Waitlists can be set up to expire at either 30 days or 7 days prior to arrival.
If a member cancels a reservation between 1 and 30 days prior to arrival, the points used to make the reservation are returned to the account, but they are put in hold status. Holding points expire at the end of the use year and cannot be banked. They can only be used to book something no more than 60 days in advance. Because availability is often very limited once you get to the 60 day mark, holding points are difficult to use and often expire without being used.
Many members who are not absolutely sure they will use their reservations will cancel just before the 30 day mark to avoid having their points go into holding should they have to cancel. 30-35 days prior to arrival can be a good time for waitlists to come through.
Many members will let their waitlists expire at the 30 day mark if the waitlisted reservation costs more points than the reservation they already have. That's because if the waitlist comes through, the "extra" points get returned as holding points.
All waitlist expire at 7 days. After that, members must call MS or check the online booking engine and hope to get lucky.
You are very fortunate that your member is willing to waitlist for you. Most members who rent points will not commit points for a waitlist. There are usually too many other opportunities out there to rent that don't require a waitlist.
Hope yours comes through.
