Swapping out points for an existing reservation - Different Home resorts

[montreid]

I'm sure this has been discussed but couldn't find it in search

Situation: -If I have contracts at different resorts and enough points at both but want to have two separate vacations at the same home resort.

Can I make Reservation 1 at 11months with home resort points; then at 7 months call in to MS and swap out the reservation with outside resort points and make a second 11month reservation at my home resort?

Or do I need to cancel the original, pray it populates in RAT and grab it with my 7 month point contract hoping it isn't grabbed by someone else?

Would want to avoid needing to borrow points from the same contract.

 

[Sandisw]

Nope, You can only swap out points in an 11 month reservation with non home resort points at 7 months if there is still availability to book the nights.

if you could, it would completely eliminate home resort priority. Of course, if what you booked is still available, or some of the nights are at either the beginning or end, then yes, you can free up points.

And if you go to cancel first, there is no guarantee it will show back up as there could be waitlists in place that will grab those nights.

 

[montreid]

I guess I COULD do this:
1. Make reservation at 11 months with Home Resort contract
2. At 7 months Make WL with off-site contract if not available.
3. Call MS to ask to swap out the reservation from that to the WL request

I'm just wondering who's had the experience of this vs canceling reservation and ability to see it show up on RAT quickly and grab it immediately. -- Just don't know what fast a cancelled reservation shows up back on RAT.

 

[eMoneyBug]

interesting topic: following

 

[Sandisw]

I guess I COULD do this:
1. Make reservation at 11 months with Home Resort contract
2. At 7 months Make WL with off-site contract if not available.
3. Call MS to ask to swap out the reservation from that to the WL request

I'm just wondering who's had the experience of this vs canceling reservation and ability to see it show up on RAT quickly and grab it immediately. -- Just don't know what fast a cancelled reservation shows up back on RAT.

I am confused by what you mean call and swap with waitlist? If you go on at 7 months and it’s not available, you can set up a wait list to rebook the nights. Once those nights fill with the non resort points, then you can cancel out the one booked for home resort. But it would mean you’d have two reservations at once, until you can get the original one canceled. Of course, this is assuming thr waitlist fills. If it does not, then you will not be able to free up home points.

In terms of canceling, the rooms o not show up online right away most of the time as they are checked against a wait list. I have canceled before and most of the time, the room I released is not there.

Having said that, there are times when I have canceled and a room shows up. It could mean there were no waitlists in place.

There really is no way to swap out home points for non home points for a reservstion booked during the home resort priority at the 7 month time unless you can book those rooms at the 7 month mark.

 

[Marionnette]

I guess I COULD do this:
1. Make reservation at 11 months with Home Resort contract
2. At 7 months Make WL with off-site contract if not available.
3. Call MS to ask to swap out the reservation from that to the WL request

No. You can’t do that.

I’m just wondering who's had the experience of this vs canceling reservation and ability to see it show up on RAT quickly and grab it immediately. -- Just don't know what fast a cancelled reservation shows up back on RAT.

It’s not possible to do what you are proposing. You’re talking about circumventing the home resort priority by using non-home resort points to pay for a reservation that was made during the 11-7 month booking window.

I’ve canceled reservations and the nights disappeared from availability immediately. I’ve also modified reservations in an attempt to split them in two and was successful in going back in to recover the nights I dropped as a new, separate reservation. It’s a crapshoot and I would not recommend trying it unless you’re okay with losing the reservation.

 

[montreid]

Pipedream - thanks all for keeping it real. Sounds like only guaranteed solution is borrow points if want to be at home resort. Good data points on the repopulating canceled reservations. I'm just wondering how fast I would match on exact 7 month no availability, and put immediately on the WL for the exact same days of the cancellation of my dates.

The only folk I could see ahead would be home resort owners already on WL for the exact same dates.

Wondering if WL works priority of days released matches days on WL or day-by-day match. ie: a 7 day released reservation, does the system look for 7 days match or WL sorted by time on list, then day start then length of stay. --- would love to know that algorithm

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Wondering if WL works priority of days released matches days on WL or day-by-day match. ie: a 7 day released reservation, does the system look for 7 days match or WL sorted by time on list, then day start then length of stay. --- would love to know that algorithm

The entire waitlist has to match. So it goes through the waitlist in order of request.

Example:
Bob releases a 7-night reservation (Sunday-Saturday). It goes to waitlist. The waitlist order is:

• Jenny, who waitlisted a Sunday-Sunday stay in that resort.
• Rob, who waitlisted Monday-Tuesday.
• Betty, who waitlisted Friday.
• Bert, who waitlisted Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

Unless the second Sunday was independently available, Jenny is skipped. Rob is given M-T. Betty is given Friday. Jenny and Bert get nothing.

 

[Sandisw]

I think the key to matching is it all depends on what you booked at 11 months and how popular it is,

Hard to get rooms like AKL Concierge or Value, BWV Standard, etc. could have lots of home resort owners ahead of you,

Studios might have longer wait lists than 1 or 2 bedrooms. One thing to do as you wait it out is keep an eye on availability while you are waiting For the 7 month mark to see when those days disappear or if they do,

if you are still seeing dates available as you count down, it will limit the length of wait list which would be good. Just remember, the more nights you have, the harder it is to get a waitlist.

But people are having a lot of luck checking the website as well so again, there are ways to accomplish it, but it will all depend on lots of factors.

 

[Sandisw]

Just to clarify one more point..in case others aren’t sure...a wait list does not pull points unless it matches. So, if you put in a waitlist, you can tell them what contract to pull the points from, but it won’t actually take them until it comes through.