Complicated Transfer / Use-year Questions.

[ZekeKelso]

I'm trying to work through some slightly-complicated transactions, and I can't wrap my brain around how they could work. Can someone help?

Warm up question:

Suppose I want a reservation in a hard-to-get room for MLK-week 2010. I want to do a day-by-day reservation at the 11-month mark, but it's not my home resort. How can somebody at that resort transfer (not rent) their points to me for that reservation?

I'll be making the reservation in February 2009. Would the person transfer points from their 2008 use-year to me, which I would then bank for use in January 2010? If that works - it that the only way to do it (transfer of 2008 use-year point) or is their another possibility - such as them to sending me their 2009 (or 2010) use-year points somehow?

Extra credit question:

Suppose someone has points at the resort I want in the scenario above and they want points from my home resort for a February 2009 reservation. Is there any way to do a swap using transfers (rather than via rentals as is currently being discussed in another thread)?

Could we work within the one-transfer a use-year rule? I have 2008 use-year points (2007 points are spent). Is there any way to transfer those to the other person now (i.e. during the 2007 use year) so we could then do another transfer in February 2009 (during the 2008 use-year).

Thanks,
Zeke

 

[Dean]

I'm trying to work through some slightly-complicated transactions, and I can't wrap my brain around how they could work. Can someone help?

Warm up question:

Suppose I want a reservation in a hard-to-get room for MLK-week 2010. I want to do a day-by-day reservation at the 11-month mark, but it's not my home resort. How can somebody at that resort transfer (not rent) their points to me for that reservation?

I'll be making the reservation in February 2009. Would the person transfer points from their 2008 use-year to me, which I would then bank for use in January 2010? If that works - it that the only way to do it (transfer of 2008 use-year point) or is their another possibility - such as them to sending me their 2009 (or 2010) use-year points somehow?

Extra credit question:

Suppose someone has points at the resort I want in the scenario above and they want points from my home resort for a February 2009 reservation. Is there any way to do a swap using transfers (rather than via rentals as is currently being discussed in another thread)?

Could we work within the one-transfer a use-year rule? I have 2008 use-year points (2007 points are spent). Is there any way to transfer those to the other person now (i.e. during the 2007 use year) so we could then do another transfer in February 2009 (during the 2008 use-year).

Thanks,
Zeke

You are limited to one transfer per UY in OR out so you'd have to use different UY, likely with banking. Also, transferred points often have to be done manually making day by day more cumbersome and making those reservations that require calling when DVC opens essentially impossible. A better option would be to swap reservations rather than swap points. Or rent out your points and rent from another member.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Suppose I want a reservation in a hard-to-get room for MLK-week 2010. I want to do a day-by-day reservation at the 11-month mark, but it's not my home resort. How can somebody at that resort transfer (not rent) their points to me for that reservation?

I'll be making the reservation in February 2009. Would the person transfer points from their 2008 use-year to me, which I would then bank for use in January 2010? If that works - it that the only way to do it (transfer of 2008 use-year point) or is their another possibility - such as them to sending me their 2009 (or 2010) use-year points somehow?

Extra credit question:

Suppose someone has points at the resort I want in the scenario above and they want points from my home resort for a February 2009 reservation. Is there any way to do a swap using transfers (rather than via rentals as is currently being discussed in another thread)?

Could we work within the one-transfer a use-year rule? I have 2008 use-year points (2007 points are spent). Is there any way to transfer those to the other person now (i.e. during the 2007 use year) so we could then do another transfer in February 2009 (during the 2008 use-year).

Thanks,
Zeke

You can transfer at least one UY ahead. I received a transfer of April 08UY point in Sept 2007. They retained their UY (and home resort). I have used some of those points to book in the 2008 UY and plan to bank the remaining points to book a 09UY reservation. I did not use the 11 month window, but those points were in my account well in advance of the 11 month window for each of these vacations.

I did not "swap" points for the points I received; instead I swapped a week at our vacation rental. However, if I needed to transfer points in the exchange, I could have transfered my 07 points to the other member. They could have used those points to book a vacation in the 07 or (with banking) 08 UY assocaited with my points.

I think you are on the right track. Where the parties are planning far enough in advance and have vacations planned at different times, you could do 2 reciprocal transfers by using different UYs and still have the ability to use the 11 month booking window. -- Suzanne

 

[Noreendisfour]

I think although it's smart to figure out all scenarios way ahead of time, you might be over planning it a little too much in the day by day scenario. If you are booking at the 11 month window, you should be able to book your stay in one call on the 11 month check out date.

And if I'm wrong about that, then what is the point of even having an 11 month home resort priority?

 

[dta87]

You can transfer at least one UY ahead. I received a transfer of April 08UY point in Sept 2007. They retained their UY (and home resort). I have used some of those points to book in the 2008 UY and plan to bank the remaining points to book a 09UY reservation. I did not use the 11 month window, but those points were in my account well in advance of the 11 month window for each of these vacations.

Being new here ... does this mean I can transfer current UY points as well as 09 UY points in the same yr? The 09 UY points would not be considered borrowed points?

Thanks

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Being new here ... does this mean I can transfer current UY points as well as 09 UY points in the same yr? The 09 UY points would not be considered borrowed points?

Thanks

As I understand it, the 1 transfer per year is limited by UY, not calendar year. So, yes, you could transfer into your current 08UY today and into your09UY tomorrow. -- Suzanne

 

[JudyS]

I don't know about the issue of using transferred points for day-by-day reservations, which Dean raised. However, for your general question about getting points from another resort, for your travel dates, you would need points that are valid during January 2010. Since I believe that there are no January use years, any points valid during the 2009 use year would work. (If there are January use years, points from a January use year would need to be 2010 points.) To get points valid during the 2009 use year, you could use either points from the 2009 use year, or points from 2008 that were banked into 2009. Disney has trouble tracking transferred points, so I'd be sure to keep documentation of the transfer, and specify during the transfer that you want the points to keep their own home resort. Also, if you and the person providing the points have different use year months (say, you have December and they have February), you will need to specify which use year your points should go into. I'm not sure how banking deadlines work for transferred points; to be safe, I'd be sure you are within the banking deadline both for your own use year and for your trading partner's use year.

For your extra credit question, as others have said, it would be possible to, say, transfer your 2008 points into someone's 2008 use year, and have them transfer their 2009 points into your 2009 use year. I believe that you have to wait until your 2008 use year starts before you can transfer 2009 use year points, but I'm not sure.

...transferred points often have to be done manually making day by day more cumbersome and making those reservations that require calling when DVC opens essentially impossible......

Dean, could you give more details on this? Are you saying that, even if Zeke did the transfer in, say, October 2008, any reservation he made in February 2009 would need extra manual verification of his points, and therefore couldn't be made right when reservations opens?

 

[JudyS]

.... If you are booking at the 11 month window, you should be able to book your stay in one call on the 11 month check out date.

And if I'm wrong about that, then what is the point of even having an 11 month home resort priority?

The problem is, suppose I want to stay December 31st through January 6th. If I call 11 months exactly from January 6th, December 31st will probably have been booked by people who, say, wanted to stay December 25th through January 1st, or December 31st through January 2nd, that sort of thing. In fact, one person here reported that she called day-by-day exactly 11 months before her Christmas trip, right as soon as reservations opened in the morning, and still couldn't get the room type she wanted (a tough one -- standard view studio at BWV) for New Year's Eve. She stayed on the waitlist all 11 months, and it never came through, so she ended up having to move to a preferred view for that one night, then back to a standard (which she said wasn't worth it; she wished she had just paid the points for a preferred view for the whole time instead.)

In general, the 11 month window works very well, but for certain dates and room types, there is simply more demand than there are rooms, even just counting people who own at that resort.

I actually doubt that MLK week is all that high demand, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Dean]

Dean, could you give more details on this? Are you saying that, even if Zeke did the transfer in, say, October 2008, any reservation he made in February 2009 would need extra manual verification of his points, and therefore couldn't be made right when reservations opens?

That is my understanding, esp for the home resort of the transferred points if different than the home resort of the destination contract. Others likely have more direct experience with these, maybe someone can confirm/deny that for certain.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I have transferred points at a different resort and UY month than my owned points. MS has had no problem "seeing" those points and using them for reservations, including 1 made at the 7 month window as soon as MS opened for a night in early Dec. As far as I can tell, once the points were in the account, there has been no manual verification and the reservation was made as quickly as with my owned points. -- Suzanne