When is DVC going to fix the software loopholes?

[CarolMN]

Here's an idea, whether legal or not who knows, but give it some thought:

What if DVC made a rule that said any transferred points cannot be used for reservations more than 7 months out?

This way, the home resort advantage of morphed points is gone. No more abusing the system. And if a member is trying to get together enough points from multiple sources for a GV or long trip to be booked at 11 months out, then instead of transferring, renting a reservation for one or more nights from multiple people, and linking the reservations, would accomplish the same goal (albeit with more work required).

This rule has the advantage of eliminating (not just minimizing) any abuse of the system with respect to morphing points and home resort advantage, while still allowing members to obtain rooms they desire at 11 months out. In addition, this puts the additional burden on the person wanting the reservation, where IMO it rightfully belongs, instead of MS.

The problem is that the DVC computer system cannot track transferred points properly - so the suggested rule wouldn't work any better than the existing rule that says transferred points will retain their original home resort and use year.

Once the points are in the recipient's account, they take on that account's home resort and use year (and are available to make reservations 11 months in advance or to be banked and their life extended). Unless all of the MS CMs are very, very diligent with manual notes and consistent enforcement, points get "morphed" no matter how many "rules" we make to prevent it.

IMHO, the only "rule" that would work is to allow transfers only if the home resort and use year were the same.

I do agree that other members can make reservations and rent those to members that need more points than they have available. IMHO, the 1 transfer rule is not all that onerous - especially compared to the damage done by point "morphing". YMMV.

Best wishes -

 

[skelooch]

Here's an idea, whether legal or not who knows, but give it some thought:

What if DVC made a rule that said any transferred points cannot be used for reservations more than 7 months out?



This is exactly the rule that is already in place, the problem is MS has no system in place make sure it is enforced.

 

[Chuck S]

Here's an idea, whether legal or not who knows, but give it some thought:

What if DVC made a rule that said any transferred points cannot be used for reservations more than 7 months out?

This is exactly the rule that is already in place, the problem is MS has no system in place make sure it is enforced.

Actually, that isn't the rule. The rule is that they retain their original resort and 11 month priority window, so in theory, a BCV owner could transfer BCV points to a non-BCV owner and the non-BCV could use those points to book a ressie for themselves during the 11 Month window at BCV.

 

[mochabean]

The problem is that the DVC computer system cannot track transferred points properly - so the suggested rule wouldn't work any better than the existing rule that says transferred points will retain their original home resort and use year.

So not only can MS not track transferred points' home resort and use year, they can't even track that they are transferred points at all? Wow someone really needs to get working on the software update.

 

[eileenkeeney]

I believe the DVC has an obligation to fix this problem, and may even have been negligent to have not fixed it by now.

If someone owned at a smaller resort, and could not get a reservation at the 8-11 month window, due to someone else reserving with morphed points, the person would have a valid complaint.
The person may even have a valid law suit.

I own at OKW, so the problem is not effecting me personally. However, if I owned at one of the smaller resorts, and had trouble getting a reservation outside the 7 month window, I might wonder if morphed points had been used to book anything which was not available to me.


I have considered offering my points for rent (via transfer to another member only) if I were to loose my job. This way I would not have to sell my package for the time window I was unemployed, and felt that Disney vacations were an irresponsible use of my money. This would probably be one clean transfer a year, so not necessarily a problem within the rules.

However, I have also considered point trading (with another member) where that member may want a GV at OKW, and I may want something at one of the smaller resorts.

I would never want to manage another person's reservation, so the only way I would want to have someone else use my points, is via transfer.

I wonder if the point morphing problem is why the DVC seems to do a lot of rofr on small packages, and sometimes the rofr seems illogical (based on other packages which were not rofr'd close to the same time).
If I wanted to set myself up to take advantage of morphing, I would want a small package at the resort I wanted to morph into.