Question on "timing" of using points

Disney_Bliss

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My family is about to become DVC members, and assuming ROFR passes, our account will have points from 2018, current year 2019, and all years forward. Our use year will be April, and we are planning a vacation to WDW in May/June, 2020. The question is this:

If we book a reservation in September, are we able to use the 2018 points for a May 2020 reservation, or do they permanently expire in April 2020, so any use of them has to be before the use year?

For example:
150pts 2018 (April) - banked
150pts 2019 (April) - unused
150pts 2020 (April) - future
150pts 2021 (April - future

If we book a reservation in Sept 2019 for a May/June 2020 trip (assume using 400 pts), could we use the 2018 points, 2019 points and partial 2020....... or would we have to use 2019 points, 2020 and partial 2021?

I suppose the real question is when are points applied, at time of booking or at time of check-in? Thanks!
 
April 2018 points are usually good from April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019. If you bank them, they would be good for trips from April 2019 through March 31, 2020. They would not be good for a reservation in May 2020. They would have expired more than a month before that date. It's not when you make the reservation, it's when you stay on the reservation.
 
April 2018 points are usually good from April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019. If you bank them, they would be good for trips from April 2019 through March 31, 2020. They would not be good for a reservation in May 2020. They would have expired more than a month before that date. It's not when you make the reservation, it's when you stay on the reservation.
Thanks for the speedy reply and invaluable information!
 
Easiest way to think about what points you can use is to forget calendar year and think about UY. First, figure out the UY that your trip will happen (not when you call). Then, you know that you can use banked points from the UY prior to travel, points from the UY of travel, and borrow points to complete the reservation from the UY after travel.

So, in your example, a May/June 2020 vacation, this takes place in your April 2020 UY. That means you can use banked 2019 UY points, 2020 UY points, and borrow 2021 UY points. In order to use the 2019 points, they will need to be banked prior to making the reservation.

As already stated, that means that the 2018 UY points that were banked into 2019 UY must be used for stays no later than March 31st, 2020. Points are only valid for up to one additional UY when they are banked. And, everything is based on when you stay and not when you call to book as every trip can be booked 11 months out at home resort, and 7 months out at all others!
 

So, in your example, a May/June 2020 vacation, this takes place in your April 2020 UY. That means you can use banked 2019 UY points, 2020 UY points, and borrow 2021 UY points. In order to use the 2019 points, they will need to be banked prior to making the reservation.

Thanks Sandi. It does spark another question (and I have not checked the boards yet but I am sure this has been asked at some point:

For a UY of April, at what point each year does the decision need to be made to bank points for that year to push them to the next year? IF our contract goes through ROFR (fingers crossed), we will need to bank the 2019 points to use them for our 2020 vacation.
 
......(snip)...........For a UY of April, at what point each year does the decision need to be made to bank points for that year to push them to the next year? IF our contract goes through ROFR (fingers crossed), we will need to bank the 2019 points to use them for our 2020 vacation.
With an April use year, the banking deadline is the following November 30. So the 2019 points will need to be banked on or before 11/30/2019. Good luck with ROFR!
 
You can always ask your agent to ask the owner to bank the points before it goes to ROFR.
 
I would defiantly ask for those points to be banked. And if you cant use those 2018 points for yourself or friends. Then don't lose out on them, either on the rent boards here or with a broker rent those points out before they expire and put a little back in your pocket.
Good luck with ROFR.
 
Although the policy is that you can't use or bank again points that have already been banked, occasionally you might get lucky enough to get a CM who sprinkles you with Pixie Dust. We bought a contract with banked points that we figured we'd lose because we didn't have any trips planned this UY. However, she banked the points for us, under (her) theory that since the points hadn't been banked by us, the current owners, they weren't banked. I hadn't even asked her, and I was speechless, but glad, that she did that.
 















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