Sunterra - which points are used first?

[JulieAB]

I have 5500 point in this year's account and 5500 points in next year's account.

I just made a reservation for travel in 2007 and now my account says 5500 in THIS year's and 0 in NEXT year's.

Now, I guess I could still travel in 2006 to use this year's points OR I could roll the points over to next year's account. So this is my question: Since I already have a 2007 reservation, will sunterra use the rolled over points first or leave it reserved with 2007 points?

The reason I'm wondering is in case I decide not to travel a second time in 2007, I'd want to roll the points to 2008. But if Sunterra only shows my rolled 2006 points remaining, I wouldn't be allowed to roll those a second time. In this case, would I need to roll my 2006 points, then cancel and rebook my 2007 travel so it uses the rolled points first?

TIA!
Julie

 

[daventrina]

Strange... Would have expected to use the 2006 first and then the 2007. The cutoff to roll over is in 3 weeks...

 

[KforKitty]

I think they would have used your 2006 points for your 2007 booking if you had already rolled them over prior to booking. As you didn't they wouldn't use your current year's points automatically as they wouldn't know this was your intention. I'd give them a ring and see if they can sort it out for you without the need to cancel and rebook.

Kitty

 

[fnewman]

As I understand it, if you wanted them to use 2006 points for your 2007 booking you would first have had to 'save' them into 2007. That's only logical, because they don't know whether or not you still want to use your 2006 points this year. If you make a reservation by phone instead of on-line, you probably could get it done either way (and possibly could still get it changed). There could be good reasons for doing it either way, I suppose. For example, if you were to not pay your MFs for 2007, your reservation would eventually be cancelled while 2007 reservations made with with 2006 points should be good. I may be corrected by others with more experience, but that's the way it was expleined to me.

 

[sca6]

Julie, When a reservation is made, they pull from the available points for that given year in which your reservation is made, subject to your having paid your club and maintenance fees for that year. Sounds like you did! Now, with regard to your delima, I do believe that if you were to roll your '06 to '07 then they would be tapping your '06 points (which are technically '07 points) first, leaving the '07 points as your balance for '07. If you didn't roll first I would suggest that you contact them and first try to resolve with customer service. If that doesn't work to your satisfaction they have an office that handles problematic issues. Perhaps they can help. Explain your delima and ask for their assistance in resolving this matter. I have found that they are fairly reasonable in dealing with problematic issues. Well, that has been my experience anyway. With regard to rollover, ect. pay attention to the deadlines so as not to loose any points. And remember if you want to pull points back to make a reservation this year you may do so but they must be used this year then, and can't be rolled again. Good luck and you will find some good advice here on this board.

 

[fnewman]

Julie, When a reservation is made, they pull from the available points for that given year in which your reservation is made, subject to your having paid your club and maintenance fees for that year. Sounds like you did!

That used to be true (you had to pay your 2007 MFs before making a 2007 reservation), but apparently that is not longer the case. I think it caused a lot of problems because they often did not even know what your MFs were going to be until late in the current year. In the last couple of years I have made reservations for 'next year' well before paying next year's MFs. I have no doubt, however, that they would cancel your reservation if you did not pay your 2007 MF by the deadline. You may still have to prepay MFs to do an II reservation for next year - I'm not sure about that one.

 

[girard]

I did the same thing. I called Sunterra and explained the problem. I first saved my points to 2007, then had them cancel the first reservation and rebook, using the 2006 points. They have a way to do this without your losing the week that you want.

 

[JulieAB]

So I may have made my problem worse because I made a second reservation in 2007 by rolling 5200 of my unused 2006 points, leaving 300 points in this year's account (I got ancy and wanted to book it while I saw it on Webres instead of waiting to talk directly to Sunterra).

But I've realized I may cancel this second reservation at some point, so I would want to use the points elsewhere or have the option to roll them to 2008. So I still needed to switch the points around to be using the rolled 2006 points on my first reservation (and I still needed to roll 300 points to equal the entire 5500 needed for this reservation) and the 5200 2007 points for my second (leaving me a balance of 300 in 2007 that I could roll to 2008).

Everyone following me so far?

So I called Sunterra and explained the situation and what I wanted them to do. They said there was no changing neccessary because the system is already set up to use the oldest points first, regardless of which I cancel! So they said if I cancelled my second reservation, my first would then use the 5200 of my already rolled 2006 points as well as 300 of my 2007 points. I'd then be left with 5200 2007 points that I could roll to 2008. OR, if I rolled the remaining 300 2006 points to 2007 and then canceled my second reservation, it'd use my entire 5500 rolled 2006 points, and leave my 5500 2007 points. Follow? Does this sound legit and okay? Should I be worried? I feel worried.

Then, they said if I rolled my remaining 300 2006 points to 2007, I would have to pre-pay next year's maint fees in order to borrow them back into this year. Is this right? I thought they stopped that. Or am I thinking of the "pre-paying 2007 maint fees if you want to make a 2007 reservation" thing?

Oy, thanks for helping this newbie!!

 

[Spence]

Then, they said if I rolled my remaining 300 2006 points to 2007, I would have to pre-pay next year's maint fees in order to borrow them back into this year. Is this right? I thought they stopped that. Or am I thinking of the "pre-paying 2007 maint fees if you want to make a 2007 reservation" thing? Oy, thanks for helping this newbie!!

If you want to use 2007 points for 2007 then you pay MFs when they come due. If you want to use 2007 points for 2006 then you have to pre-pay the MFs EVEN if you had rolled 2006 points to 2007.