Booking Non home resort at 7 month window

[Beckyb3]

Hi. I am used to waiting until the last minute to book and pretty much finding anything that is available. I am trying to get ahead a little and plan our Feb trip though I am already too late to book my home resorts which are Poly and Boardwalk except of course for a Bungalow which is too many points for us. The time period I am looking at is over President's Day weekend and spring break so it's busy. The availability across resorts already drastically went down from when I looked at it right before the work was done on the site and now to the point where there aren't a ton of resorts showing availability for that week any longer. Initially I was thinking of waiting until the full time was available and booking. Now I am wondering if I should at least book the first two days that I am eligible to book since that is actually President's Day weekend and will likely book up. My question is, if I book before I have banked this year's points, number one will that affect which points are used (ie will the booking be locked into next year's points and can't change to whatever I bank from this year) and number two, if I wind up cancelling, I only need to use by the end of next year's use year not this one because the travel is for next year right? I am a December use year. For reference I don't want to bank this year's points yet because I am still trying to get a reservation for Nov for two nights so I am waiting until the last moment to bank in the hopes I can get that reservation. Any advice would be much appreciated as I have not yet gotten too adept at using my DVC points even though I have been a DVC member for a few years.

 

[wnielsen1]

Book what you can now for Feb. It will use your Dec 2021 UY points (the points for 12/1/21 to 11/30/22). If you end up banking your current Dec 2020 UY points (which you have to do by 7/31), you can then modify your Feb reservation - go through the entire modification process without changing dates or anything - and it will reallocate and pull your banked points first. Just make sure you do this at least 31 days before check-in date so you don't inadvertently put points into holding.