Use year question

[RichV03]

How important is Use year? As a family we want to try and experience all season at Disney over time so is use year that important? If it is which month is best? Are there any pros/cons on one over another?

 

[Matty B13]

We are a family of 5 (with young kids) since our School vacations are in February & April, we decided on a February UY. We don't really want to go during the summer, because of the heat. You always want to be traveling at the beginning of your UY, that way you can cancel before the 60 day mark and not have your points go into a holding status. Then you can either re-book your vacation at a later date or bank you points into the next UY.

So yes it is very important!

 

[skippytx]

Give this a read and come back with any specific questions if you still have any

https://www.disboards.com/threads/understanding-use-year-updated-march-10-2019.1942668/

 

[TraderSamWDW]

Short of it -
It is kind of a free insurance to travel early in your UY. This only woks if you tend to travel during certain times of the year. If you are all over the place its really a non issue.
You really do not want to travel in the last 3 months of your UY - you can cancel your reservation and have it be past your banking deadline.

If you travel in the first few months of your UY and you have to cancel, you have the rest of the year to use your points (or bank them)

Say you travel the first week of your UY. 1 week before you leave you have to cancel. your points now become holding points, which means you can only use them 60 days out, AND they expire at the end of your UY, you can not bank them. Well, you have 51 weeks to find a way to use them.
Travel the last week of your UY and do the same thing - the points are gone, wasted, lost.

So, so example, if you will predominately travel in the fall, you don't want a December UY

@Matty B13 its 30 days for holding, not 60

 

[Sandisw]

I going to add a new aspect of UY. We have always talked about having a UY in which your typical travel will be in the first 8 months,

When you don’t, then you risk having points expire if you have to change or cancel a trip, Most thought of this as the owner canceling, and not about resort closures,

What we now see happening is how risky it really is because your trip could be canceled through no fault of your own,

There is no guarantee that the rules of late banking would be allowed.

So, as mentioned, it is prudent to travel toward the beginning of the UY. It won’t cover all of the year, but if you have a few specific times, it’s a good idea,

When I bought, summer was my typical travel time as I was a teacher. I also knew, fall and winter break would be the back up. So, I bought a June UY because March, April and May were pretty slim months I would go,,

Of course, about 5 years in, i began wanting to go Memorial Day weekend, which is horrible for June UY, so I bought another contract with a Dec UY, even though it meant a 2nd membership.

I wanted to insulate myself from ever being stuck not having time to bank or to use up banked points before they expired

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Yeah. Just ask anyone who was to travel in April or May this year on June points how they feel about UY.

 

[RichV03]

I going to add a new aspect of UY. We have always talked about having a UY in which your typical travel will be in the first 8 months,

When you don’t, then you risk having points expire if you have to change or cancel a trip, Most thought of this as the owner canceling, and not about resort closures,

What we now see happening is how risky it really is because your trip could be canceled through no fault of your own,

There is no guarantee that the rules of late banking would be allowed.

So, as mentioned, it is prudent to travel toward the beginning of the UY. It won’t cover all of the year, but if you have a few specific times, it’s a good idea,

When I bought, summer was my typical travel time as I was a teacher. I also knew, fall and winter break would be the back up. So, I bought a June UY because March, April and May were pretty slim months I would go,,

Of course, about 5 years in, i began wanting to go Memorial Day weekend, which is horrible for June UY, so I bought another contract with a Dec UY, even though it meant a 2nd membership.

I wanted to insulate myself from ever being stuck not having time to bank or to use up banked points before they expired

How does having two use years help with that? Just wondering because I am looking at a few out there with DEC use year and more than likely we will be doing vacations at the beginning of the year, but we also want to experience halloween/christmas which would be at the end of the the use year which has me concerned if that may be a problem.

 

[Sandisw]

How does having two use years help with that? Just wondering because I am looking at a few out there with DEC use year and more than likely we will be doing vacations at the beginning of the year, but we also want to experience halloween/christmas which would be at the end of the the use year which has me concerned if that may be a problem.

My June UY works well for travel through February. Since you have to cancel 31 days or more in advance, any trip booked and canceled during those months, would still allow me to bank points. It would also leave me 3 months to reschedule the use of banked or borrowed points.

My Dec UY works well for travel through August...same idea as above since any cancel would allow me to still bank

Now, the drawback of two UYs, is it is two memberships which mean you can’t combine points from both for a single reservation without a transfer..which means no online booking.

So, I just book certain trips on each and never mix. I actually have an Aug UY as well, so I’m covered for all months. This really allows me to travel as close as I can to the beginning of each so I am protected, as much as possible from the losses some owners are facing now because they decided to travel after their banking window and with resorts closed, they will lose the points unless DVCM bends the rules....so far, they haven’t.