please help me understand what allof the fuss is about re: UY

[schoen]

I see people on these boards talk about use year all the time. I see the advice that you should have a use year close to shun you travel, etc.

we have several contracts, all with June use years. We typically travel in the fall (October or November). We occasionally travel February. UY does not seem to be an issue for us at all . We were careful to buy all the same Use Year, because it seemed neat and tidy. We are perfectly happy with our Use Year. It is only confusing to people in my family who don't plan the trips., and when I try to explain their eyes glaze over ... So what is all of the fuss about? Am I missing out on some great advantage?

 

[supersnoop]

http://www.disboards.com/threads/understanding-use-year-updated-april-27-2016.1942668/

Basically, if you are ever at risk of cancelling, or if you want to book a trip at short notice, or if you want to waitlist something late in the year, you risk putting your points in a situation where they may expire unused. A good use year is essentially free trip insurance.

Let's say you have a trip in February. You had to borrow points for it. In December, you realize you have to cancel. Those points go back into your current year. You have a little over a month to bank any current year points, but all those borrowed points will expire on June 1st. You have less than five months to plan another trip if you're going to use them. Availability is slim pickings. What do you do?

Same Febuary trip, but you have a medical emergency and have to cancel with only two weeks notice. Points go into holding. You can only book two months in advance, and you only have four months to use them. Can you get a trip in?

 

[Dean]

I see people on these boards talk about use year all the time. I see the advice that you should have a use year close to shun you travel, etc.

we have several contracts, all with June use years. We typically travel in the fall (October or November). We occasionally travel February. UY does not seem to be an issue for us at all . We were careful to buy all the same Use Year, because it seemed neat and tidy. We are perfectly happy with our Use Year. It is only confusing to people in my family who don't plan the trips., and when I try to explain their eyes glaze over ... So what is all of the fuss about? Am I missing out on some great advantage?

It's insurance. The value is roughly about one years worth of points to many IMO. Those where UY isn't that important may be taking more risk than those where they have a UY that occurs shortly before their travel. That said, it's rarely worth buying and reselling to get a UY. It'd be a very unusual circumstance where this alone would be an appropriate reason to sell.

 

[disneynutz]

Maybe for most it won't matter but it's just another advantage that buyers can use if they buy the correct UY.

We have used the advantage twice on short notice cancellations, once when we had a death in the family and once with a forced job relocation to a different city. We banked both times and took a longer vacation the next year.

Bill

 

[schoen]

I suppose that makes sense. We have been fortunate to never have to cancel a trip, so never dealt with re-arranging points. I guess with all things considered, we don't have a perfectly ideal use year, but we have a pretty good cushion, especially considering how tempting it can be to schedule winter getaways. I would be hard-pressed to travel in May-Sept. It is just too hot. October pushes it weather-wise for me!

 

[Dean]

I suppose that makes sense. We have been fortunate to never have to cancel a trip, so never dealt with re-arranging points. I guess with all things considered, we don't have a perfectly ideal use year, but we have a pretty good cushion, especially considering how tempting it can be to schedule winter getaways. I would be hard-pressed to travel in May-Sept. It is just too hot. October pushes it weather-wise for me!

Factors include work, family, school, health, etc, the RTU is a long time. As members age one would expect the risk of needing to change or cancel to increase, esp as we become older and as kids get into middle school and high school. While the risk varies currently from one member to another, a bad UY represents risk and a good UY represents a certain level of protection but there are no absolutes.

 

[schoen]

Factors include work, family, school, health, etc, the RTU is a long time. As members age one would expect the risk of needing to change or cancel to increase, esp as we become older and as kids get into middle school and high school. While the risk varies currently from one member to another, a bad UY represents risk and a good UY represents a certain level of protection but there are no absolutes.

Sure, but the very fact that lives change mean there is likely no such thing a good use year, right? What works perfectly for me now, could end up being a nightmare in the future. I can't reasonably predict unforeseen changes, so I think I'm good. My current contract doesn't end until I'm in my 80's. It would be awfully silly for me to fret about what my life will look like then.

 

[supersnoop]

I can't reasonably predict unforeseen changes,

Which is precisely why, when advising people who are about to buy in, we recommend you purchase the use year that works for your right now, or otherwise based on your expected changes.

 

[gmboy95]

I never thought about UY until maybe 5 or 6 years after i purchased.....what i can say is that our march UY has never had any real discernible effect on our travel

 

[Dean]

Sure, but the very fact that lives change mean there is likely no such thing a good use year, right? What works perfectly for me now, could end up being a nightmare in the future. I can't reasonably predict unforeseen changes, so I think I'm good. My current contract doesn't end until I'm in my 80's. It would be awfully silly for me to fret about what my life will look like then.

I think one can predict time of year far better than other life situations so no, I don't think it reduces the importance of UY. Obviously it is variable but when it is less important, DVC is inherently more risky.

 

[Anal Annie]

I also don't get the big fuss since we plan trips at different times of the year (but always at least one summer trip). So we haven't found our Dec. UY to be much of a problem yet. We DID have to cancel an August trip last minute (8 days out) due to a medical emergency with our DS and were faced with a lot of current and banked points that were going to expire by the end of Nov. if we couldn't figure something else out. However we were able to re-work the trip by pushing the dates back by a week (and drastically changing the destination from DL & Aulani to WDW) along with upgrading from studios to a one-bedroom unit. A combo trip of 3 nights at VGC in a studio and 7 nights at Aulani in an OV studio translated into 9 nights in a 1-bedroom at SSR with only 6 points leftover. We felt very fortunate to be able to at least preserve SOMETHING SOMEHOW.

Since we also sometimes travel in January and over spring break and / or in the fall on short trips it doesn't seem like the UY is that big of a deal for us. And ever since the Aulani trip which we re-planned for the following year after we had to cancel we've been in a borrowing mode rather than a banking mode so we don't even have to worry about the banking deadline in July.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think that UY is worth understanding, but never worth worrying about.

Feb UY, and several of our trips have been in December. Such danger!

 

[schoen]

I think that UY is worth understanding, but never worth worrying about.

Feb UY, and several of our trips have been in December. Such danger!

Yeah, now that I understand why folks fret about it, I can see that it is not something for me to get too concerned about, especially after we've already purchased. If I could go back in time to 1993 and instruct my parents to think about it, I might; but 25 years in to the initial contract it has not been a problem. Moving forward, I can see that if it ever were, it would be an isolated incident. I have too many things that I CAN predict to worry about! Anticipating future canceled vacations is just not worth my "worry capital" especially with an existing contract. Moving forward, we will continue to add on in our current use year.

 

[dcfromva]

Honestly, if you are happy with what you've got--that is wonderful.
Conventional wisdom is that over time your usage patterns may change so any hard and fast rules you had when you purchased might be different as time passes. We have been members for 15 years. In fact, our usage has changed quite a bit. Also, as our family branches out I have found our stays are less predictable because there are more work schedules (and other factors) to take into consideration.

For me, I prefer to use our points within the first 6 months of the UY. It is easier for me to track and easier for me to recover a vacation plan that gets derailed (which happens more often than I would like). I have much less angst. This past Christmas, we had to cancel our VGC plans about 2 months out because of a work schedule issue. We were able to use some of the points at HHI over Christmas, but we still had about 75 banked points that had to be used. With a June UY, I felt less pressure to figure out a way to use them.

If you never have to cancel it's never going to be an issue and nothing to worry about.