Here's my experience upgrading my ticket yesterday. I had two unused valid tickets - one 1-day/1-park and one 1-day hopper tickets. I also had a gift card, Disney Visa Rewards, and a $25 car parking voucher that I wanted to use for my Magic Key Dream pass.
I made a reservation yesterday morning, and the only availability was for DCA, so I made one for DCA.
I had to go to the park to use my ticket before upgrading it, so I went to the Toy Story parking lot and took a shuttle to the parks. I hadn't parked there in a long time, so the shuttle loading zone and restrooms were new to me. Got to DCA around 12:30pm, and found out that I didn't finish the reservation process so there was no reservation for me. The cast members were super helpful, and there were still reservations available so they helped me make a reservation and scanned me in to the park. Once in, I tried to upgrade my ticket since that was the main purpose for going. There were no options to use my gift card or Disney Visa Rewards, so I went to the ticket booths. I stood in line about 20 minutes or so and when I got to the ticket booth the cast member processed my payments for me.
- Used my gift card
- Used my Disney Visa Rewards / I scanned the card through the reader
- Paid the balance with my Disney Visa
What I could not use:
- My other unused park ticket. Since I had used the 1-day/1-park ticket she told me I could switch to the hopper and apply more $ to the Magic Key, but I declined
- The parking cost (this is different than what we were able to do with annual passes when renewing)
So, I have this other unused valid ticket. The CM said that I could get a refund on it, but I want to gift it to my brother and treat him to a day at
Disneyland/DCA. He hasn't been since around 2009. I'm on hold right now to talk to a CM on the phone to see if I can change the name on the ticket to my brother or get a refund because he's going to use it to upgrade to an Imagine or Enchant Magic Key. I'll edit this post with my findings.