September use year

[suzannews]

I know this sounds stupid but...what does a September use year mean? If we currently vacation in June each year, it this a good thing or a bad thing? Thanks.

 

[Sandisw]

Your UY is simply the date each year when you points become "current" UY points and are valid from that point for one year, unless banked in to the next UY.

So, if you choose a Sept UY, your points will be valid from September 1st through August 31st. You can bank points during the first 8 months of your UY.

With June travel, Sept UY would not be ideal. You really want to have a UY that starts just prior to your typical travel so that if you have to cancel or change a trip, you have a lot of flexibility in what to do.

If you had Sept UY, and had to cancel a June trip (up to 31 days in advance--less than that and there are a how new set of rules for the points), you would only have July and August to use them up.

However, if you choose a June UY and cancelled a June trip, you would still have 11 months to re-book the trip or use up borrowed points. You would also still be able to bank any current UY points.

The other piece to consider is your secondary travel times. If you see yourself possibly traveling in the spring as well, then you might want a Feb UY. However, if you see yourself also traveling in the fall or holidays, then June works very well.

 

[peabody58]

Our UY is Sept. Simply put -

1. Your yearly points arrive in that month.
2. You need to bank NLT 4 months before the end of your current UY, which would be 4/30.
3. You can not book any Disney Collection trips for the last 4 months of your UY in the last 4 months of your UY. i.e., Trying to book a Disney Collection 6/1 for a ressie 8/1 is not allowed; however if you booked it more than 4 months from the end of your UY, then it's ok.

Regarding if UY Sept is good if you book in June, a concern would be if you had to cancel your ressie less than 30 days out, your points would be in Holding with little time to use them. Additionally, you can't bank points once you're less than 4 months to the end of your UY.

Generally it is a good strategy to get a UY where the last 4 months of the UY is not the primary vacation time for you. But with any UY, advance planning and flexibility are successful elements to your DVC process.

Awe, the heck with it, just book and have a great time!!

 

[JimMIA]

As Sandi put it, a September UY would not be "ideal" for June vacations. August would be worse, October not so bad, etc.

However, UY is just one factor you have to deal with. Where UY really comes into play is when your plans change. You can bank points only during the first 8 months of your UY, so for a Sept UY, your banking deadline would be April 30 as the poster above stated.

So...IF you booked a June reservation and then changed your mind on May 1 or later, you would not be able to bank those points. You could still use them up through the end of August, but you couldn't bank them.

Whether or not that is a problem for your family depends. It's certainly a factor you have to be aware of, but you'll have that issue the last four months of any UY. The key question is really, how solid are your vacation plans by April 30?

For example, we have an October UY. My two adult daughters always vacation during the summer (both are currently on vacation, one at VB, the other on a non-DVC vacation). In five years -- 29 trips and counting by three families -- we'ver never had a problem with vacationing late in our UY.

In fact, my daughters are rather notorious for not making vacation plans until pretty darn late in the process. So we bank points prior to our May 31 deadline and then borrow points for their summer stays. As long as their plans remain firm, we not only don't have problems, we also don't forget to bank our points.

IMHO, UY is not the bogeyman we sometimes think. It is something that has to be understood and managed.

Also, over the years, our vacation patterns can change. What's true today may not be true five years from now.

 

[JimMIA]

3. You can not book any Disney Collection trips for the last 4 months of your UY in the last 4 months of your UY

This is a pretty confusing rule. The rule is that you are not allowed to BOTH book and stay in the last 4 months. You can book anytime, you can stay anytime, but calling to make a reservation within 4 months for a stay within that same 4 months is not allowed.

Is that a big deal? Depends on when and where you want to go. Many times, it wouldn't be possible anyway because of availability issues.

 

[suzannews]

Thanks for the info!

As stated before, we always vacation in June around my daughter's birthday. She is going into the 10th grade this year so pulling her out of school for vacation is not an option. We bought points at the Grand Californian last month so this is all new to me. I asked my husband and he doesn't remember being asked about what we wanted our "use year" to be either. We did say over and over that we always vacation in June though. Oh well. We do have our vacation plans in mind for the next 3 summers so I guess we just need to book when the booking window opens and go from there. If plans change and I can't bank my points because its too late, we live 20 minutes from Disney so I guess we could always take a local vacation or drive an hour to Vero Beach instead of losing the points.