DVC "policy" is costing me points!

grettapo

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 26, 2019
I have been a member since 1994, I love Disney and we go every year. Our home resort is OKW, but we added on a contract at SSR directly through Disney because we wanted more points and they had no OKW points at the time. DVC has always been flexible about our multiple contracts- in terms of making sure we can use banked points first at the 7 month mark and that we can modify our reservation at 7 months in order to use our saratoga at OKW because we don't actually stay at Saratoga. This year, however, they are no longer providing any flexibility to move points or utilize banked points, even for days that may be available at the 7 month mark without asking that we CANCEL and re-book. Unfortunately, we can't get the other days we need and my party already has its travel booked so it is not an option. This has resulted in me losing 128 from my current use year that could be banked forward - and leaving points in the bank for one of my contracts. I understand that I can shift points to RCI or give them to "family and friends" but we purchased these points, as loyal DVC members, in order to use them as an extended family together at DISNEY. Now, I can understand the policy that at 7 months the availability should be there to use other points, but I do not understand why they would not make an exception to ensure that modifications can be made to exchange banked points for any available days without having to cancel and re-book. This is hurting long-time members that bought in where they could to add on points through DVC and is going to mean that I am either forced to sell and add on at OKW to use the points how I have always used them. I feel like DVC is not acting in the interest of its members, particularly the long-term membership, and the services and care that I have always been so fond of with DVC is not there anymore. The lack of flexibility is hurting members and despite having called and talked to MULTIPLE cast members, I am unable to talk to anyone who can offer me any solution- whether it is a way forward to consolidate my contract to one; or a way to at least use my banked points first for the days that are available without cancelling my entire reservation, which seems outrageous. I am so disappointed in this experience with DVC and feel like the membership benefits and services are slowly becoming non-existent. Annual passes offer the same, sometimes better, discounts and the "member experience" is not what it was. When I can't even ensure that banked points get used first because they can't modify reservations, it is not about the members anymore, it is about enforcing a policy and making money.
 
I have been a member since 1994, I love Disney and we go every year. Our home resort is OKW, but we added on a contract at SSR directly through Disney because we wanted more points and they had no OKW points at the time. DVC has always been flexible about our multiple contracts- in terms of making sure we can use banked points first at the 7 month mark and that we can modify our reservation at 7 months in order to use our saratoga at OKW because we don't actually stay at Saratoga. This year, however, they are no longer providing any flexibility to move points or utilize banked points, even for days that may be available at the 7 month mark without asking that we CANCEL and re-book. Unfortunately, we can't get the other days we need and my party already has its travel booked so it is not an option. This has resulted in me losing 128 from my current use year that could be banked forward - and leaving points in the bank for one of my contracts. I understand that I can shift points to RCI or give them to "family and friends" but we purchased these points, as loyal DVC members, in order to use them as an extended family together at DISNEY. Now, I can understand the policy that at 7 months the availability should be there to use other points, but I do not understand why they would not make an exception to ensure that modifications can be made to exchange banked points for any available days without having to cancel and re-book. This is hurting long-time members that bought in where they could to add on points through DVC and is going to mean that I am either forced to sell and add on at OKW to use the points how I have always used them. I feel like DVC is not acting in the interest of its members, particularly the long-term membership, and the services and care that I have always been so fond of with DVC is not there anymore. The lack of flexibility is hurting members and despite having called and talked to MULTIPLE cast members, I am unable to talk to anyone who can offer me any solution- whether it is a way forward to consolidate my contract to one; or a way to at least use my banked points first for the days that are available without cancelling my entire reservation, which seems outrageous. I am so disappointed in this experience with DVC and feel like the membership benefits and services are slowly becoming non-existent. Annual passes offer the same, sometimes better, discounts and the "member experience" is not what it was. When I can't even ensure that banked points get used first because they can't modify reservations, it is not about the members anymore, it is about enforcing a policy and making money.

So you're trying to swap out points used in the 7-11 window with points from another resort once you're under 7 months when there no longer is availability in the original resort? If that is the case, that's exactly how it is supposed to be and should be. If I'm misunderstanding I apologize.
 
I have been a member since 1994, I love Disney and we go every year. Our home resort is OKW, but we added on a contract at SSR directly through Disney because we wanted more points and they had no OKW points at the time. DVC has always been flexible about our multiple contracts- in terms of making sure we can use banked points first at the 7 month mark and that we can modify our reservation at 7 months in order to use our saratoga at OKW because we don't actually stay at Saratoga. This year, however, they are no longer providing any flexibility to move points or utilize banked points, even for days that may be available at the 7 month mark without asking that we CANCEL and re-book. Unfortunately, we can't get the other days we need and my party already has its travel booked so it is not an option. This has resulted in me losing 128 from my current use year that could be banked forward - and leaving points in the bank for one of my contracts. I understand that I can shift points to RCI or give them to "family and friends" but we purchased these points, as loyal DVC members, in order to use them as an extended family together at DISNEY. Now, I can understand the policy that at 7 months the availability should be there to use other points, but I do not understand why they would not make an exception to ensure that modifications can be made to exchange banked points for any available days without having to cancel and re-book. This is hurting long-time members that bought in where they could to add on points through DVC and is going to mean that I am either forced to sell and add on at OKW to use the points how I have always used them. I feel like DVC is not acting in the interest of its members, particularly the long-term membership, and the services and care that I have always been so fond of with DVC is not there anymore. The lack of flexibility is hurting members and despite having called and talked to MULTIPLE cast members, I am unable to talk to anyone who can offer me any solution- whether it is a way forward to consolidate my contract to one; or a way to at least use my banked points first for the days that are available without cancelling my entire reservation, which seems outrageous. I am so disappointed in this experience with DVC and feel like the membership benefits and services are slowly becoming non-existent. Annual passes offer the same, sometimes better, discounts and the "member experience" is not what it was. When I can't even ensure that banked points get used first because they can't modify reservations, it is not about the members anymore, it is about enforcing a policy and making money.
DVC has never permitted using non-home resort points to modify a reservation at seven months out that you reserved at 11 months out. That would have defeated the purpose of home resort advantage. If they did it for you in the past, it was a special consideration, not the rule or there was availability at seven months out (You cancel and rebook). If they permitted what you stated without availability at seven months out, then any one would reserve GFV with those points and change that GFV reservation at seven months out to VB or HHI points and reuse the GFV points to book GFV for a later date.

Why not just book SSR for a change?
 
The only way you could use SSR points at OKW at 7 month is if there were rooms available at OKW.
Sounds like when you did this before, there were open units at OKW, that could be booked with any points because you were with in the 7 month window.
 


Hate to pile on, but the prior responses are correct. If they allowed that, you could use a more valuable contract to give yourself a home resort advantage with cheaper points, thereby defeating the purpose. We paid the ransom premium for 3 BCV contracts so we could stay there. Now if people have available points and a room is available at 7 months -- as 1BR and some others often are -- great, book it. But I don't want to have to compete with people who have one BCV contract, walked a reservation, and swapped in SSR or OKW points.
 
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Can you book some of the days at OKW using your SSR points and then modify the existing OKW reservation?

FWIW, I agree with the others. One has never been able to swap out points at the 7 month mark unless there is availability and then the way it was done is to cancel and re-book. They may not have told you what they were doing outright, but that's what they were certainly doing behind the scenes.
 
Sounds like you got some pixie dust in the past. There is no way I would let 128 points expire. I would shorten my stay at OKW and use those banked points to rebook somewhere else.

If you refuse to stay anywhere but OKW, I would sell my SSR points and use the proceeds to buy more OKW points so you don’t have this problem going forward.

As a dvc owner who once owned at 4 different resorts, what you are being told by member services is correct. In order to use different points for a reservation at the 7 month mark, the resort must still have availability. If they allowed you to switch out points used for a stay, it would circumvent the 11 month booking priority.
 


I totally understand the policy and appreciate why it is there. However, I think that there should be flexibility to modify the points used when there is availability, particularly when it would allow that person to utilize points they had in the bank. In this example, there are 2 nights available in the middle of my stay - we currently have a grand villa reserved. In the past they have made allowances to modify when there is availability to get the available nights reallocated, which I think is fair. However, they are now unwilling to do that. I think there needs to be flexibility in this policy to modify based on availability without having to cancel an entire reservation. We have stayed at SSR and OKW is our preference, we would have bought there if we could have at the time but Disney wasn't offering it anymore.
 
I totally understand the policy and appreciate why it is there. However, I think that there should be flexibility to modify the points used when there is availability, particularly when it would allow that person to utilize points they had in the bank. In this example, there are 2 nights available in the middle of my stay - we currently have a grand villa reserved. In the past they have made allowances to modify when there is availability to get the available nights reallocated, which I think is fair. However, they are now unwilling to do that. I think there needs to be flexibility in this policy to modify based on availability without having to cancel an entire reservation. We have stayed at SSR and OKW is our preference, we would have bought there if we could have at the time but Disney wasn't offering it anymore.
Are you seven months out for those two nights? Once you hit seven months out, you can reserve them. I agree that you should sell that SSR contract and buy more OKW points. Buy them resale and you won't pay as much.
 
I am seven months out for the two, but they said they would have to cancel my entire reservation and re-book and the rest of the stay around those two nights is not available. Disney has put so many restrictions on resale purchases I am wary of buying one. Has anyone sold and added on with Disney directly?
 
I totally understand the policy and appreciate why it is there. However, I think that there should be flexibility to modify the points used when there is availability, particularly when it would allow that person to utilize points they had in the bank. In this example, there are 2 nights available in the middle of my stay - we currently have a grand villa reserved. In the past they have made allowances to modify when there is availability to get the available nights reallocated, which I think is fair. However, they are now unwilling to do that. I think there needs to be flexibility in this policy to modify based on availability without having to cancel an entire reservation. We have stayed at SSR and OKW is our preference, we would have bought there if we could have at the time but Disney wasn't offering it anymore.
The middle of the stay thing is the problem. They can't split up a reservation AFAIK. I have never heard of DVC allowing you to replace dates in the middle of a reservation before.

I would grab those two nights now with your SSR points. If you have enough extra SSR points left over to cover the start or the end of your stay, I would waitlist those. Work within the system.

FWIW, I disagree that it's "fair" that you replace nights within the middle of your reservation with 7th month SSR. It's not "fair" that you used your 11-month OKW points to block out your entire stay, keeping other OKW owners from booking the nights around the ones that you are now trying to replace with SSR points one-by-one.
 
I am seven months out for the two, but they said they would have to cancel my entire reservation and re-book and the rest of the stay around those two nights is not available. Disney has put so many restrictions on resale purchases I am wary of buying one. Has anyone sold and added on with Disney directly?
You won’t be able to do this if the SSR points are from the current UY...BUT...if they have been banked into this UY, you can modify online (still the same resort, room type and dates) and make sure that you choose to use the SSR contract in addition to the OKW contract. Then continue thru the booking process as you normally would. At the end, it will appear as if the points were not reallocated but after you confirm and check your dashboard, you’ll see that the banked SSR points got taken and the OKW points were returned.

This only works if there is still availability at OKW AND the SSR points are either banked or borrowed in. I just did this last week when the points from a BWV contract that I purchased finally loaded to my account. There were 150 banked points that I was able to use on a VGF GV I have reserved for the fall. There were two nights available @112 points each and all 150 BWV banked points were taken when I modified the reservation.
 
I have been a member since 1994, I love Disney and we go every year. Our home resort is OKW, but we added on a contract at SSR directly through Disney because we wanted more points and they had no OKW points at the time. DVC has always been flexible about our multiple contracts- in terms of making sure we can use banked points first at the 7 month mark and that we can modify our reservation at 7 months in order to use our saratoga at OKW because we don't actually stay at Saratoga. This year, however, they are no longer providing any flexibility to move points or utilize banked points, even for days that may be available at the 7 month mark without asking that we CANCEL and re-book. Unfortunately, we can't get the other days we need and my party already has its travel booked so it is not an option. This has resulted in me losing 128 from my current use year that could be banked forward - and leaving points in the bank for one of my contracts. I understand that I can shift points to RCI or give them to "family and friends" but we purchased these points, as loyal DVC members, in order to use them as an extended family together at DISNEY. Now, I can understand the policy that at 7 months the availability should be there to use other points, but I do not understand why they would not make an exception to ensure that modifications can be made to exchange banked points for any available days without having to cancel and re-book. This is hurting long-time members that bought in where they could to add on points through DVC and is going to mean that I am either forced to sell and add on at OKW to use the points how I have always used them. I feel like DVC is not acting in the interest of its members, particularly the long-term membership, and the services and care that I have always been so fond of with DVC is not there anymore. The lack of flexibility is hurting members and despite having called and talked to MULTIPLE cast members, I am unable to talk to anyone who can offer me any solution- whether it is a way forward to consolidate my contract to one; or a way to at least use my banked points first for the days that are available without cancelling my entire reservation, which seems outrageous. I am so disappointed in this experience with DVC and feel like the membership benefits and services are slowly becoming non-existent. Annual passes offer the same, sometimes better, discounts and the "member experience" is not what it was. When I can't even ensure that banked points get used first because they can't modify reservations, it is not about the members anymore, it is about enforcing a policy and making money.
I see this is your first post on DIS :welcome:
I can’t quite follow what you are trying to do - I think you have an OKW reservation which you made at 11 months and now that your trip is 7 months away - end of January? - you want to substitute some of your banked SSR points for part of your existing OKW stay & member services is unwilling to do so unless you cancel & rebook the entire OKW stay?
I learned about the cancel to rebook the first time I tried to switch resorts at 7 months and I haven’t been a member very long compared to your 25 years, if this has always worked for you in the past, then you’ve been very lucky - although it sounds like you have gone w/ SSR in the past as well.
When do your 128 banked SSR points expire? Perhaps you can rent them out, the Timeshare store & David’s both act as brokers to expedite renting points.
Meanwhile, since you don’t want to stay at SSR, perhaps sell your SSR points and use the proceeds to buy an OKW contract resale which would better serve your needs.
I agree there seems to be less focus on member satisfaction these days and more focus on DVC profits. When you bought in 1994 OKW was $60-61 a point, currently OKW costs $145 a point direct. You should realize somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 per point give or take from selling your SSR points and you could buy resale OKW points for about the same price or, pay another $45 or so per point to buy direct OKW points.
 
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I am seven months out for the two, but they said they would have to cancel my entire reservation and re-book and the rest of the stay around those two nights is not available. Disney has put so many restrictions on resale purchases I am wary of buying one. Has anyone sold and added on with Disney directly?
I had the same experience as you within the 7 month booking window. A day in the middle of my reservation was available but I was told I also would have to cancel and rebook to use my non-home resort points on the middle day. They would not relocate and I did not want to chance losing my reservation. Thank goodness it did not involve any of my banked points so I accepted this new policy, like it or not.
 
Am I the only one that read this part (see bold)

This year, however, they are no longer providing any flexibility to move points or utilize banked points, even for days that may be available at the 7 month mark without asking that we CANCEL and re-book.

Glad to hear that the CMs are sticking to the rules.

I do not think this is a policy as much as a system limitation. They can't cancel a single night out of a multi-night stay unless it is at the end or beginning of the stay. If it were at the beginning or ending of the stay the OP could use the online tool to swap the points without issue. The fact that the system is so limited is a bit of a shame.
 
Am I the only one that read this part (see bold)





I do not think this is a policy as much as a system limitation. They can't cancel a single night out of a multi-night stay unless it is at the end or beginning of the stay. If it were at the beginning or ending of the stay the OP could use the online tool to swap the points without issue. The fact that the system is so limited is a bit of a shame.
The nights that I swapped out my points for were both in the middle of my existing reservation (Tuesday and Thursday). It works online using the modify function. MS may be limited by their own software.
 
I am still not sure what is being attempted. It sounds like you are now seven months out for two dates in the middle of the reservation that you want to change but they will not let you take out some of your OKW points in the reservation and put in SSR points even though those two middle dates are still open, but others are not. I am not certain that is the situation; but here, via example, is what I know was the rule I have had to follow for the there more than two decades that I have been a member:

Assume you have a 7 day reservation made at 11 months out with OKW points. At 7 months out, or even halfway through your week at 7 months out, you are generally not allowed to just switch SSR points for some of the OKW points, but instead have to first cancel that 7 month reservation and then rebook, with one exception (which in the past most likely existed often if trying to make a change at OKW) -- those 7 days at OKW are actually still available separate from the reservation you have. In the past, I in fect was allowed to make switches of one resort's points for another's in that situation. They do not necessarily even tell you that is why it is being allowed (I actually asked and was told).

If they allowed you to make the switch in the past AND the days of your original reservation were not all separately available, then you were allowed to do something that I was never allowed to do.
 
Sorry I don't understand.

If person books a room for 7 days at OKW at 11 months using OKW points. Then at 7 months, person notices there is a room still available on day 3&4. Person wants to reallocate SSR points for those two days .

That's not allowed?
 

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