Use year question

[Kelly in NY]

We are seriously considering buying into DVC and trying to figure out the whole use year thing. If we typically travel in July or august what month would be best to have as our use year? They originally wanted to give us February, is that good or should your use year be closer to the time of year you want to travel? Or then do you risk not having points to booking vacations if you need to borrow? This is so confusing to me, thanks for any insight you can give.

Kelly

 

[CarolMN]

February would work well for summer vacations - as would March, April or June.

Ideally, you want a use year that would give you the most time to use or bank points if you have to cancel your vacation.

Here is a tutorial for you to read:

Understanding Use Year - Updated 1/31/2010

Some members figure out the 4 consecutive months that they would be LEAST LIKELY to vacation and then choose a use year that follows right after that.

For example, if you think you would not likely travel September - December, then February would be ideal for you.

There are no January, May, July or November use years.

Good luck with your research and purchase decision.

 

[Sandisw]

That is when we travel and we have June UY. It works out well for the summer trips.

We also knew that at some point, we would be traveling in the fall and early winter as well so felt June UY was good for that as well.

As mentioned, this leaves spring as the most vulnerable travel times but knew this would be the least likely for us.

Your UY doesn't impact when you can make reservations as that is always 11 months before travel at home resort and 7 months at the others.

What happens when you call is MS uses the UY that you are traveling and then will use banked points from previous UY, current UY points for travel time, and then allow you to borrow UY points from the UY after travel.

For example, if I want to travel in Aug 2012, it happens in my June 2012 UY. I can pay for it with banked 2011 UY points, 2012 UY points, and then borrow 2013 UY points. However, I can call in Sept 2011 to book that trip.

Good luck!

 

[Dean]

We are seriously considering buying into DVC and trying to figure out the whole use year thing. If we typically travel in July or august what month would be best to have as our use year? They originally wanted to give us February, is that good or should your use year be closer to the time of year you want to travel? Or then do you risk not having points to booking vacations if you need to borrow? This is so confusing to me, thanks for any insight you can give.

Kelly

I assume you're looking at BLT retail. See if you can get an April or June UY (June best for your stated time) and get the current UY points (2011 UY) and have them banked. They should be able to do this even until the last day of the UY if your decision drags out a while Personally I'd insist on June and having your next trip booked as part of the deal if it's within 11 months from now (likely using banked points to next summer.

 

[Kelly in NY]

We are looking at SSR. As much as I would love BLT it is $41 more a point and we just can't afford it. We will be getting 2011 UY points and will bank them for summer 2012. Our DVC guide said we could go with Feb April or June UY the difference being if we went with feb we wouldn't have annual dues to be paid for this UY. The whole thing is so confusing I wish I didn't know anything about use years! LOL