What happens if your plane is delayed due to weather?

[littlestar]

Hi all.

Say you're booked for a week at your DVC resort in the winter and your plane is delayed a day due to a snow storm. What do you do? I know you'd lose your first night on points, but do you lose the whole thing if you don't make it in that first night?

Thanks for any help on this. I've got my cousin and aunt and uncle booked the end of February on our points and they have decided to fly instead of drive and I want to know the what if's just in case good old Indiana weather doesn't cooperate.

Thanks for any replies.

 

[PamOKW]

The most important thing is to stay in touch with DVC and/or the resort and let them know what's happening. If you just don't show up, yes you will lose the reservation and the points for the entire trip. If you call and let them know what's happening they will work with you. They tend to be very reasonable in these circumstances. There is no "set policy" but they may work things out so that you don't lose any points and certainly so that you don't lose the room for your arrival the next day.

 

[HookdonWDW]

Originally posted by PamOKW
If you just don't show up, yes you will lose the reservation and the points for the entire trip.

You know, dh and I were sitting around talking about DVC about a month ago (one of our favorite conversations ), and this topic came up. I know that this is the official policy, but I wonder how it would actually work if someone pursued it?

If someone didn't show up for the first night of the reservation, they would obviously forfeit the points, because a room was held for them, and DVC would be unable to rent the room to someone else, and thus be compensated for the room. But, if that person showed up on day 2, and was told that the room was no longer available, would DVC REALLY be able to both deny a room AND charge the member for the points? It seems like this might be unjust enrichment for DVC, since DVC would essentially be paid twice for the same set of accomodations... I hope we're never in the situation to find out the real answer, but it made for an interesting conversation!

 

[Ralph&Pam]

If you discover you will be delayed a day, call DVC or the resort (DVC may be closed, depending on the day and the time of day) and let them know when you will arrive. If it's already the day of arrival when it becomes clear you'll not make it, the resort can hold the room for you (the points for the entire stay are already committed, so you're entitled). You may then be able to get in the room as soon as you arrive, since it should have sat empty the first night of your intended stay. Early this month, we arrived at 1 am in the early morning of the day after our scheduled arrival day. Our room had been assigned and held so we were all set. I don't think the room would have been released until sometime in the morning of the second day, since a very late arrival, while unusual, must happen often enough that it would be hard to justify giving the room away the first night when points for the entire stay have already been charged.

If you know the day prior to expected arrival, you can call DVC (if open) and cancel the first night. The points will then go into "holding" and have to be booked no more than 60 days prior to use and before the end of your use year.

Ralph

 

[rocketriter]

I'm curious about the opposite situation. Was anybody on this board visiting DVC during 9/11? When planes stopped flying for a week, it must have been difficult to get families back to their homes across the country. Did DVC allow families to stay past their reservations? If so, were they charged more points--if they had unused points to charge against?

 

[twinmomplus2new]

I am not sure about DVC. But I have to imagine the policey would be the same as for the resorts. I do know that post 9/11 at least until the airlines were back up that people were allowed to saty at Disney. I had friends at AKL at that time and it was my understanding that they were comped (SP) the extension. They ended up driving home to Massachusetts but I imagine others waited to fly.

 

[pmcpmc]

us to move from vera beach to vwl to be closer to the airport.
Airtours charter flights arranged for us to stay at the Sheraton at seaworld for four days.

 

[PamOKW]

9/11 was an extreme situation that, God willing, we'll never face again.

There is always a chance that your own plane will be delayed/cancelled due to weather, mechanical problemse etc. on the way home. In that case, you would need to check for availability at the resort and you would have to be able to pay with either points or cash for the room.

 

[kathymc]

I guess it all depends....

We got stuck at home due to snow in early December. Flights were cancelled and airport (Logan) was closed for the day. Ended up getting out late the next night. When we went back home we called the resort (OKW and BCV - we had two families staying two different places) as it was Sat and DVC was closed but they made note that we weren't coming.

We ended up cancelling our first two DVC nights as we were getting in past midnight the next day and so booked that night at ASM. On Monday we called DVC and they took care of it all - put both nights back into our account (not into holding) and we were able to extend our stay an extra day on the end!

I was pretty pleased at the way it all worked out.

 

[littlestar]

Thanks for all the replies. If the worst happens, I'll just stay in touch with the Wilderness Lodge. I want this visit to be great for my family. They've never been and are so excited to get to stay at a Disney resort. My aunt says she feels like a kid at Christmas time!

Kathymc, Maui is calling me again. We're going back in 2005. What a place, huh? If Hawaii wasn't so far, I'd go every year.