Risk of booking at the end of your use year

[BGdisney18]

Hello

First year owning DVC - we specifically bought an October UY as 99% of the time we will travel between Nov-May. An opportunity has come up to attend a conference end of September and I see that points chart is really low for this time of the year and we could stretch our points out to 2 bedroom to go the week before the conference starts.

What is the risk to using our points to book the last week of our UY? Any options to not lose these points if some freak change in our plans happens (everything else would be covered by travel insurance except for this)?

Terrible idea?

Thanks for your input.

 

[kes601]

Main downside being if you cancel after May 31 then you are outside of your banking window and the points would have to be used for a stay that ends September 30 or before.

Also if you cancelled w/less than 30 days to go then the points are pretty much useless since the points returned would go into holding. Holding points can only use used for stays that fall in the next 60 days (from when you book) but since your UY ends September 30 that would be the deadline for the end of the stay.

 

[Genie+]

Depending on your Sept dates, you’d only have a few days or couple weeks to reschedule. The availability options would be very limited. Rescheduling may not be personally feasible even if you found acceptable availability.

Points can only be deposited into Interval up to 45 days before Use Year ends, so that will not be an option unless you know you’re unable to go by early August. Then I think you could deposit and have… 2 years to use in II?

The best chance at getting any value out of those points would be renting out your unused reservation at a firesale price. Chances improve with leadtime and the how attractive room/price. Some of this depends on luck. You may get $12pp or more if someone highly interested in that room/date finds you. If not, might have to try $8pp to get interest.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

I have a February use date and we used to go in January all the time.

 

[Sandisw]

Other than getting the DVC insurance that will pay you your dues for a canceled trip…its pretty much going to be a loss if you have to cancel the trip.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I have a February use date and we used to go in January all the time.

We are March, which was great when we worked, but retirement and the Festival of the Arts call to us, and we now regularly book in January at least.

To the OP… YOU ARE TAKING A RISK! DH had a heart attack in December, and we had over 300 points in late December through beginning of February reservations. We were able to use some, in late January, and between renting on Disboards and through the sponsor, we are only loosing 2 points.

 

[The Jackal]

We have a June use year. We go twice a year once in October/November and once in April/May. No issues so far. Been a member for about 8 years.

 

[pixieprincess925]

so, nobody has mentioned that September is hurricane season - so I'm going there. In the event of a hurricane (either at Disney or at your home) and trip gets cancelled because of that, you can always call member services to see if you can be pixie dusted. No guarantees of course, but that there is always that threat in the August - October time period.

 

[bluecruiser]

I've made 12 yearly trips since I bought into DVC. My use year is December (because they don't offer a November use year) and 7 of those trips were in November (or started in November). The remaining 5 were in December.

I had to delay my November/December 2023 trip a few days before it started due to a family illness, resulting in a loss of 105 points. There was nothing I could do to avoid it - the person who was sick (my brother) was my replacement as caregiver for my mother and we couldn't risk him passing on anything to my 93-year-old mother. And it was too late to find/vet someone else to take his place. I was fortunate I didn't have to cancel my whole trip and Member Services was able to find one night at my hotel to extend my trip so I only lost 2 days of my vacation.

Loss of points 1 time out of 12 trips doesn't sound so bad, but it's enough to make me rethink trying to vacation so close to the end of my use year.

 

[CarolMN]

What is the risk to using our points to book the last week of our UY?

IMO, it's the same as purchasing anything that is non-refundable. If you can't or don't want to self-insure, then it would be a good idea to purchase insurance.

 

[skier_pete]

So the "risk" of booking at the end of your use year is that even if you have to cancel your trip more than 30 days before your trip, you do not have the opportunity to bank the points for a cancelled trip. If you think it unlikely you cancel your trip, then the risk is pretty minimal. Plenty of people book trips towards the end of their use year and never lose access to their points.

As at least one other said, if you are concerned about having to cancel, you should buy trip insurance through DVC. It's not very expensive - like $98. You buy the trip insurance and it covers all your points for the use year. (Note if you are using more than one UY points for the booking, you would need insurance for both use years.) If you had to cancel for a valid reason, you would at least get refunded your Maintenance Fees to cover those points. The points would still expire at the end of your use year though.

 

[BaybeeYoda]

One option, while not great, is to rent your points out to someone, and to rent FROM someone for the same amount. So you are even steven without losing your points.