Am I correct in these use and banking deadlines?

[SL6827]

Am I right with the following use and banking deadlines with a February use year in 2018.

Use year dates- February 1, 2018 - January 31, 2019. Must use or bank points by September 30, 2018.

If points banked, those points must be used within the 2019 use year, of February 1, 2019 - January 31, 2020. If not used then, they will be lost.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Correct.

 

[SL6827]

Ok, I am making a little progress on this use year thing. . Even though it really probably won't matter much, as if I see a contract I'm looking for, I'll just need to be prepared to take whatever use year is available.

 

[disneynutz]

UY is pretty much just free insurance should you cancel a reservation. You can only bank your points during the first 8 months of any UY.

Bill

 

[SL6827]

Y

UY is pretty much just free insurance should you cancel a reservation. You can only bank your points during the first 8 months of any UY.

Bill

Ya, I have yet to figure it all out. I do want to understand it completely before buying in, so I have plenty of time. I have realized though that we could possibly travel during any time of the year.

But I will say that I am hoping to travel to Hilton Head during the June/July time frame and we really enjoy Disney World during the last week of January and the first of February.

 

[D-Trick]

Coming from someone who's not yet a member (waiting on my member #)...

Use year dates- February 1, 2018 - January 31, 2019. Must use or bank points by September 30, 2018.

This is half correct. Your banking deadline is September 30th, but you do not need to use them by this date. However, due to the restrictions if you need to cancel a post Sep 30th reservation, it is in your best interests to use by Sep 30th.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[SL6827]

Coming from someone who's not yet a member (waiting on my member #)...



This is half correct. Your banking deadline is September 30th, but you do not need to use them by this date. However, due to the restrictions if you need to cancel a post Sep 30th reservation, it is in your best interests to use by Sep 30th.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Ok, ya I haven't gotten that far in understanding just yet, but thanks for the advice. I'll need it.

 

[kboo]

Coming from someone who's not yet a member (waiting on my member #)...



This is half correct. Your banking deadline is September 30th, but you do not need to use them by this date. However, due to the restrictions if you need to cancel a post Sep 30th reservation, it is in your best interests to use by Sep 30th.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

That's my understanding. So of course we are planning our second trip for Thanksgiving 2018... with a February UY. I figure it should be pretty easy to rent the reservation if our trip falls through, though.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Coming from someone who's not yet a member (waiting on my member #)...



This is half correct. Your banking deadline is September 30th, but you do not need to use them by this date. However, due to the restrictions if you need to cancel a post Sep 30th reservation, it is in your best interests to use by Sep 30th.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

OP referenced that the points needed to be used by Jan 31st in their first sentence which I took as their understanding of that aspect. As far as using by Sept 30th for banking it actually can be later than that. For example if they had a reservation in Oct in order for the points to not go into holding they'd have to cancel at least 31 days before check in which means they'd cancel in Sept before their banking deadline. But it's when you get to a true last minute cancellation of 30 days or less and the points become restricted and stay in that UY that it becomes better to have that reservation in the beginning of your UY rather than towards the end of the UY.

 

[Neytiri411]

What does it mean that points become restricted if you're less than 30 days prior to your reservation when you cancel?
If we travel 3 months prior to our use year renewing, what are the potential pitfalls?

 

[chalee94]

What does it mean that points become restricted if you're less than 30 days prior to your reservation when you cancel?

Explanation stolen from supersnoop: "If you cancel a reservation between 1 and 30 days out, the points are returned in "holding" status. Those points can only be used to book a reservation with 60 days notice. Basically, you cancelled on short notice, so you can only book on short notice."

If we travel 3 months prior to our use year renewing, what are the potential pitfalls?

You have a higher risk of losing points if you need to cancel a stay late in your UY.

Let's say you have a June UY and compare two different situations:

Scenario 1: you book a stay in May 2018. If you need to cancel in early February 2018 (for example), you would be past your banking window (which closed on Jan 31, 2018) and would need to use those pts or rent that stay in a hurry since those pts would all expire on May 31, 2018, so you would need to make alternate plans quickly or risk losing pts. Any pts not used to complete a stay by May 31, 2018 would then disappear into the void.

Scenario 2: you book a stay in June 2018. If you had to cancel that June 2018 stay in early March 2018 (for example), you would still have the option to bank current UY pts if you wanted (up until Jan 31, 2019). And any banked or borrowed pts won't expire for over a year (the end of May 2019) so you have more time to make new plans.