Does the month matter?

[CBRorBust]

Just starting the initial research for buying a resale for my parents. They go to WL in early December every 2-3 years for one week. When shopping for resales, does the month the points come up again matter at all? If so, knowing that there is a 99% chance they will continue this December trend, what month(s) would be most appealing for their purchase? Or does it even matter?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

This thread on Understanding Use Year should help a lot in understanding. Essentially choosing the best UY that you travel at the start of or early in will provided a sort of insurance against last minute cancellations. Otherwise a UY doesn't affect booking or use of your membership. If your parents were to always travel in Dec a Dec UY will typically be the best but Sept or Oct would be fine too.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/understanding-use-year-updated-january-2-2015.1942668/

 

[suebeelin]

If you're looking to travel in December, Id recommend a use year 1-3 months before your anticipated trip.

I don't believe it matters when the points come in (you just need to use them before they expire if they are banked). The use year is insurance for your trip should you need to cancel. You will not lose those points and can bank or rebook and have many more months to do that.

 

[chalee94]

If your parents were to always travel in Dec a Dec UY will typically be the best

the only exception would be if some "early december" trips start at the end of november, you would not want a dec UY. sept and oct would be safer...

 

[Minniesgal]

Actually we travel in August and I really like having an August UY. We often have a few points left over from the UY below and use those if we start the last couple of days in July. Then we can bank and borrow over 3 UYs for August if need be.

This works really well for us as we travel from the UK. We also own VGC points and travel only every other year and only like to go West ever other trip i.e. once every four years. If we do California first an levee about the 27th july we can use 4 years points for VGC and not have to worry about having VGC points to use up the trip we don't go west. We do the same with our VGF points the following trip use 4 years points July and August.

Works well for us.

 

[Dean]

the only exception would be if some "early december" trips start at the end of november, you would not want a dec UY. sept and oct would be safer...

Agreed if the Nov would be fairly routine but not if it's not.

UY does matter though more for some than others. For those where it doesn't, they are simply taking more risk in general and need to consider that as basically an increased cost of owning. If they might rarely start in Nov, I'd still do a Dec UY if possible. For high demand resorts where it's difficult to find a contract, backing up a couple of months to say as early as August is reasonable. Remember it's insurance in case something happens or they need to cancel. For them as described, UY is likely worth at least one years points, maybe more.

 

[DVC Doctor]

There are lots of opinions on this one, but I can say in my 10+ years of membership, the use year has never affected me at all.

The only time I think it really comes into play is if you book a reservation and need to cancel it - you may not have very much tome to use your points before they expire. However, this really would be significant to anyone that ONLY will vacation around the same months for the next 40+ years.

 

[supersnoop]

The only time I think it really comes into play is if you book a reservation and need to cancel it - you may not have very much tome to use your points before they expire. However, this really would be significant to anyone that ONLY will vacation around the same months for the next 40+ years.

It's also important if you're trying to book anything near the end of your use year. I've seen many people with waitlists that will free up some points, but then those points couldn't be banked and would end up expiring.

If you never cancel or change your reservations, then it doesn't matter. But any changes late in the year put your points at risk.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

However, this really would be significant to anyone that ONLY will vacation around the same months for the next 40+ years.

It doesn't have to be quite that specific in order to be helpful. If you travel within the banking window you will have some protection so that's 8 (or even 9) months. Another way to look at it is if you have a time in the year you know you are unlikely to ever want to travel to FL (for us that's summer) then don't buy a UY that starts just before that time but instead starts after it. And if you have a specific time of year you travel then you can plan around that. We've had to cancel/change reservations twice that were last minute due to deaths in the family. That's not something you can plan around and because of our UY's we weren't scrambling to not lose points. IMO it's definitely worthwhile to make the best choice possible for UY. It may not ever matter or may not work for the entire life of the contract but one might as well give it some attention when making their first purchase.

 

[Dean]

There are lots of opinions on this one, but I can say in my 10+ years of membership, the use year has never affected me at all.

The only time I think it really comes into play is if you book a reservation and need to cancel it - you may not have very much tome to use your points before they expire. However, this really would be significant to anyone that ONLY will vacation around the same months for the next 40+ years.

It essentially acts as insurance. The odds of a given person needing it are moderately low but real even in the safest situation.