Are my contracts combined?

[MountainMouse]

We just finished purchasing our second contract, same resort, same use year, same names on the deed. The points from the new contract are appearing in my account, I see them as two separate contracts. I recently booked a few nights next January and the booking tool asked me which contract I wanted to use. The stay wasn't long enough to require points from both contracts. I was surprised that it asked me which contract to use. I thought it would draw from them as one large pool of points. Can anyone tell me based on the above information if my contracts are combined? I don't want to get into a situation where I need to use points from both for the same booking and can't do it. Thanks.

 

[disneynutz]

Contracts are separate. If you need points from both for a reservation, you select both to pull from.

Bill

 

[CarolMN]

Do you have two membership numbers? If not, the contracts are combined. I have a Master and and add-on both purchased directly from Disney, so same resort, same use year. The online booking engine also asks me which of the two contracts I want to use. Can't imagine when it would matter, unless I am planning to sell one of them and want that contract to remain full. I've not had a problem "combining" points for the same night.

If you have two membership numbers, the contracts have definitely not been combined. More than one membership can have the same DVC website login id.

If you are really nervous about this, give MS a call and ask.

 

[MountainMouse]

Contracts are separate. If you need points from both for a reservation, you select both to pull from.

Bill

Ok, I didn't check to see if I could select both when booking. I did know that the contracts would actually be separate I just thought the points were combined. So, other than use year management (banking and such), is there any advantage in buying contracts with the same use year at the same resort? For example, if I own 2 BLT contracts, one with a September and one with a October use year, and I want to book a December vacation at the 11 month window is there any disadvantage in having these contracts as different use years? For some reason I thought if I had different use years I would have to book separately or transfer points from one to another.

 

[MountainMouse]

Do you have two membership numbers? If not, the contracts are combined. I have a Master and and add-on both purchased directly from Disney, so same resort, same use year. The online booking engine also asks me which of the two contracts I want to use. Can't imagine when it would matter, unless I am planning to sell one of them and want that contract to remain full. I've not had a problem "combining" points for the same night.

If you have two membership numbers, the contracts have definitely not been combined. More than one membership can have the same DVC website login id.

If you are really nervous about this, give MS a call and ask.

Thanks for the reply. Only one member number and I'm really not nervous about it, just wondering if I needed to call MS to get them combined and what kind of a hassle that would be. Sounds like they are combined so now I'm just wondering if it was really advantageous to get the same use year.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks for the reply. Only one member number and I'm really not nervous about it, just wondering if I needed to call MS to get them combined and what kind of a hassle that would be. Sounds like they are combined so now I'm just wondering if it was really advantageous to get the same use year.

If you had 2 actual member numbers you would not have the option of which contract to select from. You would have to make a reservation from one or the other. As it is with contracts combined under a membership you could "pay" for a reservation from both your contracts. So if your reservation did require more points than you had under either contract then you would select both and you will have the option to order which will be used first. The system will then take all the points from that contract and the remainder required from the second. That would not be the case if you had 2 contracts that were not combined under one membership where as I mentioned you would have to make 2 reservations. As you use it you will find there is also an ordering to the points used so if you have banked points in both contracts then you could select both contracts and it will use all the banked points first before it starts using current points from either contract. Borrowed points will also be used before current points.

I think you just had a different idea of where the combining occurs as in it would be combined into a single contract, not contracts under a single membership.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

With the advent of the April 4 resale restrictions and the other restrictions from 2011, it could make a difference which contract you use. I would suggest first using any points bought after April 4. Then use any post 2011 points. Only then should you use any direct or pre 2011 points. That way you can bank points that you may use for non-Disney or Cruises. You may never use them this way, but at least you have the option.

 

[MountainMouse]

If you had 2 actual member numbers you would not have the option of which contract to select from. You would have to make a reservation from one or the other. As it is with contracts combined under a membership you could "pay" for a reservation from both your contracts. So if your reservation did require more points than you had under either contract then you would select both and you will have the option to order which will be used first. The system will then take all the points from that contract and the remainder required from the second. That would not be the case if you had 2 contracts that were not combined under one membership where as I mentioned you would have to make 2 reservations. As you use it you will find there is also an ordering to the points used so if you have banked points in both contracts then you could select both contracts and it will use all the banked points first before it starts using current points from either contract. Borrowed points will also be used before current points.

I think you just had a different idea of where the combining occurs as in it would be combined into a single contract, not contracts under a single membership.

Thanks for the reply. Yea I did have a different idea but I'm fine with how it works. It does seem like there isn't a huge benefit to getting the same use year though.

 

[MountainMouse]

With the advent of the April 4 resale restrictions and the other restrictions from 2011, it could make a difference which contract you use. I would suggest first using any points bought after April 4. Then use any post 2011 points. Only then should you use any direct or pre 2011 points. That way you can bank points that you may use for non-Disney or Cruises. You may never use them this way, but at least you have the option.

That's a good point. In my case they are both post 2011 and pre April 4th 2016 (just barely).

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

With the advent of the April 4 resale restrictions and the other restrictions from 2011, it could make a difference which contract you use. I would suggest first using any points bought after April 4. Then use any post 2011 points. Only then should you use any direct or pre 2011 points. That way you can bank points that you may use for non-Disney or Cruises. You may never use them this way, but at least you have the option.

If one has no intentions of using the points outside of DVC resorts then it doesn't matter and usually the resort the contracts are at will matter more unless they are all the same resort. And the April 4th date doesn't matter at all for using points first in anyway that I can see that they should be used before any points post Mar 2011.

 

[Dean]

Thanks for the reply. Yea I did have a different idea but I'm fine with how it works. It does seem like there isn't a huge benefit to getting the same use year though.

The benefit is not as much as it was under the old banking rules but it's still pretty big for the same home resort, less so for different home resorts simply because in order to combine them at 11 months out for a single reservation they have to be under the same master. You might try a future booking and see if you have the option of using both accounts for a single reservation to confirm their together. Historically if they didn't combine them initially they won't fix it later but it's been a while since I saw the situation come up and even then it's only been a couple of times years ago.

 

[MountainMouse]

Just an update, I booked a couple of extra days, was able to select and prioritize contracts, and it pulled points from both in the order you would expect.

Question, if my contracts were at the same resort but not the same use year would I still have been able to book pulling from both contracts? Assume that both contracts have available points for the booking time but not enough separately to cover the entire reservation. Thanks in advance and I apologize if this is already answered, just making sure I am clear on it.

 

[supersnoop]

Question, if my contracts were at the same resort but not the same use year would I still have been able to book pulling from both contracts?

Nope. With separate use years, you'd have to make partial reservations with each contract, or transfer points from one to the other and book over the phone.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Just an update, I booked a couple of extra days, was able to select and prioritize contracts, and it pulled points from both in the order you would expect.

Question, if my contracts were at the same resort but not the same use year would I still have been able to book pulling from both contracts? Assume that both contracts have available points for the booking time but not enough separately to cover the entire reservation. Thanks in advance and I apologize if this is already answered, just making sure I am clear on it.

No, you couldn't have. That's the benefit of a "combined" UY. 2 UYs would require a transfer and then calling in to do the same because you wouldn't see the transferred points online,