Use year question???

[pyrxtc]

My guide said that use year does not matter. he said I could have a September use year and book for December using that September's points.

Example...

I have 270 Sept/07 points and I bank them for use in 08. I would now have 540 points to use for a December 08 vacation. I can book that vacation in february using all 540 points right then ?

So now come February of 09, I can book another vacation for December 09 using the points that I won't get until September ??

I just want to make sure that I don't need the points available right then when I am booking, as long as I have them available at the time of the vacation??

Also, while I'm asking question, If I want to book a full week at AKV's using my points, do I call on the first day of 11 months out (book for December 4th on february 4th??) for the entire week or is a day by day thing? I want to stay concierge in 08 so would I be better off doing a day by day booking to make sure it's available or can they book the whole thing for me at the begining of the week?

 

[dianeschlicht]

When you book has nothing to do with when your use year is. It is only dependant on when the vacation takes place. For example: You have a March use year. You want to book an April '08 trip. You make the call to book that vacation in May of '07. The points are taken from your '08 use year, because that is when the vacation occurs. The only importance use year has is if you have to cancel a reservation. Then it is good to have a use year that is still in the 100% banking window of your use year. Since most of us don't intend to travel the same time of year for the next 50 years, it really makes little difference when your use year is. In 10 years of membership, we have never once had to cancel a reservation so close to our travel dates that we couldn't bank the points.

 

[flyerron]

You can bank, borrow & combine all the points with your current years points. The use year is essentially irrelevent except it is the time of year you get your points & of course the cancellation problem. Sometimes the trip insurance is helpful. Cancellation should usually be a very rare thing if ever needed.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

While I agree with all of the above information, I personally put more emphasis on the rare cancellatiion.
I would prefer to have a use year just prior to when you will use the greatest chunck of your points. As Diane said, that may change over the years, but I would take your best guess. No sense in starting off without the prime use year.
The least desirable use year will be the month after you normally plan on vacationing, so avoid that. Leave a little buffer, and with some tinkering you can figure it pretty good.

MG

 

[drusba]

My guide said that use year does not matter. he said I could have a September use year and book for December using that September's points.

Example...

I have 270 Sept/07 points and I bank them for use in 08. I would now have 540 points to use for a December 08 vacation. I can book that vacation in february using all 540 points right then ?

So now come February of 09, I can book another vacation for December 09 using the points that I won't get until September ??

I just want to make sure that I don't need the points available right then when I am booking, as long as I have them available at the time of the vacation??

Also, while I'm asking question, If I want to book a full week at AKV's using my points, do I call on the first day of 11 months out (book for December 4th on february 4th??) for the entire week or is a day by day thing? I want to stay concierge in 08 so would I be better off doing a day by day booking to make sure it's available or can they book the whole thing for me at the begining of the week?

Your guide is correct and the answer to your first two questions is yes except you have one counting error. You can book a December trip in January and don't need to wait until February (January is "11 months" out).

As to your last set of questions, you usually book 11 months from your expected departure date from WDW not your expected arrival date and in the usual case you will not have any problem getting the week you want by doing that. However, if you are going for concierge, and because there are so few of those rooms, you should consider a day-by-day booking. If your day of arrival is December 4, you can call January 5 (not the 4th) to get Dec 4 , then call January 6 to get Dec 5, etc.

You may ask why do you call January 5 to get Dec 4. The rule is you can call 11 months before your expected date of departure from WDW. When you make a day-by-day reservation, what you are really doing on that first call-in, and each call thereafter, is reserving a trip for one night, in your case December 4. For that one night trip your date of departure is December 5, thus you can call January 5 to get December 4.

 

[Flyerfan]

I agree with the cancellation issue. We recently bought in with a June use year. As our normal months to visit are/will be January and Sept, Oct, Nov, this is good for us. However, we are thinking about early May and are concerned that if we have to cancel, we would lose all our points for that year.

 

[DebbieB]

Many new members have a misconception about when points are "deposited". In their mind, they think the points are not "deposited" into their account until day 1 of the use year. That is not correct. When I go onto dvcmember.com, points up to 2010 are already in my account.

You look at your use year and the date of your stay. With a September use year and December 08 stay, your 2008 points would be current year, you can also use 2007 banked points and 2009 borrowed points. All can be reserved at the 11 month window for your home resort (January for December). Those points are in your account now.

 

[LisaS]

While I agree with all of the above information, I personally put more emphasis on the rare cancellation. I would prefer to have a use year just prior to when you will use the greatest chunk of your points. As Diane said, that may change over the years, but I would take your best guess. No sense in starting off without the prime use year.
The least desirable use year will be the month after you normally plan on vacationing, so avoid that. Leave a little buffer, and with some tinkering you can figure it pretty good.

MG

I agree! Travel patterns may change but then again they may not so why not start out with something that works?

Also, while it may be rare for someone to cancel a trip, some people do go on the wait list for a room requiring fewer points. If the trip will take place towards the end of their UY, it limits how long they can stay on the waiting list. I remember at least one post where someone learned that the hard way. They wanted a studio but none were available so they booked a 1BR and wait listed for a studio. The wait list came through and the extra points were returned to their account but they were past all banking deadlines and couldn't use or bank the points.