Question on how use year works with reservations

[Tricializ]

Hi all:
Am looking to possibly buy some Vero Beach DVC points and I am wondering how reservations work. I know that if that is my home resort that I get a leg up on reservations, but I don't know how it all works. The 11 month window: Does it start on Jan. 1 for everyone or just those whose use year is in January? I hope that makes sense. My husband goes to spring training each year to watch his Dodgers so getting the week he wants is paramount. Thanks for your help.
Tricia

 

[DebbieB]

The 11 month window has nothing to do with use year. Use year controls which points are used for a reservation. Say you have a February use year (there is no January, May, July or November use year). You want to make a reservation for next March at your home resort. February 2006 use year points are good for stays between 2/1/06 and 1/31/07. So they would be current year for this reservation. You can bank points forward one year or borrow points from the following year. So you could also use banked 2005 points or borrowed 2007 points. Regardless, you can make the reservation at 11 months for your home resort as long as you have points available from the applicable use years. Points do not "drop" into your account when the use year begins, they are already available.

 

[RobDoc]

The 11 month reservation priority is not related to Use Year at all. Use Year is when your points are renewed each year- reservations at your home resort may be made 11 months ahead of the checkout date.

If you want a VB reservation for March 5 -10, 2006 (checking out on the 11th)- you could make the entire reservation on April 11, 2005. If you felt the need to reserve day-by-day (if you wanted a Beach House for example), you could reserve March 5, 2006 (checkout would for that date would be on March 7) on April 7, 2005. Owners at other resorts would not be able to reserve those dates until August, 2005 - so at this time, you would be "competing" only with other VB owners for those dates.

The 11 month priority is always based on the day of checkout and not on any particular date. Use Year plays no role in when you may make a reservation- except that it determines when points will be in your account and available for reservations. You do not need to wait until the points are actually in the account- only that they will be in your account by the date of the reservation.

There is no January, May, July or November Use Year.

Enjoy!

 

[Caskbill]

I think it bears repeating as this is often misunderstood by new members:

Use Year has absolutely nothing to do with when you can make a reservation.

Suppose you want to make a reservation for June 2006, checking out on June 11th, 2006.

If you have a February Use Year, you can call on July 11, 2005 to make your reservation. (That's 11 months)

If you have a March Use Year, you can call on July 11, 2005.
If you have an April Use Year, you can call on July 11, 2005.
If you have a June Use Year, you can call on July 11, 2005.
If you have an August, September, October, or December Use Year, you can call on July 11, 2005.

No matter what your use year, you can call 11 months from the check-out date.

The only difference is what Use Year points are used for the reservation. If the Vacation went from June 1, 2006 to June 10, 2006 (Checking out on the 11th), members with February, March, April and June Use years would be using their 2006 points. Members with August, September, October and December Use years would be using their 2005 points.

Hope this helps.

 

[Poorman]

So I can call on July 11th???

 

[Tricializ]

It appears then that the more quickly we buy points, the better chances for getting the dates he wants for Spring Training. All I want out of this is a handful of points for a long weekend in the winter at Disney (or Hilton head in spring..hmmm) and then to take over the points when DH and MIL are tired (or too old) to go to Spring Training. But, considering they renting out the Cottage or Grand Villa thingy this year and for 4 nights paid about 5,000.00 I think buying points is the way to go if they plan on doing this for a while. THanks so much for your help.

Tricia