In August I will have the money to pay off my BLT loan and am looking to expand my points. I currently have 250 points. I am trying to decide two questions.
1. Should I just add on to my BLT point, or purchase points in another.
2. Should I purchase through Disney or resale? (What are the upsides/down sides)
My biggest concern is which ever way I go, say I add 150 points. Is that added to my 250 for a total of 400 to use on reservations, or do I have to make separate reservations which each amount?
Thanks, Don
If you buy from Disney, points will have same use year and member number and thus will be treated as combined and thus you will have 400 combined for use and can mix them to reserve any single night and banking rules apply to all 400 as a group. Nevertheless, you still cannot mix points at 11 months out if you own at different resorts, e.g., only BLT points can be used 11 months out at BLT, same for AKV points at AKV, etc. If they are for different resorts you can mix them only at 7 months out.
If you buy resale and get the same use year, and inform Disney before closing that you want it to combine the contracts, and the deed provides for the same purchasers as your original deed, then the contacts will be combined and usable in the same way as above.
If you buy resale in a different use year, then it will be like you are two separate and distinct members, with two member numbers and two use years and points from one cannot be combined with the other to reserve any particular night. Your option if you want to combine them for same trip is to either transfer points from one use year to the other before reserving or reserve some nights of a trip with one use year and the other nights with the other use year and have the reservations linked.
Whether as a BLT owner you should buy points at home resort or another depends on what you want. If you want any of the following you should consider buying at the applicable resort because these are often not easily available at 7 months: AKV value or concierge rooms, BWV standard or boardwalk view rooms, BCV for high
DVC demand times like Oct through December (except 1BRs are still usually easy to get) and any holidays other than Labor Day (for which it is usually easy to get anything at BCV at 7 months out), to some extent the same issue exists for VWL. Otherwise, you can just go with BLT
The other factor is obviously price. BLT will cost more than others whether you go through Disney or resale. However, resale currently offers a huge discount from Disney's price regardless of which resort you want. Issue there becomes finding desired contract such as one in same use year if that is considered necessary or one having the right number of points. You lose with resale points certain of the Disney collections including the cruise but most feel that is irrelevant.
