Banked Points Question

[toniosmom]

I just made a couple of reservations and I was very specific that I wanted banked points to be used first. The CM I spoke with said it is automatic that bank points are used first. I'm a little uneasy by her answer - I thought we had to be specific about which points I wanted used first.

Has anyone had experience with this? I have six contracts and it has been a bit confusing....LOL.

Thanks!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I'd say that it's more like most CM's will use the banked pts first but I've had one miss the fact there were banked points so I always mention it. If they reply as they did on your call then no biggie. Better to remind than not have it happen IMO.

At the end of a call when I verify the remaining number of points I always verify how many are bankable. If they are all current then the number's should be identical and I have then verified that they used the banked points.

 

[wonderbear2]

My understanding is that the computer automatically uses banked points first.....that it is not up to the agent to do it manually. I, too, also go over remaining points, banked and current UY, at the end of the call. If you're still nervous, you can always make a call to MS and ask to review your current point status.

 

[DenLo]

You can also review the points on your account on the MS website. If your banked points were used it would show that they are no longer available. If you look at the Points Activity Statement for the contract you are interested in (or for that matter all of your contracts and you can specify the period you are interested in) you can see the date you banked the points and the date the points were used for a reservation. I find it easier if I print the statement and then double check each entry.

Only one time did we have a problem with the CM using the wrong points. The CM suggested we keep a reservation we already had booked and use our other points to grab a second reservation that covered part of our stay and if the wait list came through for one missing day, we could cancel the original reservation. (We hadn't banked our points into 2010 at that point). So we did as he suggested. We didn't think of it until later, but, the original reservation was made using our banked 2009 points for that resort. Since those points were used during our home resort priority booking period, we couldn't just move the points to our second reservation later (even after we cancelled the first reservation). We had to cancel the second reservation and rebook it with the banked points. We were lucky and did not lose the dates and villas we wanted.

I remember the CM stating when he made the second reservation that he had never been able to do this before as most members don't have that many points just sitting there. I just wish we had thought to remind him that we we still wanted to be use to use the banked points in the new reservation.

 

[6bowmans]

I just made a couple of reservations and I was very specific that I wanted banked points to be used first. The CM I spoke with said it is automatic that bank points are used first. I'm a little uneasy by her answer - I thought we had to be specific about which points I wanted used first.

Has anyone had experience with this? I have six contracts and it has been a bit confusing....LOL.

Thanks!

Unfortunately, like many things in life that are supposed to happen automatically, they often don't. When it comes to my DVC points, I keep track of what kind of points I have, and how they are allocated to reservations. I confirm with the CM what points are being used for a reservation, then get a current tally of my points at the end (which they are also supposed to give you). Treat DVC points like your money and you will shouldn't ever be surprised.

 

[toniosmom]

This was actually the second CM I spoke with on this issue. The first one had my contract points completely wrong, even though the dvcmember site had them right. I soon gave up with her and decided to call back another day to speak with another CM, which is what I did today. I guess I became so uneasy because she kept referring to my 2009 banked points as if they were part of 2010 use year. She would just give me the total of 2010 points, which included 2009 banked points for each contract. Every time I asked her if she was using banked points first, she said yes, you have XXX points available (which was both 2009 and 2010). She didn't really give me the 'warm fuzzies' that she realized the difference between banked and curent points, so after reading your replies, I checked the dvcmember site and it looks like all banked points were used before my current points.

Thank you all for the quick responses!