Understanding Use Year - Updated February 10, 2021

[DisneyCowgirl]

What a great explanation! THank you so much.

 

[rongarbutt]

Do you need to use all your points in the use year, or just start your vacation by the end of the use year? Let's say I have a Feb use year and start my vacation on January 31st, 2020. Can I use my 2019 points for the entire week Jan 31- Feb 6?

 

[Marionnette]

Do you need to use all your points in the use year, or just start your vacation by the end of the use year? Let's say I have a Feb use year and start my vacation on January 31st, 2020. Can I use my 2019 points for the entire week Jan 31- Feb 6?

The last night of your stay can be no later than Jan. 31, 2020 when you have a Feb. UY and wish to use 2019 points.

 

[CarolynFH]

Do you need to use all your points in the use year, or just start your vacation by the end of the use year? Let's say I have a Feb use year and start my vacation on January 31st, 2020. Can I use my 2019 points for the entire week Jan 31- Feb 6?

The last night of your stay can be no later than Jan. 31, 2020 when you have a Feb. UY and wish to use 2019 points.

Unless, of course, you bank enough points to cover the nights of Feb. 1-6. You would have to bank those points by September 30, 2019 in order to use them for reservations beginning Feb. 1, 2020 or later, and they would expire completely if not used by Jan. 31, 2021.

 

[Marionnette]

Unless, of course, you bank enough points to cover the nights of Feb. 1-6. You would have to bank those points by September 30, 2019 in order to use them for reservations beginning Feb. 1, 2020 or later, and they would expire completely if not used by Jan. 31, 2021.

Yes, but based in n the dates the the PP posted, it would require two separate reservations. One for the night of 1/31/20 and using unbanked 2019 points. The other would begin 2/1/20 and could use any banked 2019 points. I just didn’t get the impression that just being able to use the points was at the core of the PP’s question. I answered based on them asking if the reservation had to be completed by the end of the UY or just begin before the new UY starts.

 

[CarolynFH]

Yes, but based in n the dates the the PP posted, it would require two separate reservations. One for the night of 1/31/20 and using unbanked 2019 points. The other would begin 2/1/20 and could use any banked 2019 points. I just didn’t get the impression that just being able to use the points was at the core of the PP’s question. I answered based on them asking if the reservation had to be completed by the end of the UY or just begin before the new UY starts.

Yes, I agree! I tried to add a bit to the knowledge you imparted, and now you've added to that - hopefully PP will be in much better shape to manage their points now!

 

[Newbie500]

Getting ready to make an offer on my first DVC contract, but I want to make sure I understand how use year works. For a September UY, 150 points contract, no banked points, all 150 points available for 2019 and for 2020, if we plan to travel every Christmas from just before the 25th to January 1 or 2, will a September UY work for me? How would banking and borrowing work for a December 2020 stay?

 

[Marionnette]

Getting ready to make an offer on my first DVC contract, but I want to make sure I understand how use year works. For a September UY, 150 points contract, no banked points, all 150 points available for 2019 and for 2020, if we plan to travel every Christmas from just before the 25th to January 1 or 2, will a September UY work for me? How would banking and borrowing work for a December 2020 stay?

December 2020 falls within the September 2020 UY. A September UY is perfect for someone who routinely travels in December. You want a UY that will allow you to be able to cancel a reservation if necessary and still have plenty of time to reschedule to use any banked/borrowed points. You also want to be able to cancel and bank any current UY’s points in the event of a cancellation. September UYs have an April 30th banking deadline.

If you wanted to bank your 2019 points into 2020, you would need to do so by 4/30/2020. But for December reservations that would use those points, you should bank them in January. Points must be banked first before making a reservation and January is when the 11-month home resort booking window opens for December reservations.

 

[Newbie500]

Thank you, Marionnette!

 

[Arthur2990]

Use year only matters if you have to cancel a vacation that was scheduled to occur late in your use year - i.e., during the last three months of your use year. That's because banking is not allowed during the last four months of your use year and so you don't have much time to reschedule before the points expire. Many owners never have to cancel a vacation (lucky them, LOL) so they don't worry about use year.

So given this. If i have a 2019 October YU and book a stay in September 2020 can i walk this reservation into October 2020 if i need to?

Or is the last date I can date I can book is September 30?

 

[CarolMN]

So given this. If i have a 2019 October YU and book a stay in September 2020 can i walk this reservation into October 2020 if i need to?

Or is the last date I can date I can book is September 30?

September 30 is the last night the 2019 points can be used to pay for a reservation. There may be a way to walk across the use year, but it would require MS to help.

 

[Tommyboy18]

I've read most of the replies but just would like some peace of mind from the community.
We are not DVC members, but have been seriously considering it lately after renting points, sitting though a sales consultation, and running the numbers in comparison to our current travel arrangements.

My question regards use year and what would be the most ideal for us in terms of flexibility in canceling and 11-month booking. From my understanding, 11 month booking for marathon weekend is difficult. Many book or hoard rooms during marathon for resale?

We currently visit Disney World several times a year. Our future plans dial that back to twice per year for 4-6 days each visit.

Marathon week
Food & wine (oct)

What month use year would you pursue?
My understanding says September...
Thoughts?

 

[DaveNan]

I've read most of the replies but just would like some peace of mind from the community.
We are not DVC members, but have been seriously considering it lately after renting points, sitting though a sales consultation, and running the numbers in comparison to our current travel arrangements.

My question regards use year and what would be the most ideal for us in terms of flexibility in canceling and 11-month booking. From my understanding, 11 month booking for marathon weekend is difficult. Many book or hoard rooms during marathon for resale?

We currently visit Disney World several times a year. Our future plans dial that back to twice per year for 4-6 days each visit.

Marathon week
Food & wine (oct)

What month use year would you pursue?
My understanding says September...
Thoughts?

If your W&F trip is always in Oct and does not creep into Sept, than you would be OK with Oct UY too. Availability is better in Sept, but if that does not match your travel needs than you could go with Oct. If you have Oct UY and you had travel plans on Oct that you needed to canceled 2 months early (before the 31 day window), you could cancel in August and still have lots of flexibility with your points. Your UY would be 2 to 14 months ahead of the cancellation date and you could still book something in that UY or bank by the following May 31. If however you had Oct UY and had actually booked something in Sept (the tail end of your UY), if you cancelled 2 months early in July, you would only have 0-3 months left in your UY. You would get no booking advantage, and you would be past the banking deadline. Trips planned late in your UY almost need to be looked at like you need to cancel 7 months early to keep any booking advantage, or 4 months early to avoid missing the banking deadline. Even the marathon trip is early enough in your UY you would still have options. I personally feel another advantage to the Sept/Oct UY's is availability in August/Sept is very good. If you cancelled a Jan trip in Nov, you still have the >7 month booking availability starting in June, and there should be good availability in June. July. August, and Sept. If you are Dec UY, and you tried to rebook something 7 to 9 months before your UY expiration, availability would be poor. Trying to spend distressed points in Oct and Nov is almost impossible, but possible in July/August.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I've read most of the replies but just would like some peace of mind from the community.
We are not DVC members, but have been seriously considering it lately after renting points, sitting though a sales consultation, and running the numbers in comparison to our current travel arrangements.

My question regards use year and what would be the most ideal for us in terms of flexibility in canceling and 11-month booking. From my understanding, 11 month booking for marathon weekend is difficult. Many book or hoard rooms during marathon for resale?

We currently visit Disney World several times a year. Our future plans dial that back to twice per year for 4-6 days each visit.

Marathon week
Food & wine (oct)

What month use year would you pursue?
My understanding says September...
Thoughts?

Every UY can book at 11 months prior to check in at their home resort so that is not a concern with any UY for you.

If your Food and Wine trips would not ever roll back into Sept then either a Sept or an October UY would work well and give you a cushion for any last minute cancellations on either the Food and Wine or the Marathon weekend trips. If you could see a possibility of Sept bookings then either a Sept or August UY would be best and still give you the free "insurance" against last minute cancellations for Food and Wine and the Marathon weekend.

 

[jerseyduke]

I've read most of the replies but just would like some peace of mind from the community.
We are not DVC members, but have been seriously considering it lately after renting points, sitting though a sales consultation, and running the numbers in comparison to our current travel arrangements.

My question regards use year and what would be the most ideal for us in terms of flexibility in canceling and 11-month booking. From my understanding, 11 month booking for marathon weekend is difficult. Many book or hoard rooms during marathon for resale?

We currently visit Disney World several times a year. Our future plans dial that back to twice per year for 4-6 days each visit.

Marathon week
Food & wine (oct)

What month use year would you pursue?
My understanding says September...
Thoughts?

It is considered by many (and in my opinion wisely so) that it is always best to travel in the first few months of your UY. It is all insurance about cancelling reservations. It gives you the most flexibility. Your assessment of September is right on assuming you do not think you might ever do F&W at the very end of August. If you may do August, then an August UY is better.

With either UY both vacations (F&W and Marathons in January) would fall before your banking window closes, so should you have to cancel you would still be able to bank your points. A last minute cancellation of the Jan trip (points in holding) would still give you 6 or 7 months to make use of those holding points, which is a pretty fair amount of time. Or if you had a Jan Trip booked with banked or borrowed points, you would also still have 6 or 7 months to use those points before they expire at the end of the UY.

In summary - Possible trip in august = august UY. Never in August = Sept - however, I would not consider August a mistake in this case, and would go with what was available on the resale market

 

[Tommyboy18]

I appreciate the thorough responses.
I've been reviewing August and September contracts for the past few weeks. Looks like I will continue.
Aug/Sept seem to be a bit rarer in terms of resale availability for our desired resort unfortunately.

 

[CarolynFH]

Here's the link to a chart showing the distribution of UY for each resort. It's not consistent from resort to resort, so it might be difficult to find the UY you want in the resort you want simply because relatively few of them exist. For instance, we have a September UY at BWV, which is shared by less than 8% of the points there. Looking at this chart might help you decide on which resorts to look for that fit your needs for UY as well as other factors such as price, location, villa sizes, etc.

https://dvcnews.com/index.php/dvc-p...ear-distribution-charts-updated-february-2018

 

[thelionqueen]

I have read through many threads and always had a good grasp based on my previous March UY. I am looking at a BWV resale for booking Jan & Dec week long stays in studios. If I have figured correctly, August seems to be the best UY for both of these trips; is that correct? I have yet to cancel a trip last minute, but just in case.. thought I'd check. Thoughts?

 

[PolyRob]

I have read through many threads and always had a good grasp based on my previous March UY. I am looking at a BWV resale for booking Jan & Dec week long stays in studios. If I have figured correctly, August seems to be the best UY for both of these trips; is that correct? I have yet to cancel a trip last minute, but just in case.. thought I'd check. Thoughts?

Do you plan on walking reservations? If so I would say October is better. If not, December is better. You would get the most possible time to rebook/bank with a UY right before you want to travel.

 

[chalee94]

I have read through many threads and always had a good grasp based on my previous March UY. I am looking at a BWV resale for booking Jan & Dec week long stays in studios. If I have figured correctly, August seems to be the best UY for both of these trips; is that correct? I have yet to cancel a trip last minute, but just in case.. thought I'd check. Thoughts?

Why do you think August is best?

I would agree that Dec is best if you never plan to travel in late November for a Dec trip.