Base Ticket Upgrade

[victoria31]

I am on MDE trying to upgrade my 4 day base ticket to a 4 day park hopper, which should be an addition of $85 per ticket plus tax...

However, on MDE it is telling me that my upgrade is actually $106.14 plus tax??? Has anyone had any experience with this? I am very confused and don't want to pay the wrong price?

 

[mickeymaker2003]

I don't know if they bridge tickets anymore (and even if they do, you have to use it first before they can bridge it). You are probably being charged the difference between what you paid for a 4 day base and the new price of a 4 day hopper.

 

[Alesia]

You should have upgraded before the price increase

 

[seashoreCM]

If the ticket's hard expiration date has passed, the ticket can still be traded in towards a valid ticket but is not bridged (value elevated to current price of the same kind of ticket).

Also, bridging has been a proactive manual maneuver by the ticketing CM. The My Disney Experience app might not have that calculation built in.

(I think that the idea of hard expiration dates for standard tickets was intended to eliminate the question of bridging.)

 

[lanejudy]

Agree with @Alesia -- WDW ticket prices increased earlier this week. The Hopper option went up to $85, but base prices also increased. By upgrading now, you have to bring the ticket up to "current" prices. If you stick with the base ticket, you can use it fine, but once you try to upgrade you'll be charged the full difference. Sorry.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[kristenrice]

My dad bought a 6-day park-hopper ticket but we are currently planning to spend 7 days in the park. Our trip is not until October so we are thinking that there may be changes to our flights (which are already booked) and we may not be able to enter a park on our first or last day. If that happens, the 6-day PH will be fine, but if everything stays the same, we will need 7-day tickets. The plan is to upgrade to a 7-day ticket once we get there. How much is that going to cost now that the ticket prices have gone up? We assumed that we would only pay the difference in price between a 6day and 7-day ticket. Along the same line, I will be upgrading my 6-day ticket to a Gold AP. Will I receive the current GATE price towards the AP or only what I paid for the park-hopper? We bought the from UCT, if that matters.

 

[siren0119]

My dad bought a 6-day park-hopper ticket but we are currently planning to spend 7 days in the park. Our trip is not until October so we are thinking that there may be changes to our flights (which are already booked) and we may not be able to enter a park on our first or last day. If that happens, the 6-day PH will be fine, but if everything stays the same, we will need 7-day tickets. The plan is to upgrade to a 7-day ticket once we get there. How much is that going to cost now that the ticket prices have gone up? We assumed that we would only pay the difference in price between a 6day and 7-day ticket. Along the same line, I will be upgrading my 6-day ticket to a Gold AP. Will I receive the current GATE price towards the AP or only what I paid for the park-hopper? We bought the from UCT, if that matters.

Your current tickets will be valued at whatever the online price of the ticket was in Disney's system when the ticket was created (assuming you bought them recently from UT, the value would be whatever the online Disney value was prior to the most recent price increase). Your cost to upgrade to a 7 day or to an AP would be the difference between that price and the current online price for the ticket you want.

Gate price isn't really a thing anymore, and since they can tell when the ticket was "minted", they can reference whatever the online price was at the time the ticket was minted.

 

[SSRFred]

Your current tickets will be valued at whatever the online price of the ticket was in Disney's system when the ticket was created (assuming you bought them recently from UT, the value would be whatever the online Disney value was prior to the most recent price increase). Your cost to upgrade to a 7 day or to an AP would be the difference between that price and the current online price for the ticket you want.

Gate price isn't really a thing anymore, and since they can tell when the ticket was "minted", they can reference whatever the online price was at the time the ticket was minted.

I remember way back that there was an advantage to using your ticket first before upgrading it. Is this no longer true? Would the cost of upgrading a ticket now be the same whether you have started using the ticket or have not used it at all?

 

[siren0119]

I remember way back that there was an advantage to using your ticket first before upgrading it. Is this no longer true? Would the cost of upgrading a ticket now be the same whether you have started using the ticket or have not used it at all?

The value of the ticket doesn't change whether you've used it or not, in fact many upgrades can be done right from MDE - if the upgrade option isn't available on MDE (after you've linked your ticket) it just means you have to do the upgrade with a guest services CM. I suspect things worked the way you mentioned because their computer system wasn't sophisticated enough to track things at that level...now, they are able to pinpoint values historically so you don't get any "benefit" from using a ticket before upgrading.

 

[lanejudy]

How much is that going to cost now that the ticket prices have gone up? We assumed that we would only pay the difference in price between a 6day and 7-day ticket.

Upgrade price will depend on the exact dates, but it looks to be ~$20-$25 to add a 7th day for October.

Along the same line, I will be upgrading my 6-day ticket to a Gold AP. Will I receive the current GATE price towards the AP or only what I paid for the park-hopper? We bought the from UCT, if that matters.

You will receive credit of the WDW ONLINE price for the 6-day ticket from when you purchased the ticket. Ticket prices increased this past Tuesday (2/11/2020) and I don't know if there is a resource to look up that value.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[siren0119]

You will receive credit of the WDW ONLINE price for the 6-day ticket from when you purchased the ticket. Ticket prices increased this past Tuesday (2/11/2020) and I don't know if there is a resource to look up that value.

Enjoy your vacation!

Sometimes the "minted" date of tickets through UT are printed on the tickets, but if not you can call UT and have them look up your order to check the creation date of the tickets. This thread has a lot of good historical data on ticket cost and upgrade value in the first few posts:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/tickets-how-to-upgrade-cost.3570721/

 

[lanejudy]

Sometimes the "minted" date of tickets through UT are printed on the tickets, but if not you can call UT and have them look up your order to check the creation date of the tickets. This thread has a lot of good historical data on ticket cost and upgrade value in the first few posts:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/tickets-how-to-upgrade-cost.3570721/

Yep, that thread explains well how to upgrade a ticket. However, I don't believe there is any link/resource which gives all the different permutations of date-based pricing. Unfortunately, I believe we are now on the 3rd price increase since date-based ticketing began. So OP may need to get an estimate or try to recollect what the "savings" was at the time the UT tickets were purchased (i.e., if you paid $520 and the UT savings was listed as $30, the value towards upgrade should be $550). If by chance the tickets were purchased prior to date-based tickets, there are links in that thread which will give the exact values.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[siren0119]

Yep, that thread explains well how to upgrade a ticket. However, I don't believe there is any link/resource which gives all the different permutations of date-based pricing. Unfortunately, I believe we are now on the 3rd price increase since date-based ticketing began. So OP may need to get an estimate or try to recollect what the "savings" was at the time the UT tickets were purchased (i.e., if you paid $520 and the UT savings was listed as $30, the value towards upgrade should be $550). If by chance the tickets were purchased prior to date-based tickets, there are links in that thread which will give the exact values.

Enjoy your vacation!

That thread actually has EXTENSIVE information on exactly that (historical pricing and cost to upgrade based on when tickets were created - including the change to date based ticketing). Post 6 I believe runs through links to cost to upgrade based on mint date. @Robo did a really amazing job with the thread!