new owners with questions

[Dznypal]

we just bought into the DVC in Jan and will be taking our first trip in Jan and I have some questions

first our use yr is Aug--so this Aug we will get our 100 points so if we need to bank or borrow points when does that need to be done by--I thought I needed to bank our points we got for joining by April of this yr
but I cant say for sure--is this the same then for each yr

also our home is the poly but we wanted to try BLT so at 11 months out I booked the poly just so we knew there was a place to call home--yesterday I was able to change to BLT at the 7 months out

now we wanted to book the standard view to save points but I could get 4 of the 7 nights

I didnt bother wait listing I just booked the whole stay with the lake view

can I still watlist the standard or just keep checking to see if our whole stay opens up in the standard

if I do a waitlist do I just keep what we have until the whole stay opens as the other 3 days open up will they switch them until our stay is changed

looking forward to any other tips any of you can give us
thanks all

 

[disneynutz]

You need to bank during the first 8 months of your UY. You borrow when you need the points to make a reservation. Banking and borrowing moves the points forward or backward 1 UY, it can't be undone.

I would waitlist the entire stay or you might have to move mid stay. Keep checking for availability, waitlists don't always work.

Read the threads here on the DIS and the info on the member website.

Bill

 

[drusba]

Aug use year, banking deadline is March 31. If you got points from Aug 2015, they had to be banked by March 31, 2016 to use then for any Jan 2017 trip. Any Aug 2016 points are "current" use year points for a Jan 2017 trip and thus are not banked for that trip. Determiing which points are current use year points and which need to be banked depends soley on when you will be at WDW not date you call to make the reservation.

From your post I cannot tell what points you actually started with, Aug 2015 or 2016. If 2015, those had to be banked for that Jan 2017 trip by March 31, 2016. I assume that occurred but you better confirm. Any Aug 2016 points were your "current" use year points for that trip even though you reserved Poly months ago and thus those did not need to be banked.

You can make a reservation for one resort or room category and then wait list the entire trip for another with instructions to cancel the exisitng reservation and use the points from the existing reservation if the new one comes through. Besides wait list, you should also check avaialbility from time to time. Note you options are to keep lake view at BLT and wait list the entire period for standard, or reserve now those consecutive nights that are available in standard, make a separate reservation for Lake View for the other nights and then create a wait list to switch that lake view reservaiton to standard. The risk of doing it that way is that you could end up having a split stay if the wait list fails and thus you would have to change rooms.

Standard view is difficult to get at BLT at 7 months out much of the year. If you want standard regularly, you need to own at BLT. However, a January wait list does have some chance of coming through if it is for dates after January 8, when marathon weekend ends and DVC's 8 1/2 month low to moderate demand season begins.

 

[NotAMouse]

Even though it is past March 31, as a new direct member, you may be permitted to bank after the deadline. (I haven't done this, but have seen other posts to this effect. You may have to call MS or your guide and make upet/angry noises to shake the pixie dust out of them.)