I love credit cards so much!

[disneedee]

I am still naive enough to think that a company can communicate honestly and not treat us like we're stupid... (and yes I fully acknowledge that it is naive of me to think that, LOL)

They didn't need to be blunt about it...but they could have used a lot less words...Here's the same announcement without a bunch of fluffy marketing speak:

At Walt Disney World Resort, we are constantly looking for new ways to deliver the best experience possible for our guests. Beginning Oct. 16 on DisneyWorld.com, guests will be able to access our new online vacation-planning destination and purchase tickets priced by the date of visit.

As our parks have increased in popularity, there are more and more guests who wish to experience our world-class attractions. Introducing date-based tickets and pricing will allow us to better distribute attendance throughout the year so that we can continue to improve and deliver a great experience.

The new online vacation-planning destination features park offering overviews, travel tips from Disney Parks Moms Panelists and customized suggestions based on each guest’s personal preferences – helping guests make more informed decisions.

When guests are ready to purchase tickets online, they may use an interactive online calendar, which displays different prices based on the dates guests choose to visit and states tickets will need to be used during a specific time period. The calendar also allows guests to quickly see the lowest-priced days within a month. For example, prices may be lower during off-peak travel periods.

Once tickets are purchased, guests will be able to continue seamlessly planning their vacation on the website through My Disney Experience, which guides guests through the different phases and steps of personalizing their vacation to make the most of their travel party’s unique interests. Guests can manage their plans through the My Disney Experience mobile app as well, where they will also be able to access the interactive calendar and purchase their tickets on the go.

This is an incredibly exciting time at Walt Disney World Resort, which continues to grow and expand with industry-leading immersive lands like Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In addition to these groundbreaking expansions, guests will also have a chance to experience upcoming attractions that take creative storytelling to the next level from the recently announced “Ratatouille” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” attractions at Epcot to a Tron-themed attraction at Magic Kingdom Park, to the first Mickey Mouse-themed attraction with Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and so much more coming soon.​

your good! they should hire YOU!

 

[tink1970]

That's 52 free drinks... if you always get a Venti at $5.50ish, that's about $286.00 in free drinks, minus $49 fee. that's $240 for $500 spend, great ROI.

I was just thinking it definitely made the deal sweeter!

Speaking of ROI, I referred both of my parents to the regular Disney card. I received $200 in referral money (added to the $5.13 that had been chilling in my account forever so I'm counting it!) plus a $200 statement credit after $500 spend for each of them. They aren't into the game but couldn't resist my math which is basically $600 for spending $1000, how can you pass it up? So we have completed the spends and I just used their $200 credits (x2) plus my Disney rewards money ($205.13) to knock off a total of $1605.13 off of their Golden Ann'y cruise cost for an oop cost of $1000. Whoo hoo.

 

[DisneyMandC]

So the ticket discussion has bled in r/churning. u/nuhertz who is kinda the Disney expert over there feels that the Chase URs w/ Disney change and this new Ticket change are linked. I personally don't see the connection...Why would they remove HOTELS from the Freedom portal over a ticket change?

Wondering what everybody thinks here?

Uhhhh definitely not seeing the connection there...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

your good! they should hire YOU!

Hahaha - well thanks! I just took out the fluffy crap and pasted one of the bottom lines to the top. Like tell me honestly why you're making the change...OK to attempt to distribute attendance better. Makes sense to me...And I guess the new website could actually be an improvement, so I'm cool with saying that too. Just don't tell me how this new ticket system will make things SIMPLER when it's simply not possible given the facts presented.

OF course we all know it's likely a veiled price increase too...but I wouldn't expect them to bluntly say that.

 

[GlamMistress]

So the ticket discussion has bled in r/churning. u/nuhertz who is kinda the Disney expert over there feels that the Chase URs w/ Disney change and this new Ticket change are linked. I personally don't see the connection...Why would they remove HOTELS from the Freedom portal over a ticket change?

Wondering what everybody thinks here?

I saw that comment. I'll admit the very first thing that crossed my mind was that the UR to Disney drop was because of this ticket change. That probably an irrational thought but the Mouse likes his money and it seems like Disney is working hard to plug every dike these days when it comes to leaky deals. Or maybe I'm just a tinfoil hat nutter.

 

[amalone1013]

I lost all of my churning karma while I was on vacation

 

[wendow]

So the ticket discussion has bled in r/churning. u/nuhertz who is kinda the Disney expert over there feels that the Chase URs w/ Disney change and this new Ticket change are linked. I personally don't see the connection...Why would they remove HOTELS from the Freedom portal over a ticket change?

Wondering what everybody thinks here?

I've still not been able to come up with a reason why Disney is no longer bookable with UR's, and this ticket change doesn't connect for me either. None of it makes sense!

 

[pillow]

GGGGGAAAAAHHHHHHH! I need oodles and oodles of SW points!!!!!!!!!

View attachment 353685

Wow - congrats!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I lost all of my churning karma while I was on vacation

WOW you did, lol! I see you're at 37 now...and 17 of that falls off in a few days. Just tell some funny story about Zack again and all your upvotes will come back, LOL!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

GGGGGAAAAAHHHHHHH! I need oodles and oodles of SW points!!!!!!!!!

View attachment 353685

Congrats

 

[mmmears]

I don't know what to think since I'm late to the Chase/Disney game. I do wonder if it was somehow costing Chase too much (time, effort, money, etc.) to keep dealing with Disney. I know from experience just reserving a room there takes me at least an hour, which is ridiculous compared to other hotels that are much quicker. Disney has so many hoops to jump through these days when planning a WDW trip it's getting to be a big pain. And I love to plan. GCs won't work for us. We always book room only with the idea that we can cancel at any time (and we have had to cancel in the past). I don't want tons of cash tied up in Disney GCs since I can't get to it if I need it for some reason or if we decide we would rather go someplace else.

In other news, I was so happy to get my $10 from RMN that I went out to Walgreens and CVS and ran the deal again. Both are showing as pending at this time.

GGGGGAAAAAHHHHHHH! I need oodles and oodles of SW points!!!!!!!!!

View attachment 353685

HUGE congratulations!!!! I bet your DD is thrilled, and I'm sure you are too!!! Woo Hoo!!!

 

[JKalai]

So the ticket discussion has bled in r/churning. u/nuhertz who is kinda the Disney expert over there feels that the Chase URs w/ Disney change and this new Ticket change are linked. I personally don't see the connection...Why would they remove HOTELS from the Freedom portal over a ticket change?

Wondering what everybody thinks here?

It's possible, and the only reason I would say so is that everything is happening all at once. Disney maybe wanted to push one big update out and figured they would revamp everything from groups, to wholesale, to direct bookings all together on the back end of the bookings since most of them come bundled with tickets.

It's a long shot, but since the tickets can be purchased "through" the hotel (which was the major problem that was explained to us last week/ that the hotel system wasn't "activating" our tickets) and the hotel and theme park systems are separated, I would imagine the hotel system is also being either modified or replaced with a new system. The charges for the "magical" tickets showed up as a room charge on my folio at check out.

 

[Albort]

GGGGGAAAAAHHHHHHH! I need oodles and oodles of SW points!!!!!!!!!

View attachment 353685

Congrats! DLR or WDW?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Finally did my HD RMN deal. Went to immediately pending! Didn’t get to do it on DH’s account since I only have his employee SPG Biz on my Apple Pay and HD didn’t take that. Now up to $175 in GCs for $105 if everything goes to posted.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I swear Citi is incompetent... Messaged to ask how much I had left towards MSR. My calculation shows I've spent about $2340 of the $2500 MSR. They responded I'd spent $1140. I told them there was no way that was correct. Just for laughs, I threw out that I thought I had approximately $300 left to spend. The response: "Yes, you are correct." Nope, literally neither one of us is correct... what the heck are they looking at over there? I have a $500 bill I'm planning to put on it so it will be taken care of regardless, but good grief are their chat agents terrible!

Amex is not much better. When I was completing spend on Hilton, I messaged twice in 5 minutes and got different answers. Then when I thought I was finished but bonus didn’t post, I messaged again. The MSR was $2k, my balance was like 2025. They said I was under by $9. I was like huh? My balance is over 2k of posted charges. He replied even though the charges posted, they weren’t “counted” yet, it would take a few days for them to count.

 

[afan]

That's 52 free drinks... if you always get a Venti at $5.50ish, that's about $286.00 in free drinks, minus $49 fee. that's $240 for $500 spend, great ROI.

Which makes my 3.95 venti hot chocolate even worse for this card. But the free drinks! They'd be gone in 3 months though.

So the ticket discussion has bled in r/churning. u/nuhertz who is kinda the Disney expert over there feels that the Chase URs w/ Disney change and this new Ticket change are linked. I personally don't see the connection...Why would they remove HOTELS from the Freedom portal over a ticket change?

Wondering what everybody thinks here?

My 2 cents - It has to do with the change to expedia away from conenxions (whatever it was called) because expedia, to my knowledge, doesn't have actual TA's that do anything. So they either get rid of the cruise and tour dept or figure out a new way to do it. I think we won't actually know anything until expedia is rolled out UR wide. It could be possible that they are training CSR's in house to take over as TA's for cruise and tour. It would make sense as the cost, even with training, would probably come down since they wouldn't be paying an outside agency who is then the one getting the commission. It also wouldn't be hard to do though more difficult from the start with the learning curve.

When I worked at Apple Vacations, back when they had multiple call centers before the internet became most people's TA, we started out with the basics - selling charter flight/hotel packages from PHX to Hawaii. Once we had mastered that we moved up to being able to sell scheduled air, or your regular UA, Hawaiian etc. Some took longer to move up. Once you mastered that and proved you were good you became a customer care agent and got mostly calls from the top agencies that were mostly guaranteed to work with a more experienced agent. Then we got to learn to sell Mexico and the Caribbean. Going forward they could do it this way but would need to teach a lot to new people to start with which could take awhile.

The real key with this though is going to be how cruises are going to work, has that been something you could only do through the dept or can you do them online?

I do think we have to wait for expedia to get rolled out UR wide before we can completely right Disney off. I think the timing of all of this is just a coincidence (sorry Gibbs, sometimes they do happen).

 

[GPC0321]

So the ticket discussion has bled in r/churning. u/nuhertz who is kinda the Disney expert over there feels that the Chase URs w/ Disney change and this new Ticket change are linked. I personally don't see the connection...Why would they remove HOTELS from the Freedom portal over a ticket change?

Wondering what everybody thinks here?

I apologize if this has been addressed/discussed elsewhere in the thread and I just haven't dug deep enough to find it. As I kind of suspected when the whole change came about with Disney and Chase, it seems Disney is about to trot out a new elite "travel" card with Chase that has a $95 annual fee and has the ability to book their resorts through their own DisneyRewards travel portal that has lower prices. Different earning rates on the card (4 Disney Rewards Dollars for restaurants and most Disney locations, I think 1 DRD everywhere else), still has the other perks of the Premier and regular Visa.

I felt that was probably what was coming. I just took an 18-minute survey about it and I wish I had taken notes on the new card.

I would think this explains everything.

 

[gottalovepluto]

So the ticket discussion has bled in r/churning. u/nuhertz who is kinda the Disney expert over there feels that the Chase URs w/ Disney change and this new Ticket change are linked. I personally don't see the connection...Why would they remove HOTELS from the Freedom portal over a ticket change?

Wondering what everybody thinks here?

I dipped my toe in there but bowed out as some questions are best left unanswered. I don't think nuhertz is the disney expert they seem to be because it just doesn't seem like they have any sort of industry knowledge. Dynamic ticket pricing isn't some huge change for agents selling Disney as Disneyland implemented this some time ago. As we've discussed here, disney commissions are nothing to write home about so no, Chase didn't yank everything due to the unfounded (as far as we know) idea disney is changing ticket commissions for travel agencies.

I'm still of the opinion we have 2 options here

1) Chase has pulled all Disney because UR was told cut huge costs and that was the most popular thing booked with UR points. Total schmuck move. Totally possible. Banks point redemption liabilities are getting so large Chase and Amex mentioned it in their earnings reports meaning point redemptions are getting into real money territory- not good. If so Disney is gone. The fact that no bloggers can get a comment from Chase regarding booking Disney with URs makes this look decently likely to me- if you have nothing good to say, don't say anything.

2) Chase pulled Disney until they can get it on all the portals and they were not willing to cover the costs of people doing the booking of Disney in the meantime. We've already discussed the pitfalls of having it only redeemable on certain portals. This is a bit more complicated. Why would they pull all of Connexions ability to book anything Disney if it wasn't to cut point-redemptions? Because something is happening with the Expedia and/or Connexions contracts with Chase? Because Connexions was just too expensive when booking Disney? Maybe Connexions wasn't willing to only allow online booking of Disney since they aren't exactly thrilled with Chase these days? There's so much at play here that we do not have a view into.


Does anyone else find it absolutely hilarious that TPG is running Disney Week and yet probably the top cc's they would have recommended can no longer book Disney? Part of me thinks they're taking advantage of all the "how do i book Disney now?!" hoopla and that's not so funny but the other part of me loves the idea of their team sweating this out after they had it all planned and then found out URs can't book Disney anymore.

 

[hulagirl]

I apologize if this has been addressed/discussed elsewhere in the thread and I just haven't dug deep enough to find it. As I kind of suspected when the whole change came about with Disney and Chase, it seems Disney is about to trot out a new elite "travel" card with Chase that has a $95 annual fee and has the ability to book their resorts through their own DisneyRewards travel portal that has lower prices. Different earning rates on the card (4 Disney Rewards Dollars for restaurants and most Disney locations, I think 1 DRD everywhere else), still has the other perks of the Premier and regular Visa.

I seriously just brought this up yesterday. lol @calypso726 I swear I don't work for Chase! It just makes perfect sense to me! @GPC0321 - SUPER curious about this card (rumor?). Thank you for posting! ps.. I wonder if that's what the $250 credit in the background of the video they used for the new ticket rollout today was actually for...

 

[gottalovepluto]

I seriously just brought this up yesterday. lol @calypso726 I swear I don't work for Chase! It just makes perfect sense to me! @GPC0321 - SUPER curious about this card (rumor?). Thank you for posting! ps.. I wonder if that's what the $250 credit in the background of the video they used for the new ticket rollout today was actually for...

Say what?! Where was this rumor?! I’d believe it. I see zero reason disney & Chase can’t come together on something better than what they have now...

ETA: went back an entire few posts and got it! The intrigue continues...