Hotel Exchange Points Info

[Disbound]

In January, my husband and I booked a trip to Italy for mid-September, 2023. Our flight there took us through Copenhagen with a 24 hour layover, so we booked a hotel for the night through Disney’s Hotel Exchange. Yesterday, our flights were cancelled through Swiss Air, no reason given, just cancelled. So we had to rebook the flight, and in doing so, our flight plan changed, and we no longer had the layover in Copenhagen. We called Disney to cancel the hotel and return our points to our account, and we’re told that we did not have the option to get the points back, we just lost them. 50+ points, gone. No refund, no ability to rebook with them at another location, just gone. This trip is six months away! There is plenty of time for the hotel to re-book the room. This is a Disney policy, not a hotel policy.
‘Just wanted to let others know, that if they book a hotel using Disney DVC points, if you cancel, for any reason, you will lose those points. They are not able to be used to book something elsewhere, within the allotted time frame, they are just gone.
Does anyone have any information about this that we may be missing? We are going by the information provided by the DVC person we spoke with.

 

[Mathmagicland]

I’d suggest checking the Interval International guide which DVC says has all of the parameters of the exchange program. While I’ve not done a hotel exchange, in reading this info on the DVC website about hotel exchanges it appears a if a hotel booking takes the points out of DVC and puts them in to Interval International. Maybe there is not a provision to put them back to DVC? Sort of like if you convert hotel points to miles you can’t put them back to hotel points? I’m just guessing here, There’s also a mention about checking individual hotel cancellation policies. I don’t know where to find any other details about the program.

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/destinations/interval-international#hotel-exchange

 

[Mathmagicland]

Here is a question someone put to PlanDisney about moving DVC points to Interval International so the DVC points would not be lost. The responder provided a link to the II guide. If folks can xfer DVC points to II to avoid losing them, maybe your points are still there for a future booking with them? Again just speculating here….but it makes sense that expiring DVC points could not come back to DVC, so maybe no points can come back to DVC, Might be worth contacting Interval International with your questions.

https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/dvc-points-expiring-deadline-transferring-interval-497012/

 

[floribr1]

To use your DVC points for something other than DVC (i.e., anything other than booking a DVC room the normal way) you must first convert the points to “reservation points.” Once converted, to reservation points they cannot be converted back into DVC points. The points are not “gone,” you simply are unable to use them for a DVC stay.

They really sho have explained all this to you in detail when you were first booking the exchange… Sorry if they did not.

You shou still be able to use those points, just not at a DVC resort.

 

[Disbound]

In January, my husband and I booked a trip to Italy for mid-September, 2023. Our flight there took us through Copenhagen with a 24 hour layover, so we booked a hotel for the night through Disney’s Hotel Exchange. Yesterday, our flights were cancelled through Swiss Air, no reason given, just cancelled. So we had to rebook the flight, and in doing so, our flight plan changed, and we no longer had the layover in Copenhagen. We called Disney to cancel the hotel and return our points to our account, and we’re told that we did not have the option to get the points back, we just lost them. 50+ points, gone. No refund, no ability to rebook with them at another location, just gone. This trip is six months away! There is plenty of time for the hotel to re-book the room. This is a Disney policy, not a hotel policy.
‘Just wanted to let others know, that if they book a hotel using Disney DVC points, if you cancel, for any reason, you will lose those points. They are not able to be used to book something elsewhere, within the allotted time frame, they are just gone.
Does anyone have any information about this that we may be missing? We are going by the information provided by the DVC person we spoke with.

UPDATE: I called DVC to confirm that the points were truly gone, and it turns out they are not. They do not go back into your banked points, or will not show up on dashboard showing they are still there to be used, but they live on in the Hotel Exchange system info and are able to be retrieved and used when rebooking another hotel Within the allotted time frame.
I am so glad I called back for clarification. We specifically asked about the points being gone totally, as it didn’t seem correct, and the person we talked to when cancelling reservation either didn’t understand what we were asking or didn’t know. Here’s to booking future travel!

 

[Disbound]

Thank you to everyone for your help and guidance! Disboards people never disappoint!

 

[Cfabar1]

Watching the old videos from the 90s, it appears when the points exchange options first began they were really amazing, and maybe not too expensive either - It sounds like you could take 2 trips a year - one in a 1 BR, and one in a studio to OKW, plus get about 2 nights at a good hotel.

The partners they used to have were very strong too - Plaza Hotel, Woodstock Inn, Mackinac Grand Hotel.

I wonder when it started getting worse, maybe when they switched to RCI?

Now you can only use interval exchanges, which are not considered to be a strong use of DVC points.