My DVC questions

[Belle402]

Hi, I am considering DVC. Do banked points ever expire? When you make a reservation, do you have to have the points in your account? If you will have the points by the the time of your trip will you be OK? For example, I am considering a February or a March UY. Would I have any problems with reservations if I travel in September and January?

Marianne

 

[Sandisw]

You are allowed to bank points only once, so yes they do expire. For example, if you get Feb UY 09 points and bank them, they would be good during your Feb 2010 UY (Feb 1st, 2010 until Jan. 31st, 2011).

You can make a reservation at your home resort 11 months before you travel. Your UY does not impact when you can make the reservation, just when you get your points each year. When you call MS to make a reservation, you do not have to have point at that time, but only at the time of travel.

If you travel in Sept or January, you do not want to have a Feb or March UY. You would probably want an August or Sept UY. You have the first 8 months of your UY to bank points and ideally, you want to travel during those 8 months so that if you have to cancel a trip more than 31 days in advance (less than that then different rules apply to the points), your points will go back into your account with no restrictions.

 

[Crystal_27]

One of the great things about DVC is the ability to bank and borrow points. You can bank a current year's points (and, thus, have more points for a stay the next year) or borrow from the next year's points (and, thus, cover any shortfall in points that you have in the current year). If, however, you find that you are still short on points after banking and borrowing, then you will have to either (i) buy more points; (ii) rent points; or (iii) pay cash for the room for the night(s) that you are deficient.

I think that Sandi gave you some good advice regarding your Use Year. But, keep in mind, that your vacationing habits will likely change over the years so you may not travel during the same time of the year 10 years from now and, therefore, your Use Year becomes a bit moot as your vacation habits change.

Either way, best of luck to you during this exciting time and please feel free to ask any other questions that you may have.

 

[DebbieB]

Points use is based on the date of stay. They look at the date of the stay and the points available for the use year that date falls into. It has nothing to do with when you make the reservation. The points are already in your account for future use years, they don't "deposit" when the use year starts. People get confused with "points that will be in my account at the time of my stay" or "points that I will get next year". They are already there. I have an April use year and when I look at my account online at the member website, it is showing 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012.

 

[Belle402]

Thank you for your replies