How important is your use year?

[worm761]

The title says it all. We usually vacation in May every year. How important is the use year on your first contract?

 

[CliftonParkGMan]

The title says it all. We usually vacation in May every year. How important is the use year on your first contract?

Since you can "bank" and "borrow" points the use year is not that important to me. My 1st contract had a March Use year and I usually travel in August. When I made my original purchase there were points for that first year which I banked and used in the next year. When you book they will let you use points that will be available in current UY or borrow points from the next UY. It is pretty seamless and easy.

Since my original contract I have purchased 2 additional contracts. For me I wanted the same UY month as that is the only way Disney puts them into your same account (member #.) I was patient and waited for the contracts, resort and use year month I wanted as the prices remained very constant. It is clearly a preference for me as you can transfer between accounts (with restrictions) to use all your points for a reservation. There are many members who do that as well.

 

[Kidanifan08]

The issue with UY is more about reservation cancellation. If you always travel in May, then you should look for a UY which is in the few Months before May. Remember that if you cancel in the last 4 months of your UY, you have to use those points before the end of the UY. You can't bank them. So, a June or August UY would be risky if May is the time you always travel. Of course, life changes over the course of a 30-50 year ownership, so UY issues is one of those things that may change over the time of your ownership.

 

[disneynutz]

UY is only important if you should have to cancel a reservation and you need time to bank your points which you can only do during the first 8 months of your UY. Some people say that they will never have to cancel a reservation but never say never.

So far we have had to cancel due to a job location change with little notice, a death in the family, and a hospitalization. All three times we banked our points and postponed our vacation.

Bill

 

[Sammie]

As others said, its all about cancellations.

Now with the banking 4 months prior it does affect us. We have an Oct. use year and mainly go during the summer.

If we need to cancel we are past our banking window and get stuck with holding points, which is a major pain.

 

[dbs1228]

UY is important but travel habits can and will change. We have traveled in Feb for the past 16 years but in another 2 years that too will change when our youngest DD is out of High school and no longer has Feb. break. Our other 2 DD's are in college and come for 4 nights, long weekend, just so we can have family time. I can see in the future the fall or even Jan being a better time for DH and I.

 

[Sandisw]

Evaluate when you will travel now and what you think it could be in the future. If you find a pattern that there is a specific time of year you want to go or, there is a specific time of year you want to avoid--many people will never go June through August because of the heat, then try to find a UY that works well for that.

We travel in August because I teach so we went with a June UY. However, we also knew that when we retire, our times of travel would be the fall and early winter. This left spring as our least likely travel time. So that is why we picked what we did.

Now, we just added on with a Dec UY which would still take care of most of our travel as well.

As mentioned, traveling at the beginning of the UY allows for the most flexibility in what you can do with points if you have to cancel a trip, want to change a trip to use less points, or reschedule a trip. No one UY works for the entire year.

So, with primarily May travel, April works well.

Good luck!

 

[missycj96]

If you always travel in a certain month, you want to be able to cancel or change a trip and still be able to bank the points. Also, you can't book and travel disney collections (disney non-dvc hotels and cruises) in the last four months of your use year.

For someone who travels at random points throughout the year and not the same time year to year then use year does not matter that much.

We always travel in the summer so we have an April use year. This year if I shorten or change my trip, I have until November to bank the points.

 

[Inkmahm]

As others said, its all about cancellations.

Now with the banking 4 months prior it does affect us. We have an Oct. use year and mainly go during the summer.

If we need to cancel we are past our banking window and get stuck with holding points, which is a major pain.

We have an October UY, too, but we have it because we NEVER travel to Florida during the summer. We will always know by the end of May (our banking deadline) if we have points to bank.

If you travel in the summer, I think October is one of the worst UYs you can have.

 

[Sammie]

We have an October UY, too, but we have it because we NEVER travel to Florida during the summer. We will always know by the end of May (our banking deadline) if we have points to bank.

If you travel in the summer, I think October is one of the worst UYs you can have.

It was not so bad until they changed the banking to 4 months out, at least the old way you had the chance to book a percentage of your points.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

If you travel only once per year (or two), that's where UY becomes more of a factor. For us, DH is a teacher, and we like to travel in early Aug. We had an Aug UY, which seemed ideal. However, when we banked points, they had to be used by the end of July or they expired. We ended up taking several trips late July instead of early Aug to prevent us from losing points.

After careful consideration (unlike many of you, we'll be stuck with the school schedule until DH retires) and bumping into the same issues several times, we ended up selling and repurchasing contracts with a Dec UY. Yes, we took a hit to do it, but it has worked out great for us. We have through the end of July to bank any unused points and if we do bank, we have through the end of November the following year to use the points. We can travel any time during the summer without having to consider when our points will expire.

Just a little different perspective, as we are an example where UY truly did matter. Best of luck with your purchase!