In my experience, Disney never makes ticket structure changes with an eye to benefit the people buying.
I have yet to see how this is any exception.
After the COVID break, they came back with Genie+ just different enough from FP+ they could pretend it wasn't just an un-bundled version of the old thing that was now being sold back at higher prices.
Some people apparently loved it, many thought it was a step back in regards to features.
Either way, according to
@lentesta 's numbers, average usage was
less than 3 LLs per purchase which would suggest the people now paying for it were unable to get the same degree of benefit, on average, than the free system that came before it.
Some people did but based on the statistics, the majority were getting a worse service for paying more money.
Now they've essentially morphed that back to something closer to FP+ by allowing pre-booking but only up to 7 days in advance for resort guest and 3 for people not staying on property - again, seeming to fall short of the older, free* service.
I know you know they didn't make this change because they wanted to get less money or wanted to benefit people more. By directly monetizing FP+ they've been able to get away with increasing base ticket prices while reducing what you get for them and then increasing the price of the previous FP+ benefit by multiples way higher than they'd have been able to get away with on the ticket price alone all while providing two separate products with less flexible features that a lot of guests seem to find more limiting than what came before.**
While it's sometimes possible to save money with à la carte options, unless you're willing to go for the rock-bottom minimum being offered (admittedly, this is sometimes enough for some but usually not for the majority) it's intended to drive people to spend more which is why businesses change to this model to begin with.
I mean, you may like that checked luggage is now separate with most airlines because
maybe doing that has slowed ticket price increases (although realistically, probably not by much if at all) and the result of this change was a worse flying experience for everyone as carry on space became a problem that resulted in issues for just about everyone boarding in terms of time and hassle and now there are airlines charging for carry ons since the charging for checked has caused people to find ways of not checking bags and they aren't making the money with that trick they once were.
I guess if you're only flying for a day or are okay with layering five days of cloathing before boarding, you can get around this and still save money, but it's not a winable situation for most.
I can think of quite a few examples beyond Disney and flight where these practices don't seem to have benefited the majority of consumers. I can't think of many where businesses chagning this practice has worked out in favor for the
majority but I'm open to being swayed if you've got some good examples.
Either way, to each their own, I suppose.
*Not free as in beer, of course.
**I really haven't heard much about the newest iteration but since it's basically rolled back to FP+ but gimped, it suggests they got enough direct guest feedback on the old program to make the change, even though I know you were a fan of that paid system as it was, yourself.
. And because I didn't think of it, we already booked a cruise lol.
Sorry, I couldn't resist. JK.
www.wdwmagic.com
