Understanding Use Year - Updated 5/31/2012

[Sandisw]

Originally Posted by shancan911

Insomniac here. After reading this thread, I think I'm more confused than before. We just bought BLT last week(October) Our UY is March, I know DH has to bank points like this week. So, did we get 2009 points? If so, that's like a discount, right? Because we didn't pay for March through September? I'll get it all some day. I was on a cruise, and worried about DS getting his missed schoolwork done, and could not understand or come up with questions at the appropriate time, and now I'm lost

Yes, when you bought BLT, they gave you current UY points since we are still in the 2009 March UY.

Since you just bought, you are only going to pay MF's for 2009 from now until the end of the year so in a way, you are getting a deal as MF's are based on the calendar year and not the UY.

If you have 2009 points that you are not using, you have until October 31st to get them banked. As a new buyer, I do think they give you a bit of a leeway but if you have your member number already, give MS a call and get them banked (or go on DVC member website and bank them there).

Congratulations!!!

[DISNEMOM]

subscribing

[Toad_Passenger]

Okay, I'm running this through here to see if I'm grasping this 100%.

Let's use a December UY in my example.

On 12/1/09 I get 150 points which can be used for 12/1/09 - 12/1/10 ressies.
If I know I'm not going to be vacationing during that time period, I may bank those points.

That would mean on 12/1/10 I would get 150 points to be used in 2011. Plus the 150 points that were banked.

However, once I bank my first 150 points (say in April of 2010), if I want to make a reservation for February of 2011, would I be able to with those banked points, even though I haven't been given my additional 150 points for 2011?

[chalee94]

Originally Posted by Toad_Passenger

However, once I bank my first 150 points (say in April of 2010), if I want to make a reservation for February of 2011, would I be able to with those banked points, even though I haven't been given my additional 150 points for 2011?

from page 1:

Remember, use year has nothing to do with when you may call to make a reservation. All of your points are actually "in your account". You don't have to wait until your use year begins to have access to your points - you just have to match your vacation dates to the use year it falls within, and then make sure you have enough points in that use year to make the desired reservation.

your 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 pts are all already in your account. step 1 is to determine that feb 2011 is in your 2010 use year. so you can call in march 2010 to make a reservation at your home resort in feb 2011 using any combination of:

*banked 2009 pts
*current 2010 pts
*borrowed 2011 pts

(december is more confusing as a use year because 2009 pts are mostly usable in 2010 and so on.)

Originally Posted by Toad_Passenger

That would mean on 12/1/10 I would get 150 points to be used in 2011. Plus the 150 points that were banked.

to clarify: the pts you "get" on 12/1/10 are 2010 use year pts, even though you are likely to use them in 2011. when you call in march 2010 to book feb 2011, you would be using "current" pts from your 2010 use year along with the banked pts from your 2009 use year.

[Toad_Passenger]

Originally Posted by chalee94

to clarify: the pts you "get" on 12/1/10 are 2010 use year pts, even though you are likely to use them in 2011. when you call in march 2010 to book feb 2011, you would be using "current" pts from your 2010 use year along with the banked pts from your 2009 use year.

So, since they are already considered "in the account" I would actually have 300 points to spend on the February 2011 ressies?

Interesting. Thanks.

[chalee94]

Originally Posted by Toad_Passenger

So, since they are already considered "in the account" I would actually have 300 points to spend on the February 2011 ressies?

yes. or you could even borrow your dec 2011 pts when you make the call in march 2010 to spend a total of up to 450 pts on your feb 2011 stay...

[Sandisw]

Originally Posted by Toad_Passenger

So, since they are already considered "in the account" I would actually have 300 points to spend on the February 2011 ressies?

Interesting. Thanks.

Technically, you have all your points when you buy and they just become current UY points every year at the start of your UY.

The easiest way to understand how to know what points can be used for the reservations is to first figure out what UY your trip will happen. Once you know that, you can always "pay" with banked points from the prior UY, current UY points, and borrowed points from the next UY.

Dec UY can be tricky to get because your current UY is typically the calendar year before the year we are in. Dec 2010 UY covers travel for most of 2011 (January - November).

[disneymath]

We typically travel to WDW the last half of August - evn if we buy DVC I can't see this changing much as it is the best value point-wise over the summer. We may occasionally travel in early December. When I retire (more than 20 yrs from now), I could see early December and January/February trips replacing the August ones.

Am I correct in thinking that August would be our best UY with June being the runner up? With an August UY, points would have to be banked by April 3oth, right? If so, this would even cover the unlikely event of my booking a March Break trip.

[Sammie]

Originally Posted by Sandisw

Technically, you have all your points when you buy and they just become current UY points every year at the start of your UY.

The easiest way to understand how to know what points can be used for the reservations is to first figure out what UY your trip will happen. Once you know that, you can always "pay" with banked points from the prior UY, current UY points, and borrowed points from the next UY.

Dec UY can be tricky to get because your current UY is typically the calendar year before the year we are in. Dec 2010 UY covers travel for most of 2011 (January - November).

This is possibly one of the best explanations ever.

[Sammie]

Originally Posted by disneymath

We typically travel to WDW the last half of August - evn if we buy DVC I can't see this changing much as it is the best value point-wise over the summer. We may occasionally travel in early December. When I retire (more than 20 yrs from now), I could see early December and January/February trips replacing the August ones.

Am I correct in thinking that August would be our best UY with June being the runner up? With an August UY, points would have to be banked by April 3oth, right? If so, this would even cover the unlikely event of my booking a March Break trip.

Not sure which would be best but can tell you for those of us that book most of our trips for August, having an Oct. use year which we do, is not good.

[Sandisw]

Originally Posted by disneymath

We typically travel to WDW the last half of August - evn if we buy DVC I can't see this changing much as it is the best value point-wise over the summer. We may occasionally travel in early December. When I retire (more than 20 yrs from now), I could see early December and January/February trips replacing the August ones.

Am I correct in thinking that August would be our best UY with June being the runner up? With an August UY, points would have to be banked by April 3oth, right? If so, this would even cover the unlikely event of my booking a March Break trip.

Yes, August would be ideal for your trips with June coming in right behind. We have June UY because I teach and travel to WDW beginning to mid August. Last summer, I was making changes to our reservation right up to the 31 day mark (trying to get different resorts for our 1st DVC stay!).

Having the UY that falls right before your typical travel really does give you the most flexibility if you need to change or cancel a trip (at least 31 days out--after that the points go in to holding and then there are different rules) since you have those first 8 months to bank points.

The other piece is with borrowed points. Once borrowed, they can not be returned and expire at the end of the UY they are borrowed in to. When you travel at the beginning of the UY and have to change/cancel, it gives you a lot of time to reschedule so you can use up those borrowed points.

[disneymath]

Originally Posted by Sammie

Not sure which would be best but can tell you for those of us that book most of our trips for August, having an Oct. use year which we do, is not good.

Okay, so October is definitely not even a consideration then!

Originally Posted by Sandisw

Yes, August would be ideal for your trips with June coming in right behind.

Thanks for confirming this for me!

[CarolMN]

Bumping up - Original Post updated with a more timely example.

Let me know if there are any typos or anything "hinky" with the details. I think I got all the dates correct, but you never know, LOL.

[Illini Al]

Potential "future owner" question. After reading the OP multiple times, I may be getting the hang of this, but if I ever become an owner, I can see using Excel to manage all of my current, banked, and borrowed points several years out. Has anyone ever created a detailed Excel spreadsheet to track and manage point usage?

[Corwin]

We just got back from WDW and bought 160 points in BLT with a September UY.

Our guide originally wanted to assign us a February UY, but we don't have a vacation planned until August 2011, and he wanted us to be able to use our 2009 points for that vacation. So we got a September UY.

Reading this thread, it looks like we got the worst possible use year, as we usually travel in late August.

We are still within the 10-day rescission period, so I am strongly considering calling my guide and switching our use year, or cancelling the purchase if they won't switch it.

If we usually travel in late August, our September UY is not good, right? What months would be better?

If we get an August UY, or the February UY that we were originally offered, our 2009 points will expire before we can use them for our August 2011 visit. In that case, are we better off renting the points, or just living with the September UY so that we can use them for our August 2011 visit?

Thanks very much for any help!