Won comp tickets in auction, not upgradable - now what?

[jbish]

I never knew that about those tickets you see at fundraisers. Good to know.

Thank you. I've seen you post enough around here to know you aren't a Disney newbie. At least I wasn't the only one that didn't know about these things.

 

[jbish]

I disagree 100%. This is vital info. Very few people from out of state are going to want tickets that are 1 day only. Anyone planning a WDW trip can find out that tickets are upgradeable, so it's easy to think that these are no different.

Just like having "kitten" in bold and underlined was important for our kitten+toys auction item, having ALL the info about these tickets is important, too.

I think it's vitally important too. The fact that Christmas week is blacked out is also a vital piece of information. What if someone was visiting family for the holidays and thought, wow, we can sneak off to the parks for one day during the holidays. Uh, nope.

 

[mickeymom629]

I got tickets from a silent auction, too, last year. 4 1 day hoppers with an expiration of 1/2017. DH and I just got back from a 9 day trip (it was supposed to be only 6 days - to use those tickets but we escaped before the blizzard hit and added 3 days). We each used 2 of the hoppers - one day we hit 3 parks! I had 2 one day MK tickets from another trip that we never used. So, we did only 3 park days in 9 days, and had a very nice, relaxing trip. Did Disney Springs 2 days. Enjoyed the resorts. (first trip without the kids).

I was able to link them to MDE and book fp's for them. I did not see anything about black out days on the ticket, and I didn't know about that.

I would have everyone use a ticket for one day, and just buy base tickets for the rest of the trip. It's nice to hop, but not necessary.

Good luck!

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I think it's vitally important too. The fact that Christmas week is blacked out is also a vital piece of information. What if someone was visiting family for the holidays and thought, wow, we can sneak off to the parks for one day during the holidays. Uh, nope.

I am so sorry you are dealing with this and I know it is of little comfort to you, but I want to thank you for this post. I am going to a silent auction tomorrow night where they have four, one-day park hopper tickets up for bid.

My plan was to bid on them and upgrade them to a four or five day ticket. I may still bid, but I will know to bid a significantly lower amount than I would have without seeing your post.

I will also contact the person handling the auction to make sure that it is clear whether there are blackout dates and that they are not upgradable.


I hope you are not too angry at the people who organized the auction. I know that the people who organize ours donate enormous energy and hours and hours of their personal time and are really trying to do what is best for the school. I would expect that they, like you and I, might make the assumption that a one-day Disney ticket is the same as a one-day Disney ticket you would purchase from Disney (and based on the value Disney assigned the ticket, that would be a natural assumption). They may not even realize about how much "not upgradable" means, value-wise, to people who are "in the know" about Disney tickets. If they don't know how Disney tickets work and how with every day you purchase after three days the price goes down significantly per day, the term "not upgradable" may mean nothing to the auction organizers.

I hope you are still able to enjoy your trip. I am sorry this has left you with a negative feeling for both the school fundraiser and Disney. I can understand how it would, though.

 

[AZMermaid]

I'd buy the other 4 day hoppers (or single park passes... maybe you can make that work and just hop on that one day- save a little money?).

I have been burned on silent auctions too. The school where I work has an amazing one and there are always Disneyland tickets. Everyone knows I am an Disney nut and tells me to go for them, but I know not to. This year, I bought a package of food gift cards. One I was really into was 4 burrito bowls plus chips at Chipotle. I was thinking I could give to DH to use for work lunches. Nope- it was all one meal and it expired like 3 weeks later. We didn't even realize that until a few months later when we went to use it. No expiration was listed at the auction and I never looked. Not 4 WDW tickets I know though. That's a lot of money.

I also bought a session of a sports class a few years ago. It was not listed and it was hidden in the frame around the certificate that it was only good for new customers, which we were not. I was annoyed, but I feel like the school's PTA wasn't trying to deceive me- it was an honest mistake.

I've more than made up for it on other auction items though- this year I got a 2 hour Gymnastics birthday party AND a dozen Sprinkles cupcakes for $75! The cupcakes alone are $42!

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I got to agree there should be some sort of notice of terms for an auction if the product is something that is commercially available but contains terms other than what you would see on the normal product. My kids school had Disney tickets as one prize in their auction and when I heard about the stipulations I decided to use my entries for a different prize (which I happened to win - Billy Joel in a suite at MSG!). I find it kind of cheap of Disney since with these terms they basically can say they gave away a $150 ticket when in most likelihood someone uses them as an added day (which means the ticket was really only a $10 value) or have someone use all 4 days to replace having to buy a ticket for that person. I would think they make enough money that if they want to donate they can donate a normal product. As I mentioned above - I think the best value would be for a couple doing a weekend trip. But for a family of 4 going for a week? Not very valuable.

I agree with this fully. Why not make them upgradable? It is just one day. People who want to upgrade them will have to pay over $200 more to upgrade to a 3 day ticket. That still makes money for Disney.

It is misleading to value them at $155 per ticket when they are not worth the same as a ticket purchased for $155 directly through Disney.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Again, FWIW, here's exactly what was presented to us.
View attachment 156706
I was actually out of town so DH texted me this picture and he was on his own to do the bidding, but I was the one frantically calculating what the cost difference would be from a one-day hopper to a five-day hopper and figuring out what the break even point would be where it would be cheaper to do that than buying at Undercover Tourist. I calculated the breakeven point to being somewhere above $500 so I told DH to stop bidding at $450, just to be sure there would be wiggle room. The actual paperwork was not provided during the bidding. He would have seen that and told me there were restrictions.

For all I knew, these could have been actual one-day park hoppers that some generous benefactor decided to donate to the silent auction - and those WOULD have been upgradable.

I'm glad you posted what was printed as a description for the tickets. There is absolutely nothing in there that says block out dates (other than an expiration date) nor does it say the tickets aren't upgradable. If I saw that description I would have thought "hey these are normal tickets". As I said in my original post on this thread I didn't even know comp tickets existed (I hadn't run into something like that before).

FWIW I was on your side in that I believed you didn't have the knowledge provided to you in order to make an informed decision on whether to buy the tickets or not based on what the tickets actually were (which was comp tickets-that appearantly come with strictions (glad I know about them now though) versus regular park tickets).

 

[Disneylover99]

I agree with this fully. Why not make them upgradable? It is just one day. People who want to upgrade them will have to pay over $200 more to upgrade to a 3 day ticket. That still makes money for Disney.

It is misleading to value them at $155 per ticket when they are not worth the same as a ticket purchased for $155 directly through Disney.

While I agree that it would be nice to be able to upgrade the ticket, and I would definitely not have known better either, I don't think the value of the ticket is misleading. Each ticket costs $155 + 10 in tax to buy at Disney. The OP paid just over $106 per ticket. That's a savings of almost $60 per ticket! Not too shabby for a one day ticket. It would have been a great deal for someone interested in a one day park hopper. Not everyone realizes you can actually upgrade most types of tickets at Disney.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

While I agree that it would be nice to be able to upgrade the ticket, and I would definitely not have known better either, I don't think the value of the ticket is misleading. Each ticket costs $155 + 10 in tax to buy at Disney. The OP paid just over $106 per ticket. That's a savings of almost $60 per ticket! Not too shabby for a one day ticket. It would have been a great deal for someone interested in a one day park hopper. Not everyone realizes you can actually upgrade most types of tickets at Disney.

Absolutely for the person who is interested in a one day ticket then it is price comparable. But it is not value comparable. For anyone going more than three days to the parks in one trip, a one day ticket I can upgrade is worth a lot more than a one day ticket I cannot upgrade due to Disney's pricing structure.

I think there is a lot of confusion and frustration about these auction tickets that would be eliminated if a comp ticket were treated the same as a regular ticket.

I'm glad that Disney generously donates these tickets to schools. I just hate it when hard working PTA volunteers as well as parents who want to help by bidding on auctions have to go thru grief because of the confusion the comp tickets cause.

 

[720L]

Why not? They are responsible for the auction. Or maybe they were clueless?

As a former auction committee member, yes we were clueless this is the first I've heard of this. I'm going to inform the current auction committee though.

 

[Disneylover99]

Absolutely for the person who is interested in a one day ticket then it is price comparable. But it is not value comparable. For anyone going more than three days to the parks in one trip, a one day ticket I can upgrade is worth a lot more than a one day ticket I cannot upgrade due to Disney's pricing structure.

I think there is a lot of confusion and frustration about these auction tickets that would be eliminated if a comp ticket were treated the same as a regular ticket.

I'm glad that Disney generously donates these tickets to schools. I just hate it when hard working PTA volunteers as well as parents who want to help by bidding on auctions have to go thru grief because of the confusion the comp tickets cause.

Based on the picture that the op posted, I don't think most people would have assumed that the ticket could be upgraded anyways. It doesn't mention that the ticket can be upgraded. The op assumed it would be. I probably would have assumed it as well, or at least wondered if it could. But I don't think it was misleading.

 

[AZMermaid]

I already posted... But I'm not sure what solution will come besides trying to resell them (eBay probably your best bet- like you said, locally to you, no one will be able to use them). Or you buy 4 day passes or chalk it up to a frustrating lesson learned. Or you can go complain to the auction volunteers and try to get your money back. I hate that option though.... I know our auction mom puts hundreds of hours into collecting, displaying, etc for the school. You might give a heads up for next year- but I'm guessing it was truly a mistake.

 

[AZMermaid]

Based on the picture that the op posted, I don't think most people would have assumed that the ticket could be upgraded anyways. It doesn't mention that the ticket can be upgraded. The op assumed it would be. I probably would have assumed it as well, or at least wondered if it could. But I don't think it was misleading.

I agree. It is what was stated. I think the general non DIS board public would not even know some tickets are upgradable.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I agree. It is what was stated. I think the general non DIS board public would not even know some tickets are upgradable.

IMO that's quite a bold general statement. While I absolutely love the DIS board it isn't the only place to get information for Disney World (think about how many times people quote resources outside of the DIS board) heck even a simple search for "upgrade" on the Disney website yields the following results:




I'm not saying many people go to the website and search it when planning for Disney World but still the information is there and I didn't have to go to an outside source to find it. I knew you could upgrade your tickets (and knew this prior to joining the board) but didn't know they had comp tickets and that's because I hadn't encountered that before.

No one person can know everything about Disney World so yes there will be people who don't know you can upgrade tickets but to say that those who are not on this board would be unlikely to know that same knowledge since they are not on this board is well kinda insulting. I'm not saying that was your intent at all nor am I making a statement about you as a person; I'm not trying to cause offense here though.

 

[AZMermaid]

Okay, to be explicit...... I meant Disney world researching people, used DIS boards because that's what I'm on. If I was on mouseplanet or the Disney Moms Panel or whatever... I would have said that. I just simply meant my guess is a good portion of the general public does not know the tickets are upgradable. There are people who research their trips for years and people who wake up and decide to take their kids to MK that day and everything in between.

 

[Disneylover99]

I agree. It is what was stated. I think the general non DIS board public would not even know some tickets are upgradable.

I totally agree, and if you are Disney ticket savvy, you probably wouldn't be interested in buying one day tickets to upgrade anyways, because you would know that you can only make fp's for additional days on those one day tickets once you enter the park and do the upgrade.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Okay, to be explicit...... I meant Disney world researching people, used DIS boards because that's what I'm on. If I was on mouseplanet or the Disney Moms Panel or whatever... I would have said that. I just simply meant my guess is a good portion of the general public does not know the tickets are upgradable. There are people who research their trips for years and people who wake up and decide to take their kids to MK that day and everything in between.

And in all due respect your original statement stated "non dis board public" but also I personally wouldn't make a statement on any website/planning forum that those outside of that forum don't know about x, y, z because they are not on that website/planning forum (that's like saying people who are not on mouseplanet don't know information that can be found on mouseplanet or people who are not on disney moms panel don't know information that can be found on disney mom panel simply because they are not on those respective boards to use your examples). I know you didn't mean it in any sort of bad way but I wanted to respond in how it came across (at least to me).

Last trip I took to WDW in 2011 I researched for just a few months before using disney website and also Google for buying discounted tickets but not so much outside blog research (I hadn't found Pinterest back then lol). This upcoming trip will be 2 years worth of planning and I joined this board (which is one of the best decisions I made). That being said while I learn a ton of information each and every time I'm on this board that doesn't mean I came to this board with no outside knowledge at all.

ETA: I actually came across DIS board via one of the blogs I pinned on my Pinterest though I can't remember which one. I wasn't actively looking for a Disney forum.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

FWIW just on this thread you have people who say they didn't know comp tickets couldn't be upgraded and then you have people saying how could you not know you can't upgrade comp tickets so just by being on the DIS board doesn't mean you do or don't have knowledge on a specific topic- you're darned if you do and darned if you don't.

 

[Disneylover99]

FWIW just on this thread you have people who say they didn't know comp tickets couldn't be upgraded and then you have people saying how could you not know you can't upgrade comp tickets so just by being on the DIS board doesn't mean you do or don't have knowledge on a specific topic- you're darned if you do and darned if you don't.

I'm in the camp of not knowing a thing about comp tickets. But aren't there other types of Disney tickets that can't be upgraded? Like convention tickets? Or after 4pm tickets or those YES tickets? I really don't know a thing about those types of tickets either. Maybe they can be upgraded? I guess because I know there are different types of tickets out there, I wouldn't assume you could upgrade the tickets that the op bid on unless it specifically said you could.

 

[AZMermaid]

jeesh.... Sorry I offended you.

On topic, I empathize with the OP, but I think it's too late. Like I stated before, I've been burned by silent auctions. But I always just chalked it up to a mistake and kept my purchase. I helped the school. Oh well.