How to change part of a reservation?

[MJ6987]

Hi,
We are planning to make our first reservation as a DVC owner and I just want to understand how things work.

We have banked last year's points and will be using those plus this year's points to book 2 weeks at our home resort. I understand that I will need to book this in stages, e.g. 7 nights, 4 nights and 3 nights.

At 7 months we would like to try and change part of that reservation, e.g. the last 2 or 3 nights for a different resort. This may require us to borrow some points. Also, as the ones we want are likely to be in short supply we may well have to waitlist rather than just rebook.

My questions are:

1. Would I need to phone MS for this 7 month adjustment rather than do it online?

2. Assuming there is availability, how does this work? e.g. would I be able to book the new reservation before cancelling part of the original one? Or is this not possible due to borrowing points being a one-way transaction? If not, is there a risk we cancel part of the original one and then the new one becomes unavailable?

3. How would it work if we need to waitlist? Given that we would need to cancel part, then rebook and possibly borrow points?

Its all so confusing!

Thanks

 

[Dean]

Hi,
We are planning to make our first reservation as a DVC owner and I just want to understand how things work.

We have banked last year's points and will be using those plus this year's points to book 2 weeks at our home resort. I understand that I will need to book this in stages, e.g. 7 nights, 4 nights and 3 nights.

At 7 months we would like to try and change part of that reservation, e.g. the last 2 or 3 nights for a different resort. This may require us to borrow some points. Also, as the ones we want are likely to be in short supply we may well have to waitlist rather than just rebook.

My questions are:

1. Would I need to phone MS for this 7 month adjustment rather than do it online?

2. Assuming there is availability, how does this work? e.g. would I be able to book the new reservation before cancelling part of the original one? Or is this not possible due to borrowing points being a one-way transaction? If not, is there a risk we cancel part of the original one and then the new one becomes unavailable?

3. How would it work if we need to waitlist? Given that we would need to cancel part, then rebook and possibly borrow points?

Its all so confusing!

Thanks

You have some choices to make. In general terms you can free up the points by canceling the corresponding days of your 11 month reservation. The problem is that to do so you'll have to call and have MS do it which will take time. Not only will you be an hour behind those who book online but you'll have the additional time and risk associated with MS changing the reservation. Your best chance of success as planned is to book the 11 month reservation for just the days you want to end up with and then you'll have the points available for the 7 month option. But you run the risk of not having anything for those days that's on your A list. Decide how important it is to you for the second option and how difficult it might be to get something else that you're happy with for the other portion. One option is to book the 11 month reservation minus the 2-3 days then a separate home resort reservation in the same unit type but a different name for the 2-3 days. That way you can cancel on the fly online if what you want is available and book the shorter stay online at 8 instead of waiting for MS to open at 9. But it's possible you won't end up with either so decide how OK you are with that and only having the lessor demand resorts as your only option waiting on the wait list. If you had enough points extra to book duplicates for those 2-3 days while you sorted it out, you'd have a much better chance of success. One thing you might do is book in such a way your main reservation uses the banked points you'll likely need so that any extra you end up with from double booking and canceling later can then later be banked to the next UY. If you have to Wait list, one day at a time gives you the best chance of success.

 

[Minniesgal]

We always do this online.

The nights I want to swap I book as a separate reservation then at 7 months if what i want is available I cancel and rebook. It helps my home is AKV so usually pretty easy to rebook if anything went wrong with the switch.

I have never had any issues though with swapping it works pretty well if you do it right at 7 months and you are not trying of a peak time reservation. Between Oct and the end of the year I would probably just book home resort and plan on staying there otherwise I'd swap out.

 

[MJ6987]

You have some choices to make. In general terms you can free up the points by canceling the corresponding days of your 11 month reservation. The problem is that to do so you'll have to call and have MS do it which will take time. Not only will you be an hour behind those who book online but you'll have the additional time and risk associated with MS changing the reservation. Your best chance of success as planned is to book the 11 month reservation for just the days you want to end up with and then you'll have the points available for the 7 month option. But you run the risk of not having anything for those days that's on your A list. Decide how important it is to you for the second option and how difficult it might be to get something else that you're happy with for the other portion. One option is to book the 11 month reservation minus the 2-3 days then a separate home resort reservation in the same unit type but a different name for the 2-3 days. That way you can cancel on the fly online if what you want is available and book the shorter stay online at 8 instead of waiting for MS to open at 9. But it's possible you won't end up with either so decide how OK you are with that and only having the lessor demand resorts as your only option waiting on the wait list. If you had enough points extra to book duplicates for those 2-3 days while you sorted it out, you'd have a much better chance of success. One thing you might do is book in such a way your main reservation uses the banked points you'll likely need so that any extra you end up with from double booking and canceling later can then later be banked to the next UY. If you have to Wait list, one day at a time gives you the best chance of success.

Thanks for the advice. I was planning to book the 2 weeks something like 7 days - 4 days - 3 days (as someone advised previously - might have been you) anyway so could leave that last 3 days as a separate reservation. But, what do you mean by the bolded part above - "a different name"? Do you mean, like, my wife's name (also a joint member for the points)? Can't I just book them under my name but keep as a separate reservation? Thanks

 

[MJ6987]

We always do this online.

The nights I want to swap I book as a separate reservation then at 7 months if what i want is available I cancel and rebook. It helps my home is AKV so usually pretty easy to rebook if anything went wrong with the switch.

I have never had any issues though with swapping it works pretty well if you do it right at 7 months and you are not trying of a peak time reservation. Between Oct and the end of the year I would probably just book home resort and plan on staying there otherwise I'd swap out.

It is a peak time - the last few days will be 23-26 December. We would like a monorail / WLV ideally for those days but would also accept AKV or SSR as a back up - would those be available? Looking at Studios by the way.

Starting to think we might just be better sticking with home resort BWV for the whole thing!

 

[Dean]

Thanks for the advice. I was planning to book the 2 weeks something like 7 days - 4 days - 3 days (as someone advised previously - might have been you) anyway so could leave that last 3 days as a separate reservation. But, what do you mean by the bolded part above - "a different name"? Do you mean, like, my wife's name (also a joint member for the points)? Can't I just book them under my name but keep as a separate reservation? Thanks

Sure, your wife's name would work, yours on one and her's on the other. Then once you're set you change them all as needed. The suggestion you got was related to the fact you can only book a running 7 nights 11 months in advance and that at 11 months out, once you have a reservation, you cannot get shut out as long as you don't let the 11 months window come before you book additional days. Booking 7 then an additional 4 then the final 3 simply gets you one reservation for 14 nights 11 months out. What you want is to end up with one 11 or 12 night reservation at your home resort and a 2 or 3 night monorail resort if I understood correctly.

 

[MJ6987]

Sure, your wife's name would work, yours on one and her's on the other. Then once you're set you change them all as needed. The suggestion you got was related to the fact you can only book a running 7 nights 11 months in advance and that at 11 months out, once you have a reservation, you cannot get shut out as long as you don't let the 11 months window come before you book additional days. Booking 7 then an additional 4 then the final 3 simply gets you one reservation for 14 nights 11 months out. What you want is to end up with one 11 or 12 night reservation at your home resort and a 2 or 3 night monorail resort if I understood correctly.

Yeah, that's it, ideally. I just didn't understand why the other reservation needed to be in a different name. Is it because they will automatically combine them if under the same name?

 

[Dean]

Yeah, that's it, ideally. I just didn't understand why the other reservation needed to be in a different name. Is it because they will automatically combine them if under the same name?

Yes, they likely will.

 

[MJ6987]

Yes, they likely will.

Got it - thanks

 

[Minniesgal]

Yes, they likely will.

I'm not so sure. We only ever do split stays. At 11 months i usually book 12 nights in 3 blocks of 4 nights at AKV usually Kidani and the final 4 nights at VGF. Then at 7 months i cancel the second and third 4 night blocks and book something else. All in my name and have never ever had them combine a reservation.

 

[Dean]

I'm not so sure. We only ever do split stays. At 11 months i usually book 12 nights in 3 blocks of 4 nights at AKV usually Kidani and the final 4 nights at VGF. Then at 7 months i cancel the second and third 4 night blocks and book something else. All in my name and have never ever had them combine a reservation.

The last couple of years they've been fairly consistently combining such reservations into a single one. Not always but often is the way it appears to me. I've had it happen to me just a couple of months ago though in my case that's what I wanted anyway. I think you can discount any past experience more than a couple of years ago in this area.

 

[Minniesgal]

The last couple of years they've been fairly consistently combining such reservations into a single one. Not always but often is the way it appears to me. I've had it happen to me just a couple of months ago though in my case that's what I wanted anyway. I think you can discount any past experience more than a couple of years ago in this area.

Hm thats not good. I can't really comment on last couple of years we missed our last trip as work wouldn't play ball and our next trip we have decided to do home resorts only. We used to do this all the time.

 

[Dean]

Hm thats not good. I can't really comment on last couple of years we missed our last trip as work wouldn't play ball and our next trip we have decided to do home resorts only. We used to do this all the time.

Now you know and can protect yourself when needed. I'm thinking they combined 2 different days into the reservation as I found one online and the other matched the wait list. The last day they didn't by the time I contacted them and asked them to, I don't know if they would have later or not.