wilkeliza
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2013
These are the accounting gymnastics I spoke about earlier. It doesn't actually cost Disney anything to comp these tickets. In the end if one division "charges" another division for something like this it is just to balance some GLs. It doesn't actually indicate a capital layout. If RunDisney is fake charged for the ticket then they should also be fake credited with every cent the person who got the comped ticket spent while in the park. That means every meal and souvenir they bought.
I have had two comped tickets in my life at WDW and in each occasion Disney made more on me because of it.
On one occasion, during the give a day get a day" promotion, I volunteered a day and got a one day park admission. Because I got that one day park admission I decided to fly down, stay on property, and register for the Inaugural W&D half. That one free ticket, that didn't actually cost Disney anything, got about $1,000 out of me when you count the race, hotel, souvenirs, and meals.
The second was in 2011 when they gave everyone a free ticket to any park if they did the full marathon. I was already going down and had my tickets, hotel, race registrations, and would be eating on property for all but one meal. Because of that promotion I stayed an extra day in a Disney hotel and ate 3 more meals in a Disney park. They made that comped ticket back a few times over.
This is why a good company doesn't nit pick over accounting costs that aren't actually costs. They look at the whole picture and realize giving away a free ticket, that doesn't actually cost anyone anything, ends up generating actual positive revenue because of it. A ticket is really just a mechanism to get a person into the park to really generate revenue.
Unfortunately with financial "gymnastics" that isn't usually how it works. I know they have to give comps a cost and at guest relations it is not gate price but I could see runDisney, Disney Fairytale Weddings, Disney Education, Disney conferences, etc having to have a hit of gate price for all those things since they are not Disney Parks and Resorts.