Will this work as a 7 month strategy ?

[Debby7]

I made a reservation at 11 months for a 5 night stay at OKW 2bdrm . We really want to stay at BCV.
BCV is also a home resort but I do not have enough points left to book the whole stay at 11 months out. I could however book the first night at BCV. Could I then at exactly 7 months out, cancel the OKW ressie and modify the one night stay, adding on the rest of the nights with the non home resort points? By having the first night secured, am I assured of availability at exactly 7 months ?

Has anyone ever used this strategy with success ?

Thanks for the help and advice !

 

[disneynutz]

Nice try.

Anyone owning at BCV can book your wanted dates between 7 and 11 months. When 7 months rolls around there may not be any availability.

Bill

 

[Debby7]

Oh well ! Thanks for clarifying.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Even if the availability was there, you could not do that. You would have the first night booked with home resort points. You would have to wait until your second night to book with the OKW points or else, if availability was still there for the first night re-book athough in that instance MS might just go ahead and add the nights since you could otherwise book them as a new reservation.

 

[drusba]

If you are talking about a very recent reservation that you made, it means you are looking for time either around New Years or into marathon weekend in Jan, or both. Besides not being able to book BCV with OKW points at 7 months out until for the day after that one day BCV reservation, you should assume it will be very difficult to get anything at BCV that time of year at 7 months out

 

[Dean]

I made a reservation at 11 months for a 5 night stay at OKW 2bdrm . We really want to stay at BCV.
BCV is also a home resort but I do not have enough points left to book the whole stay at 11 months out. I could however book the first night at BCV. Could I then at exactly 7 months out, cancel the OKW ressie and modify the one night stay, adding on the rest of the nights with the non home resort points? By having the first night secured, am I assured of availability at exactly 7 months ?

Has anyone ever used this strategy with success ?

Thanks for the help and advice !

You could get a leg up but only a small one. Book day one with the BCV points and get enough points from the OKW reservation BEFORE you can book at 7 months. Hopefully you'd have extra enough to hold the current OKW at least until you get part of the BCV reservation done. Then when the 7 month window opens for that day, book it using OKW points if available then cancel the BCV and book the next day using BCV points and so on. If you had enough points you could book BCV at the 7 month window a week or so before you actually wanted and use a form of walking or cancel/rebooking to do so.

 

[Debby7]

Actually I am looking at the week of November 27th. Hoping there will be availability at 7 months. I know that getting that first day is often the hardest thing to do , that why I was wondering about booking it now. I didn't realize you can't mix home and not home points on a reservation?

 

[Dean]

Actually I am looking at the week of November 27th. Hoping there will be availability at 7 months. I know that getting that first day is often the hardest thing to do , that why I was wondering about booking it now. I didn't realize you can't mix home and not home points on a reservation?

You can potentially but each nuance has it's own qualifications. For using at 7 months out they'd have to be under the same master or you'd have to have separate reservations that were linked.

 

[Debby7]

Just did online chat with cm Holden. He said no problem mixing points from home and non home resort. At 7 months all points from same master contract are equal.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Actually I am looking at the week of November 27th. Hoping there will be availability at 7 months. I know that getting that first day is often the hardest thing to do , that why I was wondering about booking it now. I didn't realize you can't mix home and not home points on a reservation?

That is part of the most popular time of the year. Right after Thanksgiving and including early December. Seven months at BCV is going to be very difficult. Why not wait until you can book BCV with your points at 11 months out.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Just did online chat with cm Holden. He said no problem mixing points from home and non home resort. At 7 months all points from same master contract are equal.

But if you are seven months and one day out from creating the second reservation (you wouldn't be just adding with non-home resort points), you wouldn't be able to do it. You'd need to be seven months out from the first day you are adding to use the non-home points.

 

[Debby7]

Last year I was able to do basically the same thing only I had all non home points. At 8 am 7 months out I booked the first day at VWL using OKW points. At 9 am I called and cancelled the OKW reservation and modified the new VWL reservation using OKW points to complete my reservation. The only difference would be that this yearI would book the first day a few days prior to the 7 month window. The cm on chat said that this will work as long as there is availability.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Last year I was able to do basically the same thing only I had all non home points. At 8 am 7 months out I booked the first day at VWL using OKW points. At 9 am I called and cancelled the OKW reservation and modified the new VWL reservation using OKW points to complete my reservation. The only difference would be that this yearI would book the first day a few days prior to the 7 month window. The cm on chat said that this will work as long as there is availability.

Correct that a point is a point at 7 months, however you're referring to 7 months plus 1 day. What you did last year is actually not essentially the same as what you are asking about doing this year.

That CM may not have fulled understood what you were asking to do. If you are asking if you can book Nov 27th with the BCV points and then on April 27th call and have them add the rest of the nights using your OKW then the answer is no that they shouldn't or won't allow it. That is actually circumventing the home priority window unless Nov 27th is still available when you called and would be bookable with any points no matter what resort.

What isn't circumventing the home resort is if you had your 27th booked and then called in or went online on April 28th to pick up the rest. But if I understand correctly you're looking for a way to safely secure the BCV reservation while holding the OKW until you know you have the BCV. There is a way online to secure a reservation and then use a second browser or device to then cancel a reservation to free up the points to use but that's going to be the best you can do to try and guarantee the reservation.

 

[MouseOfCards]

You could get a leg up but only a small one. Book day one with the BCV points and get enough points from the OKW reservation BEFORE you can book at 7 months. Hopefully you'd have extra enough to hold the current OKW at least until you get part of the BCV reservation done. Then when the 7 month window opens for that day, book it using OKW points if available then cancel the BCV and book the next day using BCV points and so on. If you had enough points you could book BCV at the 7 month window a week or so before you actually wanted and use a form of walking or cancel/rebooking to do so.

Interesting. When you cancel a reservation, how long before it becomes available to others? Is it immediate? In your example, could he cancel the BCV res in one browser window and immediately grab it with the OKW points in another window?

 

[pangyal]

I don't think so, since wait lists are automated now and that cancellation might get pulled out to fulfill a wait list if one was active for that room...

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Interesting. When you cancel a reservation, how long before it becomes available to others? Is it immediate? In your example, could he cancel the BCV res in one browser window and immediately grab it with the OKW points in another window?

I've tested after cancelling to see what happens and often the dates don't show up again. It's been enough that I don't think it's just timing for others grabbing the night so it seems like the waitlist is the only good explanation.

 

[MouseOfCards]

I've tested after cancelling to see what happens and often the dates don't show up again. It's been enough that I don't think it's just timing for others grabbing the night so it seems like the waitlist is the only good explanation.

So it's grabbed automatically for a waitlist, and doesn't require member services to be actively looking? Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So it's grabbed automatically for a waitlist, and doesn't require member services to be actively looking? Thanks for sharing your experience.

It doesn't seem to be 100% consistent to definitely say but I've seen nights from the cancellations disappear immediately. And that included a couple VGC cancelled late at night which I searched back on immediately and after waiting for a bit of time to see if it came back.

But I'd never count on the thought I'd get back any room that I released.

 

[Dean]

Interesting. When you cancel a reservation, how long before it becomes available to others? Is it immediate? In your example, could he cancel the BCV res in one browser window and immediately grab it with the OKW points in another window?

I don't think we know. Historically it's been available immediately but it does seem to have become hit or miss. Potentially you could do that but there are risks.

 

[Debby7]

Unfortunately, I will be traveling on April 27 and working from my iPad out of a hotel room , so the 2 browser/computer technique won't work for me this time. Just want to be sure i am not missing a way to get that switch to BCV. I appreciate all the helpful comments.