Help choosing use year?

[Dismom18]

Hi all, I am about to purchase 300 points at Riviera split into 3 contracts. I’m still unsure as to which use year I should choose. My family tends to travel at the end of August. Based on my research on use years it looks like I should choose either June/August, however, my guide recommended December as I would be able to receive 2019 points. Would this be better for me as I’m an international buyer and I’m not sure if I will be able to travel next summer due to border restrictions? if so, does that mean I would lose those 2019 points?

 

[sethschroeder]

You said tends but what are all the months that you might ever travel in?

 

[Dismom18]

You said tends but what are all the months that you might ever travel in?

We always travel end of August and we went once early January

 

[sethschroeder]

We always travel end of August and we went once early January

Pro/Cons of December:

• You would get '19 points because its the 2019 UY right now at the resort. You could choose to bank/rent these out but they would completely expire by November 30th, 2021 even after banking.
• December has to be banked by July 31st each year which is fine because you would have had to cancel your August trip by then anyways to avoid holding.
• If you happen to cancel that August trip within 31 days of check-in your points would go in to holding. This is where you run in to the issue of your points expiring in November and only able to book 60 days out as well during the busiest time of year.
• The best suggestion is typically going to be June for you since it also gives you the option to book end of July if you move up your trip a week or two. I am similar to you though if you had a December UY as we would travel July-Jan and have a April UY.
• Also think of it this way: June UY means your January trip is AFTER your August trip in the year while a December UY means January trip is BEFORE your August trip

 

[Sandisw]

End of August trips would still be able to be canceled 31 days out and the points banked with a Dec UY

However, if you had any banked or borrowed points in it, you’d only have until November 30th to use

IMO, stick with June or Aug UY as in the long run, it will better.

That same end of August trip, if canceled with banked or borrowed points would give you until either May 31st with a June UY or July 31st with an Aug UY.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Your guide is wrong, but I did not understand the nuance of that Until COVID hit. You want your current year points to be active prior to your typical date, but you want to be able to bank your points up until the last minute - that's 4 months prior to your use year. If you had to cancel your August trip and you were using banked points, you would lose them if you had a December use year. You want your use year to be between February and August.

Edit to add;
Your guide wants you to buy December points because you will have to pay Maintenance Fees on them. Were you going to use those points? If not, why pay for them?

 

[Sandisw]

Your guide is wrong, but I did not understand the nuance of that Until COVID hit. You want your current year points to be active prior to your typical date, but you want to be able to bank your points up until the last minute - that's 4 months prior to your use year. If you had to cancel your August trip and you were using banked points, you would lose them if you had a December use year. You want your use year to be between February and August.

They would not lose them , but would have to reschedule them before November 30th..which might be difficult

But, having one that starts right before typical travel is best.

 

[Lumpy1106]

They would not lose them , but would have to reschedule them before November 30th..which might be difficult

But, having one that starts right before typical travel is best.

Fair - if you have the flexibility to reschedule the trip before December, then yes, you would not lose them. That's just me projecting - we do not have that flexibility because we have kids in school and no desire to join the hoards over Thanksgiving.

 

[sethschroeder]

Your guide is wrong, but I did not understand the nuance of that Until COVID hit. You want your current year points to be active prior to your typical date, but you want to be able to bank your points up until the last minute - that's 4 months prior to your use year. If you had to cancel your August trip and you were using banked points, you would lose them if you had a December use year. You want your use year to be between February and August.

Edit to add;
Your guide wants you to buy December points because you will have to pay Maintenance Fees on them. Were you going to use those points? If not, why pay for them?

They do not need to pay anything additional for MFs be it December, August, or June its all the same and prorated as to what is left in 2020 has nothing to do with UY.

Also they would be able to bank because December is a July 31st banking which is 31 days from the last day in August so they would have cancelled a August trip by then to avoid holding.

Also as for previously banked points you can easily look to rent them out or simply plan on not having banked points or simply travel before the November 30th expiration.

Also they would actually get a full year of points for "free" with DEC UY so it actually would insulate them against the risk of losing points 1 time over the next 49 years and breakeven with the June/Aug UY options.

 

[sethschroeder]

Fair - if you have the flexibility to reschedule the trip before December, then yes, you would not lose them. That's just me projecting - we do not have that flexibility because we have kids in school and no desire to join the hoards over Thanksgiving.

So rent your points out there actually is tons of availability turn over letting you get reservations for people this year. You might not be able to use them bu you likely can rent them out easily for $12/point or possibly hold out for $14-$15/point.

Also it sounds like you have the correct UY if you can't travel at all in the fall. It means your travel would never be in the last 3-4 months of your UY which is what you are shooting for IMO. Its no different if you had planned a early December trip and had a May/June UY and not traveling when kids are in school and not traveling over spring break.

 

[Wedgeout]

Hi all, I am about to purchase 300 points at Riviera split into 3 contracts. I’m still unsure as to which use year I should choose. My family tends to travel at the end of August. Based on my research on use years it looks like I should choose either June/August, however, my guide recommended December as I would be able to receive 2019 points. Would this be better for me as I’m an international buyer and I’m not sure if I will be able to travel next summer due to border restrictions? if so, does that mean I would lose those 2019 points?

First time UY not that important but if picking with primary travel being June/August, perhaps pick a UY starting closer to your travels. Basically any UY that has your primary travel times in the first 8 months of it is better.

 

[Dismom18]

Thank you for all the advice! I'm a bit confused about cancelling a trip and then having the points in "holding for 60 days." The only time we would cancel a trip would be due to emergency/illness. Our kids are a bit older but are still currently in school so we would need to travel during school break. My plan was to bank 300 points and use an additional 300 to be able to get a two bedroom for approximately 10 days. If I was to cancel an August trip with a December use year could I book a trip for my husband and myself for a few days in end of Oct/November in a worse case scenario?

 

[Wedgeout]

Thank you for all the advice! I'm a bit confused about cancelling a trip and then having the points in "holding for 60 days." The only time we would cancel a trip would be due to emergency/illness. Our kids are a bit older but are still currently in school so we would need to travel during school break. My plan was to bank 300 points and use an additional 300 to be able to get a two bedroom for approximately 10 days. If I was to cancel an August trip with a December use year could I book a trip for my husband and myself for a few days in end of Oct/November in a worse case scenario?

I believe the holding only applies to a cancellation 30 to 1 days prior. Canceling over a month out wouldn’t have that penalty. Only issue is: will you still be in your 8 months to bank or not. Points left in your UY after the banking cut off can be used all the way up to the end of your UY.

 

[sethschroeder]

Thank you for all the advice! I'm a bit confused about cancelling a trip and then having the points in "holding for 60 days." The only time we would cancel a trip would be due to emergency/illness. Our kids are a bit older but are still currently in school so we would need to travel during school break. My plan was to bank 300 points and use an additional 300 to be able to get a two bedroom for approximately 10 days. If I was to cancel an August trip with a December use year could I book a trip for my husband and myself for a few days in end of Oct/November in a worse case scenario?

Two scenarios:

• You cancel 32+ days from your reservation: you retain full control of your points
• You cancel 1-31 days from your reservation: points go in to holding

Point usage:

• Full control means: booking, rebooking, banking, borrowing with normal rules
• Holding means: you can only book a reservation 1-60 days from your initial check-in date (as long as you cancel reservations 32+ days from check-in this will never occur

You would be able to use your points in October/November as a last effort to avoid losing points. There is no restriction on when you stay only when your points expire. If you are unable to bank your points for whatever reason they would expire on November 30th.

Many people prefer to have a longer time between their typical stay and point expiration just so they don't need to worry about points expiring that may have been banked from the year prior (since you can only bank points 1 year forward and then can not rebank the same points again).

 

[Sandisw]

Thank you for all the advice! I'm a bit confused about cancelling a trip and then having the points in "holding for 60 days." The only time we would cancel a trip would be due to emergency/illness. Our kids are a bit older but are still currently in school so we would need to travel during school break. My plan was to bank 300 points and use an additional 300 to be able to get a two bedroom for approximately 10 days. If I was to cancel an August trip with a December use year could I book a trip for my husband and myself for a few days in end of Oct/November in a worse case scenario?

Just want to add that most people never worried about canceling because they only thought about it being themselves with the emergency, etc,

However, COVID has taught us that sometimes trips get canceled and it’s not up to you. If something happened that closed a resort, and you had to cancel a trip, with a Dec UY, you would have little time to reschdule and fall is a really hard time to book last minute trips. It is not called fall frenzy for nothing! Lol

So, while you could book a room, finding it will be difficult. This year, things are different because people are still canceling fall trips. But, given the excess points because of the closure, things will be tough for last minute trips.

As I shared, knowing you travel in August, Dec is really not a good UY If you hav the ability to choose one that will serve you better in the long term.

 

[sethschroeder]

Just want to add that most people never worried about canceling because they only thought about it being themselves with the emergency, etc,

However, COVID has taught us that sometimes trips get canceled and it’s not up to you. If something happened that closed a resort, and you had to cancel a trip, with a Dec UY, you would have little time to reschdule and fall is a really hard time to book last minute trips. It is not called fall frenzy for nothing! Lol

So, while you could book a room, finding it will be difficult. This year, things are different because people are still canceling fall trips. But, given the excess points because of the closure, things will be tough for last minute trips.

As I shared, knowing you travel in August, Dec is really not a good UY If you hav the ability to choose one that will serve you better in the long term.

The only counterpoint is that with a December UY they would get 1 freebie that losing points would have literally cost them nothing. Every single cost for the life of the contract will be the same. Only difference is that December gets 50 sets of points and June/Aug get 49 sets of points.

 

[Sandisw]

The only counterpoint is that with a December UY they would get 1 freebie that losing points would have literally cost them nothing. Every single cost for the life of the contract will be the same. Only difference is that December gets 50 sets of points and June/Aug get 49 sets of points.

Yes, that is true, but I think having the correct UY is more important in the long run than the short term 2019 points.

 

[Bing Showei]

Yes, that is true, but I think having the correct UY is more important in the long run than the short term 2019 points.

As a frequent late August traveler, I’ll second what Sandi said about long term planning versus the very short term gain of 2019 banked points.

The additional caveat with your situation is this:

My plan was to bank 300 points and use an additional 300 to be able to get a two bedroom for approximately 10 days.

Regardless of your ability to bank up until July 31 to cancel a late August reservation with Dec UY, you are committing to a risk, year over year, of losing half your points on your reservation if you’re unable to use them between early September and November 30; arguably the worst time of year to last-minute plan with Disney’s timeshare.

Ideally, we would have had this conversation 31 plus days ago, as August is a more ideal UY and you would’ve gotten 2019 points, but better to regret this missed 31-day window only once in 2020 (a year we all want to wipe from our collective memories), than to add the additional stress to planning around a potential missed 31-day cancellation every year for the life of the contract by booking so late into your UY.

If this year has taught me anything, it’s that life happens. And when it does, UY actually matters a lot more than I had previously understood it to.