Importance of Use Year

[House_of_Mouse Fan]

I'm trying to sort out the importance of use year. Most posts have indicated that you should try and pick one that suits your travel needs. For example, if I usually travel in the summer, I would assume that a June use year would make sense.

I'm looking at purchasing through resale and there's a chance that I won't get my preferred use year. What I need to know is would there be any use year dates that I should not consider?

Thanks in advance!

 

[drusba]

If you usually travel in June, July or August, then consider avoiding a Sep, Oct, and possibly Dec use year.

Use year has no impact on 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). Only importance is what happens to ability to bank points if you have to cancel. You have until the eighth month of your use year to bank points into the next use year. By example, if you have a Sep use year and usually go in Aug then here is what can happen: you use Sep 09 points to book an Aug 2010 trip (within your use year), and then something happens and you need to cancel come June 2010. Result: you cannot bank the points because you are beyond the 8th month of your use year and points must be used for a trip that ends no later than Aug 31, 2010. Now assume a Feb use year and you reserve an Aug 2010 trip using Feb 2010 points. Cancel in June 2010 and you still have plenty of time to bank points.

Thus, a June use year would be fine for summer trips, as would April, March, or Feb. Ultimately though, you don't want to get too hung up on use year. You may usually go in summer now, but ten years from now you may usually want to go in April.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

I haven't grasped this at all - I usually travel in October - what is the best UY for me too please!!

 

[Sandisw]

I am a summer traveler and have a June UY. It works out well since I get the points right before I go and have plenty of flexibility if I ever have to travel.

But Sept, Oct, and Dec are the only ones that I would avoid since that puts you at the end of those UY's for travel--the least ideal situation, especially if you want to "borrow" points for a trip.

If you had, say Oct UY, and "borrow" the points for a summer trip, those points would have to be used by September 30th if you cancelled that trip more than 31 days out. For me, as a teacher, I can never travel in September (until retirement) so having a fall UY just would not work.

Good luck!!

 

[Sandisw]

I haven't grasped this at all - I usually travel in October - what is the best UY for me too please!!

October would be a good UY, but you could also go with Aug/Sept as well. You want to try to have a UY right before you travel. While travel habits do change, if you know that you have semi regular times you go, it works out nice for both "banking" points if you have to cancel a trip more than 31 days in advance, but also for situations where you "borrow" points. It gives you a lot of time to rebook a trip to use those points.

 

[disneynutz]

If possible pick a UY that is just before your group of preferred vacation dates. If you vacation in summer, pick a UY month prior to summer. If you vacation in winter pick a UY month prior to winter.

All this does is give you added time to bank and not loose points should you have to cancel your vacation due to an emergency.

 

[House_of_Mouse Fan]

Thanks for the advice! I too am a teacher, so travel is pretty much limited to the summer months. We might be able to travel during our March break (here in Canada) but other than that, it will be limited to the summer months until I retire.

 

[drusba]

I haven't grasped this at all - I usually travel in October - what is the best UY for me too please!!

Without complicating things and in order of preference: Oct, Sep, Aug, June, and April are OK if you usually travel in October (I left out July and May because those use years do not exist).

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Without complicating things and in order of preference: Oct, Sep, Aug, June, and April are OK if you usually travel in October (I left out July and May because those use years do not exist).

thanks ever so much !!! (I am a newbie to all things DVC, so trying to get my head around so much - So this makes it easy for me - so thank you!!)

 

[alamode]

I'd like to take my family March through May. Would a December date be good? From what I read February would be ideal, but I saw a great deal for December.

 

[drusba]

I'd like to take my family March through May. Would a December date be good? From what I read February would be ideal, but I saw a great deal for December.

December would be fine.

 

[Opie100]

This is probably a dumb question - but if I have a June use year, and have a ressie for June 5, and cancel that ressie on May 1, those points can still be banked since the ressie is in the first 8 months of the new use year (even if I cancelled at the end of the prior use year), right?

 

[5forDiz]

This is probably a dumb question - but if I have a June use year, and have a ressie for June 5, and cancel that ressie on May 1, those points can still be banked since the ressie is in the first 8 months of the new use year (even if I cancelled at the end of the prior use year), right?

Not a dumb question at all

If June 5 reservation is using CURRENT June UY points then yes those points may be banked if you cancel on May 1 :

~ on May 1 2009 you called to cancel reservation for June 5 2009 which would use June 2009 UY allotment of points - the current UY allotment of points ( June 2009 UY points cover reservations between 6/1/2009 - 5/31/2010 ).
~ Since this reservation is using current UY allotment of points AND you are cancelling at least 31 days before check-in AND banking deadline is January 31 2010 yes you may bank those points into June 2010 UY if you wish or you will have until May 31 2010 to utilize those points in another reservation.

~ Just keep in mind that only CURRENT UY points would be bankable so if that if June 5 2009 reservation contained any banked points from June 2008 UY allotment and/or borrowed points from upcoming June 2010 UY those banked 2008 UY points may not be re-banked & need to be used by May 31 2010 and the borrowed points cannot be put back into June 2010 UY & would also need to be used by May 31 2010.

Hope this helped