AAA discount w/ dining

[tink&cinderblabla2185]

My husband and I can't decide if we should get the dining plan or not. I know it's a good deal for most people but you have to pay full price for the room. I was wondering if we could still get our AAA discount if we booked a package. Do I have to book it through AAA or can I use MJ or do it myself through Disney? If I can do it any way I think we might just do it, I just know some people have had a hard time with their Disney vacations booking through AAA.

[wdwfan]

You have to book through AAA to get discount on the room portion only w/free dining pkg.

[tink&cinderblabla2185]

We are going in January so no free dining. Does that rule still apply then?

[TiggeRia]

I just booked my October vacation through AAA with the dining plan and still got the AAA room discount. In order to get that discount, I believe, you have to book through AAA. I have been to WDW four times in the past two years and used AAA each time without a problem!

[psychotekkie]

Woah! We booked an August vacation with free dining with AAA, but did not get a room discount, because they said to get the free dining package you had to pay rack rate! Now I feel ripped off. Maybe you should check with your particular AAA travel agent to see if they are giving you the discount.

Of course, we are still getting a good deal because the free dining is saving us about $100per day (4 people) but the AAA discount on a value resort is not that much.

[big blue and hairy]

Having just booked a AAA package with dining, I can tell you that WDW told me that you can not get the dining package with the AAA discount unless you book through AAA. I would like to know though, if MJ can get that package. From everything I've heard about them, I would rather use MJ if I'm going to use anyone, and they're a sponsor of this lovely site so....

[Tink1]

Unfortunately, we cannot book AAA packages. The end result is that Disney normally releases special package pricing which is lower than AAA, and we can autmoatically convert our existing clients to that rate.

If your going to go with the AAA package, make sure you know what the price on the full rate package is (AAA rates are capacity controlled) and if your agent will be open to applying future discounts.

Nanc

[Tigerlilly]

Here was the deal when I booked with AAA (And I would not do it again)

I booked our vacation with AAA thinking I could get a discount. I booked a week at POFQ with the dining plan and got 15% off the room rate. I was reasonably happy with this.
Then a discount came out that was a free upgrade from regular tickets to hoppers with the water park option. We had already paid for hoppers. I wanted the upgrade so I called AAA.
With A LOT of hassle she applied the discount code but I lost the AAA discount. AAA refuses to stack discounts. Turns out that the upgrade was a deeper discount than AAAs discount so we got a refund. A few weeks later a room discount code came out. the AAA agent would not even try to use it. Again they said they would not stack discounts and that they had already given me one discount and pretty much to quit asking.

In the long run it would have been cheaper to go with an online travel agent AND the experience would have been nicer.
In the future I think the only way I could go through AAA is if I was staying offsite, to get the Diamond parking pass.

[Lily]

It's not AAA that won't stack discounts, it's Disney. Apparently last year, AAA was able to get the free dining and the AAA package discount for their clients (which works out to be the same as the room discount when a full package is purchased - and you have to purchase a package to get the dining plan). This year, they are only able to honor one promotion per purchase.

[tink&cinderblabla2185]

Thank you all so much! I think I might go through MJ and see if a room discount code comes out or see if they are going to do the free ticket upgrade again this year. We need tickets this trip anyway. Thank You!!!