Advantages of Multiple small contracts

[mantry]

I was discussing about the possibility of securing a reservation at WLV at the 7 month point in another Thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=38267813#post38267813 and someone mentioned, "..that is why we added 50 points there...."

Can someone help with the concept of multiple contracts at different resorts.

I think I may have it down. For example if you had 50 points at VWL it would be your HOME RESORT for those 50 points. Now assuming that is all you had. If you wanted to stay a week there during the "Adventure" season it will cost you 105 pts. Now you only have 50 points and if you were to Borrow you would only have 100 which is still not enough..... Seems to me you would have to borrow from your "NEXT USE YEAR" if you didn't have points which then meant that you wouldn't be able to go around the same time the next year.

What are the advantages to having multiple small contracts at multiple resorts.

Thanks again in advance.

 

[kristenrice]

Having multiple contracts at different resorts is one way to "customize" your vacation travel.

In our case, we bought 100 points at AKV because we originally planned on taking a WDW vacation every two years. With banking, this would give us 200 points to use each time. Now, I have adjusted that plan to take better advantage of our DVC AP discount. The plan now is to take a trip in June followed by a trip in April (using 150 points per trip) and then take a year off since we'd be out of points.

But, since I *really* want to take a vacation every year, I am now considering an add on at HHI. I'd like about 70 points which would give us 210 points every three years. This way, we would still be able to take a family vacation every year, but we wouldn't necessarily do WDW every year. It would also give us home resort advantage in the summer at HHI for a 1BR (where they only have 21 1BR units) which is a necessity.

The only thing that has me mildly concerned is the remote possibility that DVD could suspend banking/borrowing. That would not be a complete disaster, but it would definitely put a kink into my plan. I doubt it will ever happen, but it could, so I do not want my add-on to be too small.

 

[chalee94]

I think I may have it down. For example if you had 50 points at VWL it would be your HOME RESORT for those 50 points. Now assuming that is all you had. If you wanted to stay a week there during the "Adventure" season it will cost you 105 pts. Now you only have 50 points and if you were to Borrow you would only have 100 which is still not enough..... Seems to me you would have to borrow from your "NEXT USE YEAR" if you didn't have points which then meant that you wouldn't be able to go around the same time the next year.

first, let's make sure you understand "use year."

step 1) figure out what your UY is - for example, the october UY for 2010 goes from oct 1, 2010 to sept 30, 2011.

for example: if i am travelling in july 2011, then i am taking a trip in my 2010 UY.

step 2) for that trip in july 2011, you can use banked pts (2009), current pts (2010) and/or borrowed pts (2011).

-you cannot bank or borrow multiple years. when you bank or borrow pts, the transaction is "final" and you cannot put points back into their original UY.

-if you call in september 2010 to book july 2011 at your home resort to book the stay with "current" pts - then they are current 2010 pts (doesn't matter if your 2010 UY hasn't "started" yet - UY has nothing to do with when you call to book a stay.)

What are the advantages to having multiple small contracts at multiple resorts.

1) home resort advantage:

if i own 50 pts at AKV and 100 pts at BCV, then with banking and borrowing, i have up to 50+50+50 = 150 AKV pts to book AKV at 11 months out every third year and up to 100+100+100 BCV pts to book BCV at 11 months out every third year.

if i only want to stay AKV concierge and BCV for the epcot food and wine festival, then the 11 month window is hugely important. in other situations, the 11 month window may be less important.

2) options later on:

-if you have multiple small contracts, you can will each contract separately to different children.

-if you have 400 pts in 50 pt increments, and you decide you don't want to visit wdw as much as your kids get older, it possible to sell 150 or 200 pts without having to sell all 400 pts and not be a member any more...

 

[Sandisw]

I think that the key to owning at different resorts is to own the # of points you need to book what you want at that resort so you can take advantage of owning there.

So, in your original example, if you wanted to visit VWL every other year and needed 105 points, then you would want to own at least 55 points there.

What some do is own at different resorts and then alternate each trip or do split stays.

We considered, after staying at BCV this summer (we own BLT) adding on a small contract here so we could book it at the 11 month mark and then split stay with BLT for our yearly summer trip. We ended up not doing it and just added on at BLT. We had success getting BCV this summer and figured we should be okay most of the time. BLT is our favorite resort so if it doesn't come through, it is really not that big of a deal.