Is there precedent around points refunds because of park closure?

I know it still sounds a bit reactionary, but with my trip coming in 3 weeks and seeing news of all the Asian park’s gates being closed (including Tokyo now), I was curious if there has ever been a situation where DVC points were refunded due to closure.

Of course, I’m renting points so I’d probably be out of luck, but I thought I’d put it out there. Hopefully everything will be fine!

I believe they have refunded owners and given them so flexibility with those points during hurricanes. I think it is a good question. I have a trip I am hoping to go on in April and I have rented out some points to someone in June .

2 Likes

So i believe they will try to be flexible but your DVC points are for the resort room and properties… not the park. I think in the case of hurricanes they have helped with rebookings or adjustments if access to the resort itself was changed. But I am not aware of them refunding points for occupied rooms.
I would recommend travel insurance but even that probably wont help if you had access to and occupied the room but not the parks.

This is the official hurricane policy:

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/faq/pre-arrival-checklist/hurricane-policy/

I believe @nnunnelly, your question is regarding what will happen if Disney closes the US parks (and resorts)?

It seems as if the resorts are staying open while the parks are closed in a Tokyo? This speaks of the refunds being offered in Tokyo

It’s probably a silly question, since…who knows what will happen. But, yes.

1 Like

I don’t think it is silly at all. Tokyo is closed now and there are reports that DL Paris might be next?

3 Likes

Wouldn’t this be a similar situation if coronavirus shut down the parks?

My understanding is that hurricanes affect travel to and from WDW. People who are there can’t leave in a hurricane so Disney doesn’t really want more people coming down to the resorts. Therefor, it makes sense to remove restrictions on the DVC cancellation policy; ie, they will let DVC members cancel their bookings a few days in advance without going to a Holding Account.

Of course this policy doesn’t protect renters of DVC points.

I think this is a highly relevant question. My family is in the same situation. We have a WDW trip scheduled for late May with a DVC point rental.
Also, we just became DVC owners with 2019 points…

If you are occupying a room there is a cost. access to the parks is not guaranteed via your DVC costs. Again they may try and accommodate in some way - cancellation and your points, rescheduling, etc.

It seems at Tokyo all refunds were automatic but that is cash not points.

My feeling is they might allow points to be returned to the use year they came from in the event of a cancellation, if the parks were closed. I think they’d wave holding too.

After that, I don’t know. I think if you’d already banked points, those would probably just expire. DVC might allow people to bank points past the normal deadline. The problem there though is that there would be a huge number of extra points in the next use year, so there could be an almighty scramble for rooms. So you may well end up losing points anyway if you weren’t able to rebook before they expired.

For those renting, I would hope that if the owner was to get their points back, that they would refund.

Yeah, I am going to start to worry about this. My points are all messed up this year because we added the April Copper Creek stay (borrowed a few August 20 points) and I rented out BW points and added a few 20 points. I potentially could lose points.

Same boat I rented points back in October for poly for early May through DVC rental store, opted out of points protection plan in favor of traditional travel insurance which as I now understand won’t cover corona virus related closures. I also added a dining plan which is already paid for, The contract I signed basically said non refundable for any reason. But this is so unprecedented. I would hope I could at least get refunded for dining plan if everything is closed!

I would also hope that DVC rental will reach out to owners if needed. I will lose the points I rented. I rented them because there was no way I was going to use them, but I also borrowed points to complete the reservation for the guest. If Disney closes and gives me flexibility with those points, I personally would refund my payment .

2 Likes

Dusting this thread off again. As someone who rented points for a trip in 9 days, I was curious if any owners have heard anything from Disney about options.

I know I’m probably out of luck as a renter, but if owners get options, perhaps I’ll be able to work something out.

I am still looking for my points next month. I am hoping the person I rented points to in June will be ok.

I was told yesterday that owners were still told that cancellations under 30 days would put those points in holding. That might change but it hasn’t as of yesterday?

1 Like

Lots of chatter right now with people who have called DVC about cancelling.

Sounds like they are looking at each case, but many have reported:

  • Waiving points being put into holding

  • Returning borrowed points to the next use year

Not seen posts about banking points from a cancelled reservation beyond the deadline, but it does seem like they’re looking at each case.

Definitely phone them if you’re having to cancel.

2 Likes

This does not impact me, but I’m curious as to what this means.

If you cancel within 30 days of your check-in date, the points go into holding.

They can only be used to book a reservation that starts 60 days or less ahead, and they expire at the end of the use year.

So let’s say I have a use year of October, so my points expire on the 30th September.
I have a reservation booked for April 10th - 18th.
And I cancel now. Those points go into holding.

I can go online today and book a stay starting no later than May 11th. Or on May 3rd, I can book something starting no later than July 2nd. But I need to use those points by Sept 30th or I lose them.

1 Like