Confused over banked and current points

[jacalynt]

Can someone please answer my question. When I purchased my resale I received bank points and current points as of Oct. 2004. Can I make a reservation using all my banked points and some of my current year points. Is it possible to combine them? Please HELP!!!!

JT

 

[PamOKW]

You can certainly combine them for reservations. MS will usually automatically use the banked points first for reservations but it doesn't hurt to confirm that's what they are doing.

The only difference between banked and current points is that they are going to expire. I assume you have an October Use Year. If that's the case, the points that were banked from October 2003 into 2004 must be used for stays no later than September 30, 2005. On October 1, any banked points that haven't been used will be forfeited.

 

[Caskbill]

PamOKW answered your basic questions. I'd just like to add that sometimes it's a little easier to understand if you make yourself a simple use year chart. If your use year is October, then your chart looks like this:

<b>use year.....vacation dates</b>
2003.....Oct 1, 2003 throught Sep 30, 2004
2004.....Oct 1, 2004 throught Sep 30, 2005
2005.....Oct 1, 2005 throught Sep 30, 2006
2006.....Oct 1, 2006 throught Sep 30, 2007
2007.....Oct 1, 2007 throught Sep 30, 2008
2008.....Oct 1, 2008 throught Sep 30, 2009
and so on.

Points can be banked from any single year into the following year: EG bank 2003 points into 2004. Those same points cannot be banked a 2nd time. EG cannot take the 2003 points that were banked into 2004 and rebank them into 2005. You can however take regular 2004 points and bank them into 2005.

Points can be borrowed from any single year and placed into a prior year. EG borrow any or all 2006 points and put them into 2005. Once borrowed, those borrowed points cannot be returned to their previous use year.

Vacation reservations use points for the use year that includes the actual vacation dates. For example with an October use year, a vacation in July 2005 would require points from the 2004 use year, while a vacation in November 2005, would require points from the 2005 use year.

For an October use year, to take a vacation in July 2005 requires use year 2004 points. These 2004 points can be acquired one of three ways: Regular 2004 point allocation, banked 2003 points, or borrowed 2005 points. All of these are still considered to be 2004 use year points. Banked and regular alloted points can be combined in any way you want. Borrowed points can only be borrowed and used to complete a reservation where there are insufficient points for the use year needed. EG you want to make a July 2005 vacation that needs 400 points. You have a 240 point contract which means you get 240 regular 2004 use year points. Say you have 100 points banked into 2004 from the year 2003. This now gives you 340 year 2004 points. You can then borrow 60 points from use year 2005 and put them into 2004. This gives you the necessary 400 use year 2004 points to complete your reservation for your July 2005 vacation.

Important, as Pam stated, banked points cannot be banked again into a later use year, and will expire at the end of the use year they were banked into if they are not used.

Hope this helps.

 

[jacalynt]

Thank you both for answering my questions. I think I understand a little better now. Since I am new at this I wanted to hear from someone other than member services. The two times I called there they weren't very nice on the phone. I guess it was because I asked about so many different dates. Again, thanks for your help


Jackie T