Multiple Use Year Questions

[DisneyMimiUSMC]

Everyone was so helpful with my original question about a direct contract, I figured you smart people can help me figure out a use year question. So today we bought a direct contract for 200 points at VGF. Originally we were going to buy 310, but you all convinced me to go smaller. We are planning on supplementing with a 100 point (or close to it) resale contract at SSR. Our use year for VGF is October. (originally Feb, but they changed it for us) I'm finding that a Dec use year is more prevalent on the resale sites. Is there a reason why we wouldn't want an October use year direct and December use year resale? We are soon to retire and have a lot of flexibility when we can travel if that helps. Thanks!

 

[robinb]

I had two different UYs at one point (Old Key West September and Boardwalk August) and it was a PITB. If you have two UYs you will not be able to combine the two contracts seamlessly to book a vacation at the 7-month window. You will need to book whole days with each contract, so you could end up with two or more different reservations hobbled together for one vacation. It's do-able and I made it work for years. Then, I sold OKW and bought into AKV with a September UY. I really like having the same UY much, much better.

 

[Sandisw]

Two UYs are different memberships so it’s like being different owners.

In order to use the points together for the same reservation, you need to transfer points. And, once transferred, they can no longer be borrowed for trips..so you have to be strategic.

We have three UYs and have no issues because we use them for different trips, split stays or just book some nights on one and some on the other and then have Ms add the note to link so we don’t have to change rooms.

It can be beneficial in that you can choose the UY that works best for your travel.

 

[DanCali]

Everyone was so helpful with my original question about a direct contract, I figured you smart people can help me figure out a use year question. So today we bought a direct contract for 200 points at VGF. Originally we were going to buy 310, but you all convinced me to go smaller. We are planning on supplementing with a 100 point (or close to it) resale contract at SSR. Our use year for VGF is October. (originally Feb, but they changed it for us) I'm finding that a Dec use year is more prevalent on the resale sites. Is there a reason why we wouldn't want an October use year direct and December use year resale? We are soon to retire and have a lot of flexibility when we can travel if that helps. Thanks!

You can do two use years and I don't find it difficult at all to manage, but I think it works best when each account can "stand on its own" and has at least 40% of the total points you own. In our case each of the two use years has two different resorts and the split is currently about 52%/48% between the two account.

Having just 1/3 of the total points in one account would probably be too restrictive for our needs since we'd be running out of points in that account and having to borrow instead of combining points from different resorts in the same use year. Owning with Marriott before DVC, I really dislike the irreversibility aspect of borrowing at DVC (at Marriott, when you cancel a reservation, all points go back to their original use year, and that happens even if they go into a holding account due to the cancellation timing).

Two use years might work better for you if you were considering 150 resale, but if you're in the 100 range hold off till you get the right use year. I do in fact currently see 3 SSR with October use year with 100-125 points. Sent you a PM with links from resale websites (one of them was not allowed apparently).

Oh - and congrats on your purchase!!