Use year question - different resorts same use year?

[Tracy2014]

I'm under the impression that the 24 one-time purchase points are available once per use year.

How does this work? I have been wondering about this. So, if I needed say two more points to complete a reservation I can just pay for them?

 

[Dean]

How does this work? I have been wondering about this. So, if I needed say two more points to complete a reservation I can just pay for them?

Yes, my understanding is it's once per UY but only at 7 months out.

 

[chalee94]

How does this work? I have been wondering about this. So, if I needed say two more points to complete a reservation I can just pay for them?

yep, but there are several limitations.

if the reservation is not available for example, but you would like to waitlist (at 7 months out, as dean said), you still cannot buy the 2 extra pts if the reservation is not currently available.

 

[Syndrome]

Wondering about the 1 time 24 point purchase per year ?

If I have own 2 different resorts with the same use year , am I only able to purchase 24 points per year ? I always thought it was 24 points per contract ?
I am looking for a 2nd contract right now, and would like to keep the same use year , just didnt even think about the 24 1 time point purchase . Not that we would use them every year, but it would be an option if we needed them . It would be nice to have an option of easy (but expensive) quick 48 extra points if we needed them . If its only 24 per UY , so be it I guess .

 

[supersnoop]

Wondering about the 1 time 24 point purchase per year ?

If I have own 2 different resorts with the same use year , am I only able to purchase 24 points per year ? I always thought it was 24 points per contract ?
I am looking for a 2nd contract right now, and would like to keep the same use year , just didnt even think about the 24 1 time point purchase . Not that we would use them every year, but it would be an option if we needed them . It would be nice to have an option of easy (but expensive) quick 48 extra points if we needed them . If its only 24 per UY , so be it I guess .

Yes, it's 24 per Use Year.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Wondering about the 1 time 24 point purchase per year ?

If I have own 2 different resorts with the same use year , am I only able to purchase 24 points per year ? I always thought it was 24 points per contract ?
I am looking for a 2nd contract right now, and would like to keep the same use year , just didnt even think about the 24 1 time point purchase . Not that we would use them every year, but it would be an option if we needed them . It would be nice to have an option of easy (but expensive) quick 48 extra points if we needed them . If its only 24 per UY , so be it I guess .

If you wanted 25 or more points, DVC would be glad to sell you another contract. But if you only need 1-24, you can't buy a contract that small.

Keep your contract with the same UY if you buy another. It just makes it easier. You can't combine the points from two separate UY's to make a single night reservation without transferring points from one contract to the other.

 

[Syndrome]

Yes, it's 24 per Use Year.

If you wanted 25 or more points, DVC would be glad to sell you another contract. But if you only need 1-24, you can't buy a contract that small.

Keep your contract with the same UY if you buy another. It just makes it easier. You can't combine the points from two separate UY's to make a single night reservation without transferring points from one contract to the other.

Thanks .

I was wondering if there was any reason why it would be advantageous to have different UY , besides the 24 purchase points each? Obviously different UY's may work for some people who vacation at different multiple times of the year, but is there anything else I am missing ?

I think I would much prefer to have the same UY on all my contracts just to make it easier . At least I will only have to remember what month ALL the contracts points will have to be banked . Also is it one member # even if you have different resorts if they are the same UY ?

Thanks again !
Almost ready to pull the trigger ..........again

 

[disneynutz]

Thanks .

I was wondering if there was any reason why it would be advantageous to have different UY , besides the 24 purchase points each? Obviously different UY's may work for some people who vacation at different multiple times of the year, but is there anything else I am missing ?

I think I would much prefer to have the same UY on all my contracts just to make it easier . At least I will only have to remember what month ALL the contracts points will have to be banked . Also is it one member # even if you have different resorts if they are the same UY ?

Thanks again !
Almost ready to pull the trigger ..........again

DVC started offering the point rental of 24 when they increased the number of points required to book THV. IMO it was their way of keeping the owners from getting too upset. Also IMO you shouldn't depend on their point rentals for you normal vacation booking. If you are always short, it's time to buy another contract.

Most multi contract owners keep one UY. The only reason why they didn't is that they either didn't know the difference or they had a very specific reason for wanting different UY's. My guess is that most didn't know the difference.

Living with more than one UY is doable but why bother unless you have a good reason.

Bill

 

[skier_pete]

Thanks .

I was wondering if there was any reason why it would be advantageous to have different UY , besides the 24 purchase points each? Obviously different UY's may work for some people who vacation at different multiple times of the year, but is there anything else I am missing ?

I think I would much prefer to have the same UY on all my contracts just to make it easier . At least I will only have to remember what month ALL the contracts points will have to be banked . Also is it one member # even if you have different resorts if they are the same UY ?

Thanks again !
Almost ready to pull the trigger ..........again

OP here. The only reason I could see to have two UY would be to be able to book trips at any time of year and not have to worry about the 8 months window for banking your points if you cancel. However, I think there's a better advantage to having all the same UY based on this thread, which is that you can use points from both (or multiple) contracts for the same booking. There's no need to worry about transfers.

DVC started offering the point rental of 24 when they increased the number of points required to book THV. IMO it was their way of keeping the owners from getting too upset. Also IMO you shouldn't depend on their point rentals for you normal vacation booking. If you are always short, it's time to buy another contract.

Most multi contract owners keep one UY. The only reason why they didn't is that they either didn't know the difference or they had a very specific reason for wanting different UY's. My guess is that most didn't know the difference.

Living with more than one UY is doable but why bother unless you have a good reason.

Bill

I agree with Bill. To pay $15 a point for 24 points frequently doesn't make sense when owning points is so much cheaper. Especially since those points are only usable at the 7-month window, you could buy them cheap at SSR and it costs you $7-9 a point depending on the contract.

 

[mommajo143]

I can answer this one. The key to use year is that you can only bank your points for the first eight months of your use year. Therefore, if you typically travel at a certain time of year, you are better off with a use year that has your typical vacation window in the first eight months. This way, if you ever cancel a vacation, you would not lose your points. For example, let's say you buy a December use year, and you want to travel in October. You book a vacation for October 2015 with your December 2014 UY points (that would be within the UY). However, you end up having to cancel on August 15th. Because you are already past your 8 month window, even though you canceled with more than 30 days before your trip, you can't bank the points to the next year. Now, if your UY started April 1st, and you canceled the same trip, then you would still have time to bank those points. So, this is why its recommended to pick a UY based on that. Since October-January is the most popular DVC time, my guess is June-August is the more popular UY period, but there is a LOT of December UY available. (Somewhere I saw tables of each resort and how each point total is distributed by UY.) However, for us, I didn't feel that we would travel definitively enough at a certain time of year, and changing bookings late in the game aren't my style, so I couldn't find a UY that had the most benefit. (The only time I like would never travel to WDW is June/July. We've been April, May, August, September, October, November, December, but will likely travel in February in the next few years as well.) However, that is why it occurred to me if I ever bought a second contract, it might be nice to have a June UY, so you could plan usage of points based on when in the year you were travelling.

We are exploring DVC - very very preliminary ... In fact never truly considered until YESTERDAY. Here is my question - we, like you, pretty much only travel to disney properties (late) August through (early) May, excluding really only June / July ... So would a specific UY really be a concern for us? We've gone in sept, nov, feb, March, and are starting to look ahead to may 2016 after the trip already planned .... Also except in some real emergency we certainly don't cancel but have been known to add or adjust dates late in a booking (which I guess wouldn't work in a DVC reservation).

 

[chalee94]

We are exploring DVC - very very preliminary ... In fact never truly considered until YESTERDAY. Here is my question - we, like you, pretty much only travel to disney properties (late) August through (early) May, excluding really only June / July ... So would a specific UY really be a concern for us? We've gone in sept, nov, feb, March, and are starting to look ahead to may 2016 after the trip already planned .... Also except in some real emergency we certainly don't cancel but have been known to add or adjust dates late in a booking (which I guess wouldn't work in a DVC reservation).

if you never cancel, UY will probably never matter.

some examples to consider:

if you have an oct UY and a sept 2015 trip and you need to cancel 60 days out (in july), your banking window closed on may 31, 2015 so you'd have to use all of the pts in the reservation before they expire on sept 30, 2015.

if you have an oct UY and an oct 2015 trip and you need to cancel 60 days out, your banking window won't close until may 31, 2016 so you'd have until then to decide whether to use current year (2015) pts for a reservation in that UY or else bank them to the next year. (you'd still need to use banked and borrowed pts by sept 30, 2016. rememeber that you can only move pts one time by banking or borrowing.)

if you have an oct UY and a sept 2015 trip and you need to cancel 5 days out, the pts would turn into "holding" pts so you'd have to use all of the pts in the reservation subject to a 60-day-out limitation - but that won't matter since they expire on sept 30, 2015...which is less than 60 days out.

if you have an oct UY and an oct 2015 trip and you need to cancel 5 days out, the pts would turn into "holding" pts so you'd have to use all of the pts in the reservation subject to a 60-day-out limitation - but at least you'd have 12 months before they expire on sept 30, 2016 to decide what to do with them.

that should give you some idea of how traveling at the end of your UY adds risk and traveling early in your UY gives you a little insurance against losing the pts. it's better to avoid traveling at the end of your UY (the last 3 months or so) if you can help it.

more info about UY is here if you need it (you may want to bookmark this thread for later reference):

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1942668

 

[skier_pete]

Yeah, the UY is not hugely important if your typical travel time varies significantly. Right now we will be traveling mostly in August and February, so really a August 1st UY would've be ideal, but eventually we will travel mostly Jan-May I think on this contract.

As others have said, UY really only matters if you cancel late enough that you can't bank the points. This could also be handled with trip insurance.