Booking Spring dates with June Use year.

[cruisehopeful]

Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but how would you handle booking a spring vacation with June Use year points? I feel like it's been drilled into my noggin that it's tragic to book during the last few months of the use year because if you need to cancel, you risk losing your points.

I'm looking for a discussion about how people handle booking like that. The June use year works great for me at Disneyland Anaheim (where I mostly visit). I'm feeling like I have to go to WDW in the fall because of the use year, when I'd actually rather go in Feb or March. It has me wondering about another use year (that would be likely more work than I would want). Other thoughts are that if I had to cancel, I could get SSR in May before the points expire (potentially the easiest solution) or rent my reservation out, which defeats the entire purpose of owning DVC. IDK. I'm just thinking you all might have some enlightening feedback/thoughts.

 

[JackosinDIS]

I use my June UY points to book stays in April and May.

Yes, if you have to cancel after the banking window you must use the points before May 31, but like you say, there will always be some availability at SSR or you can rent the reservations.

If you are looking for a Feb stay then it’s actually not that risky, as if you are cancelling more than 31 days out, you would still be in your banking window.

Personally, I don’t worry about it too much.

 

[Sandisw]

When we started wanting more Spring travel with our June UY, I added on points with a Dec UY!

 

[sethschroeder]

April Use Year and have booked trips in January with no issues. You just want to lock in your trip before your rollover window is completed for the year.

You could however lose your points if you cancel your trip so if you need to cancel then you need to rent out your confirmed reservation likely instead of cancelling.

Personally never have cancelled a Disney trip over the years and doubt I ever would as if it were a big enough thing that I need to cancel it likely means I am not heading to Disney anytime soon so renting out my reservation/points would be needed anyways.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

I have two HHI contracts with June UYs. I wish I had bought April UYs instead since we want to go in May and October. We may eventually add on some April UY points for our spring trips.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't they need to bank 4 months before the use year is up? Not sure that is clear, but I think you all would understand it.

"If you are looking for a Feb stay then it’s actually not that risky, as if you are cancelling more than 31 days out, you would still be in your banking window."

 

[PolyRob]

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't they need to bank 4 months before the use year is up? Not sure that is clear, but I think you all would understand it.

"If you are looking for a Feb stay then it’s actually not that risky, as if you are cancelling more than 31 days out, you would still be in your banking window."

June's banking deadline is 1/31. If you have a trip scheduled in Feb and cancel 31+ days out you're getting your points back in Dec or Jan so you can still bank all the current UY allotment. If you cancel a Feb trip in Feb under 31 days you're risking holding points and stranding them in that UY.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

When we started wanting more Spring travel with our June UY, I added on points with a Dec UY!

This is what I did as well. Once we started adding a March Spring Break trip into the rotation it made sense.

OP - I know conventional wisdom will say one UY is the best - and I do agree with that in theory and especially if these spring trips are infrequent and/or you can always do early Feb trips. Otherwise, I would probably look to buy another contract with a later UY.

 

[The Jackal]

We have a June use year and go every April. Bought more points kept June use year, bought more points kept June use year. Bought more points kept June use year. We go once in April, once in October and sometimes once in June. No issues.

 

[RuntheMouse]

We have an Aug UY for the bulk of our points as we do most of our travel from Oct-March. We ended up adding a small Feb UY to use for a sometimes May trip which has worked out well for us especially with baking/borrowing.

 

[Brian Noble]

don't they need to bank 4 months before the use year is up?

They do.

But as noted, there are two rules at play. One is the banking deadline. I have a Feb UY, so I have to bank no later than September 30th. The other is: If I cancel less than 31 days in advance, my refunded points go into Holding. Holding points cannot be banked, and expire at the end of the current UY. In practice, that extends the "bankable" booking window into the ninth month.

Here are two examples that illustrate this. First, I have a February UY. I have a stay booked for late February '26. If I cancel that during the month of February, the 26UY points cannot be banked, even though they have more than 11 months of use left. I would have to cancel at some point in January (or earlier) to get back bankable points.

The second example: I have a stay booked in mid-October 25. The banking deadline for February 25UY points is September 30th, and so the October stay seems like it is risky. But really it isn't. That's because if I cancelled a mid-October stay in late September, I still can't bank the points, even though my banking deadline hasn't happened yet, because the points are in Holding. So, as long as I cancel by the 31st day, the points avoid holding and are still bankable, because it is mid-September at the latest.