MS forced us to bank points

[Peter Johnson]

Here's a strange story...

On Tuesday, DW started calling MS for our December reservation. In the past I've done all the calls, so we sat down first, figured out the details, and I gave DW some tips.

So DW called (got through no problem at about 10:30am), and told the CM she wanted to start making a day-by-day reservation.

When the CM looked us up, she said we had unused 2003 points, and that we had to bank them before we could make a 2004 use year reservation.

Huh?

DW questioned her about the banking, but the CM was adamant -- No new 2004 ressie till we banked the 2003 points. The CM even suggested DW call me to confirm that, then call MS back.

So DW went ahead and banked. That's okay, since we would have done that anyway, and MS had the right number of points. Obviously it's not okay the the CM made her do something that did not need to be done. (So now, if we want to change part of our May trip to another resort, we can't.)

Has there been a policy change, or did the CM not know what she was doing?

 

[Dean]

There's no policy that says you have to bank any available points before you make next use years reservations, that's crazy. Did you have have points in the next use year that you could have used? If so, they were in the wrong. If you do, you could always borrow them to make any changes. Was your 100 % banking window close?

Also, banking and borrowing are undoable in this type situation if you act quickly. Call MS today and be certain what's going on. You can unbank the points and then later bank them subject to the banking window if you chose.

 

[Scott H]

Here is my guess as to the why of tis incident. Maybe if you were using the 2003 points for the 2004 reservation their system at MS needed to recognize the points as banked before they could be used for a 2004 reservation.

Might be worth a call to see what was up with this situation. It seems strange to but and has never happen to us.

 

[CarolMN]

Perhaps the CM mistakenly thought you wanted to use your 2003 use year points for your 2004 use year reservation. That is the only time you would have to bank points before you can use them.

Of course, Dean is correct. No way can MS "force" you to bank points. It's hard to argue with a CM if you are not experienced, though. Had you been the one making the reservation, I'm sure you would have just told the CM that you had plans for the 2003 use year points and wanted to use 2004 use year points for the December 2004 reservation. If the CM was still adamant, you would know (and be confident enough) to ask for a Supervisor.

Anyway, I'm glad that you and your DW planned to bank the points anyway, so no harm done this time. Thanks for telling us about it. It helps to be prepared for a CM who doesn't quite understand all the ins and outs of DVC.

FWIW, if you need more points to change the resort for your May 2003 trip, you can always "borrow" 2004 use year points.

Best wishes -

 

[Peter Johnson]

Originally posted by CarolMN
It's hard to argue with a CM if you are not experienced, though.

That's a good observation. DW was totally blindsided by the banking issue -- it never even occurred to me to mention it one way or the other, since I knew it wasn't a factor. So much for my OJT skills.

I should have told her that if she had any questions or problems to stop and call me. I made a point about having to call day by day because it was hard to get Dec ressies, so she thought it was more important to make the ressie. But she also knew we didn't have any additional plans for the 2003 points, and knew I planned to bank them at the end of February, so she knew she wasn't doing any harm.

At least this may help some future caller faced with the same situation.

 

[jaysue]

Thanks for the heads up

 

[Lexxiefern]

Huh, that's funny. I too am calling day by day for december. I called last friday to bank my 2003 points (dec use year). When I asked to do that the CM asked me if I was sure. I said yes. Then she asked again. (now I have banked points before and they always tell you it is a final transaction, but she was like are sure you really want to bank that many points???) So I said "Uh yeah, I will be calling on monday to start my december reservations."

Kind of strange that they wanted you to bank your points and thought I was crazy for banking mine

 

[dcfromva]

Peter Johnson,
Is it possible that MS might have asked your DW if you had any plans for the 2003 points? It is wierd that they would insist that you bank the points first--without even knowing if you had plans for those points already. I bank my points very early in the UY (long before the banking deadlines) and MS always tells me that I still have plenty of time and the transaction is irreversable and am I sure I want to do that, et'c., et'c. Maybe the person who took your ressie is new to MS?

I was just thinking if you had planned to bank those points anyway, but waited to do it later, your reservation would have been made with the '04 points. By banking first, MS could use up the '03 banked points first giving you more flexibility with your '04 points.

Another thought: I don't know if you first made your ressie with the '04 points and then banked your '03 points later on if it would be an easy thing to reallocate those points so that the banked points were used first. (Or, would the ressie have to be cancelled and rebooked in order to reallocate the points? )

-DC

 

[SimbaCub]

I just finished booking my Thanksgiving trip which spans use years for me as I have a December use year. I was never asked to bank the rest of this year's points that haven't been used yet but the CM did remind me to make sure when I do bank by my deadline of 31 May to make sure I ask the CM to reallocate my banked points for the final nights of my stay. I would let MS know this happened as there are some who don't understand banking and some family might end up in a sad situation.

SimbaCub
BCV May 2004