Confused about UY and reservation/cancellations.

[slum808]

I'm thinking about buying into VGC on a resale, but I'm confused about the UY and how it affects reservations and cancellations. If I have a June UY and plan to book a trip in June 2012, do I use points from the UY when I make the reservation 2011UY or when the stay occurs 2012UY? If I cancel the reservation 32 days prior, which UY does the points return to? Thanks for any help, I really what to make sure I buy the right UY if most of my travel will be in June and July.

 

[vicki_c]

You would use the points in your current use year. So for a June 2012 trip, and you have a June use year, you would typically use your June 2012 points.

Exceptions might be:
You had June 2011 points remaining that you banked into the 2012 use year and you would want to use those first, since they can't be banked again.
You didn't have any 2012 points so you borrowed points from your 2013 use year.

Any borrowed or banked points stay in the use year into which you moved them.

 

[slum808]

Thanks I think that cleared things up for me.

 

[JimMIA]

The primary importance of UY in the event of a cancellation is the bankability (if there is such a word) of the points.

You can bank up to 100% of a given year's points at any time during the first 8 months of the UY. In your example of a June 2012 reservation using June 2012 points and canceling more than 31 days out, you'd have abundant time to bank those points if you weren't going to use them (actually until the end of January 2013).

Vicki noted an important consideration above, however. Banking and borrowing are irreversible transactions -- so once points are either banked or borrowed into a particular UY, they stay there. They cannot be banked again, unbanked, or unborrowed.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

If you know you'll be traveling at the same time each year, the ideal use year is one that is right before your travel month. As stated above, if you must cancel a reservation, this gives you the most time to either bank or re-use the points.

However, over the course of the full life of your contract, your vacation habits may change. You may find that you no longer travel during that same month.

Bottom line, don't sweat the use year too much. You can make any use year work.

 

[CarolMN]

If you are up for a tutorial, check out this thread - examples are a bit dated,but the concepts are still good:

Understanding Use Year

 

[Sandisw]

Here is what made it easy for me to figure it all out. Everything is based on the UY your travel will happen. So, if you want to travel in June 2012, it is in your June 2012 UY.

That means you can "pay" for it using June 2012 UY points, banked points from the 2011 UY, and borrow, if needed, 2013 UY points.

If you cancel more than 31 days out, any points used for the reservation go back just as they were before...so, 2012 UY points will still be 2012 UY points, banked 2011 UY points will still be banked 2011 UY points, and borrowed points will still be borrowed 2013 points (which means they would still have to be used during the 2012 UY as borrowing is a final transaction and they stay in the UY they are borrowed in to).

As mentioned, UY plays no role in when you can book---always 11 months ahead of travel at home resort and 7 months at others.

Just plan your dates, figure out the UY that trip will happen, and then go from there.