Annual passholder rates

[Softy]

Originally Posted by teallach

We stayed at Aventura twice in 2019 (beginning March/September) and once 2020 (March). Had booked last September but obviously that was cancelled….price was steady around £700 for the week, same room every time. Now, this March is costing £1100!

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September 2022 is just under £100/night for a week when booking direct right now.

You can get the odd decent deal from a 3rd party site but direct March will always be significantly more than September and has been for many years. March is about $70 more per night than September. September is the lowest season at “value 1”, where as March is Spring break and “Peak 1 and peak 2,” just off the most expensive “holiday” season.

[moosha]

I hope this isn’t true as it was one of the benefits outlined to us when we upgraded three weeks ago in the parks.

Hopefully if they knew it was coming to an end they would make sure Team Members weren’t mentioning it as a benefit for people buying.

The guy who did our APs went into detail about the AP rates twice during our conversation and it was on the printed sheet of benefits he went through. He said things like how good the discounts were and how we were likely to save money on our hotel bookings for our next trip in August.

He was a really nice guy who had been working for Universal for years and certainly didn’t have to push the sale as we approached him telling him we wanted to upgrade so he had no reason to be pushy or misleading on anything.

I would hope that if there was talk of this benefit ending just a couple of months into people signing up, the Team Members at the very least would play down the benefit or say that there was a possibility it wouldn’t be offered soon.

I know they can change things as and when they like, but it’s pretty poor customer service and makes the company look bad to sell a benefit and take it away two months into a 12 month contract or even less for people still signing up for Annual Pass now.

[loldis]

Assuming it's true, TMs at the ticket window wouldn't have known about it in advance. It would have only been in management discussion. As far as everyone knew a few weeks ago, AP rates existed and were just being slow to update.

[moosha]

Originally Posted by loldis

Assuming it's true, TMs at the ticket window wouldn't have known about it in advance. It would have only been in management discussion. As far as everyone knew a few weeks ago, AP rates existed and were just being slow to update.

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I get it, but if it’s ending in just a couple of months, that’s not long for new sign-ups to get any benefit. I would have hoped within a three month window or so they would be saying ‘if you sign up you get AP rates but only until…’

I just wish I hadn’t cancelled my existing Expedia bookings at Sapphire Falls and HRH for August as soon as we got back with our shiny APs thinking I could do better later on with AP discount .

[teallach]

Originally Posted by Softy

September 2022 is just under £100/night for a week when booking direct right now.

You can get the odd decent deal from a 3rd party site but direct March will always be significantly more than September and has been for many years. March is about $70 more per night than September. September is the lowest season at “value 1”, where as March is Spring break and “Peak 1 and peak 2,” just off the most expensive “holiday” season.

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As said, it’s been consistently the same price each time we’ve been, including both times in March. This is usually booking through ebookers or hotels but generally speaking, they’re around the same price anyway….I go by the one giving the most cashback through quidco😁 To be fair, I would generally try to avoid spring break so it’s probably just been the case that we’ve managed to skirt around the busy dates and catch the better prices.

[Softy]

Originally Posted by teallach

As said, it’s been consistently the same price each time we’ve been, including both times in March. This is usually booking through ebookers or hotels but generally speaking, they’re around the same price anyway….I go by the one giving the most cashback through quidco😁 To be fair, I would generally try to avoid spring break so it’s probably just been the case that we’ve managed to skirt around the busy dates and catch the better prices.

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Yeah, so prices haven’t gone up 60%. It’s just that you’re using different dates.

[teallach]

Originally Posted by Softy

Yeah, so prices haven’t gone up 60%. It’s just that you’re using different dates.

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Wow, kind of seems like you’re trying to catch me out😂 Seeing as I’m thorough, I’ve just gone through every date in March and the lowest is £1060, so it wouldn’t matter what date in March I was comparing it to, it’s at the very least, a 50% increase.

[loldis]

Originally Posted by teallach

Wow, kind of seems like you’re trying to catch me out😂 Seeing as I’m thorough, I’ve just gone through every date in March and the lowest is £1060, so it wouldn’t matter what date in March I was comparing it to, it’s at least the very least, a 50% increase.

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I think it's just due to demand increase, have been hearing Universal has very limited availability through the spring.

Although the cynic in me also says that word is out how much of a bargain the Uni hotels are compared to Disney, people are starting to switch so they're upping their prices. They like money just as much as Disney.

[Dendycat]

I got some good ap discount rates for portofino bay last year but the borders didn’t open in time. It was much cheaper than I could find on either hotels.com or ebookers and cheaper than the savvy traveller deals too.
As an aside, There seems to be a big on increase between standard and club rooms this year.

[teallach]

Just posted on Facebook….there’s still hope😁