Have you ever lost your points due to a last minute cancellation???

[Disn3yVision]

So I have a December use year and we normally travel anywhere from October to March. I purchased direct and December was the year they were selling at the time. If I could have chosen I would have much gathered October, but since I am stuck with December I am paranoid that I may be booking lots of November trips in the future and If I have to cancel those I will be way too close to points expiring to plan another last minute trip.

Is this a valid concern or am i being a little to worryisome. I keep telling myself I bet that type of thing almost never happens but I thought I would as to see how common it really is...

So, Have you ever lost your points due to a last minute cancellation??? If so why and what did you do?

 

[disneynutz]

Even though DVD is selling a particular UY, if you insist on a different one, they will usually come through. That's what we did and our guide told us that we might be waiting for several months for our Oct UY. I explained that we wanted to buy direct but if they couldn't come through I would have no other choice but to buy resale. A week later I received a call that they found the points and UY we wanted.

Understanding the UY rules and buying the UY that best fits your vacation dates can help if you need to cancel. At this point just let it go and see what happens.

Bill

 

[DenLo]

How you travel today may or may not have anything to do how you travel to WDW in 5 or 10 years. At some point you will be risking losing points. The only time we had points go into holding was when I ended up in the hospital for a few weeks and was forbidden to travel for a number of months. I thought for sure we were going to lose those points as we were unable to add on to our other travel plans for October as nothing was available in May when I got out of the hospital. We added an August trip instead. However, if it had happened in October and affected that vacation, I am not sure what we would have done. We have a February UY so maybe booked a January trip?

 

[Dean]

So I have a December use year and we normally travel anywhere from October to March. I purchased direct and December was the year they were selling at the time. If I could have chosen I would have much gathered October, but since I am stuck with December I am paranoid that I may be booking lots of November trips in the future and If I have to cancel those I will be way too close to points expiring to plan another last minute trip.

Is this a valid concern or am i being a little to worryisome. I keep telling myself I bet that type of thing almost never happens but I thought I would as to see how common it really is...

So, Have you ever lost your points due to a last minute cancellation??? If so why and what did you do?

IMO it's a valid concern. In our situation UY is likely worth between one and two years worth of points depending on your other variables. If you're not too late, you may want to see if you can change the UY.

 

[com_op_2000]

I have never lost a point in over 140+ vacations in over 20 years. Including:
DD(Adult) was scheduled to go with us on a family cruise. The week before the cruise the war in Iraq started and her BiL was KIA. The funeral was scheduled for the week of the cruise. We had to cancel her out of our room. We had booked her cruise on DVC points, DCL & DVC refunded the points without restrictions once I provided proof.

 

[CarolMN]

We've owned since 1999 and have taken between 1 and 3 trips per year since then. Have not had to cancel a trip. I know we are among the luckier members, but we are far from alone.

If the possibility of cancelling is really bothering you, consider trip insurance. Might be worth it to you just for peace of mind.

 

[suebeelin]

I constantly worry as well. We have a feb use year and tend to travel between October and January.

I've read that once in awhile you may be granted a refund on your points if the cm takes pity on your plight. No guarantee though.

 

[lovin'fl]

Since 2006 I have only once had holding points (from canceling the last night of our trip as we were driving to the trip). I managed to use the holding points just fine. But mine was canceled at the beginning of the UY so I had plenty of time to reuse them. I have canceled or changed plans several times but always before the 30 day holing period.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

If the possibility of cancelling is really bothering you, consider trip insurance. Might be worth it to you just for peace of mind.

Also, consider that you don't know in advance which trip you would cancel, so you would have to buy trip insurance for every trip. Over your ownership period, this could add up to more than the value of the points you might lose in the rare event that you cancel and can't rebook.

 

[bwvBound]

Very valid concern! Yes, do see if it not too late to get that changed. We negotiated UY as an element of "this is what we want." While we did not get the UY we firmly requested -- we were, eventually, offered a UY that was "close enough" and, as it turns out, is even BETTER than our original intent.

I've had points go into Holding due to a last minute cancel -- as we decided to check-out and return home 3 days earlier than our original booking. Gladly, we had a long window ahead of us and were able to use the points for an unexpected weekend trip a few months later.

• Ours is Oct UY
• Our abbreviated trip was late January; 30'ish points went to holding
• We used all the holding points and a few regular points for an unplanned Flower & Garden visit in April just before our Annual Passes expired. Phew! Great timing!

Very gladly, I have one DVC resort nearby (~2hr drive) ... and figured I could have stalked the online inventory and used the holding points at the Grand Cal if absolutely necessary.

 

[crisi]

I haven't lost DVC points, but I've cancelled trips on short notice with cash where I've lost money.

 

[LisaS]

For various reasons we have cancelled every trip I booked for the last two years! Fortunately I did my DVC homework here before buying and purchased a UY that works perfectly for us, and I was able to cancel those trips at least 31 days out to avoid having points go into the holding account. I did end up losing some points even with our perfect UY because one of the trips was booked with both current and banked points so I had to use or lose those banked points by the end of my UY. I offered them for free to a few people who live close to Orlando in case someone wanted to use them for a weekend getaway at WDW but nobody was able to use them and they expired.

 

[Disn3yVision]

Very gladly, I have one DVC resort nearby (~2hr drive) ... and figured I could have stalked the online inventory and used the holding points at the Grand Cal if absolutely necessary.

I also live in Cali, about 30 minutes from DL, so that is what I keep trying to reassure myself with that we could always use up extra points with a last minute trip to grand cal if necessary. But then I think about how incredibly small and hard to get into Grand cal is and wonder if that is even a realistic possibility.

 

[Disn3yVision]

Thanks for all the responses. I realize that I could just as easily change to an OCT use year and then something happens and I end up losing those points so no use year is perfect. We actually came really close to getting an OCT use year (we held off purchasing to do more research) and when we finally decided to commit they were "only" selling December. I don't believe its too late to rescind but part of me feels like maybe we barely missed OCT and got DEC for a reason and I should just "let go and let God".

I will say it is reassuring to hear everybody's responses and helps me keep in mind that while it is possible I MAY lose my points, its not likely.

 

[Dean]

Thanks for all the responses. I realize that I could just as easily change to an OCT use year and then something happens and I end up losing those points so no use year is perfect. We actually came really close to getting an OCT use year (we held off purchasing to do more research) and when we finally decided to commit they were "only" selling December. I don't believe its too late to rescind but part of me feels like maybe we barely missed OCT and got DEC for a reason and I should just "let go and let God".

I will say it is reassuring to hear everybody's responses and helps me keep in mind that while it is possible I MAY lose my points, its not likely.

I'd go back and ask them to change if Oct is better. It's also a slightly better value by 2/12 of a years points in addition to the added insurance for changes/cancellations.

 

[crisi]

Thanks for all the responses. I realize that I could just as easily change to an OCT use year and then something happens and I end up losing those points so no use year is perfect. We actually came really close to getting an OCT use year (we held off purchasing to do more research) and when we finally decided to commit they were "only" selling December. I don't believe its too late to rescind but part of me feels like maybe we barely missed OCT and got DEC for a reason and I should just "let go and let God".

I will say it is reassuring to hear everybody's responses and helps me keep in mind that while it is possible I MAY lose my points, its not likely.

God may be telling you to buy resale

 

[bwvBound]

I also live in Cali, about 30 minutes from DL, so that is what I keep trying to reassure myself with that we could always use up extra points with a last minute trip to grand cal if necessary. But then I think about how incredibly small and hard to get into Grand cal is and wonder if that is even a realistic possibility.

Well Howdy, Neighbor!

While we own at SSR, we typically stay 2-3 nights/year at the Grand Cal. Mostly 1BR ... but that is OK w/ us.

 

[JimMIA]

In several dozen trips, we have only come close to losing points once -- and that's with an October UY with 2/3 of the family traveling 90% in July or August!

The one time was when my adult daughter booked a stay at VB inside 30 days (actually about 15 days). She called to tell me about it and I asked, "Um...don't you have XYZ that weekend?" She did, and had to cancel, so the points went into holding. However within a few days we booked another stay using the holding points.

My personal opinion on UY is that it is important, but if you have one that is not perfect at this point in your life, it's just something that you have to manage more carefully.

 

[LisaS]

Thanks for all the responses. I realize that I could just as easily change to an OCT use year and then something happens and I end up losing those points so no use year is perfect. We actually came really close to getting an OCT use year (we held off purchasing to do more research) and when we finally decided to commit they were "only" selling December. I don't believe its too late to rescind but part of me feels like maybe we barely missed OCT and got DEC for a reason and I should just "let go and let God".

I will say it is reassuring to hear everybody's responses and helps me keep in mind that while it is possible I MAY lose my points, its not likely.

If you ever have a situation that might cause you to cancel your trip, a good UY buys you time. Of the four trips I had to cancel, each time I was able to hang on until 31 days out before canceling to see if things might work themselves out and we could go after all. With a less convenient UY, either I would have had to cancel much earlier or might have already been beyond my banking deadline when the situations arose. It gave us peace of mind to know that thanks to our UY, we had time to think things through and decide what to do.

While some people are lucky and never have to cancel a trip, I'm so grateful for the advice I got here to pick a UY that works for our travel dates. It has saved us a lot of stress over the past couple of years! The other stress reducer was booking our flights on Southwest using points so that we could cancel with only the loss of what we paid for Early Bird Check-in.

 

[Anal Annie]

We also have a Dec UY but we travel at different times every year (multiple trips / year) so I guess realistically any UY could have its pluses & minuses. We always have at least 1 summer trip tho. A couple of years ago we had to cancel a late summer trip to DL & Aulani at only 8 days out due to a medical emergency with our DS but luckily were able to push the trip back by a week & rebook at SSR. Otherwise the points would have gone into holding & would have had to be used by the end of November. If that had happened & we couldn't go we would have tried to book a trip for family or friends so the points would not be lost (it was a lot of points because we'd banked some in planning for Aulani).

We had 1 other year where we had a few points we couldn't use and we booked a few nights for my BIL & SIL for an October trip rather than lose them. We would much rather give away a trip than lose them...