Philmont Reservations

[dan 10]

Spent this morning calling into Philmont to get reservations for 2004. All I got was a busy signal, I called every 3 minutes for a hour and a half. Is there some secret to get through to make reservations?

[DanB 10]

We had three people running eight phone lines, constantly redialing. It took an hour and a half to finally get through but we ended up on the waiting list. The last time we went, in 2000, it took two hours calling but we did get a reservation. Is it the luck of the draw or what?

 

 

 

[DanB 10]

This is our first time on the Philmont waiting list. Not knowing how far down the list we are, what is a typical length of time one would usually wait before something becomes available? I would think that when deposits are due at the end of January, Philmont should know what is left and let those waitng know. I don't want to wait forever in order to make other plans.

[Mike F 10]

Last year we were #699 on the waiting list. Found out by dropping by Philmont Base Camp when on Troop ski trip to Red River at Spring Break. I suppose you could call in sometime in the next few weeks to find out earlier. Don't use the reservation line -- that's a commercial reservation outfit, not Philmont. Look for Philmont phone numbers on web sites. When at Base Camp, they told me they rarely get beyond the first hundred on waiting list. And, yes, they do get cancellations all the way up to the summer -- those who put down deposit money lose it.

 

Got lucky this time and made it in after 1 hour of calling. June & July were already gone and they were filling the last slots in August. Not perfect - going to lose some band and football players, but we're very happy.

[eisely 13]

Dan,

 

Your experience is pretty typical. Every time I have been involved in this we had multiple people in the same room dialing in over multiple lines. Even so, the shortest time to get in was 45 minutes.

[benny 10]

We used eight people in one of our Assistant Scoutmasters office building. Each person used two phone preprogrammed for the number. We were lucky to get through in 15 minutes.

 

I understand they are talking about goingf to a lottery next year. Any truth to that rumour?

[eisely 13]

Apparently they tried a lottery system a few years ago based on mailed in paper entries. I understand that many units submitted multiple entries to increase their chances, and for this reason Philmont reverted back to the current system.