We rented points in January and planned on a Sunday-Thursday stay at OKW. Then, airfare started going up for Sunday and down for Friday. We ended up flying in on Friday and staying the first 2 nights at Pop Century. We paid rack rate
scared1: ) and it set us back $189 total for the 2 nights. We saved over $400 in airfare by flying in those 2 days earlier so we had a longer trip for less money.
Now, the same thing happened when I rented points in October. This time, it was just me and the 2 little ones (ages 3 and 5) and no rental car. The thought of switching resorts was not at all appealing, but the airfare was, again, a much better price to leave on Saturday instead of Sunday. I opted to just eat the cost and rent the points for the Saturday night too. It was easier to stomach when I averaged out the cost per night. I think I paid about $168 per night for a savanna view studio at AKV. I could be wrong, but I know it was better than booking direct.
We are members now and planning a trip in June. I had booked a 1BR value for a Sun-Wed night at AKV since we didn't have enough points to do a full 5 night stay. Airfare got me again! I got a GREAT price ($615 for 4 people) from DTW to MCO but we had to go on Saturday night
. I double checked our points and realized that we still had 20 points to play around with. We only needed 19 for a value studio at AKV, but at 6 months out, I figured they were gone. Nope! So, our flight was going to arrive at 9:30pm and we were just going to crash in that little studio for one night before moving to the little 1BR. Thankfully, our flight got changed and now we arrive at 5:30pm!
Yippee! Time to swim and grab a meal at Mara
.
Over the next 40+ years as
DVC'ers with a small contract, I don't foresee us switching resorts, but I can definitely see us utilizing a studio at the beginning or end of our vacation. We have to be very creative with our 100 points.
As a family of 4, we have a lot of options. I have stayed in a 1BR and a 2BR at OKW and a studio at AKV. I can honestly say that I would "tolerate" the studio all the time if it meant that I could go every year. I think we'll be alternating between studio and 1BR stays for annual vacations until the kids are in their teens. Then, we'll have to back down to bi-annual trips in a 2BR...unless DH comes down with a case of addonitis!
The Su-Th trips usually work out great for us. If we are going to save a lot on airfare, we might just book a weekend night on cash. It wouldn't happen often enough to justify (financially) adding on enough points to cover weekend stays.
