Booking BRV for May 2024 - Transfer Points or Two Reservations?

[Jack Kerouac]

Hello,
My wife and I, along with our three boys, will be traveling with my parents to WDW in late May next year. We are hoping to book a 2BR at the seven month mark for four nights. The issue is I do not have enough points for the whole reservation, so my parents are going to split the point cost with us. We are considering having them transfer 85 points to us and then we would make one reservation. The other option is we both make a two night reservation and ask for the reservations to be linked so we hopefully don't have to change rooms. Is one of these better/easier than the other when considering BRV?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CarolynFH]

Hello,
My wife and I, along with our three boys, will be traveling with my parents to WDW in late May next year. We are hoping to book a 2BR at the seven month mark for four nights. The issue is I do not have enough points for the whole reservation, so my parents are going to split the point cost with us. We are considering having them transfer 85 points to us and then we would make one reservation. The other option is we both make a two night reservation and ask for the reservations to be linked so we hopefully don't have to change rooms. Is one of these better/easier than the other when considering BRV?

Thanks in advance!

I would get the transfer. Much easier to book as one reservation as opposed to having to request they link two separate ones. Also, if dining reservations are at all important, having two reservations, even if linked, means two 60-day booking windows.

 

[drusba]

If you make separate reservations, you will have two different 7-month out dates and thus one would make the initial reservation at 7 months out from initial arrival date, and the other 7-months out a couple days later. As long as you have the same guest names on both reservations, you can then together contact MS and have the reservations linked to avoid having to change rooms. With the two separate reservation numbers, you will have two different 60-day out dates for making restaurant reservations, even if the reservations are linked.

If instead you do a transfer, you will be able to use the combined points to create a single reservation. However, that will also have a trick to it. The issue you face is that the transferred points may not be shown in your online account if they are for a different home resort than you own or a different use year. Thus, to use them together for a reservation to be done at 7-months out requires contacting MS, which does not open until 9 a.m. There is thus a risk, if you wait until 9 to do the reservation, that what you want may be gone by 9 a.m. To lower any such risk, you should consider making part of the reservation online at 8 a.m. with your points and then at 9 contact MS to modify the reservation to add days to the reservation using the transferred points.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

The issue you face is that the transferred points may not be shown in your online account if they are for a different home resort than you own or a different use year.

Our points are Polynesian with an August UY and my parents will be using their SSR points, which are February UY. We do plan on calling MS tomorrow to get an idea of how best to book the stay. Our preference would be one reservation via a transfer if it can be done cleanly.