Question on potential non-traveler for 4th/5th FP+ planning

[boilermakeric]

We have a large group traveling in a few weeks, including one person that is still “on the fence”. If they come, it will be using 2 remaining days of a pre-MYW ticket that they recently had linked into MDE.


Since they had a ticket linked, we were able to include them in all original FP+ reservations. Similarly, we have a multi-room reservation and had an extra adult opening to add them free-of-charge to the resort, so they have received a new magic band too.


Question: I understand it’s against policy and likely a non-starter to try to use their band for their existing FP+ reservations if they did not use up a ticket at the gate. But, if a week out from the trip the writing is on the wall that they are not coming, is it in our interest to move all their FP+ reservations to “preferred” 4th/5th, etc reservations in mid-afternoon to try and hold the space? Then, on those days, could we at least attempt to cancel those FPs and immediately replace them with someone in the in-park party for their 4th/5th?


I get that there’s zero guarantee of getting a dropped reservation immediately back, but also can’t see a big downside to at least trying it once we tap into 3rd FPs.


In a bigger extreme, is this a viable/allowable strategy to anyone who may have extra tickets sitting in their account for a future trip linked to a placeholder name, and set this up even when making their 60-day plans?

 

[CAS239]

If they decide not to go I wouldn't honestly just drop their FP's. You could try to drop them at the same time someone in your party searches to try to grab it for themselves, but the chances of that happening would be very very slim.

You could also try leaving the fps on the person's account and then try adding guest(s) to their FP as a 4th FP for someone already there. But if it's a popular ride then it's likely all the fps are gone and it won't let you add a guest

 

[winthropf]

From the latest I have heard, if you try to use a MB for FP+ and that MB is associated with a ticket that has not been scanned at the gate, it will result in all FP+ associated with everyone linked be "locked" and invalid until you go to Guest Services to get the account reset. MDE has been changed so that you can no longer transfer FP+ from one person to another, so you can no longer assign a FP+ to a person/ticket that will not be on the trip and then transfer it to someone else even if the accounts are linked.

 

[supersnoop]

In my experience, FP’s aren’t released immediately (or maybe even not at all) when their dropped. I don’t think you’d be able to “hold the place” at all. This is exactly why Disney removed the “change party” option and its likely a violation of the terms here to discuss it.