How points work when changing resorts?

[coelacanth77]

If my home resort booked points are 284, then at 9 months before I go on vacation I switch to anthor resort that only needs 241 points.... will I lose the difference (aka 43 pts)? 120 pts are from 2010, 120 from 2011, then borrowed 44 from 2012 to book home resort..... would only need to borrow 1 at alternate resort. Any help, info, or tips would be great!!!

 

[Disneycouple99]

You can only switch to non home resorts at 7 months and at that time you would need to use the banked and borrowed points first then the 43 points could be banked into 2012 UY.

 

[coelacanth77]

If I have to use my banked & borrowed first then I would be forced to use the difference in points in 2012 and not be able to defer them to 2013? Would it be wiser to go for a room at home base that uses fewer points then upgrade when I am within 7 months? That would work, my only fear is that the Kidani resort may not be available within 7 months of my vacation and I would be stuck with smaller room at my home resort. Does anyone have experience booking a 1 bedroom SV at Kidani AKL? Does it usually have good availability? Thanks for all your help....

 

[dianeschlicht]

I missed when this trip is to take place and what your use year is. I assume, since you are using 2010, 2011, and 2012 points, that this trip occurs in 2011. Since that means you would be using 120 banked points and 120 use year points, you would definitely have those 240 points to work with on a new reservation made at the 7 month mark. Since you would only need 1 point from 2012 with the new booking, you would have to make sure everything can be done within your banking window so you can bank 2011 points into 2012. That is where those extra 44 points would come from when you talk to MS about banking. You would have to make sure they allocate your 2010 and 2012 points to the new reservation first so you can use the extra 2011 points to bank forward into 2012. Does that make sense? I know what I mean, but it's difficult to type it out so it is understood. It would be better if I could draw you a chart. It might help if you stated your use year and the date your trip is to happen.

 

[coelacanth77]

I have 120pt UY of March... want to take vacation within 1st two weeks of December 2011. We will take vacations every 2 years (aka 2011, 2013, 2015, etc...)

1. Banked 120 pts into 2011
2. Will have another 120pts in 2011 = 240 pts available
3. My hopes are to use a min. 240 pts and max out both 2010 & 2011 pts. Borrow what I need from 2012 and then bank what I don't use from 2012 into 2013 for the vacation after that...

 

[Chuck S]

The first two weeks of December is an extremely popular travel time for DVC Members. The parks are generally less crowded, and all the Holiday festivities are in full swing. It may be difficult to secure your Kidani reservation, though we really don't have enough historical data on Kidani to see how rapidly it books for that time frame, as I don't think the entire resort had been declared into inventory when the 7 month window opened last year.

Has it all been declared into inventory now, or is there still some undeclared units?

 

[Disneycouple99]

Only about 54% has been declared.

 

[coelacanth77]

I wonder why not more... that means there is a lot of availability even 7 month out correct?

 

[Chuck S]

I wonder why not more... that means there is a lot of availability even 7 month out correct?

No, that means 46% of Kidani is still owned by DVD, and is not available to DVC Members (although they could makeit available if they want to do so) until they are declared, those rooms are not DVC inventory, and real estate interests can not be sold in them.

Usually undeclared inventory is used for cash reservations, or can be promo inventory, like when they give a trip to the family on Home Makeover.

 

[Sandisw]

I have 120pt UY of March... want to take vacation within 1st two weeks of December 2011. We will take vacations every 2 years (aka 2011, 2013, 2015, etc...)

1. Banked 120 pts into 2011
2. Will have another 120pts in 2011 = 240 pts available
3. My hopes are to use a min. 240 pts and max out both 2010 & 2011 pts. Borrow what I need from 2012 and then bank what I don't use from 2012 into 2013 for the vacation after that...

With an every other year plan, I would recommend trying to stay in a room that uses as close to the 240 you will have. Once points are borrowed, they can not be returned.

While you would still be able to bank the 2011 into 2012 when you switched, that really would not do you any good as those would expire before you next trip in 2013.

My suggestion would be to book what you can at your home resort with NO more points than you are hoping to use at the resort you want to trade out to at 7 months--this will limit the # of points you have to borrow and allow you to bank as many of those 2012 points in to 2013 as possible.

So, if your ultimate reservation needs to be 241 points, I would only book your home resort for as many nights as 241 could get you (borrowing only 1 point). This way, when you trade out at 7 months, you will not have those extra points left over. If you can not switch, you can always try to add that additional night you might be missing by borrowing at that time.

Good luck!