newbie questions about bankable points and UY

[jnrrt]

Hi all,

I'm new to the board. Been lurking for a while and it's been very helpful - thanks to everyone who submits. We've rented once before but are now considering buying and therefore have millions of questions. Every time I think I'm done I think of another one! So here are a few:

1) If you make a reservation and cancel it (more than 30 days out), does that affect those points in any way? Are they still bankable? Anything weird about that?

2) I know you can only bank 50% of points after 6 months into your UY. Is that 50% of the points you have left for the year, or 50% of the points you own in total? So if I'd already used half, I could still bank the rest after 6 months?

3) Anyone have any wisdom for me about UY? Right now we go off-season, usually in the winter, but that may change when we're more worried about pulling our kids out of school. Anyone with school-age kids go through this who could give me some insight?

And thanks again for this board - you all have answered questions I never even thought to ask and changed my whole plan completely (I hope for the better!).

 

[spiceycat]

if before the 31 day - yes the points return to normal

at 30 days or less - they go into a holding account - I don't think you can bank points in a holding account.

2) it is on your total points - not how many you have left over.

3) - I have a june use year and I love it! - maybe in your situation a Feb or March so you can go during spring break or summer?

 

[jnrrt]

Thanks for answering.

And as to the UY, that's what I was thinking too, but now we go in January, and I've always wanted to see the Christmas decorations, and basically, I can talk myself into the pros of going at most times of the year! Really, I just don't ever want to go when it's crowded, but I guess that can't be avoided if I don't want to pull my kids out of school much.

What do you all think of having two smaller contracts with different UY's so you can do different times of the year more safely? Or is that a pain in other ways?

 

[Cruelladeville]

The main problem with two contracts is that you have alot more bookkeeping to do. Because I am going to WDW whenever the school kids are--Spring break, summer, and Christmas--I have 3 contracts. You will need to get a notebook, and put each contract on a different page. Then everytime you talk to MS about one of your contracts, you write it down on that page, and date it. When you transfer from one contract to another, you write on both pages, and so forth. I have 700 pts, so it is extremely important to keep track where the points are going to, or coming from. You can get messed up very easily, but when you split up your points into different UY, you have less of a chance of losing any.