Best UY For A Teacher....

[Alice-in-wonder]

Best UY for a teacher and family travels during April or Feb vacations or the summer? Would October UY be good? (that's what I have).

 

[chalee94]

ideal UY rule:

*travel early in your UY.

i have an october UY and travel primarily in nov and dec. that is ideal.

critical UY rule:

*never travel in the last 3 months of your UY

i have an oct UY and never want to travel to wdw in july-aug-sept. too hot.

but for feb and april trips, an oct UY is fine. no worries.

if you never have to cancel, UY month will never matter.

UY month would mostly be an issue if you were traveling late in your UY (say, in august) and had to cancel - think about how that would work out with an oct UY...

 

[honeymo78]

I have a Dec use year. We travel in Dec, May and Sept/Oct. Only April or May would really have worked and that wasn't available right away. We went with Dec because our Sept/Oct trip is an anniversary trip, the others aren't associated with any special event in our lives. The anniversary trip is the one we will be least likely to ever cancel on short notice for a reason where we would care what happened to our points. That vacation is generally the "we are going unless one of us is dead and even then...." Seriously though, it would take some really bad stuff going down (or really good as in amazing job offer) to get us to cancel that trip and honestly, losing some points would be the least of our concern at that point.

 

[Nikisha421]

I never understood perfect UY, but what I have to say is that I am a teacher and I have an OCT UY and it works perfectly. We travel once in Feb for the Mid Winter Recess and once again in the summer...only becuase I have no interest in traveling during the April Easter Break. So just to say athat OCT has always worked perfectly for this teacher and her in school daughter...

 

[Sandisw]

I think given the travel times you mention, Dec UY will work out. You have until July 31st to bank points with this UY.

So, any travel from Dec through Aug would be in the "safe" zone, in terms of having to cancel a trip (31 days or more) and being able to still bank points.

The only drawback to a Dec UY, IMO, is that is not ideal for fall travel. While this is not something you can do now, if it is in the future, then you may want to think things through.

I teach and we have a June UY. We started with Oct UY but realzied that didn't work well since our yearly trip is always in August. If I ever had to cancel a trip, I would have no time to use those points as I can't travel in September.

At least now, with a June UY, if I had to cancel or change a summer trip, I could still try to go on my Xmas or Feb break, or simply cancel all together and simply bank the points.

The bonus is that when DH and I are retired, our travel habits will change to either Oct/early Nov or January so a June UY works well for this too.

 

[jekjones1558]

So, any travel from Dec through Aug would be in the "safe" zone, in terms of having to cancel a trip (31 days or more) and being able to still bank points.

I think this should be Dec. through July would be safe, since points need to be banked by July 31.

 

[Sandisw]

I think this should be Dec. through July would be safe, since points need to be banked by July 31.

August travel would also be safe. Remember, you have to cancel 31 days or more in advance to avoid holding. If you cancel after that, regardless of whether or not you are still within the banking window, those points expire at the end of the UY.

Someone traveling in August with a Dec UY (unless they didn't care about holding points), would be canceling some time in July, prior to the banking deadline.

 

[MrsG]

I am a teacher and we have a Feb. use year. It works out perfectly as we go to WDW for Feb. break. The points are available just when we are ready to use them. I guess Dec. would work too, especially if you want to go there over Christmas break.

 

[lisareniff]

One thing to remember that it isn't just outright canceling your trip but any trimming or adjusting of your trip that you might want to do closer to your trip. Such as shaving a day off for better airfares, waitlist came through for a std view at BWV but it's too late to bank, etc.

For us an Oct UY works great because we would never want to go to Florida in the summer! Currently we go during President's Week in February, but I could see that changing to fall once the kids are out of school.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I have an Aug UY and I would prefer a Jun or Feb use year. We alway travel to WDW in summer because we follow the school schedule. I've had to cancel t the last minute and with the 60 day window on holding points it makes it had with an Aug UY.

 

[Coach81]

Teacher / Coach here.. we have a DEC UY.. and have not had any problems with it what so ever..

 

[Alice-in-wonder]

Thank you everyone for your well thought out answers!

 

[dgaston]

Until DH retired after 38 years of HS teaching, we went in Feb, April or Christmas. For us our UY of April was horrible. We never lost points, but I did worry about some Feb vacations and bad weather. Now it's not as critical.

 

[drusba]

The issues:

1. You can bank points up until the end of the eighth month of use year, e.g., for Dec that means July 31. Thus if you have to cancel a trip and you do it after the end of your eighth month of your use year,you cannot bank and must use points by end of year, which, of course, can be very difficult if there are only a couple months left in your use year. That is a possible scenario you face if usual time going is in last three months of use year. Thus, it is recommended, if you have usual time of year to go to get use year that avoids that issue, meaning one that begins shortly before (and no more than 8 months before you usually go).

2. Because the risk of cancellation usually results from some unforseeable event that takes place near time of trip, you also face the 30 day rule. If you cancel less than 31 days before date of arrival you cannot bank any points that had been used for that trip (even if banking date has not passed). Points in that situation are put into a holding account, must be used before end of use year, and can only be used by calling no more than 60 days out for a reservation. For that cacellation issue, you again want to try to avoid having your regular trips close to the end of your use year, and thus again having one that starts shortly before you usually go is preferred.

Other than the above, use year does not matter. If you usually go virtually any time of year, don't even consider the issue. Teachers I know usually don't go in fall but may go Christmas, spring break, or summer (and usually before mid-August). The ideal use year for that pattern is December when considering the cancellation issue (Christmas trip is at beginning of use year, spring break one is only 4 to 5 months into it, and summer trips, though later, still give you until July 31 to bank and at least 5 to 6 months for another trip if you have to cancel less than 31 days before the trip). If you are a teacher who would not consider Christmas trip and only spring break or summer, February or March would be ideal.