Blocked from booking this morning outside 4-month window!

[Katie2]

All of our contracts are resale and I firmly believe that this four-month window may not be a random number, though whether they will actually do anything with it now or in the future is unpredictable at best.

We are currently in a ROFR stage for a resale contract, and this thread has seriously concerned me. If resale contracts are suddenly limited to a 4 month booking window that would seriously affect the terms of the agreement and our ability to get any rooms. Does anyone know if that is possible? I know Disney seems to change the rules as they please, but would this be applied retroactive or is it possible that it becomes a blanket approach?

 

[DougEMG]

Okay, I have an update. It must be something specific to my account because only half of our other resorts can be booked at 11 months right now either. I'm getting the four-month error message for most, but not all, of our other non-AKL home resorts as well. The seven-month window works for all but AKL. Hopefully, it is something they can easily adjust on their end today, but at least I know it's not specifically the Jambo-Kidani issue.

And I am definitely noting that this means that they can make a change of some sort on their end that can restrict a member, with all or any of their existing memberships, to booking only within a four-month window, regardless of their home resort.

Well that is kind of disturbing to hear.

 

[Katie2]

All of our contracts are resale and I firmly believe that this four-month window may not be a random number, though whether they will actually do anything with it now or in the future is unpredictable at best.

For example, is it possible that only Direct contracts will receive 11 home resort priority booking window, followed by 7 month opportunity to box non-home resorts. Any resale contacts will be relegated to a 4 month booking window. This error message cannot be a random mistake, there has to be a reason you are getting this error message on all your accounts.

 

[DougEMG]

For example, is it possible that only Direct contracts will receive 11 home resort priority booking window, followed by 7 month opportunity to box non-home resorts. Any resale contacts will be relegated to a 4 month booking window. This error message cannot be a random mistake, there has to be a reason you are getting this error message on all your accounts.

Something like that would destroy the resale market totally.

 

[Katie2]

Something like that would destroy the resale market totally.

Hence my concern.....It seems like Disney doesn’t care about the losses dvc owners may sustain when reselling as long as they can purchase back points cheaply and repackage them for resale. We have seen the restrictions for Riviera, they can’t be happy with a resale market for the Original 14 that substantially undercuts their current prices. This might be their “solution.” Just wondering if this is something they are “allowed” to do.

 

[jerseyduke]

It's probably just plain old, ordinary incompetence. (Or that the coding has been outsourced to someone who doesn't really understand how the system is supposed to work coupled with no oversight/testing by those that do, LOL)

Exactly. (The later)

 

[CarolMN]

[/QUOTE]

Okay, I have an update. It must be something specific to my account because only half of our other resorts can be booked at 11 months right now either. I'm getting the four-month error message for most, but not all, of our other non-AKL home resorts as well. The seven-month window works for all but AKL. Hopefully, it is something they can easily adjust on their end today, but at least I know it's not specifically the Jambo-Kidani issue.

And I am definitely noting that this means that they can make a change of some sort on their end that can restrict a member, with all or any of their existing memberships, to booking only within a four-month window, regardless of their home resort.

All of our contracts are resale and I firmly believe that this four-month window may not be a random number, though whether they will actually do anything with it now or in the future is unpredictable at best.

This reminds me of an incident that occurred several years ago - wish I could remember who reported it as I believe it was one of our "regulars".

As I recall, someone at Disney (or perhaps several someones) was using the Member's actual account for "testing" and "checking" various things. Whoever it was didn't put the account back exactly the way it was afterwards - believe there was a problem with the available points that was not in the Member's favor. (This was long before we had an online booking system). I do not remember the rest of the details, other than the Member was made whole and we started advising everyone to ask for a points status at the end of every interaction with MS. Hopefully ,the someone was appropriately disciplined, because IMO, it was (and still is) completely wrong to use an actual account for that purpose.

I don't think that is what is happening here, but I mention it to show that there is always something going on in the background that we may or may not know about, and sometimes, it has adverse effects on individuals.

 

[jerseyduke]

Something like that would destroy the resale market totally.

It certainly would, but would it be legal? I thought that the contract stated that home resort members were guaranteed to have at least a one month booking window advantage over non home resort members. When you sell it, aren't you selling the contract?

Although if it is legal, and you go with a "Conspiracy theorist" point of view, maybe they want to destroy the resale market in time. They are always going to want to sell DVC for the foreseeable future, and the question I ponder is, what is after Reflections? Is there something in their sites, or is it then ROFR cheap points and resell?

 

[DebbieB]

We are currently in a ROFR stage for a resale contract, and this thread has seriously concerned me. If resale contracts are suddenly limited to a 4 month booking window that would seriously affect the terms of the agreement and our ability to get any rooms. Does anyone know if that is possible? I know Disney seems to change the rules as they please, but would this be applied retroactive or is it possible that it becomes a blanket approach?

With all the rules changes, they have never been retroactive.

My bet is a computer glitch on this.

 

[crvetter]

It certainly would, but would it be legal? I thought that the contract stated that home resort members were guaranteed to have at least a one month booking window advantage over non home resort members. When you sell it, aren't you selling the contract?

Although if it is legal, and you go with a "Conspiracy theorist" point of view, maybe they want to destroy the resale market in time. They are always going to want to sell DVC for the foreseeable future, and the question I ponder is, what is after Reflections? Is there something in their sites, or is it then ROFR cheap points and resell?

Correct in order for a resort to participate in BVTC the resort must give all owners at minimum 1 month home resort priority period.

I honestly thing this is nothing more than a bug. If you change the date nothing then seems nefarious. Perhaps they are trying to update the system to give better error messages but just aren’t quite there yet haha. Plus the way I read the message is that the OP needed to book a stay on or after 11/4 which would imply they couldn’t book within 4 months not that they could book only within 4 months.

Perhaps they are going to include Disney collection trading online in that case the error message make sense.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

It certainly would, but would it be legal? I thought that the contract stated that home resort members were guaranteed to have at least a one month booking window advantage over non home resort members. When you sell it, aren't you selling the contract?

That is correct.

Of course it's not to say that this managment wouldn't try and say they have a different interpretation of that.....

I don't really think this is anything too telling but it is a curious message.

 

[crvetter]

That is correct.

Of course it's not to say that this managment wouldn't try and say they have a different interpretation of that.....

I don't really think this is anything too telling but it is a curious message.

I will say it says the OP needs to book outside 4 months not that they can only book within 4 months.

Please select a reservation date on or after Nov 4, 2019, or use Vacation Points from another Home Resort contract to book this reservation.

So it seems to be a bug and nothing more. Even if it is a new rule, which I don’t think so, it is saying you must book greater than 4 months out, essentially this is the rule of 4 for the Disney Collection and perhaps someone just exposed that check to the members when MS is only supposed to see it when booking the Disney collections.

Also as for the OP not being able to make a reservation again I think some testing was going on and their account is bugged.

 

[MissLiss279]

To me the way I read it, if you are trying to book June 2020, it is telling you to wait until November to book - at the 7 month (non-home priority) booking window. Still a glitch since it is your home resort, but nothing to do with a 4 month window. But I could be mis-interpreting it as well.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I will say it says the OP needs to book outside 4 months not that they can only book within 4 months.


So it seems to be a bug and nothing more. Even if it is a new rule, which I don’t think so, it is saying you must book greater than 4 months out, essentially this is the rule of 4 for the Disney Collection and perhaps someone just exposed that check to the members when MS is only supposed to see it when booking the Disney collections.

Also as for the OP not being able to make a reservation again I think some testing was going on and their account is bugged.

The rule of 4 was something that crossed my mind. These booking error messages have been no where near accurate for me in a long time. Just haven't had this particular one.

 

[crvetter]

To me the way I read it, if you are trying to book June 2020, it is telling you to wait until November to book - at the 7 month (non-home priority) booking window. Still a glitch since it is your home resort, but nothing to do with a 4 month window. But I could be mis-interpreting it as well.

Actually I just tested and that is exactly what it saying. So this would seem like the normal AK Jambo Kidani glitch. It’s a very odd message but I just tried to book Riviera and this is what I got.

So spot on I think. So of course the message makes very little sense and should be clearer they mean that is when you can reserve not the dates you can reserve.

 

[pangyal]

Actually I just tested and that is exactly what it saying. So this would seem like the normal AK Jambo Kidani glitch. It’s a very odd message but I just tried to book Riviera and this is what I got.
View attachment 414337
So spot on I think. So of course the message makes very little sense and should be clearer they mean that is when you can reserve not the dates you can reserve.

I get the same message for VGF and Poly.

 

[crvetter]

I get the same message for VGF and Poly.

Either way the message isn't telling you to book within 4 months as the thread suggests. It is actually telling you that you need to wait until the 7 month window to book your stays, see my post above. I realize their message is confusing but this is what I get when I try to book a resort without any available home resort points at that resort.

Do you own VGF and PVB with available points? Are you selecting those contracts to make the selection? Did you recently add on with those ownership interest? Overall I think something is mis-coded with your account and a call to MS should clear it up quickly. I don't think DVC has any nefarious plans in place since it is a normal message just that they are treating your contracts without home resort privilege.

 

[stuartsong]

DVC has been having many IT issues. I recently had an issue with booking a reservation using transfer points. I never got the explanation on what the issue was, but we had to wait for the 7 month booking window to use the Polynesian transfer points for the Polynesian reservation. DVC did hold the room because it was their issue.

 

[pangyal]

Either way the message isn't telling you to book within 4 months as the thread suggests. It is actually telling you that you need to wait until the 7 month window to book your stays, see my post above. I realize their message is confusing but this is what I get when I try to book a resort without any available home resort points at that resort.

Do you own VGF and PVB with available points? Are you selecting those contracts to make the selection? Did you recently add on with those ownership interest? Overall I think something is mis-coded with your account and a call to MS should clear it up quickly. I don't think DVC has any nefarious plans in place since it is a normal message just that they are treating your contracts without home resort privilege.

I'm not convinced it's nefarious either, but I definitely do know how to navigate the system and yes, we own at all of the resorts that I attempted to test home resort priority with. Your error message dates do not line up with mine or any other error message I've ever seen, which is why I thought it was so strange.

 

[crvetter]

I'm not convinced it's nefarious either, but I definitely do know how to navigate the system and yes, we own at all of the resorts that I attempted to test home resort priority with. Your error message dates do not line up with mine or any other error message I've ever seen, which is why I thought it was so strange.

It lines up with yours because it was the structure the date they are giving both of us is the 7 month date from our check in. You were looking June 4 2020 and I was looking 2/14/2020 so the date they give is the non home resort booking opening up. We just chose different check in days.