Use Year

[Tdisney]

If I want to book my vacation in May what is the best use year to buy ?

 

[Disneycouple99]

April for a May reservation.

 

[Tdisney]

Could you please explain ?

I thought 11 months out from June would be May ?

 

[Disneycouple99]

Booking has nothing to do with UY. Your points are already in each UY for all the years of the contract. Your points come out when the vacation occures. If you would have to cancel, with the April UY, you have the ability to still bank the points if it is not within 31 days. If the points go into holding, you have 11 more months to use the points before they expire.

 

[Tdisney]

Thank, that makes more sense. However if I bank the points you say I have 11 months to use them. Do you mean I have to a vacation within those eleven months or just book it within those eleven months.

 

[Disneycouple99]

Lets use an April UY for an example.
2010 points would be good from April 1,2010 to March 31, 2011 for a vacation. If you could not go in that time frame or had some left over, you would have to bank them by the banking deadline into 2011. Those banked points would have to be used between April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 or be lost forever.

Now if you had a reservation in May and had to cancel within 31 days of the reservation the go into holding and can only be use in the 2010 UY. If you cancel outside of the 31 days, you could reuse the points in the 2010 UY for a vacation in the timeframe mentioned above or bank them into 2011 UY.

 

[Sandisw]

The rule of thumb is to try and travel toward the beginning of your UY so you have the flexibility to change or cancel a reservation (more than 31 days out--less than that and there are different rules).

For May travel, April UY is ideal (since no May UY exists). If you change your vacation to less points, or cancel the trip, you still have quite a bit of time to decide what to do. Since you can bank points during the first 8 months of your UY, you can reschedule the trip, or bank the points.

I think it especially comes in handy if you borrow points and have to cancel. It still gives you almost the entire UY to rebook your trip.

As PP said, UY plays no role in when you can book a trip. If you want to travel in May 2011, you call in June 2010 to book it at your home resort (or in Oct 2010 for all other resorts). As long as you will have points in your account that are valid for a May 2011 trip when you travel, you will be all set.

Good luck!

 

[cvjw]

We book an annual May trip and have a March use year.

 

[chalee94]

here is a link to a great explanation of use year.