UY question

[HayGan]

My dad and I have decided to go into together and own a piece of the magic We have found a contract that we would like to investigate. It has the right amount of points at the resort we want to make our home. The only thing is that it is a Sept UY. Now that my boys are both in school we will likely start taking our WDW vacations in late May/early June. We also may ocassionally take one the first week in Dec.

Is there really any pitfalls in having a Sept UY when we plan to use those points in June for the first 10 years or so of our contract? Any words of advice in choosing a UY?

Thanks in advance for helping this (DVC) newbie out!

 

[fn2bfree]

My dad and I have decided to go into together and own a piece of the magic We have found a contract that we would like to investigate. It has the right amount of points at the resort we want to make our home. The only thing is that it is a Sept UY. Now that my boys are both in school we will likely start taking our WDW vacations in late May/early June. We also may ocassionally take one the first week in Dec.

Is there really any pitfalls in having a Sept UY when we plan to use those points in June for the first 10 years or so of our contract? Any words of advice in choosing a UY?

Thanks in advance for helping this (DVC) newbie out!

If you are planning on using your points in the summer months, September is probably not a good UY for you. Let's say you have a reservation for June and you discover in April that you need to cancel your trip. It would be too late for you to bank those points into the next UY. If you are unable to use the points before Sept 1st the points will be lost. It is best to find a contract where you will be able to travel early in the UY.

 

[TenThousandVolts]

The only problem would be if you had to cancel- then you would have about 3 months to use or rent the points. I don't see it as a big risk- especially if you like December and start using it more for that time of year after the kids are older, then Sept will be a great UY for you.

Actually, I beleive in the scenario mentioned above- you would be able to cancel and bank the points if you knew in April that you had to cancel- if you had a Sept UY. then the last day of April would be the last day you could bank.

 

[HayGan]

Thanks for the input. I do think that the Sept UY will work for us. While not ideal for a few years, for most of the years of the contract, it will be a good fit for us.

 

[fn2bfree]

The only problem would be if you had to cancel- then you would have about 3 months to use or rent the points. I don't see it as a big risk- especially if you like December and start using it more for that time of year after the kids are older, then Sept will be a great UY for you.

Actually, I beleive in the scenario mentioned above- you would be able to cancel and bank the points if you knew in April that you had to cancel- if you had a Sept UY. then the last day of April would be the last day you could bank.

Sorry, I didn't count the months correctly. You would be able to bank through the end of April.

 

[Granny]

Thanks for the input. I do think that the Sept UY will work for us. While not ideal for a few years, for most of the years of the contract, it will be a good fit for us.

That's a very good way to look at it.

As indicated, UY really only comes into play if you think you have problems locking in a vacation date months in advance. I'm fortunate to work for a company that recognizes vacation commitments and is pretty understanding if a late conflict arises.

For those who have a hard time being certain of vacation dates, UY can be more important. For that matter, DVC works better in general for those who can plan and lock in dates months in advance.

 

[bookwormde]

The conclusions that I came to was to try to get a use year that had 3 months before it that I did not plan to travel to WDW (the reason this is not the 4 month “blackout” for banking is that if you cancel in the last month the points are no longer bankable anyway).

My projected travel dates are June and August with an occasional 1st week of Jan or Feb. So I picked December UY. Of course a good deal came up an April so I took that since it would only effect a cancellation of a rare Feb. reservation.

Hope my logic works

bookwormde

 

[Dean]

No matter how good the contract is otherwise, buying a Sept UY for summer travel is Russian Roulette. Even one loss of points due to cancellation in the life of a contract will seriously affect the value compared to a better UY. There is not a price difference that will pass ROFR that will make this reasonable. I'd keep looking.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

No matter how good the contract is otherwise, buying a Sept UY for summer travel is Russian Roulette. Even one loss of points due to cancellation in the life of a contract will seriously affect the value compared to a better UY. There is not a price difference that will pass ROFR that will make this reasonable. I'd keep looking.

I totally agree. When I purchased, I didn't understand UY as much as I wished I had. We travel in July and Aug and have an Aug UY. If I bank points, it forces me to travel in July, as I won't let them expire. If for any reason we need or decide to cancel, I can't bank or reschedule. For those reasons alone, I absolutely would not buy an Aug UY again for our travel habits. DH is a teacher, so until he retires (which is a good 20 years away!), we'll always travel in the summer.

If this tells you anything, I've seriously considered selling our SSR contracts (120 and 270 points) and re-purchasing with a different UY (December, maybe?). I would eat a good bit to do so, but every year, we bump up against this, as the contracts were loaded, and I'm always traveling on points that are going to expire on 7/31.

For many, it's a non-issue, but for us, it's been a major pain in the backside!!! Even though there are a whole other set of issues for owning contracts with different UYs, I purchased a 150 point contract at VB with a Dec UY just to give us some flexibility and to ensure we can book at Vero at the 11 month mark.

 

[salmoneous]

There is not a price difference that will pass ROFR that will make this reasonable. I'd keep looking.

Let's go through the scenarios, shall we?

June 15 trip, September Use Year

Find out you need to cancel in April or earlier? You can bank the points.

Find out you need to cancel after May 16? Points go into holding, use year doesn't come into play.

Find out you need to cancel on one of the days between May 1 to May 16? Well, then use year comes into play. Too late to bank the points but before they go into holding. And you've still got all the way until the end of August to either plan a new trip or rent the points out.

Now assume the person buys an April use-year contract. It's ideal for summer vacations. but the worst possible contract for March vacations, and a lousy use-year for December vacations. That's one of the big problems with jumping through hoops to get a particular use year. The same one that's good for one vacation is bad for another.

Note - the above scenarios assume the use of regular points. Reservations made with banked/borrowed points can't be rebanked regardless of use year.

 

[TenThousandVolts]

There is no perfect UY for the OP. Sure April would be good for current travel habits, but a few years down the road- when December is the preferred month to travel her UY is not ideal. In this case I think Sept would work just as well as April

 

[FLYNZ4]

Find out you need to cancel after May 16? Points go into holding, use year doesn't come into play.

Not exactly accurate. With a later use year... you have a longer time to consume those points in the holding account.

/Jim

 

[Dean]

Let's go through the scenarios, shall we?

June 15 trip, September Use Year

Find out you need to cancel in April or earlier? You can bank the points.

Find out you need to cancel after May 16? Points go into holding, use year doesn't come into play.

Find out you need to cancel on one of the days between May 1 to May 16? Well, then use year comes into play. Too late to bank the points but before they go into holding. And you've still got all the way until the end of August to either plan a new trip or rent the points out.

Now assume the person buys an April use-year contract. It's ideal for summer vacations. but the worst possible contract for March vacations, and a lousy use-year for December vacations. That's one of the big problems with jumping through hoops to get a particular use year. The same one that's good for one vacation is bad for another.

Note - the above scenarios assume the use of regular points. Reservations made with banked/borrowed points can't be rebanked regardless of use year.

And banking is only part of the issue though for travel in summer with a Sept UY there still is quite some risk of losing the chance to bank points one could have done so with a better UY as most cancellations occur within the last couple of month and as noted, it likely is MORE important with holding account points, not less. The additional time to reschedule and plan a trip to use those points that may be banked/borrowed is just as important, possibly even more so, esp with reservations getting more difficult inside the 7 month window. Just ask yourself if losing the points for a single trip is an acceptable cost/risk, if it is, maybe it doesn't matter to you. Certainly for one who may go anytime it doesn't matter but they still have risk. My opinion stands but it's only that, what do I know about timeshares.