Using Points for the DVC "Collections" - updated 9/5/2019

[Dean]

Disney has set things up knowing that people have different comfort zones and that many don't have time to research or who want to take on the extra work which might save some money. Renting from a DVC owner can save people money but millions don't rent and pay Disney cash rates for a room. The DIS has thousands of members who don't rent from DVC owners and the info is right here.

Bill

I don't see it as nefarious, it's just an inefficient system and DVC has been unable or unwilling to secure enough concessions to make this a reasonable system. Getting from points to cash is simply a leaky system.

 

[disneynutz]

I don't see it as nefarious, it's just an inefficient system and DVC has been unable or unwilling to secure enough concessions to make this a reasonable system. Getting from points to cash is simply a leaky system.

IMO they don't want you to use your points for anything but DVC stays but they have to allow it to make ownership seem better for direct sales. The exchange rate is at a premium and as if that wasn't enough, they added a $95 fee. And what's Buena Vista Trading all about, just another way to make more money?

Bill

 

[Dean]

IMO they don't want you to use your points for anything but DVC stays but they have to allow it to make ownership seem better for direct sales. The exchange rate is at a premium and as if that wasn't enough, they added a $95 fee. And what's Buena Vista Trading all about, just another way to make more money?

Bill

While I agree that the end plan is to make it seem like you have more/better options than you do in reality, I think it's mostly the nature of the beast. There is an inefficiency of the system where not all points traded will be rented, some will be discounted, CRO takes their cut and DCL doesn't give much or really at all in terms of a discount. What isn't happening, from what I can tell, DVD is not taking an active cut. This is no different than when Marriott or Bluegreen does this or even RCI or II themselves. People just need to know what they are and are not getting and look at the real variables. Looking at what a cruise provides different than DVC isn't really applicable, neither is the agent payment. The big difference for DVC is it's really easy and safe to convert to dollars and the judgement of what one will get is easy to quantify.

 

[Littlelulu01]

For me, having the ability to use points for a non dvc hotel room has come in handy. Once the points are at a break even point from purchase price, it's basically the cost of mf's. I've used points for Disneyland hotel stays and feel they are a great bargain. A Disneyland hotel room costs about $250/night in mf's. That is less than half cost of the going rate for cash reservations. There's no fee to exchange, reservations can be made fairly last minute and the rooms we've got are superior to friends rooms who are paying more than double for cash reservations. I personally like the Disneyland hotel far better than the grand Californian. I don't own GCV points so it's very difficult to secure rooms at 7 months. Renting out the points in order to pay for a cash reservation is way too much hassle for a minuscule savings. I'm guessing that dvc wants us to have at least a few valid reasons to purchase direct. Not sure how long it takes to get to break even point at today's direct prices but once there some nice perks to be had that resale doesn't offer.

 

[sierranevada]

Question - I used some DVC points to book 2 nights at DL Paris and also paid for the 3 day park hopper tickets through DVC at the same time (they were actually cheaper than online). My problem is that they cannot give me a confirmation showing that I have actually paid for the tickets - I have the room confirmation and an email that tickets were "requested" but nothing that says they were paid for (and yes, the charge does show on my CC but just shows "Disney Vacation Club". Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the proof that I paid for the tickets. When I asked the DVC CM, she just said "Has Disney ever let you down?".

Thanks

 

[TiggerBouncy]

We have not used our points YET for RCI or DCL, however we have considered it. We have not rented our points out and I don't think we would. A lot of people here are math / cost oriented people. I will admit I am not. It's not that I am rich. But I do make enough to be comfortable. Beyond that is not worth it to me.

I purchased my points with a purpose - as a down payment on my vacations. They need to do that at least. I am limited in the time I can take because of work. So as long as I have enough points to send me where I want to go when I want to go there, that is really all I am interested in.

We are looking at trading some points with RCI to stay at a concierge hotel. It's in driving distance. So the overall cost for us is under $100 in gas. We will bring food. There is a $95 exchange fee and some incidentals, but overall a very inexpensive trip. So we are going where we want to go with a very small cash outlay. That is the exact reason we purchased DVC.

Could I sell the points instead and book the room with cash and maybe have my vacation with a few hundred extra on the side? Probably. Is it worth my time and stress to follow this route? Not to me. It may bear an opportunity cost of a couple hundred more to use DVC; but it's easy for me to do and carries no stress.

 

[Wakey]

It seems a slightly odd approach to say if you value your points at $5-6 a point it is good value to book cruises. Yes, that is what some people do, mainly because they don't know about renting, don't understand it, or cannot grasp the concept (really, I saw someone explaining it to someone on Facebook only yesterday and even after a full explanation she said she wasn't paying cash when she'd paid once already for points). However it is effectively a financial advice question so telling someone it is good value because they simply don't know or understand the options meaning they are drastically undervaluing their points, doesn't make any sense. Also going rate is now a minimum $13 on Dave's.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Earlier in this thread, we asked about Cabo, but we did not go there. We used RCI to get a 1 bedroom at Kanapali Beach Club on Maui for a week in February this year. Best use of $95 and 150 points that we ever had.

 

[Dean]

Earlier in this thread, we asked about Cabo, but we did not go there. We used RCI to get a 1 bedroom at Kanapali Beach Club on Maui for a week in February this year. Best use of $95 and 150 points that we ever had.

RCI is more variable. The return for the cash type exchanges is pretty consistent at around $6.50-$7.50 per point. For RCI and other timeshare exchange options, it's far more variable. There are a few RCI properties and times of the year that are a very good value. For MX, it's an extremely poor value $$$ wise. For Maui, esp KBC, it's a very good value. MX if going to return well under $4-5 per point. The last time we went to MX was Cabo and it cost us maybe $650 roughly for 2 weeks total including underlying maint fees at a resort in the RCI registry collection that would have been literally 1800 points through DVC.

 

[Donna M]

We like to use our points for a 3-4 night cruise and then 3-4 days at WDW. In our situation we can make it work since we have 500 points that were paid with cash. If we had a small contract I wouldn't want to use all my points on a 3-4 night cruise. There's less hassle not having to rent them and I don't want to deal with the stress of the unknown.

 

[Dean]

We like to use our points for a 3-4 night cruise and then 3-4 days at WDW. In our situation we can make it work since we have 500 points that were paid with cash. If we had a small contract I wouldn't want to use all my points on a 3-4 night cruise. There's less hassle not having to rent them and I don't want to deal with the stress of the unknown.

IMO owning and having extra points is a much different situation than buying to use for cruises. Still it's best to at least consider the alternatives and the real costs involved. If one could have rented the points for X and didn't, one effectively paid that cost for the cruise.