Question about banking and a future trip

[MemphisTN]

We are planning on making an offer on a resale in the next few weeks, and I have a question about some listings I have seen with banked 2006 points.

We are planning a trip in October 2008.

I am a little confused on when the timing of banked points would have to be used. Say for example, we purchased resale with a September Use Year. There were 150 points banked for 2006. It is my understanding that on September 1 2007 we would then have 300 points. When would we have to use the 150 banked points for 2006? I am assuming they would expire on September 1, 2008. If we booked our October 2008 trip 11 months out (December 2007 when the 2006 banked points were still good) could those be used for the October 2008 trip? Or would they not be good for that trip because they were only banked to be used between September 1, 2007 through August 31, 2008?

What use year or later would work to have 2006 banked points, 2007 current and if need pull 2008 points for an Oct 2008 trip?

I hope this makes sense, because I am a little confused.

thanks

 

[DebbieB]

December would be the only use year you could use banked 2006 points for October 2008. October 2006 banked points would expire 09/30/08. There is no November use year. December 2006 banked points would expire 11/30/08. All points usage is based on the date of the stay, not when you make the reservation.

 

[MemphisTN]

Thanks Debbie. I kind of thought that about the points no longer being valid. I didn't know about the there not being a November use year, but I am new to these boards so I have a lot to learn. Just curious, why don't they have a November use year?

Atleast now I know what Use Years to look for in the resale listing.

thanks again

 

[jekjones1558]

Just be sure that you will not have a last minute reason to cancel your reservation. If you did, you would only have until Nov. 30, 2008 to use the banked points from 2006. If you think that you will often travel in Oct. then Dec. is actually not a good use year for you in the event of a last minute problem.

 

[LisaS]

What use year or later would work to have 2006 banked points, 2007 current and if need pull 2008 points for an Oct 2008 trip?

If you're planning a trip for Oct '08, then an Oct contract with all 2007 points available would work for you. You would be able to bank those into your '08 Use Year. Then when you book your trip (on whatever day in Nov 2007 is 11 months prior to your check-out date) you would have 3 years worth of points to use for that trip: banked Oct '07 points, Oct '08 points and if needed, borrowed Oct '09 points. A Sep UY with all 2007 points available would also work for you or even August. But you should make a decision on which UY to purchase based on when you would normally travel, not just for this one trip.

It's best to have a UY that starts just before your normal travel dates. As jekjones1558 explained, in the event you have to cancel a trip, you would be early in your UY and have many months in which to use the points freed up by the cancellation. You would also be able to bank the "current" UY points used for that trip.

 

[Hopefully]

So if we planned to mainly travel in October, an August or September UY would be best?

 

[LisaS]

So if we planned to mainly travel in October, an August or September UY would be best?

October would be the best UY for someone who travels mostly in October. But is that the only time you expect to go? You should look at all the times of the year you are likely to travel and try to pick a UY that best fits those dates.

Having a UY where most of your trips occur early in your UY gives you some flexibility if you ever have to cancel a trip. If you had an Oct UY and had to cancel an Oct trip, you would have nearly a full year to use your points for something else. You would be in your 100% banking window so you could bank any current-UY points freed up by cancelling the reservation if you had no plans to use them before the end of your UY. Compare that to having a Dec UY -- if you cancelled an Oct trip, you might have as few as 5-6 weeks to use the points for something else before they expired on Nov 30th. You would also be past all your banking deadlines so you would not have the option to bank any of those points.

The other way that your UY affects your travel plans is if you are on the wait list for a room that takes fewer points than the one you currently have booked. Say you are booked into BWV preferred-view and are wait listed for BWV standard view which takes fewer points. If your trip is scheduled for the end of your UY, there is a limit to how long you can wait for your wait list to come through because moving to a lower-cost villa frees up points. If you wanted to bank those points, you cannot stay on the wait list past the 10th month of your UY, or perhaps not even that long if you have banked other points earlier in your UY.