DVC / Cancelled Flight question

[Susan C]

Hello All,

Since I am a complusive over planner, I'm starting to wonder what would happen if we couldn't get out of Orlando due to cancelled flight to Philly due to MORE snow, could we use our DVC points to extended stay, or is that unheard of?

Thanks
Susan

 

[Deb & Bill]

Hello All,

Since I am a complusive over planner, I'm starting to wonder what would happen if we couldn't get out of Orlando due to cancelled flight to Philly due to MORE snow, could we use our DVC points to extended stay, or is that unheard of?

Thanks
Susan

It would depend on how busy they were. If they had availability, you probably could use points to extend your stay.

 

[Anal Annie]

We just went thru this with the snowstorm that hit on Tues. after MLK weekend. We were orig. down there for a 4 n / 3 day weekend and were to fly home on Tues. I started hearing about the storm sometime on Monday via friends / texts and an alert text from the NWS (I have an alert thing set on my phone). By Mon. night I was in a panic while we were trying to enjoy a late dinner at Be Our Guest. I had a friend down in Pompano Beach for the weekend and SW had already canceled her flight back to BWI but Delta was still showing everything "on time". I had bought travel insurance so as soon as we got back to the room I dug out their number and called. I think I got the cleaning crew. They told me I'd have to call back at 9:00 the next morning. Meanwhile DME was coming at 9:30 to get us. We had a 12:30 pm flight that transferred in Atlanta and our flt. back to DC was to leave ATL at 4:10. So after the travel ins. place I called Delta. Because of the storm they were offering to waive their change fees on all of their flights into the NE, incl. to DC. They ran thru all of their available options if we postponed by a day. None of them sounded great but so I just held off, thinking that by morning the situation could change. I went to bed at 1:00 am and got up at 5:30. We were just in a studio so I got dressed and went down to the lobby (so I wouldn't disturb DH & DS) to make more calls. I had not done any packing and was still wishy washy on what to do. I first went to the front desk and asked if there was room for us to stay (and in the same room). We were at AKV which is so big they had plenty of availability so they put a "hold" on our check-out while I tried to figure out plan B. I got some more weather updates and at this point I was SURE we'd get stuck in ATL airport if we got on that plane. And if we DID make it back to DC it was going to be in the middle of the storm, in the dark, all the way out in the boonies at Dulles airport - a full 40 miles from home. I DID NOT want to have to deal with that kind of a drive in a snowstorm. I called Delta again and this agent said she could re-book us on the same flights on Wed. (they weren't available the night before). So I just made the executive decision to do it while those seats were still open (even tho I knew we would have to borrow the points it wasn't THAT many). I went back to the front desk and changed our DME reservations and postponed those for a day then I called the Owners Locker and left them a message saying we needed to change our pick-up. Then I just had to wait for 9:00 to call the insurance and DVC member services.

Basically, by accepting Delta's offer to waive the change fees I voided any coverage from the insurance. It wouldn't kick in unless we'd have been delayed by 6 hours. So we'd have had to been stuck in ATL for it to pay. So lesson learned, the insurance was a waste of money in this case. Then I attempted to call DVC. The phone lines there are HORRIBLE right now. I actually tried to call them before I tried the insurance and the greeting said there was at least a 20 min. wait. So I hung up and called the ins. instead. Then when I tried to call back I kept getting a busy signal. We finally decided to go down to the Mara for some breakfast. I started trying to call DVC back again as soon as I'd eaten and got a busy signal over and over and over. It was very frustrating. I finally got through and was on hold for about 30 minutes. By this time it was like 10:30. I'd been up since 5:30 and this really didn't sit well with me. When I finally got a MS rep she made it sound like they'd be doing me a big favor to add on the night - I didn't care for her demeanor at all. Meanwhile the front desk had already confirmed to me that they had plenty of room. I don't know what took so long with her but she put me on hold for at least 15 min. before she was able to give me a confirmation number to give to the front desk. By this time it was just a few min. shy of 11:00!!! This whole extension process took me all morning. I was really irritated with MS tho in the whole process. I thought the time I spent trying to make this call was awful. Busy signals over & over then hold times that were unacceptable. ANYWAY, it worked out. We stayed the extra night and since we had AP's we were good to go for the rest of the day. It wasn't an experience that I care to repeat tho.

So yes, if there is a huge storm most airlines will waive change fees and you can extend your DVC stay as long as there is room at your resort. (If that resort is booked I am sure they could just move you somewhere else.) But be prepared for some long hold times with MS. They seem to have cut back on staffing and there are apparently a lot of calls about the new Magic Bands etc. Maybe if you have to call you will get lucky and hit a good time with little wait. But my experience really left a bad taste this time.

GOOD LUCK!!

 

[melissac]

Now this was about 7 years ago but was at airport and flights out of our connecting airport where being cancelled. I called MS they added 3 nights(took advantage of the weekend). Changed flight to Sunday and hoped on ME and away we went. Another time we wanted to check out early from US because my husband was having a hard time sleeping 4 in a room. MS stated they didn't have any rooms but went to SSR and front desk found us a room for the night. Couldn't get into OKW as this was where we where staying the rest of the trip but was happy to get a 2BR at SSR. Only problem was points where never deducted from our account.

 

[Disney On The Bayou]

I fly myself between New Orleans and Orlando, and due to some very ugly weather I had to extend. Called MS, they found a room at OKW and that was it. It just really depends on the time of year and what else is going on.

 

[bakerworld]

As my husband said when we were 'stuck' in FL, "We can't get out and all the people flying in from where we need to fly can't get in so don't worry about the bed."

During that visit - we ran out of pts before DVC ran out of getting us a room

 

[Susan C]

As my husband said when we were 'stuck' in FL, "We can't get out and all the people flying in from where we need to fly can't get in so don't worry about the bed."

During that visit - we ran out of pts before DVC ran out of getting us a room

LOVE the postive spin... much better to be STUCK in FL, rather than unable to get in.

Thanks Everyone..

 

[Dasha Hermosilla]

We were "stuck" in FL on the Tue after MLK like the PP but we had a far better experience. We were at VWL and I called the front desk. They must have an onsite DVC person liason and she was fabulous. She researched the extra nights for us and called us back so we were not sitting on the phone. They had availability tue and Wednesday night in our same room so she moved things around and we were able to stay in the exact room for two nights. We too have AP so we pushed our return to Friday. Thursday they did not have DVC availability, but they offered to move us to the WL main building for the points of a 1 BR ( we had been staying in a 1BR). We were happy with that and everything worked out. It was nice they were accommodating and moved us to WL and charged us points vs paying cash (a discounted cash rate was another option, but we had the points to spare). It was a great experience. In all, we were in the parks Tuesday only 15 minutes later than we had planned.

 

[Anal Annie]

We were "stuck" in FL on the Tue after MLK like the PP but we had a far better experience. We were at VWL and I called the front desk. They must have an onsite DVC person liason and she was fabulous. She researched the extra nights for us and called us back so we were not sitting on the phone. They had availability tue and Wednesday night in our same room so she moved things around and we were able to stay in the exact room for two nights. We too have AP so we pushed our return to Friday. Thursday they did not have DVC availability, but they offered to move us to the WL main building for the points of a 1 BR ( we had been staying in a 1BR). We were happy with that and everything worked out. It was nice they were accommodating and moved us to WL and charged us points vs paying cash (a discounted cash rate was another option, but we had the points to spare). It was a great experience. In all, we were in the parks Tuesday only 15 minutes later than we had planned.

I wonder why the AKV staff told me I'd have to wait to call DVC MS myself then? I mean, they could confirm that they the availability but they said only DVC MS could complete the transaction. I was just really annoyed with the phone lines at MS. I couldn't believe how long it took to get through...

 

[DebbieB]

I wonder why the AKV staff told me I'd have to wait to call DVC MS myself then? I mean, they could confirm that they the availability but they said only DVC MS could complete the transaction. I was just really annoyed with the phone lines at MS. I couldn't believe how long it took to get through...

Be sure to send member satisfaction an e-mail. Members really need to start complaining about the long waits.

dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationclub.com