Since when does member Services dictate how our points can and can't be allocated?

[Lexxiefern]

Count me in as one who finds this disturbing! I own at 3 resorts and have to combine points often. I always prefer to use up my BCV and VB points to book at BWV first, and if that is taken away and I need to use my BWV points first I will not be a happy camper!

 

[Doctor P]

Mispost. Sorry.

 

[tfc3rid]

I've nver really had an issue with this... I just got back from a vacation which used multiple points from multiple contracts and the MS agent always asked me which resorts point I would like to use for the reservation...

 

[LIFERBABE]

I agree that this is a problem for the newer reps because they are not being trained thoroughly.

The old reps are getting fewer and fewer and the new ones, if you need to do anything more complicated then a standard reservation, will place you on hold and find a supervisor. The supervisors are swamped, so they would rather tell you they are making an exception so you dont call back again.

I personally, owning 5 of the 6 onsite, will call back to get someone else and if that doesnt work, Im with Carol

 

[shellbelle1971]

Wow, this scares me! We currently own at 3 resorts, SSR and BCV on 1 master contract and VB on a separate master contract. From now on, if I want to add points at another resort for the 11 month booking window, maybe I need to make sure it's a separate master contract...

 

[hbg4]

This sounds really worrisome. I own 4 contracts at 4 resorts all with the same use year.
My most recent waitlist at the BWV for thanksgiving just came through using up all my BWV points but leaving the 9 banked points still in my account which never would have remained there prior to this.
I like most people would have preferred to keep my extra BWV points for next yrs F&W festival/MNSSHP time period.
A simple phone call to member services to dictate which resort I wanted the waitlisted points to be taken from and to use my banked points instead since I could not use them in the 2008 use year was easily rectified by the CM I spoke to.
Maybe it depends on who we speak to. But if there really is a glitch in the system then maybe we need take Carol's advise of making the dummy ressies using our 11 month window to hold our precious points for when we truly need them.

 

[tfc3rid]

I just called and made a reservation for a weekend trip in January and regarding hte allocation of points for the reservation, the CM at member services asked me which contratc I'd like to use for the stay or how I would perfer to split my stay up...

It all depends on whom you get at MS...

 

[sjdisneywedding]

I just called and made a reservation for a weekend trip in January and regarding hte allocation of points for the reservation, the CM at member services asked me which contratc I'd like to use for the stay or how I would perfer to split my stay up...

It all depends on whom you get at MS...

thats exactly what I was thinking. so its not a policy its just lack of understanding

 

[Spine_DR]

I wonder if any of this is a side effect of trying to change the "system" to stop point morphing.

 

[CarolMN]

I wonder if any of this is a side effect of trying to change the "system" to stop point morphing.

I doubt it - some of the members reporting the problem were trying to make reservations less than 7 months prior to arrival.

Really - it's just inexperienced/untrained CMs at MS. Any member who runs into the problem should either hang up and call back, or politely ask for a Supervisor.

My earlier post was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I just wanted to illustrate how stupid the rule was!

 

[3pirates]

I have always been able to control which points were used from which reservations. As a guest, it should not be my concern that their system doesn't accommodate our right to do so, they just need to figure it out and make the reservation the way we need it. In the meantime, sounds like they have a bug they need to work out.

Otherwise we will all have to follow Carol's suggestion...their choice!

 

[WelcomeHome]

I checked my points on-line today and the manual change has finally occured and my remaing Boardwalk points are now available for an 11 month booking of a Boardwalk vacation later this use-year. Amen!

Hopefully, I won't have to go through all this hassle to protect what is rightfully and legally mine again!

Best wishes,
Dave

 

[Cinderella]

That is terrible - the points you use should be your own choice. I have also been a victim of member services doing what they felt like. I have just discovered that to make a reservation for me, they borrowed 38 points more than I needed. Then they banked the 38 points I already had and they expired without me evening knowing what had happened!

I get the feeling that some of the member services team just do whatever they like rather than follow the rules. I wanted to change an exchange to Aruba. One woman told me this would be fine, so long as I paid an additional exchange fee, however nothing was available at that time. Next time I called, there was availability but the person I spoke to told me I was not allowed to change my reservation and had to keep it.

I was disappointed, as it was for my honeymoon, but luckily we managed to fit round it and we did enjoy the trip. But, I've come to the conclusion that DVC is just not for me. I'm not able to plan 11 months out, and I just feel it's not worth the hassle of calling all the time to try to make reservations. It reminds me of having to call all the time to get AP discounts and that was what I was trying to avoid to begin with.

 

[eva]

I doubt it - some of the members reporting the problem were trying to make reservations less than 7 months prior to arrival.

Really - it's just inexperienced/untrained CMs at MS. Any member who runs into the problem should either hang up and call back, or politely ask for a Supervisor.

My earlier post was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I just wanted to illustrate how stupid the rule was!

Totally agree here. The first time I called the CM said she doubted it could be done the way I wanted. I lucked out and the reservation with ABD that I wanted was booked. So I had to call back. The second CM said there should be no problem. We were booking 11 months outs with no home resort because we were exchanging for ABD. The problem was that we had enough points in 2008 to make the reservation. But we wanted to save all our AKV and OKW points and bank them next year into 2009 for a big family trip. So we needed to borrow all our Vero and BCV points from 2009. The first CM did not like that at all. It took 4 days for it to show up on the website. But they got it right.

 

[BigBahamaDada]

I've made a series of reservations over the last month combining current, borrowed and developer points. All reservations are within the 7 month window. I tell the cast member what points I want to use as I tell them the dates. And I've had zero problems getting them to allocate the points as directed.

Like others on this thread, we own at 3 resorts and stack points together on a rolling basis to get 11 month advantage. Just be a bit assertive and very clear with the CMs as to what you want and it will get done.

 

[gblast123]

I'm not exactly clear on this but couldn't you just break up one reservation into several smaller ones?

If you are going for 10 days, make 2 or 3 reservations using different points for each reservation.

Then have them link the various reservations, and viola, you have used the points the way you want.

 

[LisaS]

I'm not exactly clear on this but couldn't you just break up one reservation into several smaller ones?

If you are going for 10 days, make 2 or 3 reservations using different points for each reservation.

Then have them link the various reservations, and viola, you have used the points the way you want.

That only works if the points you want to use from each contract are enough to cover whole nights. If you want to use up 4 points you have left in one contract, that won't work since you cannot book a night with only 4 points.

It also doesn't work when you want to borrow points from one contract while you have current points available in another. Some MS CMs won't let you borrow points if you have other points available. That happened to me a few months ago and I had to resort to making a phony reservation to use up the points I wanted to protect. I really didn't like doing that (waste of my time, MS's time, waste of postage for the confirmation and cancellation letters for the phony reservation) but I couldn't get MS to do what I wanted.

 

[DVC4me2]

Subscribing to this thread.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

That only works if the points you want to use from each contract are enough to cover whole nights. If you want to use up 4 points you have left in one contract, that won't work since you cannot book a night with only 4 points.

It also doesn't work when you want to borrow points from one contract while you have current points available in another. Some MS CMs won't let you borrow points if you have other points available. That happened to me a few months ago and I had to resort to making a phony reservation to use up the points I wanted to protect. I really didn't like doing that (waste of my time, MS's time, waste of postage for the confirmation and cancellation letters for the phony reservation) but I couldn't get MS to do what I wanted.

I own 2 Master contracts for 2 different resorts. I had '06 pts that had to be used by May '07. I was one pt. short for the total nite's ressie. So I borrowed 1 pt. from my '08 pts (both contracts had '07 pts banked). The CM said I could use my annual transfer to transfer that pt. back from my other contract (both pts from '08 use years.) Would that work in the above case?

 

[LisaS]

I own 2 Master contracts for 2 different resorts. I had '06 pts that had to be used by May '07. I was one pt. short for the total nite's ressie. So I borrowed 1 pt. from my '08 pts (both contracts had '07 pts banked). The CM said I could use my annual transfer to transfer that pt. back from my other contract (both pts from '08 use years.) Would that work in the above case?

No because you cannot transfer points between a master and its add-ons or between add-ons to the same master. The benefit to having a master and add-ons (vs. multiple master contracts) is that you are supposed to be able to pool the points when making a reservation. Based on what many of us have experienced recently, MS' computer system is making it difficult either because the system no longer allows it or perhaps because less experienced CMs do not know how to do it.