Not enough points - what to do?

[OhToodles!]

So, I want to know if you don't have enough points to cover a vacation (and can't borrow from the next year) can you just pay an extra amount to cover the points you don't have?

Background - I talked with a DVC sales guide yesterday and it sounds like the first year you get whatever amount of points you buy and then the next year you have double the amount of points. She said since we're buying into AKV and it is under construction we can't borrow from '09 points. We are already planning a trip in October and have rooms booked, but if we can use points instead I'd rather do that. We'd need a 2 BR, so for a Standard View for when we're going (Thursday - Tuesday) we'd need 177 points. If we buy 175, we're short 2 points. Therefore, getting to my question above.

[FutureCorpsFan]

I don't beleive you can buy the points you need to make up the difference. I beleive you cover what you can with the points you have, then have to pay for the nights you can't cover. So, in this case, it would appear that you would have to pay for the last day of your stay.

[JPL]

You can pay cash to stay in a DVC room as member if you don't have enough and will get it at a member discounted price. which since you won't be using your points for that last night you will have points to book for your next stay. If you are planning on continuing the same pattern and always seem to come up a couple points short this will allow you to use the banked points to cover the same accomadation the next year and the pattern will just continue to repeat itself over time

[BrerGnat]

So, I want to know if you don't have enough points to cover a vacation (and can't borrow from the next year) can you just pay an extra amount to cover the points you don't have?

Background - I talked with a DVC sales guide yesterday and it sounds like the first year you get whatever amount of points you buy and then the next year you have double the amount of points. She said since we're buying into AKV and it is under construction we can't borrow from '09 points. We are already planning a trip in October and have rooms booked, but if we can use points instead I'd rather do that. We'd need a 2 BR, so for a Standard View for when we're going (Thursday - Tuesday) we'd need 177 points. If we buy 175, we're short 2 points. Therefore, getting to my question above.

Maybe this is a silly question, but why don't you just buy 180 points instead of 175? Or, just buy 177 instead of 175. The additional cost for the 2 points will be less than it will cost to pay cash for the room for that one extra night...

[OhToodles!]

This was just a scenario. We may just buy the minimum points at this time. We wouldn't always need this much space - just happens that we have more people going this trip.

Thanks for letting me know I can just pay for one night stay if we don't have enough points. Maybe one of the other couples will foot that bill since it'll be cheaper than the 5 night stay they were going to have to pay for!

[hlkeck]

Okay, so I'm pretty sure that I've used my 2009 points to book a 2009 Cruise and I'm an AKV relatively new owner...

Are you sure you can't borrow from your '09 points?

[OhToodles!]

Are you sure you can't borrow from your '09 points?

That's what they told me. For 08-09 I can use the 160 points and then for 09-10 I'd have 320 points, but can't borrow any of the 320 points for the 08-09 year. At least that's how I understood it. I'll try to clarify again when I call back to buy!

[ThanxForNoticin]

Thanks for letting me know I can just pay for one night stay if we don't have enough points. Maybe one of the other couples will foot that bill since it'll be cheaper than the 5 night stay they were going to have to pay for!

Just something to keep in mind when paying cash for the rooms - they offer a limited number of rooms on a 'cash' basis. So make sure you work out the details with MS. It's usually not a problem, but just make sure you are aware the number of cash rooms are limited. Have a great trip.