DVC Points for ABD?

[Tig-girl]

Hello All. Ok, where to start....first of all, as you will see by my siggie, we are a "Disney Family" for sure, and have recently made the decision to join the DVC after taking the tour last year. Economy is in the toilet....so why not buy vacation time, LOL! But we had already decided that it was time to take that dream trip to Ireland, and did not plan to do ABD. We figured it would be much less expensive on our own. Anyway........I seem to remember reading somewhere at some point that you could use your DVC points to book ABD vacations. Does anyone know anything about this? How many points would we need...probably WAY more than we are buying, but any information would be a help if anyone has done this. Thanks!

 

[sayhello]

... we had already decided that it was time to take that dream trip to Ireland, and did not plan to do ABD. We figured it would be much less expensive on our own. Anyway........I seem to remember reading somewhere at some point that you could use your DVC points to book ABD vacations. Does anyone know anything about this? How many points would we need...probably WAY more than we are buying, but any information would be a help if anyone has done this. Thanks!

You definitely can use DVC points to book ABD's. Several people on this board have mentioned doing it. I suggest calling ABD's concierge desk or the DVC folks & ask them how many points for a particular trip. (I'm not a member of DVC, sorry, so I don't have that info).

Sayhello

 

[kmcrosby]

Points for 2009 trips:
Early Booking - 428 points for Adults & 381 for Children
Regular Booking - 471 points for Adults & 424 for Children

 

[sayhello]

Points for 2009 trips:
Early Booking - 428 points for Adults & 381 for Children
Regular Booking - 471 points for Adults & 424 for Children

It "costs" the same for all trips? That would certainly be an incentive to use points for something like Enchanted China or Australia! More days for your "money"!

Sayhello

 

[kmcrosby]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. The point totals were for the Ireland - Emerald Island tour. The points are different for each trip. Australia and China are alot more points, but they are also longer trips

 

[Poppins2000]

Also keep in mind that the points for the ABD trips and cruises change/increase each year. We used our developer points to go to on the ABD Ireland tour this past May. Early booking points for that trip was 333 points each. As you can see, the early booking points have increased from 333 in 2008 to 428 in 2009 per person - quite a leap!

 

[sayhello]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. The point totals were for the Ireland - Emerald Island tour. The points are different for each trip. Australia and China are alot more points, but they are also longer trips

D'oh! I should have realized that's what you meant. Duh. Sorry 'bout that!

Sayhello

 

[Tig-girl]

Also keep in mind that the points for the ABD trips and cruises change/increase each year. We used our developer points to go to on the ABD Ireland tour this past May. Early booking points for that trip was 333 points each. As you can see, the early booking points have increased from 333 in 2008 to 428 in 2009 per person - quite a leap!

Oh...so you used your points, and then paid the difference? Is that how it would work? I don't know if it'd be worth it if I only get 200 points. I might have to use those elsewhere.....I'm new to all of the DVC strategies, hence my Disboard friends are always there with info!

 

[Pakey]

Oh...so you used your points, and then paid the difference? Is that how it would work? I don't know if it'd be worth it if I only get 200 points. I might have to use those elsewhere.....I'm new to all of the DVC strategies, hence my Disboard friends are always there with info!

No, you must pay for your entire trip with points or with cash/you can't do a portion of each.

 

[Poppins2000]

Or...if you have enough points to cover one person, you can pay for points for one person and pay cash for the other. I don't know if ABD does this or not but when we went on our Disney cruise in January, we had enough points to cover only one of us. Soo, we used points to pay DH's way, and cash to cover for me (they also gave us a discount for the cash portion). I'm willing to bet that ABD will do the same thing....(although I don't know for sure...)

 

[Turtlemom]

Poppins2000 is correct. You may use DVC points for one person and pay for others with cash if you do not have enough points. We just did this when booking a spring break Western Carribean Cruise on the Disney Magic. We used points for me and DH, and paid for both DD's with cash--made it very economical. You can also use "banked" or "borrowed" points to get up to the amount you need.

Another good use of points (if you can work it out) would be to "pay" for a before or after hotel day if you needed to.

The points charts for ABD trips are all on the DVC member website. Or you could just call for help. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but once you do--you will be glad you joined! "Welcome home!"

Turtlemom

 

[fluffykim]

you are prob better off renting points...for example, at $10 a point you could sell 300 points and make $3K and use that to pay cash for your trip.

You just need to do the math.

There is a great sell and buy thread on this website

 

[TDC Nala]

You cannot book partially with points and pay cash for the difference.

I came close to booking a Peru trip this year but was not permitted to book the trip on points and pay cash for the single supplement. It was all points or all cash, no way to pay separately for certain parts.

You can, however, use DVC points for the full amount of the trip for some persons on your reservation and then pay cash for other persons. What you can't do is split the per person cost between cash and points.

 

[nordkin]

Also don't forget the non refundable $95 booking fee with DVC.

 

[Tig-girl]

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to take it slow then.......decisions, decisions! I think I'll get back from this non-dvc vacation first, and then start making other plans. Thanks to everyone for all the great information!

 

[Katieinwonderland]

I know I'm being lazy and really should just call...but off the top of their heads, does anyone know how many points for early booking for Australia? We have 250 points...we've only had DVC for a while, but I wonder how many we'd have to 'borrow' from following years to pay for both of us??!!

 

[Pakey]

I know I'm being lazy and really should just call...but off the top of their heads, does anyone know how many points for early booking for Australia? We have 250 points...we've only had DVC for a while, but I wonder how many we'd have to 'borrow' from following years to pay for both of us??!!

It appears to be 594 per person for 2009 for early booking. That's up a little over 100 pts per person from 2008 so you can might want to anticipate similar jumps each year.

 

[CocosMeme]

We bought DVC in 2007 and used two years worth of points for Viva Italia in 2008. You can use banked, current, or borrowed points for booking. In hindsite I wish we had rented our points and used the cash for the trip but I was so new at this that I didn't know how to do it. We are also considering using points for our next ABD trip in '10 for one of us and paying for the other. Some DVC owners have said that renting to strangers can be a hassle and they have had difficulty getting paid. Best thing is to rent to someone you know. Good luck and welcome home!