Points conversion??? QUESTION ANSWERED, Thanks!

[JimMIA]

Question answered - thanks for the quick and complete responses!

I've noticed several posts on the Rent/Trade board about points which can only be used for things OTHER THAN DVC properties. It sounds like the posters made cruise reservations and then canceled, but I'm not sure.

Is there some kind of conversion that takes place if you use points outside of DVC itself?

 

[tjkraz]

At the time of the booking, DVC accepts your points and converts them into cash rooms at a DVC resort which they try to sell via CRO to effectively pay for your cruise or WDW resort stay. The points are classified as "Reservation Points" and can only be used for non-DVC options.

This is just one of many reasons that some folks advocate renting points to pay for a cruise.

 

[CarolMN]

I've noticed several posts on the Rent/Trade board about points which can only be used for things OTHER THAN DVC properties. It sounds like the posters made cruise reservations and then canceled, but I'm not sure.

Is there some kind of conversion that takes place if you use points outside of DVC itself?

Yes - once you use points for a non-DVC reservation (like a cruise or a stay at one of the non-DVC WDW resorts), those same points cannot later be used to stay at a DVC resort even if you cancel the original reservation. The points in that status are called "reservation points".

To add a little to the explanation -

If you cancelled a cruise (or a stay at the GF for example) originally booked with points, the points are returned to your account, but they are in reservation status, expire at the end of the use year, cannot be banked or borrowed and cannot be used to stay at a DVc resort or for an exchange via II. That's because DVC already used the points for a DVC stay. (They actually gave the equivalent number of nights to CRO to rent out for cash so that they could pay for your non-DVC option. When you cancelled, they got the cash back, not the points.)

Anyway, you can only use reservation points for something in one of the "Collections" that doesn't require DVC to provide points to pay for (like it would if you wanted to do an II exchange).

HTH explain what is happening. You would probably have to rent resevation points for a really low price to get any cash out of them since they are so limited - it costs a lot of points to stay somewhere besides DVC.

Best wishes -