OTU Points and Reallocation

[RivGirl]

I know that questions similar to this have been asked before, but I want to make sure I don't make any mistakes or overlook anything here...

Home resort is RIV. UY is October. I have MMB. I have a 7mo reservation at Aulani already made for March 2026 (which is in my 2025 UY) using banked 2024 points, all of 2025 points, and 16 borrowed 2026 points. Aulani is now fully booked during my dates.

If I would like to buy BOGO OTU points and apply them to the Aulani reservation, I do the following:

1) Find a dummy 7mo reservation (eg. at SSR) for 24 points.
2) Call MS and purchase the BOGO OTU points and make that reservation.
3) Cancel that reservation.
4) Here's where I'm a bit fuzzy on the details... "Modify" my Aulani reservation and the OTU points will automatically be reallocated to it? And what am I "modifying" without the risk of losing my dates at Aulani? (I see posts that say I don't actually have to change anything. So I just go to Modify, don't change anything, and it will still ask me to confirm the modification?)

And if I do all of that successfully, I should have 24 RIV points reallocated back to 2025 UY. Correct?

My DST brain can't handle these DVC puzzles.... Thanks for any pointers or corrections!

 

[eticketplease]

I would call MS and not make a fake reservation but see if they if they can apply them to your reservation that you already made at 7 months all in one call.

24 of the 2025 RIV Points should be freed up to use on another trip or to bank into 2026 if done so by 5/31/26. If banked you will then have 8 additional points for the 2026 use year for trips 10/1/26 - 9/30/27.

 

[VGCgroupie]

When I have reallocated points I have done so by calling MS not modifying myself.

 

[MyDogTink]

This always confuses me and I feel like I receive conflicting answers from MS.

I made a reservation in the home resort period. At 7 months, I called MS and bought OTUP. The days were still available to book at the 7 month mark. I asked MS to reallocate and apply the OTUP to the existing reservation. I was told OTUP could only be used for a new booking so she added a date to my reservation. I still needed to use UY points in addition to the 24 OTUP. I now need to call MS and drop the added day and have them reallocate.

IIRC, I’ve had luck with MS letting me buy and reallocate OTUP in one call. This is why I feel like it’s a different story depending on who you get when you call.

 

[RivGirl]

This always confuses me and I feel like I receive conflicting answers from MS.

I made a reservation in the home resort period. At 7 months, I called MS and bought OTUP. The days were still available to book at the 7 month mark. I asked MS to reallocate and apply the OTUP to the existing reservation. I was told OTUP could only be used for a new booking so she added a date to my reservation. I still needed to use UY points in addition to the 24 OTUP. I now need to call MS and drop the added day and have them reallocate.

IIRC, I’ve had luck with MS letting me buy and reallocate OTUP in one call. This is why I feel like it’s a different story depending on who you get when you call.

I have read similar reports, hence my question and [possibly convulted] way of going about things...

If I understand the system correctly, then MS cannot do anything I cannot do online. I, and MS, could cancel my Aulani reservation and then rebook using OTU points + my points, but at the risk of losing the Aulani reservation to someone else's waitlist (or DVC slot playing LOL), since there is no availability across my room category (and most other categories) for any of my dates.

What I, or MS, cannot do, is use OTU points for a pre-existing booking. It must be cancelled and then rebooked at the time of OTU points purchase. If MS has been able to do that for people over the phone, I am assuming that a cancellation was involved and maybe it just wasn't fully communicated bc availability was high at the time. (Just one theory... don't come for me, please. )

This is all my understanding based on combing through previous posts.

I'm trying to avoid cancelling the booking I already have. If there were availability still, I wouldn't sweat it. I might call MS later today and see what response I get. I'll report back!

(And in the meantime if anyone wants to confirm that the "convuluted way" also works... )

 

[VGCgroupie]

I would not cancel and rebook even if they recommend that at MS. I can say if they lose you reservation they wont pull from cash for you they will just say "oh well" I have had this happen.

I dont have experience with book for OTUP then cancel. But to only reallocate points used I have always just had MS do it. I did have them modify a reservation to add a day and I bought OTUP for that day then I just modified myself and dropped a day and the points reallocated the way they should have.

 

[TDK44]

I just went through the process of reallocating points on a reservation (to be fair, they were not OTUP, but to your point there are ways to get those in your account first and then have them available for use at 7 months just like any other points).

I was told that I had to cancel my reservation and then rebook in order to use the other points. Since one of the nights was no longer available, I modified to reduce by 1 day and then rebooked that night with the point allocation I wanted and then merged those reservations. If all of your nights are no longer available, this might not be possible, however...

I could be wrong here, but I *think* needing to cancel and rebook may only be for reservations that were secured in the 7-11 month window though. So since you did not book with resort priority, I think you should be able to reallocate points on an existing reservation without cancelling it by contacting member services. Would confirm with them though!

 

[VGCgroupie]

So if you have a home resort priority booking you wont be able to just reallocate with OTUP that is true. If reservation was made at 7 months you can reallocate and use any points without a cancel rebook

 

[VGCgroupie]

One last thing... if you get a MS rep who has you feeling like they are confused or might not know what they are doing please trust your gut and just say "Im getting another call I will have to call back". I have not trusted my gut twice when calling MS and both times they messed up things badly.

 

[RivGirl]

One last thing... if you get a MS rep who has you feeling like they are confused or might not know what they are doing please trust your gut and just say "Im getting another call I will have to call back". I have not trusted my gut twice when calling MS and both times they messed up things badly.

Yeahhhh…would like to avoid such a scenario at all costs . Thank you for the warning!

 

[MyDogTink]

I just went through the process of reallocating points on a reservation (to be fair, they were not OTUP, but to your point there are ways to get those in your account first and then have them available for use at 7 months just like any other points).

I was told that I had to cancel my reservation and then rebook in order to use the other points. Since one of the nights was no longer available, I modified to reduce by 1 day and then rebooked that night with the point allocation I wanted and then merged those reservations. If all of your nights are no longer available, this might not be possible, however...

I could be wrong here, but I *think* needing to cancel and rebook may only be for reservations that were secured in the 7-11 month window though. So since you did not book with resort priority, I think you should be able to reallocate points on an existing reservation without cancelling it by contacting member services. Would confirm with them though!

Your last paragraph and bolded text may be the key point.

For OP, I’d call MS, make the suggestion and see if they can reallocate. If they say no and advise cancelling and rebooking, I’d end the call without doing such and then decide next steps. You may succeed with them reallocating.

 

[MyDogTink]

https://plandisney.disney.go.com/qu...c-beyond-one-time-points-existing-dvc-620042/

Hopefully I’m not violating forum rules by posting this link.

 

[LoveToDisney]

How bad do you want OTUP….sounds like keeping your Aulani Rez is more important. I’m not sure I would take the chance and maybe buy OTUP another time for a different Rez.