Is this how it was supposed to happen?

[lumpydj]

I had a trip planned for Oct 8 - Oct 15. I was at BCV from the 8th - 14th and then at AKV for the last day. I had to do this because I booked at 11 months and I only had enough BCV points to book 6 nights in a 1BR. I booked the 1 night at the end at AKV with my AKV points, just so I'd have a place to stay for all 7 nights. I was planning on calling at my 7 month window and switching my AKV ressie for BCV using my AKV points.

I called on the 8th (of March) to see if I could change AKV to BCV. I was told they could not use my AKV points to book BCV on the 14th because it was outside of the 7 month window (7 months would have opened on March 14th). I told them that I thought I should be able to switch now since I could have booked at ANY other resort for the 8th - 15th since the 7 month window opened that day. I was put on hold for a while then MS came back and told me that they needed to cancel my whole vacation, then rebook from scratch in order to change the last night. I panicked when she told me that there was no availability to do that, but they were able to do something so I could get my 7 nights in a 1BR at BCV. I was VERY excited that MS was able to use pixie dust to make that happen - but I was wondering if that's the way it should have happened. I now have a whole new confirm number (not that it's a big deal), but it just proves that they had to cancel the whole thing and rebook.

For future reference, should they have had to cancel the whole thing OR have me call back at the 7 month window of the day I needed to change (since the points were from a different home resort) or should they have been able to just change the last day? I get worried everytime I hear "cancel and rebook" especially during high DVC demand times. I'm relatively new to DVC as I've taken only 2 other DVC trips and just added on at BCV a year ago - and this is my first time using the BCV points.

As a side note, this all ended up working out much better anyway, as when MS rebooked, they used all my banked points, then the rest of the points came from AKV instead of BCV. Now I have all of my BCV points to use next year too!

 

[Granny]

- but I was wondering if that's the way it should have happened.

Yes, they did it correctly. Your options were to call on the 15th to add that one day (since you would be using non-home resort points) or else rebook the whole thing as they indicated. But I'm glad for you that it worked out.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

The questionable part is the "they were able to do something" since there wasn't another room available to be used to book the room. That isn't how it's supposed to work and I would say it may not have been done appropriately. Since we don't know exactly what they did it's difficult to say 100% but it appears you got some extra special pixie dust sprinkled on your reservation.

They should have had to cancel the whole thing to try and use your AKV points for that date - or else had you call back on the 15th. Perhaps there was an additional room available for the first few days and they were able to book that with your AKV points and then free up BCV points which could be used to book the 15th. That would have been appropriate.

 

[LauraLea]

If I were you and needed to do something like this in the future, I would book that first night as the single night. Then at the 7 month mark you could switch and link the reservations and not risk losing the 6 nights.

Laura

 

[dbs1228]

You did get pixie dust, I have read on this board someone who called at 7 months to switch resort, the perfect ressie was available so MS canceled the existing res to us the points for the new ressie and low and behold when they went to book the new resort it was gone In a matter of 1 minute.
To make matters worse his old ressie was also not available!

I asked MS about this recently and was told that there was ways around it and they were working on that problem. Hopefully it is fixed!

 

[kristenrice]

I'm glad to hear that you got a 1BR at BCV for that timeframe! I am calling at 9am sharp tomorrow morning to get your 1BR on the 15th! I want a 1BR for three nights, starting the 15th. I have my fingers crossed (and so many backup plans that my head is starting to spin!) that there will still be one available.

 

[lumpydj]

The questionable part is the "they were able to do something" since there wasn't another room available to be used to book the room. That isn't how it's supposed to work and I would say it may not have been done appropriately. Since we don't know exactly what they did it's difficult to say 100% but it appears you got some extra special pixie dust sprinkled on your reservation.

They should have had to cancel the whole thing to try and use your AKV points for that date - or else had you call back on the 15th. Perhaps there was an additional room available for the first few days and they were able to book that with your AKV points and then free up BCV points which could be used to book the 15th. That would have been appropriate.

If they had told me BEFORE she put me on hold that they would have to cancel the reservation and rebook OR have me call back on the 14th, I would have called on the 14th. I just thought that since we could book at a non-home resort starting on the 8th for 7 days, that I should be able to use non-home points to book any day during the 7. I guess it only works that way in my head. I'll know better for next time...

If I were you and needed to do something like this in the future, I would book that first night as the single night. Then at the 7 month mark you could switch and link the reservations and not risk losing the 6 nights.

Laura

I would have considered doing that, only the 1st day fell on Saturday of Columbus Day weekend. I thought at the 7 month window, I'd have basically NO chance of getting BCV that day. As I said above, I would have been fine waiting until the 14th to rebook the 1 night if that's what they said I needed to do, or recommended that I do. I just mis-interpreted how the 7 month rule works. I just know I was VERY lucky it all worked out.