It helps to understand things a little better if you make a chart for your particular use year. An August use year chart looks like this:
<b>Use Year.....Vacation Dates</b>
2004.....Aug 1, 2004 through July 31, 2005
2005.....Aug 1, 2005 through July 31, 2006
2006.....Aug 1, 2006 through July 31, 2007
2007.....Aug 1, 2007 through July 31, 2008
2008.....Aug 1, 2008 through July 31, 2009
and so on.
From the chart you'll see that a trip in October, 2005 is in your 2005 use year, so you'll have to use 2005 points. There's three ways to have points in UY 2005: 1) Bank some or all of your 2004 points, 2) Your regular 2005 point allocation, 3) Borrow points from 2006 as needed.
You make the reservation 11-months from your planned vacation check-out date. If your ressie required 325 points, and you haven't used any of your 2004 year points, then you would bank all 200 of them. This gives you 400 points for UY 2005 (Banked plus regular). You would use all 200 of the banked points and 125 of the regular 2005 points for your reservation. That will leave you with no 2004 points left, 75 of your 2005 points left, and all 200 of your 2006 points still available for future reservations.
In this example, you are not borrowing anything at all. If your vacation required for example 500 points, then you would need to borrow 100 points from 2006 to complete that reservation. (200 banked from 2004 + 200 regular 2005 UY allocation + 100 borrowed from 2006)
Important: Borrowing is only done at the time you actually make the reservation. Banking on the other hand, is done anytime and is subject to restrictions on how much you can bank depending on how far you are into your use year. You can bank 100% within the first 6-months. For an August UY then, you have until Jan 31, 2005 to bank all of your 2004 points. After Jan 31 you cannot bank 100% of your points anymore.
If you make the reservation at 11-months (November 2004), then you can bank, reserve, (and borrow if needed) all on the same phone call with MS.
Hope this helps.
