Need help understanding booking w/ respect to my banking deadline

[ead79]

I'm sorry for all these questions lately! I thought I understood things pretty well, but things keep popping up in my mind that I don't quite understand the logistics of.

Here's my situation. I have 160 points and a June use year. We typically vacation in December each year. I currently have one vacation booked that is using 60 of our initial 160 points (these were my June '07 - May 31 '08 points). I'm planning to bank the left over 100 points.

When January of 2008 rolls around, I want to book my December 2008 stay (at the 11 month window). I'm guessing it will take around 180 points for where we want to stay.

My banking deadline is Jan. 31, 2008, so if I want to try to book at another DVC resort where I don't own, I won't be able to do that and see if it comes through until after my banking deadline has passed.

Can I go ahead and bank my 2007 points, then borrow my 2008 points in January of 2008? I figured that if I did that, I could wait for the 7 month booking windor or for a waitlist to come through to see how that changed the total point requirements for my December vacation. I would then be able to bank any leftover 2008 points AFTER my December 2008 vacation. Then I'll just do the same thing each following year (bank the rest of that year's vacation points, and borrow from the next year).

Is this my best bet given my use year?

 

[LisaS]

I'm not sure if I completely understand your question, but this may help:

Your 2007 points are valid for stays from June 1, 2007 - May 31, 2008. Your Dec 2008 trip falls within your 2008 Use Year -- June 1, 2008 - May 31, 2009 -- so you must use 2008 points for that trip and/or 2007 points that you have previously banked into your 2008 Use Year. If you need still more points for that trip you can also borrow points from your 2009 UY into your 2008 UY at the time you make that reservation.

You can call MS to make a reservation for a Dec 2008 stay at your home resort in January 2008. At that time, you must have enough points in your 2008 UY to "pay" for that reservation. If you want to use your remaining 100 points in your 2007 UY for that trip, you must bank them prior to making the reservation so that they are available for use for dates between 6/1/08 and 5/31/09. You can do it in the same phone call but if you are calling day by day for a hard to get reservation (AKV Concierge for example) you might want to bank them in advance.

As far as trying to change resorts at the 7 month window (May 2008 for a Dec 2008 trip), if you switch to a resort that requires fewer points the leftover points will be returned to your 2008 Use Year. Provided your new reservation uses at least 100 points, MS should apply the 100 banked 2007 points towards the new reservation and return 2008 points to your account. You would have until Jan 31, 2009 to bank them, or until May 31, 2009 to use them for something else. If your new reservation requires fewer than 100 points then some of the points returned to your account will be banked 2007 points. They cannot be banked again so you would have to use them by May 31, 2009.

 

[ead79]

Thanks SO MUCH, Lisa! That makes total sense. Now that I understand that I use my 2008 use year points for my 2008 December trip (but can still call to book it in January), I finally get it!

 

[LisaS]

You're welcome! I hope everything works out for your December trip!