What use year would be best for me?

[Tigerlilypad]

Greetings!

I thinking about buying into DVC and have a question about use year. We are two adults looking to purchase ~100 points at either BCV or AKL. We generally go every other year around Sept or Oct (love MNSSHP!). A one bedroom would fit our needs.

What would be the best, or at least optimum use year for us? What are the benefits of one use year versus another?

Your advice is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[chalee94]

september is the "best" UY. (june and august would probably work fine, depending on when else you might possibly travel.)

you want to travel as early in your UY as possible. also, you ideally never want to travel in the last 3 months or so of your UY (jun-jul-aug for a sept UY) - largely due to traveling after your banking window has closed, which limits your options for any current year pts used to book the stay.

use year month is only an issue if you need to cancel. it has nothing to do with when you can call to book a stay.

some examples:

if you have a june UY and a may 2012 trip and you need to cancel 60 days out, your banking window closed on jan 31, 2012 so you'd have to use all of the pts in the reservation before they expire on may 31, 2012.

if you have a june UY and a june 2012 trip and you need to cancel 60 days out, your banking window won't close until jan 31, 2013 so you'd have until then to decide whether to use current year (2012) pts for a reservation in that UY or else bank them to the next year. (you'd still need to use banked and borrowed pts by may 31, 2013.)

if you have a june UY and a may 2012 trip and you need to cancel 5 days out, the pts would turn into "holding" pts so you'd have to use all of the pts in the reservation subject to a 60-day-out limitation - but that won't matter since they expire on may 31...which is less than 60 days out.

if you have a june UY and a june 2012 trip and you need to cancel 5 days out, the pts would turn into "holding" pts so you'd have to use all of the pts in the reservation subject to a 60-day-out limitation - but at least you'd have 12 months before they expire on may 31, 2013 to decide what to do with them.

more info about UY is here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1942668

 

[Greysword]

Keep in mind that DVC is a long-term purchase. A September UY will effectively lockout the summer months (no banking canceled points nor booking Disney Concierge from May-August), so if you ever have kids (sorry, don't know you well) or want to tour in the summer this may be a hinderence.

 

[Sandisw]

As others have mentioned, a Sept UY works well for travel from Sept through May. It leaves vulnerable the summer months.

If you think going in the summer is a possibility, then look for a Spring UY, like April--that would be good for April through December, but leave the winter months (Jan, Feb, Mar) vulnerable.

So, I would think about your travel habits now and what might happen in the future and go from there.

We went with June UY because we currently travel in the summer (I teach) but knew that when DH and I are retired, we would also want to go somewhere from Sept to Jan and June UY worked for that as well.

Good luck!