2 Use Years-What do I need to know?

[Disney's Fan]

The Covid situation and its impact on our trip got me thinking about purchasing an additional use year. We currently have a February UY which is risky for December or January Trips. I’m thinking about purchasing a fall use year that would be used for fall/winter trips, and my February use year for spring and summer trips.
What do I need to know about having 2 different use years? I’ve mostly read on here that it is not a good thing, that it’s confusing to manage. Would some of the experts tell me what the finer points are of having 2?

 

[sethschroeder]

Keep them seperate and you are good.

• You can't combine point
• You have to toggle between agreements when booking
• If you transfer points between contracts you can't see online or book yourself (plus they keep normal expirations)
• Its more difficult to track because you are looking at two sets of everything (deadlines, points, expirations, banking, ect)

I didn't think it was a big deal when I first bought but have come to realize its a pain.

 

[Disney's Fan]

Keep them seperate and you are good.

• You can't combine point
• You have to toggle between agreements when booking
• If you transfer points between contracts you can't see online or book yourself (plus they keep normal expirations)
• Its more difficult to track because you are looking at two sets of everything (deadlines, points, expirations, banking, ect)

I didn't think it was a big deal when I first bought but have come to realize its a pain.

Thank you for your input! Your points brought up more questions:

*Would I have to log in to different accounts?
*Is the hassle only if I am trying to use both use years for one reservation?

I'm trying to decide if the hassle and confusion of two use years is worth it to provide the greater security of travelling at the beginning or middle of my use year instead of at the end. We usually go in May and December/January.

 

[Deb & Bill]

As long as they are titled the same, you would just log in once. Then you just make sure you are booking with the correct set of points when you book a stay. If you want to use both sets of points for one reservation, you either book some nights with the first contract, then book the rest of your stay with the second. As MS to add "continuing stay" with the reservation number of the other on both of them. They won't be able to be combined into one reservation. If you want to book it as one reservation, you'll need to transfer from one to the other. Home resort and UY month is maintained for both sets of points. So your transferred points don't become identical to the contract they are transferred to.

You also have to make sure you don't try to borrow transferred points because you can't do that. So you need to make sure you transfer the points than are current or banked for the dates of your trip. For example. Nov trip. Sept and Dec UYs. You can use transferred Sept 2020 points for a Nov 2020 trip, but not transferred Dec 2020 points because you would need to borrow the Dec 2020 points (you would still be in your Dec 2019 UY). If you transferred the Sept points into your Dec UY, you could borrow the Dec points because that was the contract you'd be using.

When you need to book your stay, you have to call MS to book it with transferred points. You cannot modify it yourself on line either. MS has to do that.

 

[sethschroeder]

Thank you for your input! Your points brought up more questions:

*Would I have to log in to different accounts?
*Is the hassle only if I am trying to use both use years for one reservation?

I'm trying to decide if the hassle and confusion of two use years is worth it to provide the greater security of travelling at the beginning or middle of my use year instead of at the end. We usually go in May and December/January.

Its the same email login. It basically shows the two contracts one above the other. They will be minimized and you can expand it in the dashboard by example.

When you go to book when you are setting up the search you will choose which contract you are going to use.

Are you February points direct? If not you could sell them?

We have an April UY. Travel in Sept/Dec/Jan depending on the year and will travel in July at very sporadic times as well. We will NEVER travel for spring break though.

Here is what the dashboard looks like:

 

[Disney's Fan]

Thank you both! The visual is very helpful! We have 3 contracts direct and the rest resale. We usually travel in May/June and December/January. In the past I haven’t been terribly concerned when we have traveled in December or January because we aren’t using too many points. However, this year we were traveling with extended family and had used a significant amount of points for a GV and one bedroom for all of us. I stood to lose a lot of points if we couldn’t go in December (which was rescheduled from May, and then again from July due to Covid, then because I was stressing out about losing so many points if any of my family backed out in December, we decided to push it until next May.) Because of that, I started thinking about how it may be to our advantage to have two different use years based on how we travel.
Thank you all for your advice! I probably won’t truly understand the inconvenience of two use years until I’m actually in it. While I think I could manage it, if something ever happened to me, my husband wouldn’t want the hassle, and when it passes on to my kids, they might not want the hassle either. I suppose we could always sell it if it is too much of an inconvenience.

 

[kboo]

*Would I have to log in to different accounts?
*Is the hassle only if I am trying to use both use years for one reservation?

First, I agree with what Seth said, above. You don't have to re-log in, but there's a drop down menu for the different contract numbers. It's a little bit of a pain, but not really that bad. It's easy to get used to.

Is it a hassle to use both years in 1 reservation? Not really - you can book them as split stays. For example, I have BLT Feb UY and VGF Aug UY. I could bank/borrow and alternate vacations staying at BLT 1 year and then VGF the next. Or, for a week, book 3 days at BLT and 4 days at VGF, and then if you want to switch at 7 months, do it in 2 pieces (or only switch one half).

It hasn't been a problem until Covid - We had an April trip with BLT (Feb UY) that got canceled, then we used those points to book for a June trip that got canceled. When we were going to downsize our August trip (August UY) (from a 2br to a 1br, again due to covid), I rebooked one of the nights with my Feb UY points to try to use them. NOW, I am likely going to cancel that trip entirely and book a 2 night, long weekend, with 1 night using some banked Feb UY points and the other night using some banked Aug UY points. I know, it's a mess. Hopefully won't happen again.

 

[dominickolas]

I believe there is, but could someone detail if there a limit to how many transfers you may do?

 

[sethschroeder]

I believe there is, but could someone detail if there a limit to how many transfers you may do?

1 per UY, either in or out

 

[kevtlas]

1 per UY, either in or out

I had always heard this as well but am currently in ROFR with a new UY and asked member services about the transferring between contracts a few weeks ago. According to the cast member I spoke to transfers are unlimited between your own contracts.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I had always heard this as well but am currently in ROFR with a new UY and asked member services about the transferring between contracts a few weeks ago. According to the cast member I spoke to transfers are unlimited between your own contracts.

I've transferred several times between my two UYs. Every time I did that transfer, the CM told me that I had used the once per year in or out for both of them at the time. I never had to transfer more than once a year, but they told me I was one and done.

 

[MICKIMINI]

I had always heard this as well but am currently in ROFR with a new UY and asked member services about the transferring between contracts a few weeks ago. According to the cast member I spoke to transfers are unlimited between your own contracts.

I can confirm this statement from a conversation I had with my DVC Guide last week. It is unlimited between your personal contracts.

 

[ohmyminnie]

Could someone please explain why you would transfer points between your different contracts. I have 4 different contracts, all with the same use year. Thanks!

 

[striker1064]

Could someone please explain why you would transfer points between your different contracts. I have 4 different contracts, all with the same use year. Thanks!

Since your contracts all have the same UY, you are able to combine the points seamlessly at 7 months to book whatever you want. This is not the case when you have different UYs. They are treated as separate memberships and you cannot combine the points yourself. That's where the transfer comes in - so you can make a continuous, uninterrupted booking. Otherwise, you'd have to book two separate stays with your different UYs.

 

[ohmyminnie]

Thanks for all the information. It sounds complicated!

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thanks for all the information. It sounds complicated!

I have a Sept OKW and a Dec OKW contract. Suppose I was short about thirty points for a trip I have planned for January. I can transfer 30 of my Dec points to my Sept contract to make the reservation instead of borrowing thirty points from next year.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

I have a Sept OKW and a Dec OKW contract. Suppose I was short about thirty points for a trip I have planned for January. I can transfer 30 of my Dec points to my Sept contract to make the reservation instead of borrowing thirty points from next year.

Wait, I'm trying to wrap my brain around this. If you are short points (meaning you used all of your Sept AND Dec points), wouldn't you have to borrow from next year anyway? I'm really wanting to understand this, because we are wanting more HHI points soon. We have a June UY and will continue traveling with family in the summer or fall, but we want to travel in the spring just the two of us. I thought the best option would be to sell our two small contracts and buy a larger contract with an April UY. But I'm wondering to avoid the hassle of selling and rebuying, if it would be best to just buy the additional points we want with an April UY, meaning we would have 2 different UYs.

 

[AaronEuth]

When you have the same use year, all the points interact seamlessly. If one contract has 6 points and one has 5 they would automatically combine to book a night worth 11 pts. If they are different use years they do not combine. Neither contract has enough to book the night, so you can either borrow from the next year or transfer the 5 points to the other contract and then book the night.

This just happens on a larger scale when booking the full vacation between two contracts.

 

[TCRAIG]

I have 4 UYs - all accessible under 1 login - I have done multiple transfers between my UYs. It’s really not that difficult to manage and keep track of.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

I have 4 UYs - all accessible under 1 login - I have done multiple transfers between my UYs. It’s really not that difficult to manage and keep track of.

Ok so when you do a transfer the points keep their original UY, correct? So if I had 100 points in an April UY and 100 points in a June UY at the same resort and I wanted to book a May trip that costs 116 points, I could use the 100 April points and then transfer 16 from the June UY but those 16 points would keep the June UY right? So if I had to cancel the May trip I would end up losing them. Is that correct?