September UY

[Soccer Fan]

My family is considering purchasing a DVC contract on the resale market and I have been doing my research for several months now. Also, I check the resale sites often to see what types of contracts are out there.

I remember reading a thread on this forum about the problems with a September UY. Some of the ideal contracts for my family have a Sept UY. Is this something that I should stay away from? Is it harder to add onto a Sept UY contract (keeping the same UY) in the future (resale or direct)?

Lastly, we plan on taking trips in November, February, and/or April. Any information or insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Kidanifan08]

Given your travel times, a Sept UY would be perfect for you. Oct or Aug would work well, also. The key to choosing the UY is to have your usually travel times as early in the UY as possible, that way if you need to cancel at the last minute, you can still bank your points. Sept UY points need to be banked by the end of Apr, Aug UY by the end of Mar, and Oct by the end of May.

This link has a distribution of points by UY. Sept and Oct are the lowest, so that may impact availability of resale contracts to some extent.

Good luck resale hunting!

 

[rosanab1031]

You really want your use year to be right before your desired travel dates so that if you ever have to cancel you still have time to bank those points.

For example, I have an April use year. This works well for me because I work at a school so my travel dates are typically in June or July. If for some reason I have to cancel my reservation and I cancel before the 30 day mark, those points will go back into my regular use years account and I have plenty of time to bank them into next year

If I book a trip in December and end up having to cancel, I am now past my banking deadline and I have to use those points before the end of my use year or they disappear.

Hope that helps!!! It was all very confusing for me in the beginning as well

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If the Sept UY works well for your travel patterns then that is all I'd recommend worrying about. And it looks like Sept would be fine for you.

Regarding future purchases just think about this - your are looking at purchasing a Sept UY resale right now so at least one is available. They will also come available in the future. Most every resort has one or two UY's that points are more concentrated in but all it means is it may take a little more time waiting for the right one to pop up in the UY's that have fewer points.

 

[disneynutz]

The UY availability is related to Disney selling more contracts for some UY's. Only they know the real reason for why they pick certain months. BLT was sold as Feb contracts for the longest time.

Buying the best UY based on your travel patterns is just added insurance should you need to cancel a reservation. We have had 2 occasions where this helped us.

Bill

 

[mopee3]

Is it harder to add onto a Sept UY contract (keeping the same UY) in the future (resale or direct)?

Lastly, we plan on taking trips in November, February, and/or April. Any information or insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

We have a gob of points all with Sept UY. but never enough! Our trips since we started 6 years ago, have typically been in early November with a few during Spring Break times with grand kids. We started with 1 average size and 3 small contracts from Disney so choosing Sept was easy to obtain. Since then we have added 3 resale all Sept and have never had a hard time getting Sept UY. Sooo.. no it's not hard to get Sept or Oct, its like people have mentioned, it's about when you vacation.

Have fun.

Moe

 

[Soccer Fan]

Thanks for all of the great information! I appreciate your responses

 

[DisDad07]

We have Sept. UY and have added on twice. We travel at different times of the year and it doesn't make that much difference what UY you have to us. There are less points out there for Sept. but they seem to show up just about the time We think we want to add more.

 

[ELKHUNTER]

We also have a Sept UY and have added on to it once. Sept UY is seems perfect for us we usually take two trips every other year one in the early summer and then again at Christmas.

 

[wdrl]

This link has a distribution of points by UY. Sept and Oct are the lowest, so that may impact availability of resale contracts to some extent.

Good luck resale hunting!

There is an updated 2012 chart showing the distribution of points by Use Year. Click 2012 Chart to see it.

I intend to update the chart in the near future and I will add the Villas of Grand Floridian to the chart. I'm holding off on doing another update until all the AKV Units are assigned a Use Year. As of now, there are still 7 of 326 Units at AKV that have not yet been assigned a Use Year.

 

[Kidanifan08]

There is an updated 2012 chart showing the distribution of points by Use Year. Click 2012 Chart to see it.

I intend to update the chart in the near future and I will add the Villas of Grand Floridian to the chart. I'm holding off on doing another update until all the AKV Units are assigned a Use Year. As of now, there are still 7 of 326 Units at AKV that have not yet been assigned a Use Year.

Thanks for posting a more recent/updated link. I guess Google failed me this time!

I enjoy looking at this kind of data, and appreciate the work of you and the others who compile stuff like this. I have to agree with others, that a UY choice should probably not be influenced by the UY distribution of points.

 

[samfsu]

Why does it matter what UY the units are assigned?

We are trying to buy a resale and I am also wondering if we plan on taking vacations in March, April, August and Nov/Dec, what would the best UY month be?

Thanks!

 

[geraghty]

Why does it matter what UY the units are assigned?

We are trying to buy a resale and I am also wondering if we plan on taking vacations in March, April, August and Nov/Dec, what would the best UY month be?

Thanks!

The more units that are assigned the more points there are for a certain UY. If you pick a UY with a low percentage of points, than adding on in the future should theoretically be harder, because there are less points to acquire. Therefore a UY with a high percentage of points should be easier to add on in the future.

As far as your UY, the question is, when will you most frequently travel. Because your travel plans are spread out, no one UY will be perfect. What you don't want is a UY that starts right after your predicted travel patterns, because if you have to cancel last minute, you will have little options for your points. Example would be, you buy a September UY and have to cancel your trip in July for your August trip. Your points will expire September 1, and you won't be able to bank those points because they're in the last four months of your UY.

 

[Dean]

Buying the best UY based on your travel patterns is just added insurance should you need to cancel a reservation. We have had 2 occasions where this helped us.

Bill, 2 episodes of lost or limited points is enough to make DVC cost more than saved for some. Your experience puts the risk into a real life example of why UY can be important. However, everyone should realize that while there may not be a UY that gives one protection, like samfsu below, the risks are still present. For those who don't know about their vacation plans until late or might have to cancel regularly, DVC may not be a good choice no matter what the math suggests otherwise.

Why does it matter what UY the units are assigned?

We are trying to buy a resale and I am also wondering if we plan on taking vacations in March, April, August and Nov/Dec, what would the best UY month be?

Thanks!

For this plan, assuming the trips are spread out pretty evenly, there likely isn't a perfect choice. Still, you'll have risk for some of these trips more than others depending on your UY. IF there are trips that are more likely to be changed or cancelled or some times of year where more of the trips are likely to occur, UY could be important even in your situation. Otherwise getting the best home resort with the most usable points will give you the best value. To me that means a contract that is loaded (all future, current and max banked points) in a UY that you can both close and use the points once closed. Don't forget to have the seller bank the points if need be (put it in the contract).

 

[chalee94]

Why does it matter what UY the units are assigned?

look at the DVC rules for cancellations:

31 or More Days Prior to Check-in: All of the points used to make the reservation are restored to your account in the Use Year of the reservation.

30 Days – 1 Day Prior to Check-in: All of the points used to make the reservation are placed into a “Holding Account” - which means they are more difficult to use.

On the Check-in Date: All of the points used to make the reservation are forfeited.

then remember that you can bank pts through the first 8 months of your UY.

now think about how things would be different if you had to cancel a reservation at the end of your UY (say, a late aug trip for a sept UY) compared to canceling a trip early in your UY. if you cancel the late aug trip in may, that is well in advance of 31 days prior to check in...BUT it is after your banking window closes, so any current UY pts are stuck and must be used by the end of august or they disappear into the void. things like that.

 

[blessed2BaMama]

We have a Sept UY.

We took the tour at WDW in May and made an offer on our first contract at AKV (resale) as soon as we got home from WDW. The contract was fully loaded so it was a good deal. We did not even consider the fact that it was a Sept UY on it...until a month later when we realized (as most do) that we didnt have enough points for the trips we usually take annually so we set off looking for a second contract, this time at BLT. A Sept UY has basically 4% of UY contracts at most DVC resorts so they are rarer and when one does come up, those who have been looking pounce immediately! If I had known then, I would have chosen DEC which seems more popular. WE did find a resale contract with the point value we needed at BLT after 2 months looking but it was not loaded...meanwhile many passed us by with a Dec. UY...

My parents are considering buying and I will tell them to check the pie chart at the resort they are interested in and buy the most popular UY - I wish I had as I am already planning my next "need"ed contract purchase!!