Booking Strategy...???

[kristenrice]

I'm planning a trip for October 2018. My home resort is AKV and I will have 88 points to use for the final reservation. 55 points will be banked from 2017 and the other 33 will be current. (*For our extended-family 2019 trip, I will need to bank 67 points but I will have them available for reservations) We have stayed many times at AKV and we'd like to change it up, if possible, so at 7 months, we're going to look at any of the other resorts with the exception of GFV, PVB, BLT and OKW.

So, basically, my plan is this...

At the 11-month mark, book Sat-Fri (6 nights) in a standard studio at AKV (74 points, 55 banked + 19 current)...

At 7-months, go ONLINE and book Sat-Thu (5 nights) in a studio at CCV/BRV/BCV/BWV/SSR, based on whatever is available, using my remaining current UY points. We aren't particularly choosy as the only one we've stayed at in that batch is BWV. I know that the chances are slim, but we will try anyways.

This is where I have 2 questions...

After I've (hypothetically) secured these reservations, I'd like to call MS at 9am at the 7-month window and buy 3-5 OTU points (depending on which 7-month resort we booked) and ADD a night (Thursday) to the end of that reservation. Will I be able to do this, or will this be treated as a separate reservation and I'll have to wait?

Second, assuming I am able to secure a 6-night reservation at a non-home resort, I will cancel my AKV reservation which will free up 55 banked points. Will MS be able to swap those out with the current points used for the non-home resort??

 

[Nie0214]

So, they are able to do these things but not sure if they are willing or do this often for people.

We have BLT points (resale) that we need for a Dec 2018 trip. We're also going to WDW this February and planned to stay in an AllStars resort... but then Disney announced the AP discount and we decided it made more sense to buy our 25 direct add-on now instead of waiting a year, and then we could get an AP and use the points right away.

Last week, I booked an AKV Standard Mon-Fri on our BLT points for our February trip to save the reservation.

This week, our direct AK waitlist came through and we paid for the 25 AK points (still waiting on closing docs). With an October use year, we got 2016 points that needed to be banked.

I called MS and they helped, and even suggested these changes before I could tell them what I wanted:

- They banked the 25 Oct UY16 AK points.
- I purchased 20 OTU points for UY17.
- They reallocated the reservation to use the 20 OTU points, the 25 banked AK UY16 points, and a handful of AK UY17 points.
- They put back my UY17 BLT points.

Glad they could do all of this as there aren't any studios left for those dates now.

Now, I don't know if they do this for everyone, if I got an awesome CM, or if it's because I just bought a new contract.

 

[kristenrice]

I'm fairly certain that they will be able to re-allocate the points without having to cancel and re-book. My biggest concern is if I can add a night to an existing reservation before the 7-month window for that night opens up. I know that everything is subject to availability and I was initially planning on only a Sun-Fri stay. We may need to fly in on Saturday instead so I figure that it will be easier just to book a 6 night stay since it would only be 3-5 more points ($45-$75 more) rather than worry about getting stuck on a late Sunday flight and losing an entire park day. I know that it will be difficult to get a Saturday in a studio in October which is why I'd rather book the Sat-Thur first and then call at 9 to buy the OTU points and add Thursday night on to the reservation so that I have Sat-Fri nights booked. Then I can cancel the 6-night AKV reservation and have them move the points around. It's probably all a moot point anyways since I really doubt I will be able to find 6 consecutive nights in a studio in October at the 7-month mark.

 

[CarolynFH]

A month or so ago we wanted to book VGF in February but needed to buy some OTU points. We booked the first 6 nights online with the points in our account then called MS to buy the OTU points & add the last night. No problem. You're allowed to book up to 7 consecutive nights from a given open window.

 

[PlutoFan10]

I would call member services with your questions, especially about that 6th night.

 

[CarolMN]

.....(snip)......At 7-months, go ONLINE and book Sat-Thu (5 nights) in a studio at CCV/BRV/BCV/BWV/SSR, based on whatever is available...............

After I've (hypothetically) secured these reservations, I'd like to call MS at 9am at the 7-month window and buy 3-5 OTU points (depending on which 7-month resort we booked) and ADD a night (Thursday) to the end of that reservation. Will I be able to do this, or will this be treated as a separate reservation and I'll have to wait?..........

Yes, you can do that if there is availability for that 6th night in the exact same booking category. (Chances are quite good that there will be if there was availability when you booked the first 6 nights). It's a good strategy.

 

[cvjw]

At the 7 month window, you are allowed to book 7 nights. If you book 5 online and then call to add the 6th, you are still under the 7 nights you are allowed to book. They will be modifying an existing reservation so there will be no need to cancel and rebook.

Theoretically, you are allowed to modify the points used for a reservation as long as it does not circumvent the 11 month booking priority. Yours will be booked at 7 months, so it should not be an issue to swap out the points. That being said, some cm's are much better at this request than others. Some will say you can't swap points. You may have to call a couple of times before you find a knowledgeable cm.

 

[TomL]

Are you allowed to book a week at the seven month window and to call MS later to remove the first few days of the reservation.

 

[crisi]

Are you allowed to book a week at the seven month window and to call MS later to remove the first few days of the reservation.

Yep, that's what walking does, except you might start more than a week out - cancelling the front end until you arrive at your vacation dates. The problem is that at that time of year, you could run into a night somewhere in the middle where the owners have already booked the room - any night missing and you can't book forward and have to wait for seven months from the "new" check in day

 

[skier_pete]

I think they can do both those things, 100% sure on the first one, about 95% sure on the second one.

Your biggest issue is getting another reservation in October. Of those you listed, likely the only one that will actually have availability will be SSR. Not to be a downer, but October is a tough time.

 

[kristenrice]

I think they can do both those things, 100% sure on the first one, about 95% sure on the second one.

Your biggest issue is getting another reservation in October. Of those you listed, likely the only one that will actually have availability will be SSR. Not to be a downer, but October is a tough time.

That's kind of what I figured. Since we are now planning on 6 nights (when we were originally only planning on 5), we would be 100% open to doing a 3/3 split-stay. I'm hoping to hang on to the AKV reservation (made at 11 months) and then use my leftover points to piece together a reservation somewhere else at the 7-month mark. I'm hoping that I can waitlist and stalk the website to piece together (2) 3-night reservations at a resort we've never tried. I'm not 100% sure we'd be willing to give up AKV for SSR....that's a tough one...we know we love AKV, but we've never tried SSR.

 

[kristenrice]

I just thought of another potential issue...I am the only adult going on this trip. How should I book the 2 reservations since I don't think I can be the lead on 2 concurrent reservations? We will not be doing a dining plan so can I just list my husband on one of them and then modify it to include the correct travelling party once we finalize the reservation?

 

[mustinjourney]

I just thought of another potential issue...I am the only adult going on this trip. How should I book the 2 reservations since I don't think I can be the lead on 2 concurrent reservations? We will not be doing a dining plan so can I just list my husband on one of them and then modify it to include the correct travelling party once we finalize the reservation?

Names don't matter. You could put Homer Simpson on one if you wanted.

*ETA -- I should clarify - the names don't matter at the time of booking. They do need to be corrected for traveling.

 

[skier_pete]

That's kind of what I figured. Since we are now planning on 6 nights (when we were originally only planning on 5), we would be 100% open to doing a 3/3 split-stay. I'm hoping to hang on to the AKV reservation (made at 11 months) and then use my leftover points to piece together a reservation somewhere else at the 7-month mark. I'm hoping that I can waitlist and stalk the website to piece together (2) 3-night reservations at a resort we've never tried. I'm not 100% sure we'd be willing to give up AKV for SSR....that's a tough one...we know we love AKV, but we've never tried SSR.

We stayed at SSR when we first bought. Wasn't a huge fan but it was nice enough - I don't think I would ever choose it over AKV myself - but that's our home too.

I just thought of another potential issue...I am the only adult going on this trip. How should I book the 2 reservations since I don't think I can be the lead on 2 concurrent reservations? We will not be doing a dining plan so can I just list my husband on one of them and then modify it to include the correct travelling party once we finalize the reservation?

That's what I would do. We recently did something similar, though both of us were going on the trip.