Stupid Banking/Booking question

[ljmiii]

Sorry for the stupid banking/booking question...but too many timeshare systems and it's been too long.

Does MVC allow you to bank 2024 points into 2025 as part of the booking process or do I have to bank them first?

 

[Fasttr]

Have to bank them first.

You can borrow as part of the booking process, but not bank as part of it.

 

[Jwerking]

Heads up - I just booked two consecutive weeks starting Jan 4 2025 at KoOlina with my points and their booking system has changed with the new Abound system. Previously, the rep could see your total point balance - both 2024 and 2025 points - and the search would use the total point balance. NOT anymore, the search will only use the points for the year of the search - in my case, 2025. As such, the search would only pull up 11 days of availability instead of the 14 days desired. Plus, I think that I got a newbie rep - which contributed to the problem.

Luckily, I figured this out when I viewed the confirmation and found that they had charged only against my 2025 points - versus in the old days, it would always charge against the oldest points first. I called back immediately and was on hold for 45 minutes and luckily the 2 weeks were still available - so the rep cancelled the original 11 day reservation, banked my 2024 points to 2025, and reserved the two weeks. The rep confirmed that they can no longer see your total point balance while booking now - you need to tell them in advance.

Things are always changing and I too, like the OP, only book my Marriott points once or maybe two times per year. Even had problems figuring out the redial button on my new phone this year - LOL!

 

[Dean]

Heads up - I just booked two consecutive weeks starting Jan 4 2025 at KoOlina with my points and their booking system has changed with the new Abound system. Previously, the rep could see your total point balance - both 2024 and 2025 points - and the search would use the total point balance. NOT anymore, the search will only use the points for the year of the search - in my case, 2025. As such, the search would only pull up 11 days of availability instead of the 14 days desired. Plus, I think that I got a newbie rep - which contributed to the problem.

Luckily, I figured this out when I viewed the confirmation and found that they had charged only against my 2025 points - versus in the old days, it would always charge against the oldest points first. I called back immediately and was on hold for 45 minutes and luckily the 2 weeks were still available - so the rep cancelled the original 11 day reservation, banked my 2024 points to 2025, and reserved the two weeks. The rep confirmed that they can no longer see your total point balance while booking now - you need to tell them in advance.

Things are always changing and I too, like the OP, only book my Marriott points once or maybe two times per year. Even had problems figuring out the redial button on my new phone this year - LOL!

I think the issue online is that it assigns the points that expire first ignoring the ability to bank them later. I suspect this is how it works when you call and the reps just change it automatically.

 

[ljmiii]

I think the issue online is that it assigns the points that expire first ignoring the ability to bank them later...

This. Having banked a bunch of 2024 points earlier in the morning (thanks @Fasttr) when I booked our early January reservation at 9AM I then had to go and take out all the 2025 points the website picked from various buckets and replace them with the 2024 points I had banked in their various buckets.

Why the default isn't to use banked points first boggles the mind.

 

[kozykritter]

This. Having banked a bunch of 2024 points earlier in the morning (thanks @Fasttr) when I booked our early January reservation at 9AM I then had to go and take out all the 2025 points the website picked from various buckets and replace them with the 2024 points I had banked in their various buckets.

Why the default isn't to use banked points first boggles the mind.

If it did, then some people would be asking why it used banked points before current year points...everyone wants something different! I hope you didn't strain your fingers too much changing the allocation

But seriously, I can see why it might take current 2025 points that expire Dec 31, 2025 before banked points with the same expiration date for a 2025 reservation. Think of it like your checking and savings account, perhaps. Payments default to coming out of your checking as those are active funds and the nature of the account and if you want the payment instead to come out of funds you've stashed away (like banked points), then you have to make a special effort to have that happen due to the nature of that account.

 

[Dean]

If it did, then some people would be asking why it used banked points before current year points...everyone wants something different! I hope you didn't strain your fingers too much changing the allocation

But seriously, I can see why it might take current 2025 points that expire Dec 31, 2025 before banked points with the same expiration date for a 2025 reservation. Think of it like your checking and savings account, perhaps. Payments default to coming out of your checking as those are active funds and the nature of the account and if you want the payment instead to come out of funds you've stashed away (like banked points), then you have to make a special effort to have that happen due to the nature of that account.

It's actually a problem when making those difficult reservations at 12 & 13 months out as it takes time to figure out which points to use and change the allocations accordingly. This is esp true since there are multiple buckets of points. If I am trying to reserve today with points, I get 9 different buckets. I usually just don't worry about it then email them to reallocate to make sure we group the points together considering if I have to cancel anything, which points do I want where.

 

[VacationForever]

I think OP's problem was that the 2024 points were not banked and as such 2025 reservation won't "see" those points. I am going to need to bank my 2024 points when I book 2025 stay coming up in a couple of months. I don't think this has changed as I remember as how it had always worked.

 

[ljmiii]

I think OP's problem was that the 2024 points were not banked and as such 2025 reservation won't "see" those points....

No...my problem was that I just couldn't remember how MVC worked. They place a nice checkbox next to points you can borrow to fulfill a reservation but I couldn't remember if they did the same for banking. As @Fasttr kindly pointed out, I had to bank before booking (which I did).