Does adding a second UY make sense?

[minniesfriend]

I'm thinking we should consider a second UY....Here's why...

We purchased an April UY direct because we almost always travel in May. Made sense...

BUT we also travel in Oct. or Dec. And this year I "discovered" the Festival of the Arts in Jan. (don't know where I've been) and that the beginning of March was also a great time to travel. So, I booked a 4 day stay for this past March about 7 months out. Life happened and I really needed to cancel that March trip, but could not. I couldn't bank them either, and there was no way I was going during Spring Break. And yes, I could've sold them, but.... So, we went on our vacation, but it didn't feel like a vacation (there was a job change and move immediately after the trip - just too much on that to-do-list and then the emotional baggage of relocating).

So, now we're in the process of adding on resale and have been searching exclusively for an April UY. But the more I think about it, maybe it would be best if I added on an Oct. UY for our fall thru early spring travel.

I know it will be a separate account. I've read about transferring if necessary. Kind of a pain, but doable. Does it make sense to have two separate UY since we travel right at or after our April UY banking deadline? Or should we stay with April?

 

[RoseGold]

I have two UYs and it's awesome. I use two wait lists, sometimes I split stay.

This is a pain, it's fussy. If you don't go a whole lot you can orphan points. But if you're going 2+ times a year, you can figure this out, especially if you're willing to split stay two nights on the other UY and stuff like that.

 

[minniesfriend]

Thank you, RoseGold! I'm glad to hear that it's working for you.

Could you please explain why I would/might need to split stay on the other UY?

I thought I could just use one UY for the May-Oct trip and the other for Dec-March trip. Would this be too much bother?

Thank you!

 

[Sandisw]

We have three UYs, but this is why we added on more than one years ago. It allows us to book different trips using different contracts...or split stays which we love and do pretty much almost every trip!!!

 

[RoseGold]

Could you please explain why I would/might need to split stay on the other UY?

I thought I could just use one UY for the May-Oct trip and the other for Dec-March trip. Would this be too much bother?

Example. You cancel the May trip. So, you use those points to book two nights on the Dec trip. You free up and bank those points instead to next year so you have more points for next december. Of course, if the May trip is booked with Feb UY, you could also just bank through, no big deal. Another perk of two UYs. This is difficult to juggle if you aren't going often enough, but sounds like you will be fine.

If you're going 2x a year, you have some room to play with this.

 

[minniesfriend]

Ahh...OK. Thank you!

We are only 3 hours away, so it's easy to run up for long weekends during the different seasons. A second UY will give us more flexibility, and we won't risk losing points if we need to change our plans when we are outside of our banking window.

 

[Bucketfoot]

To me the rest of the contract meeting your needs is more important than the UY.

We ran into this with out AKV resale contract. It was actually incorrectly listed as our current UY and didn't get found until both sides had agreed on the contract. We could have backed out, but we were looking for kind of an odd point number, so ultimately the points and price met our needs which were more important than they UY.

 

[intamin]

In general people always say try to keep it in one UY. I have two and IMO it’s not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. If you’re competent at all with using your membership it’s fine. The one thing I would recommend though is having enough points in each membership for them to function independently from one another. The part where it gets difficult is when you have to transfer points back and forth to make trips work. At that point it becomes hard to figure out when certain points need to be used when and if you can use all of your points for your upcoming trip.

 

[gmi3804]

I have one UY (September) for my PVB and BLT contracts, and another (July) for my VGC contract. This is easy to keep track of, since I just about always use my VGC points AT VGC. I could see how it'd be difficult to juggle things if my WDW points were in different UYs. It's possible, with a bit of planning and smart point usage.

Another situation where this could be good is if you like to stay at particular resorts at one time of the year and other resorts at other times of the year. Like CCV/BRV around Christmastime, for example, where you'd be less likely to want to stay elsewhere at that time of year.

 

[minniesfriend]

I would recommend though is having enough points in each membership for them to function independently from one another. The part where it gets difficult is when you have to transfer points back and forth to make trips work. At that point it becomes hard to figure out when certain points need to be used when and if you can use all of your points for your upcoming trip.

This is a great point. Hmmm... Then I will probably need to purchase more points than I was originally going to add if I do this. I dunno about that...

Another situation where this could be good is if you like to stay at particular resorts at one time of the year and other resorts at other times of the year. Like CCV/BRV around Christmastime, for example, where you'd be less likely to want to stay elsewhere at that time of year.

So..if I have to purchase more points, maybe I can get my price down by purchasing a 2042. Then I would come closer to hitting my price point.

Great points! Thank you!!

 

[intamin]

This is a great point. Hmmm... Then I will probably need to purchase more points than I was originally going to add if I do this. I dunno about that...

If you wanted you could book parts of your stays under 1 membership and then the rest under the other one and it would work. It does still make it more likely that you're stranding points however if you have the small contract by itself. But again definitely don't recommend transferring to yourself in general if you can avoid it.

 

[minniesfriend]

So, let's say I have April UY GF, and Oct UY BRV.

Does this mean that I will have 2 DVC sign in pages/dashboards? One for GF/April and the other for BRV/Oct?

Will I be able to see both contracts on ONE login/dashboard? Or will I have a sign in/dashboard for April UY and then another for Oct UY?

In other words - I have 2 same UY contracts now and can see both contracts on one page with one sign in. Will I be able to see this (new) OCT UY on this same page? Or will it have its own separate page/sign in?

 

[RoseGold]

Does this mean that I will have 2 DVC sign in pages/dashboards? One for GF/April and the other for BRV/Oct?

It's a drop down when you go to search, and it's not obvious. I mess it up often.

The countdown can show either membership, lol.

You can see the bookings for both in a big list. The only way to tell which is booked with what is to expand the details and match up the number.

 

[Sandisw]

So, let's say I have April UY GF, and Oct UY BRV.

Does this mean that I will have 2 DVC sign in pages/dashboards? One for GF/April and the other for BRV/Oct?

Will I be able to see both contracts on ONE login/dashboard? Or will I have a sign in/dashboard for April UY and then another for Oct UY?

In other words - I have 2 same UY contracts now and can see both contracts on one page with one sign in. Will I be able to see this (new) OCT UY on this same page? Or will it have its own separate page/sign in?

It’s all one log in for DVC and you will see each membership in your dashboard.

When you go to book, it will give you the option to choose which membership to use for the booking.

It’s really easy to use. I have three UYs.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

If you wanted you could book parts of your stays under 1 membership and then the rest under the other one and it would work. It does still make it more likely that you're stranding points however if you have the small contract by itself. But again definitely don't recommend transferring to yourself in general if you can avoid it.

Can you elaborate as to why you don’t recommend transferring to yourself if you can avoid it?

 

[Sandisw]

Can you elaborate as to why you don’t recommend transferring to yourself if you can avoid it?

Not the OP, but I can share why we don’t. Once transferred, those points are put into a temporary contract and you can’t see them easily.

You will only see it when you go to book so it’s easy to lose track.

And, since they remain as their own UY, you need to be careful to keep track of banking extra. Also, because they can’t be borrowed once transferred, things could happen and you want to make changes and can’t now because you restricted the points from borrowing.

I don’t use often but did last fall to adjust a trip and I needed an extra 15 points so I transferred some. Well, then my dad passed and I had ti rearrange things and ended up with not enough points in the account I took the points from to book what was available when rescheduling.

I ended up having to transfer other points back in..fortunately DVC is currently letting owners do more than one between our own memberships…to secure things.

But I now have Dec UY points in my June UY with a September trip..if something happens and to have to cancel that trip after July 31st, the banking deadline those 12 points will be lost.

So, I won’t do that again…I’ll just do what I have always done..borrow if needed.

 

[intamin]

Can you elaborate as to why you don’t recommend transferring to yourself if you can avoid it?

Because when you start mixing points together under one membership you need to keep track of which points came from where. Remember, points keep their same use year characteristics even after being transferred. So in her case she will have points that expire 3/31/xxxx and points that will expire 9/30/xxxx. So let's say you book a trip for July and you decide you can't go on that trip, the points that expire 9/30/xxxx have passed their banking window already and must be used by that point, but the April UY points can still be banked. The points also retain their home resort priority so it's not like they can be combined before the 7 month window. I'm not saying it's not possible but it's just a lot simpler to use them separately. Book 3 nights under one membership, book the other 3 nights under the other. Combine at check in. Done. As opposed to trying to figure out which points are good when when you mix them together. Member services also only allows one transfer per year per membership technically but usually they allow more when it's just to yourself.

Edit: Sandi explained it better than me

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Thank you so much @Sandisw and @intamin — I found both of these explanations very helpful.

I was under the impression that even if you book with different contracts you can combine stays before arrival if it’s the exact same category by calling member services, is that incorrect?

 

[Sandisw]

Thank you so much @Sandisw and @intamin — I found both of these explanations very helpful.

I was under the impression that even if you book with different contracts you can combine stays before arrival if it’s the exact same category by calling member services, is that incorrect?

If you book reservations in different memberships..don’t transfer..those can not be merged into one reservation as they don’t exist in the same membership. It’s like being two different owners.

MS will make a note of a continuous stay so you don’t need to change rooms..and we never have been asked to move.

If you transfer points, then you can book everything in one membership as a single reservation id they can combine trips booked at different times that are the same room trip but are consecutive nights.

That’s what a lot of people do when they end up piecing a trip together by staking the website and pick up a few nights over time.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

If you book reservations in different memberships..don’t transfer..those can not be merged into one reservation as they don’t exist in the same membership. It’s like being two different owners.

MS will make a note of a continuous stay so you don’t need to change rooms..and we never have been asked to move.

thank you @Sandisw! I personally love split stays and the idea of spending a couple nights near crescent lake while visiting EPCOT and DHS, then switching to VGF or Poly on MK days…but with two young kids, I don’t want to stay at one resort and have to change rooms mid-stay—it sounds like member services has been pretty good about keeping you in the same room so far…but I will keep in mind that it could change.