How Vistana Helped Us Solve the 120-Day Window Problem

[SMH1968]

Thanks for posting this. I would not have thought of this on my own, but just did the same thing. A nice insurance policy! Now if only I wouldn't have to cancel it down the line due to covid...

 

[shorep]

Vistana placed 79,200 Staroptions in a holding account for us in May for a cancelled 13-night stay at WLR, with the the restriction that they be used only for bookings within 120 days of arrival.
In discussions with Vistana, I learned there was likely away around this constraint. So I booked a 1BR unit for 17 January nights at Westin Lagunamar using unrestricted 2021 Staroptions. They informed me that if I were to then call at the beginning of our 120-day window, I could apply our restricted Staroptions to this booking and get our unrestricted Staroptions back. So I did this.
When I called Monday to execute that option, a very pleasant young lady (sounded young...and pretty, too) quickly took care of that for us. She applied our 79,200 restricted Staroptions to the first 13 nights of our January stay and returned 79,200 unrestricted, calendar-year 2021 Staroptions to us...for future use or banking...and this process did not require a unit other than ours to be available. Thank you, Vistana.
Would anyone like to meet us at WLR in January to help celebrate?

You were very lucky to find such a nice person in that "organisation",I had been warned to use my 21,000 options by 21st December 2020 or lose them, they were not willing to listen to any problems I might have,I live in UK there is a government ban on travel to USA and all points west or east, they would not bank them.So guess what,Vistana timeshare being deeded back via Marriots vacation thanks to the advice from the guru on this site and the magic link, saving $1500 on 2021 budget already, just how many bottles of Irish whisky can that buy?????Will post progress to feedback later, heres hoping.!

 

[bobpark56]

Are you 5* or had you already paid to bank other 2020 options previously?

No, and No (3-star)

 

[bobpark56]

The trick is to book with the restricted Staroptions and then cancel the reservation made with unrestricted ones, if a unit is available. I had to check repeatedly, but eventually was able to do that with our late November reservation at the Westin Princeville. My fear would be that, if I cancelled and then rebooked, a 4* or 5* owner on a waitlist would get ”my” booking. And I have to think that there wasn’t a waitlist on OP‘s property, because it really wouldn’t be fair to somebody who waitlisted prior not to get the cancelled unit.

Hi Dioxide...Canceling and then rebooking does not seem to be necessary. The lady on the Starwood phone had no problem doing our 'points swapping' directly within our existing booking. There were no comparable dates free for booking at the time, so we asked her to just keep us in what we had...and she did that easily. --Bob Park