Please help me with my II eplus/replacement week strategy

[klpca]

I have an exchange starting 12/4/21 at Hyatt High Sierra Lodge with one remaining eplus exchange available. We aren't going to be able to go because I broke my foot last week . I was going to use my final eplus to book a week as far out as possible, then wait until 8 days before that exchange to cancel to maximize my replacement year. Am I missing anything? Just trying to make the best of this situation. I realize that I am going to be stuck in flexchange which is a bummer, but not much else that I can do about that. Any other suggestions?

 

[dioxide45]

I have read that if you exchange out as far as you can and as long as your new conformation is more than 60 days out, cancelling outside the 60 days may keep you out of Flexchange. It will shorten the expiration date on the cancellation replacement, but gives you more flexibility and the ability to add OGS. Someone will have to confirm if this is really the case. If not, your strategy seems to make sense.

 

[sue1947]

This gets confusing so I think it's worth clarifying things a bit:
Kipca is correct on the face of it. However, dioxide is saying to cancel more than 60 days before the new reservation which might get you a year on the replacement week.

The rules: cancelling or eplus under 60 days gets you a replacement only good for that same time period; flex. Cancelling at 60+ days results in a replacement week for a year from the date you cancel. So the rule of thumb is to wait and cancel as close to the 60 days as possible. If you are within flex, then the next time limit is 7 days, when you are limited to search within a week. So you would want to cancel at 8 days to get a replacement week good for as long as possible. The combination of eplus and a cancellation is where the question comes in. If you eplus out as far as possible; in this case Feb 2022, then cancel at 60 days (Dec 2021) before that exchange; do you get a year on the replacement week? I think the answer is yes, but I've never done it so would like to hear how this works out.

 

[dioxide45]

If you eplus out as far as possible; in this case Feb 2022, then cancel at 60 days (Dec 2021) before that exchange; do you get a year on the replacement week? I think the answer is yes, but I've never done it so would like to hear how this works out.

You do certainly get a year on the cancellation replacement no matter what. A year from the date you cancel. The question I was raising is, if you cancel more than 59 days out from the new checkin date, is the cancellation replacement week still flex restricted? I have never done it, so I don't know. I thought I recall others saying they have and it wasn't restricted. I suspect it isn't talked about much, because if it wasn't restricted, II could close the loophole pretty quickly.

 

[klpca]

This gets confusing so I think it's worth clarifying things a bit:
Kipca is correct on the face of it. However, dioxide is saying to cancel more than 60 days before the new reservation which might get you a year on the replacement week.

The rules: cancelling or eplus under 60 days gets you a replacement only good for that same time period; flex. Cancelling at 60+ days results in a replacement week for a year from the date you cancel. So the rule of thumb is to wait and cancel as close to the 60 days as possible. If you are within flex, then the next time limit is 7 days, when you are limited to search within a week. So you would want to cancel at 8 days to get a replacement week good for as long as possible. The combination of eplus and a cancellation is where the question comes in. If you eplus out as far as possible; in this case Feb 2022, then cancel at 60 days (Dec 2021) before that exchange; do you get a year on the replacement week? I think the answer is yes, but I've never done it so would like to hear how this works out.

You do certainly get a year on the cancellation replacement no matter what. A year from the date you cancel. The question I was raising is, if you cancel more than 59 days out from the new checkin date, is the cancellation replacement week still flex restricted? I have never done it, so I don't know. I thought I recall others saying they have and it wasn't restricted. I suspect it isn't talked about much, because if it wasn't restricted, II could close the loophole pretty quickly.

I may just try. We can't travel in Jan/Feb anyway (work), plus I prefer to stay home in December since I do a ton of holiday stuff (baking/decorating) so there's not a lot of downside to trying. The worst case is that I won't have December 2022 in my 12 months but the upside is pretty big if it gets me out of flexchange. Let me see what I can do. I will report back

 

[rickandcindy23]

We are kind of in the same boat, but no broken bones over here. We planned a nice trip for just the two of us to Orlando, 12/5-12/12 at Marriott's Lakeshore Reserve. I am out of eplus retrades, so this was going to be it. Our daughter-in-law's due date for the twins is late December, probably around 12/19, but she is going in today to get a second stress test done on the twins because the little girl was not doing okay yesterday. They are talking about taking them very early, possibly today. We need to be there for our 4-year-old granddaughter. The little boy was doing fine, but he is very small, the girl is the bigger one but under more stress. They are worried about her.

Sometimes I think these constant tests cause more stress than they should. Most of the tests were not even available 45 years ago, and yet here we are with panic all of a sudden because of a test yesterday that has to be done again today.

 

[tomvc]

If you eplus to a check in date greater than 60 days and then cancel, the cancellation replacement is not restricted. I did this in July. The new exchange fee is not discounted.

II E-Plus Retrades

I have and II exchange for December 4, 2021 and purchased and purchased E-Plus Retrade. When do I need to do the retrade so I don't get tied into a short window for trades?

tugbbs.com

 

[klpca]

Ok. I hedged my bets. I made my final eplus exchange in mid January near the kids just in case (Club Tahoe - good location but certainly no Hyatt). Then I chose "start retrade" and it was giving me a final retrade date of March 7th 2022 (2 years from the final date of the underlying deposit) so I called into II and they said that the cancellation had to be done by them and the rep assured me that since today is more than 60 days out from the last eplus retrade, I wouldn't have a 60 day restriction. Unfortunately their "system is down" at the moment, so I will have to call back later to cancel and get my replacement week.

Thanks @tomvc for the confirmation that this will work, and thanks @dioxide45 and @sue1947 for the discussion. I would haven't figured this out on my own.

Edit to report that this strategy absolutely works (no surprise as tomvc said that it worked). As sad as I am to have lost the week, I now have another week to go shopping with, so at least there is that small consolation. Eplus can be added to the replacement week, you can add an OGS, and you can even extend the week. Moral of the story, always ask here before doing anything unusual in II to see if there are options that you have not considered.

 

[JanT]

klpca,

No advise on your issue but just wanted to say I'm sorry you broke your foot! Hope you mend quickly!

Jan

Ok. I hedged my bets. I made my final eplus exchange in mid January near the kids just in case (Club Tahoe - good location but certainly no Hyatt). Then I chose "start retrade" and it was giving me a final retrade date of March 7th 2022 (2 years from the final date of the underlying deposit) so I called into II and they said that the cancellation had to be done by them and the rep assured me that since today is more than 60 days out from the last eplus retrade, I wouldn't have a 60 day restriction. Unfortunately their "system is down" at the moment, so I will have to call back later to cancel and get my replacement week.

Thanks @tomvc for the confirmation that this will work, and thanks @dioxide45 and @sue1947 for the discussion. I would haven't figured this out on my own.

 

[klpca]

BTW one more interesting data point. I used my replacement week to book something and the unit size upgrade that I had paid on the original exchange seemed to stay with the unit. I had used a 2 bedroom unit and the original exchange was made for a 3 bedroom - paid the upgrade fee ($59 since I am platinum). Yesterday I could see three bedroom units available for exchange with no upgrade fee. I'm not sure if this a bug or a feature but either way it seems only fair and I was happy with the result.

 

[dioxide45]

BTW one more interesting data point. I used my replacement week to book something and the unit size upgrade that I had paid on the original exchange seemed to stay with the unit. I had used a 2 bedroom unit and the original exchange was made for a 3 bedroom - paid the upgrade fee ($59 since I am platinum). Yesterday I could see three bedroom units available for exchange with no upgrade fee. I'm not sure if this a bug or a feature but either way it seems only fair and I was happy with the result.

I do think the cancellation replacement week is based on the size of the unit you confirmed into. Otherwise, you would be paying the upgrade fee twice if you had to upgrade again when using the cancellation replacement.