Another use year question. seeking advice

[Gmilligan]

We are looking at resale. We travel either in May August Sept or october. What would be the best use year?

 

[lisa3635]

I think February would be good in our situation becuase if you had to cancel one of your trips you would still have until October 31 to bank. March would work too since you'd cancel want to cancel 31 days out ot avoid holding points.

 

[lions1995]

Yep, February or March would be the perfect UY.

 

[drusba]

Usual advice is to get use year that begins shortly before time you usually go. With possible trips from May to Sep, the ideal use years for you in order of preference would be April, March, February (May would have been first but there is no May use year). The worst use years would be Oct, Sep, Aug, and June (there is no July use year)The choice has nothing to do with when you can go (any time of year) or when you can call to reserve (always 11 months out for home resort and 7 at others). It has to do with risk of cancellation and then being able to bank points within the eighth month banking window if you have to cancel, so generally the above advice relates to a secondary issue.

 

[ToddyLu]

DH has to plan vacation a year in advance..in December. We travel in October, November and December ( I am working on May trips, too). We have a Dec UY...terrible choice for us due to our travel pattern if we ever needed to cancel a reservation. So if we had to cancel our up coming Oct 2012 trip (10/26-11/2) with in 31 days of the vacation I would have until the end of the UY Nov 30 to use those points--not a lot of time to reschedule at all--especially at that time of year.

We haven't had to cancel a reservation.

When we purchased our points I didn't understand UY and would have requested a different one due to all the fall trips we make. However, December UY works OK for May--if I cancel that trip I have until 7/31 to bank those points and then reschedule later in the year.

It would be nice if Guides talked to you about your travel plans and then made recommendations based on that so you could get the best UY. They don't--his goal was to sell me Dec since that is the most abundant UY available at AKV....

 

[Gmilligan]

Thanks. We are looking for a April use year resale on AKV but have not been able to find it with the amount of points we want.

 

[DopeysGal82]

Hijacking, please!



Our preferred time to travel is October-Dec. We have an August UY. To me that sounds good, but I don't have the best handle yet on banking and cancellation. I understand intellectually how it works, but not in a practical sense.

I think it works bc for example, my 2011 points can be banked forward on March 31 and I can use them for an October trip. After our fall travel is done, we have until March 31, 2013 to bank forward any unused 2012 points, and if we cancel a trip, we won't be close enough to UY end to lose the points, do I have that right?

So an August UY would only be bad if I tended to travel between March and July, I think, right?

Although we are planning a May 2012 trip and a Feb 2013 trip...in addtion to our previously planned Oct trip.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who find this kind of confusing. I have a few days to change still, and I'm sure if I told them I need to change the UY or cancel, they'd change the UY.

Thoughts?

 

[chalee94]

I think it works bc for example, my 2011 points can be banked forward on March 31 and I can use them for an October trip. After our fall travel is done, we have until March 31, 2013 to bank forward any unused 2012 points, and if we cancel a trip, we won't be close enough to UY end to lose the points, do I have that right?

your 2011 pts are valid from aug 1, 2011 to july 31, 2012.

you can bank those 2011 pts at any time from aug 1, 2011 through march 31, 2012.

if you bank them, they will be valid for stays from aug 1, 2012 to july 31, 2013.

so long as the pts are valid for a stay during the period you want to book, you can call 11 months ahead at the resort where the points have a home resort advantage, or 7 months ahead at other DVC resorts.

So an August UY would only be bad if I tended to travel between March and July, I think, right?

Although we are planning a May 2012 trip and a Feb 2013 trip...in addtion to our previously planned Oct trip.

if you cancel a may trip more than 30 days in advance, you'll avoid the pts turning into "holding pts" which are more limited and difficult to use (and cannot be banked). but if you cancel after march 31, you still won't be able to bank the pts ahead. the pts will expire on july 31 - so you'd have to book and complete a stay by that date to avoid losing pts.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who find this kind of confusing. I have a few days to change still, and I'm sure if I told them I need to change the UY or cancel, they'd change the UY.

no UY month will cover everything. at some point - if you travel at all different parts of the year - you'll just have to take your chances. but if there is a 3-4 month period that you are sure you would never travel during, then go ahead and change your UY month if you prefer.