purchasing a resort with lower buy in and taking chances with 7 mth window at VGC

[KAT4DISNEY]

IMO, that would be a tough find, especially if one were looking to do it on a regular basis It's rare to see VGC points for transfer on the DIS R/T Board (I realize there are other places to find points, but I believe the DIS R/T Board is typical of what's generally available out there). A cursory search of the R/T Board revealed only one 2017 thread offering to transfer VGC points. IMO, most who have VGC points use them at VGC for their own stays.

They can be found just like all the resorts. My feeling as a founding VGC owner is that there are quite a lot of owners there who bought to use at WDW actually. At one point it was priced soooo very attractively and below the WDW resorts at the time that it sold to many not planning on staying there regularly. I remember quite a few posts like that back when it was selling.

 

[Spartan86]

Kind of surprised no one has commented on this. What you want to do is not allowed. You cannot "switch around" points at the 7 month window, because that's circumventing the home resort priority rule. You're only allowed to reallocate points if the resort and room type you have booked is still available. To put it differently, VGC would have to be available at the 7 month window in order to do what you're trying to do. So, yeah. Not gonna work.

Just want to make sure I have this: if I own BLT and book a Lake View studio at 11
Mo, but want to "swap" to an AKV savannah view at 7 mo. , I could "legally" do so only if BLT Lake view for my dates was still available at that 7 mo "switch" point?
Thanks

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Just want to make sure I have this: if I own BLT and book a Lake View studio at 11
Mo, but want to "swap" to an AKV savannah view at 7 mo. , I could "legally" do so only if BLT Lake view for my dates was still available at that 7 mo "switch" point?
Thanks

Correct.

Basically, if you couldn't make a new booking at 7 months entirely, it's a no-go. So having booked it in advance does you no good UNLESS you're just fine using the home resort points for it if availability dries up. It would be unfair to other owners to let you block home resort priority then switch points.

 

[bwvBound]

Just want to make sure I have this: if I own BLT and book a Lake View studio at 11
Mo, but want to "swap" to an AKV savannah view at 7 mo. , I could "legally" do so only if BLT Lake view for my dates was still available at that 7 mo "switch" point?
Thanks

No, not as you stated.

If you own at BLT and have booked any BLT reservation at your 11 month window but wish to "swap" to an AKV unit at 7 months, you could do so provided an AKV unit were available at 7 months. That type of swap has no tie or relationship to BLT inventory at 7 months.

The question relates to swapping what kind of points are tied to a given reservation. If you owned both BLT and AKV and booked at BLT in the 11 month window but later, at the 7 month window, wanted to use your AKV points for the BLT reservation -- that swap would require BLT inventory. The transaction at 7 months would involve: (a) book a new reservation at BLT, at 7 months, using AKV points; and (b) release the original BLT reservation using BLT points.

Hope that makes sense ...

 

[bwvBound]

Thanks for the dialog, folks!

To the OP: FWIW, we visit the Grand Cal almost every year, often twice a year, using SSR points. HOWEVER, our dates are flexible and we stay for shorter stays (1-3 nights per visit) not a full week. I think your desire for a full week during a specific time frame will be difficult during the 7 month window. Difficult, not impossible, but an aggravating nail biter piecing things together via the waitlist. If the plan requires coordinating travel (air/rail/etc), work vacation schedules, pet sitters, house sitter, etc -- I would not chance it using the 7 month window.

Yes, you are allowed one transfer in or out per UY. So, if someone offered VGC points for transfer, they could get them and use them to book VGC during home resort period. The tricky part is finding someone who has them and since most who buy VGC do so to stay there, I don't know how often you would find them. I think the key to remember with points is that the points have the resort priority and not the owner. So, if a reservation is booked with VGC points during home priority, only VGC points can be used in that reservation. At 7 months, as mentioned, any days still available can be booked with other points and then a call to MS can help you streamline the newly booked nights with the old if they are on the ends of the current reservation. What would be difficult is to find days in the middle as I don't believe MS can split an originally booked reservation.

Best advice is always buy where you want to stay, if you have a particular place in mind for many trips. With VGC being a stand alone spot, I'd own there if I want to stay there because really, if it isn't available, then you have no other DVC options.

I doubt it'd be a good long term plan but it might work for every few years. One of the issues would still be getting a reservation since one would likely have to call MS rather than reserve on the website. Plus periodic transfers would negate much or all of the savings of owning cheaper points elsewhere. But it really depends on how where the OP is planning to reserve across the board. I didn't pick up how consistently they want VGC vs HI vs other and what the volume or frequency of each would be. And ultimately that will answer the question at hand assuming they are a good fit for owning DVC in general.

IMO, that would be a tough find, especially if one were looking to do it on a regular basis It's rare to see VGC points for transfer on the DIS R/T Board (I realize there are other places to find points, but I believe the DIS R/T Board is typical of what's generally available out there). A cursory search of the R/T Board revealed only one 2017 thread offering to transfer VGC points. IMO, most who have VGC points use them at VGC for their own stays.

 

[Spartan86]

No, not as you stated.

If you own at BLT and have booked any BLT reservation at your 11 month window but wish to "swap" to an AKV unit at 7 months, you could do so provided an AKV unit were available at 7 months. That type of swap has no tie or relationship to BLT inventory at 7 months.

The question relates to swapping what kind of points are tied to a given reservation. If you owned both BLT and AKV and booked at BLT in the 11 month window but later, at the 7 month window, wanted to use your AKV points for the BLT reservation -- that swap would require BLT inventory. The transaction at 7 months would involve: (a) book a new reservation at BLT, at 7 months, using AKV points; and (b) release the original BLT reservation using BLT points.

Hope that makes sense ...

Thank you, and to @_auroraborealis_ as well. I do understand what you mean completely. I had not heard of any limitation like what I described on "moving" your points. The limitation on "swapping" the points as suggested by the OP seems a sensible one for the reasons @_auroraborealis_ noted. I had not heard about that either, but it makes sense.

 

[Garthilk]

Not only that but given the high likelihood of getting another DVC resort in CA in the next few years, if you want to be in CA, then buy in CA.

 

[ELMC]

No, not as you stated.

If you own at BLT and have booked any BLT reservation at your 11 month window but wish to "swap" to an AKV unit at 7 months, you could do so provided an AKV unit were available at 7 months. That type of swap has no tie or relationship to BLT inventory at 7 months.

The question relates to swapping what kind of points are tied to a given reservation. If you owned both BLT and AKV and booked at BLT in the 11 month window but later, at the 7 month window, wanted to use your AKV points for the BLT reservation -- that swap would require BLT inventory. The transaction at 7 months would involve: (a) book a new reservation at BLT, at 7 months, using AKV points; and (b) release the original BLT reservation using BLT points.

Hope that makes sense ...

To add to this, I also wouldn't take the chance reversing these steps and cancelling my reservation at the 7 month mark in order to free up availability to then make a new booking using the second resort's points. Just because you cancel a reservation does not mean that it will become available, as it could first go to fulfill wait list requests.