Saving $ on APs by Buying Tickets at UT and then Upgrading

Long Beach Mike

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 3, 2015
Hi All,

I recall seeing posts in the past of people buying discounted tickets for US with UT, and then upgrading to an AP once they got to US. I believe the ticket they were buying was a buy 2 days, get 2 days free ticket.

I believe the benefit was you were are paying for a 2 day pass, but credited with the value of a 4 day pass when upgrading.

Can someone explain how this works? I am not trying to circumvent US rules, but if this is a legitimate upgrade that can also save $ I'd love to know how it works.

I also believe there was an issue about with when the UT tickets expired. FYI, I am travelling 4/3-4/10/18, and ultimately will be buying 4 preferred APs.

Thank you for any advice the US experts can provide :)
 
I am not an expert by any means but I also read in these threads how to do this. In November I purchased the 2 day 2 park pass with 1 free day from UT using the mouse savers link. I also purchased Disney passes so got an extra discount. My universal pass came to $249 per ticket. On my last day I took the pass to guest services. They gave me the value of a 3 day 2 park ticket: $275. I then upgraded to a seasonal pass. The price for that was $285. So they charged me $10. So I wound up saving around $36 per season pass.
 
I just bought the 5 day, 3 park ticket from UT. I’m hoping to upgrade it to a Preferred pass in June. So I’d also like to know the cost to do this.
Thanks for asking for this info Long Beach Mike!
 
What I did was checked the universal website to see the value of my park ticket that I purchased from UT. Then I checked the price of the AP and subtracted the difference. It looks like the 4 day 3 park ticket is $325 and the 5 day is $335. The 3 park preferred AP is $484. So if it works for u like it did for me, guest services will charge u the difference no matter what u paid for them with UT. Good luck and enjoy ur trips.
 


What I did was checked the universal website to see the value of my park ticket that I purchased from UT. Then I checked the price of the AP and subtracted the difference. It looks like the 4 day 3 park ticket is $325 and the 5 day is $335. The 3 park preferred AP is $484. So if it works for u like it did for me, guest services will charge u the difference no matter what u paid for them with UT. Good luck and enjoy ur trips.

Thank you mama&me!!
 
Thanks everyone for their input!

I'm thinking maybe I should just buy the preferred AP right now. Even if I can save a few bucks between the UT ticket price and the US price, that could all get washed away if the cost of the AP increases between now and April.
 
You can buy the ap now at the listed price

The voucher won’t activate until you first use it for the parks
Your one year time period for its validation starts on the date first used
 


Does anyone know when season passes have to be used by? We are thinking of visiting in early December 2018 for 4 days. If we buy the season pass now before the price increase will we be okay to use them for that trip? i read above that the one year starts on the first day that the tickets are used. My question is does that first use have any time restrictions?
Thanks in advance!
 
When you purchase an AP online, you get a voucher for it
Redeem that voucher at the park for the AP

That is how it has been in the past

If the procedure has changed, which is always possible, you should obtain the info directly from UO

Send them an email with your question
You will receive a reply within 48 hours

Know in advance if you can buy the ap online but not activate it 18 months later


Policies do change at times

I have had the preferred ap for years
Believe I first bought mine after I started to go regularly and I have renewed it each year

I still renewed even for the year I skipped going to the parks
The discount cost for renewal that year was cheap
In 2002 and a couple years later. I bought the 7 day passes to use for my sons
I had 4 sets of the 7 day pass and two sets of the 5 day pass

I did not use all of them as my boys stopped going with me regularly due to their school schedules

Last October I traded all those passes in for tickets inside the studios guest services
The coding on them were no longer in the system to use

(My son with me had one of the passes and the coding on it was not in the current system so they sent us to guest services)


At guest services a manager worked with us and exchanged the passes for me
I was give single day p2p tickets for all of them
Fortunately I had all those passes with me and exchanged all of them

Expiration on some of the new p2p single day tickets list “no expiration”, others state expiration 2030

Right now I have 23, p2p single day tickets
I will use them when my sons do join me on a trip or take a friend with me and give them tickets

Back when these 7 day p2p and 5 day passes were sold, they were well worth it
Paid $79 and $99 for some of them

Universal policies do change at times so it is best to contact guest services to guide you if there is an expiration of first usage on a multi day pass/AP bought year in advance

 

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