Annual Pass Renewal & Upgrade Question

McPhoenix

Evil SoCal Passholder
Joined
Jun 26, 2018
Hi everyone,
It became time to renew our annual passes (expiring mid-September). We decided to upgrade from the Southern California Select to the Deluxe as part of the renewal.

I was expecting that the benefits of the Deluxe pass would kick in at the expiration date of our previous passports (i.e. in mid September). But the email confirmation we received says:

Your Passport will be automatically renewed online when you submit payment. All updates made to your Pass type, expiration date and parking will be immediately transferred to your existing Passport—enabling you to use it as soon as you’d like.
This is not terribly clear to me, but since we "submitted payment" today it makes it sound like the upgrade pass type takes effect immediately.

Also, on the website and in the Disneyland app, our passes now appear as Deluxe (and show the Deluxe blockout calendar, etc) with expirations of September 2019.

Do we have Deluxe passports now, 40 days before the expiration of our previous passes? Did I misunderstand how the renewal & upgrade process works?

I'd hate to show up at the gate on a Southern California Select blockout day with our apps showing Deluxe passports and then to be turned away because they're not "really" Deluxe yet.
Thanks!
 
Very interesting. New to me. It used to be that downgrades kicked in immediately and upgrades did not. Upgrades only became available on the first day of the new pass. I know this from experience in both directions. Perhaps this is the perk now that renewal discounts are gone and the blockout calendars are becoming radically different. Honestly, I would call the AP phone line, (714) 781-7277, and ask your questions there to be sure about what's going on.
 
Very interesting. New to me. It used to be that downgrades kicked in immediately and upgrades did not. Upgrades only became available on the first day of the new pass. I know this from experience in both directions. Perhaps this is the perk now that renewal discounts are gone and the blockout calendars are becoming radically different. Honestly, I would call the AP phone line and ask your questions there to be sure about what's going on.

That was my understanding as well, so I was surprised to see the passes switch to Deluxe right away. It would be a nice perk to make up for the lack of renewal discounts - but somehow giving us up to 40 days extra of the upgraded pass seems too good to be true.
 
Are you sure you did not just upgrade your existing pass? I had to upgrade my SoCal pass to Deluxe in April, but my expiration date remained as the SoCal October date.
 


Are you sure you did not just upgrade your existing pass? I had to upgrade my SoCal pass to Deluxe in April, but my expiration date remained as the SoCal October date.

Pretty sure. This was all done through the website, through the pass renewal site (AFAIK there isn't any way to upgrade your existing pass online). The pass in the app shows an expiration date 13 months away now (September of next year).
 
To follow up, I called the Annual Passholder number to ask. The CM I spoke to looked up my pass and said it showed in her system as being upgraded, so the benefits are usable now. However, she said that's not the way it usually works. She just said that "sometimes the system upgrades people early". ‍:confused3
 


To follow up, I called the Annual Passholder number to ask. The CM I spoke to looked up my pass and said it showed in her system as being upgraded, so the benefits are usable now. However, she said that's not the way it usually works. She just said that "sometimes the system upgrades people early". ‍:confused3


Glad that it worked out this way for you! I always knew that if you upgraded your pass, you would be able to go in that day even if you were blackout out, but getting an upgrade prior to renewal, sounds like some Disney Magic to me :thumbsup2

Kriss :tink:
 
To follow up, I called the Annual Passholder number to ask. The CM I spoke to looked up my pass and said it showed in her system as being upgraded, so the benefits are usable now. However, she said that's not the way it usually works. She just said that "sometimes the system upgrades people early". ‍:confused3

Hooray for the pixie dust!!!
 

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