Would this ressie cancellation hack work?

[TigerLaw]

I just read this dining reservation cancellation hack idea online and it seems too good to be true so I was wondering if anyone else had tried this.

Essentially, if you want to cancel a reservation day of, instead of calling into the timing line and waiting however long for them to respond, all you have to do is modify your time to a new date and then you can cancel it from that new date and time. It seems too easy like there is a catch somewhere.

Any thoughts?

 

[jbentley]

Yes. It works. We do it often if needed. It was actually recommended to me by a front desk member at the grand floridian years ago

 

[SkyGuy]

Yes, I’ve been doing this for a few years. The only hurdle is if you’re trying to modify something really popular that doesn’t have a lot of availability, but don’t forget you can also lower (or raise) your party number as well to open up more options. Other than that, it’s an easy way to cancel.

 

[Eastern]

fwiw my family just had to cancel a reservation day of and was not charged the fee. They just went up to the desk and said they had a virtual que conflict and the CM said no problem. As long as you make an effort to cancel for any half good reason I don't think you will be charged.

 

[Debbie Jean]

Yup. Done it for years.

 

[reddog21]

I wouldn’t count on it all the time last year we had a couple locked day of and couldn’t modify any part of the reservation unless we called which I didn’t because I wasn’t waiting on hold for over 2 hours. There were others that I had no problem with modifying the same day so maybe it was timing, maybe a glitch who knows.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I just read this dining reservation cancellation hack idea online and it seems too good to be true so I was wondering if anyone else had tried this.

Essentially, if you want to cancel a reservation day of, instead of calling into the timing line and waiting however long for them to respond, all you have to do is modify your time to a new date and then you can cancel it from that new date and time. It seems too easy like there is a catch somewhere.

Any thoughts?

The only problem is that popular dining reservations are gone at the 60 day mark, so you may have difficulty modifying out.

 

[Aimeedyan]

It's worked for years.

But you have to be dining someplace that's relatively easy to find another reservation for. If you're trying to modify and rebook something like Storybook or SciFi, you're not likely to have success.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Another yes been doing it for years
Another it used to be way easier than it currently is
Many locations are much harder to get a new reservation so it’s hard to move it
Takes a lot more effort to find an open time and day
In the end it is probably easier to call now
But yeah, by all means try to find a new ressie

 

[Mrs.AMC]

fwiw my family just had to cancel a reservation day of and was not charged the fee. They just went up to the desk and said they had a virtual que conflict and the CM said no problem. As long as you make an effort to cancel for any half good reason I don't think you will be charged.

You’d never be penalized with a VQ or ILL conflict. Ever. For either one. First if one causes you to miss the other just tell them why. They’ll still honor whatever you had to miss. It waive the fee

 

[d-train]

We have done this several times. Works every time.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I have done it once, but it was an easy place to get a new reservation for. Might not work for something that is continually booked up. Not sure you can change the restaurant at modification, just the date or time. For someplace popular, if you don't want to call you would need to go to Guest Relations and ask them to cancel it. as noted they will honor your VQ if your time has passed due to a conflict.

 

[sponica]

fwiw my family just had to cancel a reservation day of and was not charged the fee. They just went up to the desk and said they had a virtual que conflict and the CM said no problem. As long as you make an effort to cancel for any half good reason I don't think you will be charged.

Also no show fees are reconciled manually at the end of the night, unless things have changed.

So when you go to the host stand, they can generally mark you in a way that avoids the no show fee