How do you get ressies with a 25% discount?
I think they are talking about reservations made within 60 days of arrival, which can usually be booked at a significant points discount.
For Presidential level owners and above. Executive gets a discount too, but at 30 days.
It does not work that way. I understand they will only do so if those same exact dates, room and view type are separately available for booking, in which case the "extra" points go into a holding account as they are now within the 60-day period. Otherwise, you have to cancel and rebook, but run the risk of losing those dates to a a waitlist or someone who happens to see them become available and is able to grab them before you.
I've had similarly successful modifications. The other thing - if your reservation was made with points coming from different buckets, you should be clear about which points you want returned to your account. For example, if the reservation had a combination of banked and current use year points, you would want to return / save the current use year points that could (in most cases) later be banked to future years. For some reason, their default always seems to be to consume points with the earliest expiration without regard to the potential to bank those points.
I've found the guides are usually pretty good at this but it is a good idea to be absolutely clear. The website does this universally when reserving then I have to have them reallocate the points later. I'm not spending my time trying to micromanage this issue while trying to book high demand reservations.
I was speaking generically about shaving a day off a reservation outside the no-penalty window. I have had them reallocate points in a way that was detrimental to my best interest, per the example given, and have had to make an annoying follow-up call to reallocate points. Not a huge deal, but a frustrating second call to make.
Things happen and it is important to trust but verify. As I stated, I find the reps are generally excellent in this area. As for holding account I don't think it makes any difference but I try to stay out of that situation if I can.
Is it possible they were put into a holding account because the change was shortening a reservation to something that would not have been permitted at the time you made the reservation based on the booking windows. Example, Select Owner with a 7 night reservation made at 12 months changing it to a 6 night reservation at 6 months. Those points should go into Holding.
Sorry, I was mixing two different scenarios. For a shortened cancellation inside the 60-day window, where the points go into a holding account, it is important to verify they will be moving the desired points if the reservation was made from combinations of use year and banked. Once these points are moved into a holding account, I don't believe they can be reallocated.