Online booking - 11/7 month window

[dvc_john]

The 11 month / 7 month window in online booking begins at 8am et. 1 hour earlier than MS.
Just completed a booking for Dec 20 shortly after 8am et.

 

[drusba]

The 11 month / 7 month window in online booking begins at 8am et. 1 hour earlier than MS.
Just completed a booking for Dec 20 shortly after 8am et.

I cannot guess yet what it's actual hours are. It was working this morning as early as 7:30 eastern when I checked it.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

I was tempted to stay up last night to see if it became available at Midnight, but decided that was just silly. I just managed to get logged in now at 8:15, and saw it was indeed available before MS opened.

Looks like the battle for popular dates now starts a little earlier.

 

[dvc_john]

Yes, it was available this morning before 8am. But if you try to book 11/7 month before 8am, you get a message that says you can start booking that until after 8am.

 

[nolanboys]

I guess I can live with that. We tend to do split stays. I have our 8 night Thanksgiving reservation booked. I asked about modifying an existing reservation- as we would like to try a different resort 3 or 4 nights of our trip and told that I have to call for that. I guess I'll be on the phone at 8:00 sharp that day and log in on the member site to see what is available. At least I'll be able to see my options, if there are any.

 

[luckyman_apd]

Ok, so for the new guy (me) whether online or not, say I wanted to book a week long trip starting Dec 20. Is today the day you can do that? It is 11/7 months out from Day 1 of your planned vacation?

 

[Disneycouple99]

Ok, so for the new guy (me) whether online or not, say I wanted to book a week long trip starting Dec 20. Is today the day you can do that? It is 11/7 months out from Day 1 of your planned vacation?

Today is the day.

 

[js]

gggrrr....thanks. Although I would like this feature since I'm usually at work by 8 am my next trip I have a lot of moving around of points at my 7 month mark and I have to call MS. I sure hope I get what I want.
Thanks.

 

[HannaBelle]

BLT is our home resort and I want to book 4 rooms at the GCV at 7 months out. It sounds like I am still better off logging in at 8am EST (7 CST) at our 7 month mark to book our rooms as opposed to waiting for MS to open.

For those that have completed an online reservation, how long did the process take?

We have three families sharing one contract. Is is possible that we could all log-in simultaneously and make reservations?

If I book all of these rooms using bank, borrowed and current use year points, am I correct in understand that the points are not actually borrowed until we check in?

 

[Sammie]

For 11 month and 7 month it will let you book at 8am Eastern Time. For anything else it is open 24 hours except for some down time around 2am which can vary in length.

 

[Sammie]

BLT is our home resort and I want to book 4 rooms at the GCV at 7 months out. It sounds like I am still better off logging in at 8am CST at our 7 month mark to book our rooms as opposed to waiting for MS to open.

For those that have completed an online reservation, how long did the process take?

If I book all of these rooms using bank, borrowed and current use year points, am I correct in understand that the points are not actually borrowed until we check in?

8am Central time is 9 Eastern, you will be hour late. Once you borrow the points they are borrowed. If you cancel 31 days prior to arrival they stay in the use year you borrowed them into and would expire based on that use year.

 

[HannaBelle]

8am Central time is 9 Eastern, you will be hour late. Once you borrow the points they are borrowed. If you cancel 31 days prior to arrival they stay in the use year you borrowed them into and would expire based on that use year.

You are 100% correct, I meant 8 Eastern / 7 Central. I will fix my post.

Thanks!

 

[melissac]

When you book online and need to borrow points doe it automatically borrowed to meet reservation point needs or is there something else you have to prior to making reservation using borrowed points?

 

[Disbroads]

When you book online and need to borrow points doe it automatically borrowed to meet reservation point needs or is there something else you have to prior to making reservation using borrowed points?

It allows you to do it yourself. I'd assume it's to make sure you understand you're borrowing to complete the reservation.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

When you book online and need to borrow points doe it automatically borrowed to meet reservation point needs or is there something else you have to prior to making reservation using borrowed points?

Banking can be done independent of a reservation. For example, you can call Member Services and tell them, "I'd like to bank some of my points." and so long as you're still within the banking deadline for your use year, they'll do it.

Borrowing doesn't work the same. You can only borrow as part of making a reservation. There's no way to do a stand-alone borrowing transaction.

For this reason, there is a transaction on the web site to bank points. It's been available for quite some time, and wasn't part of the new booking process that's just been released. Rather than create new banking screens as part of the booking process, you need to do your banking first, using the old screens, before you start your booking. The banked points show in the year you banked them into on the booking screens. If you realize you want to use banked points for a reservation after you've already started the process, you need to cancel out, do the banking, then re-start the booking.

Borrowing is different. As part of the online booking process, you're shown a screen with all your contracts. From that screen, you select the points you want to assign to the booking. If borrowing is required or desired, there is a button to do it as part of the booking process. You have to specifically tell it how many points to borrow from which contract. The borrowing transaction isn't finalized until you confirm the reservation on the final screen.

The difference between how banking and borrowing are done for an online reservation is something I hope they will fix as a future enhancement -- to allow you to do both banking and borrowing from within a pending reservation when assigning points.

When you've finished assigning the contracts you want to use, and have done any borrowing that's needed, there's a button to play a "demo." This demo shows you exactly how many points will be taken from each contract, and how many of those are banked, borrowed, transferred, holding, or current points.