Is this Normal Procedure?

[JPL]

I realized today it was getting close to the deadline for me to book my remaining points. I called member service when I got home from work and had all my paperwork and information ready so I wouldn't get confused. I had a booked a trip for December 2009 and was told after this booking I had 51 points remaining would I like to bank them now or wait. I decided to wait in case I felt like taking a short trip in August. So when I called today to bank what I thought were a remaining 51 points the girl said you just want to bank 51 you have 98 left. I said how do I have 98 left I made a reservation for December and was told I had 51 left . Now I was getting nervous that something went wrong with my December booking. She said hold on let me check. She put me on hold as I ran to get my confirmation letter just in case I needed it. She came back and told me they used my points from next year since my use year is in December and my trip is in December. She then had to bank the 98 points and change the point allocation to use the banked points for the reservation in December. Is it me or this a very confusing system? I wonder what would have happened if I banked the 51 points in May when I made the reservation. I'm guessing the way it was processed I would have lost 47 and in actuality the trip would have cost me 94 points.

[Aurora]

You're right. Had the CM not said anything and just banked the 51 points, you would have been out 47 points on Dec. 1.

However, just curious, you realized you had to use your points or bank them, but did you not know how many points you had to use by Dec. 1? I truly mean no disrespect; I'm sure lots of people are not sure how many points they have left in a given year.

I think it's always a good idea to double track your points, because people and systems tend to make mistakes. Good thing you figured it out in time!

[DizneyRox]

I havne't run across this before, however, I might guess that if youre points we'ren't banked, when you made a reservation for the next use year, those points were not available. If you banked them, then they would have seen them, but not until you bank them.

Banking is final, so I think what you did was correct and how the system works. You thought you were using 2008 points for some of the Dec trip right? If they weren't banked, they weren't usable yet.

[lockedoutlogic]

Use DVCs website....

forget confirmation letters and the paper "tracking sheets"

it's realtime and layed out in tabs

Really...there's not much of an issue keeping points straight with the website available

[JPL]

However, just curious, you realized you had to use your points or bank them, but did you not know how many points you had to use by Dec. 1? I truly mean no disrespect; I'm sure lots of people are not sure how many points they have left in a given year.



I knew exactly how many points I had left but when the CM originally booked the December trip she deducted from the current use year not the next use year. This where the confusion came in.

[MinnieMommie]

I'm not sure if this is normal Jeff but from what you are saying and from my recent experience I get the impression that it makes sense to specify when we book which use year we want our points taken from.

When I booked recently the CM wanted to use my 2009 points. I had to say, no that is another contract. I told the CM that I do not want to use that contract for this booking. I want to borrow from my 2010 use year using points from my other contract. Now this is for a 2010 vacation but before the date my 2010 use year starts. Are you following me? The CM was confused and I had to go into a detailed explanation. Then when I called back to add days onto that vacation I had the same problem. I am really about preserving the other contract and I do NOT plan to use any points on it until a later vacation time.

So my sense from your experience and mine is that I have to be very clear about what use year (and in my case which contract) I want my points to be taken from.

Normal?? Typical?? I don't know but I don't want to leave how my points are allocated to chance. :mickey:

[Tinkermom]

I am confused Jeff...
You said that when you made your ressie the CM at MS stated that you had 51 points left and asked if you wanted to bank them. This would mean that they DID take the points from your current use year, right? So how did it change? Once they make the transaction with the points it is set and should not change. :confused: If this is the case I would question it with MS.

I guess going forward I would just always have MS go over how many points you have left and confirm that they have taken them from the correct use year. I always repeat back to them what I think I have just to be sure. I have never had an issue like this before though. Sorry you had some trouble!

[Mackflava99]

We had a similar problem last year- we had to split our stay and book 2 times, and they took the 2nd stay from 2009? we didnt notice until we almost lost our points because we didnt book them. I went back and forth for 2 days and finally they let us get them back-
Luckily i had all the paperwork.

[JPL]

I am confused Jeff...
You said that when you made your ressie the CM at MS stated that you had 51 points left and asked if you wanted to bank them. This would mean that they DID take the points from your current use year, right? So how did it change? Once they make the transaction with the points it is set and should not change. :confused: If this is the case I would question it with MS.


That's exactly what confused me I was told how many points I had remaining in the current use year after I made reservation and then when I called to bank those remaining points they changed the allocation of the booking some where during the process. It was actually explained to me saying I have 98 points (which I already knew before making the reservation) she said you are using 47 points and will 51 remaining. If you ask I feel like they tried to pull a fast one. Of course it could have just been someone from MS that was simply clueless.

[Maleficent's Dad]

Jeff,
I read your original post a few times in order to make sure I understood it correctly... (although I do believe that I'm still confused!).

She came back and told me they used my points from next year since my use year is in December and my trip is in December.
If December is your Use Year, that means that as of December 1, you get your new allotment of points... so I'm thinking that the vacation you had booked was the problem - you were doing so with this year's points. Right? :confused:

She then had to bank the 98 points and change the point allocation to use the banked points for the reservation in December. Is it me or this a very confusing system? I wonder what would have happened if I banked the 51 points in May when I made the reservation. I'm guessing the way it was processed I would have lost 47 and in actuality the trip would have cost me 94 points.
This is where I'm really confused...
What does that mean, to "change the point allocation"???
I don't think that they were trying to pull a fast one on you, but what I've discovered is that DVC MS sometimes tries to do things that will help you out - but it's not always communicated correctly. Seems to me that your first MS rep did something way wrong...

It is a very weird, odd, and confusing situation to say the least... :scratch:

[JPL]

Originally they used points from my current use year to book the December trip atleast that's what was explained to me by MS. But then the points were deducted from next year not the current yeat\r. That is what I eman by the point allocation perhaps I am using the wrong term for this.

[Tinkermom]

Ok - so we were talking about this and Mike (DH) had a thought...

In order to book a vacation that will occur your next use year would you need to use that year's points? If so then the only way to use this current years' points would be to bank them into the next use year.

I am not sure if this is a rule because we never seem to have points left over that we need to bank.:blush:

This still seems confusing since in the original call to MS they stated how many points you had left in the current use year. The only thing I can think is that this CM realized their mistake after hanging up with you and then had to take the points from the next use year since you did not bank the points(if this is a rule).

[VWL Mom]

I had a similar problem. I banked a portion of my points and booked a trip. No problem. We then decided to add another night so I banked the points to cover that and then called and added the extra night. When I looked online the banked points were there but they were not used, the extra night had been charged to the use year of the trip. I called and they reallocated them. I was told that I should have specified I wanted to book with the banked points.

[Maleficent's Dad]

Originally they used points from my current use year to book the December trip atleast that's what was explained to me by MS. But then the points were deducted from next year not the current yeat\r. That is what I eman by the point allocation perhaps I am using the wrong term for this.
That makes more sense (your using the term, not their actions!!!)

I'm still perplexed, however, how this could have happened. You're told one thing, and something else happens...

[DizneyRox]

I don't know exactly how the DVC reservation system works, but... According to my understanding of the rules, your 2008 points could not be used Dec 1 or later until they were banked into 2009. They should not have been able to "see" them as possible points to use. Member services can't assume you want to use 2008 points for a 2009 vacation.

Maybe someone did some independent thinking and didn't follow the rules.

In all my trips, I've always found they use banked points prior ro using current use year points. What I don't know is if this is just good CMs that I've talked to, or if it was some sort of systematic process that they had to follow. Maybe it's a new ploy to contribute to point forfeiture. Having members SPECIFY exactly which points to use for what is just all sorts of error prone and could increase point loss which benefits Disney in a bunch of ways.

I think it worked as it was supposed to but I'm lost as to how it was incorrectly communicated. Which reminds me, I need to bank my remaining points

[Aurora]

I don't know exactly how the DVC reservation system works, but... According to my understanding of the rules, your 2008 points could not be used Dec 1 or later until they were banked into 2009. They should not have been able to "see" them as possible points to use. Member services can't assume you want to use 2008 points for a 2009 vacation.

Maybe someone did some independent thinking and didn't follow the rules.

In all my trips, I've always found they use banked points prior ro using current use year points. What I don't know is if this is just good CMs that I've talked to, or if it was some sort of systematic process that they had to follow. Maybe it's a new ploy to contribute to point forfeiture. Having members SPECIFY exactly which points to use for what is just all sorts of error prone and could increase point loss which benefits Disney in a bunch of ways.

I think it worked as it was supposed to but I'm lost as to how it was incorrectly communicated. Which reminds me, I need to bank my remaining points

There is a process they're supposed to follow in terms of point "hierarchy." They are supposed to use banked points first, then current year's points, then any points you want to borrow.

So Jeff, knowing that he had to use this year's points, needed to bank his points first before using them for the December booking (because he has a December use year).

However, the original CM apparently either didn't use the system properly (because she was trying to use his current year's non-banked points for a December booking), or she told Jeff what he had left for the current year before she tried to put the booking into the system, realized her mistake, and just used next year's points without notifying Jeff that he still had 98 points for this year.

Either way, she was in error and Jeff should have been notified for exactly the reason he said -- because if he thought he only had 51 points left and banked them, he would have been out the other 47 points on Dec. 1. The second CM was apparently on the ball, the first was not.

[TinksDH]

If that is what indeed they did do, they should not have assumed that Jeff wanted to use next years' points. They should have called him back and given him the option to bank the correct amount of this years' points and then use the banked points. Sounds like Jeff is now screwed as he now still has 98 2008 points that he needs to bank that will then expire December 2010, and 47 LESS points in 2009 that wouldn't expire until December 2011 if eventually banks them. Am I correct in this understanding?

[DizneyRox]

I think it was corrected and is fine now.

if a call was not made to bank the points, then there would have been problems, but I'm sure nothing that couldn't be resolved. Although in this case, I think the first CM did what they were supposed to do and use the 2009 points (there were no banked 2008 points), BUT there should have been some notification that what was happening was different than explained once everything went through, however I don't know if the CM would have known that.

[JPL]

Everything is fine now since I booked the points and they took the points from th 2008 use year. I just wish that this was a less confusing process and they had CMs that actually know what they are doing.

[TinksDH]

Glad they got the whole thing straightened out!:thumbsup:

[Aurora]

I think it was corrected and is fine now.

if a call was not made to bank the points, then there would have been problems, but I'm sure nothing that couldn't be resolved. Although in this case, I think the first CM did what they were supposed to do and use the 2009 points (there were no banked 2008 points), BUT there should have been some notification that what was happening was different than explained once everything went through, however I don't know if the CM would have known that.

Except that Jeff said the first CM booked the December trip and then told him he had 51 points left and asked if he wanted to bank them. So even if she really had booked him for the December trip with 2009 points, she was in error by telling him he had 51 points left in his current use year to bank, when in fact he had 98.

I agree that the system can be confusing. It helps me to use dvcmember.com and plan things around our use year so I can keep things straight.

[JPL]

I agree that the system can be confusing. It helps me to use dvcmember.com and plan things around our use year so I can keep things straight.

I would gladly use dvcmember.com but I don't trust anything Disney does online. If and when they ever get a real online booking system for DVC members I would be jumping for joy. I have used their request form several times and always had to call them after it. This December trip is a perfect example I was told nothing is available at AKV but whne I called about 5 minutes after receiving the e-mail they had exactly what I requested. A live online booking system is the only solution because I would have seen what happened to my points instantly.

[Aurora]

I would gladly use dvcmember.com but I don't trust anything Disney does online. If and when they ever get a real online booking system for DVC members I would be jumping for joy. I have used their request form several times and always had to call them after it. This December trip is a perfect example I was told nothing is available at AKV but whne I called about 5 minutes after receiving the e-mail they had exactly what I requested. A live online booking system is the only solution because I would have seen what happened to my points instantly.

You're right. How many times on these boards have we read someone having the same experience, using the online reservation system only to call later and find availability where there was none online.