Originally Posted by
OsakaWino
You need to read what the bloggers say about this. And maybe you also need to go back to 2nd grade arithmetic. Unless you continue to hit 60 nights at about the same time each year or consistently post more than 60 nights throughout the year, there is the potential for a large gap when you have no TSUs that can be applied. The same holds true for Exporist Club Access Awards.
More to the point, what in the world does your post have to do with this thread?????
1. I don't travel like the bloggers do and their needs and priorities are often at odds with mine. My goal isn't to maximize every cat 7 certificate at PH Maldives. My goal is to enjoy travel to its fullest within an 'upper middle class' income and time limitations.
2. My travel pattern is mostly self driven (not work driven) and thus fairly predictable and controllable.
3. Having a 'large gap' where I don't have a TSU in my pocket is meaningless in comparison to simply being able to use them. My key times to use them is winter break (usually the non-peak week after new years), spring break, and early summer. Getting them as soon as possible after early summer is ideal because that gives me the most time to coordinate using them with my travel. Waiting until December so that I make sure I have them through the following Fall months is simply pointless at best, and at worst, just provides time where I may loose the availability to use them where and when I want. I can't travel much at all during the fall, and when I do, it is for work when the TSU is worth much less.
I get if the strategy is to wait until a certain date because you want to use them at a very specific time. I wish they would have an expiration date a little longer. But the common complaint that earning them sooner means they expire sooner is tiresome. No matter when you earn them, you have 12 months to burn them. You get no more time to find a use for them just because you earn them later.
And yes, this became tangential to the thread, but I didn't make the false claim that " the faster you qualify, the sooner your benefits expire"