So, tomorrow I have to book our January 2024 stay. We have decided to do 3 nights in a Studio and 2 nights in a 1 bedroom to save points.
But, being resale, the fact that we have to borrow points in order to book, I know I have to do this over the phone. (Stupid resale bug in their system when you borrow points!)
Anyhow, do you think there is any chance they would let me book the final 2 days in the 1 bedroom on the same call? I mean…technically, I could just wait 3 more days and do it all then…but it always makes me nervous doing that (probably needlessly).
I just hate all the time it takes, because last time, I ended up being transferred to two different CMs for them to get around the whole resale borrowing issue.
Is this a guaranteed bug? Are you planning to try online at 8am? I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem borrowing points! Similar to comments on another thread I am not sure I’ve ever booked a stay that didn’t involve borrowing.
I’m not sure. I’d heard about the bug before, and I experienced it each of the three times I booked something (which involved borrowing points). I don’t know if it is certain accounts or not, aside from resale.
But each time I would try to do it on-line, it would all work until the actual step where it would do the reservation…and then it would just error out. (Forget the error now.)
I ended up having to call and do the reservation on-line…and they also would struggle to get the points to properly transfer so that I could use them.
So…it sounds like it is a known, on-going issue with resale contracts that Disney hasn’t bothered to fix. (Feels almost like a punishment against those with resale, because it puts you behind everyone else at, say, the 7 month mark when everyone is fighting for those non-home-resort reservations…but that could just be some latent conspiracy nonsense in me!)
Ok I mean if you’ve experienced it before then that makes sense. I’ve heard about it but I guess it’s not ALL resale contracts. Sorry you got unlucky! They should definitely be working on fixing it because yes that’s incredibly unfair.
Oh. If that’s the case…maybe I’ll be able to at least book the first three nights in the Studio without an issue. I’ll try doing that on-line first and see if it works…for research purposes.
Actually, if I think about it, I booked all three times when we were under the 50% borrowing restriction, so that couldn’t have been the cause…since I was never borrowing more than 50%! BUT, maybe it was a bug that was caused by some issue with them trying to wrongly enforce the 50% rule. If that’s the case, perhaps now that the 50% rule has been lifted, the resale bug is gone? We shall see. I’ll be sure to report back here tomorrow.
Hmm. So…like book 4 nights in a studio, borrowing points…and then drop the first night tomorrow? Those borrowed points I’ll end up using when I book the 1-bedroom in a few days.
Two things - I used to have this glitch but have not experienced it since they lifted the barrowing restriction. I booked an impossible to get GCV that I would have lost my mind if it had timed out because of this glitch. More recently I booked Aulani and barrowed points and it was no problem.
But @melcorts idea works too. I did this last year when I needed to buy extra points and barrow points for a Hilton Head stay at spring break. They went fast and I didnt want to be on the phone trying to beat people out. Worked like a charm. The only risk was that I wouldn’t be able to get the reservation and then be stuck with those points, but I had a plan for that too.
Yes this is what I would do. I hate calling Disney on the phone but also would hate to lose that hour of potential advantage. As long as you’ll definitely use the points either way.
Just chiming in with my experience. I borrowed points for my recent booking (less than 50% though) and didn’t end up needing to call. I was able to do everything online. I didn’t have to modify after initial booking though – not sure if that makes a difference. All resale points.
Update: Today, it went okay. I was able to modify my reservation (taking away the extra day), and then create another reservation for our friends for a single night. This reservation basically used the borrowed points that I “got back” when I modified my reservation. No phone calls necessary.
The next big test will be in 3 more days, when I can book the 1-bedroom. I’m feeling hopeful it will not require a call now.
Okay…final update. This morning, I booked the remaining two nights of our trip using nothing but borrowed points…and I was able to do so entirely online. I take this as confirmation that whatever bug they had in the system before when borrowing appears to have been eliminated.
But in a practical sense, as a guy who hates having to call about anything, this made me happy!
Good update! Though, I think it’s generous to assume that the bug is completely resolved, rather than resolved for you today in this moment, and may reappear at any time
