Use year

[april2011bride]

When people write "use year" what exactly does that mean? I was in the impression you get the points every year.

 

[drusba]

Yes, you do get points every year but your year is defined as a "use year" which will be designated by a month, e.g., a "March use year," which means your year runs from March 1 to February 28 (or 29 in leap year) and your points for the year begin March 1. There are 8 possible use years (there are no Jan, May, July, or Nov use years)

Just note that use year does not determine when you can go (which is any time of year) or when you can call to reserve (always 11 months out at home resort, 7 at others). It determines period of time for which any given year's points are effective and your banking date (the date by which you must bank points into your next use year if you are not going to use them during a current use year) which is by the end of the eighth month of your use year.

 

[sissy1]

I'm pretty new at this too. We are now proud owners of 2 home resorts, both of them stripped of points when we bought them (BLT & BWV). My understanding of UY is that you can book your ressies at an 11 month window and also thats when your new points are added on. We have an August UY on both contracts. Hope this helps!

 

[keaster]

We have a February use year.

We get our annual allotment of points on February 1st, and they are good until January 31st.

If we have points we are not going to use by January 31st, we must bank them into the next use year by September 30th.

 

[chalee94]

We get our annual allotment of points on February 1st, and they are good until January 31st.

lots of us talk like this, but actually our pts for your 2014 use year are already in our accounts if you look online.

the basics of UY are:

1) UY tells you when the pts are valid for stays - a feb UY means your 2013 UY runs from feb 1, 2013 to jan 31, 2014.

2) you can only bank or borrow pts to move them 1 time...up or back 1 use year.

so your feb 2013 pts can be borrowed into your 2012 UY for stays as early as feb 1, 2012, or banked into your 2014 UY for stays as late as the night of jan 31, 2015...but that's it. (and once you move the pts, they can never be put back.)

3) UY has nothing to do with calling to book. you can call to book 11 months from check-in at your home resort.

you just need to make sure you have enough pts (banked + current + borrowed) in order to pay for the stay.

so if you've used all of your 2012 and 2013 pts, but want to stay feb 1, 2013, you could still have called as early as march 1, 2012 to book that stay at your home resort even if all you have access to is borrowed pts from 2014...

4) UY month determines when your banking window closes. traveling after your banking window closes limits your options if you need to cancel, as you may have to scramble to use current UY pts before they expire...

here's a good thread to bookmark for info about use year:

Understanding Use Year

 

[lions1995]

My understanding of UY is that you can book your ressies at an 11 month window and also thats when your new points are added on. We have an August UY on both contracts. Hope this helps!

UY does not have relevance to when you can call to book. You can make reservations at your home resort 11 months prior to day of arrival and all other resorts at 7 months prior to arrival. The UY does dictate when you get your point allocations. So an February UY will be allocated points, would have gotten their points on February 1, 2012 this year and they would be good until January 31st 2013 (unless banked into the following year).

UY and reservations do matter when making the reservation to ensure you will have enough points at the time of your vacatation. So, if I had 200 points at BLT (home resort) - February UY and 0 points at the moment, I could still call and make a reservation today for a stay starting on April 3, 2013 since I would be getting 200 points come February 1st 2013. IF the stay required more than the 200 points, I could borrow from the following UY (2/1/2014 to 1/31/2015). That would just mean I would have less points to use come February 2014.

 

[april2011bride]

I understand! Thank you!