Yet another question

[christa112]

I have been researching and asking tons of question on this board since Sept.

I have looked at resales and purchasing directly. I know Hilton Head and Vero Beach points are less expensive, but the dues are more. And I know the buy general rule is "Buy where you want to stay"

But, here is my question. Lets say I purchase 100 points at HH and then add 50 at SSR and 50 at BC does that mean I can book 11 mos out any of those resorts because I own at each?

 

[Dodie]

I have been researching and asking tons of question on this board since Sept.

I have looked at resales and purchasing directly. I know Hilton Head and Vero Beach points are less expensive, but the dues are more. And I know the buy general rule is "Buy where you want to stay"

But, here is my question. Lets say I purchase 100 points at HH and then add 50 at SSR and 50 at BC does that mean I can book 11 mos out any of those resorts because I own at each?

No. It means you can book 11 months out at HH with your 100 points (only); 11 months out at SSR with your 50 points (only); and 11 months out at BC with your 50 points (only). Of course, you may have more than 100 or 50 points if you've banked - but the 11 month advantage at your home resort is only for the amount of points you have there.

 

[Lynne M]

Points always retain their home resort. So, you could only use the HH VB points you own to book HH at 11 months, and the 50 BC points you own to book BC at 11 months. You couldn't use the VB points to book BC at 11 months, or vice versa.

 

[stopher1]

But, here is my question. Lets say I purchase 100 points at HH and then add 50 at SSR and 50 at BC does that mean I can book 11 mos out any of those resorts because I own at each?

You would be able to book at any of those resorts at 11 months out yes, for the number of points you have at those resorts. You wouldn't be able combine those points for a longer stay than your points would afford, however, until the 7 month mark. Make sense?

 

[christa112]

Thanks Guys!!!

 

[Opie100]

You can borrow advance points for booking purposes, and then, at seven months, swap other resort points in there and cancel the advance points, right?

So in Christa's example, say she purchases 100 points at HH, 50 at SSR, and 50 at BCV. She could use 200 points to book at HH 11 months out (100 from this year, 100 borrowed from next year), and then at 7 months, move the 50 SSR and 50 BCV over and cancel the 100 advance points. Right?

 

[5forDiz]

You can borrow advance points for booking purposes, and then, at seven months, swap other resort points in there and cancel the advance points, right?

So in Christa's example, say she purchases 100 points at HH, 50 at SSR, and 50 at BCV. She could use 200 points to book at HH 11 months out (100 from this year, 100 borrowed from next year), and then at 7 months, move the 50 SSR and 50 BCV over and cancel the 100 advance points. Right?

No can't do this because once Christa borrows points from the next year in order to make a reservation those borrowed points stayed borrowed and cannot be "put back" into the Use Year that they are originally from so those 100 borrowed points would have to be used during the Use Year the points are borrowed into.

Same thing with banked points, once banked into upcoming Use Year that is where they stay and must be used during that Use Year they are banked into ( banked points may not be banked again ).

However, using your scenario her CURRENT Use Year points may be banked, ie let's say her UY for HHI is April - April 2009 UY 100 points + borrow April 2010 UY 100 points into 2009 UY totalling
200 HHI points for reservation for Dec 15 2009 at HHI (which she booked on Jan 15 2009);
THEN on May 15 2009 she decides to use 50 SSR & 50 BCV for Dec 15 2009 HHI ressie and will bank HHI 2009 Use Year points into 2010 Use Year (she'd have until Nov 30 2009 to bank HHI 2009 Use Year allotment of 100 points) so then she'd have 2009 UY allotment of HHI points to use during 2010 UY from April 1 2010 through March 31 2011.

 

[Opie100]

I'm with ya 5forDiz. It sounds like the only negative would be that you couldn't do this twice in a row. Couple other questions though: can banked points be used towards any resort the following year? If so, can they only be used at the 11 month mark for the home club (and any club at the 7-month mark)?

 

[LisaS]

You can borrow advance points for booking purposes, and then, at seven months, swap other resort points in there and cancel the advance points, right?

So in Christa's example, say she purchases 100 points at HH, 50 at SSR, and 50 at BCV. She could use 200 points to book at HH 11 months out (100 from this year, 100 borrowed from next year), and then at 7 months, move the 50 SSR and 50 BCV over and cancel the 100 advance points. Right?

If you took advantage of the home resort booking window to make the reservation, you cannot swap in points from another resort 7 months out unless there is availability at that point in time for the room that you have booked. So let's say you use 200 HH points to book a 1BR at HH 11 months from check in. At 7 months from check in you want to swap in the SSR and BCV points and free up 100 HH points. If there are no 1BRs available for your travel dates when you call, MS will not do it. Otherwise it would be the same as allowing you to use non-home resort points in the home resort booking window. But if the room you want (a 1BR in this case) is available 7 months from check in, then you can substitute the non-HH points.

Whether they actually can and would substitute the points or just cancel and rebook part of your reservation, I don't know. If they cancel and rebook, there is a risk of losing those nights entirely. Once the nights are cancelled they are up for grabs by any other MS CM until the one helping you grabs them back again to be booked with different points.

 

[LisaS]

I'm with ya 5forDiz. It sounds like the only negative would be that you couldn't do this twice in a row. Couple other questions though: can banked points be used towards any resort the following year? If so, can they only be used at the 11 month mark for the home club (and any club at the 7-month mark)?

Let's say you have an October Use Year.

Your Oct 2008 points are valid for stays from 10/1/08 - 9/30/09
Your Oct 2009 points are valid for stays from 10/1/09 - 9/30/10
Your Oct 2010 points are valid for stays from 10/1/10 - 9/30/11
etc. until the end of your contract

If you want to book a stay that falls within your Oct '09 Use Year, you can use Oct '09 points and/or banked Oct '08 points and/or borrowed Oct '10 points for that reservation. If you are booking a home resort with home resort points, you can make that reservation 11 months from check in. If you are booking a resort with other (non-home) points, you can make that reservation 7 months from check in.

The only difference between Oct '09 points and "Oct '08 points that have been banked into your Oct 2009 Use Year" is that the banked points cannot be banked again (or borrowed) and will expire at the end of the UY into which they were banked while the Oct '09 points could be banked into your Oct 2010 UY or borrowed into your Oct '08 UY.

 

[5forDiz]

Opie100 LisaS brings up two important points that my post didn't make mention of (thanks Lisa!glad you caught that ) regarding a room being available in order to swap in other resort points at 7 months to free up home resort points & the dreaded cancel-rebook scenario.

 

[christa112]

Oh my this is getting confusion. LOL

 

[Opie100]

Opie100 LisaS brings up two important points that my post didn't make mention of (thanks Lisa!glad you caught that ) regarding a room being available in order to swap in other resort points at 7 months to free up home resort points & the dreaded cancel-rebook scenario.

Thanks y'all - so you can make 11 month reservations in your home resort without enough of a point balance at the time, as long as you will have it via normal point allotment and any banked points by check-in, right? And banked points can go to other resorts at 7 months, right?

 

[LisaS]

Thanks y'all - can you make 11 month reservations in your home resort without enough of a point balance at the time?

No. You must have enough points available in the same UY as your travel dates at the time you make the reservation. If you plan to use banked points for that reservation, you could bank the points in advance or on the same call with Member Services. MS will only borrow points in order to make a reservation so that would happen at the time the reservation is made.

ETA: You edited your question after I responded:

Thanks y'all - so you can make 11 month reservations in your home resort without enough of a point balance at the time, as long as you will have it via normal point allotment and any banked points by check-in, right? And banked points can go to other resorts at 7 months, right?

Point allotments don't "drop" into your account at the start of each UY, they are there from the start. Each set of points has a start and end date associated with them. If you had a June UY, your 2008 points would be valid for stays from Jun 1, 2008 until May 31, 2009 and your 2009 points would be valid from June 1, 2009 until May 31, 2010, and so on until the end of your contract.

So MS (and you) will always know how many points you have available for each UY based on the current points and banked points that are sitting in that UY as well as how many points are in the next UY available to be borrowed. If you have enough banked + current UY points that are valid for your travel dates and you have enough points available to borrow to make up any shortfall, you will be able to make the reservation.

 

[Opie100]

Thanks Lisa! Sorry to edit in midstream!