Carry over points to following year-how tracked?

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

1. How does DRI track how many points are carried over / rolled over to the following year when it comes to reserving at resorts for a given year? This may become an accounting nightmare (well, maybe to folks new to the Club) if one carries points over on several consecutive years.

I have gotten answers all over the board from reps, from it does not matter, it is all one big bucket to DRI tracks three buckets (current year, once carried over/rolled over from previous year, to those borrowed from the next year).

Online, it only shows current year and next/following year.

2. On this same thought, are points used on a first in-first out basis ? ... meaning if one carries over 2008 points to 2009 and make a 2009 reservation, are the 2008 points tapped/used up first?

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

1. How does DRI track how many points are carried over / rolled over to the following year when it comes to reserving at resorts for a given year? This may become an accounting nightmare (well, maybe to folks new to the Club) if one carries points over on several consecutive years.

I have gotten answers all over the board from reps, from it does not matter, it is all one big bucket to DRI tracks three buckets (current year, once carried over/rolled over from previous year, to those borrowed from the next year).

Online, it only shows current year and next/following year.

2. On this same thought, are points used on a first in-first out basis ? ... meaning if one carries over 2008 points to 2009 and make a 2009 reservation, are the 2008 points tapped/used up first?

I've had problems understanding how it works... maybe you need to talk to their Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer or better yet their Vice President, Applications Development and see how it was programed; yes, their are a lot of Vice Presidents.

I've had a problem when I book say Powhatan at 11months out, they use Trust points or Home Club Advantage in my Club account instead of using Home Resort Advantage. I found this out when I went to book Flamingo Beach and they said I had no Home Club Advantage remaining.

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

I've had problems understanding how it works... maybe you need to talk to their Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer or better yet their Vice President, Applications Development and see how it was programed; yes, their are a lot of Vice Presidents.

I've had a problem when I book say Powhatan at 11months out, they use Trust points or Home Club Advantage in my Club account instead of using Home Resort Advantage. I found this out when I went to book Flamingo Beach and they said I had no Home Club Advantage remaining.

OK, I just sent an email to DRI... I will post the response.

[Werner Member Find all posts View Profile Close Werner]

I can answer part of the question, using simple Club points for a single resort. Those are the only kind we have. We were surprised when making reservations to our home resort for 2009. We had more than enough points in 2008, but they wouldn't accept those. We had to rollover the points into 2009 or pay 2009 MFs early. We chose to rollover. The rolled-over points just drop into the 2009 bucket, there is no tracking where they came from. If we didn't use them, they would be added to the new points we get when we pay the 2009 MFs. It doesn't matter which points you are using when you make reservations. You still only rollover a maximum of one year's points. LIFO of FIFO doesn't matter. We have rolled over some points every year and they always just drop into the next years bucket.

However, there is one thing that seems different with Diamond vs Sunterra. In past years I thought, but I could be wrong, that when you made reservations for next year the points came out of this years bucket if they were there. That way you only rolled-over whatever was not needed for next year's usage. I think Diamond is enforcing a rule that Sunterra ignored, that you "pay" for next years reservations with next years bucket of points. But I really can't be definite about exactly how it worked in the past. (It's tough to get old)

Because we ended up rolling-over a full years allocation to get the points into 2009 we now have more 2008 points that we can't rollover. We are using II as a points bank. We made a reservation using most of the remaining 2008 points which we may or may not use. But we can cancel and get cancellation certificate that gets us another year to make another II reservation. That's the back door rollover that I suspect most people know about.

We still have 450 points that we don't have a use for. Too small for even a couple of off-season days locally. I guess we'll have to eat them.

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Nice explanations.

I can answer part of the question, using simple Club points for a single resort. Those are the only kind we have. We were surprised when making reservations to our home resort for 2009. We had more than enough points in 2008, but they wouldn't accept those. We had to rollover the points into 2009 or pay 2009 MFs early. We chose to rollover. The rolled-over points just drop into the 2009 bucket, there is no tracking where they came from. If we didn't use them, they would be added to the new points we get when we pay the 2009 MFs. It doesn't matter which points you are using when you make reservations. You still only rollover a maximum of one year's points. LIFO of FIFO doesn't matter. We have rolled over some points every year and they always just drop into the next years bucket.

This is how it works.

However, there is one thing that seems different with Diamond vs Sunterra. In past years I thought, but I could be wrong, that when you made reservations for next year the points came out of this years bucket if they were there. That way you only rolled-over whatever was not needed for next year's usage. I think Diamond is enforcing a rule that Sunterra ignored, that you "pay" for next years reservations with next years bucket of points. But I really can't be definite about exactly how it worked in the past. (It's tough to get old)

I disagree, it's always worked this way for me.

Because we ended up rolling-over a full years allocation to get the points into 2009 we now have more 2008 points that we can't rollover. We are using II as a points bank. We made a reservation using most of the remaining 2008 points which we may or may not use. But we can cancel and get cancellation certificate that gets us another year to make another II reservation. That's the back door rollover that I suspect most people know about.

I've mentioned this several times.

We still have 450 points that we don't have a use for. Too small for even a couple of off-season days locally. I guess we'll have to eat them.

You can book anything in II for next year prior to the end of October to use any orphaned points with any extra needed being drawn from next year.

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

I can answer part of the question, using simple Club points for a single resort. Those are the only kind we have. We were surprised when making reservations to our home resort for 2009. We had more than enough points in 2008, but they wouldn't accept those. We had to rollover the points into 2009 or pay 2009 MFs early. ....

Not sure about this. I just rolled over 2008 pts into 2009 and used a combo of 2008 and 2009 points to book a Feb 2009 stay this morning, without paying 2009 MF's.

We still have 450 points that we don't have a use for. Too small for even a couple of off-season days locally. I guess we'll have to eat them.

You can do your fellow TsMs brothers a favor an book cheap last minute studios or something...and just put their names as guests. That's what I would do!

[Werner Member Find all posts View Profile Close Werner]

You can book anything in II for next year prior to the end of October to use any orphaned points with any extra needed being drawn from next year.

I didn't realize that there was a cutoff date before the end of the year. Does that mean that I still have to pay MF early, before Oct, to bundle enough paid-up points to make a reservation in II by the end of Oct?

[Werner Member Find all posts View Profile Close Werner]

winger, They will make the reservation without 2009's points being paid but what they won't do is use current year points. So your reservations are pending either paying 2009 or rolling-over or both if you need more than you rollover. We thought the points came out of the year you made the reservation, not the year you were reserving for. I guess they have to take reservations even if points aren't paid otherwise everyone would be forced to pay early just to make a reservation.

For some reason I though that in the past if you had current year points they went to cover any new reservations for next year. Spence says no so I guess I remember wrong.

[muzjik Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close muzjik]

Okay...this will seem like a stupid question but since some posters are talking about having a couple of hundred points left, I'm wondering if I have misunderstood.

I know that the deadline date for rolling over 100% of your points into the next year "bucket" is June 30. I assumed that meant 100% of however many points were still in our account for the year 2008 that we had not already used to reserve units.....right? And if what is left in my account by Aug. 31 is less than 50% of my yearly point allotment, I could roll over all of those points?

Tamara

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Okay...this will seem like a stupid question but since some posters are talking about having a couple of hundred points left, I'm wondering if I have misunderstood.

I know that the deadline date for rolling over 100% of your points into the next year "bucket" is June 30. I assumed that meant 100% of however many points were still in our account for the year 2008 that we had not already used to reserve units.....right? And if what is left in my account by Aug. 31 is less than 50% of my yearly point allotment, I could roll over all of those points?

Tamara

Not 100% of what is in your account but 100% of your annual allotment.
Some people get upset when they saved 50% prior to 31Aug, then they think they can turn around and save 25% more of annual allotment prior to 31Oct. Not the case.

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

Not 100% of what is in your account but 100% of your annual allotment.
Some people get upset when they saved 50% prior to 31Aug, then they think they can turn around and save 25% more of annual allotment prior to 31Oct. Not the case.

I am a little confused here... In the SunOption booklet...

Saving SunOptions
Log onto www.sunterra.com and enter the
Members Area to save your SunOptions.
To save SunOptions you must notify
Club Sunterra by:
• June 30 to save up to 100% of your
yearly allotment of SunOptions
• August 31 to save up to 50% of your
yearly allotment of SunOptions
• October 31 to save up to 25% of your
yearly allotment of SunOptions

Say my annual allotment is 20,000.

On Jun 29th I can save 15,000 (from 2008 pts) because that is <100% of my annual alloment -> I have 5000 remaining

On Aug 30, I wish to save my remaining 5000 (from 2008 pts) because that is < 50% of my annual allotment. Am I allowed to do this OR am I NOT allowed because I have already saved up to 50% of my annual allotment (I already saved 15,000 pts on Jun 29th, which is 15k/20k = 75%) ???

[Werner Member Find all posts View Profile Close Werner]

Muzjik, I got caught like in the trap that Spence mentions above my first year in Suntera/Diamond. I thought each cutoff period was independent but it is not. If you pay for 10,000 points / yr. and you have 15,000 points in the current year's bucket you will have to use (use, not just reserve) 5000 point in the current year, the other 10,000 (but not more) can be rolled over in one lump by the end of June. "Using" points means going to a Diamond resort, or just reserving a resort in II. The moment you reserve in II your points are moved into II (and they cannot come back to Diamond)

[Werner Member Find all posts View Profile Close Werner]

winger, no you can't do that. The rollovers are cumulative, not independent. I think the words should be changed to read "August 31 to save up to a cumulative 50% of your yearly allotment of SunOptions". Your June 30 rollover already exceeded the max for Aug 30.

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Muzjik, I got caught like in the trap that Spence mentions above my first year in Suntera/Diamond. I thought each cutoff period was independent but it is not. If you pay for 10,000 points / yr. and you have 15,000 points in the current year's bucket you will have to use (use, not just reserve) 5000 point in the current year, the other 10,000 (but not more) can be rolled over in one lump by the end of June. "Using" points means going to a Diamond resort, or just reserving a resort in II. The moment you reserve in II your points are moved into II (and they cannot come back to Diamond)

You may make any FUTURE year II reservations with current year points before 31Oct of any year. Sometimes they will take it out of the total for the future year but you can get them to change it to current year!

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

In many instances you need to use common sense, and this is one of them. This graduated system is in place to keep everyone from hoarding their points all year with aggregate inventory going empty. Then the next year all these people have double points and inventory only supports original use year points. I don't know how Diamond balances all of it but having the graduated system gives them the time to do it. It would not make sense for the system to be interpreted as winger wants to.

I am a little confused here... In the SunOption booklet...
Say my annual allotment is 20,000.
On Jun 29th I can save 15,000 (from 2008 pts) because that is <100% of my annual alloment -> I have 5000 remaining
On Aug 30, I wish to save my remaining 5000 (from 2008 pts) because that is < 50% of my annual allotment. Am I allowed to do this OR am I NOT allowed because I have already saved up to 50% of my annual allotment (I already saved 15,000 pts on Jun 29th, which is 15k/20k = 75%) ???

winger, no you can't do that. The rollovers are cumulative, not independent. I think the words should be changed to read "August 31 to save up to a cumulative 50% of your yearly allotment of SunOptions". Your June 30 rollover already exceeded the max for Aug 30.