another question... cancellation policy

[mjlass11]

I tried searching the forum for the answer to this but couldn't find the answer. What is DVCs cancellation policy? Do you pay a penalty/lose your points? Is there a difference how far in advance you cancel? Is it better to make a reservation 7-11 months in advance and have to cancel when it's closer or take a chance in not staying at your preferred resort? Thanks in advance.

 

[GusMan]

You can cancel before 30 or more days in advance of your arrival date. Points will be returned to your available pool of points usable within your current use year. There are a few other considerations, but that is it in a nutshell.

After that, they go into a holding account which means that you must use them in the current use year but cannot make reservations more than 60 days in advance.

If you cancel on the day of arrival, you forfeit your points used for that vacation.

IMO: It is better to book early and cancel as late as possible if need be.

 

[crisi]

The catch is that points must be used in your current use year or banked by your deadline.

So say that your use year is April and you plan a May trip using this year points. You cancel more than 30 days out and life is pretty cool. You can bank those points anytime in the next several months (after you get them in April) or schedule a trip later in the year.

Now lets say your use year is December and you plan an October trip. You cancel the October trip more than 30 days out - but can't travel in September. You now have until November 30ths to travel or lose your points - the banking deadline is passed so you can't bank them. And your chances of getting a short notice room in October or November are not great.

 

[Caskbill]

There are no $$$ fees to cancel a DVC-Reservation.

All points are considered 'used' on check-in day, so if you don't check-in at all, or you check-in but leave early, you have still 'used' all those points for that reservation No points are returned.

As mentioned, if you cancel 30 days or less, points go into a holding account.

If you cancel more than 30 days ahead, points are returned, but retain the status they originally had. Thus is they were banked points, or borrowed points, they remain with that status and remain in the use year they were banked/borrowed into. Since banked or borrowed points cannot be moved to any other use year, you would need to use them before the end of the use year, or they would be lost.

Returned regular use year points could be banked if within banking deadlines.

Keep in mind all of the above only pertains to using points to make a DVC-Resort reservation. If points are used to make a non-DVC resort reservation, cancellation policies are different.

 

[Mtnman44]

Just to clarify:

Cancelled Reservations return the points to the Use Year that the Reservation was in. This may or may not be the current UY you are in when you actually cancel the reservation. This all depends on what UY you have, when you cancel, and when the reservation is.