What is the best use year for me?

I think the general rule is to go with the month of expected travel or a month or 2 prior. This way, your normal travel dates fall in the first 8 months of your use year allowing flexibility in the case you need to cancel or bank your points. In your case, I’d think a December use year makes a lot of sense given your travel dates, but also banking deadline of July 31 giving you the summer to travel if you need and bank by school year if you don’t. September and October would also be good options.

I think Sept or Oct would be a great UY for you. Dec UY might be tricky as the first 2 weeks are the most popular in DVC and you might start your trip a day or 2 at the end of November. If you are thinking the end of Dec for your trips, then a Dec UY would be good since your banking deadline would be July 31st.

Thank you Mike! I was thinking October myself. That makes good sense!

Thank you Phil! I guess since I’m not a dvc owner I’m still a bit confused about how the process works. One thing I read is that getting a home resort that you want to stay at is important for booking far enough ahead that you can get in demand weeks. If I have a December or October use year won’t I just be getting my points then making it difficult to book for December or February? Or is the idea that you will book for Feb in March of the year prior?

I'd suggest October as the first choice and September as the second choice. I have December and typically like to travel in December... and it stinks because that Use Year with that in demand travel period is difficult. Save yourself the hassle of a December UY and go for a UY before that. Have fun searching for your contract!

Thank you so much! What do you find to be the right amount of points to buy? We were thinking 200-250.

When you plan to travel is the first step to figuring out a good UY. The next step is to ask yourself which months you are LEAST likely to travel using those points. Ideally, the months you are least likely come just before the start of your UY. I think August, September, October, and December UYs are theoretically work if you're traveling in December, February, and April. Which one is the best can be answered if you can determine when you're least likely to travel.

Interesting! As a teacher I’d say we are least likely to travel in October and November.

December may well be the best UY for you then. The only caveat to that is that some room categories in early December can be difficult unless you "walk" the reservation. This involves making a reservation before December and then modifying it over time to get the exact dates you want. This tends to be a more significant problem in low-point studios than 1 BRs. And AKL has a lot of inventory, so if you're buying points there, you'll probably be fine as long as you aren't aiming for club level or value level rooms (those are both very difficult to get year round there).

I'd recommend looking at the point charts for the resort you are interested in for the time period you want to travel and the room type you want. Then add 10% more points. However, if you are looking at a resort that has "value" rooms, those are typically high-demand and low availability so don't count on getting those. Plan to buy enough points that you could stay at the next higher room-view type, just in case. If you have some resorts in mind, check out the point charts.

For me, I wanted two one-week periods in studios plus a little bit of extra points, so that is what helped me decide the right amount of points (for now- LOL).

September or October

Thank you for the help! I appreciate it