Modifying a DVC reservation online

[Bjaiken77]

How would you have modified my reservation online:

I had 3 nights (Fri/Sat/Sun) at the Poly.

Two nights opened up at BCV for Sat and Sun, and because we are going to Flower and Garden on Sunday, this was preferred.

I went to modify my Poly reservation (wanting to keep Friday but replace Sat/Sun with BCV). As you guys probably know, the modulation for Sat/Sun only at BCV wiped out my entire Poly reservation, including the Friday.

I went back in and picked up Poly because it was available when I released it, but it was stressful. That Friday night was “Waitlist Only” when I went to modify. It only became available because my modification made it available.

Question: Is there any way I could have used the system replace Poly with BCV only for Sat and Sunday while keeping Poly for Friday? Would the computer system know I had the Friday night at Poly (because it was now waitlisted) had my modification been for one night at Poly (Fri) and two at BCV (Sat/Sun)? Or can I only do this through MS telling them exactly what I want to keep and what I want to add. I risked losing Poly on Friday because I didn’t want to take the chance that I’d lose Sat and Sun at BCV while waiting on the phone for MS. However, it was stressful.

If someone can tell me what I should have done, if anything, I would appreciate it. It all worked out because not only did I end up getting Poly back, I was able to swap it for BCV for Friday giving us the preferred 3 night block stay at BCV. However, I can see this issue coming up again, especially since I plan to be a bit of a resort stalker and switch it up if something more favorable becomes available. Thanks!

 

[JETSDAD]

There's no way to modify a couple nights and keep other nights. If you had available points you could book the 2 nights on their own and then modify the original reservation down to 1 night. There really isn't a difference calling in as they would be doing the same thing.

 

[Marionnette]

How would you have modified my reservation online:

I had 3 nights (Fri/Sat/Sun) at the Poly.

Two nights opened up at BCV for Sat and Sun, and because we are going to Flower and Garden on Sunday, this was preferred.

I went to modify my Poly reservation (wanting to keep Friday but replace Sat/Sun with BCV). As you guys probably know, the modulation for Sat/Sun only at BCV wiped out my entire Poly reservation, including the Friday.

I went back in and picked up Poly because it was available when I released it, but it was stressful. That Friday night was “Waitlist Only” when I went to modify. It only became available because my modification made it available.

Question: Is there any way I could have used the system replace Poly with BCV only for Sat and Sunday while keeping Poly for Friday? Would the computer system know I had the Friday night at Poly (because it was now waitlisted) had my modification been for one night at Poly (Fri) and two at BCV (Sat/Sun)? Or can I only do this through MS telling them exactly what I want to keep and what I want to add. I risked losing Poly on Friday because I didn’t want to take the chance that I’d lose Sat and Sun at BCV while waiting on the phone for MS. However, it was stressful.

If someone can tell me what I should have done, if anything, I would appreciate it. It all worked out because not only did I end up getting Poly back, I was able to swap it for BCV for Friday giving us the preferred 3 night block stay at BCV. However, I can see this issue coming up again, especially since I plan to be a bit of a resort stalker and switch it up if something more favorable becomes available. Thanks!

The only way that I can imagine doing it would have involved modifying the Poly reservation to just Friday only. That would free up points to use for BCV Sat & Sun. You could then book the BCV reservation.

I've done this by having two browsers open to the DVC website. The first was open for the existing modification and the second was opened for booking the new resort reservation. It's not 100% foolproof. You run the risk of someone else (or the waitlist crawler) snapping up that new reservation before you can complete it. And then you might not get your old nights back.

It's too late to do this now but if you know that you will want to modify a reservation later, it's best to book it in chunks of 1-3 nights rather than all of the nights. For a 7-night stay, you might book 3, 1, 3 nights and then modify the first 3 or last 3 depending on what opens up.

 

[Bjaiken77]

The only way that I can imagine doing it would have involved modifying the Poly reservation to just Friday only. That would free up points to use for BCV Sat & Sun. You could then book the BCV reservation.

I've done this by having two browsers open to the DVC website. The first was open for the existing modification and the second was opened for booking the new resort reservation. It's not 100% foolproof. You run the risk of someone else (or the waitlist crawler) snapping up that new reservation before you can complete it. And then you might not get your old nights back.

It's too late to do this now but if you know that you will want to modify a reservation later, it's best to book it in chunks of 1-3 nights rather than all of the nights. For a 7-night stay, you might book 3, 1, 3 nights and then modify the first 3 or last 3 depending on what opens up.

Thanks! That’s a good tip. See, it’s for late April, so I’m within the 30 day cancel period, right? So I didn’t want to commit more points to a reservation. I just wanted to free up the Poly points to reallocate them to BCV. I was afraid of having two reservations on overlapping nights.

We are only going to be there 4 nights total, but I can totally see the benefit of “chunking” reservations. I mean, it may even be advantageous, if you know you’d like to possibly trade up, to book 7 individual days for a 7 day trip and then modify accordingly, right? Wouldn’t that work? Any downside to doing that? Then, come back later once you’ve got your desired outcome and ask MS to merge the consecutive night stays.

 

[Marionnette]

Thanks! That’s a good tip. See, it’s for late April, so I’m within the 30 day cancel period, right? So I didn’t want to commit more points to a reservation. I just wanted to free up the Poly points to reallocate them to BCV. I was afraid of having two reservations on overlapping nights.

We are only going to be there 4 nights total, but I can totally see the benefit of “chunking” reservations. I mean, it may even be advantageous, if you know you’d like to possibly trade up, to book 7 individual days for a 7 day trip and then modify accordingly, right? Wouldn’t that work? Any downside to doing that? Then, come back later once you’ve got your desired outcome and ask MS to merge the consecutive night stays.

Downside: When you book 7 nights one night at a time, you risk not being able to get all of your nights if it happens to be a difficult reservation to snag.