Do you have to hit your use year to make reservations with borrowed points?

[disneycrazed139]

I have a December use year and am wondering if I can make a reservation with borrowed points before I come to the use year prior to which the borrowed points could be borrowed.

Specifically, I was given a full alottment of points for 2003 which have been used and I have borrowed most points from 2004 as well. Granted, I do not "receive" my 2004 allotment of points until December 2004.

So my question is--if I want to make a reservation for March of 2005 with borrowed 2005 points, do I have to wait until December 2004 to be able to borrow from my 2005 allotment? I would like to make reservations for March 7 months before the date if possible, but I thought I might have to wait until December 2004 for 2005 points to become available for borrowing.

Is this so? Or can I borrow 2005 points before December? I think a December use year sort of makes this an odd situation, since '03 points are really used for '04 and '04 for '05, etc.

 

[DebbieB]

You could borrow points in April 2004 for a March 2005 stay at your home resort. All points usage is governed by date of stay, not date of reservation. Your stay in March 2005 would be in your December 2004 use year, so you could borrow 2005 points when your reservation window comes up.

 

[disneyberry]

<font face="times" size="+0">no, you don't have to wait until 12/1/04.
even though you are in your 2003 UY right now, you can borrow 2 years ahead from your 2005 UY.

just try to remember that Use Year has zero impact on when you're allowed to make a reservation.

this doesn't apply to you, but i believe there <i>is</i> one situation where you can't borrow unless you are in one Use Year ahead: if you bought a new contract, and have not yet closed on the contract, then you can borrow from 1 year ahead, but not 2 years ahead. </font>

 

[Caskbill]

Easiest way is to make youself a use-year calendar. A December UY would look like this.

<b>Use Year.....Vacation Dates</b>
2003.....Dec 1, 2003 through Nov 30, 2004
2004.....Dec 1, 2004 through Nov 30, 2005
2005.....Dec 1, 2005 through Nov 30, 2006
2006.....Dec 1, 2006 through Nov 30, 2007
2007.....Dec 1, 2007 through Nov 30, 2008
2008.....Dec 1, 2008 through Nov 30, 2009
2009.....Dec 1, 2009 through Nov 30, 2010

and so on.

When you bank points you simply move them from one use year into the following use year, and when you borrow points you simply move points from one use year into the proceeding use year.

A March 2005 vacation date falls within your 2004 use year. So whatever points you make for that reservation must be 2004 points. There are 3-ways to get 2004 points: 1) Your regular 2004 allotment, 2) bank 2003 points, 3) borrow 2005 points.

In your case you have no 2003 points to bank. You have already borrowed (or used most of your 2004 points). Let's just say you have a 200 point contract and have 50 2004 points remaining and your March 2005 vacation requires 190 points. You want to reserve a non-home resort. At 7-months from your desired check-out vacation date you can call and make the reservation. At that time you will use your remaining 50 2004 points and the CM will borrow 140 points from your 2005 use year. That will leave you with 60 points in your 2005 year.

Note that the date you can make the reservation has nothing to do with whatever use year you have. Reservations are always made using the 11/7 month windows. Use year simply defines what calendar period the points are good for, (For a Dec UY this means Dec 1 - Nov 30). Your vacation defines what UY the points must come out of. Then you simply bank, borrow, or use allocated points as required to get the correct number of points into that specific use year. In this case that's your 2004 use year, so all points used for that March 2005 vacation must be 2004 points.

Your points are not actually 'used' until you check-in. Prior to actual resort check-in your points have simply been assigned to that reservation. That's why you don't have to be already into any specific use year to make the reservation. The points only have to be in your account during the vacation timeframe itself when they are actually 'used'.

You can cancel your reservation at any time and the points are returned to you. They have not been 'used' at all. Although keep in mind that any points you borrowed have been permanently assigned to the new use year when you borrowed them at the time you made the reservation. Those points cannot be returned to their original use year. Also, if you cancel, use year month does play a role as it determines what percentage of points you can bank. This is referred to as your banking windows. Finally, if you cancel at 30 days or less from the start of the planned vacation date, all points used to make that original reservation do not go back into your regular account, but rather into a 'holding' account. You can still use them, but special conditions apply, and it's always possible they could expire before you could use them.

Do not get confused with what Disneyberry said. You cannot 'borrow' 2-years ahead. You can only borrow 1-year ahead. Disneyberry was not saying you could borrow 2005 points and put them into 2003. What is actually the case is that you can borrow 2005 points and put them into 2004, AND that you can do this even though on the regular calendar you're still in your 2003 use year.

Hope this helps

 

[disneycrazed139]

DebbieB, DisneyBerry, Caskbill

Thanks for all your valuable information. I don't know how I'd figure it all out without all the great tips and tricks given here!

 

[jmminarik]

The situation where you have to wait for your use year to arrive is when you want to bank next year's points. If instead of borrowing 2005 points you wanted to bank 2004 points into 2005, you would have to wait until 12/1/04 when you 'officially' get your 2004 points.

-Joe