Thinking about buying - why is the use month important

[lildeb724]

I am thinking a spring trip every year...am planning on waitlisting for either BCV or VWL. I am not quite getting why the month of my use year matters - can someone explain...
Thanks in advance

 

[mikron]

The resort you buy into will give you an 11 month booking time and all other resorts only a 7 month booking time. If you buy SSR you can book your trip 11 months fron your depature date. This gives you a small edge to get the rooms you want. This works for any resort you might buy into i used SSR as an example.,

 

[RobDoc]

Use Year has nothing to do with when you can make a reservation- you can always do that 11 months ahead of your arrival at your home resort and 7 months ahead at other DVC resorts (based on availability).

Use Year is the month your points are renewed each year and will also determine your banking deadlines. It could come into play if you cancel a reservation shortly before arrival if you are close to the end of your Use Year though.

If you will mostly travel in the spring each year (remember - that may change as time goes on) a February or March Use Year would serve you well. That way, if you did cancel a March or April reservation- you'd have plenty of time to bank or re-use those points before they would expire.

Conversely, if you cancelled a January reservation in December (with a February Use Year), you would still need to use those points by January 28 or you'd lose them since they could not be banked at that time.

Enjoy!

 

[CarolMN]

Use year determines your banking deadlines. It has nothing to do with when you may call to make a reservation.

Banking deadlines can be important if you have to cancel a vacation that occurs late in your use year.

For example, let's say you have a February use year and usually travel in March opr April.

Your 2007 use year points are good for vacation between 2/1/2007 and 1/31/2008.
Your 2008 use year points are good for vacation between 2/1/2008 and 1/31/2009.
Your 2009 use year points are good for vacation between 2/1/2009 and 1/31/2010.
etc.

You may bank up to 100% of your annual allotment of points as long as you call to do it before the end of the 6th month following the start of your use year. So with a February use year, the 100% deadline is the following July 31st. You may bank up to 50% if you do it before the end of the ninth month and up to 25% if you do it before the end of the 10th month. No banking is allowed durign the last two months of your use year.

Let say you have to cancel an April 2007 trip, using your 2007 use year points. As long as you cancel at least 31 days prior to the scheduled arrival, your points will be returned to your account. You have until the following January 31 to use them (or lose them) or you may bank them into your 2008 use year.

But if you had a June use year and had to cancel the same trip, you would only have until May 31, 2007 to use the points (or lose them). You cannot bank at all during April and May with a June use year, and assuming you cancelled at least 31 days in advance, you could only bank up to 25% of your total annual allotment if you called before the end of March to do it.

With a June use year, you would have used 2006 use year points to book the April 2007 vacation because April of 2007 falls within the June 2006 use year.

With a June use year -
Your 2006 use year points are good for vacation between 6/1/2006 and 5/31/2007.
Your 2007 use year points are good for vacation between 6/1/2007 and 5/31/2008.
Your 2008 use year points are good for vacation between 6/1/2008 and 5/31/2009.
etc.

With any use year, the first day you can call for an April 2007 vacation at your home resort was 11 months prior to check out - May, 2006.

 

[jctwizzer]

In ten years our use month has never had any impact whatsoever on anything we've done with DVC... your mileage may vary, but probably not