Considering Multiple Use Years

[DVC Deac]

We have 2 UY (Feb.and Sept.) We use the Sept. UY points for WDW in the fall/winter and the Feb. points specifically for HHI in the summer. We have come to prefer the 2 UY as it keeps the buckets of points separate so we can use them for their intended purposes without the temptation of co-mingling them. It also allows us to travel year-round without the worry of stranding points.

If you intend to regularly travel at specific times of year to separate locations then 2 UY makes sense. If not, or if you will regularly want to transfer points between UYs, then it’s probably best to stick to 1 UY.

 

[bobbiwoz]

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

Wow! I could not handle that!

 

[atthebeachclub]

I really thought about multiple use years. I think I could handle it. You can get much better deals that way. But then I also thought about my next of kin, and if anything should happen to me, I am pretty sure they are not going to want to spend as much time on that as I am willing to commit. So I picked one use year and decided to commit. In the long run the extra costs to stay in your use year if you go just once or so per year aren’t going to be that great. The biggest issue was finding the exact contracts I was seeking.

 

[RWeThereYetJJ]

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

Thanks for the feedback. Here is what I was thinking when making the chart.

1) I wanted to show that people with Jun to Dec UY's (especially Aug, Sep, Oct) will have to deal with 3 separate UY in a standard 2-year calendar period of time.
2) I did not want to use green for the banking window in case someone was colorblind. (I did originally think stoplight colors.)
3) The yellow month after the banking window was to represent the ability to cancel 31+ and still be able to bank. I should have called that out in the legend.
4) The orange month represents that you need to cancel before 60-day dining reservations in order to bank. Again, should have called that out in legend. It also was meant to warn people that if they cancel outside of banking window, they don't have much time to use the holding points.

 

[intamin]

Thanks for the feedback. Here is what I was thinking when making the chart.

1) I wanted to show that people with Jun to Dec UY's (especially Aug, Sep, Oct) will have to deal with 3 separate UY in a standard 2-year calendar period of time.
2) I did not want to use green for the banking window in case someone was colorblind. (I did originally think stoplight colors.)
3) The yellow month after the banking window was to represent the ability to cancel 31+ and still be able to bank. I should have called that out in the legend.
4) The orange month represents that you need to cancel before 60-day dining reservations in order to bank. Again, should have called that out in legend. It also was meant to warn people that if they cancel outside of banking window, they don't have much time to use the holding points.

1. I understand what you're saying but I still don't like the idea of people choosing their use years based on what's easier to think about vs. what is the most optimal use year for their trips
2. Sure
3. Agreed, it would be beneficial to write it in the legend since this is more tailored to beginners trying to understand UY and most would probably think "oh I should be keeping my trips in the first 8 months of the use year since I have to bank by 8 months in"
4. That definitely was not clear from the graphic that it was supposed to be linked to your 60 day dining window and again just my personal take but IDK I think it's a little bit much /shrug

Regardless, thanks again for making this! I'm sure someone will benefit from the work you put into it.

 

[jwalker79]

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but I have a multiple use year question: I have two use years. I want to make a reservation that would require me to either (a) transfer some points from one membership (March UY) to another (February UY) so that I have enough in the February UY membership to make a reservation, or (b) book a few nights using the February UY membership and another night in the March UY membership, then combine the reservations or join them together. Do people have a thought about which approach is better? I think if it's easy to combine the two reservations, I'm a bit more protected going that way (i.e., without a transfer), but I also don't know if it will screw up things like dining reservations or the 7 day LL window down the road.

 

[Sandisw]

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but I have a multiple use year question: I have two use years. I want to make a reservation that would require me to either (a) transfer some points from one membership (March UY) to another (February UY) so that I have enough in the February UY membership to make a reservation, or (b) book a few nights using the February UY membership and another night in the March UY membership, then combine the reservations or join them together. Do people have a thought about which approach is better? I think if it's easy to combine the two reservations, I'm a bit more protected going that way (i.e., without a transfer), but I also don't know if it will screw up things like dining reservations or the 7 day LL window down the road.

They can’t combine them if on different UYs but can note it so you hopefully don’t have to chance rooms…which we do all the time and have never had to switch.

Dining reservations would be impacted but I think with the way the new LL multi pass works you should be fine.

The drawback of the transfer is they don’t always work online before the 7 month window.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Just when I got my brain wrapped around my Dec UY, I now have a Feb UY and Im looking at my dashboard with a puzzled look once again. Ha!

 

[Kailunkat]

I am albeit very new to this, but I don't know how all of you with a single use year and multiple resorts do it (I mean, it's spreadsheets but... you know what I mean). I find it so disorienting to look at my dashboard and have the points from different resorts in the same UY mingled together. I also have dyscalculia so that doesn't help things. Glad I took the advice and made a spreadsheet tracker because otherwise I would be totally lost.

So if anyone is reading this who also has dyscalculia - you might want different UYs for your different resorts!