Using points to go on ABD

[bonnielynn]

Has anyone ever done this with their DVC points?

[Poppins2000]

We used our DVC points for our 5/08 Ireland trip....

[eva]

We used points for our upcoming Viva Italia trip in September 08. It is just DH and me. With early booking it was 764 points for the two of us.

[bonnielynn]

I have to wait to the 09 points chart comes out.. to see if we figure out if we can swing it, but I am hoping.. fingers crossed.

[cindy18]

We used points for half of our Southwest Splendors trip. We first booked the reservation as soon as the 2008 dates were released, using cash for the deposit. Once we had the confirmed reservation, we called DVC. They said that we could transfer as many of the four of us over to points as we wanted, at any time up to when we had to pay in full for the vacation, and the cash deposit we had put down for those people would transfer over to the ones still being paid for in cash. We wound up actually doing the transfer several months later, and it worked perfectly. We did have 2 different reservations, one for me and DD 10 and one for DH and DD 12, but that never seemed relevant because the reservations were linked. Made the trip feel like a bargain! We will definitely use points for ABD again.

[eva]

We used points for half of our Southwest Splendors trip. We first booked the reservation as soon as the 2008 dates were released, using cash for the deposit. Once we had the confirmed reservation, we called DVC. They said that we could transfer as many of the four of us over to points as we wanted, at any time up to when we had to pay in full for the vacation, and the cash deposit we had put down for those people would transfer over to the ones still being paid for in cash. We wound up actually doing the transfer several months later, and it worked perfectly. We did have 2 different reservations, one for me and DD 10 and one for DH and DD 12, but that never seemed relevant because the reservations were linked. Made the trip feel like a bargain! We will definitely use points for ABD again.

This is smart. Because the points last year didn't come out the same day as the dates were released by ABD. By the time that the points came out the Viva Italia on September 11th had no more early booking available. So we moved our date to the 14th. Will they refund your entire deposit if you transfer everyone to points?

[cindy18]

I don't know how it works on the deposit if everyone goes on points. Depending on your head count, it would take A LOT of points to do that, so we didn't even think about it. Good question, though.

[bonnielynn]

How much do you put down on ABD?

[cindy18]

You mean how much on deposit? Can't remember for sure, I think either $100 or $200 per person. This was about a year ago, so I could be wrong, but I think once you got the contract (which was after pricing came out. Pricing came out after date info), you had 2 weeks to accept or get your money back.

[grumpy-1]

We thought about using our points for our upcommimng Viva Italia trip. We were going to use points for one of us and pay for the other. If you do it that way DVC wants the cash portion of the trip right away when you book. We decided against that. What we ended up doing was selling our points to a family whom we contacted here on the Dis Boards. We sold 323 points at $10 a point, which covered more than half the cost of the trip. Is that something you might want to consider?

[cindy18]

That's right, I had forgotten that you have to pay for the remaining cash balance when you use points for a portion of the people on the tour. But what we did was wait to switch half of us to points until right before the due date for paying in full for the tour anyway. There's no rush since nothing changes in terms of point costs or cash costs. So it wound up being irrelevant that we had to pay off the cash portion because even if we hadn't used points we would have paid off the cash portion at the same time anyway. Does that make sense?

[krdisneybound]

I did the same thing for the Backstage Magic for 9/1. It worked out great. Also have extra $$'s left over for other thngs.


We thought about using our points for our upcommimng Viva Italia trip. We were going to use points for one of us and pay for the other. If you do it that way DVC wants the cash portion of the trip right away when you book. We decided against that. What we ended up doing was selling our points to a family whom we contacted here on the Dis Boards. We sold 323 points at $10 a point, which covered more than half the cost of the trip. Is that something you might want to consider?

[bonnielynn]

I am just in the absorbing stage of what is the possibilities out there with my DVC points... we have and are going to disney... we have done 2 cruises with Disney.. so I was thinking next step could possibly be the ABD... so just in the learning stage..:surfweb:

[eva]

Most people recommend renting out the points and paying cash. I guess I just have a problem with renting to people that I don't know. I have heard some horror stories about people not paying or constantly trying to change dates and/or resorts. Plus I always wonder how easy it is to coordinate renting 600 points and getting the money before having to pay ABD. Since over half the points for this trip were banked from 2007, I was a bit nervous about making sure those were booked and used in time. Another wrinkle in the plan is that I utilized points from 4 different resorts for the trip, with 200 points coming from Vero. This would make booking at the 11 month window tougher. Not sure if that makes sense. But it just sounded like a huge hassle to me.

[bonnielynn]

my fear with renting points is that I am so green at this..I have only owned for a couple months.. I have read about renting points, but wonder how that would work out before you have to book a trip with ABD...

I also with that ABD would have trips more than a year ahead.. would make it easier to plan, especially with how much they cost..

To bad I can't be wealthy and not worry about any of it!! :rotfl:

[pillow]

my fear with renting points is that I am so green at this..I have only owned for a couple months.. I have read about renting points, but wonder how that would work out before you have to book a trip with ABD...

I also with that ABD would have trips more than a year ahead.. would make it easier to plan, especially with how much they cost..

To bad I can't be wealthy and not worry about any of it!! :rotfl:

I'm stalking you from the other thread:lmao:

Just book your ABD with cash (or credit card if you don't have the cash). Then rent/trade your points and pay yourself back. Just saw a post on the other thread from someone who has done it before - think she said it was "as easy as falling off a log!!" :rotfl2:

You should check out the rent/trade thread. You could always start a thread and see how much response you get. I'm just a cheapo - always looking for ways to save money!!

Jodie

[bonnielynn]

I'm stalking you from the other thread:lmao:

Just book your ABD with cash (or credit card if you don't have the cash). Then rent/trade your points and pay yourself back. Just saw a post on the other thread from someone who has done it before - think she said it was "as easy as falling off a log!!" :rotfl2:

You should check out the rent/trade thread. You could always start a thread and see how much response you get. I'm just a cheapo - always looking for ways to save money!!

Jodie

At the moment I only have 133 points and as of June 09 270 more and so on.. would take me 2 more years to rent them... :lmao: Course I guess I can wait it out.. or borrow them.. who knows., being green sucks just a bit.. but I am learning!:woohoo:

[pillow]

At the moment I only have 133 points and as of June 09 270 more and so on.. would take me 2 more years to rent them... :lmao: Course I guess I can wait it out.. or borrow them.. who knows., being green sucks just a bit.. but I am learning!:woohoo:

Can you borrow from June 09 so that they 270 are in the current use year. Then you could rent the entire 403? Does that work? Not sure.

Jodie

[eva]

Can you borrow from June 09 so that they 270 are in the current use year. Then you could rent the entire 403? Does that work? Not sure.

Jodie

Sure she can borrow points and rent them out. With $10-12 a point, she could possibly make $4030 to $4,836. That would be a good amount towards an ABD trip. But if she schedules a trip after June 1st of 2009, she will not need to borrow those points. Instead she will need to bank her 133 points from 2008 into 2009. If she wanted she could then borrow her 2010 points for a grand total of 673 points. But I would think twice about doing this. That leaves no points to use other than the ABD trip until 2011. I know that it can seem complicated. But it doesn't take long to get the hang of it. The DVC boards here at the DIS are great at explaining things.

bonnielynn, if you decide to rent your points. Go to the DVC boards and read up on it as much as possible first.

[bonnielynn]

I wasn't planning an ABD trip until the first of 2010 anyway, so that gives me time to rent the points and to rent them... We shall see.. thanks for all the information..;)

[WDWmom08]

We used points for our upcoming Viva Italia trip in September 08. It is just DH and me. With early booking it was 764 points for the two of us.

Is there an early booking discount available when you use your points? The point charts don't really seem to address this.

[bonnielynn]

If you go to the dvc website and look at the 2008 points chart, there is a early booking discount... so yes..

Now 2009 is not up yet.. so I am hoping it will be the same.. I know that the prices for 09 come out 8/1, but that isn't the points.. I was told to book with cash and then use points to pay it off..

[WDWmom08]

I am not a DVC member yet so I don't have access to the member site only the login my guide gave me and those point charts don't mention any discounted rate. I am checking into buying a membership and would love to be able to use the points for an ABD vacation or 2. It is good to know the discount is out there. On average how big of a discount is it?

[pillow]

I am not a DVC member yet so I don't have access to the member site only the login my guide gave me and those point charts don't mention any discounted rate. I am checking into buying a membership and would love to be able to use the points for an ABD vacation or 2. It is good to know the discount is out there. On average how big of a discount is it?

Hi there. Bonnielynn and I have been talking about this very thing recently. The problem with using points for ABD is that it requires LOTS of points for one of their trip. For example, for the Costa Rica trip, the early discount points required is 348 (or close to that - can't remember exactly). The cash price is $2,400. DVC members "rent/trade" points on the disboards for about $10-$12 per point. If you wanted to do an ABD trip, you'd be much better off selling 240 points for $2,400 and using that money for the trip as opposed to paying 348 points for your trip. Make sense?

We love our DVC membership, but we use our points primarily for the DVC resorts at WDW. If you use them elsewhere, you just don't get as much "bang for your buck." It takes a lot longer to break even on your investment. I hate to say it, but if I didn't plan on visiting the parks once a year or every other year, I probably wouldn't have purchased it.

Jodie

[bonnielynn]

I am not a DVC member yet so I don't have access to the member site only the login my guide gave me and those point charts don't mention any discounted rate. I am checking into buying a membership and would love to be able to use the points for an ABD vacation or 2. It is good to know the discount is out there. On average how big of a discount is it?

Australia – North Queensland, Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock & Sydney
“Discovery Down Under” 10 days / 9 nights 464 417 498 449 522 469

American Mid -Atlantic – Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. & Williamsburg
“Spirit of America” 8 days / 7 nights 232 209 267 240 278 251

Ari zona and Utah – Sedona, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Moab & Arches National Park
“Southwest Splendors” 8 days / 7 nights 264 236 290 261 313 282

Austria and Czech Republic – Vienna, Salzburg & Prague
“Imperial Cities” 8 days / 7 nights 324 293 362 324 N/A N/A

California – Hollywood and the Disneyland® Resort
“Backstage Magic” 6 days / 5 nights 301 272 324 293 348 313

China – Beijing, Chengdu, Guilin, Shanghai & Hong Kong
“Enchanted China” 13 days / 12 nights 580 522 603 543 626 564

Costa Rica – San José, Arenal & Manuel Antonio National Park
“Path to Pura Vida” 7 days / 6 nights 313 282 336 303 348 313

England and France – London & Paris
“Cities of Knights and Lights” 8 days / 7 nights 417 377 440 397 464 417

France – Aix-en-Provence, Luberon Valley, Gordes, Roussillon & Paris
“Flavors of France” 7 days / 6 nights 313 282 348 313 371 333

Germany – Heidelberg, Trendelburg, Rothenburg & Munich
“Once Upon a Fairytale” 9 days / 8 nights 336 303 371 333 394 355

Ireland – Dublin, Killarney & Shannon
“The Emerald Isle” 8 days / 7 nights 333 301 371 333 394 355

Italy – Rome, Florence & Venice
“Viva Italia” 9 days/ 8 nights 382 345 429 387 464 417

Italy – Rome, Orvieto, Siena, San Gimignano, Tuscany & Florence
“Taste of Tuscany” 7 days / 6 nights 288 259 320 288 N/A N/A

Peru – Lima, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu & Cusco
“Sacred Valleys and Incan Cities” 9 days / 8 nights 313 282 348 313 382 345

Southern Italy – Rome & Amalfi Coast
“Roma and La Costa Bella” 7 days / 6 nights 313 282 348 313 371 333

Spain – Madrid, Seville & Barcelona
“Grande España”
9 days / 8 nights 336 303 371 333 406 365

Wyoming – Jackson Hole, Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks
“Quest for the West” 7 days / 6 nights N/A N/A 313 282 336 303

Early booking points... first 2 numbers are value adult/child next is Regular adult/child and peak adult/child

[WDWmom08]

WOW, thanks for the info!

[bonnielynn]

WOW, thanks for the info!

Ur welcome.. but remember that was 2008 early discount points..2009 isn't out yet...

[kidcoos3]

We used points for half of our Southwest Splendors trip. We first booked the reservation as soon as the 2008 dates were released, using cash for the deposit. Once we had the confirmed reservation, we called DVC. They said that we could transfer as many of the four of us over to points as we wanted, at any time up to when we had to pay in full for the vacation, and the cash deposit we had put down for those people would transfer over to the ones still being paid for in cash. We wound up actually doing the transfer several months later, and it worked perfectly. We did have 2 different reservations, one for me and DD 10 and one for DH and DD 12, but that never seemed relevant because the reservations were linked. Made the trip feel like a bargain! We will definitely use points for ABD again.

When you transfer to DVC to use points, are you also able to get the benefit of the reduced points for booking early if this is offered? We are looking to travel at a specific time during a peak period, so I really like the idea of booking as soon as the dates come out if we can then switch to use points.

Also, how quickly have the point charts typically come out after the dates are released?

Thanks.