Canceling/Holding Question

[Family-of-4]

Good morning,

We have reservations starting this Tue, Dec 31. Have a sick child today. All points for this reservation are Apr 2013 UY - none are bankable. We are driving so can cancel fairly easily if need be. Two questions to make sure we have this right:

1) To not flat out lose any points, do we have to cancel today (Sun, Dec 29) or can we cancel tomorrow (Mon, Dec 30)?

2) If we cancel, these points will be in holding. We would want to go back starting Mar 15, 2014. Do we have to wait until mid-January (14th is 60 days out) to reserve? Any possibility of calling MS & reserving for March now due to illness?

Thanks!

 

[abdgeek]

If you cancel 30 days to 1 day before the reservation the points will go in a holding account(by Dec. 30-- but why test your luck?). I would call them to check on the rest. I know the language says the points have to be used by the end of the use year and you can't make your reservation until you are 60 days out.

I had a similar situation a couple of years ago when a major snow storm hit and my flight was cancelled. I had to call and modify my reservation because I couldn't get a flight to FL for three days. When I called to try to use my holding points, nothing was ever available for 60 days out. The CM finally got approval to make an exception and allowed me to use my points on an upcoming trip because I had called so many times to book something without success. That being said, this was before they offered travel insurance. I'm not sure if they would do that now because you should be covered if you purchased the travel insurance for your points.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You can cancel tomorrow and not lose your points. They will go into holding and you will have to wait until 60 days prior to your stay to use them. And if I'm recalling correctly I don't think it's 60+ 7 - or at least I recall having issues with that and having to wait until the entire reservation was within the 60 days but that was a couple of years ago and they may have modified that rule.

Hopefully everyone will feel better soon and you can spend this holiday at WDW!