7 month reservation booking question

[pointsenvy2]

I am happy to say that I have a reservation at the vgf in January... Lake view studio. This is our first DVC vacation. I was booked at vwl for that week. On June 23rd we did an online search for the week we were booked for the vwl. To our pleasant surprise the whole week was available. I booked it. Then there was a prompt that I needed to borrow points. Of course I called ms immediately to a busy signal. In clouded desperation, I cancelled my vwl reservation to open up my points. Luckily it all worked out. In the future, Is there a way book the new reservation and cancel the old reservation without the risk of losing the whole week? All online.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I am happy to say that I have a reservation at the vgf in January... Lake view studio. This is our first DVC vacation. I was booked at vwl for that week. On June 23rd we did an online search for the week we were booked for the vwl. To our pleasant surprise the whole week was available. I booked it. Then there was a prompt that I needed to borrow points. Of course I called ms immediately to a busy signal. In clouded desperation, I cancelled my vwl reservation to open up my points. Luckily it all worked out. In the future, Is there a way book the new reservation and cancel the old reservation without the risk of losing the whole week? All online.

Only if you have enough points to book both stays.

 

[pointsenvy2]

No... Not enough points. That's why we were asked to borrow. Is there a way to replace one reservation with the other? Without any complications.

 

[Deb & Bill]

No... Not enough points. That's why we were asked to borrow. Is there a way to replace one reservation with the other? Without any complications.

No, not unless you can book both of them. You can't just swap them out. You must cancel and rebook.

 

[Granny]

No... Not enough points. That's why we were asked to borrow. Is there a way to replace one reservation with the other? Without any complications.

No. You cannot use the same points for two reservations at the same time. So there is a slight chance (yes, it has happened a very small percentage of the time) that someone could cancel their existing reservation and by the time they book their new one the new reservation is no longer available. So yes, you could be left without anything. In fact, we heard stories of that happening even when calling Member Services in years past.

Having said that, I've done the "cancel & switch" a few times and never had a problem. But as Deb said, the only way to really guarantee you won't be left empty-handed is to book the second one before cancelling the first one. That could be a problem if you have to borrow points, though not necessarily. You can always bank the returned points from the original reservation (assuming you are within the banking window) into the year that you borrowed the other points. But you'd end up with banked and borrowed points which could get messy if you have to cancel the reservation.

So that's a long answer to a short question. I think in a situation like that, I'd call MS as I think I've heard that they have the ability to "hold" a reservation while cancelling another one. That ability has not been passed along to the online reservation site to the best of my knowledge.

 

[pointsenvy2]

Thanks... Good information