Will passes I buy from Disney Store now also be biometric?

[Snoozan]

I'm thinking of buying a couple of 5 day PH's before the new MYW tickets start. I usually buy tickets ahead in case I or another family member decides to make a short trip to WDW. Will the tickets I buy in the Disney Store before 1/5/05 end up being biometric so if my son wanted to use a couple days on my pass, he wouldn't be able to? That would be the only reason I'd buy the passes before 1/2/05-that I would be able to have my sons use them, if needed. I know these tickets are "non-transferrable",but I always just have just shared with family members and would never sell them to anyone.

 

[Brian Noble]

I would not count on being able to share them. Based on my educated guess about how this works, if the "new" tickets are all biometric-based, then it will be a simple matter to do the same for the "old" tickets. However, it is not yet official that the "new" ones will, and just because the matter is simple, it doesn't mean that it will be done, so YMMV.

 

[goofyernmost]

You people are jumping the gun a little. The Bio stuff is just in experimental stage, it may not happen at all. Whatever you buy now is, with the exception of the new, make your own ticket, the same as before.

 

[Brian Noble]

It might not happen, but then again it might. Based on my understanding of this (and biometrics are a side-area of my research program, so I know a little something about them) there is no technical reason why they cannot be expanded to all tickets, even the old ones. I also don't think there is any "legal" reason biometrics could not be applied to old tickets, because all of those tickets say they are not transferable. Finally, there is a significant financial reason for Disney to link them, since there is a substantial grey market on used hopper tickets, and that represents lost revenue for the company.

That doesn't mean it will happen, and as I said before, it may not even happen for the new tickets. But if it were me, I would not buy a hopper expecting to be able to use part of it and then transfer it to someone else after the new ticketing scheme comes into play unless I was willing to accept the possibility that I would have to use all of it myself.