Need to walk for Thanksgiving week + dumb points Q? Asking for a friend... lol

[kboo]

My "friend" is considering a stay Wed-Sunday of Thanksgiving week 2018, and has just enough points for a 1BR std at BLT (11 mo) at that time. Should she walk the reservation? And if so, start on Saturday? for 4 nights or for the entire time and then canceling the 1st few days?

Dumb points Q - if walking ended up requiring one to borrow points to cover, then even though the walking one would be done before the banking/borrowing deadline, the borrowed 2019 points would stay in 2018 UY, right? But that wouldn't be terrible since once walking, the freed up points from the 2018 UY could then be banked into 2019, right?

 

[supersnoop]

You shouldn't need to walk that reservation.

 

[Marionnette]

My "friend" is considering a stay Wed-Sunday of Thanksgiving week 2018, and has just enough points for a 1BR std at BLT (11 mo) at that time. Should she walk the reservation? And if so, start on Saturday? for 4 nights or for the entire time and then canceling the 1st few days?

Dumb points Q - if walking ended up requiring one to borrow points to cover, then even though the walking one would be done before the banking/borrowing deadline, the borrowed 2019 points would stay in 2018 UY, right? But that wouldn't be terrible since once walking, the freed up points from the 2018 UY could then be banked into 2019, right?

If she has just enough points for std. view (therefore she cannot book the same dates if no std. view is available) then she may want to walk the reservation to ensure that she gets what she wants. Quite a few members will book the entire week (Sat.-Sat.) because the kiddos are off all week. That could prevent her from getting her Wed-Sun reservation. If she's confident that she understands the waking process, she may want to start her walk a week early in order to make sure that she gets what she wants

Now, if she has to borrow points to walk the reservation (and if she truly understands how it works,she may not need to), she could make sure that the borrowed points get used first for her final reservation. MS should do it automatically but it doesn't hurt to ask when she calls to modify the reservation. Depending on her UY, she might still be able to bank the 2018 points into 2019, but then she will run into a "use it or lose it" situation for those points in 2019. This could be an issue if your friend does plan to vacation at Disney every year.

 

[kboo]

If she has just enough points for std. view (therefore she cannot book the same dates if no std. view is available) then she may want to walk the reservation to ensure that she gets what she wants. Quite a few members will book the entire week (Sat.-Sat.) because the kiddos are off all week. That could prevent her from getting her Wed-Sun reservation. If she's confident that she understands the waking process, she may want to start her walk a week early in order to make sure that she gets what she wants

Now, if she has to borrow points to walk the reservation (and if she truly understands how it works,she may not need to), she could make sure that the borrowed points get used first for her final reservation. MS should do it automatically but it doesn't hurt to ask when she calls to modify the reservation. Depending on her UY, she might still be able to bank the 2018 points into 2019, but then she will run into a "use it or lose it" situation for those points in 2019. This could be an issue if your friend does plan to vacation at Disney every year.

Q about the bolded part - does that mean a wholly classic walk where one adds a day at the end while subtracting one at the beginning, as opposed to booking Sa-Sa for all of Thanksgiving week, and then canceling Sat-Wed (or Tuesday) and only keeping the latter half of the week? Booking Sat-Sat will definitely involve borrowing points, but it shouldn't be a problem because all modifications should happen well before the banking deadline; it just ends up being a matter of having a lot of borrowed from 2019 points and then "having" to use banked points in 2019.

 

[drusba]

I highly suggest you walk the reservation and you begin with a four night reservation that starts either the Friday (safer) or Saturday before Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving time for both 2016 and 2017, the BLT 1 BR standard view was booked for the Wednesday and Thursday of Thanksgiving week by 11 months out from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the Sun before Thanksgiving went down early morning 11 months out from it.

When walking at 11 months out, you do not need to walk by reserving more than the total number of nights you actually want even if under seven nights. Once you make a reservation you lock in the room you have for the days you have reserved plus all days after that, i.e., if you reserve Friday through Monday nights, no one who will be reserving after you 11 months out from Sat, Sun or Monday can capture the room you have for the days after Monday. Thus, if you want four nights, Wed through Sat of Thanksgiving week, you should walk by reserving four nights beginning with the Friday (or Saturday) before Thanksgiving and then drop and add nights daily or every other day until you have what you want. If you do that and have exactly the number of points needed for the four nights total, Wed through Sat, you will not need to borrow anything. The trip you want, Wednesday through Sat of Thanksgiving week, will itself cost more points than any other four consecutive nights during that period.

 

[Marionnette]

Q about the bolded part - does that mean a wholly classic walk where one adds a day at the end while subtracting one at the beginning, as opposed to booking Sa-Sa for all of Thanksgiving week, and then canceling Sat-Wed (or Tuesday) and only keeping the latter half of the week? Booking Sat-Sat will definitely involve borrowing points, but it shouldn't be a problem because all modifications should happen well before the banking deadline; it just ends up being a matter of having a lot of borrowed from 2019 points and then "having" to use banked points in 2019.

I've never heard of a "wholly classic walk". Walking at 11 months is exactly as drusba described...choose a date in advance of your intended visit and book the number of nights that you will eventually need. Then you call MS to change the reservation before the 11-month window opens for the last night of that first reservation.

So, her walk might look like this:

On 12/16/17 book 11/16-11/20 (Fri.-Tues.): 126 points
On 12/19/17 call MS and modify the reservation to 11/19-11/23/18 (Mon.-Fri,): 128 points
On 12/21/17 make the final call to MS to change the reservation to 11/21-11/25/18 (Wed.-Sun.): 151 points​

 

[kboo]

Got it. Thanks for spelling it out!