Can you help clear this up for me?

[desamnik]

We are going to buy 200 points on re-sale probably within the next 2 months.

I am not sure what "use year" would work for us. We would use most of the points the end of November, and a few in May.

Do you have to have the points available when you book the vacation, or can you book knowing the points are coming?

Thanks, I hope I can get this , cause I just can seem to understand the significance of use year.

 

[Caskbill]

A couple of things:
1: Use Year has no meaning unless you have to cancel a reservation. Then and only then it can be important as the points returned may or may not be able to be banked due to the Use Year of the points used.

2. Normally the best use year is shortly before your normal vacation dates.

In your case there is no single use year that works best because you have vacation dates 6 months apart.

If your primary vacations will be in November, then a November UY would work well, but unfortunately there are no November Use Years. (There are 8 Use Year months: Feb, Mar, Apr, Jun, Aug, Sep, Oct, Dec)

So you would want an October Use Year. That would work well for your November vacations. But if you made a reservation for May, and cancelled it in April, you would be into your 50% banking window. If you cancelled it in March you'd still be in your 100% window.

Booking is independent of Use Year and Use Year month. You book at 11 months (home resort) or 7-months (non-home resort) regardless of your use year. The only impact is what year the points would come from.

EG You own an October UY and book a November 2007 vacation. Those points would come from your 2007 allotment. But someone who has a December use year and books a November 2007 reservation, would use points from their 2006 Use Year allotment.

In either case, both of you could call as early as December 2006 to make that same November 2007 reservation. (assuming it was home resort for both of you)

Hope this helps

 

[desamnik]

I see you've been an OKW member for quite some time. Dh and I are staying there in 3 weeks, for a long weekend. This will be our first time at that resort. I am looking forward to it.

I didn't realize there were 8 and not 12 use years.

Again, thanks.