Understanding Use Year - Updated February 10, 2021

[Aubie881]

Ok,this is why I think a June UY is better for our travel needs, Assuming we will never have to cancel a May trip. You said my last post would work so here is what I think would happen with a April UY. Icould be wrong as I have only been looking into this for a couple of weeks. I want to start to travel May 2011 with a DVC resale then every other year. With April UY is this right.

April 2010 50pts Bank to April 2011
April 2011 50 pts + 50 banked points
May 2011 need only 82 points, bank 18pts to April 2012
April 2012 50pts plus 18pts from 2011
If staying with my May every other year travel would I not lose my2011 pts, with a May 2013 trip.
Could i Travel May 2012 by borrowing some points from 2013. I think this pattern would just change my travel to even number years.

My head is starting to pound, I did not think that buying into DVC could be so stressfull.

 

[chalee94]

Could i Travel May 2012 by borrowing some points from 2013. I think this pattern would just change my travel to even number years.

you could rent the 2010 pts or else just wait and look for a stripped april contract with pts coming in 2011...you'd probably save a few bucks.

not a big deal...but probably a better idea to get the april UY in case you have to cancel...

 

[Sandisw]

Ok,this is why I think a June UY is better for our travel needs, Assuming we will never have to cancel a May trip. You said my last post would work so here is what I think would happen with a April UY. Icould be wrong as I have only been looking into this for a couple of weeks. I want to start to travel May 2011 with a DVC resale then every other year. With April UY is this right.

April 2010 50pts Bank to April 2011
April 2011 50 pts + 50 banked points
May 2011 need only 82 points, bank 18pts to April 2012
April 2012 50pts plus 18pts from 2011
If staying with my May every other year travel would I not lose my2011 pts, with a May 2013 trip.
Could i Travel May 2012 by borrowing some points from 2013. I think this pattern would just change my travel to even number years.

My head is starting to pound, I did not think that buying into DVC could be so stressfull.

Yes, you could borrow the points from 2013 to travel in 2012 and then start going the even years. What you may find, that you will want to add an extra night or so so you can use closer to your 100 points every other year (this leaves less of a chance of losing those points).

Good luck!

 

[Aubie881]

thanks, you have given great advice and I will surely use it in making my decision on UY.

 

[laundrygal]

>>If you see yourselves going in the late spring months, the Summer months and October - December, April would be better. (There is no May use year).

We have been thinking about DVC for some time, mostly so we can visit WDW about every 18 months (in May one year, then December the next, then 3rd year off). If I read this thread correctly, it seems like an April UY is the right choice. Do I have that right? Are there any other months that might be a better or at least comparable choice? If it matters, the 2nd-year December trip is more important to us than the May one. In the May year, we could ultimately be more flexible if required.

We usually have the ability to plan and keep our vacations without disruption, but I can definitely appreciate the desire to avoid losing points unnecessarily due to the banking/holding rules.

Thanks so much! DISboards has been EXTREMELY helpful to me in understanding DVC and the pros and cons!

-Sarah

 

[chalee94]

>>If you see yourselves going in the late spring months, the Summer months and October - December, April would be better. (There is no May use year).

We have been thinking about DVC for some time, mostly so we can visit WDW about every 18 months (in May one year, then December the next, then 3rd year off). If I read this thread correctly, it seems like an April UY is the right choice. Do I have that right? Are there any other months that might be a better or at least comparable choice?

yep - april or december would both be good choices.

if you have to cancel your reservation and can do so more than 30 days in advance, either UY should work fine - you would still be within your banking window. if you never have to cancel a reservation, your UY month will never matter.

 

[mom2mizmous]

We are an example of how your use year prefence may change. When we bought our BCV , we were only able to get limited use years (or so we thought back then-lol)SOOO since we generally traveled during feb break, we took a sept use year. Fast forward a few years, DH change of jobs and we NOW vacation mostly in JULY (NOT a good set up for SEPT use year). So far we have been ok and will continue to keep our fingers crossed. So as others have said , choose your use year wisely, but DO keep in mind your FUTURE vacation patterns MAY change

 

[vellamint]

I keep getting confused......can someone please help me?

We plan on vacation 2-3 more years in mid-end August and then I plan to travel oct-dec.....even over the dreaded christmas/new years holiday week.

What would be my best use year?

 

[Sandisw]

I keep getting confused......can someone please help me?

We plan on vacation 2-3 more years in mid-end August and then I plan to travel oct-dec.....even over the dreaded christmas/new years holiday week.

What would be my best use year?

August would work out well for you. The ideal situation is to have your UY start just prior to your vacations. With Aug, you would have until March 31st to bank points if you ever had to cancel the trip.

If you are buying resale, and want some flexibility (since you can't always find the UY that is ideal), June would also work out well.

Good luck!

 

[vellamint]

August would work out well for you. The ideal situation is to have your UY start just prior to your vacations. With Aug, you would have until March 31st to bank points if you ever had to cancel the trip.

If you are buying resale, and want some flexibility (since you can't always find the UY that is ideal), June would also work out well.

Good luck!

Which UY would I DEFINITELY NOT want for my timeframes...... I am looking at resales and some are cheaper than others but cheap won't help me if I get a "bad" UY.

Thanks.

 

[5forDiz]

Which UY would I DEFINITELY NOT want for my timeframes...... I am looking at resales and some are cheaper than others but cheap won't help me if I get a "bad" UY.

Thanks.

just in case you didn't know January,May,July and November are NOT
UYs.

I'd say August is good choice for travel months you mention. September too, October works too.

Just keep in mind that ONLY CURRENT UY points will be bankable IF you cancel a reservation at least 31 days to check in date so borrowed and banked points used in your reservation will need to be utilized by the end of your UY. If you cancel 30 days thru 1 day before check-in date points go into Holding Status and must be utilized by end of UY and may not be banked even if they are Current UY points ( there are some booking stipulations as well when points go into Holding too ).

Sometimes there is really no "ideal" UY if you plan to travel over a span of months - - best advice is probably to pick UY that will have your travel fall within first 8 months of that UY so jmho in your case I wouldn't consider:

~ June because the banking deadline is Jan 31 (not great for cancelling a Dec/Jan trip or Feb trip) but not the worst choice, and

~ prob not Feb either ( banking deadline is Sept 30 and end of UY Jan 31 is way TOO CLOSE for travel in Dec/Jan if you had to cancel & utilize points by end of UY - note that this is where you will come into a difficult situation if you have points that cannot be banked either because you are beyond the banking deadline OR you've cancelled between 30 days thru 1 day before checkin OR you've got banked and borrowed points in your reservation -- you wouldn't want to be sooo close to the end of your UY that leaves you very little time to utilize those points that you've got no choice but to make use of before the UY ends.

~ March pretty much same as Feb because of banking deadline of Oct 31 & UY ending on Feb 28 or 29

~ April probably isn't best either because banking deadline is Nov 30 ( again, not good for cancelling Dec/Jan or Feb travel ) and also anything beyond banking window or non-bankable needs to be utilized in a reservation that ends before April 1st so that leaves you approx 3 months if you cancelled mid-late December trip, etc.

I mention travel during January because you did make mention of Jan in your post and also because that is a great time to travel to WDW with DVC because point usage is SUPER LOW !!!!! ( February isn't too bad either point usage-wise )

 

[Sandisw]

Which UY would I DEFINITELY NOT want for my timeframes...... I am looking at resales and some are cheaper than others but cheap won't help me if I get a "bad" UY.

Thanks.

For those Oct/Nov/Dec trips you may want to do in the future, I would stay away from Feb and March. Even April works, as you would have until Nov 30th to cancel and still bank points--that would cover your Dec trips since you have to cancel at least 31 days in advance to avoid points going into holding.

Good luck!!!

 

[tekmom]

Hi, we only go to WDW in July and August. For a resale BCV (or any)what would be a good use year? How many points would be a good start? 200? or less?

 

[chalee94]

Hi, we only go to WDW in July and August. For a resale BCV (or any)what would be a good use year?

anything before july: june might be ideal (and also work fine for holiday trips in the winter) but a feb/mar UY might make potential spring break trips easier.

How many points would be a good start? 200? or less?

i started with 40 a few years back so i could pay cash. (on the down side, now i definitely need a few more.) look at the point charts linked above and figure out how you would tend to use DVC...then calculate how many points you would need... it's very individual, but 160 would give you more options if you intended to trade out for other timeshares.

 

[amelia1]

Okay.....I'm really trying to understand this UY thing. Really! I'm not getting it though.
So...if we were to travel in March, June, August, and even December...would a good UY for us be April?
I'm sorry to be such a dope!

 

[Sandisw]

Okay.....I'm really trying to understand this UY thing. Really! I'm not getting it though.
So...if we were to travel in March, June, August, and even December...would a good UY for us be April?
I'm sorry to be such a dope!

Since you have a lot of months that you like to travel, I would say Dec UY would be good. The rule it to try and travel during the first 8 months of the UY so that if you have to cancel a trip, you still have time to bank points (or if you are going on borrowed points and have to cancel, you still have time to use those points before your UY ends as borrowed points can't be returned).

With Dec UY, you would be able to cancel for all your trips since you have until July 31st to bank points. This would work even for August trips as you must cancel at least 31 days out to prevent points from going into holding.

Good luck!

 

[amelia1]

I just don't get that UY thing so I'm glad there are people like you out there!!!

 

[vellamint]

Okay! Back from my vacation and DVC tour. Just want to make sure I have the UY understood correctly.

Poster above stated "pick a UY that will have your travel fall within first 8 months of THAT UY".

With that reasoning.....with plans on traveling from August through February.....an August use year would be best for me....correct?

(I know...I widened my vacationing months....but using the "first 8 months of the UY" scenario I figured it would work).

 

[chalee94]

With that reasoning.....with plans on traveling from August through February.....an August use year would be best for me....correct?

yes. if you would very rarely travel from april/may through july, then august is a really good choice.

 

[pnyltwk]

x