Question about point inflation

My boyfriend's biggest issue is he wants to make sure that what x number of points we buy this year that in 5 or 10 years that same number of points will get us the same thing.

Most likely it won't. I've read it on here dozens of times, people who bought the perfect contract only to have the points charts moved around on them. The good thing is that Disney can't arbitrarily choose to raise point requirements across the board. So you are safe there. But I would recommend buying a few more points than you think you need for your perfect stay to avoid any future problems. You can always bank the few extra if you don't use them this year and you won't have to worry about not having enough.
 
My boyfriend's biggest issue is he wants to make sure that what x number of points we buy this year that in 5 or 10 years that same number of points will get us the same thing. He is worried that if we buy enough points to say cover 7 nights during value season that in several years we will no longer get 7 nights out of it even if we are still visiting during value times. This would pertain to staying at our home resort. He understands that different resorts require a different amount of points.

That could change - however, if a Studio in value season were to go up a few points, another villa option in another season would have to be reduced in order to keep everything in balance. In general, weekends have been decreased over the years and the corresponding weekday nights have been increased. Some that purchased exactly enough points for 7 nights for a specific timeframe have found themselves a few points short and others found themselves with a few extra points.

For the most part, if you purchased enough points for Sunday - Friday, you have found yourself a little short since weekdays have typically seen increases as weekends have been reduced.

Stay tuned.
 
Thanks for those explanations they were helpful! As you can tell I'm very new to this concept. So if I'm understanding correctly each resort as a certain number of points total that can be purchased before it is "sold out" correct? So in theory is there a possibility that at some point one may not be able to purchase points at a certain resort or add on to their contract? Are any resorts near that total?

Villas at the Grand Californian are sold out and it is difficult to buy points there. I have four contracts there and am currently on a 4-6 month waiting list to get more direct from Disney. Resales at VGC are scarce and go for higher prices and more quickly than other resorts.
 

My boyfriend's biggest issue is he wants to make sure that what x number of points we buy this year that in 5 or 10 years that same number of points will get us the same thing. He is worried that if we buy enough points to say cover 7 nights during value season that in several years we will no longer get 7 nights out of it even if we are still visiting during value times. This would pertain to staying at our home resort. He understands that different resorts require a different amount of points.

One option is to consider purchasing for one of the higher seasons to give yourself a cushion as well so that any changes or adjustments would be covered.

We travel in Magic season, one of the higher ones, because I am a teacher. However, when we are retired, we will be traveling in times which currently have lower point requirements, which will allow us to stretch our points even further.

Good luck!
 
One option is to consider purchasing for one of the higher seasons to give yourself a cushion as well so that any changes or adjustments would be covered.

We travel in Magic season, one of the higher ones, because I am a teacher. However, when we are retired, we will be traveling in times which currently have lower point requirements, which will allow us to stretch our points even further.

Good luck!

This is EXCELLENT advice.
 
My boyfriend's biggest issue is he wants to make sure that what x number of points we buy this year that in 5 or 10 years that same number of points will get us the same thing. He is worried that if we buy enough points to say cover 7 nights during value season that in several years we will no longer get 7 nights out of it even if we are still visiting during value times. This would pertain to staying at our home resort. He understands that different resorts require a different amount of points.
Another thing that could happen is that some of the date ranges in a particular season could be moved to a different season. For example, early December is in Adventure Season, the least expensive, but it is one of the most popular times for DVC members to visit WDW. They could decide to move early December up one season. To compensate they could move a less popular time like early May which is currently in Dream Season (the middle tier) down one tier. Who knows if they will ever do this but they can if they decide it's necessary to balance demand.
 
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My boyfriend's biggest issue is he wants to make sure that what x number of points we buy this year that in 5 or 10 years that same number of points will get us the same thing. He is worried that if we buy enough points to say cover 7 nights during value season that in several years we will no longer get 7 nights out of it even if we are still visiting during value times. This would pertain to staying at our home resort. He understands that different resorts require a different amount of points.

Anything can happen.

We vacation at WDW during a time that was affected by a Disney point change. Our vacations now cost us 30 more points per stay. Many here may point out that others may have benefited from the same change because their point requirements went down but that doesn't help us with out shortage. :goodvibes

:earsboy: Bill
 
Another thing that could happen is that some of the date ranges in a particular season could be moved to a different season. For example, early December is in Adventure Season, the least expensive, but it is one of the most popular times for DVC members to visit WDW. They could decide to move early December up one season. To compensate they could move a less popular time like early May which is currently in Dream Season (the middle tier) down one tier. Who knows if they will ever do this but they can if they decide it's necessary to balance demand.

Great point!

A great example of this would be April, where the different weeks fall into different booking season categories depending on when Easter is. In 2012 April 1-14 was Premier Season (the most expensive) with the remainder of the month falling into Magic Season. For 2013, when Easter is in March, only April 1-6 falls into Premier Season.
 
You dont notice that the points for x room at blt is 5-10 more then akv and aulani is more then blt
Of course I did but they are also more valuable options, just like SSR and OKW are the lowest (generally) for the same reasons. We can argue which is more desirable to a given person but from a big picture standpoint, it's hard to argue that anything at WDW is comparable to BLT in terms of desirability. What we'll have to have is a truly comparable resort to others to say where they are and we haven't had that in the last 4 resorts (AKV, HI, GCV, AKV). Points creep is where they charge more for the same, not more for more.
 
We have 2 kids that were just starting school when we bought DVC. We did not want to plan on taking them out of school for vacation so we planned on traveling over Spring Break (always the first full week of April) and in the summer. When Easter falls over our vacation, we end up traveling in premiere season so we looked at the points we'd need for those trips and purchased accordingly.

If we decide to travel in October (my favorite time to go:flower3:) then we will have some extra points to play with.

As a PP said, I would not buy points based on traveling only in Adventure season. There is always the chance that those dates could change sometime over the next 40 years.
 
As for how many points, it's somewhat of a personal decision. What I feel is best is to judge what you think you'll use. If you're looking at a 2 BR magic season or higher for a week, it's unlikely one needs a points cushion. If one were looking for 5 days in a lower season for a studio, a points cushion is really important. Normally 10% up to a 20% cushion is reasonable. IF one is looking at resale, I wouldn't micromanage the number of points too much. There are many ways to stretch points if you don't have enough and it's easy to use or string along if you have too many. Otherwise, less is more for most people.
 
At this point, I don't think that you could ever count on your vacation costing the same amount of points from year to year, even if you are traveling at the same time of year in the same accommodations.

We purchased at SSR in November of 2004, with the minimum investment of 150 points, and for our last 2 trips in June 2011 and scheduled for June 2013, we have had to make adjustments to our accommodations due to the reallocation of points.

My husband is a teacher, so we can only travel mid June through mid August, which does limit our flexibility. When traveling in June from 2005 to 2007, we always had a studio at SSR, and it was plenty of room for 2. We used points Sunday through Thursday, paid cash for Friday and Saturday, and used points Sunday through Thursday the next week for a total of 12 nights. We did notice that Friday and Saturday nights, the parking lots were practically empty, so there were a lot of people maximizing their points and checking out on the weekends. We still had enough points left over for 2 short 5 day trips in January 2006, and January 2008. (hubby stayed home) Our daughter was born in July of 2008, so we banked our points and used them in June 2009. We stayed in a one bedroom villa at SSR for a total of 12 nights, while using points Sunday to Thursday nights and paying cash for Friday and Saturday in between the weeks. Our son was born December of 2009, so no trip was taken in 2010 and our points were banked. We were planning our trip for June 2011, and wanted to stay in a one bedroom villa at SSR for 12 nights, paying for the weekend, just as we had done in 2009, but because they reallocated more points to the weekdays, we didn't have enough points to do the same thing we had done in June 2009. If we wanted the same scenario, we would have to pay cash for 3 nights now instead of 2. We decided to only stay a total of 11 nights at SSR, and 2 nights at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal. We would get a studio at SSR for the first 5 nights, and a Treehouse Villa for the next 6 nights. The move wasn't bad, the Treehouse Villa was awesome, so we decided on our drive back home, that we would do the same thing in June 2013. NOT SO FAST.....

They took points from the 2 bedroom villas at SSR in the offseason, when we can't travel, and added them to the Treehouse Villas, essentially taking away one of the nights that we were going to stay in the treehouse in June 2013.

I realize that the reallocating of points may have helped a lot of people, but it really hurt those that cannot be flexible with times they can travel. So I would caution the OP to purchase ENOUGH POINTS so that they can roll with the point reallocations, and not panic every time the new points calendar comes out as we do.

We made our reservations for June 2013 this morning. We are only staying 10 nights at Disney. 5 in a studio at SSR and 5 at THV. We are now going to stay an extra night at Royal Pacific Resort at Universal, for a total of 3 nights.

I am very fortunate enough to have the means to travel to Disney, and to be a DVC owner. I don't mean to sound ungrateful by any means, and I know that we do stay for a long time. I will eventually buy a large add on to SSR, which is what Disney wants me to do in the first place, but I think I will wait until they decide to move the month of June to the premiere season! With our luck, they probably will! :rotfl:
 
I'm still amazed they haven't reallocated the points for early Dec to make them higher and reduce the point cost for some other less popular time. It's one of my favorite times to go. Good weather, low point cost and Christmas decorations :)
 
I'm still amazed they haven't reallocated the points for early Dec to make them higher and reduce the point cost for some other less popular time. It's one of my favorite times to go. Good weather, low point cost and Christmas decorations :)

I actually thought that would happen for 2013 and was surprised when it didn't. I just can't imagine that it's not coming down the road...my luck, it will happen right around I am able to travel during that time period!!! :rotfl:
 
I'm still amazed they haven't reallocated the points for early Dec to make them higher and reduce the point cost for some other less popular time. It's one of my favorite times to go. Good weather, low point cost and Christmas decorations :)

shhhh!!
 
Of course I did but they are also more valuable options, just like SSR and OKW are the lowest (generally) for the same reasons. We can argue which is more desirable to a given person but from a big picture standpoint, it's hard to argue that anything at WDW is comparable to BLT in terms of desirability. What we'll have to have is a truly comparable resort to others to say where they are and we haven't had that in the last 4 resorts (AKV, HI, GCV, AKV). Points creep is where they charge more for the same, not more for more.

I agree that blt is most desirable resort (i know amazing we agree on something lol) .

With the exception of AKV the points prices are more to buy in , and more points for nights . I think that value rooms are a big draw for AKV , among other things.
 
I'm still amazed they haven't reallocated the points for early Dec to make them higher and reduce the point cost for some other less popular time. It's one of my favorite times to go. Good weather, low point cost and Christmas decorations :)

Please delete your post before someone with big ears reads it. :goodvibes

:earsboy: Bill
 















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