a 7 month dilemma

[thepoohguy]

So I am still a couple days away from the 7 month mark. When I look online, I see my dates are available for arrival through departure as we aren't staying a full 7 days.

Is it okay to make a 7 day reservation to get my days, then after we cross the 7 month mark, take off the first two days?

Is this somehow cheating?

Has anyone else ever done this?

 

[kristenrice]

If you have enough points, you can absolutely do this. It's called "walking" the reservation, although it is not often done at 7-months. Good luck!

 

[Anal Annie]

I guess technically it's a form of cheating but I just did it in January to get our reservation at VGC. Since VGC is soooo small I was watching the availability daily and was really nervous about it because it was completely booking up for the whole summer. It wasn't my PLAN to do it like that but I went online one night to look and the week that included our 4 nights was open and the idea just jumped at me to book the whole week and be done with it. We had the points. It didn't involve borrowing or anything. And getting these 4 nights was key to the whole trip because then we're going to Aulani. I had been waiting to book the airfare until we had all of our reservations and meanwhile EVERY DAY it went UP a little more and I was feeling stressed over the whole trip. I called back 2 or 3 days later and cancelled off the 1st 3 nights...it was fully booked up when I called so I would imagine that I made somebody's waitlist come thru when I did that. We've stayed at all of the WDW resorts plus HHI and VB and I had never done this before and I would only do it for THE hardest to get reservations. I also had never felt like we'd be shut out before either until I tried to plan this trip. We'd always gotten a room at the WDW resorts at 7 months, even for spring break so I wouldn't feel the need to do it there as we're usually flexible about which resort we get. Sure we have our 1st choice of where we want to go but we also have a 2nd and 3rd choice in mind too. But in CA there is only VGC and it's super small. We wanted a studio & I think there's only like 10 of them or something like that. We also wanted to start the trip on a Saturday & I think VGC attracts a lot of weekenders so a lot of people would have been booking starting on the Friday night which would've snagged up "our" weekend.

So yes, people have done it and you can do it but I would say it might depend on where you want to go and when. It may not really be necessary....

 

[AmyB2006]

Just curious, why isn't this typically done at 7 months? Is there a reason I'm not thinking about? I was considering this for my stay at the end of October.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Just curious, why isn't this typically done at 7 months? Is there a reason I'm not thinking about? I was considering this for my stay at the end of October.

When you do it at 11 months, you pretty much get a lock on the seven days, then you get a lock on the next seven days dropping the first. But at segven months out, anyone with that resort as their home resort can book any days.

 

[kristenrice]

Just curious, why isn't this typically done at 7 months? Is there a reason I'm not thinking about? I was considering this for my stay at the end of October.

It can be done at 7 months, but it is often needed for those hard-to-get reservations, such as AKV-CL/Value or BLT/BWV standard. In those cases, the rooms are typically booked by the owners well before the 7-month window anyways so it isn't even possible.

"Walking" a reservation is a way to virtually guarantee your reservation at your home resort, but nothing is 100%. I did it to book a value studio at AKV for this November. DH and I are going down for the F&W 1/2 marathon over the last weekend of the festival. Our dates are Nov 7-12. I called on December 1 and booked November 1-7 which secured my room for the 7th. Then, on December 6, I called back and dropped 1-5 and changed it to 6-12. A few weeks later, I called one last time and dropped the night of the 6th, leaving me with the dates I needed. There was no availability for a value studio for my dates when I checked later that week. If I had waited, I would have been shut out. So, for this scenario, the 7-month window is moot because there is no availabilty anyway.

 

[thepoohguy]

OK. Thanks.

Well, I will be pulling points ahead from my next year to do this, but it's all good.

My UY is October and we are planning a trip for the end of October. But the trip is a coast to coast staying in CA first then on to FL. So, if I pull points ahead from the 2014 UY, they will get used when I book the FL portion of my trip!

 

[DebbieB]

I've done it at VGC. We usually go Saturday or Sunday to Friday. I book Friday to Friday and then cancel the first 1 or 2 days.

 

[Anal Annie]

Just curious, why isn't this typically done at 7 months? Is there a reason I'm not thinking about? I was considering this for my stay at the end of October.

It doesn't help you beat out anybody who owns at the resort so a lot of people think it's a waste of time. But IMO it DOES help with other people who are also trying to book at the 7 month window. It works in some instances, like with smaller resorts with limited availability at the 7 month window - it just knocks out a little more of the other 7 month competition.

 

[Simba's Mom]

So I am still a couple days away from the 7 month mark. When I look online, I see my dates are available for arrival through departure as we aren't staying a full 7 days.

Is it okay to make a 7 day reservation to get my days, then after we cross the 7 month mark, take off the first two days?

Is this somehow cheating?

Has anyone else ever done this?

Frankly, I'd encourage you to have done this. I had the same situation in that I looked at the members' website a few days before my 7 month window opened and there was availability for what we wanted. Then the next day, only 2 days before my window opened for 7 months from my date, nada! So because I was "honest" (or stupid, I'm not sure which) and waited until 7 months from the date we're starting, I'm now on a wait list. We want 3 nights at BCV, so I could have booked 6 nights when it was available, then later call back and cancel those first few nights that we don't need. Cheating? Maybe-but I wouldn't be on a waitlist right now. I'm wondering if "Honesty" is the best policy.

 

[Sammie]

I would never do it, if I had to borrow points. Anything can happen to postpone or cancel any upcoming trips.