Use 4 years worth of points?

[Ruby.D]

Hello all!

I have been playing with the idea of purchasing becoming a DVC member and I've been looking at ways to maximize points as much as possible. I'm looking into purchasing a resale DVC contract, and hoping to get one that has a Use Year of December with about 75 points. We live in the west coast, so we would rather take a longer vacation to WDW every 3 (or possibly 4 years) to make the best of flights costs instead of visiting WDW every year or two.

With this in mind, in order to use 4 years worth of points, you would split up a vacation into two reservations (this scenario is using a Use Year of December):

• The first reservation would be taken towards the end of November 2018 using the points from 2017, and any banked points from 2016.
• The second reservation would be taken during the beginning of December 2018, with no time in between the two reservations. It would use points from 2018 and any borrowed points from 2019.

I understand that there are risks with making a reservation right before your Use Year is over with banked points - such as if something happens and you need to cancel the trip, you loose points. Are there any other risks that can happen with this scenario?

Would any experts out there know if using 4 years of points actually possible to achieve?

 

[Deb & Bill]

Yes, you can do what you are asking.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

When you span the end of your use year as you describe, I think that it would work. My only caution is that if you only go to Disney once every 4 years, it is much harder to make the financial case for DVC because of the time value of money. You may be better off staying in a hotel room or trying to rent.

 

[supersnoop]

Your scenario is theoretically possible. But likely not possible in reality. The main reason: the point requirement for the last week of November could change due to Thanksgiving.

The problem is, you need to use EXACTLY four years worth of points, or you're going to strand some points and lose them each year. And the likelihood that you can book a vacation that uses that exact amount of points each year, with the variability of Thanksgiving, is pretty much zero.

The same problem exists when attempting to book every three years. You risk stranding points unless you can book one vacation that uses all of your points. When you travel every two years (or even every 2-and-a-half years), you can push some points forward for the next vacation. But when booking every three years, points will get stranded. And booking every four years, at Thanksgiving, guarantees they will.

 

[Dean]

Hello all!

I have been playing with the idea of purchasing becoming a DVC member and I've been looking at ways to maximize points as much as possible. I'm looking into purchasing a resale DVC contract, and hoping to get one that has a Use Year of December with about 75 points. We live in the west coast, so we would rather take a longer vacation to WDW every 3 (or possibly 4 years) to make the best of flights costs instead of visiting WDW every year or two.

With this in mind, in order to use 4 years worth of points, you would split up a vacation into two reservations (this scenario is using a Use Year of December):

• The first reservation would be taken towards the end of November 2018 using the points from 2017, and any banked points from 2016.
• The second reservation would be taken during the beginning of December 2018, with no time in between the two reservations. It would use points from 2018 and any borrowed points from 2019.

I understand that there are risks with making a reservation right before your Use Year is over with banked points - such as if something happens and you need to cancel the trip, you loose points. Are there any other risks that can happen with this scenario?

Would any experts out there know if using 4 years of points actually possible to achieve?

Technically it would work but I would strongly recommend against this approach. The risk of losing points is dramatic plus early Dec can be difficult to reserve. It's possibly you'd have to have separate reservations in this situation or at least one would have to call to complete the reservation as a minimum. IMO if one doesn't plan to go at least every 3 years, I wouldn't buy, really I think even at 3 years it's touchy at best. Otherwise I'd buy more and do an occasional rental if I did decide to buy. Or maybe you'll just have to go more often.

 

[DVC Doctor]

It can work if you like staying at SSR

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

IF I were to do this I'd likely shift so the majority of my vacation was in December. Then I'd used the banked 2016 and whatever few 2017 points were required to get a couple of nights in November then bank the remaining 2017 into the 2018 UY and used banked, current and borrowed. Then, if something happened close to the vacation that required a cancellation at worst the Nov nights would be the only ones lost and you'd have a year to use the other 3 years worth of points towards a different stay.

I would feel fairly uncomfortable buying with this as the normal plan though.

 

[jerseyduke]

Certainly doable, using 4 years of points when spanning a UY, but the first time you have to cancel a reservation and lose all those points you might cry.

As stated, can be done, but if your intent is to do that regularly, DVC is probably not a good fit for you.