Considering Multiple Use Years

[CA_CoasterFan]

I am considering adding on, and found a resale contract that is what I'm looking for except it's in a different use year than my current contract. I have heard the warnings of owning multiple use years, but also know (thanks to these forums!) that it can be done without too many headaches. That said, I would like to solicit feedback on the logistics with having two use years. I am not opposed to having two UY, but I am an "uber-planner" and if I decide to add-on with a different UY, I just want to make sure I'm aware of the potential pitfalls before I pull the trigger.

For context, I live in CA and currently own one contract at VGC (June UY). We plan to continue to use the VGC points primarily at VGC. I am looking to add-on at AUL, and plan to use those points at AUL and an occasional WDW vacation (okay with any WDW resort available at the 7-month booking window). If the AUL points don't fully cover a WDW trip (after banking and borrowing), I could see a situation where we would need to use a small amount of our VGC points for the remainder.

In this hypothetical WDW trip scenario, if I have two UY and am primarily using the AUL points, I understand that I would need to transfer the VGC points I need to the AUL contract for the WDW reservation (correct?). As someone who has never transferred points before, I have a few questions about this:

1. Is it accurate that I could only transfer the VGC points for the current UY (i.e., I couldn't transfer banked or borrowed points from our VGC contract)?
2. If using transferred points, do you need to book separate reservations (e.g., if we had a hypothetical 8-night stay at SSR and needed to use a few VGC points to cover the last night or two, would we need to book the first 6 nights using the AUL points, and the last two nights using a combination of AUL and transferred VGC points separately, or could you book all 8 nights as one reservation after transferring the points)?
3. Related to the question above, can you use a combination of points from two different contracts (e.g., if a 2-bed villa is 35 points per night, and we only had 20 left from our AUL contract, could we use 20 points from AUL and the remaining 15 from VGC (after transferring))?
4. If using the transferred points, would I need to book through MS, or can you still do that online?

Thank you for helping out this "uber-planner"!

 

[intamin]

1. Correct you can only transfer current UY points
2. If you transfer points you don't need to book a separate reservation. I personally don't transfer points between my use years and just book them separately but I'd understand if you wanted to transfer to preserve as many of those valuable VGC points as possible
3. Correct, you can use a combo of points IF you transfer. Otherwise all 35 must come from your AUL contract or all 35 must come from your VGC contract
4. You need to contact MS to transfer the points, I believe you can make the booking yourself afterwards.

I think 2 different use years can work fine for you since you're using them in completely different locations, I would avoid trying to use your VGC points at all though for AUL and just buy a larger AUL contract so that it accounts for your trips to WDW and to AUL. You don't want to be siphoning off your VGC points to spend at AUL/WDW regularly.

 

[Sandisw]

The biggest piece is making sure that you understand how the two UYs impact a trip to ensure you know the transferred points will be eligible, once transferrred, for that trip.

For example, if you have a June and Aug UY, and decide you want to travel in July 2026….you wouldn’t be able to transfer AUL Aug 2026 points for that trip because those points would need to be borrowed to be used in July 2026.

Having said that, since the goal is to primarily use them independently of each other, it definitely one where two UYs is fine.

 

[Great3]

Personally, if it's different resorts anyways, than having the same UY wouldn't matter to me. It makes it easier without having to transfer if same UY (because it would be under the same membership ID), but that's the only advantage. As Sandisw said, just be aware of transfer points UY validity dates for actual reservation use, and it's all pretty minimal to keep track of (IMHO).

Good Luck on getting that next DVC contract.

Great3

 

[DanCali]

We have 2 use years but use them completely independently of one another. If a situation arises where I have insufficient points for a booking, I will just borrow from the next year instead of transferring between use years. Once you think of it like this, having to rely on transfers between use years becomes unnecessary.

 

[Great3]

We have 2 use years but use them completely independently of one another. If a situation arises where I have insufficient points for a booking, I will just borrow from the next year instead of transferring between use years. Once you think of it like this, having to rely on transfers between use years becomes unnecessary.

That's very true, thanks for the reminder to the OP. I have two UY as well, only borrowed as needed, never transferred.

It's really just a personality thing, for some people it really bothers to have to keep track of multiple UYs. For others, it's not a big deal, so long as they fully understand the pros/cons/restrictions/rules.

Great3

 

[intamin]

We have 2 use years but use them completely independently of one another. If a situation arises where I have insufficient points for a booking, I will just borrow from the next year instead of transferring between use years. Once you think of it like this, having to rely on transfers between use years becomes unnecessary.

Same. It just takes a little bit of advance planning. I ask myself do I need my AUL home resort priority for this particular year? Not really? Okay I’m going to borrow more of it to use on a trip to WDW to spare my more expensive RIV direct points and I’ll book a couple nights like that and then book the rest with RIV and just have member services mark the rooms as a continuing stay.

 

[RWeThereYetJJ]

I am considering adding on, and found a resale contract that is what I'm looking for except it's in a different use year than my current contract. I have heard the warnings of owning multiple use years, but also know (thanks to these forums!) that it can be done without too many headaches. That said, I would like to solicit feedback on the logistics with having two use years. I am not opposed to having two UY, but I am an "uber-planner" and if I decide to add-on with a different UY, I just want to make sure I'm aware of the potential pitfalls before I pull the trigger.

For context, I live in CA and currently own one contract at VGC (June UY). We plan to continue to use the VGC points primarily at VGC. I am looking to add-on at AUL, and plan to use those points at AUL and an occasional WDW vacation (okay with any WDW resort available at the 7-month booking window). If the AUL points don't fully cover a WDW trip (after banking and borrowing), I could see a situation where we would need to use a small amount of our VGC points for the remainder.

In this hypothetical WDW trip scenario, if I have two UY and am primarily using the AUL points, I understand that I would need to transfer the VGC points I need to the AUL contract for the WDW reservation (correct?). As someone who has never transferred points before, I have a few questions about this:

1. Is it accurate that I could only transfer the VGC points for the current UY (i.e., I couldn't transfer banked or borrowed points from our VGC contract)?
2. If using transferred points, do you need to book separate reservations (e.g., if we had a hypothetical 8-night stay at SSR and needed to use a few VGC points to cover the last night or two, would we need to book the first 6 nights using the AUL points, and the last two nights using a combination of AUL and transferred VGC points separately, or could you book all 8 nights as one reservation after transferring the points)?
3. Related to the question above, can you use a combination of points from two different contracts (e.g., if a 2-bed villa is 35 points per night, and we only had 20 left from our AUL contract, could we use 20 points from AUL and the remaining 15 from VGC (after transferring))?
4. If using the transferred points, would I need to book through MS, or can you still do that online?

Thank you for helping out this "uber-planner"!

I own 2 UY (Feb and Oct) and 2 home resorts (SSR and VGF). Feb is my primary UY, and Oct is secondary. I have been studying how to maximize their use between my memberships. Below are my observations.

Advantages:

• Allows me to vacation year-round without worrying too much about cancelling trips outside the banking window. I plan spring-summer trips before Oct 1 with Feb UY and fall-winter trips before Jun 1 with my Oct UY.
• The Oct UY banking window overlaps the Feb UY banking window for 4 months (Feb to end of May)
• Because of the overlap, I can transfer Oct UY into Feb UY to book more during the high-cost spring (period 6) season. If I must cancel 31+ days out, then I can easily bank both UY points during the 4-month window.
• Transferring is great for 7-month reservations at non-home resorts.

Neutral:

• Must call MS to transfer points and to book reservations in the 11-month window using transferred points.
• Able to book reservations online in the 0-7 month window and select the temporary contracts created by MS for the transferred points.

Disadvantages:

• Unable to see temporary contracts for transferred points when making online reservations before the 7-month window.
• Unable to book hard-to-get home resort accommodations online right at 11-month mark with transferred points. Must call MS to have them make the reservation.

Watchouts:

MS says you can transfer points between your own memberships as many times as you need, however, technically, you are only allowed 1 transfer in or out during a UY. So the unlimited transfers could possibly be taken away.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

I own 2 UY (Feb and Oct) and 2 home resorts (SSR and VGF). Feb is my primary UY, and Oct is secondary. I have been studying how to maximize their use between my memberships. Below are my observations.

Advantages:

• Allows me to vacation year-round without worrying too much about cancelling trips outside the banking window. I plan spring-summer trips before Oct 1 with Feb UY and fall-winter trips before Jun 1 with my Oct UY.
• The Oct UY banking window overlaps the Feb UY banking window for 4 months (Feb to end of May)
• Because of the overlap, I can transfer Oct UY into Feb UY to book more during the high-cost spring (period 6) season. If I must cancel 31+ days out, then I can easily bank both UY points during the 4-month window.
• Transferring is great for 7-month reservations at non-home resorts.

Just seconding this one - I hadn't planned on having two UYs - it just happened after finding a resale FW at CCV. But it definitely was a happy accident because we really do like the flexibility to head to WDW year-round and one UY would have been too limiting.

 

[CA_CoasterFan]

Thank you very much for all your feedback.

Your answers and tips are very helpful. You all highlight that having multiple UY is not as challenging as it may seem at first, as long as you plan and know the limitations. @Sandisw: your tip about the eligibility of the transferred points is very good to know!

I would avoid trying to use your VGC points at all though for AUL and just buy a larger AUL contract so that it accounts for your trips to WDW and to AUL. You don't want to be siphoning off your VGC points to spend at AUL/WDW regularly.

I personally don't transfer points between my use years and just book them separately but I'd understand if you wanted to transfer to preserve as many of those valuable VGC points as possible

@intamin: we would definitely prioritize using our VGC points at VGC. Using the VGC points for anything else (AUL or WDW) would be for a possible rare "big trip" if we didn't have enough points after banking and borrowing the AUL points first. But it is definitely helpful to know that if we had that situation, we could book the last night or two with the VGC points directly without needing to transfer. I hadn't thought of that before.

 

[disneylandtour]

I have three UYs. It's not difficult. Most of the Florida DVC locations (anyway) will combine your stay with the same room so long as you book the same type (studio, etc) with the same configuration (view, walkin shower, location, etc.), even if they are from different contract numbers / UYs. You just need to contact the front desk. I can't speak to California, as I typically only book single nights there.

On the plus side, if you have two UYs and therefore two member numbers, you can make FOUR waitlist requests (two for each UY) instead of just two.

You just need to remember to bank points on time twice a year. Set a yearly alert on your phone. That's all it takes here.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Having multiple UYs is a pain.

In general, I wouldnt do it unless you feel there is no other option because you want a rare contract (AUL-S) or your travel plans are completely suboptimal for your current UY (plan to travel to AUL/WDW in Feb when point charts are low).

However, if your current Grand Cal points are only for Grand Cal and will never be used anywhere else then you’ll probably be fine.

 

[TCRAIG]

I have 5 UYs - it’s really never been a problem.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Having multiple UYs is a pain.

In general, I wouldnt do it unless you feel there is no other option because you want a rare contract (AUL-S) or your travel plans are completely suboptimal for your current UY (plan to travel to AUL/WDW in Feb when point charts are low).

However, if your current Grand Cal points are only for Grand Cal and will never be used anywhere else then you’ll probably be fine.

This would be us. DVC points management can be challenging enough sometimes with banking and borrowing for trips. I know many, many people successfully manage with multiple UYs. But for us, it was never worth the hassle - I know where my points are, when I can use them, and what I need to bank and borrow across the contracts. Just my preference.......

 

[RWeThereYetJJ]

Something like this may already be on the boards, but I could not find it. I hope someone else finds this Use Year visual I created helpful.

 

[intamin]

Something like this may already be on the boards, but I could not find it. I hope someone else finds this Use Year visual I created helpful.

Personal changes I would make but I would just take out half of it. You don't really need to specify the year since it's the same chart copied over.

Banking window can be in green. I would keep the 4 month remaining in UY as yellow but also write that the 4 month mark is the last month you can have a trip in where if you cancel 31+ days out before that trip, you can still bank the points. There's really no benefit to separating the 3 month mark from the final 2 months IMO since either way you're already past the banking deadline and the points must be used by the end of the use year regardless.

Sorry for the constructive criticism but I appreciate you making a visual for this for DVC beginners :X

 

[VGCgroupie]

Personal changes I would make but I would just take out half of it. You don't really need to specify the year since it's the same chart copied over.

Banking window can be in green. I would keep the 4 month remaining in UY as yellow but also write that the 4 month mark is the last month you can have a trip in where if you cancel 31+ days out before that trip, you can still bank the points. There's really no benefit to separating the 3 month mark from the final 2 months IMO since either way you're already past the banking deadline and the points must be used by the end of the use year regardless.

Sorry for the constructive criticism but I appreciate you making a visual for this for DVC beginners :X

Beginner and this made my head spin. But maybe it's just my brain.. too much going on

 

[CaoilinnsMom]

I used to have 2 use years. The second I bought at VGC, to use exclusively at that resort. It was not really that big of a deal since I knew I want to use them at that resort exclusively, and I was excited to be able to stay at GCV. More recently, a lot of GCV contracts became available and I found one that fit my original use year. I sold the original contract and bought the one in my original use year. When those points loaded and I saw how easily they would move between contracts, I understood why some people are opposed to multiple use years. I would recommend staying within one from my experience, biut it is not the end of the world and can work either way.

 

[MICKIMINI]

For a few years we owned two UY's and five different resorts. It made my brain hurt and I am very good at organizing things for the most part. We own OCT now which has worked best for us for many years since we travel in October, November and occasionally December. I personally would not recommend it.

 

[RuntheMouse]

We currently have 2 UY but are waiting to close on our 3rd. We travel to WDW several times a year so this works for us. A majority of our points are in August that we use in October, December and January. We have a small February contract for a spring/summer trip we take every other year and the new one will be a small December contract that we will use for a March weekend annually.

It can work if you have a lot of points or travel different times of the year but if you are set in your dates or want to combine your points, I’d stick with one.