2 more questions!! I am full of questions today!!

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thank you for the link. I read it.

This has me thinking. "If you cancel a reservation 30 days or less prior to arrival, the points go into the holding account. In addition to expiring at the end of the use year, holding points may only be used to make a reservation that will begin no more than 60 days in the future. Since availability is often very limited 60 days or less prior to arrival, it can be very difficult to use holding points. It is not unusual for holding points to expire without being used."

If I had an October user year that would mean I would have to cancel before May. That's not enough time for me. But if I had a Feb user year I could cancel all the way up until September 30th. And still have time to reuse those cancelled points for a trip that following January because my UY wouldn't be until February.

I may not be understanding it well enough but it is making sense to me right now that if I want more flexibility in the dates I can cancel, that Feb UY for October and January travel would make sense.

There is no January user year so I can't get that. January will probably be our main travel dates but occasionally October as well. So since there is no January UY Feb is the closest thing and it still accommodates the October travel.

We travel in October and January but since we loved our last trip to WDW this January we are probably going to try to stick with that timeframe.

You are missing that the cancellation is 30 days prior to ARRIVAL (ie, your vacation) and is not saying 30 days prior to your banking deadline.

Also, if you have an Oct UY then any reservation is taking place at the start of your new UY. The banking deadline you are referencing is in your previous UY and would have nothing to at all with the cancellation of an Oct vacation. The cancellation of the Oct UY would mean you would have from that Oct until the following May 31st to decide to book another trip before Sept 30th of the following year or to bank the points.

Other than the 30 day holding bit the vacations that could cause a banking problem with an Oct UY would be vacations in June, July, August and September because Oct UY points either need to be banked or used by Sept 30 of the current UY.

edit - a February UY is the absolute worst for a January reservation in case of a late cancellation. For travel in Oct and January I'd recommend an Oct UY as best but August or Sept would also work to allow you latitude for rebooking in case of cancellation.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

You are missing that the cancellation is 30 days prior to ARRIVAL (ie, your vacation) and is not saying 30 days prior to your banking deadline.

Also, if you have an Oct UY then any reservation is taking place at the start of your new UY. The banking deadline you are referencing is in your previous UY and would have nothing to at all with the cancellation of an Oct vacation. The cancellation of the Oct UY would mean you would have from that Oct until the following May 31st to decide to book another trip before Sept 30th of the following year or to bank the points.

Other than the 30 day holding bit the vacations that could cause a banking problem with an Oct UY would be vacations in June, July, August and September because Oct UY points either need to be banked or used by Sept 30 of the current UY.

edit - a February UY is the absolute worst for a January reservation in case of a late cancellation.

Ok, gotchya on Feb UY.

I read this "
Use year only matters if you have to cancel a vacation that was scheduled to occur late in your use year - the last three months. That's because banking is not allowed during the last four months of your use year and so you don't have much time to reschedule before the points expire. Many owners never have to cancel a vacation (lucky them, LOL) so they don't worry about use year.


ADVICE: If you travel about the same time of the year on a regular basis, it's best to choose a use year that falls no more than 7 or 8 months prior to that time. Keep in mind that your travel pattern may change over the course of your ownership. What starts out as a "perfect" use year may end up to be not so perfect"


So for a January travel we should have a user year no earlier than May, or if we wanted to primarily travel in October we would need a user year no earlier than Feb.
]
But we KNOW we do not want ot travel during the summer, so having a UY 4 month window happen during the summer months would not work for us.

SO if your 4 month window falls in May, June , July or August and even into September, that wouldn't be a good time for us to HAVE TO reschedule a trip in. Right? Or no?

A March user year would mean I would have to use the points or bank them by October 31st.

If I had to cancel an October trip less than 30 days prior to arrival that means they would be in holding and have to be used by March or lost. And from what I read, since you have to wait until 60 days prior to arrival to book with holding points, availability is almost nil and most ppl usually lose holding points.

SO maybe March or April would be better?

I know having an October user year doesn't sound right for us. That means for our October trip we would have to cancel before May 31st to be able to bank those points for next year. If not we would have to reuse them before our UY ends, in October. But if I had to cancel an October trip, there is no way I could probably reschedule for the same month I had to cancel in.

 

[LisaS]

If I had an October user year that would mean I would have to cancel before May.

No. You have misunderstood several key concepts so erase what you think you know and let's start over.

If you have a trip booked with a check-in date of Oct 1, 2012 you would have to cancel no later than Aug 31, 2012 (31 days from check-in) to avoid having the points go into holding.

If you had an Oct UY, you would have used some/all of the following to book that stay: Oct 2011 UY points that you banked into your Oct 12 UY, Oct 12 UY points, Oct 2013 UY points that you borrowed into your Oct 12 UY. All points from the cancelled stay would return to your Oct 12 UY.

So what can you do with points from that cancelled stay? With an Oct UY, you would have until May 2013 to bank any current UY points and up to an entire year (Sep 30, 2013) to use those points for something else, very helpful if you used banked or borrowed points for that stay since you would not be able to bank those points.

That's not enough time for me. But if I had a Feb user year I could cancel all the way up until September 30th. And still have time to reuse those cancelled points for a trip that following January because my UY wouldn't be until February.

With a Feb UY, you would have to cancel that same stay (Oct 1, 2012 check-in date) no later than... Aug 31, 2012. Your banking deadline would be Sep 30, 2012 for any current (Feb 2012) UY points used for that stay. Any banked or borrowed points would expire Jan 31, 2013.

We travel in October and January but since we loved our last trip to WDW this January we are probably going to try to stick with that timeframe.

For travel in January, February is the worst possible UY. If you had a trip booked for Jan 15, 2013 and had to cancel (no later than 31 days prior to check-in which would be Dec 15, 2012), you might well be past your banking deadline of Sep 30, 2012. If so or if you used banked or borrowed points for that stay, you would have until Jan 31, 2013 (2 weeks past your original check-in date) to use the points for something else.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

No. You have misunderstood several key concepts so erase what you think you know and let's start over.

If you have a trip booked with a check-in date of Oct 1, 2012 you would have to cancel no later than Aug 31, 2012 (31 days from check-in) to avoid having the points go into holding.

If you had an Oct UY, you would have used some/all of the following to book that stay: Oct 2011 UY points that you banked into your Oct 12 UY, Oct 12 UY points, Oct 2013 UY points that you borrowed into your Oct 12 UY. All points from the cancelled stay would return to your Oct 12 UY.

So what can you do with points from that cancelled stay? With an Oct UY, you would have until May 2013 to bank any current UY points and up to an entire year (Sep 30, 2013) to use those points for something else, very helpful if you used banked or borrowed points for that stay since you would not be able to bank those points.


With a Feb UY, you would have to cancel that same stay (Oct 1, 2012 check-in date) no later than... Aug 31, 2012. Your banking deadline would be Sep 30, 2012 for any current (Feb 2012) UY points used for that stay. Any banked or borrowed points would expire Jan 31, 2013.

For travel in January, February is the worst possible UY. If you had a trip booked for Jan 15, 2013 and had to cancel (no later than 31 days prior to check-in which would be Dec 15, 2012), you might well be past your banking deadline of Sep 30, 2012. If so or if you used banked or borrowed points for that stay, you would have until Jan 31, 2013 (2 weeks past your original check-in date) to use the points for something else.

So if January will probably be the most month of travel, what would be a good user year for that? There is no January user year.

I do want a user year that would be good for either October or January travel if that is possible.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So if January will probably be the most month of travel, what would be a good user year for that? There is no January user year.

I do want a user year that would be good for either October or January travel if that is possible.

As Lisa explained you have been confusing several key points/dates and combining them together.

Simplest - October is the optimum UY to cover travel in both October and January. UY vs. calendar year may be confusing you a bit and you want to try to start at the beginning of the calendar year while that isn't going to work out well for you.

Lisa explained how an Oct reservation works with an Oct UY so here's how January would work.

With your Oct UY your book a vacation for January 2013. You use your current Oct UY points - which are actually 2012 points but those are what are available for stays from Oct 2012 to Sept 2013. Now, if you need to cancel your January vacation you must do so at least 30 days out to not have the points go into holding status, so you cancel sometime in December. You now have from Dec xx, 2012 to May 31st 2013 to decide to bank your points or to rebook a vacation for anytime from Dec xx, 2012 to Sept 30, 2013. If you decide to bank your Oct 2012 UY points by May 31, 2013 then they can be used for stays between Oct 1, 2013 to Sept 30, 2014.

Just to look at it based on the UY in the 7 to 8 months prior to travel the following UY's would be good for January:

June (5th best)
August (4th best)
September (3rd best)
October (second best)
December (the best)
(there are no January, May, July and November UY's)

Using the same for October travel the following UY's are best:

February (not the best but could work in a pinch)
March (6th best)
April (5th best)
June (4th best)
August (3rd best)
Sept (2nd best)
October (the best)

Now if you compare the 2 lists you see that the best UY for January travel doesn't work for October travel. Then you see that the second best UY for January travel is the best for October travel so voila! That's the best UY for the months you most wish to travel. Now as you see Sept, August and June would also all work but are further down the line for being best.

Also, while holding points aren't great it's far from impossible to use them. I've done so more than once and not had a problem and as long as you have some flexibility it would probably be fine although a little more stressful in worrying about getting a reservation.

 

[LisaS]

So if January will probably be the most month of travel, what would be a good user year for that? There is no January user year.

I do want a user year that would be good for either October or January travel if that is possible.

Pick a Use Year where you would travel early in your UY. If you only ever wanted to travel in January, December would be best (a January Use Year would work even better but it doesn't exist). However since you also want to travel in October, a Dec UY would not be good for that. Overall, an Oct UY would work very well for you since it works well for travel dates from Oct through May.

If you think your Oct trips might occasionally start in late September, then get a Sep Use Year instead.

We go to WDW from Oct through May and will rarely if ever go to WDW in June, July, August or September due to the heat and humidity. We have an October Use Year and it works great for us.

 

[LisaS]

I want to emphasize something that KAT4DISNEY stated in her post because I think the OP may be confused about the start and end dates of each UY. An October UY runs from Oct 1, 20xx to Sep 30, 20xx+1. Those with an Oct UY are in their 2011 UY which runs from Oct 1, 2011 through Sep 30, 2012. A trip in October falls within the first month of an Oct UY. A trip in January falls within the 4th month of an October Use Year.

A Feb UY runs from Feb 1, 20xx - Jan 31, 20xx+1. Those with a Feb Use Year are in their 2012 UY which runs from Feb 1, 2012 - Jan 31, 2013. A trip in January falls within the last month of a February Use Year. A trip in October falls within the 9th month of a February Use Year.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

It took me a while to get the hang of this as well. Those of us with a use year late in the year are one year behind and have to think as such.

We generally travel December through April and therefore have a December use year. On December 1st 2011 we received our points deposited in our account which we used for travel Christmas 2011. Although I made those reservations last winter, it had nothing to do with our use year.

So, our 2011 points were deposited and used. If we would have had to cancel and would have done so by November 24 2011, we would still have those points to travel up to November 31, 2012 and a banking deadline of July 31 2012 (for our 2011 points!!) If we would have had to cancel within 31 days, we would still be able to use our points until November 31 2012 suject to booking only 60 days before. We would not be able to bank those points.

I recently made our reservations for Christmas 2012. We will get the points deposited on December 1, 2012 and will hopefully use them as planned. Should we be unable to travel, those 2012 December points will be good until November 31 2013 with a banking deadline of July 31, 2013.

Main thing to keep straight, and once you "get it" it will be clear. Calendar year and use year are not the same, especially for those of us with late use years. We are currently in 2012 calendar year but in 2011 use year.

I hope I did not confuse you more but like the others have said, if you primarily plan to travel October through say March, October will be the best use year for you. Good luck!!

 

[Missyrose]

One of the hardest things about learning the whole DVC process is switching your brain from thinking of a year as January to December. You have to start thinking of a year in terms of your UY. If you pick an October UY, then you have to start thinking of your year beginning in October and ending at the end of September.

I created a spread sheet that has my UY months that includes my banking deadlines. It made planning much easier.

 

[LisaS]

To understand what points can be used for a stay, I find it helps to think of my points this way:

With an October UY,

Oct 2011 points can be used for stays from 10/1/11 - 9/30/12
Oct 2012 points can be used for stays from 10/1/12 - 9/30/13
Oct 2013 points can be used for stays from 10/1/13 - 9/30/14
and so on until the end of the contract.

You can bank points from one UY into the next UY at any time within the first 8 months of each UY. For example, Oct 2011 UY points can be banked into the Oct 2012 UY at any time between now and May 31, 2012. Once banked, those points can be used for stays from Oct 1, 2012 through Sep 30, 2013.

You can borrow points from one UY into the preceding UY at the time you make a reservation that requires additional points. For example, Oct 2012 points can be borrowed into the Oct 2011 UY, making them valid for stays from Oct 1, 2011 - Sep 30, 2012.

Banking and borrowing are "final" transactions. Once the points have been moved from one UY to another, they cannot be put back in their original UY. They will expire at the end of the UY into which they were moved if they are not used.