help - inquired on res. and ms booked

[ClarabelleCow]

I just got off the telephone with MS to inquire regarding dates available for August at Vero, gave the rep my first dates and one night was missing, so I asked about the next week, and all dates were available, then he asked if I could hold, I was on hold for about 6 minutes(seemed even longer!!!) then said I was all set, I said I was just inquiring, he said well I already booked it so the points would go to a holding account if I had to cancel, then he got kind of snippy because the thought of canceling, I said I was inquiring with the second dates because I had to check airfare (while I was on hold I was checking and its very high!!!) So my first question is should he first have come back to the line and verfied the inquiry and made sure that it was what I wanted? and Second how does a holding account work?? Thanks

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Holy cow. I would be ticked off. Don't they usually ask if you are ready to confirm the reservation before they actually do it? I think they always have when I have called.

 

[DebbieB]

I would call and ask for a supervisor. Holding account points can only be used 60 days before arrival and expire at the end of the use year.

 

[PamOKW]

Somewhere along the line the two of you had a "failure to communicate". Call back ASAP and speak to a supervisor and explain what happened. It should not be treated as a "cancellation" if the MS person misunderstood and you caught it while you were still in the middle of the transaction.

When you cancel less than 31 days out from the start of your reservation, the points go into Holding and can only be used to reserve 60 days or less before a trip. They also can no longer be banked.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

So if I decided to cancel, and wanted to rebook say February 14 - February 21, but my use year ends in February, I couldn't book those dates??? Or would I have to book those dates 60 days prior (now I know I'm pushing it for Presidents week, but it is a thought?)

 

[DebbieB]

Is your use year February or March? If you have a February use year, the points would have to be used by January 31, 2004. If you have a March use year, they would have to be used by February 29, 2004.

They can only be reserved 60 days ahead. For example, you wanted to go Feb 14 to 21, you could call no earlier than Dec 16 (60 days, Dec & Jan have 31 days). That assumes you have a March use year, a February use year would not work.

If this was a mistake, I would not hesitate to call back and get it straightened out rather than taking a chance on losing points. You may not be able to get those dates around President's Day by calling in December.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

Luckily all worked out - I was able to confirm a decent airfare into West Palm Beach, so no need to cancel the reservation, I don't know if the confusion was with the CM or myself, but I was shocked when he came back to the telephone with a reservation number!!! Anyway it worked, now I will try to call back and get put on a wait list for an oceanfront Inn room(HAHA) my understanding is the garden rooms view the front of the building, maybe not that bad, but for 10 points, if its available, it would be nice!!

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by ClarabelleCow
Luckily all worked out - I was able to confirm a decent airfare into West Palm Beach, so no need to cancel the reservation, I don't know if the confusion was with the CM or myself, but I was shocked when he came back to the telephone with a reservation number!!! Anyway it worked, now I will try to call back and get put on a wait list for an oceanfront Inn room(HAHA) my understanding is the garden rooms view the front of the building, maybe not that bad, but for 10 points, if its available, it would be nice!!

If you had needed, you could have gotten it fixed. Better to "cancel" this right away if you needed to. Glad it worked out.

 

[Caskbill]

Boy, that was close. It could have been a problem if they went into the holding account.

There's a lesson here for all of us. Make sure the CM know whether we want to book a reservation or we are just inquiring about availability.

Since he was gone 6-minutes, he probably was doing some juggling trying to get that one day.

Glad it worked out.