Someone please expalin why it is important to....

[Buckeye Fan]

DH is a teacher and to me, an ideal UY would be February. With a Feb UY, your points are deposited on February 1. You can travel spring break, June/July/Aug, Thanksgiving or Christmas on those points without much consideration, or bank them into the next UY. If you bank, you have through the end of September to bank, so most of your trips (with the exception of Thanksgiving or Christmas) have no risk, because you can still bank if you have to cancel/postpone a trip. If you cancel a vacation after September (say a November or December trip), you would have to use those points by the end of January or they would expire since you are past your banking deadline.

Let's say that you make a reservation this July, and bank 75 unused points. Those 75 points become available to you again February 2012. You will have through January 2013 to use them, or they expire. Once banked, points cannot be banked again and must be used or you lose them.

UY becomes a little more important when you only travel once a year, especially if you bank points. We had an Aug UY, and I just sold two contracts because of the issues we ran into with banked points. With an Aug UY, any points that I banked expired at the end of July. So this year, we are going to Disney the last week of July instead of August, because we would have lost those points. When you travel multiple times a year, you have more opportunities to use your points, and banked points don't become as big of an issue.

In a nutshell, this is what a Feb UY would mean:

February 1, 2011 - points deposited and good for travel Feb 1, 2011 - January 31, 2012. Any unused points must be banked by Sept 30, 2011. Banked points from 2011 good for travel February 1, 2012 - January 31, 2013.

February 1, 2012 - points depositited and good for travel Feb 1, 2012 - January 31, 2013. Any unused points must be banked by Sept 30, 2012. Banked points from 2012 good for travel Febrary 1, 2013 - January 31, 2014...and so on.

Good luck!

 

[Sammie]

We have an Oct use year. Most of our trips are during the summer months or Sept. If we have to cancel even 31 days out, we can not bank our points thanks to the change of banking 4 months out.

Thanks JL that messed us up big time.

 

[PrincessPaczki]

Hi so if we plan on traveling mainly Oct. and Nov. what month should I get? Sorry if this has already been answered. Thanks!

 

[staceymay00]

Hi so if we plan on traveling mainly Oct. and Nov. what month should I get? Sorry if this has already been answered. Thanks!

October would be good, or September if there is a chance you will begin some trips in September and run into October. August would work, too. Is there another time of year you might travel? If you might sometimes travel during the summer, for example, June would better cover all possibilities. I don't see us ever deciding to visit regularly during the summer months so a UY right after summer works well for us. We went with October.

 

[Elise79]

We picked a March use year as because of my job I can not travel in January and we would be very unlikely to travel in February as we like the warmer mote consistent weather. This gave us a block of 2 months clear before the start of our use year where we wont travel.

At the moment we are travelling spring and fall but as DD gets older I guess that will change.

 

[zebsterama]

Hi there - late to the game, but here's a couple of threads that I like, that go into a bit of detail into this subject if you're interested.

Understanding Use Year
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1942668&page=1

Use Year Months
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2659039

Cheers,
Zebsterama

 

[ToddyLu]

My DH is a fireman. He has to pick vacation based on senority each Dec. We have a Dec UY and usually travel Oct-Dec. So we really do not have the "ideal" UY. The reason it "works" for me is...Because we travel in the fall...is it gives me the most time to have the guaranteed dates we will get for the year. I get those dates and then a few days later make the reservation for the following Oct-Dec becasue I can use my 11 month booking priority. This will happen until he retires in about 7 years. We have never had to cancel a vacation. I have to have set dates for vacation because there are rules to DVC regarding cancellations. Dec just works for us right now and we are not going to be in Orlando when it is hot.

If DH did not have to pick his vacation this way...Sept or Oct would have been perfect for us. We are traveling this May. If we had not gotten the vacation days from the FD for this trip....I still could have banked my remaining points, since my deadline is July 31.

Honetly I had to read and read and then read some more to understand all the ends and outs of ownership. It is an expensive timeshare and it blows my mind that people purchase DVC without the understanding of the rules.

2 more good sites are DVCNews.com and Allears. You can also purchase a DVC download guidebook from Pass Porter that is very good for understanding DVC. I think DH and I bought it for around $8 and I can refer to it often.

 

[PKS44]

One other wrinkle no one has mentioned is the ability to combine 4 years' worth of points for one vacation. That is...if you wanted to have a really big splurge and use 4 years' points instead of the 3 usually quoted you can do so by making the vacation "straddle" the USE YEAR.
Example: you have 150 points but need 500 points to make a reservation-- impossible? NO.
If your USE YEAR starts on AUG 1 you could book the first 50 points worth (or more) in the last days of the USE year at the end of July and then the next 450 points worth (or the balance) on and after AUG 1. IN a sense you are using up to the maximum of 3 years points (borrowing and banking) into one use year and then one more years' worht of borrowing at the beginning of the next USE YEAR.
So the USE YEAR would be important if you hope or plan to do this because if you would never book such a trip at the end of Jan and beginning of Feb (or whatever month pair applies to you) then you can't exploit this trick. (which I believe should be named for it's discoverer--me!)

 

[chalee94]

One other wrinkle no one has mentioned is the ability to combine 4 years' worth of points for one vacation. That is...if you wanted to have a really big splurge and use 4 years' points instead of the 3 usually quoted you can do so by making the vacation "straddle" the USE YEAR.

the down side of course is that the first part of the reservation must be at the very end of your use year - the very worst time in the event that you need to cancel.

that's the reason that this strategy - while possible - is too risky for most...

 

[Sandisw]

My DH is a fireman. He has to pick vacation based on senority each Dec. We have a Dec UY and usually travel Oct-Dec. So we really do not have the "ideal" UY. The reason it "works" for me is...Because we travel in the fall...is it gives me the most time to have the guaranteed dates we will get for the year. I get those dates and then a few days later make the reservation for the following Oct-Dec becasue I can use my 11 month booking priority. This will happen until he retires in about 7 years. We have never had to cancel a vacation. I have to have set dates for vacation because there are rules to DVC regarding cancellations. Dec just works for us right now and we are not going to be in Orlando when it is hot.

If DH did not have to pick his vacation this way...Sept or Oct would have been perfect for us. We are traveling this May. If we had not gotten the vacation days from the FD for this trip....I still could have banked my remaining points, since my deadline is July 31.

Honetly I had to read and read and then read some more to understand all the ends and outs of ownership. It is an expensive timeshare and it blows my mind that people purchase DVC without the understanding of the rules.

2 more good sites are DVCNews.com and Allears. You can also purchase a DVC download guidebook from Pass Porter that is very good for understanding DVC. I think DH and I bought it for around $8 and I can refer to it often.

Just want to clarify that your being able to book in December for those Oct/Nov trips has nothing to do with the fact that you have a Dec UY. Anyone, regardless of UY, can book a trip 11 months ahead at home resort.

So, even if you owned a Feb UY and didn't know your Oct/Nov dates until December, your booking period would be the same. It might change the UY you are traveling in, but not when you can call to book your trips.

 

[ToddyLu]

I understand Sandi what you are saying. It is just that there is no variation to his vacation dates once they are set. I cannot call anyone for a reservation regardless of my UY until I have them, which is known in Dec. For our May trip I was pretty sure 99% that DH would get the dates we wanted but he (Great Master of the Universe ) would not let me "risk" it. My explanation was more of a "how we use a Dec UY for our planning" as just an example. So I actually was well within my 7 month booking when I called for the May trip, but had to wait for DH to guarantee the dates for me. I am a nurse and can get vacation when ever I want and it can vary at a whim throughout the year. He can't. It just kinda helps me keep our vacations for the coming year in a nice organized bubble--that was really all I was saying...and Lord knows you have certainly helped me organize my thought processes on this in previous posts....and I thank you

Robo may have the most posts but SandisW is my DVC UY Guru

 

[Sandisw]

I understand Sandi what you are saying. It is just that there is no variation to his vacation dates once they are set. I cannot call anyone for a reservation regardless of my UY until I have them, which is known in Dec. For our May trip I was pretty sure 99% that DH would get the dates we wanted but he (Great Master of the Universe ) would not let me "risk" it. My explanation was more of a "how we use a Dec UY for our planning" as just an example. So I actually was well within my 7 month booking when I called for the May trip, but had to wait for DH to guarantee the dates for me. I am a nurse and can get vacation when ever I want and it can vary at a whim throughout the year. He can't. It just kinda helps me keep our vacations for the coming year in a nice organized bubble--that was really all I was saying...and Lord knows you have certainly helped me organize my thought processes on this in previous posts....and I thank you

Robo may have the most posts but SandisW is my DVC UY Guru

I figured you understood but just wanted to be sure that others who are learning didn't get confused!