No one likes to cancel a DVC trip, but sometimes it just has to be done. Short of canceling a trip on your check-in date (in which case you would lose all the points used to make that reservation), usually all is not lost. Here’s what happens to your DVC points when you cancel a vacation, depending on what type of points you used to make the reservation and when you cancel the trip.
Current Use Year Points
If you are at least 31 days out from your check-in date when you cancel the trip, and you used points from your current Use Year, the points are simply returned to the current Use Year. You can still bank them as long as you have not surpassed your banking deadline. For example, if you have a February Use Year, your banking deadline is September 30. Should you cancel a trip in June at least 31 days out from your check-in date, those points can either be used until the end of this Use Year (January 30, 2025) or banked before September 30, 2024.
If you are under 31 days out from your trip when you cancel, those points will go into holding. This means that you can only use those points to make a reservation 60 days out or less from your new check-in date. For instance, at the time I am writing this blog, it’s June 24, 2024. If I had holding points, I could make a reservation to check-in today through August 23, 2024 (60 days from today). Holding points will expire at the end of the Use Year and cannot be banked.
Banked or Borrowed Points
Since banking and borrowing are final transactions, any banked or borrowed points from a canceled trip stay in the Use Year they were moved into. That is, if I borrowed points from 2025 for a trip in 2024, they would remain in 2024. Going along with my February Use Year example above, this means that the borrowed points would need to be used by January 30, 2025. Because these points were already borrowed, they cannot be banked. As with current Use Year points, any banked or borrowed points from a trip that is canceled under 31 days out from check in would become holding points.
Transfer Points
Transfer points work similarly to current Use Year points, but it’s important to remember that they retain their original Use Year, even if it doesn’t match yours. For instance, if you have a February Use Year, but you transfer in points with an April Use Year, you would have until November 30, 2024 to bank those points (the April Use Year deadline). If you cancel a trip at least 31 days out, they can be banked if their banking deadline has not yet passed. Otherwise, transfer points from a canceled trip need to be used before the end of the Use Year.
One-Time-Use Points
You can purchase up to 24 one-time-use points from Member Services at the 7-month mark or under for $20 per point. If you cancel a trip that was reserved with one-time-use points at least 31 days out, they will return to the current Use Year. Note that one-time-use points can’t be banked, borrowed, or transferred, so you have to make sure you use them before they expire.
Holding Points
If you used holding points to book a trip and then canceled again, the same holding rules would still apply to those points. In addition, those points would still expire at the end of the Use Year since holding points can’t be banked into a future Use Year.
Should you find yourself with points that are about to expire soon after you cancel your trip, check out Amy’s article on options for expiring points for some great tips!
