is it better to have a Sep or Oct use year if you only like to travel in October?

[disneyberry]

i need to make sure i'm understanding use year, banking, reservations, and cancelling, etc.
the following is an example. can anyone give me their answers and reasonings for the 2 questions below?
thank you!


is an April use year bad if you only like to travel in April? why, or why not?

is an April use year bad if you only like to travel in October? why, or why not?




(NOTE: the topic of this thread was changed to reflect the direction this thread has gone in... see my last post below)

 

[RobDoc]

Use Year is merely the month when your points are renewed each year. It has nothing to do when you may make a reservation, but it does determine your banking deadlines.

The only other consideration, IMO, for Use Year is in the event of a cancellation. If you should need to cancel a reservation, your Use Year will dictate whether you will be able to bank those points and when they will have to be used.

April would be an excellent Use Year for travelling during the month of April- since should you need to cancel, you will still have until the following March 31 to use the points and adequate time to use banking deadlines.

April would also work for October travel, but you won't have as long to use the points and would have to bank the points in a timely fashion. A September Use Year might work better for October trips.

If you will not be likely to cancel a trip, Use Year is merely the month when your poins are renewed each year.

Enjoy!

 

[Dean]

I agree with Doc, the closer to your usualy trips your use year is, the less risk you have with a cancellation issue. Otherwise it doesn't matter. For April and Oct, April would be the best. If it's mostly October trips, August or September might be better choices. If you're looking resale, I wouldn't put a lot of concern in this area UNLESS you are likely to have to make cancellations within 2-3 months of your travel.

 

[PamOKW]

An April Use Year works fine for April trips (as long as you won't be including any March days in your trip).

For October, it is okay but here's the consequences of a cancellation.

If you cancel your October trip before Sept. 30 (and more than 31 days before the start of your trip), your points will be returned to you with no penalties on their use. However, if you are using more than 50% of your total points for the trip and/or have already banked points that combined with these points will equal more than 50% of your total you will have to bank the points by September 31 to meet the 100% banking deadline. You can bank 50% up until December 31 and 25% until January 31.

A June Use Year would still work for the April trip and give you a little more leeway for the October trip.

 

[disneyberry]

Originally posted by Dean
If you're looking resale, I wouldn't put a lot of concern in this area UNLESS you are likely to have to make cancellations within 2-3 months of your travel.

yes, the reason i was thinking about use year was because of this... that last minute cancellations are a definite possibility. i would rather choose the use year carefully, so that i have a good chance to reuse, bank, or even rent the points if necessary.

If it's mostly October trips, August or September might be better choices.

i've consistently read things similar to this. that, if you travel a lot in one month, the best use year would be one month before your travel month. i.e. if you travel every October, you should get Sept use year.
which makes me wonder why March was not mentioned as a better alternative to an April use year, for April travel.

can someone explain: if you travel every April, why is a March use year better than an April use year?

i guess what i'm getting at is, for April travel, would an April use year be worse than a March use year? how much worse? worse in what way?

 

[disneyberry]

Originally posted by PamOKW However, if you are using more than 50% of your total points for the trip and/or have already banked points that combined with these points will equal more than 50% of your total you will have to bank the points by September 31 to meet the 100% banking deadline. You can bank 50% up until December 31 and 25% until January 31.

maybe it's 'cause i'm not quite awake yet... but i'm confused by this example.
i'm not sure i understand it.
are you saying that after cancelling the Oct trip last minute, you encounter the 100% banking deadline right away?
i was thinking that, if you were cancelling a trip, you were probably going to want to bank the points anyway...
what is the reasoning behind why this might be bad? (April use year for October travel)

 

[RobDoc]

March would be fine for an April trip, but wouldn't be as good when you consider travelling in October.

An April Use Year requires that you can bank up to 100% of your points before September 30 and only a maximum of 50% after that date.

Again, I wouldn't concentrate on THE best Use Year as many will work for your needs and Use Year is merely when your points are renewed each year.

I'll disagree with Pam's suggestion of a June Use Year since, if you were to cancel an April trip, you'd have to use those points before May 31 and may not be able to bank them.


To state it without regard to which months you'll travel- for cancellation concerns, it's best to have a use year the same month you'll travel or a few months prior.

 

[PamOKW]

I guess I'm not quite awake yet either. Doc is right. The June Use Year would not give you much leeway on an April trip.

It's difficult to pick an "ideal" Use Year when you are going to be traveling in time periods 6 months apart. And, it really isn't a concern unless you are going to cancel.

Another way to look at it would be "what is the worst". Doc is right. My suggestion of June is actually worst for April since the final banking deadline is March 31.

The worst for October would a December Use Year since the final banking deadline is September 30.

Beyond those two, your options are pretty open. March is "ideal" for April and September is "ideal" for October. April, August, September, October, and February are all workable.

Disneyberry looking at the October cancellation, there may not be such a big problem after all. If you cancel prior to September 30, you would be able to bank 100% of your points. If you cancel October 1 or later, you will be into your "less than 31 day period" and the points will go into Holding Account status any way. You can't bank these points no matter what the banking deadline.

It's not that necessary to try to figure out the ideal Use Year. Over the lifetime of your DVC experience, you may find yourself changing your vacation patterns and wishing you had a different Use Year. Pick something workable, but it doesn't have to "perfect".

 

[marley]

I have an April use Year and also only ever go on vacation in April and October.

The only time I've found it a problem is when we were considering a late March vacation this year and decided against doing that in case we had to cancel.

April is warmer anyways

 

[disneyberry]

okay... here's the biggest reason why i'm stressing myself out over the use year thing.

i guess, i'm most interested in travelling in Oct 'cause of F&W + MNSSHP. April is not as big a deal, and is actually kind of an arbitrary example i pulled out only because i've gone in April a few times before in the past.

so, if we're talking only October trips, that would be Sept or Oct use years would be "perfect".

Disney is doing MB now, but MB is only for use years w/in 6mo.
so, doesn't that mean, in order for me to get a Sept use year, i need to pick up the phone NOW and purchase?

if i wait till next week, it'll probably only be October use years, right?

so, i really want to know.... (i think my brain is just not functioning now 'cause i'm too stressed about whether i should call DVC ASAP to grab that Sept use year. )

what makes Sept a better use year than Oct? even if it's only slightly better, can someone please explain why?

thank you!

 

[CarolMN]

If you are going to mostly travel in October, I think October is a better use year than September. If you have to cancel your trip, you will have until Septmeber 30 of the following year to reschedule your trip OR you can bank all of your current year points if you do it before the end of March. If you have a September use year and travel in October, you would have until the end of August of the following year to reschedule your trip OR you could bank up to 100% of your annual allotment by the end of February.

Actually, either one would be just fine. In fact, if your usual travel time is October, August would work well, too.

If you really think you are going to have to cancel a lot of your trips, you might want to reconsider DVC. I think you will find it frustrating. JMHO.

 

[Dean]

If you're looking at Oct almost exclussively June, Aug, Sept or Oct would work. The advantage to Oct would be that you could stretch your 6 month window following almost to April, the same as you could the April for October trips. As long as you're within 6 months of the usual travel time you should do OK. If you have a secondary time, like the April in your example, sometimes it's better to take both times into account.

 

[disneyberry]

okay, so i don't really have to be in such a rush... just to try to get MB Sept use year. i can wait a little bit... see if by some miracle, a resale contract pops up somewhere that happens to be what i want (BWV or OKW)...

i just don't want to wait too long... 'cause MB would be my backup plan. i wonder how long MB of $10/pp will be offered for?

 

[lilkitty819]

I just got a post card stating that MB would be good till May..
Hope that helps...Good Luck.

 

[loveswdw]

We just put down our deposit on Sat. Our use year will be Sept. because we travel mostly between Sept.-Dec. If you are wanting to do MB and wanting a Sept. use year, you will want to buy quickly.

I had stated our preferred travel times and thought we wanted a June or Aug. use year but she said that in order to qualify for MB we would have to go with Sept. since June or August were already closer than 6 months out. I'm assuming it has to do with the banking deadlines.

We aren't taking our trip this year until Dec. so we didn't need any points until then. That was a big reason we did MB. We didn't need the points so it saved us $1,500. If you want an Oct. use year then you probably have more time. Check with your DVC guide to be sure. Our guide is Carol Ann DeAngelo and she's great!

Good luck!
loveswdw

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

If you think you will have to cancel on short notice and you are flexible one option would be to book closer to your trip. I recognize that's a problem with F&W and MNSSHP (having just gone through that agony) but you can put yourself on a waitlist for the days and location you want. The only reason I had a problem is because I booked one week and then airfare dictated that we change our plans to a week earlier (wasn't going during MNSSHP but airfare was higher in November) AND I wanted BCV. If I wasn't looking for a specific location I wouldn't have had a problem.

 

[Caskbill]

I think you understand that use year means absolutely nothing at all except for the (hopefully rare) case when you need to cancel a previous reservation. In that case your points are returned to you, and if you are past any of your banking deadlines you may have a problem using those points before they expire.

Make yourself a chart and just do some what ifs.
Here are some use year months, and their corresponding banking windows.

<b> Use Year.....100%.....50%.....25%</b>
March.......Aug 31.....Nov 30.....Dec 31
April.........Sep 30.....Dec 31.....Jan 31
June.........Nov 30.....Feb 28.....Mar 31
Sept.........Feb 28.....May 31.....Jun 30
Oct..........Mar 31.....Jun 30.......Jul 31

Keep in mind that any cancellation less than 31 days from the reservation puts your points in holding, not back into your account. So if you canceled less than 31 days out, that's a whole different ball game.

So let's say you had an Oct 15th reservation, and canceled it Sept 10th (about 35 days prior)

If you had a march UY you're already past your 100% banking window.
An April UY gives you about 20 days to bank your points (Sep 30)
A Sept UY gives you up to the following Feb 28th.

Now how important is the 100% window or the 50% window. Let's say you have a March UY and 200 points. You use 100 points in April, and make a reservation in October using the remaining 100 points. You cancel the October reservation on Sep 10th (per our example). You're past your 100% banking window but this doesn't matter. Your 100 point balance is only 50% of your total points, so the 50% window applies. Therefore you have until Nov 30th to bank those 100 points.

Hope this helps.

 

[Caskbill]

Disneyberry looking at the October cancellation, there may not be such a big problem after all. If you cancel prior to September 30, you would be able to bank 100% of your points. If you cancel October 1 or later, you will be into your "less than 31 day period" and the points will go into Holding Account status any way. You can't bank these points no matter what the banking deadline.

Actually Pam a September 30 cancellation would be under 31 days for all October vacations except one starting Oct 31st.

For example, if you had an October 15th reservation, your 31 day cancellation window would be September 14th. Pam didn't mean to use Sept 30 and Oct 1st as cut-off dates for canceling any and all October vacation dates. You always need to count 31 days back from the actual vacation.

May I suggest stronger coffee....