Can't seem to figure it out RE use year

[Dopey0039]

For some odd reason I can't seem to figure out what use year would be best. I plan to visit WDW around the first week of October every year. I would like to make my reservation at the 11th month day, but don't what use year would let me get that done at 11 months.

Any help??

 

[RobDoc]

For travel in October, an October Use Year would work well. Use Year has nothing to do with when a reservation may be made - that is always 11 months ahead at your Home Resort using points that will be available at the time of the travel dates.

However, if you later decide that you might want (or need) to go in September, a September Use Year would be better. (Or, a June Use Year would work very wekk for travel in June or July - and a March use Year would be great for travel in March, April or May.) You basically want to have a Use Year that will allow you time to bank points used in the event of a cancellation. If you will never need to cancel, then Use Year won't matter at all.

 

[Deb & Bill]

For some odd reason I can't seem to figure out what use year would be best. I plan to visit WDW around the first week of October every year. I would like to make my reservation at the 11th month day, but don't what use year would let me get that done at 11 months.

Any help??

Any UY. You can book your stay 11 months out no matter what UY you have. As long as the points are available for the dates of your stay.

For example, you have no points left in your 2011 UY but you want to book your 2012 stay that falls in your 2012 UY. No problem. Just call MS and make that reservation 11 months out at your home resort.

UY comes into play when you need to cancel a reservation. You can't bank points when you are closer than four months to the end of the UY. If you plan to go in Oct, don't get a Dec UY. If you had to cancel the Oct trip in August, you wouldn't be able to bank those points with a Dec UY. And you'd have to reschedule before the end of Nov.

If you plan to travel mostly in Oct, go with a Sept UY. That gives you almost the entire year to reschedule a cancelled trip, even if you cancel a day or two before the start of your trip.

 

[dbs1228]

UY also signifies when you will get your next years point alloment. I have a Aug UY so right now I am in my 2011 UY which started last Aug and will end July 31, 2012 then I will get my 2012 points added into my contract. If I have points left in 2011 UY I need to bank them by March 31, 2012, or use them before 7/31.

 

[Sandisw]

UY also signifies when you will get your next years point alloment. I have a Aug UY so right now I am in my 2011 UY which started last Aug and will end July 31, 2012 then I will get my 2012 points added into my contract. If I have points left in 2011 UY I need to bank them by March 31, 2012, or use them before 7/31.

You really have all of your points already. They don't deposit into your account at the start of your UY, but simply become valid for stays on that date.

If you look at your DVC member account, you will see points for several UY's ahead of it.

OP, as mentioned, everything is based on the points that will be available for travel at the time of the trip and not when you call.

So, with October travel every year, you will always be able to call in November to set that up.

MS will look at your account and use the points eligible for that trip to book it. So, if you decided to get a Sept UY, and were traveling in Oct 2012, you would use banked 2011 UY points, 2012 UY points, and borrow 2013 UY points for that trip, since it falls in the Sept 2012 UY.

However, if you had a Dec UY--you could still call 11 months out--but would only be able to use banked 2010 UY points, 2011 UY points, and borrow 2012 UY points because an Oct 2012 trip falls in the Dec 2011 UY.

What you are really looking for is a UY to begin just shortly before your preferred time of travel. Since you already know that will be Oct, go with Oct.

However, it can also be important to think about other times of travel--are you more likely to travel in the winter or summer if you didn't go in Oct. If it is summer, then an Oct UY isn't very good and you might want to look for April or June as it would cover both summer and fall travel.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

You really have all of your points already. They don't deposit into your account at the start of your UY, but simply become valid for stays on that date.

If you look at your DVC member account, you will see points for several UY's ahead of it.

OP, as mentioned, everything is based on the points that will be available for travel at the time of the trip and not when you call.

So, with October travel every year, you will always be able to call in November to set that up.

MS will look at your account and use the points eligible for that trip to book it. So, if you decided to get a Sept UY, and were traveling in Oct 2012, you would use banked 2011 UY points, 2012 UY points, and borrow 2013 UY points for that trip, since it falls in the Sept 2012 UY.

However, if you had a Dec UY--you could still call 11 months out--but would only be able to use banked 2010 UY points, 2011 UY points, and borrow 2012 UY points because an Oct 2012 trip falls in the Dec 2011 UY.

What you are really looking for is a UY to begin just shortly before your preferred time of travel. Since you already know that will be Oct, go with Oct.

However, it can also be important to think about other times of travel--are you more likely to travel in the winter or summer if you didn't go in Oct. If it is summer, then an Oct UY isn't very good and you might want to look for April or June as it would cover both summer and fall travel.

That's a lot of helpful information. I don't mean to hijack the thread but let me ask you, any of you. If I know we will want to travel either October 1st through November 15th or the whole month of January...considering that you have to bank unused points before 4 months of your user year what would be a good user year for us? I thought maybe February through June? Or is February too close that possible January trip we might take? I know we will probably never use our points during the summer or at Christmas. We may use them one year to go to HHI for Spring Break in March but more than likely we will also use them to go to Aulani in October or January also.

 

[RobDoc]

That's a lot of helpful information. I don't mean to hijack the thread but let me ask you, any of you. If I know we will want to travel either October 1st through November 15th or the whole month of January...considering that you have to bank unused points before 4 months of your user year what would be a good user year for us? I thought maybe February through June? Or is February too close that possible January trip we might take? I know we will probably never use our points during the summer or at Christmas. We may use them one year to go to HHI for Spring Break in March but more than likely we will also use them to go to Aulani in October or January also.

If you have a February Use Year and cancel a January reservation after September 30, you would not be able to bank the points and they would expire January 31. That is the reason to consider a Use Year at or shortly before your travel dates. An October Use Year would work well for trips in October, November, December and January.

 

[Tamar]

And don't stress about this too much, because your travel plans may change over the life of the contract. We bought with a December UY, because we thought we'd always want to travel in late winter/early spring. Then we discovered the F&W festival, and now we always travel in Oct/Nov. Although December is the LAST UY we would have chosen if we'd had a crystal ball, it hasn't been an issue for us yet.

 

[Dopey0039]

Thank you for the very in depth responses. I do appreciate the effort you all have put into this post.

We are awaiting ROFR and I took a big guess on UY. It is Sept for the resale.

THANK YOU