What luck... But not the good kind... (Just venting)

[fearthisinc]

Just wanted to vent.. We have a trip booked this August for Kidani Village for 11 nights.. In-laws are there for the first 6 nights and the last 5 its just us and the kids.. We had been contemplating a split stay as we just closed on a new contract that had some 2016 points that needed to be used.. Was looking at the RAT today and saw an opening at another resort.. Called up member services and told them we wanted to book the last 5 nights at the new resort.. They did a check and confirmed the availability and said they needed to cancel the last 5 nights on our current reservation so they could apply the points towards the new reservation.. I am new to this so I think "ok, no big deal, go ahead".. Well.. He goes to book the new resort and I get an "uhh oohh".. He then tells me that someone booked two nights right in the middle of the 5 nights we were doing at the new resort.. So Im just like "oh well.. worth a shot.. just keep me at Kidani".. Well, apparently some of the nights had already been taken already.. I guess someone waitlisted two of the nights on the end of our trip at Kidani so they were no longer available.. I think the guy started panicking and put me on hold.. came back and apologized and said he was able to get me some of the nights back, but the last two nights he had to put me in the new resort.. He then put me on a waitlist at the new resort for the nights we need.. I know this is never going to come through at this resort, but doesn't hurt to wish..

I am just annoyed that literally your only option is to borrow points even though you are cancelling a vacation that will give you the points in your account.. He explained that there is no way to "hold" the new room without cancelling and getting the points put back into the account.. Its not like you can do a phantom booking, but there should be an option so that the new reservation can be made and upon hitting "confirm" the points automatically transfer from the old reservation.. You would think that Member Services would have this kind of authority.. anyway.. just a little disappointed.. i mean I am happy we at least have a room, but hate the idea of moving the last two days to a different resort.. I like the idea of "settling" into the room.. 2 nights doesn't give you that opportunity..

 

[disneynutz]

So as I expected, MS still can not hold inventory. I would talk to a supervisor and if that doesn't work contact member satisfaction.

Bill

 

[fearthisinc]

I plan on writing a letter to upper management..I cant understand how Member Services does not have the authority to look up availability, see that a room is available, and put a temporary hold on it while they cancel the old reservation.. It just doesn't make sense that they cannot do this.. The only thing I can think of is that it is a scam to force someone to borrow points.. But that doesn't even make sense because you should be able to bank to original points used unless you are past the booking window or cancel within a certain time.. But I was completely surprised by this.. Just did not make sense to me.. I mean what if half of our vacation was completely lost during the transfer and they were unable to get any of the nights back.. Idk.. Just needed to vent and get it off my chest.. I have the nights needed at the new resort waitlisted and also waitlisted Kidani for the nights we are missing.. Hopefully something comes through in the next few weeks..

 

[_auroraborealis_]

It's not a scam. It is terrible IT practice.

 

[TexasChick123]

I completely agree that there needs to be an option where you click to book by replacing another reservation.

Here’s a question for you: Why can they do it for a WL but not for a regular booking? When we WL, we click “replace existing reservation”. I know someone at MS handles it manually once it fills, so why couldn’t they do that in your situation? It’s the same thing.

I hope it works out for you!

 

[fearthisinc]

Wow... I am in complete shock.. I just got an email and confirmed through my dashboard.. the waitlist came through!! Within an hour!!.. I guess someone backed out or something.. But thank you to whoever you are.. Anyway.. Now that the reservation is confirmed... the new resort was/is Bay Lake Tower.. We really didn't expect the waitlist to come through.. especially being only 2-3 weeks out.. This is our first time staying at Bay Lake Tower ever.. We often visit contemporary for Chef Mickey but never actually stayed there in all the years of visiting Disney.. Now.. The only thing I need to address with MS is the incorrect point usage.. The rep on the phone told me that I was waitlisted at BLT and that if it came through it would cancel the last nights of Kidani and use the points for the new reservation.. Instead it borrowed points from 2018 which is not what I wanted to do.. This is what lead to the initial problem.. Hopefully they will correct this and credit back the 2018 points and use the current years points.. That or let me bank the 2017 points..

But, regardless of this outcome.. something should still be done with the MS being able to hold rooms while they do the booking process.. I still plan on writing a letter to see if this is something that can be addressed..

 

[Matty B13]

Disney IT at it's finest...... I thought they were working on this.......

 

[Matty B13]

Wow... I am in complete shock.. I just got an email and confirmed through my dashboard.. the waitlist came through!! Within an hour!!.. I guess someone backed out or something.. But thank you to whoever you are.. Anyway.. Now that the reservation is confirmed... the new resort was/is Bay Lake Tower.. We really didn't expect the waitlist to come through.. especially being only 2-3 weeks out.. This is our first time staying at Bay Lake Tower ever.. We often visit contemporary for Chef Mickey but never actually stayed there in all the years of visiting Disney.. Now.. The only thing I need to address with MS is the incorrect point usage.. The rep on the phone told me that I was waitlisted at BLT and that if it came through it would cancel the last nights of Kidani and use the points for the new reservation.. Instead it borrowed points from 2018 which is not what I wanted to do.. This is what lead to the initial problem.. Hopefully they will correct this and credit back the 2018 points and use the current years points.. That or let me bank the 2017 points..

But, regardless of this outcome.. something should still be done with the MS being able to hold rooms while they do the booking process.. I still plan on writing a letter to see if this is something that can be addressed..

This should be easily correctable if you get the right CM, the good ones can change point allocations pretty quickly.

 

[bumbershoot]

Here’s a question for you: Why can they do it for a WL but not for a regular booking? When we WL, we click “replace existing reservation”. I know someone at MS handles it manually once’s t fills, so why couldn’t they do that in your situation? It’s the same thing.

good question.

Given how complicated one of my last wait lists was, someone was holding something while making that booking for me, so it's got to be possible.

Wow... I am in complete shock.. I just got an email and confirmed through my dashboard.. the waitlist came through!! Within an hour!!.. I guess someone backed out or something.. But thank you to whoever you are.. Anyway.. Now that the reservation is confirmed... the new resort was/is Bay Lake Tower.. We really didn't expect the waitlist to come through..

I'm not that shocked. I've now gotten GFV studio for two separate trips, at very improbable times. Last trip the last bit of my stay was nearly at the last minute. So apparently I believe in miracles, LOL.


But with this happening inside 2 hours, I can't help but wonder if his messup was that he had held the rooms, backed out, went back in, and couldn't get the rooms his other session had held. In such cases you have to wait for the session to time out so the days go back into the general pool.

Waitlists haven't been as immediate as he seemed to make it out to be for you, so I doubt it was a wl.

 

[southerngirl528]

I plan on writing a letter to upper management..I cant understand how Member Services does not have the authority to look up availability, see that a room is available, and put a temporary hold on it while they cancel the old reservation.. It just doesn't make sense that they cannot do this..

I think that a well written letter is the most impactful thing any of us members can do. Please do that. You could send a copy to Member Sat and either ask that they forward it "up" or send a 2nd copy to upper mgmt.

Wow... I am in complete shock.. I just got an email and confirmed through my dashboard.. the waitlist came through!! Within an hour!!.. I guess someone backed out or something.. But thank you to whoever you are.. Anyway..

My STRONG guess is that they "VIP"d you for the waitlist because of what happened. You had a stay already booked, sounds like for a while, and it got lost in the transaction by MS. SO happy you got it!!!

That, or a supervisor was able to pull from another inventory to take care of it. That can be done SOMETIMES in very unusual circumstances.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Or maybe another CM had grabbed it looking for availability and then needed to cancel someone else's reservation and while doing that the waitlist picked it up.

Crazy things can happen!

For me, the best chance to get a waitlist it to make it when you know there was availability just before doing it. I'd guess you ended up getting that room back, it just had to put you thru the wringer first.

 

[zavandor]

The rep on the phone told me that I was waitlisted at BLT and that if it came through it would cancel the last nights of Kidani and use the points for the new reservation.. Instead it borrowed points from 2018 which is not what I wanted to do.. This is what lead to the initial problem.. Hopefully they will correct this and credit back the 2018 points and use the current years points.. That or let me bank the 2017 points..

MS should be able to "un-borrow" points under special circumstances (like this), but if the agent you speak to makes any problem, ask for a supervisor or call back again.

 

[kniquy]

I am just annoyed that literally your only option is to borrow points even though you are cancelling a vacation that will give you the points in your account..

It seemed that when they were making all those changes to the member website that this was going to be a feature that was going to do a hold on a new reservation/cancel/book. Lets hope this is something they are working on because there is no reason why we have to stress/worry and the possibly screw up our entire vacation because it takes a minute to cancel and release points. I mean you go to buy concert tickets and even that will tell you that they will hold the tickets for 5 minutes -- why can't DVC do it as well. It's not like you are holding a reservation for days or even hours -- it is a simple hold for a matter of minutes until you can get your points.

I remember my last reservation I called to change the first 3 nights to poly -- of course the CM had to warn me that I would be homeless until she could complete the booking (had to get 2 poly rooms instead of a 2BR at AKV). I remember how nervous I was as she made it through one reservation and then had to go on to the second studio. I needed a drink after that stressful phone call!

 

[disneynutz]

Another reason why we do not waitlist anymore. Not worth the headache or not knowing if it will come through. Booking and taking a vacation should be fun and easy, not a pain where you have to write letters to management.

Bill

 

[Greg36]

It seemed that when they were making all those changes to the member website that this was going to be a feature that was going to do a hold on a new reservation/cancel/book. Lets hope this is something they are working on because there is no reason why we have to stress/worry and the possibly screw up our entire vacation because it takes a minute to cancel and release points. I mean you go to buy concert tickets and even that will tell you that they will hold the tickets for 5 minutes -- why can't DVC do it as well. It's not like you are holding a reservation for days or even hours -- it is a simple hold for a matter of minutes until you can get your points.

I remember my last reservation I called to change the first 3 nights to poly -- of course the CM had to warn me that I would be homeless until she could complete the booking (had to get 2 poly rooms instead of a 2BR at AKV). I remember how nervous I was as she made it through one reservation and then had to go on to the second studio. I needed a drink after that stressful phone call!

I am hopeful that the new system will allow you to modify while holding your original reservation and booking your new reservation all with the points from the original reservation... we shall see...

 

[fearthisinc]

Just wanted to update.. MS was able to put the 2018 points that they borrowed back into the account and put everything back in order.. There must be some kind of "holding" system in place because the MS rep I had was working with a supervisor and while on the phone I saw them making cancellations and booking reservations on my dashboard as I refreshed.. So I am wondering if its only a supervisor at this point that would have access to temporary hold a room or maybe they can just override the system.. either way this should not be something that only supervisors can do.. There should be no reason why I cannot log into DVC, check availability, and then check which nights to replace.. The waitlist system has this built in where it can replace a reservation if a waitlist comes through.. The only thing MS was able to say is that if I am thinking or planning of doing a split stay then I should make 2 separate reservations and waitlist 1 of them for another resort.. For example: If I plan on visiting Disney from August 1 -10.. Instead of booking AKL for all nights under 1 reservation, I should make 1 reservation for August 1-5 and a second reservation for the 5-10.. The only problem I have with this is what happens if you cannot snag the room on the second part of the trip when doing your initial booking? Now you are forced into a split stay instead of being able to wait and see what you want to do.. It also is classified as two separate rooms so there would be a chance you would have to check out of your original room even if staying in same resort and room category..

 

[TexasChick123]

I'm glad they sorted it all out for you OP. I would settle for a system where you have the option to book a room and simultaneously cancel the other one. There is just no reason that we cannot do this. You could go into the booking process of whatever room where it is essentially holding it, and then you could click "book and replace XXX reservation". This is a serious problem that people had all kinds of workarounds from using two browsers to clicking on and refreshing the borrow points screen, etc. It shouldn't be this hard to change rooms which is all that you are doing. Hold the darn room as we are booking it and let us cancel the other one to free up the points. Come on DVC!

 

[disneynutz]

Just wanted to update.. MS was able to put the 2018 points that they borrowed back into the account and put everything back in order.. There must be some kind of "holding" system in place because the MS rep I had was working with a supervisor and while on the phone I saw them making cancellations and booking reservations on my dashboard as I refreshed.. So I am wondering if its only a supervisor at this point that would have access to temporary hold a room or maybe they can just override the system.. either way this should not be something that only supervisors can do.. There should be no reason why I cannot log into DVC, check availability, and then check which nights to replace.. The waitlist system has this built in where it can replace a reservation if a waitlist comes through.. The only thing MS was able to say is that if I am thinking or planning of doing a split stay then I should make 2 separate reservations and waitlist 1 of them for another resort.. For example: If I plan on visiting Disney from August 1 -10.. Instead of booking AKL for all nights under 1 reservation, I should make 1 reservation for August 1-5 and a second reservation for the 5-10.. The only problem I have with this is what happens if you cannot snag the room on the second part of the trip when doing your initial booking? Now you are forced into a split stay instead of being able to wait and see what you want to do.. It also is classified as two separate rooms so there would be a chance you would have to check out of your original room even if staying in same resort and room category..

Yes only supervisors, managers, team line, and member satisfaction can hold inventory to my knowledge.

Bill

 

[disneynutz]

DVCMC would have to pay out of pocket to make changes to the website. Often they will use the same source code that Disney uses for their systems. That's why we have online check in and why the DVC website looks like Disney's website. The less money they spend on website upgrades, the more they have for other things, like maybe moonlight magic and profit.

Bill

 

[intertile]

At one point, wheren't you able to put a hold on a room in one browser, and then log into your account in a different browser and cancel a reservation. Then refresh the first browser to finalize the booking?
I know it would require 2 reservations as explained above, but can you still do that?