I realized that I had posted the following in the regular Magic Key thread instead of here, but going to leave it there, too.
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.
UPDATE: I was able to transfer the 1-day hopper to my brother, and it now has his name. I could not get a refund, so looks like the CM at the booth would have been doing something special (magical moment?) if she had refunded my ticket. So, if you have two tickets, better to use the higher value one towards your Magic Key and give the other one to someone, or save it for next year's renewal. You don't have to lose it. Even if the ticket expires you can use the value of the ticket to a future Magic Key pass, just need to enter the park so you can upgrade it (I'd go to the booth, though).