ProsCons of different Use Years

[thanxfornoticin]

I expect this has been discussed many times, but I'm curious to learn from those who know. We currently have a couple resale contracts with August UY's. We're seriously considering extending the number of points at that resort with another resale purchase, but August UY's are few and far between. Can anyone explain the complexity or simplicity of it if I purchase a different UY? Might I try to look at a specific non-August UY to help with reservations? We've been very hesitant to purchase a different UY because things have been very easy for planning. I'm trying to open my mind to an alternative UY that might get us the points we want and the reservations we want. We tend to do Disney in the December through March time frames. Thank you for any guidance.

 

[Sandisw]

The biggest thing to understand is that a different UY is an entirely new membership. It’s like being two different owners.

Points in one membership can’t be used with points in another membership to make a single reservation, even if they are at the same resort, unless you transfer points from one to the other,

Transferred points have rules and even when transferred keep their own UY. For example, I have points at SSR in both Aug and Dec UYs. I can’t use them together to book a trip. If I want to, I have to transfer but I have to b careful because I can’t transfer points that have been banked, and once I transfer them, I can’t borrow them for a trip.

So, say I want to travel in August 2022 and want to use some of my Dec 2022 points with my Aug 2022 points. I can’t because when I transfer them, they would need to be borrowed for that trip and that is not allowed.

We own two because it allows us to book trips on each membership based on when we travel so that we are always traveling during our banking window in case we have to cancel or change a trip.

We also never mix the points. If I want to use them for the same trip, I book some nights on one and some on the other and then ask MS to link so we hopefully don’t have to change rooms…and we are Always in the same room.

IMO, if you have a plan for how to use them, and enough points in each to function on their own, it can be a good thing. But, it does take work and planning.

 

[wdwdaddy4life]

I have 6 contracts with 3 different UYs and it is challenging at times...I wish I would've kept everything in a single UY

 

[HappyThoughtsTees]

The only reason I would buy a different use year would be for a very specific purpose..for example you would only use those points to go during a festival or something like that. Otherwise it gets unnecessarily complicated. You can only transfer one time per year per contract, so combining isn't always that easy.

 

[dvc lover 1970]

For your travel times, August UY seems the best. I think one UY keeps it simple

 

[Disneykate605]

We have 3 UY's and have not had an issue. Each UY has enough points to function on its own. I will say the one thing I would not do personally is have 2 UY's for the same resort. I know that would be too confusing for me!! One of our UY's is Dec and that is hard enough for me. I would like to sell that in the future and replace it with a contract in one of our other 2 UY's.
But again that's just me and I'm sure many people are fine with it...like Sandisw!

 

[wdwdaddy4life]

We have 3 UY's and have not had an issue. Each UY has enough points to function on its own. I will say the one thing I would not do personally is have 2 UY's for the same resort. I know that would be too confusing for me!! One of our UY's is Dec and that is hard enough for me. I would like to sell that in the future and replace it with a contract in one of our other 2 UY's.
But again that's just me and I'm sure many people are fine with it...like Sandisw!

I have the dreaded 2 different UYs at same resort, Riviera (400 Direct Dec UY and 412 Resale Oct UY). Only reason I added the Oct UY resale was because of price ($109 p/pt). I have a large extended family and we usually stay in GVs so I figured that I would simply bank/borrow a different UY contract each year to make our reservation...then the borrowing restriction happened...

 

[buzzrelly]

We have BLT with a December UY which is great for trips in December or April for F&G. We are looking to add in at BCV with an April UY to use either in April or October.
I feel this gives us the best coverage and seems like the most perfect two UYs.

 

[Disneykate605]

I have the dreaded 2 different UYs at same resort, Riviera (400 Direct Dec UY and 412 Resale Oct UY). Only reason I added the Oct UY resale was because of price ($109 p/pt). I have a large extended family and we usually stay in GVs so I figured that I would simply bank/borrow a different UY contract each year to make our reservation...then the borrowing restriction happened...

Nice price! A great deal makes most situations seem like less of an issue!
A good deal is how I ended up with the Dec UY...so I totally get it!!
I can't wait for the borrowing restriction to go away!!

 

[Bjaiken77]

I have an October UY. I like it for the most part because I don’t plan to travel to WDW during the period where I can’t bank my points.

There are two things I don’t like about it. First, September would be a good month for us to go and the point charts are favorable, but I fear a last minute cancellation right up against my point expiration date. Second, October seems to be a more rare UY, so there aren’t as many good resale deals as I’d like to see with an October UY. Then again, maybe that’s a blessing.

 

[Nabas]

We intentionally have 3 Use Years staggered 4 months apart. This allows us to book rooms throughout the year without worrying about the banking deadline.

 

[808blessing]

We intentionally have 3 Use Years staggered 4 months apart. This allows us to book rooms throughout the year without worrying about the banking deadline.

I like that theory. i will have a 4 month, 3 month and 5 month gap when I close. Points all year....but different resorts! I made a visual spreadsheet to keep me organized. i hope it works.

 

[NeutralNovice]

The biggest thing to understand is that a different UY is an entirely new membership. It’s like being two different owners.

Points in one membership can’t be used with points in another membership to make a single reservation, even if they are at the same resort, unless you transfer points from one to the other,

Transferred points have rules and even when transferred keep their own UY. For example, I have points at SSR in both Aug and Dec UYs. I can’t use them together to book a trip. If I want to, I have to transfer but I have to b careful because I can’t transfer points that have been banked, and once I transfer them, I can’t borrow them for a trip.

So, say I want to travel in August 2022 and want to use some of my Dec 2022 points with my Aug 2022 points. I can’t because when I transfer them, they would need to be borrowed for that trip and that is not allowed.

We own two because it allows us to book trips on each membership based on when we travel so that we are always traveling during our banking window in case we have to cancel or change a trip.

We also never mix the points. If I want to use them for the same trip, I book some nights on one and some on the other and then ask MS to link so we hopefully don’t have to change rooms…and we are Always in the same room.

IMO, if you have a plan for how to use them, and enough points in each to function on their own, it can be a good thing. But, it does take work and planning.

Question for you! You said that you can ask them to link the two reservations. How does that affect your 60-day dining reservation window?

 

[Sandisw]

Question for you! You said that you can ask them to link the two reservations. How does that affect your 60-day dining reservation window?

It means I have two. But we don’t worry about that and don’t always do sit downs every day of the trip anyway.

So for us, not an issue aa we only usually book one or max two sit downs each trip. Then we add when there based on what is still open.

 

[Carol_]

We have two contracts with the same UY, and I still can’t keep things straight. I rely on @Sandisw to tell me how it all works.

 

[Ruttangel]

I have 3 contracts with 2 UY and it isn't too bad, I just got points transferred via MS and booked up using both, if you are good at keeping track on your finances then points are a lot easier.

 

[kandlsutton]

5 contracts with 5 home resorts, 3 memberships and 2 UYs - all purchased in 2021.

Yes, I have a spreadsheet but I love the planning and making sure I can use every point. We have August and December UY’s, which allows us to book multiple trips a year and all within our banking windows. DH and I plan to go in Oct/Nov (AUG UY) and April/May (DEC UY) and then do Decemebr/January family trips in alternating years using our 2 larger contracts (1 AUG UY and 1 DEC UY) by banking a years worth of points,

I am basically using the memberships separately and have not needed to transfer points. Not sure I would like having 2 UYs at the same resort though, even though a transfer should make booking a continuous reservation easier. We wanted the 11 month home booking advantage at multiple resorts and have 3 smaller contracts for DH and I to use for split stays and we have not yet switched out our home resort at 7 months. Once I get a better feel for what might be available at 7 months, this may be something we will do, but only if we can get the days we want.

If you don’t plan to travel after March 31, it would likely be easier to keep your August UY. For us though, April/May travel times make a December UY less risky since we can still cancel and bank those points as long as points don't go into holding. Booking those trips with August UY and cancelling after 3/31 would mean having to rebook in June/July, rent out the reservation, or lose those points. Vacationing in Florida in the summer is not something I would volunteer for, and even then it would be a resort only stay.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

If I could do anything with DVC over again it would be to have all one use year. I’m a data scientist and still can’t keep it all straight sometimes. I really don’t like that pooling all the points between all contracts is not seamless and depending on when your vacation falls there are all these crazy rules to keep track of regarding transferring points between contracts. Ugh. It’s a headache and I’ve gotten it wrong more than once.

 

[808blessing]

So this is my patented invention I came up with last week. The stars denote when i need to bank. The arrow shows bank or borrow and I yellowed out my point numbers. Different colors denote different use years.
Kindly asking someone come up with an app and give me a little cred & lifetime access please.

 

[Shellyred8]

We have two different UY's as that works best with our usual travel dates. We have an April UY that we use for our May-ish trips and an August UY that we use for our December-ish trips. I like being able to use the points for trips earlier in the UY just in case we have to cancel or change plans. As long as we make the change more than 30 days out if we have changes with those trips, we can still use our points as normal for the rest of the use year.