Use Year

[dms1709]

I am trying to understand DVC. We would probably travel during the summer months, when the kids are out of school. What would be the best Use year to insure we would get our home resort during the summer months. thanks

Donna

 

[DVC Mike]

Your Use Year is determined at the time you purchase your ownership interest in a DVC resort and marks the time each year when you receive a new allotment of vacation points. It affects when you can bank and borrow vacation points, and sets the deadline for certain vacation decisions.

Use Year only matters if you have to cancel a vacation that was scheduled to occur in the last four months of your Use Year. That's because banking of points is not allowed during the last four months of your Use Year and you don't have much time to reschedule before the points expire. Many owners never have to cancel a vacation, so they don't worry about Use Year.

If you travel about the same time of year on a regular basis, it may be best to choose a Use Year that starts right before that timeframe, or at least falls no more than 7 or 8 months prior to that time. Keep in mind that your travel pattern may change over the course of your DVC ownership. What starts out as a "perfect" use year may end up being not so perfect later on.

 

[janej]

I am trying to understand DVC. We would probably travel during the summer months, when the kids are out of school. What would be the best Use year to insure we would get our home resort during the summer months. thanks

Donna

If you want to use your points in the summer, you should get Apr - Jun use year depend on when summer starts for you.

My Use year is Dec. I used to have trouble with it since we have a 2 day break in Nov that I'd like to plan 4 day trip. If I need to cancel, I would not be able to use the points since they are so close to expire. Now that my kids are older, we cannot go during school year even for short trips. I rented out my points this year and paid cash for summer. Dec UY turned out to be good for rental since early Dec is in demand for DVC.

 

[dms1709]

Thank you. I am starting to understand - you need a use year 11 months prior to when you want to go and that is to stay in your home resort. At seven months you can request another resort, correct?

Donna

 

[DVC Mike]

Thank you. I am starting to understand - you need a use year 11 months prior to when you want to go and that is to stay in your home resort.
Donna

No. Use Year month has nothing to do with when you can travel or even make a reservation at a DVC resort. You can always reserve 11 months ahead of travel for your home resort, and 7 months ahead for other DVC resorts. The reservation date determines which Use Year the points are deducted from.

 

[janej]

Thank you. I am starting to understand - you need a use year 11 months prior to when you want to go and that is to stay in your home resort. At seven months you can request another resort, correct?

Let me see if an example would help. If you end up buying Oct UY and I have Dec UY. We both want to book our home resort for Nov 09. We both can call in Dec 08 to book. Since your UY starts in Oct, you will use your 09 points. i will use my 08 points. If we end up taking this vacation as planned, either use year would work just fine. But if I am counting on getting good airfare from Southwest, and found out when they open up their schedule for Nov that the fare has gone up too much for me to take the vacation. It might be too late for me to use or bank these 08 points. In your case, even if you find out in September that you cannot go, you still have all the options open for your points.

So you want to get use year that is just a little ahead of the time you usually go to Disney.