Expiring Points??

[riatees]

Ok, I have a situation I've never had to deal with before, points that are going to expire!! I have several contracts between 3 different home resorts. I made a reservation at the 11 month mark for a GV at OKW for June. At the time I had to borrow points because I did not have enough available in my OKW contracts to cover it. Now I am at the 7 month window and I have about 55 BW points that will expire the end of June if I don't use them. Does anyone know if there is any way to change out points I used for the reservation from the current use year with the 55 that will expire? I know the borrowed points are a done deal, but if I can get back 55 points from the current use year, I could at least bank them and not lose them. Not sure how to do this even if it is possible, would I possibly have to cancel a day and re book it taking the risk that it would be snapped up by someones wait list? I appreciate this board and all of the help I've received from the members on here, thanks in advance.

Maria

 

[Msmithmd]

Yes, you can change them out, but it involves risk. What you do is cancel the reservation, and then rebook it using the expiring points plus the remainder of the OKW points. Then bank the unused OKW points into next use year.

You shouldn't be able to switch out non-home resort points into a booking that was done with home points in the home resort priority window.

To be complete in my answer, a few members have actually reported being able to do this, so you probably should call MS and ask, before canceling and rebooking.

But by rule they shouldn't allow non-home points to ever replace a home resort priority reservation, unless the reservation is cancelled and re-booked. To do otherwise circumvents the home resort priority window: if a whole lot of members all employed this strategy to (for example) replace their VGF home booking with SSR points, and banked their VGF points into the next year, then during that subsequent year there would be a whole lot more VGF home points in play than there would be unit-nights available to book.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

I would check online to see if there is availability for nights that will total 55 points (with a GV reservation, that should not be too tough - and weekend nights will likely be the best option if they are included already in your reservation).

If there is availability, I would call MS to cancel/rebook as they will have the best opportunity to accomplish this and minimize the risk of losing the night altogether. If you have enough available points you could make the reservation online before canceling and then call MS to link the new reservation with the existing reservation. That will work best if you are booking nights at either end of the stay - but more difficult (without the assistance of MS) if you have to cancel re-book a mid-stay night.

Hopefully, a weekend night will be available for exactly 55 points at either end of your stay!

Good luck!

 

[riatees]

Thanks so much for the advice. I think I will call member services because I really don't want to mess it up and risk losing the reservation. I just realized that the expiring points are actually partially BW and partially OKW. What happened was I had used them for a reservation for January for a studio at OKW. My niece and her friends were supposed to be going for the marathon but had to cancel. When I cancelled their reservation, the expiring points showed up. Hopefully, I can fix this, I would hate to lose the points!

Maria

 

[MountainMouse]

You've got a decent amount of time left, if another booking or swapping points doesn't work out you could rent them. At least it won't be a complete loss.

 

[DebbieB]

What is your use year? You said the points expire at the end of June, which would not be possible since there is no July use year. If your use year is June, they would expire 5/31.

 

[riatees]

Actually, it's the end of July. My use year is August, but I guess I have June on the brain cause that is when my trip is!!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks so much for the advice. I think I will call member services because I really don't want to mess it up and risk losing the reservation. I just realized that the expiring points are actually partially BW and partially OKW. What happened was I had used them for a reservation for January for a studio at OKW. My niece and her friends were supposed to be going for the marathon but had to cancel. When I cancelled their reservation, the expiring points showed up. Hopefully, I can fix this, I would hate to lose the points! Maria

The points that are OKW can just be reallocated to the OKW GV reservation by MS to use them up. But as was mentioned using the BWV points would require a "new" booking either via canceling one of your days and trying to rebook or some similar scenario of booking a day with the BWV points.

 

[riatees]

Use year is August, points expire end of July! I think I just have June on the brain cause that is when our trip is.