Borrowing Points Question

[cmrules]

Question: I need to borrow 15 points from 2006 for our 2005 trip. Do I have to wait until after my use year this year to make the ressie? I am March use year. We will be taking the trip in May so when the trip occurs I will only be borrowing 1 year ahead. Sorry, this is a little confusing. I don't want to call MS and look like an idiot.

Michelle

 

[Desnik]

I have a June use year at SSR. We booked for June and Nov. and I made those ressies in Dec. I believe you can call as long as you have the points available for the month you are reserving. Does that make sense?
Even if you are borrowing I think that's how it is. Someone else, help me out explaining it!!LOL

 

[CarolMN]

You can always call as soon as your 11 month (home resort) or 7 month (non-home resort) window opens. You do not have to wait until after your use year begins to call for the reservation.

For a May 2005 trip, you can call now. The 11 month winodw opened last June and the 7 month window opened last October.


Best wishes -

 

[tjkraz]

I just want to add that when you call to make the reservation the 2006 points will be moved into your 2005 Use Year. They cannot be moved back to '06, even if you cancel or change the reservation. MS will explain this when you call--just didn't want you to get caught off-guard.

 

[sagwanamu]

Absolutely. You can call now and borrow from 2006 points for 2005 trip.

I just did the same. I booked two two-bedrooms for July 2005 family trip.

Actually, you don't even need to mention if you want to borrow. When you call MS, they will tell you if you can/can't borrow.

And you will be amazed how nice they are helping you to book a trip.

 

[Caskbill]

Use Years, banking, and borrowing can be confusing at times, especially for new members. I always like to suggest you make yourself a use year chart for your contract. In your case it's a March UY Chart and looks like this:

<b>Use Year.....Vacation Dates</b>
2004.....Mar 1, 2004 through Feb 28, 2005
2005.....Mar 1, 2005 through Feb 28, 2006
2006.....Mar 1, 2006 through Feb 28, 2007
2007.....Mar 1, 2007 through Feb 29, 2008
2008.....Mar 1, 2008 through Feb 28, 2009

and so on.

The points that are used for a vacation are determined by the vacation dates. For your May 2005 dates, points must come from your 2005 UY. You can get points into your 2005 UY three ways:

(1) Your regular annual allocation which you will receive Mar 1, 2005
(2) Banked points from 2004
(3) Borrowed points from 2006

Since you apparently won't have enough points in your 2005 UY to make your reservation (either banked 2004 points if any, and your new 2005 allocation (minus any that were previously borrowed), MS will automatically borrow as many points needed from your 2006 UY. They will explain to you that once borrowed they cannot be returned to 2006.

As for actually making the reservation, it has nothing at all to do with your use year. You reserve at 11/7 months accordingly. The date you're reserving determines what use year the points must come from, and you simply bank, borrow, or use that years regular allocation points as necessary.

In your case, assuming it's your home resort, you could have made your May 2005 reservation as early as last June, 2004. Even though you would be calling them in 2004, they would still have used points from your 2005 use year since May 2005 is in that UY, and would have borrowed 2006 points as required.

Hope this helps.

 

[SimbaNoodle]

Just be carefull. My first year as a member I banked points. I have been borrowing ever since, even after two add-ons. I may be caught up in my 2006-2007 use year.