there is no name on the original ticket and they have never been used then anybody can use them.

Way back when they used to use paper tickets and would stamp the day they were used they had you write/sign your name on the ticket. (I still have one of these with 3 days left on it). If the ticket was not used and you did not write your name on the ticket then anybody could use the ticket until the first use.

 

[Boncho]

Sorry for not being more explicit. By the "you" I meant whomever was going to use the ticket after they started using the ticket.That is why I suggested phoning Disney because it would be my assumption that the non-transfer part would not come into effect until someone started to use the tickets. In trying to make my answer short, I caused confusion and obvious annoyance. Sorry .

 

[lark]

Sorry for not being more explicit. By the "you" I meant whomever started using the ticket.In trying to make my answer short, I caused confusion and obvious annoyance. Sorry .

No, not annoyance! I definitely wasn't annoyed, other than at myself for not saying my question correctly.

 

[TSR6]

shafke - I've been "out of the loop" a little bit as far as ticketing goes, but before I left, I'm pretty sure that I read that as of Jan 1 2006, you cannot modify Pre-MYW tickets anymore.

Even when they allowed you to modify older tickets (IE: Upgrade them to MYW - it was not the best value for the guests in most situations, and was always highly discouraged as it was ).

Non-Transferable just means that the ticket must be used by the same person on any and all days of that ticket's use. You cannot sell it, or give it to another person.

 

[Servants of Evan]

As others have posted, you should be fine. You've got original unused tickets and they are good for admission. The "nontransferable" part comes in from previous problems. Some people would buy a ten day ticket and enjoy the significant per-day savings that afforded. After they used 'X' number of days, they would resell the ticket for a bit under Disney's ticket price for the remaining days. There was always someone who wanted to "get a deal" and would purchase those remaning days. So, Disney is out some money... Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. When tickets became magnetic media, there was nothing to stop someone from buying a ten day ticket and using 8 or 9 days on it. Again, some unscrupulous people would offer it up for sale, but were they honest and tell the buyer that there was only one day left or did they sell it saying there were five or more days left? How was the buyer to know, and what were the chances that a buyer burned on the transaction would find the person who sold it to them? Since the chance of getting caught was so very slim, abuse wasn't uncommon... By passing a law making it illegal to resell partially used tickets, the State of Florida attempted to protect consumers and protect the companies (Disney, etc.) who cater to them.

Edited to add: As TSR6 mentioned, it's not always financially beneficial to upgrade the tickets. You've got five days admission to the parks. If you were to update them, you'd get the dollar equivelent of what you paid. So-- if you paid $25 per day then you'd only get $25 per day off your current admission of $50 per day. Instead, you could simply USE the tickets you have and enjoy the knowledge you're attending a park which would have cost you a lot more if you had to purchase the tickets today instead of using your existing tickets...

 

[lark]

Edited to add: As TSR6 mentioned, it's not always financially beneficial to upgrade the tickets. You've got five days admission to the parks. If you were to update them, you'd get the dollar equivelent of what you paid. So-- if you paid $25 per day then you'd only get $25 per day off your current admission of $50 per day. Instead, you could simply USE the tickets you have and enjoy the knowledge you're attending a park which would have cost you a lot more if you had to purchase the tickets today instead of using your existing tickets...

That's definitely true. The problem is that I have 5 day hoppers and need 8 days of admission. That's a bad situation, because under the new MYW scheme, the cost of 3 day tickets is not that much less than 8 day tickets. I'd be much better off if I could use the value of my old park hoppers toward 8 day tickets than to use the park hoppers and buy 3 days of admission.

There are definitely reports that as of Jan 1, 2006, pre-2005 tickets cannot be used for upgrades or dollar value toward new MYW tickets. But then others report being told in unequivocal terms by CMs that they can do it (and some report being able to do it). It's very unclear, and I really don't want to end up at WDW and not knowing.

But thanks everyone for the responses.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Non-transferrable means you can't sell them to someone else. So if you're Peter Smith and the tickets have Johnny Jones on them, you're sol. But if you're Johnny Jones, you're ok.

 

[lark]

Non-transferrable means you can't sell them to someone else. So if you're Peter Smith and the tickets have Johnny Jones on them, you're sol. But if you're Johnny Jones, you're ok.

The tickets don't have names on them. I purchased them at a Disney store, activated them, and never used them.

 

[JLS]

If you haven't used the tickets there is no issue whatsoever with the "non-transferable" thing. Nobody, including Disney, knows who bought those tickets. You are free to use them, give them away, or whatever. I don't think the tickets are technically supposed to be sold, even if unused (there is a law prohibiting reselling of partially used tickets in California).

In your situation, my advice would be to upgrade the tickets. Whatever you actually paid for those tickets (which they can tell from the bar code), that amount will be applied to your new Magic Your Way ticket. You will have to get a MYW ticket that is 5 days or more, and that includes park hopping and water park options. I believe it will also have to include no expiration, because your park hopper ticket was a no-expiration, and they never allow you to "downgrade" ticket features. So, if that makes economic sense for you, do it. The other option would be to use these tickets as is, and then get another MYW pass with more days, pay for the no expiration, and then you can use it on another trip.

 

[TSR6]

That's definitely true. The problem is that I have 5 day hoppers and need 8 days of admission. That's a bad situation, because under the new MYW scheme, the cost of 3 day tickets is not that much less than 8 day tickets. I'd be much better off if I could use the value of my old park hoppers toward 8 day tickets than to use the park hoppers and buy 3 days of admission.

There are definitely reports that as of Jan 1, 2006, pre-2005 tickets cannot be used for upgrades or dollar value toward new MYW tickets. But then others report being told in unequivocal terms by CMs that they can do it (and some report being able to do it). It's very unclear, and I really don't want to end up at WDW and not knowing.

But thanks everyone for the responses.

I was told, and read through Ticketing that the practice would no longer continue after Jan 2006. That is for sure, just never got into that practice, as I left before it went into effect.

Now remember, the way they used to do this value upgrade was to take the remaining value of the days on your ticket, process a refund on that remaining value, and then put that refund towards a MYW purchase. Thus they are only refunding the unused days at the face value of those days on the date it was purchased. It does not go by current gate price, thus many times the "value" of that day can be very little. In some cases less than a couple dollars.

 

[byoung]

Given old tickets to others and they have used them with no problem.

 

[Briar Rose's Mom]

I went on Disney's website and did a little math.

3 Day base ticket with PH = $ 235.37 /person (tax included)
8 Day base ticket with PH = $ 253.47/ person (tax included) (with $8.00 savings because of advance purchase on Disney website)

I couldn't believe that the difference between the 8 day ticket and the 3 day ticket was so little! However, if you don't need the park hopping for the last 3 days:

3 Day base ticket NO HOPPING = $ 192.77 /perons (tax included)

For two people a 3 day (no hopping) ticket would save you $121.40 versus the purchase cost of a 8 day hopping ticket if Disney won't apply your old ticket purchase price towards the 8 day MYW. Not a huge sum, but certainly not something to sneeze at either.

Since there is no advance purchase discount on 3 day tickets, I would wait until I got to Disney and go to Customer Service. If you get someone nice who will allow you to use the original purchase price of you old park hoppers toward the 8 day MYW then do it, otherwise buy the 3 days when you get there and use the $121.40 to offset what you would have spent on food, souveniers, hotel, etc.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The tickets don't have names on them. I purchased them at a Disney store, activated them, and never used them.

Then you should be ok to use them.

 

[lark]

3 Day base ticket NO HOPPING = $ 192.77 /perons (tax included)

For two people a 3 day (no hopping) ticket would save you $121.40 versus the purchase cost of a 8 day hopping ticket if Disney won't apply your old ticket purchase price towards the 8 day MYW. Not a huge sum, but certainly not something to sneeze at either.

Yes, not too bad. Still, I end up spending $900 total (including the $500 I paid for these hoppers) for tickets that today would cost me $500.

 

[dreamalittledream]

If you are planning another trip anytime, you could get the 10 day PH w/ non exp and then use 3 days now and have 7 days for a future trip. It would be more OOP now but in the long run it willl save you money since ticket prices will only increase.

 

[lark]

If you are planning another trip anytime, you could get the 10 day PH w/ non exp and then use 3 days now and have 7 days for a future trip. It would be more OOP now but in the long run it willl save you money since ticket prices will only increase.

Yes, that's true, although at that point, I'd probably be just as well off simply buying new tickets this year and hanging on to my old park hoppers.

I think one of the problems is that we usually stay on site. With the disappearance of room only codes, and with disney building in their best discounts or free stuff into the packages, the old conventional wisdom of buying longer passes for future trips may not be as sound as it once was. When you add in the factor that the small tickets -- 1, 2, 3, and 4 days -- are insanely expensive, making it difficult ever to justify not constantly buying new 10 day passes, I'm really starting to believe that the best advice is to just buy what you need as you need it and avoid stockpiling old never expire passes that sit in a drawer.

I think I've decided what I'm going to do with these old park hoppers. I think I'll bring them to disney and try to get them to upgrade them for me. If that happens, I'm done. If they say no, I'll just buy what I need for this trip, and keep the hoppers. If I find a CM at GS that looks confident and experienced, I will just ask flat out whether I can transfer them to another, since they are unused. If he or she says yes, I'll sell them on ebay or something and recoup what I can, and if he or she says no, I'll just put them in a drawer until me or a family member has an occasion where 5 day hoppers are just right.