ARGH -- use year, huh?

[Emrys]

k, so I know we wanna buy. I've been researching this stuff for years, but I still don't understand the use year thing. If we want to travel in say, feb/march and then oct/nov, what would be our best use year? I've never cancelled a vacation in my life. I, personally have gone just about every year for the past 5+ years. So we would start going twice a year, or upgrade the room, or maybe transfer to some other RCI (I think it's RCI?) resort. Point is, I plan on taking two luxurious vacations a year for the rest of my life

Should we go with a feb use year, so that if we need to cancel, we can and still have points for the end of the prior year? (oct/nov/dec)? I have no problem making reservations as soon as possible. I've never been the type to say "We're going to Disney next month". It's always been at least 6-8 months in advance. If we had a vested stake in making reservation sooner or whatever, that would be fine.

I plan on definitely doing a re-sale for between 160-200 points. It looks like, for the most part, we are gonna have to take a punt for the first year, but, after that, it should be smooth sailing.

Any thoughts? I know there is tons of information in these boards, but I'm trying to wade my way through and it just keeps getting more confusing at every thread.

/me goes to search some more

Thanks!

 

[disneynutz]

If you should have to cancel, (never say never) you can't bank your points during the last 4 months of your UY. So you want to pick a UY where you will never travel during the last 4 months.

Bill

 

[Emrys]

So it sounds like maybe September / October would be prime, as I would never travel May / June / July / August.

 

[chalee94]

oct is your best bet. sept would also work.

the banking deadline for feb is sept 30...not ideal if you need to cancel your nov reservations over a month out.

remember that UY has nothing at all to do with when you can call to book. it's only an issue if you need to cancel.

there is more info about UY here if you need it:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1942668

 

[ToddyLu]

There is an understanding UY sticky at the top of one of the DVC forums.

UY is just the month that you will receive your points. You want a UY just before you typically travel. So for you an Oct or Sept UY would be good. That way if you didn't make one of your fall/winter reservations you would still have a bit of time to do something with those points.

Take us for example... we love going Oct-Dec also. We have a DEC UY--not ideal--because if I made a reservation for Halloween, then something happened and we cancelled. We would have already passed our banking deadline of 7/31--those points would go into HOLDING and I would have to use them before 11/30 or the end of my UY. So that only gives us like four weeks to make a trip, before losing points since we are past our banking deadline..

But DEC UY does work out for us because DH is a fireman. He picks his vacation every year in Dec for the following year. Each Dec I know the exact dates we will be travelling so I can make our reservations at the 11 month mark knowing/guaranteeing the dates. Now this has nothing to do with when we book.....but if we want to travel in May of 2012, I won't know the dates until Dec 2011--6 months ahead. So it really is a good UY for me because each Dec I get my points and can also know my vacation dates for the coming year. I get the best fall planning that way and can book sure dates for the coming, following year vacation.

 

[Emrys]

Cool... That makes sense now. I'll start to look towards October re-sales

Thanks!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I'd be looking for a good September or October resale. Either one will be fine. Even August would work if you found a good deal.

 

[CarolMN]

I'd be looking for a good September or October resale. Either one will be fine. Even August would work if you found a good deal.

OP - If you think you might ever want to add on to your contract, consider that there are more points in the August use year than in either the September or October use years.

An August use year would work just fine for your stated travel pattern. Even if you had to cancel a March trip, you'd still have time to bank the points.

Check out this post by wdrl:

Distribution of Points by Use Year by Resort

It's true that many here own multiple contracts with different use years. But it's also a lot easier to manage multiple contracts if they have the same use year.

Good luck!