Is this a way around home resort priority??

[CarolMN]

Found the following in the thread about trading points. Thought this worth its own thread. Hope the OP doesn't mind that I copied it here. (I don't think she did anything wrong, but I am wondering about the CM at MS).

We will be traveling with family in May. We wanted to make one reservation at the BCV using points from both families. BCV is our home resort but not theirs. My SIL transfered her points to me and I was able to make the reservation 11 months in advance using both points. Once the points were transfered to me they retained their use year but became BCV points. I was told by MS that you only have one resort and no matter where the points come from they become your home resort once they are in your account. I do not know if this is 100% accurate, just what I was told.

I thought points retained their home resort identity as well as their use year when they were transferred. Did the CM make a mistake or is this truly a way to get around the home resort booking priorities??

 

[poj7]

I hope not.

 

[RobDoc]

I'll assume the CM was misinformed or made an error in the favor of the member.

From the July, 1995 POS (although I'm sure there are more recent references available):

"Transfers are subject to the following restrictions:

#2) All Transferred Home Resort Vacation Points retain the Use Year of the transferring Club Member and expire at the end of the transferring CLub Member's Use Year.

#5) If a transfer occurs between Club Members from different Home Resorts, the Transferred Home Resort Vacation Points retain all the reservation rights of the Transferring Member.
a) The recipient of the Transferred Points may use them to make a reservation at the Transferring Member's Home Resort during the Home Resort Priority Period, or at other qualified DVC Resorts after the Home Resort Prioirity and any other applicable priority periods.
b) The recipient of the Transferred Points would not be able to use the Transferred points at his or her Home Resort until the end of his or her Home Resort Priority Period and any other applicable priority periods."

 

[CarolMN]

Thanks for looking that up, Doc.

I'm happy to know DVC has this covered and that it was a mistake. Kind of surprised that the computer let the CM do it though. Guess MS doesn't have as sophisticated a system as I thought it did. The CMs sure have a lot of rules and processes to keep straight!

 

[DebbieB]

Looks like the OP lucked out. Some MS cm's are not up on all the rules. There was a big "to do" on the AOL board last year when someone posted that MS said they could reallocate points at 7 months for a home resort reservation made at 11 months to use non-home resort points, regardless if there was still availability or not.

 

[Doctor P]

Here is a little twist that was raised a while ago--don't know if it is for sure true. A member on this board posted that the 11 month rule does not apply to banked points. What this member posted was that you could make a reservation using banked points more than 11 months out. For example, if I have a June use year and have banked points into the 2003 use year, I can make a reservation today using those banked points for any date in the 2003 use year. This did not seem right to me, but what the member said in response is that since the points would otherwise be invalid in the 2003 use year and the accomodations would have already been booked using those points (somehow), you were allowed to do this. I don't know if this is true (though I could believe that it might be true once we got past June 1 and had that one month where I might be beyond the 11 month window but still in the 2003 use year for certain May dates). Anyone else heard anything like this???

 

[DebbieB]

Originally posted by Doctor P
Here is a little twist that was raised a while ago--don't know if it is for sure true. A member on this board posted that the 11 month rule does not apply to banked points. What this member posted was that you could make a reservation using banked points more than 11 months out. For example, if I have a June use year and have banked points into the 2003 use year, I can make a reservation today using those banked points for any date in the 2003 use year.

You could book those banked points today for a home resort stay between June 1, 2003 and January 27, 2004 (checking out 1/28/04). You could not go past January 27, 2004 (11 months).

 

[shelly3girls]

That was me that posted the original post. I hope no one takes offense. We were not trying to get around any rules, we were only following the instructions of the cast member. In fact we could have used my SIL points to book our cruise then use all our points to book our BCV stay. We were new to DVC having only been members for 1 month. I called MS and asked them what the best way to book these reservations were. I was told it wasn't really an issue. The cast member made my BCV reservations then transfered me to someone else to book the cruise. Is it possible that this CM actually used the transfered points to book my cruise and all of my points to book the BCV without telling me? I do know that the CM did tell me that once the points were transfered they did not retain their original home resort (now obviously incorrect). This would not be the first time that a CM told me something that is incorrect. I hope that I did not mislead/confuse anyone.
Sorry! and thanks for clearing this up for me.

 

[Dean]

Doctor P, they were misinformed. You can only reserve 11 months out unless there is a change in procedures or a special case like the lottery a few years ago. As for making reservations with the non home resort points like they were BCV points, I doubt it happened but if it did, it was definitely a mistake. There are some negative nuances of the transfer system if all the points don't have the same use year so one needs to be careful as the rules Doc has posted have been narrowed significantly in practice due to the limitations of the computer system for DVC.

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by shelly3girls
That was me that posted the original post. I hope no one takes offense. We were not trying to get around any rules, we were only following the instructions of the cast member. In fact we could have used my SIL points to book our cruise then use all our points to book our BCV stay. We were new to DVC having only been members for 1 month. I called MS and asked them what the best way to book these reservations were. I was told it wasn't really an issue. The cast member made my BCV reservations then transfered me to someone else to book the cruise. Is it possible that this CM actually used the transfered points to book my cruise and all of my points to book the BCV without telling me? I do know that the CM did tell me that once the points were transfered they did not retain their original home resort (now obviously incorrect). This would not be the first time that a CM told me something that is incorrect. I hope that I did not mislead/confuse anyone.
Sorry! and thanks for clearing this up for me.

shelly3girls - I'm sure no one took offense - as I posted, I don't think you did anything wrong at all.

Thanks for providing the additonal information. It makes sense that the CM actually used the transferred points for the cruise. There is no such thing as home resort priority for booking a cruise or any of the non-DVC options. I bet the CM used your BCV points to make the BCV reservation.

Hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[tiberius]

I am glad this question came up as I was preparing to ask essentially the same question. I am preparing to buy BCV and have a relative owning OKW. I was hoping we would be able to transfer points between each other occasionally use the other's resorts. Me to get Grand Villas, cousin to get into BCV at peak times. Of course, if this was not the case as explained above we could have just made the reservations in each other's names; but transferring points would seem to be easier for us.

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by tiberius
I am glad this question came up as I was preparing to ask essentially the same question. I am preparing to buy BCV and have a relative owning OKW. I was hoping we would be able to transfer points between each other occasionally use the other's resorts. Me to get Grand Villas, cousin to get into BCV at peak times. Of course, if this was not the case as explained above we could have just made the reservations in each other's names; but transferring points would seem to be easier for us.

You can "trade points" and use the other person's home resort priority. It's probablay easier to do this without transferring the points. The above is talking about using non home resort points at the 11 month window.