Banking Points Issue--MS Wrong or Me?

[wintergreen]

I just had a rather strange experience with banking some points. I finally decided that I was not going to be able to use the remaining points in my account for this use year, and decided to bank them. Several months ago I made a reservation for the NEXT use year using that year's points. I called MS I asked the cast member to bank the remaining points from this year, and apply them to the reservation that I had already made for the next use year. She (not very politely) told me that I could not do that. Now I have done this same thing for the past several years, and I was a bit flummoxed. I (very politely) told the CM that I had done this before, and that when I had made the reservation for the next use year, that I had not yet decided whether I would use the remaining points from this use year. She replied that when a member makes these decisions, then they have to live with the consequences (I am paraphrasing here) of those decisions, and that she absolutely could NOT apply the banked points to the existing reservation. I insisted again, and she asked me to wait a minute.

The CM came back to the phone several minutes later, gave me my banking confirmation number and cheerfully said that the points had been applied to the upcoming reservation. I said thank you and hung up.

Now I'm wondering . . . was she right, and I should not have been able to have banked points applied to an existing reservation, or was I right? I have not been able to find anything about this particular situation in any of the DVC literature. Don't want to do this again next year if the CM got some sort of "special" authority to do this. Anyone?

 

[RobDoc]

I guess I've missed something - as it appears to me that MS did use the recently banked points for the existing reservation.

There are circumstances where MS might balk at reallocating points used for an existing reservation - especially if there is a waitlist for the villa - but if the existing reservation was made using points from the same account, there should be little problem reallocating the points as you describe, just as they did for you.

If you were trying to use banked points from another resort for a reservation made at 11 months, I can understand a reluctance to use those points.

Glad MS did just what you asked - unless I misunderstood your comment.

 

[wintergreen]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. MS DID finally do what I asked them. My question was whether what I asked them to do was "legal" and "normal" or whether my request was out of the ordinary and required some kind of special approval. All of my points are at the same resort and have the same use year, and I was well within seven months of the reservation in question.

 

[wildernessDad]

If I had to guess, I'd say that he or she was new and got straightened out. I remember in the recent past when MS did the same thing for me, used 'old' points on a future reservation (next UY) after I had banked them.

Edit: I just remembered when they did this for me. It was when I purchased an add-on and they let me bank points to the next use year and apply those points to a ressie. So it was an accommodation that they made to me when I purchased more points.

 

[Dean]

I just had a rather strange experience with banking some points. I finally decided that I was not going to be able to use the remaining points in my account for this use year, and decided to bank them. Several months ago I made a reservation for the NEXT use year using that year's points. I called MS I asked the cast member to bank the remaining points from this year, and apply them to the reservation that I had already made for the next use year. She (not very politely) told me that I could not do that. Now I have done this same thing for the past several years, and I was a bit flummoxed. I (very politely) told the CM that I had done this before, and that when I had made the reservation for the next use year, that I had not yet decided whether I would use the remaining points from this use year. She replied that when a member makes these decisions, then they have to live with the consequences (I am paraphrasing here) of those decisions, and that she absolutely could NOT apply the banked points to the existing reservation. I insisted again, and she asked me to wait a minute.

The CM came back to the phone several minutes later, gave me my banking confirmation number and cheerfully said that the points had been applied to the upcoming reservation. I said thank you and hung up.

Now I'm wondering . . . was she right, and I should not have been able to have banked points applied to an existing reservation, or was I right? I have not been able to find anything about this particular situation in any of the DVC literature. Don't want to do this again next year if the CM got some sort of "special" authority to do this. Anyone?

As I understand your post MS was right. Any reallocation is technically, at least by the rules, a cancellation and rebooking. Now it might work out the same IF sufficient nights of your reservation are available so that you could simply sub the points. As Doc pointed out, there is a potential home resort window issue if different home resorts points. The reason I said technically is they CAN do it when they shouldn't. I hope that's not the case here else someone on the wait list got taken advantage of.

 

[PamOKW]

Dean is correct. They don't allow you to just change out the points. It has to be looked at as a cancellation and rebooking. If there's availability, no problem. If there's a waitlist, you'll have to decide whether to keep the reservation as is or take your chances with the waitlist.

This is strictly enforced if you are switching out non-home resort banked points for a reservation made prior to 7 months with home resort points -- you can't use the "other resort" banked points until you reach the 7 month mark.

 

[Disney Doc]

Here's another vote for MS being technically correct. If there was no waitlist for your particular unit during that time, it also makes sense that they should go ahead and reallocate the points - as they did.

 

[wintergreen]

Ok. I will try to plan better next time. Just to be clear, I was not trying to "pull" anything by using non-home resort points for a reservation made 11 months in advance. All of my points are with one resort. The reservation in question was made at the seven month mark with the same "kind" of points that I wanted to bank (since they are all the same). I did not bank the leftover points from this use year when I made that reservation, since I thought that there was the potential that we would do one more trip before the end of the near. Next year, I will simply bank and use any leftover points for making a new reservation in the next use year, and if I have any additional trips that come up, I will borrow to cover them. Thank you for the clarifications.

 

[Granny]

Ok. I will try to plan better next time. Just to be clear, I was not trying to "pull" anything by using non-home resort points for a reservation made 11 months in advance.

I don't think anyone is suggesting or accusing you of anything. They have just been informing you that MS was correct originally when they indicated that you can't just swap out the UY points with the banked points without regard to availability.

You asked who was wrong, and several knowledgable people have indicated that you were. We are all glad that it worked out for you, but technically MS would have been within their rights to tell you that you could lose the reservation if cancelling/rebooking with the banked points.

Your strategy of going ahead and banking the points and then borrowing that UY if something comes up is the best one, and carries no risk of the cancelling/rebooking issue.

 

[wintergreen]

You asked who was wrong, and several knowledgable people have indicated that you were.

Yep. That was what I was trying to find out. I now feel badly that I was so insistent with the CM. Thanks to all of you who responded.

 

[RobDoc]

Yep. That was what I was trying to find out. I now feel badly that I was so insistent with the CM. Thanks to all of you who responded.

There is no reason to feel badly at all. If you were asking something unreasonable, MS would not have done it at all. There are certainly times when CMs misunderstand what was asked or are misinformed regarding a solution. In this case, it sounds as though they asked for help from a supervisor or a more experienced rep and were able to do just what you had asked.

Many of these issues are not a case of who is "right" or "wrong" as they are really situational. Some things at MS are carefully controlled by the computer system itself. Some are computer dependant, but can be manually overridden and some need to be governed by common sense regardless what the computer tells them.

Most of the responses above were intended to confirm the usual policy. The fact that your situation was resolved during the same phone call just indicates that MS found your request reasonable and were able to overcome whatever limitation was initially imposed by the computer system.

 

[Dean]

Ok. I will try to plan better next time. Just to be clear, I was not trying to "pull" anything by using non-home resort points for a reservation made 11 months in advance. All of my points are with one resort. The reservation in question was made at the seven month mark with the same "kind" of points that I wanted to bank (since they are all the same). I did not bank the leftover points from this use year when I made that reservation, since I thought that there was the potential that we would do one more trip before the end of the near. Next year, I will simply bank and use any leftover points for making a new reservation in the next use year, and if I have any additional trips that come up, I will borrow to cover them. Thank you for the clarifications.

I agree that this was an honest situation. The truth is that had you known how to ask, you could have easily gotten this done without the discourse. I can bet you that MS did exactly what we discussed, substituted for available nights. BTW, you can actually do this with non home resort points made during the home resort window for any days still available as long as you do so 7 months out or less.

 

[PamOKW]

Nothing to feel bad about at all! I went through the same thing myself. In the early days of DVC and my early days of being a member a very nice CM had "straightened out" points for my that were banked and new being used out of whack. Like you, I thought it was something that could just be done automatically.

I had folks on another chat board go ballistic at me when I thought it was just an "automatic thing". It has to be done in the cancellation/rebook steps. Something about the fairness of booking reservations.

You can go back in and make sure your banked points are used before your "new" points you just need to use the right language with the CMs -- sounds like you found a CM who translated to the newbie about what it was you were trying to accomplish.

Long winded --- sorry. Just wanted you to know you were "in the right" to fix your points -- but MS was in "the right" about how to technically do it.

 

[wdw_explorer]

Can someone explain the reason of not being able to switch in banked points for current use year points for a reservation?

I understand the restriction on not being able to switch to non-home resort points from home resort points at 7 months and also the restriction on not being able to switch in holding points for 'regular' points. Clearly these nullify the advantage of home resort points and the penalty of holding points.

I cannot understand why switching in banked points for current use year points is in any way disadvantaging the other members or any other reason it is restricted. Can someone please explain?

Thanks!!

Stu

 

[Dean]

Can someone explain the reason of not being able to switch in banked points for current use year points for a reservation?

The reasoning is that you would be picking up an unfair advantage. You would essentially be reserving a unit with points that weren't available when you made the reservation. You would also pick up an advantage with the freed up points for a future reservation. Even though some here don't like to admit it, the system is actually counting on a few points being lost here and there.

I understand the restriction on not being able to switch to non-home resort points from home resort points at 7 months and also the restriction on not being able to switch in holding points for 'regular' points. Clearly these nullify the advantage of home resort points and the penalty of holding points.

Remember you can potentially substitute points in ALL of these situations you describe as long as the date in question is not sold out.

 

[tic-toc-croc]

wintergreen: glad you posted something I've been wondering about.

After reading the posts here, it seems I may have a problem with switching out current year points with banked points...experienced DVCers, please help clarify.

I haven't banked some BCV 2007UY points because of a 1-day waitlist in 2007. If the waitlist doesn't happen by the banking deadline of 7/31/07, I'll get off the waitlist and pay cash for that one night. Last month, I booked March ’08 BCV at 11-mo with 2008UY BCV points. If I end up banking 07UY points on 7/31/07, then I will want to use them toward the March 08 reservation. If the March 08 BCV room is sold out when I call on 7/31/07 (still in my 11-mo), will the rules restrict me from switching out ’08 points with ‘banked ’07 points?