If you do not go every year, will you lose a small amount of points?

[epe105]

I just purchased my first contract, and I'm thinking of buying another contract so I can alternate between 2 home resorts. I most likely will not use all the points of reservation just because of Remainder points.

I'm trying to understand how if I go every other year for a certain home resort, how I don't lose some amount of points. I know I can combine the points for non-home resorts if they are the UY. But ideally I'd like to alternate between the 2 and get preferred booking for 2 home resorts.

This is an example of using my points for a Home resort and banking them.

2016 - Receive 50 points, Bank 50 Points
2017 - Banked 50 points, Receive 50 points, use 90 points, bank 10 points
2018 - Banked 10 points, Receive 50 points, bank 50 points
2019 - Loose 10 points, Banked 50 Points, Receive 50 points, use 90 points, bank 10 points

 

[Dean]

I just purchased my first contract, and I'm thinking of buying another contract so I can alternate between 2 home resorts. I most likely will not use all the points of reservation just because of Remainder points.

I'm trying to understand how if I go every other year for a certain home resort, how I don't lose some amount of points. I know I can combine the points for non-home resorts if they are the UY. But ideally I'd like to alternate between the 2 and get preferred booking for 2 home resorts.

This is an example of using my points for a Home resort and banking them.

2016 - Receive 50 points, Bank 50 Points
2017 - Banked 50 points, Receive 50 points, use 90 points, bank 10 points
2018 - Banked 10 points, Receive 50 points, bank 50 points
2019 - Loose 10 points, Banked 50 Points, Receive 50 points, use 90 points, bank 10 points

IMO it's a mistake for someone new to DVC to go in buying 2 home resorts to start with. I'd buy the one and get a couple of trips under my belt, including one at the other resort, before looking at adding a second resort. But to answer the direct question, 90 points every 2 years owning 50, you should be OK for 10 years (5 trips) with the numbers you quote. You could always take a longer trip or different resort or higher villa to use up the extra points. You could rent but with 50 a year it likely wouldn't make sense to do so. For the short term, you just have to get ahead of the curve in your example. Just another reason to wait IO. I assume these would be retail purchases which may mean even more points to deal with since an EOY trip could actually be 3 UY away depending on timing.

 

[epe105]

Thank you for the advice. I agree that it's the right way to go. I'm just so anxious to accumulate points and planning my next 10 disney trips when I haven't even gone on 1 yet as a DVC member! I will go on a few trips like you suggested and will be more educated for my next purchase.

IMO it's a mistake for someone new to DVC to go in buying 2 home resorts to start with. I'd buy the one and get a couple of trips under my belt, including one at the other resort, before looking at adding a second resort. But to answer the direct question, 90 points every 2 years owning 50, you should be OK for 10 years (5 trips) with the numbers you quote. You could always take a longer trip or different resort or higher villa to use up the extra points. You could rent but with 50 a year it likely wouldn't make sense to do so. For the short term, you just have to get ahead of the curve in your example. Just another reason to wait IO. I assume these would be retail purchases which may mean even more points to deal with since an EOY trip could actually be 3 UY away depending on timing.

 

[Dean]

Thank you for the advice. I agree that it's the right way to go. I'm just so anxious to accumulate points and planning my next 10 disney trips when I haven't even gone on 1 yet as a DVC member! I will go on a few trips like you suggested and will be more educated for my next purchase.

IMO it's getting past the emotions that help you make the best choices. You'll make better choices by waiting and you won't lose much if anything.

 

[disneynutz]

Don't do what we did, get caught up in the moment and buy home resorts that you soon lose interest in.

Bill

 

[Minniesgal]

We have three contracts, don't go every year and have never ever lost a point.

We deliberately live in borrowing mode so we know we can borrow the exact amount we need and still have 2 years to use those we don't. We have always been able to make it work.

The way i do it is i always have the next three trips in mind so i can see the impact of 1 on the others and make sure i use the right amount of points. We also do split stays and change the length of stays to suit how many points we need to use.

It needs thought about specific stays and a bit of jiggling around. For example next october I wanted to do AKV first and finish at VGF but that means two weekend nights at VGF and too many points so i would have needed to drop a VGF night and have some stranded points. By swapping and doing VGF first because we arrive on a Saturday we got our 5 nights with only 1 weekend night for the points we needed to use.

 

[Dean]

Don't do what we did, get caught up in the moment and buy home resorts that you soon lose interest in.

Bill

I think this is important and c/w advice I've given to get past the emotions before buying and to generally avoid the new resorts for those new to DVC. Buying the more expensive resorts, esp retail, essentially always means new buyers are dramatically overpaying when they do so. I'd far rather them buy something that is less expensive but doesn't work well for them than to have them buy a more expensive and/or retail resort.

 

[epe105]

This was really helpful. I think since I plan on going every other year, in my example above, I'll need to spend a little over 100 points every other year by borrowing to not loose points. And then use less points one trip so I can start the cycle all over again. So if I do decide to buy into another resort, I'll do what you suggested to not loose points.

We have three contracts, don't go every year and have never ever lost a point.

We deliberately live in borrowing mode so we know we can borrow the exact amount we need and still have 2 years to use those we don't. We have always been able to make it work.

The way i do it is i always have the next three trips in mind so i can see the impact of 1 on the others and make sure i use the right amount of points. We also do split stays and change the length of stays to suit how many points we need to use.

It needs thought about specific stays and a bit of jiggling around. For example next october I wanted to do AKV first and finish at VGF but that means two weekend nights at VGF and too many points so i would have needed to drop a VGF night and have some stranded points. By swapping and doing VGF first because we arrive on a Saturday we got our 5 nights with only 1 weekend night for the points we needed to use.

 

[Minniesgal]

This was really helpful. I think since I plan on going every other year, in my example above, I'll need to spend a little over 100 points every other year by borrowing to not loose points. And then use less points one trip so I can start the cycle all over again. So if I do decide to buy into another resort, I'll do what you suggested to not loose points.

try and think a little more flexibly. You seem to be imagining doing the exact same trip every trip or every other trip. It is easier if every trip is different.

We have three home resorts but stay at at least 2 of them every trip but for varying numbers of nights so the points numbers we need are always different.

 

[DenLo]

I refuse to ever lose points. We will check out other resorts to see if using points at that resort will use the leftover points. Or if need be, we will purchase one time use points at $15 per point plus the remaining points to add another night to our reservation at the 7 month mark. But the OTUP are limited to 24 points per UY.

 

[bumbershoot]

We deliberately live in borrowing mode so we know we can borrow the exact amount we need and still have 2 years to use those we don't. We have always been able to make it work.

This is us (but with one contract) until this year. 2 points left. Xmastime. Even the OTU points can't help us.

Oh well. 7 years and only two points lost? I can handle it.

You seem to be imagining doing the exact same trip every trip or every other trip.

And imagining the trio will be the same cost from year to year. Disney changes it up so that's not likely to happen each year.

 

[BillPA]

We have 5 contracts at 3 home resorts. First joined in '93, have yet to not use all my points. I believe it has helped that all are the same UY.

 

[epe105]

I did not know about one time use points. Thanks for that tip.

I refuse to ever lose points. We will check out other resorts to see if using points at that resort will use the leftover points. Or if need be, we will purchase one time use points at $15 per point plus the remaining points to add another night to our reservation at the 7 month mark. But the OTUP are limited to 24 points per UY.

 

[epe105]

You are right, I doubt I'll have the same exact trip every time. I'll probably want to try other resorts and stay at different times of the year.

try and think a little more flexibly. You seem to be imagining doing the exact same trip every trip or every other trip. It is easier if every trip is different.

We have three home resorts but stay at at least 2 of them every trip but for varying numbers of nights so the points numbers we need are always different.

 

[disneynutz]

Hard to lose points when we are always borrowing!

Bill

 

[CarolynFH]

Hard to lose points when we are always borrowing!

Bill

Us too! Although looking way back at my spreadsheet, it appears that we rented points and even transferred points to other members years ago (long before there were restrictions on the number of transfers per year).