Use year importance?

[cdurham1]

If we like to go to Disney in January, for example, should I concentrate on buying February use year contract(s) so that my 11 month window matches with January bookings?

 

[Rush]

Absolutely not. You should be looking primarily for a Dec UY, followed by Oct or Sept. you want your trips to always fall into the banking window of that UY. January would be the final month of a Feb UY, well past the banking deadline.

 

[princesscinderella]

No definitely don’t buy Feb UY for January trips. You would want a DEC UY. The last three months prior to your UY points renewing every year are past your banking window so if you had to cancel the trip you would have very little time to make a new reservation and all the points could be lost.

 

[cdurham1]

Oh, wow. I need to learn how this works. I am confused. I am going to do some research.

 

[MissLiss279]

Your UY doesn’t matter for when you book, just for when your actual trip will take place.

 

[FSUSammy]

You could even go as far as June as a UY because the banking for June is the end of January. I wouldn't recommend that though, but it is a possibility.

 

[Rush]

Oh, wow. I need to learn how this works. I am confused. I am going to do some research.

Perhaps this will help.

https://www.dvcresalemarket.com/blog/what-is-a-dvc-use-year-and-does-it-matter/

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Every single UY can book any trip at the same time so it has nothing to do with booking. What the best UY does is to provide some free insurance against a last minute cancellation by giving you the most time possible to rebook with the points or to allow you to still bank if the points are bankable. To do that you want a UY that starts just before you're normal time of travel and if that is January then it would be a December UY. (there are no January, May, July or November UY's) February would be the worst because your trip would occur right before the UY and you'd always be well past banking deadlines and also have less than a month to use the points before they expired.

If you never have to cancel the UY won't make a difference. If you ever did have a last minute cancellation it might help you save a year or more worth of points.

 

[Stargazer65]

If we like to go to Disney in January, for example, should I concentrate on buying February use year contract(s)

Oh, wow. I need to learn how this works. I am confused. I am going to do some research.

Haha, Oh come on, it's so naturally intuitive!

Every infant is born with an innate sense of how DVC UYs work!

Agree with others that Dec UY would be good if you liked to go mostly in January. If you are unsure, there is flexibility in the UY you get. For instance, we've travelled all year round, and don't seem to have any one time nailed down. We have a June UY and we've gone in June, September, November, December, January, February, and even went once in May (although that was more risky for us with a June UY because if we cancelled that trip, we would have lost the points).