Explain Use Year?

[mgilmer]

I have learned a lot reading the posts here but I still do not understand the "use year" concept. I know about you can reserve 11 months out in your home resort and 7 at other resorts, but I still do not understand the advantage of certain months over others. Can anybody point me to any threads to help me understand this a little better? We are going to WDW in June and may very well buy when there (if we can find the right number of points in the right resort).

 

[ChickieToo]

I can give you a very rudimentary explanation, and maybe those who can explain it more fully will fill in the gaps.

Use year (UY) is the time of year your allotment of points renew. I have a June UY, so my full complement of points for that year become available every June 1. UYs are staggered throughout the year which allows different banking and borrowing windows. In this way, all points aren't all available at the same time, say the beginning of the year, and DVC members aren't trippping over each other trying to use their points all by the same deadlines. That would create a real logjam. Because points have the the greatest flexibility in the beginning of their UY in terms of banking and borrowing, it makes sense to choose a UY which preceeds your usual vacation time by a couple of months. We took a June UY because we like to go away in September/October time frame. If you are tied to school vacations in say April, a Feb or March UY would probably serve you best.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[mgilmer]

OK, trying to understand here. For instance, if I had a Jan use year then I would get my full compliment of points on Jan 1 and I could make ressies starting Nov 1st? (I don't know if Jan is even a use year month -- just using it as an example)

So I would get first dibs (along with my other Jan points people) at my home resort for Nov? What if we want to go, say in October, we would still be able to reserve that starting on Jan 1st but would be one month behind the Dec people, right? And if I wanted to go in December 1, I would have to wait till Feb 1 to make a ressie even though my points came to me in Jan 1, right? And I have to use the points by Dec 31st or lose them, unless banked, right? Am I getting the concept?

 

[Grandbuddy]

OK, trying to understand here. For instance, if I had a Jan use year then I would get my full compliment of points on Jan 1 and I could make ressies starting Nov 1st? (I don't know if Jan is even a use year month -- just using it as an example)

So I would get first dibs (along with my other Jan points people) at my home resort for Nov? What if we want to go, say in October, we would still be able to reserve that starting on Jan 1st but would be one month behind the Dec people, right? And if I wanted to go in December 1, I would have to wait till Feb 1 to make a ressie even though my points came to me in Jan 1, right? And I have to use the points by Dec 31st or lose them, unless banked, right? Am I getting the concept?

If you want to make a reservation for November 1 at a resort you "own," you may make that reservation 11 months before November 1, as long as the points you need for that reservation will be accessible in your account when they are needed (on November 1). If you have a June use year, you can still call in January, when you may have zero points accessible immediately 'cause you've used all your points in the present year, and you can make your reservation with points that will become available for you to use on June 1. For an October reservation, you can call in December, to use any points that will be available to you the next October. No one can get a reservation more than 11 months prior to the day they will "check out" from that reservation - so you are not behind anybody.

Your use year really doesn't matter for any practical purposes other than for banking and borrowing. BUT - If you always travel at a certain time of year, you would not want to have a use year where your travel dates fall within the last 4 months of the use year - because if you have to cancel your travel plans, you will not have time to bank those points. And there are restrictions on what you can do with those points that have gone past banking periods.

 

[mgilmer]

If you want to make a reservation for November 1 at a resort you "own," you may make that reservation 11 months before November 1, as long as the points you need for that reservation will be accessible in your account when they are needed (on November 1). If you have a June use year, you can still call in January, when you may have zero points accessible immediately 'cause you've used all your points in the present year, and you can make your reservation with points that will become available for you to use on June 1. For an October reservation, you can call in December, to use any points that will be available to you the next October. No one can get a reservation more than 11 months prior to the day they will "check out" from that reservation - so you are not behind anybody.

Your use year really doesn't matter for any practical purposes other than for banking and borrowing. BUT - If you always travel at a certain time of year, you would not want to have a use year where your travel dates fall within the last 4 months of the use year - because if you have to cancel your travel plans, you will not have time to bank those points. And there are restrictions on what you can do with those points that have gone past banking periods.

Thanks. Your explanation is making sense to me (for the first time). So all that matters is that I can only make ressies at my home resort no farther out than 11 months from my checkout date and that I have the points to pay for the ressie at the time of the ressie, right? And the same applies to the 7 month ressie for other resorts, right? If I get that right, let me ask another question and that is about owning at two different resorts. Now this may be a little far out for us as we hope to buy only at one resort to start out (wanting 160 points from, in this order, BWV, BCV, WLV, OKWV, but I digress), but if we addon, say at Kingdom Towers, how does that work? If we have , say 160 BWV points and 100 KTV points, can we make a ressie at Kingdom Tower 11 months out and use the BWV points to pay for part of the ressie when checkin time comes if those points are in our account?

 

[mgilmer]

OK, nevermind. I found a thread on another DVC board that answers my dual resort question. Bummer!

 

[mgilmer]

Another question. If I start out with 160 points at a home resort and addon at the same resort and the first purchase has say Feb use year and the addon has August use year, are all points combined into the same use year?

 

[LisaS]

OK, nevermind. I found a thread on another DVC board that answers my dual resort question. Bummer!

If it sounds too good to be true...

Another question. If I start out with 160 points at a home resort and addon at the same resort and the first purchase has say Feb use year and the addon has August use year, are all points combined into the same use year?

No, and the second contract would not be an "add on". You would have two master contracts, one with a Feb UY and the other with an Aug UY. You would have a unique membership number to go along with each contract. You would not be able to combine the points to make a reservation unless you used your one transfer per UY for each contract to transfer points from one to the other. Alternatively, you could book your trip as two reservations (one from each contract) and link them together. The drawback with this method is that if you had 10 points left in one contract and 2 in the other and needed 12 more points to book one more night, you would not be able to do so.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

OK, nevermind. I found a thread on another DVC board that answers my dual resort question. Bummer!

Many will tell you that UY doesn't matter, but if your travel patterns are consistent and will be for the near future, I would make sure I fully understood it and the pros/cons based on your travel plans. DH teaches and we travel July or August. Here's where UYs can help or stink:

We have an Aug UY. Points this year will be deposited on Aug 1, 2008 and can be used from Aug 1, 2008 - July 31, 2009 or banked into the Aug 1, 2009 - July 31, 2009 UY. Let's say we want to book a Grand Villa in July of 2009. We would use this year's points that will be deposited on Aug 1 of this year and borrow points from our next UY. IF we would have to cancel that vacation, we would basically be in a position to lose all of those points on July 31. The current UY's points would be scheduled to expire on July 31, 2009 and when you borrow from a UY, it's a 1 time transaction and you can't return the points. So, the points borrowed would also expire on July 31, 2009. In one swoop, we'd lose 2 UY's points.

Take the same scenario, but booking in Aug 2009 instead of July 2009. Book a GV in August, use 2009 points (that will expire in July 2010) and borrow some from 2010 UY. Vacation gets cancelled. You have multiple options. The 2009 points can still be banked through March of 2010 or used to book a vacation from Aug 1, 2009 - July 31, 2010. Because you borrowed from 2010, those points would still have to be used in the Aug 2009 - July 2010 time frame, but you have a full year to still use them!

Main concerns with UYs are when you bank and borrow. It's good you're researching, because I wished I had understood it fully before purchasing. I would have purchased a different UY for us. Good luck!