Modifying without points to cover?

[SugarSweetLee]

I am a shiny new member, so forgive any dumb questions

We just joined DVC- RIV this month and are booking trips in January and February for the race weekends, so pickings are pretty slim at this late date. My original, point-conservative plan to book RIV for marathon weekend in January and somewhere cheaper in points for Princess in Feb got harpooned, so we ended up using our Welcome Home booking to get AKV for January. Booking Feb for Princess on my own, I grabbed what I could, which ended up partly Standard but mostly Preferred. Unless my Standard waitlist comes through (which, maybe, if some folks switch at 7 months), we've basically blown all our points for the year.

My question is this: since I have a split reservation (3 nights in Standard and 4 nights in Preferred), if I see a partial availability arise on adjacent dates- like the first day of the Preferred booking becomes available as a Standard, but not all four days as my waitlist requests, is there a way that MS could modify both reservations for me to free up the points needed to book the Standard and release the Preferred for that one night without me losing the booking if the Standard got booked by someone else first? (My fear if I tried to do this on my own.)

 

[TomorrowlandOfYesterday]

To free up the points, the room has to be released.

 

[SugarSweetLee]

To free up the points, the room has to be released.

So to clarify, there is nothing MS can do that I wouldn't be able to do on my own in this situation?

 

[vicarrieous]

So to clarify, there is nothing MS can do that I wouldn't be able to do on my own in this situation?

They would have to cancel both reservations and then book what you want. Basically they can do what you can do. They cannot hold things or move points if that makes sense. Any waitlist fulfillment would have to match exactly to what you want to replace for that to happen automatically.

 

[SugarSweetLee]

They would have to cancel both reservations and then book what you want. Basically they can do what you can do. They cannot hold things or move points if that makes sense.

Got it. I wouldn't need to cancel the first reservation, just modify/extend it but yes, the holding/shifting points idea was I guess what I was curious about.

 

[vicarrieous]

Got it. I wouldn't need to cancel the first reservation, just modify/extend it but yes, the holding/shifting points idea was I guess what I was

Got it. I wouldn't need to cancel the first reservation, just modify/extend it but yes, the holding/shifting points idea was I guess what I was curious about.

So you just need to modify/extend the first reservation? A waitlist would do that. Are you thinking you would need more points to complete that waitlist they can borrow if you allow that/check it when you set up the waitlist.

 

[SugarSweetLee]

So you just need to modify/extend the first reservation? A waitlist would do that. Are you thinking you would need more points to complete that waitlist they can borrow if you allow that/check it when you set up the waitlist.

I have 3 nights Standard and 4 nights Preferred. I already have a waitlist for the 4 nights to convert to Standard; however, I would like to turn as many Preferred nights into Standard as I can (consecutively). So my original question was about being able to add on/take off one night at a time if the situation presented itself. It sounds like I can't do that without risking losing the night that I have booked in Preferred, as I would have to modify the Pref booking to remove that night to free up the points, and then hope to modify the Standard booking quick enough to add on the same night before someone else grabbed it.

 

[vicarrieous]

I have 3 nights Standard and 4 nights Preferred. I already have a waitlist for the 4 nights to convert to Standard; however, I would like to turn as many Preferred nights into Standard as I can (consecutively). So my original question was about being able to add on/take ff one night at a time if the situation presented itself. It sounds like I can't do that without risking losing the night that I have booked in Preferred, as I would have to modify the Pref booking to remove that night to free up the points, and then hope to modify the Standard booking quick enough to add on the same night before someone else grabbed it.

That is correct. Bummer but reality

 

[Sandisw]

I have 3 nights Standard and 4 nights Preferred. I already have a waitlist for the 4 nights to convert to Standard; however, I would like to turn as many Preferred nights into Standard as I can (consecutively). So my original question was about being able to add on/take ff one night at a time if the situation presented itself. It sounds like I can't do that without risking losing the night that I have booked in Preferred, as I would have to modify the Pref booking to remove that night to free up the points, and then hope to modify the Standard booking quick enough to add on the same night before someone else grabbed it.

Do you see the first night still available in preferred? If so, you can call MS, have them cancel out the one you have in thr 4 night and book it as an individual night.

This way, you can waitlist just that one night, and have them add a note to your four night waitlist to cancel both the single night and the three nights.

Then, you can stalk the website and if you see that one night you can modify and pick it up…then you can adjust the waitlist to three nights.

 

[achinforsomebacon]

Waitlist aside, would it be better to have the preferred nights all booked as individual nights so you could just modify the preferred to standard as they become available? This way you wouldn't need extra points to hold both rooms. Then have MS merge all standard nights into one reservation and all preferred into another once all is said and done. One caveat to this is that the preferred nights would have to still be available or you risk not getting the nights back if you have to cancel to rebook them individually.

As for the waitlist, can you have a request that replaces multiple single nights with one multiple night reservation? So for example have a waitlist for the first two individual preferred nights to be replaced with 2 nights standard? If this is possible, individual preferred nights might give you more flexibility with waitlists and a 1-2 night waitlist would be easier to fill than 4.

Another thing to consider is do you care what the standard/preferred split ends up being? For example, is the goal to save as many points as possible and you'd be fine with 6 standard nights and only 1 preferred? Or is it not worth the hassle to have to move just for one or two nights? That would also play into the strategy.

Note -- I've never used a waitlist, which is why I posed a lot of the above as questions. I'll let the experts weigh in but just trying to throw out some ideas. Good luck!

 

[Stormalong Smiths]

As for the waitlist, can you have a request that replaces multiple single nights with one multiple night reservation?

Yes, you’d just have to call or chat MS after setting up the WL and ask them to add that note to the request. The system will only allow you to select one reservation to replace when you set up the WL request, but MS can add more detailed notes after it’s set up.