Changing a reservation at 7 months - technical/detailed question on procedure

[gkrykewy]

We have a reservation at our home resort for a full week, but - assuming availability - are interested in switching 4 of those nights to another resort at the 7 month mark.

The issue is that we don't have enough available points to just book the 4 nights and then modify the original reservation. My concern is that if multiple members are calling at 9am for the same room type and our booking takes more time than others (i.e., need to modify/cancel to free up points, and then book the new nights), we'll lose the room.

What's the best procedure here, assuming that MS can't "hold" the new nights for us while they modify/cancel the old ones? Aggressive options could include canceling the original 4 nights the night before (having a good idea that there will be availability of at least 1 room at 9am) or borrowing points for the reservation (and then banking the points freed up by the cancellation).

 

[DisneyWalker44]

What's the best procedure here

I honestly believe the best procedure is the most straightforward: Call first thing in the morning, ask if rooms are available at new resort, if so ask to cancel rooms at old resort and book new. The odds of you being shut out of both rooms is incredibly small. But I admit it's not zero.

If you want to be paranoid (not that there's anything wrong with that) are using current year points for the trip, are in your banking window and know you will take a trip in your next use year, go ahead and borrow the points for new resort and the cancel and bank the points for old resort.

 

[BostonDisneyKid]

I think what I would do is calll and change the home resort booking to 2 reservations prior to the 7 month mark (asap) for 3 nights and 4 nights. At the 7 month mark call and try to switch the 4 night reservation to the resort of your choice. If it isnt available, set up a wait list for it.

 

[gkrykewy]

The odds of you being shut out of both rooms is incredibly small. But I admit it's not zero.

If you want to be paranoid (not that there's anything wrong with that)

I feel like I have good reason - had the first night "disappear" this morning while on the phone with MS while asking one too many questions about other date options.

How about waitlisting - if I call today and waitlist those 4 specific nights, would it be filled overnight assuming availability, or would that be a streamlined way to get the reservations switched under the assistance of a guide tomorrow AM?

 

[jbrowna]

I believe you can't just cancel a subset of nights from a reservation: cancelling four nights means cancelling the entire reservation and making a new one. So, if you cancel the night before, I would presume that anyone on a waitlist would be in line ahead of you for the newly available nights, so I wouldn't do that!

How, exactly, MS might go about modifying an existing reservation I don't know. But I suspect you are correct in that enough points are required to hold any reservation while modifications are made. As you mention, there are only two ways for you to get those extra points: cancel the old reservation, or borrow from next year to hold the new reservation. Then, if all goes well, you should be able to bank any of the freed points from the modified reservation (providing you are still within your banking window, and since you are at 7 months you wouldn't have any holding account issues).

However, I wonder if this could happen: you borrow points to hold the new reservation. While modifying the old reservation, you discover that you can't get the exact days you want, so you decide to keep the old reservation as is. So you cancel the new reservation, and now you have borrowed points that you can't put back. As I said, I don't know exactly how MS would go about modifying a reservation, but if it involves cancelling and rebooking, you could run into issues with folks who are on a waitlist leapfrogging in front of you. Perhaps MS has ways of dealing with that, but I would certainly ask before I started making any modifications!

I do like a previous poster's suggestion of making your original 7-day reservation into a 3-day and a 4-day reservation. That way you can waitlist for the 4 days at the 7 month mark. If it comes through MS will automatically cancel the old 4-day reservation and use the points at the other resort, no borrowing involved.

 

[Chuck S]

I believe you can't just cancel a subset of nights from a reservation: cancelling four nights means cancelling the entire reservation and making a new one. So, if you cancel the night before, I would presume that anyone on a waitlist would be in line ahead of you for the newly available nights, so I wouldn't do that!

You can drop nights from a reservation, either from the arrival or departure side, but you can not cut dates out of the middle of a reservation.