Use Year and points expiration

[Marleen2]

I'm a DVC member and own at BWV. My Use Year is October. Points will expire on the last business day of September, as it says on my DVC account. Does this mean however that travel must have been COMPLETED before the last business day of September, or travel has to have STARTED before that date? It has never been an issue so far, but I was just wondering...

 

[Deb & Bill]

If the points haven't been banked, you must complete your travel by the end of the UY or in your case Sept 30.

 

[JimMIA]

That's correct. If you have a ressie that crosses the end of your UY, MS will take some of the points from one UY and the rest of the points from the next UY.

 

[Marleen2]

Okay, thanks I thought so but I wasn't sure and couldn't find it anywhere

Marleen

 

[DisneyKobi]

Little known tip...and this only works ONCE:

If you have reached the end of your use year and forgot to "bank" points (throwing them forward to the next year), Disney will "forgive" you for this and still allow you to bank these points. Just call before the end of the UY! And, remember, this doesn't work a second time (we learned the hard way and are now sitting on oodles of points for OKW that expire 5/31/2011!!!)

 

[Marleen2]

@ DisneyKobi: Thanks for the tip. I knew about it and already used it but it might be very useful to others who didn't know yet.

 

[maburke]

If the points haven't been banked, you must complete your travel by the end of the UY or in your case Sept 30.

In fact, you can use the Oct. 2010, points for the night of Sept. 30, 2011, but you'd need 2011 points (or 2010 points banked into 2011) starting the night of Oct 1, 2011. It's considered night by night, not in a "started by" or "completed by" way.

 

[Marleen2]

So, technically, when you're making a reservation which overlaps two Use Years, you would have to bank the points needed in the next Use Year (after September 30, 2011 in this case), provided that you're still within the banking window of the current UY at the time of reservation.

Or, alternatively, if you're not able to bank them anymore, you should borrow from your next UY at the time of reservation, while you still might have remaining points in your current UY.

If not within the banking window and you end up with remaining points in your current Use Year, you'll have to find another destination for the remaining points in this Use Year or they will be forfeited.

Did I get that right?
Seems strange, but I guess these are the rules

 

[maburke]

I'm not sure I completely followed that, but yes, I think you've got it right. The one time I did a reservation that crossed a UY, I found it easier to think about each night independently.

The nights that are right at the end of the UY are riskier, just as all reservations at the end of your use year are riskier -- if you cancel, you may be past your banking deadline, with very little time to use them. The fact that you're staying the very next night doesn't help. For example, shifting your trip later by one day could really mess things up.

 

[Marleen2]

Okay, thanks

Cancelling or shifting a reservation has never been an issue for us so far. We tend to book months ahead of our travel and usually buy the cheapest plane tickets, (which are still pretty high priced) but they're usually not refundable, not changeable. So far we never had to cancel or change our reservation *fingers crossed*

But I can see that for others it might be tricky to book at the end of the Use Year. When you understand the rules and think logically, the rules are clear, but I can imagine not everyone is considering this at the time of the reservation. I never thought it through until now.

Thanks