Multiple contracts?

[ClaraOswald]

Right now we have 160 pts at VGC. June UY.

We're thinking about getting a 50pt contract at BRV (UY June - Dec...not sure.)

For Disneyland, we like to travel in Jan/Feb/June/Dec....we plan to go at least once a UY for about 6 nights.
For WDW, we only like to go in Jan/Feb....6 nights. Every other year or every 3rd year.

Let's says there's a use year we're going to have extra VGC points that might expire. Can we somehow transfer them to use at WDW? I know those points can't be used for 11 month booking. But could we transfer them to use at the 7 month mark to add a day or upgrade our room, if available?

If so, how exactly does that process work? Do you have to wait and transfer at the 7 month mark or what? Any details on this would be helpful.

Does the UY of the contracts matter? Do they need to match? Is it easier if they do match?
(And if this is possible, I assume it would also work with extra BRV points transferring to our VGC contract but I know there isn't always stuff available at 7 months.)

 

[AstroBlasters]

Right now we have 160 pts at VGC. June UY.

We're thinking about getting a 50pt contract at BRV (UY June - Dec...not sure.)

For Disneyland, we like to travel in Jan/Feb/June/Dec....we plan to go at least once a UY for about 6 nights.
For WDW, we only like to go in Jan/Feb....6 nights. Every other year or every 3rd year.

Let's says there's a use year we're going to have extra VGC points that might expire. Can we somehow transfer them to use at WDW? I know those points can't be used for 11 month booking. But could we transfer them to use at the 7 month mark to add a day or upgrade our room, if available?

If so, how exactly does that process work? Do you have to wait and transfer at the 7 month mark or what? Any details on this would be helpful.

Does the UY of the contracts matter? Do they need to match? Is it easier if they do match?
(And if this is possible, I assume it would also work with extra BRV points transferring to our VGC contract but I know there isn't always stuff available at 7 months.)

This is my understanding, although more experienced members may finds errors in it:

If you have contracts in different UYs they will have different membership numbers. If you need to use both for a reservation then you have to call member svc to have them transfer points from one to the other so they can be used for a booking on the same membership.

If they were in the same UY, you wouldn’t need to do this. The transferred points also don’t show up when looking at your points on the website until you get to the actual booking page.

If you buy trip insurance, I believe it is also more expensive if you have 2 UYs.

One advantage of having two use years is that you can transfer in/out from 2 places if you want to sell/buy rental points to/from another member.

So, is it a huge pain if you have 1 WDW and 1 DL and only use them at their respective parks? No… may even be better to keep them separated from an accounting perspective or to take into account different travel patterns.

Would it be more of a pain if you want to combine to use at 7m? Yes. Same thing if you are trying to add on a day to a trip and want the reservations linked so you don’t change rooms… easier if they are on the same membership number.

 

[gmi3804]

You can certainly transfer them. I do this all the time with VGC points, which have a different UY than my WDW contracts. Remember, nothing changes about transferred points; they retain their UY and booking ad/disadvantages.

 

[Sandisw]

The only thing is that points can’t be borrowed for a trip once transferred and it’s a final transaction.

They have recently been allowing owners who have multiple memberships to transfer banked points between their own membership, but that can be changed.

But, if your plan is to use differently, then having the second UY is less of an issue, as long as each contract has enough of what you want to function on its own

 

[intamin]

Right now we have 160 pts at VGC. June UY.

We're thinking about getting a 50pt contract at BRV (UY June - Dec...not sure.)

For Disneyland, we like to travel in Jan/Feb/June/Dec....we plan to go at least once a UY for about 6 nights.
For WDW, we only like to go in Jan/Feb....6 nights. Every other year or every 3rd year.

Let's says there's a use year we're going to have extra VGC points that might expire. Can we somehow transfer them to use at WDW? I know those points can't be used for 11 month booking. But could we transfer them to use at the 7 month mark to add a day or upgrade our room, if available?

If so, how exactly does that process work? Do you have to wait and transfer at the 7 month mark or what? Any details on this would be helpful.

Does the UY of the contracts matter? Do they need to match? Is it easier if they do match?
(And if this is possible, I assume it would also work with extra BRV points transferring to our VGC contract but I know there isn't always stuff available at 7 months.)

So I own 2 use years.

I personally have never transferred points from one membership to another. I use my use years/memberships completely independently of one another. Member services will allow you to transfer them to yourself It sounds like you're trying to ensure you use all of your VGC points no matter what which is a good idea.

If the use years match, you would not need to do a transfer and the points would all be able to be used together at the 7 month mark which is preferred in general.

If not, when you do a transfer you can book the room through member services but IIRC when you do a transfer you won't see the points in your account and it doesn't update on the website accordingly. You would have to keep track on your own/ask member services how many transferred points you have left which is why I keep them separate and book the rooms on their own.

When transferred as was stated above, points keep their original characteristics. Points with an October UY would still expire on September 30th and points with a June UY would still expire by May 31st which can kind of be a PITA to keep track of.

In your case I would advise to keep things all in the same use year if possible. A June UY would still work for Disney World trips in January and February. If not, then I'd personally do a second UY and treat them separately without doing transfers regularly.

 

[Dobermanns]

For DL in Jun and WDW in Jan/Feb, I would definitely add on a BRV in Dec UY. Having multiple UYs is not that big a deal. I have 6 UYs for year round trips because I don’t like scheduling trips towards the end of an UY.

Other than points covered by others above, you don’t *need* to transfer points to book an extra day. Just book the extra day with points from the other UY. Stop by the front desk to make sure they know you have two reservations. I have never had to change rooms (hotels actually don’t want to change rooms on you, more cleaning by housekeeping if they change your room). You may need to stop by the front desk on checkout date of the first reservation/checkin date of the second to swap keys (VGC does this, and AUL too, I think).

The down side of back to back reservations from different memberships is booking ADRs at WDW. Since it’s two separate reservations, you have two separate booking windows.

When using your BRV points every 2-3 years, you may end up with few extra points which won’t/can’t be used due to banking/borrowing. When that happens, you can transfer to your Jun UY. Just plan it out on a spreadsheet.

Edited for typos

 

[kboo]

If you have contracts in different UYs they will have different membership numbers. If you need to use both for a reservation then you have to call member svc to have them transfer points from one to the other so they can be used for a booking on the same membership.

If they were in the same UY, you wouldn’t need to do this. The transferred points also don’t show up when looking at your points on the website until you get to the actual booking page.

So, is it a huge pain if you have 1 WDW and 1 DL and only use them at their respective parks? No… may even be better to keep them separated from an accounting perspective or to take into account different travel patterns.

Would it be more of a pain if you want to combine to use at 7m? Yes. Same thing if you are trying to add on a day to a trip and want the reservations linked so you don’t change rooms… easier if they are on the same membership number.

But, if your plan is to use differently, then having the second UY is less of an issue, as long as each contract has enough of what you want to function on its own

Yes to all of these. Another potential benefit is the ability to waitlist more - you can have up to 2 WL per each membership, which I have done on occasion when I have multiple trips booked on different sets of points.

We also considered the ability to transfer points among memberships to be a bonus to having different UYs but have found that the only time we deal with transfer points is when we've "bought" transferred points from other members. We just use the points separately and then link the reservations if we need to*

We tend to book at 11 months, usually split stays (so we make each reservation separately, even if the same UY, because they're different home resorts). It's easy to add on a day or two (or waitlist) using each set of points.

* We recently stayed at Aulani for a week+ and I think we used 3 different tranches of points at 7 months (including transferred in SSR points). This was fine because we actually had to waitlist a little bit to get the room categories all lined up, and once we did, then we linked them all and stayed in the same room the whole time.

Edited: like @Dobermanns , I don't like booking trips at the end of the UY, so our two UY are 6 months apart. Not too hard to keep track of, and easier to manage than transferred points imo.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Hmm....sounds like same and different UYs have their own sets of pros and cons.
So I'm somehow even more confused about which to pick now.

 

[intamin]

Hmm....sounds like same and different UYs have their own sets of pros and cons.
So I'm somehow even more confused about which to pick now.

IMO the pros of one UY outweigh the pros of multiple although having more waitlists available to you is nice. I also use it as a way to keep my resale vs. direct points separate so I don't have to keep track of how many points I can use at RIV left and etc.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Yeah, maybe I'm leaning more toward same use year.

For fun, I went through the ROFR threads from the past year just to see how many contracts would fit exactly what I want....

Not many. Only a couple that fit the amount/use year for BRV. Now I know this is just DIS buyers and not all the contracts that sold with that year/amount the past year. But it does make me a bit nervous that what I want will be hard to get!

There are actually 2 contracts for sale right now with the pts/UY I like but the price is only "meh" and they don't have any points until 2025. Since we aren't in a massive hurry...I'm thinking maybe I should wait? But I don't know.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Oh...and eventually we might add a smaller amount to our VGC and it looks like those will be even harder to find! I have years to find one of those, thankfully.

 

[10CJ]

I would look at the benefits of both and think about how much you actually use that feature. We rarely waitlist things, so having more waitlist options would not be a big deal to us. We have also never transferred points. We have combined points from different contracts at the 7 month window to book a non home resort. I like having everything under the same membership.

I understand wanting to travel earlier in your use year. How often do you go in Jan vs Feb? The Feb and June UY is the only thing that gives me pause. If you mostly go in Jan and only occasionally in Feb it could be ok. If you will routinely go in Feb, then maybe not.

 

[ClaraOswald]

At WDW, we'd probably pick January just because points are a bit lower. We do like Disneyland in February and have a June UY there so hopefully we don't run into problems. (We've only been members since last March.) But I think we're likely to travel in June the most often at this point for Disneyland.

So you said you haven't transferred points but you've combined points. Can you explain the difference to me?

 

[ClaraOswald]

Another question...

Let's say we have 50 pts at BRV. (And our 160 at VGC.) And we book our 91 pt reservation at BRV for January 2026. We'd use 50 pts from 2025 and borrow 41 from 2026. Book at the 11 month mark.

Okay...then at the 7 month mark, what if there's an availability at another resort we'd want to try, like Poly. (Long shot, I know.) And it's 105 for the same dates. We'd need to borrow the remaining 2026 points but that still only gets up 100. Could we swipe 5 points from our VGC somehow? And if so, how? Would we actually need to call member services?

And by the time we borrow/call...wouldn't that availability have disappeared by then?

I know this is all a hypothetical but I'm just curious if this would ever be possible.
(The contracts I've seen are all missing their 2024 points so those can't be banked/used.)

 

[AstroBlasters]

Another question...

Let's say we have 50 pts at BRV. (And our 160 at VGC.) And we book our 91 pt reservation at BRV for January 2026. We'd use 50 pts from 2025 and borrow 41 from 2026. Book at the 11 month mark.

Okay...then at the 7 month mark, what if there's an availability at another resort we'd want to try, like Poly. (Long shot, I know.) And it's 105 for the same dates. We'd need to borrow the remaining 2026 points but that still only gets up 100. Could we swipe 5 points from our VGC somehow? And if so, how? Would we actually need to call member services?

And by the time we borrow/call...wouldn't that availability have disappeared by then?

I know this is all a hypothetical but I'm just curious if this would ever be possible.
(The contracts I've seen are all missing their 2024 points so those can't be banked/used.)

When you book the reservation it asks you which contract you want to pull the points from and at 7m all points work the same (resale restrictions, blah blah blah).

If it’s less than 20 points then you can call member svc and buy OTU points for $20pp. It’s not a bad deal if you just need a few.

 

[10CJ]

At WDW, we'd probably pick January just because points are a bit lower. We do like Disneyland in February and have a June UY there so hopefully we don't run into problems. (We've only been members since last March.) But I think we're likely to travel in June the most often at this point for Disneyland.

So you said you haven't transferred points but you've combined points. Can you explain the difference to me?

We have multiple contacts at two different resorts. They all have the same use year. So when I log into the account, I can see all our contracts listed. During the home booking window, when going to make a reservation, I can only see the contracts for that home resort. Once the 7 month window opens, I can see all our contracts and pick from the one I want to take points from.

Both our resorts are WDW resorts, so not sure how having a non-WDW resort impacts things.

 

[ClaraOswald]

When you book the reservation it asks you which contract you want to pull the points from and at 7m all points work the same (resale restrictions, blah blah blah).

If it’s less than 20 points then you can call member svc and buy OTU points for $20pp. It’s not a bad deal if you just need a few.

Since I'd need those 5 extra before booking...wouldn't I likely lose the availability by the time I get ahold of member services?

Sorry for all the questions - there are just so many nuances of DVC that I never realized existed!

We have multiple contacts at two different resorts. They all have the same use year. So when I log into the account, I can see all our contracts listed. During the home booking window, when going to make a reservation, I can only see the contracts for that home resort. Once the 7 month window opens, I can see all our contracts and pick from the one I want to take points from.

Both our resorts are WDW resorts, so not sure how having a non-WDW resort impacts things.

Sounds like having the same use year really might simply things for me then. Because if I see Poly available at 7 months...it sounds like I could easily pull 5pts from my VGC contract without having to contact member services.

 

[ClaraOswald]

If I go in at 8am at the 7 month window and see availability, can I quickly borrow points from the next UY for it right at booking? Or do I need to have done that in advance of 8am?

 

[AstroBlasters]

If I go in at 8am at the 7 month window and see availability, can I quickly borrow points from the next UY for it right at booking? Or do I need to have done that in advance of 8am?

When you have multiple contracts (could be both VGC for a VGC booking at 11m) the system will ask you which contracts to pull the points from after you select the room as part of the booking process. This is also where you can borrow if you need to.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Okay, that's good. I was concerned that I'd see something like Poly available...click to try to book, but then I'd need to go back to borrow 2026 points or points from VGC and then I'd lose the room. Sounds like I can do all of that at the time of booking without losing the room then.

Since I've only ever booked 2 DVC rooms before, I can't even remember how the process works at all when selecting which points to use. I thought it did it automatically but my memory is crap.