Question about Use Year

[APB513]

I would like to travel in either May, September or December. What would be the best use year to purchase?

If I purchase an August UY, what is the timeframe for making ressies?

 

[Donald is #1]

For your travel months, I would say to get either a Sept or Aug UY. I think that either one would work for you with the new banking guidelines. Can someone please comment if I am correct? Hopefully I counted the 8 months correctly.

As for making reservations, your UY does not matter. You can make reservations either 11 months prior to your trip for your home resort or 7 months prior for any other resort.


Hope this helps.

 

[PamOKW]

Use Year and when you can make reservations are not the same. The only time Use Year becomes a consideration is when you have to cancel on short notice. As you approach the end of your Use Year, your options become more limited when you cancel.

Picking a Use Year is possible if you have a set time of year that you go and anticipate that things will stay that way. Then you can pick a year that would work with cancellations. For example, if you vacation in May an April Use Year is a good choice. You'd get your points, May 1 and if the May trip didn't pan out, you'd have 11 months to bank or use the points.

If you vacation at different times (I do too), it becomes kind of moot what Use Year you have. It's pretty much impossible to have a Use Year that works well for both May and December.

But, as I said in the beginning.....Use Year really isn't a critical factor.

As to when you can make reservations, you can always make the reservations 11 months in advance for your home resort and any other DVC option except other DVC resorts. The other DVC resorts can be booked 7 months in advance. You make the reservations knowing that the points will be deposited in your account at the start of your Use Year.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[APB513]

Thanks Donald and Pam for your responses!!!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Pam is absolutely correct that use year has nothing to do with when you can make your reservations. As to needing to cancel in enough time to bank unused points...That has changed a bit recently with the advent of the new banking windows, but still, in more than 10 years of membership we have NEVER lost points because of having to cancel close to a planned trip, so buying a use year based on the dates you mostly travel now is not necessarily going to be the best for how you might travel 20 years down the road.

 

[LisaS]

I would like to travel in either May, September or December. What would be the best use year to purchase?

If I purchase an August UY, what is the timeframe for making ressies?

Your UY comes into play if you ever have to cancel a trip. Ideally, you want a UY where you normally travel early in your UY or at least within your banking window(s). In order for your points to be bankable, you must cancel at least 31 days prior to check in, otherwise your points go into the "holding account". Points in holding cannot be banked and can only be used to make a reservation 60 days or less in advance of check-in. If you cancel on your check-in day, all points are forfeited.

So in your case, a Sep or an Apr UY would work out very well. Either would cover all of the travel dates you listed. Under the new banking rules going into effect in 2008 your 100% banking window for a Sep UY would be from Sep 1 - Apr 30th, and for an Apr UY would be Apr 1 - Nov 30. Since you would have to cancel a May trip sometime in April (and a Dec trip in Nov) to avoid the points going into holding, you would still be within your 100% banking window.

The deciding factor between Sep or Apr would be whether you might travel in the summer as well, in which case you should go with an Apr UY, or if, like me, you will NEVER go to WDW in the summer in which case a Sep UY would be better.

Be aware that as we're seeing now, banking rules can change at any time so what might be the perfect UY today could present problems in the future, but again, only if you have to cancel a reservation. You can book a stay at your home resort 11 months prior to check-out, 7 months prior at non-home resorts, regardless of your UY.