Think we made a big mistake RE: UY

[crisi]

A June UY would work fine for Oct/Nov reservations.

Where UY becomes an issue is if you have to cancel a reservation...AND that cancellation occurs after your banking deadline (Jan 31, for June). That will not occur with fall reservations and a June UY.

It could happen for a Spring vacation. If you made an April reservation, for example, and then had to cancel after Jan 31, you would not be able to bank those points. They would become "use or lose" and you'd have to use them by May 30.

To expand on Jim's point, for reservations really close to the end of your use year, where if you had to cancel, you probably would find yourself unable to use your points, you can buy travel insurance through DVC or on your own that will cover some of the loss (I think just dues on points, we've never bought insurance).

Another option, if this happens is not to cancel your reservation, but rent it out on the rent trade board - you won't get top dollar for it, but you can cover your dues and then maybe use that money towards a cash trip.

 

[dcfromva]

We just got back from a 2 week vacation at VWL. Nov. 24 - Dec. 8th. With our December use year & crossing use years, we did blow our 4 year point allocation, but it was so worth it! We had only one ressie & reservation # for our 1 bdrm villa.

That is awesome! There are so many ways to use points.
Question though, did you make your ressie with member services? Every time I try to make a ressie that spans two UY's, I get an error message from the online system. Or, did you make two ressies and link them?

 

[twinmom108]

That is awesome! There are so many ways to use points.
Question though, did you make your ressie with member services? Every time I try to make a ressie that spans two UY's, I get an error message from the online system. Or, did you make two ressies and link them?

Yes ressie done through member services 800#. I started at 11 months out with one week which was all in November, then tried to add a December day each day while crossing the use year. The 1st 3 days in December were added without too much trouble, after that MS seemed to be having trouble. It took about another 2 weeks to get it all straightened out. When all was said & done we had just one reservation & ressie # for the 1brm for the entire 2weeks. We NEVER had 2 ressie #'s that were linked although MS ended up totally changing the original reservation #. The online system is relatively new & was not available when I booked. I'm pretty sure that if you are crossing UY's you do need to actually talk with someone in MS on the 800 phone #.

 

[csharpwv]

We have a mental burp every now and then - we have a December use year - so we forget sometimes.... you'd think after being members since 2008 we would have learned..... but no....we haven't....

anyway.... we forget sometimes that our 2012 points are the points we will ACTUALLY use in 2013.... and the points we used in 2011 were actually the points from 2010.....

We forget that since our UY starts in December.... that we are always a year behind in terms of UY.

So, OP - I feel your pain - it can be a pain to keep it all straight!

If you'd ever tried to tell someone about DVC, you feel a little silly for the first few minutes until you get them to understand that that points are nothing like loyalty point.... and you get NEW points every year... and you only buy your points once.... but you can add on later - and even though you only pay once.... you still have to pay MF's every year.....

It can get very confusing! It takes DW and I together to keep things straight - especially when it comes to using points from one resort to book at another - but NOT using points from our HHI contract so we can book at 11 months.... OR renting points, and trying to remember to keep one contract intact so we can rent if we want - and not use points from multiple accounts HAHA SEE how confusing it CAN be?

Then there was the 85 point contract that we bought at Saratoga - and the points were ALL mess up on that account when made an offer on the account - they had to check the account several times to figure out exactly what had been done - reservation points, a few points in holding, a few points borrowed - the previous owners broke every rule coming and going, and two years in it was finally totally straightened out, and we never lost a single point... but it caused us to put point in hold in another contract... BUT we made it work out! HAHA

That's one thing I love about buying a really loaded resale contract - you can use up banked points and keep the account in good shape without having to borrow right away like you do with a stripped contract.

Anyway - good luck keeping things straight!