How hard is it to use interval?

[carltonuop]

Hi! I'm thinking about joining dvc, but want to know how hard it is to use your points with the interval "world passport" locations. I know it may not be the "best deal" to do so, but i'm not worried about that. Personally, I think that 160 points for a week in Hi wouldn't be too bad!

Is it difficult to use your points to exchange to world passport or concierge?


P.S. It's peanut butter jelly time.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Not difficult if you can be VERY flexible about when and where you stay. For example: to Hawaii, don't request a specific resort or island and don't request a specific week. Let the exchange that's available determin where you stay.

 

[rocketriter]

Exchanging to Concierge is very easy, fast and reliable, although it burns up points quickly. It's not much different than making an ordinary hotel reservation.

Exchanging to II requires care and advance planning. Start a year (or two, for Hawaii) ahead. Read reviews on the resorts at a website like TUG. Give MS plenty of options around both the date and the location of your travel. At the same time, pay attention to the small number of "in stock" options listed in your member updates; these are available for instant trade if a location happens to appeal to you. Also understand that because of the uncertainty around when and where you'll travel, it can be difficult to combine a II exchange with frequent flyer miles.

Search this board for postings by "Dean" for a wealth of information. He's not a big fan of II exchanges (suggesting that you buy a cheaper non-Orlando timeshare to use for this purpose), but he knows the ropes and he knows many resorts.

 

[treloarf]

We tried to trade into Aruba 2 years ago & could not get anything for the summer months even 1 year in advance. I ended up buying a week from someone who was an owner at a timeshare resort - I looked up the resort's website & it listed people selling their timeshare weeks. I sold some of my DVC points to pay for it but,,,,,,,,,,,,,it was a pain .............it would have been much easier to do thru DVC. I don't see DVC very flexible for these types of trades. We also wanted to try the Concierge collection but the pts are soooooooo high - we wanted to take our kids to Tanque Verde ranch - they wanted 81 pts/night & that was weekday 1st week of Nov. - which I didn't think was a prime time. Heck, I only have 230 pts - that wouldn't even be 3 nights. And WDw is getting old & harder to book w/o 7 or more months notice - we may be selling!