How long to cancel a ressie? Experienced DVCers, please help?

[mikesmom]

We've only been members since July, so I haven't quite got the hang of the reservations.

How close can you be to a reserved travel date to cancel a reservation and not lose the points or be penalized? Here's the situation... We (self, DH and DS)joined DVC in July, buying 200 points at BWV. When sellout seemed imminent we bought another 100 points there.

My first trip as a member was this Jan 2-5, just me and DS, as sort of a bonding thing. We had a GREAT time. Because we had not decided to go on the trip 'til October, we had to really jerry-rig the ressies, ending up with 1 nite at OKW and 2 nites at BWV. We have a family trip reserved for late May and a short trip (just me and DH) in November for the Food & Wine festival.

We had SUCH a good trip in January (the teenager actually TALKED!!!), not only because of WDW, but family time away from his buddies, that I'd like to plan another trip next January. It should be easier to plan, because DS is starting college in the fall and will have a much longer Christmas break - as much as 6 weeks, so we could be very flexible. When I asked him about it, though, he sort of blew it off. I guess he thinks he'll be too old to want to go to WDW. I wouldn't want to push him, but I really suspect as the time gets closer he'll change his mind and wish he'd said yes.And by then, it may be too late to get a room. So, here's the deal.. if I make a reservation for 1st week of January and I find he REALLY doesn't want to go, how late could I cancel without losing the points?

Thanks all.

 

[drusba]

Here are the general rules;

1. If you cancel 31 or more days before date of arrival points go back into your account and regular rules apply for future ressies.

2. If you cancel 30 days or less before date of arrival, all points go into a "holding" account and you (a) must use them all by the end of your use year, and (b) can only use them to make ressies 60 days or less before arrival.

3. Likely you will know all you need to know by 31 days out so you will likely avoid above. However, the real issue becomes use of points and possible banking if you cancel 31 days or more out. Don't know when your use year is, but if you cancel, and at time of cancellation you are already beyond your allowed banking dates for the points, you will not be able to bank them--they will need to be used before end of use year. Likewise if you "borrow" any points when reserving that trip, your cancellation does not cancel the "borrowing." Points once borrowed remain borrowed and must be used by end of the current use year.

 

[PamOKW]

As drusba stated, the only real problem could be your Use Year. In fact, the only time Use Year comes into play is when you need to cancel.

If you are past your banking deadlines and also within 60 days of the end of your Use Year when you actually cancel you won't be able to use your points for anything but a DVC resort reservation.