Another use year?

[dparksfan]

Just trying to make sense of this. I mainly am looking at use year for the booking purposes, not the cancellation option. We rarely cancel vacations so I'm not concerned.

My question is, if we want to go in Nov. wouldn't a Dec use year be the best? Then we can book Dec 1 for the following Nov, right?
Also, if we wanted to go in April (spring break) we would need a May use year to start booking May 1 for the following April (or sometimes March).

Do I have this right? This would mean we would want Dec or May UY for these travel times?

Thanks,

 

[chalee94]

Just trying to make sense of this. I mainly am looking at use year for the booking purposes, not the cancellation option. We rarely cancel vacations so I'm not concerned.
Thanks,

if you rarely cancel vacations, UY month doesn't matter at all. (the only situation where you'd even need to be aware of your UY month is if you make a reservation that crosses that month - i.e. a UY month of october where you book sept 27-oct 3 or something.)

UY has nothing to do with when you can book. zero.

please read the "understanding UY" thread to better understand UYs.

 

[alicat07]

UY has no relevance on when you can book. If you want a Nov. vacation, you will always have the option to book it 11 months ahead no matter when your UY is.

 

[drusba]

Use year has nothing to do with when you can go (any time of year) and when you can call to reserve (always 11 months in advance at home resort, 7 at others). Thus, if you have, for example, a March use year, and you want to go in November 2009, you can call to reserve at your home resort in Dec 2008 and use points that you will get in March 09, which will be "current" use year points for that Nov 09 trip.

Use year has importance only if you cancel a trip and your suggested years illustrate the problem. Suppose you have a Dec use year and want to go in Nov 2009. You call in Dec 08 and reserve using points you get in Dec 08 which will be "current" use year points for that Nov 09 trip because they do not expire until Nov 30, 2009. Now suppose in Sep 09, you have to cancel that trip. Points go back into your account. Under banking rules, you can bank any or all of your points into the next use year on or before the end of your eighth month in your use year. Meaning for Dec 08 points, you have until July 31, 09 to bank all points into the Dec 09 to Nov 2010 use year, but if you cancel that Nov 09 trip in Sep 09 you will be past the banking deadline and must use all those points by the end of Nov 2009. Now assume, you have an Aug use year and call in Dec 08 to book Nov 09 and use Aug 09 points. Come Sep 09, you need to cancel. All those Aug 09 points go back into your account and you have until March 31, 2010, to bank them into the Aug 2010 use year.

Thus, if you always go in Nov and want to preserve the "hedge" against the cancellation/banking issue, your best use years are any that begin 8 months or less before Nov.

 

[dparksfan]

Thank you for all of the replies.

My main concern is getting the best view rooms during a certain month. With the 11 mos booking window for my home resort, wouldn't it be better to have that 11 mos advantage?

 

[RobDoc]

You will ALWAYS have the 11 month priority at your Home Resort regardless what you Use Year may be. As noted above, Use Year has nothing to do with when you can travel or make reservations.

The only issue is whether you have enough points available when you want to travel and you may make the reservation. If you want to travel in November, 2009 and have an October Use Year you can still make the reservation in December (11 months prior to your arrival date) using points banked from the 2008 Use Year, current points from your 2009 Use Year and points borrowed from your 2010 Use Year.

If you cancel that reservation, all of the points will be returned to your 2009 Use Year and you would still have until September 30, 2010 to use them or bank the current points in the 2009 Use Year (the points banked from 2008 and borrowed from 2010 could not be banked).

If you have a December Use Year, the same principles apply - you could use points banked from your December 2007 Use Year, points current from the December 2008 Use Year and borrow points from your December, 2009 Use Year ... and again, the reservation can still be made in December for the trip in November, 2009. A cancellation would return all of the points to your December, 2008 Use Year and those points would still need to be used by November 30, 2009.

Enjoy!

 

[dcfromva]

Thank you for all of the replies.

My main concern is getting the best view rooms during a certain month. With the 11 mos booking window for my home resort, wouldn't it be better to have that 11 mos advantage?

dparksfan,
You get the 11 month booking advantage by virtue of owning a particular resort--not when the points are put into your account each year.

Here is an example, even though I have zero points available in my FEB 2008UY account right now. I will get some points on FEB 2009, so I can call member services today (NOV 3rd) and make a reservation for any time period between FEB 1 2009 and OCT 3 2009 (at my home resort) using those points. I don't have to wait until FEB to book those points.

 

[dparksfan]

I think I understand better now. With banking and borrowing I can book whenever I need to.

 

[drusba]

You don't need banking or borrowing to book when you want to:

1. You get an annual allotment of points the first day of your use year. Assume an August use year. That means you will get points August 1 every year. Those that will be issued August 1, 2009 will be good for any trip that you take from Aug 1, 2009 to July 31, 2010 and those will be "current" use year points for any trip during that time.

2. In determining the actual points you use, never look at the date you call to reserve, but instead always look at the dates you will be at WDW.

3. Assume you call today using 11 month window to book your home resort from October 3 to October 10, 2009. To determine the "current" use year points for that trip, you use the dates you will be there, thus those would be the points coming in Aug 2009. You can use those points for that trip when you call today without banking or borrowing anything.

4. Now assume you have points from Aug 2008 that you also want to use for that October 2009 trip. Since the Aug 2008 use year ends July 31, 2009, those points would not be "current" use year points for that October 09 trip. You would have to bank those during that call you make today to use them for that October 2009 trip. Banking would place those points for use in the Aug 09 to July 2010 use year, during which your trip would occur. Finally, assume that all the points you have from the Aug 09 use year or any banked from Aug 08 use year aren't enough to book that Oct 09 trip you want. In that case, you can "borrow" any additional points you need from the Aug 2010 to July 2011 use year, meaning take them out of that future use year and bring them into the use year during which your trip will occur.

In sum: Call today with an Aug use year to make a trip for October 2009. Your 11 months out but today's date has nothing to do with actual points used. You look at the Oct 09 dates to determine that. The "current" use year points you can use for that trip are those coming in Aug 09. Any Aug 08 points would need to be banked to use them for that trip. And you can borrow points from Aug 2010 if needed.