Understanding Use Year - Updated February 10, 2021

[CarolMN]

We have a March UY. Back when we joined we did not know anything at all about this. From my perspective I would say that the UY has little impact. We seem to always be borrowing points so they never expire anyway.

Apparently,you've been lucky in that you have not had to cancel a vacation that occurs late in your use year. That is when use year becomes important.

If you cancel a vacation more than 31 days in advance of arrival, are past your banking deadline and cannot reschedule before the end of your use year, then the returned points expire at the end of your use year. If you were NOT past your banking deadline, you could at least save the current use year points (not the borrowed points) by banking them.

The UY does not impact when you can make reservations, only when the points will be posted to your account.

True that it doesn't impact when you can make reservations.

But actually, all of your points are already in your account for all use years. You match your desired vacation dates with your use year dates to determine the use year the points will be deducted from. If necessary, you can borrow points from the next use year or use points that were banked from the previous use year.

Once banked or borrowed, a point must be used in the use year into which it was banked or borrowed. Otherwise they expire. Banking and borrowing are not reversible.

Just take lots of vacations and alway borrow points and be happy.

I'm glad that this method has worked for you. I wouldn't recommend it to others, though. It has it's own set of risks and could result in the loss of points.

IMO, it's best to take the time to understand all of the various rules around use year, points and reservations. Then you can make informed decisions and minimize your chances of losing points.

 

[pnyltwk]

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[Otootles]

Thanks to Carol , and others for all the useful insights and info for those of us that don't know all of the ins and outs of DVC. I appreciate the patience that you have with all of us rookies!

 

[starwarsdisney]

This UY stuff is a little confusing to me. We are about to buy 100 points at AKV through Disney. We are going to get 2008 points (to used anywhere as I understand it) and 2009 points. The kicker here is that we don't have kids and don't have a specifc time of year that we always travel. We do know that we will avoid traveling during the last part of June, all of July, and all of August because those are peak capacity times and a little hot! Everything else is pretty open for us. What would be a good UY month for us? I'm thinking we would rather have September or October UY month rather than December. Thoughts?

 

[Sandisw]

This UY stuff is a little confusing to me. We are about to buy 100 points at AKV through Disney. We are going to get 2008 points (to used anywhere as I understand it) and 2009 points. The kicker here is that we don't have kids and don't have a specifc time of year that we always travel. We do know that we will avoid traveling during the last part of June, all of July, and all of August because those are peak capacity times and a little hot! Everything else is pretty open for us. What would be a good UY month for us? I'm thinking we would rather have September or October UY month rather than December. Thoughts?

I agree, Sept or Oct UY, would work well if the LEAST likely time of travel is June, July and August.

Out of those 2, IMO, I would go with September. With Sept UY, all your trips through May would be covered if you ever had to cancel 31 days out as you would still be in the banking window (which is April 30th).

Those early June trips would be the only ones that could potentially be at risk, but since that is such a small time, the bulk of your travel would fall within the timeframe to give you a lot of flexibility to use points.

The fact that your travel times are varied, UY is of less importance than if you have a set time to go so really, any will work for you!

 

[5forDiz]

This UY stuff is a little confusing to me. We are about to buy 100 points at AKV through Disney. We are going to get 2008 points (to used anywhere as I understand it) and 2009 points. The kicker here is that we don't have kids and don't have a specifc time of year that we always travel. We do know that we will avoid traveling during the last part of June, all of July, and all of August because those are peak capacity times and a little hot! Everything else is pretty open for us. What would be a good UY month for us? I'm thinking we would rather have September or October UY month rather than December. Thoughts?

Rule of thumb is to pick UY in which you will not travel during last 4 months of that UY. Main idea behind this is time - still within your banking window time & time remaining before you reach end of UY:

your banking deadline will be last day of 8th month of your UY so you'd want to plan travel during first 8 months so that in event of cancellation as long as you did so AT LEAST 31 days or more before check-in date you would still then be able to bank the Current Use Year points used in reservation; if you cancelled between 30 days thru 1 day before check-in then those Current UY points would need to be re-used for another trip before UY ends. Also, in event of cancellation in a reservation that has Banked &/or Borrowed points in it you would have at least 4 months to end of your UY to reuse those Banked or Borrowed points used in that reservation towards a new trip before the UY ends (because banked pts are never re-bankable & borrowed pts can't be put back into UY theyre originally from )

September or October sounds like it would work well for travel habits you described. But if for some reason your travel habits ever changed to reflect typical school summertime vacation schedules then September or October wouldn't be.

just fyi, January May July & November are not Use Years.

 

[starwarsdisney]

Rule of thumb is to pick UY in which you will not travel during last 4 months of that UY. Main idea behind this is time - still within your banking window time & time remaining before you reach end of UY:

your banking deadline will be last day of 8th month of your UY so you'd want to plan travel during first 8 months so that in event of cancellation as long as you did so AT LEAST 31 days or more before check-in date you would still then be able to bank the Current Use Year points used in reservation; if you cancelled between 30 days thru 1 day before check-in then those Current UY points would need to be re-used for another trip before UY ends. Also, in event of cancellation in a reservation that has Banked &/or Borrowed points in it you would have at least 4 months to end of your UY to reuse those Banked or Borrowed points used in that reservation towards a new trip before the UY ends (because banked pts are never re-bankable & borrowed pts can't be put back into UY theyre originally from )

September or October sounds like it would work well for travel habits you described. But if for some reason your travel habits ever changed to reflect typical school summertime vacation schedules then September or October wouldn't be.

just fyi, January May July & November are not Use Years.

Just found out that we will have a December UY. Not happy about that but it could be worse. We are more likly to travel late September through December so this UY leaves us little room to spare. If you were to have to cancel due to a family emergency do that take that into consideration? That is the only reason I see us having to cancel a trip.

So if I'm understanding all of this correctly. Our year will run December 1st 2009 through November 30th 2010. We would have to bank points by July 31st 2010 for the 2011 year right? Banked points would be good until November 30th 2012 right? Borrowed points from 2013 would also be good until November 30th 2012 right? This is not our plan, but I just want to make sure I understand all of this.

We would get our points as follows.

December 2009
December 2010
December 2011
December 2012
Etc.

 

[chalee94]

Just found out that we will have a December UY. Not happy about that but it could be worse. We are more likly to travel late September through December so this UY leaves us little room to spare. If you were to have to cancel due to a family emergency do that take that into consideration?

i don't believe so. they may allow a one-time late banking if you miss the deadline, but from what i understand that's a one-time-only kind of deal. you'd probably have to rent the reservation on short notice or else give it away to family or friends that could use it on short notice. sorry. (hopefully it will never be an issue.)

So if I'm understanding all of this correctly. Our year will run December 1st 2009 through November 30th 2010.

that would be your 2009 use year. yes.

We would have to bank points by July 31st 2010 for the 2011 year right?

no. banking pts by july 31, 2010 would move the 2009 pts into your 2010 use year.

dec use years are weird since most of your 2009 use year takes place in 2010...but you'll get used to it and figure it out.

Banked points would be good until November 30th 2012 right?

your banked 2009 pts will expire on nov 30, 2011.

Borrowed points from 2013 would also be good until November 30th 2012 right?

actually, borrowed pts from the 2013 use year would be good until nov 30, 2013. (it's not you - it really is complicated.)

 

[5forDiz]

........Just found out that we will have a December UY. Not happy about that but it could be worse. We are more likly to travel late September through December so this UY leaves us little room to spare.........

jmho, I'd decline December UY. It's your $ & they'll not want to lose the sale and so don't hesitate to tell DVC what Use Year YOU WANT that works best for your travel habits and if that is travelling September through December then December is not good UY choice.....ideally it'd be September but August is good choice too - now it may take a bit of a wait for them to acquire points for September or August UY (or maybe no wait at all) but imo it'd be worth the wait if you had to.

Good luck & post back how things go

 

[starwarsdisney]

jmho, I'd decline December UY. It's your $ & they'll not want to lose the sale and so don't hesitate to tell DVC what Use Year YOU WANT that works best for your travel habits and if that is travelling September through December then December is not good UY choice.....ideally it'd be September but August is good choice too - now it may take a bit of a wait for them to acquire points for September or August UY (or maybe no wait at all) but imo it'd be worth the wait if you had to.

Good luck & post back how things go

I asked our Disney agent about switching the UY month. Unfortunatly to get the 2008 points they only have December UY month left (and who doesn't want free points). I'm not to worried about it since we've never canceled a vacation. The only way that I could see us canceling is a family emergency or hurricane and we tend to not travel down there during hurricane season.

 

[5forDiz]

I asked our Disney agent about switching the UY month. Unfortunatly to get the 2008 points they only have December UY month left (and who doesn't want free points). I'm not to worried about it since we've never canceled a vacation. The only way that I could see us canceling is a family emergency or hurricane and we tend to not travel down there during hurricane season.

I see your point re wanting to get 2008 UY points when you make your purchase. Our family too has been fortunate never needing to last minute cancel. There is trip insurance that some here have mentioned purchasing but we've never done that ( I kinda feel like doing that almost puts a jinx on the trip ) but some like extra security -- idk exactly how it works so can't help you out on the details. Just wanted to mention something about booking reservations, in case you didn't read it as of yet : you may always call MS as early as 11 months before check-in date you want to book at your Home Resort; you do not have to wait until your UY month rolls around to make reservation - - some do get confused with this and think they actually have to wait until the UY begins to make reservation especially if they're borrowing points but that's not the case because MS will view your account and see what banked points you may have available and what current UY points will be available and what points you can borrow to book your reservation.

Best wishes

 

[starwarsdisney]

I see your point re wanting to get 2008 UY points when you make your purchase. Our family too has been fortunate never needing to last minute cancel. There is trip insurance that some here have mentioned purchasing but we've never done that ( I kinda feel like doing that almost puts a jinx on the trip ) but some like extra security -- idk exactly how it works so can't help you out on the details. Just wanted to mention something about booking reservations, in case you didn't read it as of yet : you may always call MS as early as 11 months before check-in date you want to book at your Home Resort; you do not have to wait until your UY month rolls around to make reservation - - some do get confused with this and think they actually have to wait until the UY begins to make reservation especially if they're borrowing points but that's not the case because MS will view your account and see what banked points you may have available and what current UY points will be available and what points you can borrow to book your reservation.

Best wishes

We actually have always purchased the trip insurance (we like the piece of mind it gives us). Thanks for the info, it really is a lot to take in at first.

 

[mariepapa]

Okay, jumping on the bandwagon. We are considering purchasing. We will likely take vacations during school breaks: Febraury (maybe), April, December and maybe in summer. I am thinking an April or December use year would be our best bet after reading through these posts. Of course, now I have to figure out how many points we really want and we will likely do resale. Disney itself is just too much I think.

BTW, everyone here is so helpful and nice!!!!

 

[5kwallace]

We are buying at BLT. We received our paperwork yesterday. My use year is March. We travel in April & November/December each year. Is March a good use year for us? I just can't seem to understand how this works. What do you think? Thanks in advance.

 

[chalee94]

We are buying at BLT. We received our paperwork yesterday. My use year is March. We travel in April & November/December each year. Is March a good use year for us? I just can't seem to understand how this works. What do you think? Thanks in advance.

if you never travel in the summer, just ask for an oct UY.

 

[nu2dvc]

if you never travel in the summer, just ask for an oct UY.

I'm still trying to figure all this out myself, so can somebody please explain if I am not understanding something correctly.
If PP picked an October use year and likes to travel in Apr./Nov./Dec. she would have a problem if she had to cancel a Nov./Dec. trip in say, September or October, right? she would be past her banking deadline and it wouldn't give her time to plan another trip before her UY rolls over. Isn't that right?

 

[chalee94]

If PP picked an October use year and likes to travel in Apr./Nov./Dec. she would have a problem if she had to cancel a Nov./Dec. trip in say, September or October, right?

assuming the poster is booking the stay with current year pts:

they would have booked a nov 2010 trip with 2010 pts (good from oct 1, 2010 thru sep 30, 2011) - so their banking window for those pts closes on jul 31, 2011. if they want to cancel the nov 2010 trip in sep/oct 2010, they would still have nearly a year to decide whether to bank the 2010 pts or not.

take some time and write down what points you are using from what use year as discussed in the opening post...it will be easier if you have it in front of you.

 

[nu2dvc]

Thanks Chalee...hopefully I'll reach the point where I actually get all this stuff. I'd hate to drop the ball and screw up my points, use them incorrectly and lose any of them. This forum has been much more helpful than just hearing the standard explanation from my guide.

 

[chalee94]

the important thing to remember is that UY has nothing at all to do with when you can call and book your stay. you can call to book your home resort 11 months ahead of time.

while banking rules have changed over the years, the general rule to remember is that travelling early in your use year will give you more options if you should have to cancel.

even if the imaginary poster with the oct UY used banked 2009 pts or borrowed 2011 pts for their stay in nov 2010 - which would mean that those pts would necessarily expire at the end of the 2010 UY - they would still have more time to decide whether to use the pts themselves or rent them out before they expire in sep 2011 than they would if they were travelling at the end of their use year (say, in aug/sept 2011).

 

[shancan911]

Insomniac here. After reading this thread, I think I'm more confused than before. We just bought BLT last week(October) Our UY is March, I know DH has to bank points like this week. So, did we get 2009 points? If so, that's like a discount, right? Because we didn't pay for March through September? I'll get it all some day. I was on a cruise, and worried about DS getting his missed schoolwork done, and could not understand or come up with questions at the appropriate time, and now I'm lost