Use Year ?

[Tdisney]

We mainly travel in May right now but a few years because of kids school we will have to travel in March or April. Is it still a bad idea to look for a use year in April right now ? From what I understand the use year only determines when you can bank points (8 months). What is the disadvantage if your use year falls on the same month or one month after that you travel on ?

 

[Sandisw]

The drawback of traveling in the month before your UY starts is that you would have no time to use up banked or borrowed points from a cancelled trip, since they expire at the end of that UY. There is no drawback to traveling in the same month of your UY.

For example, with an April UY and a March trip, if you cancelled and had used either banked or borrowed points, you would only have until March 31st to re-use them.

If you know that March is a possibility, I would search for a March UY or even Feb UY. This would cover March and April trips and give you the most flexibility.

We own June since we travel mostly in August. If I did have to cancel, I would still have almost the entire year to use up those points, if they are banked or borrowed. If they are current UY points, I could also bank them.

IMO, I would not still go with April if you can avoid it in any way.

 

[Tdisney]

So if you cancel 31 days before your use year (cancel March 1st if I have a April use year) Then you can use banked or borrowed for an entire year ? But if it is within 31 days of your use year then they get put into a holding account ? Or is the 31 days from the time of your ressie ?

 

[disneynutz]

If you have a April UY, and you have current, banked or borrowed points 2009 points, they will expire on March 31, 2010. It's to late to bank the regular 2009 points.

The idea is that if you need to cancel a reservation for any reason, you want a UY that lets you bank current year points before the 8 months are up.

Bill

 

[DebbieB]

So if you cancel 31 days before your use year (cancel March 1st if I have a April use year) Then you can use banked or borrowed for an entire year ? But if it is within 31 days of your use year then they get put into a holding account ? Or is the 31 days from the time of your ressie ?

With an April use year, if you canceled a 3/1 reservation (at least 31 days in advance) you would only have until 3/31 to use them, the end of your use year. It would be too late to bank the current points if you past the 11/30 banking deadline and banked & borrowed points remain in the use year.

Using the same example, if you had a February use year and cancel a 3/1 (at least 31 days in advance), you would have until the following 1/31 to use them. You would still have the opportunity to bank the current year points.

With a holding account (cancel 30 days or less), the points can only be used for a reservation 60 days in advance. And they expire at the end of your use year.

 

[Sandisw]

So if you cancel 31 days before your use year (cancel March 1st if I have a April use year) Then you can use banked or borrowed for an entire year ? But if it is within 31 days of your use year then they get put into a holding account ? Or is the 31 days from the time of your ressie ?

I'm sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. All reservations need to be cancelled at least 31 days in advance to avoid holding. It doesn't matter what UY.

As PP explained, though, when you cancel a March trip that uses banked or borrowed points, with an April UY, you will only have until the end of March to use those points (holding or not), because banked and borrowed points expire at the end of the UY they are in.

Since you would be traveling in the last month of the UY, there would be no time for you to reuse them.