Points/Booking

[wdwdreamin]

My DH & I are considering purchasing DVC and I have a question I haven't seen addressed anywhere and never thought to ask before. If, for example, we wanted to make a reservation now for a trip later in the year and our UY is somewhere in between, say April in this example, how does that work regarding available points? Not taking any banking/borrowing options into account, do the current UY points already need to be available at the time of the booking or not until the time of the actual trip?

We're hoping to take a family trip in 2009 and in order to make sure we have enough points at the right time are trying to figure out when we first need to purchase our points and what use year might work best for us.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

Use Year has nothing to do with making a reservation. As long as you will have access to the needed points at the time of the reservation, the only restrictions are the 11 month priority for Home Resort or 7 months for other resorts.

You can always make a home resort reservation 11 months ahead as long as you will have enough points thru banking, borrowing and any points coming from the Use Year current at the time of the reservation you want.

Enjoy!

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Use year menas nothing for when you can book a trip. You can always do so 11 months in advance at your home resort and anytime after 7 months at all of the others.

If you have an April use year and want to go in May of 2008. You could call in June 2007 and at that time they would use your 2008 points since the reservation begins after your new use year.

HBC

 

[wdwdreamin]

Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly (it gets so confusing) as long as we will have points available on our actual trip dates, it makes no difference if there are none available when I actually call for the reservation.

This gets so complicated--based on what we want to do in 2009, we would probably need the prior years banked points, the current points, and borrow a little from the following year in order to have enough. It would be easier if we just bought more points to start with, I know, but we probably wouldn't have need for that many after this one big trip, not to mention we have a somewhat limited budget.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly (it gets so confusing) as long as we will have points available on our actual trip dates, it makes no difference if there are none available when I actually call for the reservation.

You've got it! As long as you will have points available at the time of the reservation, they may be committed in advance when the reservation is made.

Enjoy!

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly (it gets so confusing) as long as we will have points available on our actual trip dates, it makes no difference if there are none available when I actually call for the reservation.

You've got it. This is one of the most misunderstood things about DVC point use.

HBC

 

[wdwdreamin]

Thank you! That's just what I wanted to hear! I just wanted to make sure that wouldn't be considered borrowing, since as I said, we will probably have to borrow a bit beyond the current year anyway.

I think we are starting to get close to making our decision of what to buy and I'm trying to make sure we'll be able to do what we want to in 2009. If there is anything else I need to know about this topic I would welcome any other information. I've read tons of info on the DVC, but I'm sure there's stuff I've missed or not thought to check on, and the whole use year, banking, and borrowing subject seems to be the most confusing aspect of it all.