help on use year decision, please!

[cswans]

Well, I'm looking hard at DVC after lurking on the boards for 18 months! If our family typically vacations January or May, what would be a good use year in case we needed to make a cancellation after the banking deadline? Ie, what is a good use year for Jan, what is a good one for May? If someone could illustrate this actually using real months for an explanation, I'd really appreciate it! Using May 2003 for a desired vacation, when would I want to have a use year?

Thanks so much!

 

[drusba]

December would be ideal, October would be OK in relation to the cancellation issue (there is no November use year).

You have until the end of your 6th month in the use year to bank all your points.

Assume a December use year which means you get 2002 points in Dec 2002 and those points are good from Dec 1, 2002 to Dec 1, 2003 and thus are your regular points for that May 2003 trip. March 2003 comes around and you have to cancel. Result: still plenty of time to use the points by Dec 2003 or bank them into the the Dec 2003 to Dec 2004 use year.

Now assume a June use year and you schedule that May 2003 trip. Your regular points for that trip are those in effect from June 1, 2002 to June 1, 2003. March 2003 comes along and you have to cancel. Result, you are beyond that 6 month banking date for all points and points need to be used up by end of May 2003.

Thus Dec would be fine to cover both Jan and May trips. Oct would be fine too but you would need to bank all points by end of March.

 

[cswans]

Drusba, your answer made perfect sense! Thanks for using the real world example. I had tried working it out for myself and gotten very confused, plus getting the wrong answer! Merci beaucoups!