Can someone explain what a use year is?

[AlwaysEeyore]

Do we get to pick our use year? We tend to go the end of August, do we pick August as our use year?

Thanks!

 

[zackspal]

use year is when your annual allotment of points is replenished. For example; if your use year is in Oct, On Oct 1st, 2007, your full amount of points for the yaer 2007 is now available to use. If you have nay points lent from your previous use year that you have not banked, they are now expired and are no longer available to use.

 

[3DisneyKids]

Use Year is the month when you get all of your points for that year. If you travel most often in August, then you may want a UY close to that time...maybe June or August, etc. Not every month is available for UY. The following months are what Disney uses for UYs: February, March, April, June, August, September, October, December
You would definitely NOT want a Sept. UY however, as this could cost you to lose points.

Some on these boards argue that UY is not really important. I disagree. It is important for banking/borrowing reasons. If you think, for example, that you might have to cancel trips that are already planned for one reason or another, you want to make sure that there is still enough time left in your UY to bank those points.

We have 3 kids, and as anyone with kids will tell you, stuff comes up. One gets sick, or another ends up making the "travel team" and will just die if he/she has to miss a game or whatever, and so trip dates change. With the right UY you don't have to worry about losing points...you can either bank them or you still have several months left in the current UY to re-book another trip.

 

[AlwaysEeyore]

Thank you! Do we get to pick the use year or is it assigned?

 

[dianeschlicht]

Thank you! Do we get to pick the use year or is it assigned?

It will be assigned unless you specify you want a particular use year. I don't happen to think use year is all that important unless you are in the habit of cancelling reservations late. We have never had to do that in 10 years of membership, but I do understand that some folksare in situations that make last minute cancellations the norm rather than the exception. Remember that your use year has NOTHING to do with when you can book a trip...That can always be done 11 months from check out for your home resort and at least 7 months ahead of check out from the other DVC resorts. Accounting will put the points into the correct use year tally.

 

[SnowWhite2]

Thanks for asking the question. I was just about to post the same one. I just joined DVC last week and I'm trying to get the hang of this.

I now have a related use question:

My UY is Sept and DCL is giving me my points for Sept 06 (w/o incurring maint on those points) plus a new allotment in Sept 07. I will have to bank my 06 points prior to Sept 07. Can I use my 06 points for vacations I book in June of this year but not take until 08? I guess my real question is when do the points on ressies transfer to DCL for payment - at time of booking or at the time of the trip?

Thanks,
Laurie

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thanks for asking the question. I was just about to post the same one. I just joined DVC last week and I'm trying to get the hang of this.

I now have a related use question:

My UY is Sept and DCL is giving me my points for Sept 06 (w/o incurring maint on those points) plus a new allotment in Sept 07. I will have to bank my 06 points prior to Sept 07. Can I use my 06 points for vacations I book in June of this year but not take until 08? I guess my real question is when do the points on ressies transfer to DCL for payment - at time of booking or at the time of the trip?

Thanks,
Laurie

We also have a Sept UY. You'll want to bank your points by the end of this month if you plan to use them for a May 08 vacation. If you wait until after the end of the month, you'll be limited to 75% of the points you own to bank. After you bank them, you'll be able to use them for vacations in the time frame of Sept 07-Aug 08.

Are you scheduling a cruise with DCL? Once you make a reservation, you no longer have those points. And if you use them for a cruise, if you cancel the cruise, you can no longer use those points for DVC reservations, but only Disney Collection reservations.

 

[SnowWhite2]

I'm trying to book a cruise for Feb 2, 2008 but the point totals are not out yet so I'm holding a cabin. I would like to use all of my 9/06 points and a few of my 9/07 points if I need them. The point totals will be out "in several weeks". I am also cruising Dec 20, 2008. If I can't use my points for the Feb cruise, I'd like to use them for the Dec cruise. If I bank the 06 points this month, can I use them for the Feb or Dec 08 cruise?

Thanks for you patience with all of my questions.

 

[Sammie]

I agree with Diane, since booking has nothing to do with use year, I really don't see the reason for a preference. We go most in August and we have an October use year, and it has worked fine for us.

 

[fishermouse]

I agree with Diane, since booking has nothing to do with use year, I really don't see the reason for a preference. We go most in August and we have an October use year, and it has worked fine for us.

Ideally you if you travel the same time every year it is good to have a UY atleast a few months later than your travel time. ie: If you have to cancell an Aug. trip less than 30 days from your reservation, you can not bank those points. If you have a Sept UY you may not have enough time to use your points before you would lose them. We usually visit in the spring and fall, since we have a Dec UY if we had to back out at the last minute in our fall trip it could get a little hairy. So far it has not been a problem.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Ideally you if you travel the same time every year it is good to have a UY atleast a few months later than your travel time. ie: If you have to cancell an Aug. trip less than 30 days from your reservation, you can not bank those points. If you have a Sept UY you may not have enough time to use your points before you would lose them. We usually visit in the spring and fall, since we have a Dec UY if we had to back out at the last minute in our fall trip it could get a little hairy. So far it has not been a problem.

I agree, it's just that I can't imagine this happening a lot over the course of a contract, and certainly the times of year you travel are likely to change over the course of the contract as well. What seems like a good choice now, might not be 10 years from now. Like I said, in 10 years, we have never needed to use the option, and we do usually travel in the last 3 months of our use year.