We are going in August 2012 and booked our flights in October 2011 (approx. 10 months out). We are 5 nights in Oahu before moving on to another island. We needed at least a one-bedroom.
I had diarized to call Member Services to book at the 7 month window (this was before online booking was available) but I was not expecting to have difficult securing a reservation because I was prepared to pay the extra points to book an OV room. So, I did not call in to try to make a reservation until mid-morning. As you might guess, when I did call in there were no one-bedrooms available in any category for the first night of our five night stay. The only thing that was showing availability for the first night was a standard view two-bedroom and that was it. No studios, either. The CM was able to see that there were a couple of one-bedroom OV rooms for the next 4 nights of my stay but, of course, I would have to wait a day before I could book that.
I called Member Services the next day right at the start of the day and was able to secure the one-bedroom OV for nights 2 to 5. I also wait-listed for the one-bedroom OV for the first night but, in the meantime, booked a two-bedroom SV for that same night (the two options we almost the same number of points). After a couple of weeks, the waitlist request came through and, as a consequence, we now have the one-bedroom OV for the entire 5 night stay, which was what I was hoping to get at the outset.
So everything has worked out but I have to admit that, once I realized that I might have difficulty getting my Aulani reservations, I became quite anxious because we are using banked points for the booking and there was now a possibility in my mind that we might not be able to use those points.
However, one option that I was prepared to consider was to make a back-up booking for missing days at the start or end of the stay at the Marriott Beach Club property up the street from Aulani.
I had diarized to call Member Services to book at the 7 month window (this was before online booking was available) but I was not expecting to have difficult securing a reservation because I was prepared to pay the extra points to book an OV room. So, I did not call in to try to make a reservation until mid-morning. As you might guess, when I did call in there were no one-bedrooms available in any category for the first night of our five night stay. The only thing that was showing availability for the first night was a standard view two-bedroom and that was it. No studios, either. The CM was able to see that there were a couple of one-bedroom OV rooms for the next 4 nights of my stay but, of course, I would have to wait a day before I could book that.
I called Member Services the next day right at the start of the day and was able to secure the one-bedroom OV for nights 2 to 5. I also wait-listed for the one-bedroom OV for the first night but, in the meantime, booked a two-bedroom SV for that same night (the two options we almost the same number of points). After a couple of weeks, the waitlist request came through and, as a consequence, we now have the one-bedroom OV for the entire 5 night stay, which was what I was hoping to get at the outset.
So everything has worked out but I have to admit that, once I realized that I might have difficulty getting my Aulani reservations, I became quite anxious because we are using banked points for the booking and there was now a possibility in my mind that we might not be able to use those points.
However, one option that I was prepared to consider was to make a back-up booking for missing days at the start or end of the stay at the Marriott Beach Club property up the street from Aulani.
I am going to have to toodle around with the online booking system sometime as I've read where that could be a slight advantage on a hard to get ressie. But we do have enough Amex points that we could x-fer to Starwood to be able to cover 7 nights at a Sheraton or a Westin so that's always a possibility (I was already planning for 5 nights on Maui). If we can't get into Aulani we may just simply skip Oahu (although I would sort of like to take our DS back to Pearl Harbor again because he was pretty young the last time we went...). I hate to go to Hawaii for anything less than 9-10 days though since the flights are so much $$$. So we'd have to pay for a few nights out of pocket if Aulani falls thru...I'll look for a deal somewhere. If we DO go to Oahu and have to pay out of pocket I would be happy enough to stay at the Outrigger Waikiki for 2 or 3 nights. I WILL NOT pay cash for a room at Aulani when they're 3x as much. Just ain't happening.
