Order in which points are used in reservations

[Lorana]

What is the order that points are used when making a reservation (beyond selecting order of contracts). Is it Banked, then Borrowed, then OTUP, then Transferred, then Current UY? Or is it a different order?

Trying to figure out in advance if we cancel one of our trips how I can rebalance points on existing reservations to first use Banked, OTUP and Transferred points, but leave my Borrowed points not used so they can be returned to their UY.

I know that if I select a certain order of contracts, it will always use my Banked and Borrowed points before current UY, but will it use all Banked *before* touching Borrowed? Can I use transferred points before it uses Borrowed, or will Borrowed be used first?

 

[Sandisw]

I believe it it banked, then borrowed. Once you have used up all of those, it will pull from transferred and OTU points which I believe are treated the same since OTU points are technically out into your account that way.

While not positive, I think when pulling OTU and transferred points, they use up whichever one is less first,

Last is current UY points of the trips.

I do know that no transferred points can go into a trip as long as borrowed points exist sitting there. I ran into that problem last year.

I had to cancel a trip, reallocate the borrowed points to an earlier trip and then hope the room I just canceled was still there to use the transferred points. Luckily it worked out...then Covid hit....lol

Basically, all your own restricted points have to be used up first.

 

[heapmaster]

Is it not actually more then just that order? Its in that order and it is really the points you have in your account at the time you use them if i'm correct. Example, you have 50 banked and 50 UY. You make a 50 point vacation, it will use the 50 banked points. Then you make another 50 point vacation, it will use the 50 UY points. You cancel your first vacation you made, then the 50 banked points will be put back into your account, it wont automatically move those 50 banked points to the second vacation. So you will have 50 points you have to use before end of the UY since they are the banked and not current UY points. You have to contact them and tell them to change the second reservation to use the banked points instead since the points payment towards the reservation is linked to the points records which contain the use year. Their system doesn't just automatically use the banked points first if you get them back, it has to be corrected manually. Correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[Sandisw]

Is it not actually more then just that order? Its in that order and it is really the points you have in your account at the time you use them if i'm correct. Example, you have 50 banked and 50 UY. You make a 50 point vacation, it will use the 50 banked points. Then you make another 50 point vacation, it will use the 50 UY points. You cancel your first vacation you made, then the 50 banked points will be put back into your account, it wont automatically move those 50 banked points to the second vacation. So you will have 50 points you have to use before end of the UY since they are the banked and not current UY points. You have to contact them and tell them to change the second reservation to use the banked points instead since the points payment towards the reservation is linked to the points records which contain the use year. Their system doesn't just automatically use the banked points first if you get them back, it has to be corrected manually. Correct me if i'm wrong.

You are correct that if you cancel a reservation using banked points it will not automatically reallocate them to another reservation. You have to do that yourself via modification or call MS.

But, the order is always the same when making a new reservation based on what is in your account at the time of the reservation.

So, to keep borrowed points in the account and use up transferred points, those borrowed points would have to be used in a reservation first.

 

[EYL]

I screenshotted this graphic the last time I made a reservation, which I thought was helpful... If you select a second contract, it will prioritize accordingly. Meaning, first used will always be points holding and in the priority of the contracts you select. Second will be banked and in the priority of the contracts you select. And so forth...

 

[cometdad2010]

I screenshotted this graphic the last time I made a reservation, which I thought was helpful... If you select a second contract, it will prioritize accordingly. Meaning, first used will always be points holding and in the priority of the contracts you select. Second will be banked and in the priority of the contracts you select. And so forth...


View attachment 530744

That's really helpful!

 

[Lorana]

Thank you!! Hmmm, Borrowed before Transferred might make this tricky, but worst case I can always bank my transferred points into next year...

 

[EYL]

Thank you!! Hmmm, Borrowed before Transferred might make this tricky, but worst case I can always bank my transferred points into next year...

You're welcome!! Just in case... "Borrowed" would mean that if you already have borrowed points from the next UY, they will use it first. If you haven't borrowed any points (current UY has ZERO borrowed points), the system will skip that and go straight to transferred points. The system is designed to use any non-bankable points first so that it will be to your advantage...

 

[heapmaster]

Thank you!! Hmmm, Borrowed before Transferred might make this tricky, but worst case I can always bank my transferred points into next year...

Like I said before, the system uses what points you have based (in the order in the graphic) on when you make the reservation and what points are available. The reservation is paid with the points and links to the points records which contain what kind of points they were, resort and the UY, and are locked to that reservation (they don't self adjust as I stated before). So the reservations don't change where the points came from unless you tell MS and they re-allocate for you.

So what you could do is make a fake/temp reservation for any resort any time when those borrowed points are valid for the exact amount of points you have (I use my calculator to enter in the points I need to spend and it tells me the days and room type/resort that meets those exact points). Then once that temp reservation is made, I make the real reservation, which will now use your transferred points since you used the borrowed ones for the temp reservation. Once the reservation is made with the transferred points, cancel the temp one and the borrowed points will go back into your account and ready to be used for a real reservation.

 

[Lorana]

You're welcome!! Just in case... "Borrowed" would mean that if you already have borrowed points from the next UY, they will use it first. If you haven't borrowed any points (current UY has ZERO borrowed points), the system will skip that and go straight to transferred points. The system is designed to use any non-bankable points first so that it will be to your advantage...

Understood, thank you! I agree it is to my advantage normally. I just want to be rebalance my current reservations to return my borrowed points to 2021 if we decide to cancel our big friend trip (assuming they are still returning points at that time). I'd rather return my 2021 borrowed points than bank the transferred points.

Like I said before, the system uses what points you have based (in the order in the graphic) on when you make the reservation and what points are available. The reservation is paid with the points and links to the points records which contain what kind of points they were, resort and the UY, and are locked to that reservation (they don't self adjust as I stated before). So the reservations don't change where the points came from unless you tell MS and they re-allocate for you.

So what you could do is make a fake/temp reservation for any resort any time when those borrowed points are valid for the exact amount of points you have (I use my calculator to enter in the points I need to spend and it tells me the days and room type/resort that meets those exact points). Then once that temp reservation is made, I make the real reservation, which will now use your transferred points since you used the borrowed ones for the temp reservation. Once the reservation is made with the transferred points, cancel the temp one and the borrowed points will go back into your account and ready to be used for a real reservation.

Yup, exactly! I've been modifying some of my existing reservations to rebalance to ensure I'm using all my 2019 banked points on my earlier reservations, and wanted to understand the priority order so that if we cancel our big friends trip, I can get all my banked and transferred points used first in the hopes of returning borrowed points to 2021. One of those reservations we expect to be keeping has some borrowed points on it, while the friends trip has some transferred points on it, so just wanted to clarify how I would need to reallocate points to make this work the way I want. Thank you! This is helpful.

 

[Sandisw]

Also keep in mind the return of borrowed points can end at anytime so it may not even be an option whenever the trip gets canceled.

If all are tied up right now, then you do have to consider that aspect.

 

[Lorana]

Well now that my resale points finally showed up in my account, I was able to use this to modify my reservations and get all but 15 of my 2021 borrowed points out of the reservation.

I called to have them put back into 2021, but while MS confirmed they are still returning points, the agent refused to move them for me on the phone and told me I needed to wait 2 weeks.

Should I wait or keep calling till I get an agent to put them back for me?

 

[Sandisw]

Well now that my resale points finally showed up in my account, I was able to use this to modify my reservations and get all but 15 of my 2021 borrowed points out of the reservation.

I called to have them put back into 2021, but while MS confirmed they are still returning points, the agent refused to move them for me on the phone and told me I needed to wait 2 weeks.

Should I wait or keep calling till I get an agent to put them back for me?

Call back and tell them you need to make a trip with them. Even let them book one with it once returned.

You could then cancel that later if it’s not a real one. That is what I did. But the trip was 6 months away so I did t have to worry about holding.

 

[DebbieB]

They told me that when I cancelled my September VGC reservation. I asked her to then bank the remaining current year, she put me on hold, when she came back she said she did both. My guess is since it’s a manual transaction, to save time they push it off to another department.