Member Services won't split my stay & remove a night

[conandrob240]

On the line with member services. I have a reservation from Oct 12-20 at beach club and I want to split it and take off one night and they are telling me they cannot. I think they are wrong. Can anyone out there confirm?

 

[TSMMANIAC]

They can remove days from the beginning or end of a reservation. To drop days from the middle would involve a cancel and rebook.

 

[conandrob240]

Really? Can't they just split it and then cancel the night? Why is this the policy (what purpose does it serve?)

 

[mickeylr]

?? To take a day out of the middle makes it two separate vacations, with two unique reservation numbers. There is no way around that basic fact.

Technically that could shorten the existing reservation down to the length of one of the two new halves of the trip without cancelling that reservation, but there then is NO way to link a second reservation separated by time to that reservation.

Not a matter of serving any purpose, I do not know of any reservation system that would link reservations with a break in time?? Some one else can correct me if I am wrong about that??

And I am sure that the CM is concerned that they then will not be able to get the days back to make the new reservation. As soon as those days are released wait lists will likely pick some or all of them up. F&W festival makes for lots of people looking for those rooms.

 

[VLee]

Because they cannot drop a day in the middle of a reservation, I sometimes make my stay in several separate reservations. This makes it easier if I have choose to take a day or two break and go to Universal for example. I can later have them link the reservations or in some cases, they have actually combined them all into one reservation, giving me one number. This helps when making dining reservations at 180+10 out.

 

[Alexander]

If you take a night out of the middle, you will have two separate reservations.

 

[conandrob240]

I wasn't clear. I was perfectly fine with two separate reservations. Didn't need them linked in anyway. Here's what I wanted to do:

One reservation with Oct 12-16, split it out and another reservation with Oct 17-20. Then book the 16th at a different resort.

They refused to do it for me. I got some explanation about making sure they were fair to all members, I would have an advantage, blah- blah- blah.

I already had Oct 12-20 booked at Beach Club from 11 mths ago. All I wanted to do was split it, and drop out one day. If anything, that would have been giving another member a night at Beach Club during prime F&W.

I cannot under stand why this was refused and I am almost 100% sure I have done this type of change in the past. Both the CM and her manager said it couldn't be done and were very rude and condescending as if I were doing something underhanded.

 

[DebbieB]

I wasn't clear. I was perfectly fine with two separate reservations. Didn't need them linked in anyway. Here's what I wanted to do:

One reservation with Oct 12-16, split it out and another reservation with Oct 17-20. Then book the 16th at a different resort.

They refused to do it for me. I got some explanation about making sure they were fair to all members, I would have an advantage, blah- blah- blah.

I already had Oct 12-20 booked at Beach Club from 11 mths ago. All I wanted to do was split it, and drop out one day. If anything, that would have been giving another member a night at Beach Club during prime F&W.

I cannot under stand why this was refused and I am almost 100% sure I have done this type of change in the past. Both the CM and her manager said it couldn't be done and were very rude and condescending as if I were doing something underhanded.

You can't drop a day out of the middle. The second half would have to be rebooked as a new reservation and there is no availability for a new reservation. You may have been able to do it in the past if there was availability and they could book a new reservation. That's the rules.

 

[conandrob240]

Okay, I didn't know that was a rule. But, still, I don't understand the logic behind the rule or how doing this gave me any sort of "advantage" over other members. I don't mind a rule if it is grounded in some sort of logic. I see no reason why they can't split it and then cancel a night off.

 

[LisaS]

Okay, I didn't know that was a rule. But, still, I don't understand the logic behind the rule or how doing this gave me any sort of "advantage" over other members. I don't mind a rule if it is grounded in some sort of logic. I see no reason why they can't split it and then cancel a night off.

Assuming you booked 11 months out, you were able to book the nights of Oct 17-20 more than 11 months out because those nights were added on to an existing reservation. If you split them off now, then you technically booked a reservation for Oct 17-20 before the 11-month window opened for that stay. Perhaps that is what they meant by "advantage".

Also, you are within 30 days of check-in so any points returned to your account for the night of Oct 16th will be holding points.

 

[crisi]

Okay, I didn't know that was a rule. But, still, I don't understand the logic behind the rule or how doing this gave me any sort of "advantage" over other members. I don't mind a rule if it is grounded in some sort of logic. I see no reason why they can't split it and then cancel a night off.

Partly its a systems restriction.

If you drop a room at either end of the stay, the reservation rep goes into the system and changes the "arrives on" or "departs on" day - they are done, and your room is intact. The room you dropped immediately shows up on the web site.

If you drop a day in the middle, the reservation agent changed the reservation that was the 12-20 to the 12-16. The 17 - 20 goes back into the system. Then she creates a new reservation for the 18-20. The problem is that in the time she does that, someone else can reserve those days - they are up for grabs the moment they are dropped from your first reservation.

During food and wine, days can disappear in moments as people sit around hoping to grab a night they are missing and hitting the refresh button on the web.

 

[conandrob240]

To follow up. I called back today and explained the problems I had yesterday. I said I understand there may be a rule against this and I am not trying to cause problems. I told her the whole story and she did this for me with no issues at all. She even made sure my one night of points ( from e one cancelled BCV night) went back into reg points rather than holding. To do this, she split the reservation in two ( never cancelling and re- booking anything). Then she dropped the last night off of the first of the two split reservations. Simple and I don't see any reason at all why this should have been an issue or I should have made to feel like I was trying to do something underhanded. If it is a system issue, then they should be able to do this to work around it and no penalize members for bad systems/ IT issues.

 

[bcvlover]

Glad it worked out for you.

Just a heads up that you may have issues with the magic band stuff and the split stay, until they work all the kinks out.

 

[conandrob240]

I am sure I will. I received 6 MBs- presumably one set for each of the three stays. I have been assured when I call that it won't be an issue. They'll just " activate" one set and we'll use those throughout. I have been able to schedule FP+ for all of the days. We'll see if it all works out.

 

[cmrdgrs]

To follow up. I called back today and explained the problems I had yesterday. I said I understand there may be a rule against this and I am not trying to cause problems. I told her the whole story and she did this for me with no issues at all. She even made sure my one night of points ( from e one cancelled BCV night) went back into reg points rather than holding. To do this, she split the reservation in two ( never cancelling and re- booking anything). Then she dropped the last night off of the first of the two split reservations. Simple and I don't see any reason at all why this should have been an issue or I should have made to feel like I was trying to do something underhanded. If it is a system issue, then they should be able to do this to work around it and no penalize members for bad systems/ IT issues.

Glad it worked out for you.

This has been my experience too... I find that MS can "do" lots of things that you are not suppose to be able to do. It is all about finding the right person to help you and being polite and thankful. I had a ressie at the VGC last June the I broke in to two reservations. Everyone said it could not be done on various boards. Hogwash! I called, I asked politely and a supervisor made it happen.

I agree I don't think you are penalizing anyone with what you did, if anything you helped out another DVC member who needed a room for F&W.

 

[lucyem]

It did not make sense to me that they could not split it that way. But I have been told many times you can loose your original reservation so that is where I would have been nervous. More about the process then whether or not they can do it. But then I am too nervous to remove the last two nights from our first week of Dec trip. Just out of fear they will loose my first few days. I know someone on here posted about that happening to them.

 

[disneygrandma]

From what I understand, a lot of the problems have to do with the words you use. For instance, don't say that you want to cancel a night from your reservation.....you don't want to cancel anything. What you want to say, is that you have a reservation that you want to modify. Then MS brings up your reservation and is ready to modify it. Then you tell them which night you want to take off....in other words, how to modify it. Also, stress the fact that you don't want to take a chance in losing your reservation during the process of modifying it. MS, in the past, has always told me that when modifying a reservation, there is no way that the reservation would be lost.

Hope this helps the PP that wants to remove some nights from the end of their reservation.