Cancelling 1 Night Mid-Stay?

[SuzanneSLO]

This morning, I was told by MS that I could not cancel just 1 night in the middle of my reservation. Specifically, I wanted to cancel a Sat night I booked at 11 months and rebook with non-home resort points at 7 months. Availability of that 1 night was not a problem; but it was for the other nights in the reservation both before and after that night.

Anyone know if I could have avoided this problem if I had booked two seprate back to back reservations? For example, one reservation number for Sun thru Sat and another for Sat thru Wed?

How does this affect the ability to do a day-by-day waitlist? For example, I have a Sun thru TH night reservation at my home resort and then waitlist day-by-day at another resort. The first night available at the new resort is Wed. Do they have to cancel Wed and Th from my home resort ressie to free up the points from just Wed (thus causing me to lose my Th reservation)?

Inquiring minds want to know! Thanks -- Suzanne

 

[PamOKW]

If you were going to leave the points used the same for the rest of the nights, I don't see why you couldn't cancel the one night. I would call back and try again. Just say you want to cancel that night. Period.

You can then call and try to book that one night using different points.

If you are trying to use "different" points for the whole reservation, you would be cancelling one reservation and rebooking a new reservation. If you know there is availability to do this, make two reservations leaving out the middle night.

Sorry.....haven't got time to think through the rest of your question! I'll let someone else tackle.

 

[Chuck S]

Here is my guess as to why you could not cancel a night mid-stay.

Currently, your entire reservation is one reservation. We'll call it reservation "A". To cancel one night in the middle of that reservation, they would need to make it into two reservations, one for the nights prior to the canceled night, and for the night following the canceled night. These reservations, with a missing night, could not be linked, as the are not consecutive nights. So now you'd have reservation "A", and then need to create a new reservation "B", and a reservation "C" to use the 7 month points for that one night, then link them.

So if all the nights are not currently available for either the night prior to the canceled night or the nights following the canceled night, there is no way to create reservation "B"

To simply allow Member Services to substitute points at 7 months would defeat the purpose of the 11/7 window.

Having two reservations initially would have solved part of the problem, except that generally reservations for consecutive noghts n the same room class at the same resort are automatically linked into one reservation. You would need to have two reservatons for either different resorts or room classes.

 

[LisaS]

Their system probably doesn't allow them to create a new reservation for the Sun - Wed nights without cancelling those nights from the current reservation and trying to grab them again when creating the new one. A supervisor should be able to do it for you because as you pointed out, that is exactly what they have to do when someone has a day-by-day waitlist and gets a day in the middle of the original reservation.

As you suggested, if you know up front you want to rebook a night in the middle of your reservation, book it as two reservations (Sun - Sat, Sat - Wed). Then there should be no problem dropping that Sat night from the second reservation.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

.

 

[BillPA]

SuzanneSLO
How does this affect the ability to do a day-by-day waitlist? For example, I have a Sun thru TH night reservation at my home resort and then waitlist day-by-day at another resort. The first night available at the new resort is Wed. Do they have to cancel Wed and Th from my home resort ressie to free up the points from just Wed (thus causing me to lose my Th reservation)?

I don't think day by day wait list is available any longer. It's all or none.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I don't think day by day wait list is available any longer. It's all or none.

Really?
We bought in on Monday,and our guide booked us for 7 nts, at OKW. I thought about it overnight on Monday and called back yesterday to see if we could get AKV for the week prior (we're on property for 2 weeks, and I only inquired about availability for the second week). They got us into AKV for the last 3 nights of the second week, and offered me waitlist for the other 4 nights. They told me I could do it day-by-day or all 4 nights as a block. I chose the block because I didn't want to end up split into more ressies than we already have.
Now I am calling every day to try to add AKV nights backwards from the first night, one at a time. So far that's not working.

 

[DVCLiz]

I waitlisted day by day for a Spring Break trip this past March/April. I just told MS which resorts and room sizes I was willing to take and as each one was filled I called back to let them know if I was happy or still needed to wait for something else. They were happy to let me do it that way.

 

[BillPA]

Good, that is the original way we could wait list. They changed it a year or so ago. Glad to hear they came back to the old way.

 

[LisaS]

Good, that is the original way we could wait list. They changed it a year or so ago. Glad to hear they came back to the old way.

I think the thing that got changed was to make the waitlist automatic. There used to be an option to have MS call you if your waitlist came through to ask if you still wanted it. Now it's automatic -- if it comes through, they book it.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Thanks for all your replys. I would guess that this is a computer issue, not a rule per say. For example, I don't recall a rule that says you can cancel prior to 31 days except that you must also cancel every day in your reservation either before or after the cancelled night.

I suspect that there is probably some way that MS can manually manipulate the computer it if needed to for, say, that middle of the reservaiton day-by-day WL coming thru, because the supervisor that the CM was talking to seemed hung up on WHY I wanted to make this change. I thought the fact that the points I wanted to use to book at 7 months had an earlier UY and a different home resort was self-explanatory, but really couldn't understand why MS needed a reason if it was allowed by the rules.

While doing the substitution would have been nice, it wasn't worth more of my time to continue to press the issue. The points I wanted to substitute will now need to be banked for our next reservation, but I will have other points that will also need to be banked. I will have fewer Home Resort points to book our next vacation in May at the 11 month window, but I have a high level of confidence that I will get something accceptable at BWV for that time frame at the 7 month window.

Again, thanks. -- Suzanne

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

Just a little bit of clarity about the waitlists....

day by day waitlisting was always available and that has not changed
What has changed is the ability to waitlist for a number of resorts for the same night and keep all the reservations. Let's say you have your one resort booked and are trying to switch to another. You request to be on the waitlist. When a match occurs, they automatically cancel the existing reservation and book the new one. Many used to keep the original until the whole week of waitlists came in and then cancel the old one. It was useful, if you had enough points and ensured that you wouldn't have to switch resorts. Unfortunately, this meant members were holding excess reservations and others couldn't book. We used to do it to get BWV for F&W. Since the change we have still managed to be successful but there is certainly some risk associated with the day by day option.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Okay, so I've never actually waitlisted and may have to when I change my OKW January ressies for AKV next month.

My question has to do with the mechanics of waitlisting. If I waitlist day by day for the reservation, will they cancel my existing ressie day by day too, or will I be best off trying to book the whole thing at 7 months from checkout? Our ressie we want to switch is a 2 bedroom Jan 20-27. There are about 100 banked points used in that ressie, so I need to know what to expect along those lines too. I'm begining to think I should maybe just take my chances at 7 months from check out rather than waitlist day by day. It's important that the banked points be used for this ressie, since it is the last 4 months or our use year.