Help with a UY

[hmire]

I am a teacher. So our dates would be around the same time each your.
--Fall break (Oct)---Would be a long weekend-Thurs-Monday/Tuesday usually.
--Thanksgiving break (Nov)--The friday before Thanksgiving into Thanksgiving week.
---Mardi Gras--(Feb-Mar)- We are off a full week for Mardi Gras.
--June--(first 2 weeks..so much less points)-We get out for the summer in May.

I really don't see us going during premier summer season. I don't want to deal with that many crowds. So if we do go it would be just to getaway and enjoy the resorts.

TIA

 

[Warren W]

You should make a decision according to your own conditions, the opinions of others just give your some reference.

 

[drusba]

October would be your best use year. Choice has nothing to do with when you can go (any time of year) or when you can call to reserve (always 11 months out at home resort, 7 at others). Instead, it has to do with the risk of cancellation and then being able to bank points by the eighth month of use year if you must cancel. Based on your possible annual trip dates, October is really the best choice.

 

[hmire]

UY is confusing to me. So you can only bank points in the first 8 months? DH picks vacation in Sept/Oct every year and I get my school schedule in May/June every year for the next school year. If I schedule a vacation at the 11 month time (let just say a Feb vacation during Mardi Gras week) and DH wasn't able to get those days off. Can I cancel it and not lose my points or have to use them?

 

[Sandisw]

UY is confusing to me. So you can only bank points in the first 8 months? DH picks vacation in Sept/Oct every year and I get my school schedule in May/June every year for the next school year. If I schedule a vacation at the 11 month time (let just say a Feb vacation during Mardi Gras week) and DH wasn't able to get those days off. Can I cancel it and not lose my points or have to use them?

You can always cancel a trip 31 days or more in advance and the points go back into your account--30 days or less and then they become holding points with restrictions.

If those are current UY points, and you are still within your banking window, then you can bank those. However, if they are borrowed points, they would still have to be used within the UY they were borrowed in to.

In your case, I would try for an Oct UY because the banking window for this UY is May 31st. That means that all trips through June would be covered.

In terms of your example, yes, if you called in Sept to cancel that Mardi Gras trip, you would be set in terms of your current UY points. If that trip, however, had banked or borrowed points in it, then you would have to use those by the end of the UY regardless.

 

[chalee94]

UY is confusing to me. So you can only bank points in the first 8 months?

yes.

this is part of why traveling early in your UY gives you more options.

DH picks vacation in Sept/Oct every year and I get my school schedule in May/June every year for the next school year. If I schedule a vacation at the 11 month time (let just say a Feb vacation during Mardi Gras week) and DH wasn't able to get those days off. Can I cancel it and not lose my points or have to use them?

if you bank or borrow pts, they are locked into their new use year and cannot be moved again. so that can be a limiting factor.

current pts can be banked forward provided you 1) cancel more than a month in advance of your stay AND 2) your banking window is still open.

so if you had a feb UY with a feb 2013 stay and you decided to cancel in december 2012, you'd still have more than a year to decide how to use any banked/borrowed pts before they expire on jan 31, 2014. current 2013 pts could be used or banked by sept 30, 2013.

but if you had a mar UY with a feb 2013 stay and you decided to cancel in december 2012, your banking window closed in october and you'd need to quiclky decide how to use any banked/borrowed AND current pts before they expire on jan 31, 2013.

 

[BrerNashville]

We've got an OCT use year for just the reasons mentioned above -- we can schedule trips during October and December, and if we have to cancel, have plenty of time to bank. The other time of the year we travel is late May/early June. Since I've got until May to bank, as someone mentioned above, even June reservations can be banked at pretty much the last minute, before we entered that 31 day period where your points go into holding and you couldn't bank them anyway.

We do not anticipate ever going to WDW in late June to mid-August on account of the heat and crowds.

The other thing about the October use year is that September is the last month of the year, which seems to be one of the least traveled months of the year. So if we ever got stuck with points in holding, or needing to schedule a last minute trip to use them, we'll have that last chance with hopefully decent availability.