Points Question

[LoveRafiki]

OK -- here goes....

I originally had 170pts. for VWL -- Sept. use year.

I made a reservation in January 02 for a December 02 trip that would need 156pts. At that time I was still in my Sept. 2001 year -- I had banked 106pts from 2000 into my 2001 use year. So, the Member Services person used the 106 which had been banked and "borrowed" 50 points from my Sept. 2002 year to book the reservation.

In March -- I added on 50pts to VWL (Sept. use year) --- I was able to bank the 50 points into 2002.


So -- Ideally, for my trip in December I should be using the 106 pts that were banked + the 50pts that were banked from my add-on purchase. However, they said they "borrowed" 2002 points for the ressie..... will they automatically know to use the 50 "older" points that were put into the account ??

I would like to be able to bank points forward again -- as I do not think we'll be down to use points again until next December when we plan on using a lot of points.


Thanks

 

[drusba]

As to the general question: do they use banked points first, the answer is yes except not in the situation you describe -- if you made the ressie before you got those points that you banked then MS will do nothing to change the points on the ressie simply because you have banked new ones. You would have to call MS and make the change.

Now, for a more important point. It is not clear what happened here because the description you gave of points being used is either incorrect or MS did something wrong.

You made a ressie in Jan 2002 for Dec 2002. Points you can use for that trip have nothing to do with the date you called to make ressie. They are determined by date you will be at WDW. Thus, for a Dec 2002 trip you could have used (a) points issued on Sep 2002 which would be "current" use year points for that trip; (b) points issued Sep 2001 and banked into the use year beginning Sep 2002, which would be the "banked" points for a Dec 2002 trip; or (c) points that will be issed Sep 2003 but are borrowed into the 2002 use year and would be the "borrowed" points for a Dec 2002 trip. What you cannot use for a Dec 2002 trip are points issued Sep 2000, which are banked into the use year of Sep 2001 to Aug 2002 as those points expired Aug 2002 and cannot possibly be used for a Dec 2002 trip. Moreover, you would not be "borrowing" any of the Sep 2002 issued points for that trip even if you called in Jan 2002 as those are the "current" use year points for the Dec 2002 trip.

Thus, something is amiss and if MS told you that you could use points from Sep 2000 which were banked into the Sep 2001 to Aug 2002 use year, it gave you incorrect information. And if that occurred, you need to call MS and make them follow through with allowing to use those points because it is MS's mistake that you relied on.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

another question regarding banking and borrowing:
I am in the process of buying 196 points with a March use year, included is 138 banked points from 2002. In January, I want to make a reservation, I would think I would want to use up the banked points first, if so, do I have to wait till March to do that, can I borrow the 138 points and then borrow the remainder of points from my March 2003 point allotment???? Or do I have to wait till March and use the 138 points first??

 

[drusba]

Need clarification. Do you want to take a trip in Jan 2003 or is that when you plan to call to make a ressie for sometime after March 2003? If you want to take a trip in Jan 2003, then points you could use are ones issued March 2002 (which would be the "current" use year points for that trip), or ones borrowed from the March 2003 to Feb 2004 use year, or ones issued March 2001 and banked into the Mar 2002 to Feb 2003 use year. If you have points issued March 2002 which have been banked into the March 2003 to Feb 2004 use year, you cannot borrow those particular points for a trip in Jan 2003 as they cannot be "unbanked."

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by want2buydvc
another question regarding banking and borrowing:
I am in the process of buying 196 points with a March use year, included is 138 banked points from 2002. In January, I want to make a reservation, I would think I would want to use up the banked points first, if so, do I have to wait till March to do that, can I borrow the 138 points and then borrow the remainder of points from my March 2003 point allotment???? Or do I have to wait till March and use the 138 points first??

The March 2002 use year runs from 3/1/02 through 2/28/03.

If the owner banked 138 points from that year, those points would now be good for a stay in the 2003 use year. The March 2003 use year runs from 3/1/03 through 2/28/04. Banked points cannot be returned to the original use year and must be used by the end of the year they were banked into. Thus if you do not use the banked points for a stay between 3/1/2003 and 2/28/04, you will lose them.

I am not clear when your next trip is. It sounds like you are planning to call in January to make a reservation. I will assume that you want to stay sometime within your March 2003 use year. Again, that is 3/1/03 through 2/28/04. If that is the case, I would ask MS to use the borrowed points first (since they definitely expire at the end of the 2003 use year) and then the current points if needed. Current 2003 use year points can be banked if you want/need to do that. If you have to use the banked points and all of the current year points for your trip and still need more, you can have MS borrow points from your 2004 use year (3/1/04 -2/28/05) to complete the reservation. If you borrow points, they cannot be returned to the 2004 use year and they will also expire if not actually used by the end of the 2003 use year.

FWIW, when you make the reservation has no bearing on which points you may use or not use. That is determined by the use year assigned to the points and the dates of your stay. You may always make a reservation at your home resort 11 months ahead of arrival as long as there will be points available in your account on the day of arrival.

HTH.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

Okay - I want to go away in either October or December of 2003. The "banked" points are 138 from the March 2002 use year. In March 2003 I will get my 196 points for 2003. So for my trip in October or December I would prefer to use the banked points first - (I think) because don't they expire first??? I want to book in January.

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by want2buydvc
Okay - I want to go away in either October or December of 2003. The "banked" points are 138 from the March 2002 use year. In March 2003 I will get my 196 points for 2003. So for my trip in October or December I would prefer to use the banked points first - (I think) because don't they expire first??? I want to book in January.

Yes, exactly right. Ask MS to use the banked points from 2002 first. That gives you the ability to bank any extra 2003 points (subject to the banking deadlines).

The points from 2002 cannot be banked again. It's use them by 2/28/04 or lose them on 2/28/04.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

I think I got it!!! If I want to go prior to March, I would be able to borrow against my March allocation of points. But if I want to make my reservation for after March ask to have the 138 points used first, then take the remainder of points from my 196 2003 points!!!

 

[drusba]

You do have it. Where many get confused is using the date they make a reservation to determine which points are current, borrowed or banked. Only the date when you will be at WDW determines the issue. Thus, when you call in Jan to make a Dec 2003 ressie, the "current" points you will be using are those issue March 2003, the "banked" points are those that have been banked from the March 2002 allotment into the Mar 2003 to Feb 2004 use year; as those expire Feb 2004 you want to use them first for the 2003 trip.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

thank you, I definately understand it now!!! Lets just hope I don't loose this contract!! the closing service still hasn't heard back from Disney, so they could still take it, but they have a closing date of 12/4/02, so lets hope not!

 

[LoveRafiki]

To answer

"Now, for a more important point. It is not clear what happened here because the description you gave of points being used is either incorrect or MS did something wrong. "

When I made reservation they (MS) used the term borrow from my 2002 points ---- so I guess they were wrong -- based upon that, if I call and clarify, would they use the 50pts from my add on that I banked into 2002 use year???? Then I'd have all of my 2002 points to bank or use???

THANKS

 

[Caskbill]

Make yourself a simple chart showing your use year. Then remember that the date you make a reservation has absolutely NOTHING to do with banking or borrowing, but the dates for the vacation itself have EVERYTHING to do with any banking or borrowing.

For your September use year, you will receive a new allocation of points every September 1st.

You may bank points from any one use year into the following use year, and you may borrow points from any use year into the proceeding year.

For September use years, your chart will look like this:

Use Year......Applicable Dates
2000.....Sep 1, 2000 thru Aug 30, 2001
2001.....Sep 1, 2001 thru Aug 30, 2002
2002.....Sep 1, 2002 thru Aug 30, 2003
2003.....Sep 1, 2003 thru Aug 30, 2004
2004.....Sep 1, 2004 thru Aug 30, 2005
2005.....Sep 1, 2005 thru Aug 30, 2006

I don't know the size of your contract, but let's just say it's 150 points. So for each of the use years above, you would receive 150 new points on Sep 1 for use during the following 12 months.

Say you want to take a trip in December 2002 that costs 200 points. A December 2002 date is located in your 2002 USE YEAR so you would need to have enough points assigned to your 2002 use year to take that trip.

You would receive 150 points Sep 1, 2002 that you could use for that trip. They would be considered CURRENT YEAR points since they are from the 2002 allocation year and being used in the 2002 use year. It makes absolutely no difference what date you make the reservation.

You would need an additional 50 points. If you had 2001 use year points left, you could bank them into 2002. They are now assigned to the 2002 use year which means they would have to be used between Sep 1, 2002 and Aug 30, 2003. This would work for your Dec 2002 trip.

Your other choice would be borrow from the year 2003. This again would put any points borrowed into the 2002 use year for use anytime between Sep1 2002 and Aug 30, 2003.

So make yourself a chart like above, add a column showing how many points you will receive each Sep 1st, then make a column showing any points banked out of that year and assign those points to the year they are banked into.

For example column 1 might show 150 points being allocated on Sept 1st for each year. Column 2 might show points banked (or borrowed). Example: You bank 50 points from 2001 into 2002 so column 2 would show minus 50 points (-50) banked out for the 2001 line, and plus 50 points (+50) banked in for the 2002 line.

Column 3 would then show the balance. For the 2001 line it would show 100 points. (150 - 50); For the 2002 line it would show 200 points. (150 + 50)

When borrowing, you would do it in a similar fashion, they'd just be different years in the From/To columns

Keep in mind this is applicable for all vacation dates during any given use year. Suppose you wanted to take a vacation in March 2003. That date still falls in your 2002 USE YEAR so it would be the exact same situation as the example above. You would need to have the appropriate quantity of points assigned to your 2002 use year to make a March 2003 reservation.

Hope this helps.