To anyone who thinks use year does not matter.

[kristenrice]

When we bought, we looked at our future plans and tried to figure out if there were three consecutive months that we are least likely to travel. We have no desire to go over the holidays so most of November and December were out. We do like to go early in the year but figured there is not much difference between the last week of January and the first week of February so we decided on a February UY. Even when I take a birthday trip in October, I would have to cancel before our banking deadline (Sept 30) to prevent the points from going into holding so that trip is basically "safe". Of course, this year, DH and I are going to participate in the W&D 1/2 Marathon which falls in November. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we will not have to cancel.

After this trip, we will have travelled in January, February, March, April, June, September, October and November. (Our January trip was on rented points). The original plan was to travel in June and April while the kids are in school and then May/October once they are done. The Feb UY works great.

 

[disneynutz]

Our first contract had an April UY. After trying different vacation months at WDW we decided that we hate the heat there. Now we vacation between October and May so all of our other contracts have an October UY. We have had to cancel our reservations twice and had to bank our points.

The best UY for your vacation habits is free insurance.

Bill

 

[OneMoreTry]

Our first contract had an April UY. After trying different vacation months at WDW we decided that we hate the heat there. Now we vacation between October and May so all of our other contracts have an October UY. We have had to cancel our reservations twice and had to bank our points.

The best UY for your vacation habits is free insurance.

Bill

Love our October use year. We don't like the heat and summer crowds.

The only thing I regret is September vacations, but because crowds are lower I expect we could book last minute when chance of canceling is low using borrowed points

 

[keishashadow]

My wife and I enjoyed a great as usual WDW trip last month. We decided to take the kids the summer. The last week in July is the only week that we can both get off our jobs. We are out of 2012 points so we would have to borrow 2013 points for this trip. Due to our sons Pre college class summer requirements, there is a chance we may not be able to go and have to cancel. Our use year is August. This means that the borrowed 2013 points would expire July 31st and we would lose them. This is a risky proposition so we have decided not to take the trip. Use year most definitely matters.

We have October which seemed to be perfect when we bought it. Now i'm running into issue for one of our annual trips around Columbus day when some of the dates are booked in September. I had to wait to call MS to book at 11 month mark since the trips straddles two UYs.

We were good for our typical early trips, then they changed the banking rules. No matter, we took it as a sign and now either: book on cash onsite or off, sometimes taking a different sort of trip (DL/vegas, mexico AI or cruise). We bank the points and have more to work with for the other two WDW trips we typically enjoy each year.

You could make your plans and secure the room & rent the reservation last minute if plans fall through as a fail-safe.

 

[Dean]

UY is important for some, not for others. For those that have a likely trip time, it often matters and is essentially an insurance policy. Even if the situation changes when you didn't, at worst case you're back to having a bad UY. Better to have a good UY for a few years than never, IMO. For some having multiple UY can be good.