Holding points - WWYD?

[corinnak]

Through my own inattention, I ended up cancelling one night of the reservation of our last trip within the 30 day window. As a result, we have 55 points in holding - October UY.

I want to run in the Minnie Marathon the first weekend in May and use those points up, but I am aware that this cuts down on the flexibility that everyone suggests you need for holding points. I would also prefer OKW for the two beds in a studio that weekend, but we could be more flexible about resort if necessary. I actually have enough points left this year to cover that reservation today, which I am planning to bank, but that wouldn't do anything for those 55 holding points.

What should I do? Wait until the 60 day mark and take my chances? Book a regular resort and cancel if I can get the DVC to work out? Book using my regular points and switch things around if I can in March? I would deeply appreciate any insight or advice.

 

[spiceycat]

book using your regular points then switch.

although in May - especially for fri and sat - don't really think you will have any problems.

 

[corinnak]

Thanks, Pat! It probably seems like a no-brainer, but I wasn't sure if this was OK to do, what with supposing to be penalized and all. Will they just let me switch the points at 60 days?

 

[spiceycat]

yes - shouldn't be a problem.

the only problem would be if the resort was sold out - then to use your holding points they would have to replace your reservation - which they will not do it the resort is sold out.

in May at OKW won't worry about it.

 

[dizplanner]

The question is how important is the room to you? If you want the room regardless of whether you can use your holding points or not, book now with your regular points and try changing at 60 days. If there is no wait list, they will cancel your original reservation and book with your holding points. Otherwise if you are only going if you can use your holding points, then just wait - booking now will not really gain you much. (I just thought of a slight advantage - if you booked with regular points you are holding the room - many people don't use the wait list but instead just select a different resort. If you didn't have it booked yourself, someone else might have booked it but wouldn't wait list for it.)

 

[corinnak]

So I went ahead and booked a studio at OKW for May - Thanks for the advice! I decided it was probably better to have the room than not to have it and we have a back-up plan in case we can't swap those holding points in there. No telling how the back-up plan will work out, of course. Darn holding points! Thanks again.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Your only problem would be the Minnie Marathon which is getting more popular. I know I tried to swap out a night for the January marathon back in Sept, but it was already booked solid. The full marathon is a bit different than the Minnie Marathon, but it might work against you.

 

[corinnak]

Interesting. I know about the Minnie, but was under the impression that it was not very popular or very large and they were planning therefore for this to be the last one. They are talking about replacing it with a "Princess" half-marathon, which I can believe would be very popular. It will be what it will be, at this point, I guess.

 

[corinnak]

So, it's been a while and probably this thread would have been better left burried, but I just wanted to update, as today was the day.

I had a reservation made several months ago and called today to see about using the holding points. There was evidently a night with limited availability and low availability, and she said we'd have to rebook the whole thing, if I wanted to take the chance, and I said that I thought we'd need to, yes. So she put me on hold (MS is doing that a LOT lately.) and came back and said we were all set and the reservation number was the same. To me, it doesn't sound like she cancelled and rebooked, but whatever. The holding points are getting used up and the non-holding points are now bankable, so I'm happy. Thanks again, everyone who shared advice and opinions. I appreciate it!

 

[CarolMN]

Thanks for letting us know. Glad it all worked out. Good luck in the Minnie.