UY Importance

[OHIOVACATIONER]

How important is it to keep the same use year? Is it really a hassle if you have 2 membership numbers? Is this an accurate scenario?

130 Pts. resale at GF Aug UY
150 pts direct at GF
How would I do this on a reservation? Would I have to make 2 or call member services to combine before I make the reservation?

I currently own Aug but considering doing a direct for Oct for the 2022 buyback. Trying to understand everything.

Thank you

 

[RoseGold]

Depends on how often you go. I have two UYs, but I travel 3x a year, so I can make sure they're all used, and it helps me to use some points in summer and some in spring. I like four waitlists too.

If you're trying to cobble together a split stay every two years, this is much harder, and you are setting yourself up to lose points. It's possible, but two UYs will definitely complicate it.

Different UYs are like different people. You have to transfer the points to use them in one account, and it is a real pain. When you book, you choose from a drop down, and it only shows the contracts in that UY (member number). The other option is to book them like they are separate people. Half the trip on one UY, half on the other. I do this often, but it's not ideal in many ways.

If you are booking studios annually, this is probably fine. Just book it as a "split stay" and leave a note. They won't make you move, they don't want to pay to clean your room. If you're trying to pool points for a 2BR every two years, this is going to be a lot harder with two UYs.

 

[DanCali]

We have 2 use years with 4 (soon maybe 5) different resorts. But all contracts from the same resort are in the same use year. It makes things a lot easier when combining points from different contracts.

You could technically transfer from one use year to another (and they allow you more than one transfer per year if you transfer to yourself), but I think you'd still have to call on the phone to combine points from the different use years.

 

[Stargazer65]

How important is it to keep the same use year? Is it really a hassle if you have 2 membership numbers? Is this an accurate scenario?

130 Pts. resale at GF Aug UY
150 pts direct at GF
How would I do this on a reservation? Would I have to make 2 or call member services to combine before I make the reservation?

I currently own Aug but considering doing a direct for Oct for the 2022 buyback. Trying to understand everything.

Thank you

Two use years gives you two memberships. I would not get two use years, especially since it's the same resort, unless you want to stay at different times of the year, and/or split stay all the time. It complicates making one continuous stay. If you want to combine points together on a continuous stay, you would have to do it one of two ways:
Make two reservations with each membership, and then tell MS and the front desk to flag it as a continuous stay.
Or you could call MS and transfer points from one membership to another so you could combine the points on a single reservation. Sometimes there are little glitches though with using the website to do that with transferred points and you have to get MS involved again.
The other thing is August and Oct are very close together, so the booking advantage for different times of the year of two UYs is kind of negated.

In short, you can make it work, but it is more complicated. I used to have two UYs but I sold off one of them to consolidate back to one UY for the simplicity of combining points to book long continuous stays.

 

[Sandisw]

To combine points for a single reservation, you need to transfer points.

Transferred points don’t work online during the home resort period. That means you have to call. Once transferred, they can’t be borrowed for a trip. And, if you points banked, you can’t transfer them.

You also won’t see them online until you go to book so you do need to keep track. The other piece is that even transferred they retain their UY so banking deadline remains the same.

So. If the plan is to always travel once a year and use regularly for one trip. It might prove frustrating.

However, if you want to use them independently of each other or okay with booking some nights on one and some on the other..what we do…to avoid transfers..and hope you don’t have to change rooms..never have had to..then its doable.

While getting the 2022 points is a nice bonus, you just need to be sure that you understand thst it’s like being different owners.

 

[intamin]

How important is it to keep the same use year? Is it really a hassle if you have 2 membership numbers? Is this an accurate scenario?

130 Pts. resale at GF Aug UY
150 pts direct at GF
How would I do this on a reservation? Would I have to make 2 or call member services to combine before I make the reservation?

I currently own Aug but considering doing a direct for Oct for the 2022 buyback. Trying to understand everything.

Thank you

I personally wouldn't own separate use years for the same resort. If they were different resorts then sure. The part that sucks about having different UY for the same resort is you will not be able to use all the points at together 11 months unless you do a transfer. Say for example you have a room that costs 60 points per night and you have 2 separate 150 point contracts. You can book 2 nights through each membership/contract but you will not be able to book the 5th night without borrowing even though you have 30 points left in each unless you do a transfer. This would occur when trying to maybe book a grand villa or 2 BR for example.

Also in your case, booking between August 1st- October 1st will be somewhat of annoying. Take this year for example booking in between there would require use of your August 2023 points and your October 2022 points. If you had to borrow from your October use year you better not cancel that reservation because you would likely be past the banking window and those points would expire within the next 2 months and be stuck in the 2022 UY whereas your August UY will be able to cancel without repercussion as long as you're not within the holding period.

As Sandi above said, if you transfer them you won't be able to see them in your dashboard so you'll have to manually keep track of them.

I own separate use years with less of a gap than yours and it can be a pain trying to figure out where I want certain points being allocated. It's not as bad though because my contracts all have different home resort priorities so usually I book the RIV half of my stay with one UY and then the other half using my AKV/AUL UY.

tl;dr I don't recommend it if you can avoid it. If you're going to do it, treat them as separate memberships. Try to avoid combining their points unless necessary. Once you start mixing them it becomes confusing figuring out which points came from where and which ones expire when.

 

[PolyRob]

I would not commit to 2 UYs just to save $3,300 with Magical Beginnings. It's unfortunate you missed the incentives with an August UY, but the headache, possible trip cancellations, and/or stranded points over 40 years of membership will not be worth it. If you weren't going to combine with a previous VGF contract and your travel habits changed maybe it would be worth it. Not in this situation. At least in my opinion.

 

[Sandisw]

I personally wouldn't own separate use years for the same resort. If they were different resorts then sure. The part that sucks about having different UY for the same resort is you will not be able to use all the points at together 11 months unless you do a transfer. Say for example you have a room that costs 60 points per night and you have 2 separate 150 point contracts. You can book 2 nights through each membership/contract but you will not be able to book the 5th night without borrowing even though you have 30 points left in each unless you do a transfer. This would occur when trying to maybe book a grand villa or 2 BR for example.

Also in your case, booking between August 1st- October 1st will be somewhat of annoying. Take this year for example booking in between there would require use of your August 2023 points and your October 2022 points. If you had to borrow from your October use year you better not cancel that reservation because you would likely be past the banking window and those points would expire within the next 2 months and be stuck in the 2022 UY whereas your August UY will be able to cancel without repercussion as long as you're not within the holding period.

As Sandi above said, if you transfer them you won't be able to see them in your dashboard so you'll have to manually keep track of them.

I own separate use years with less of a gap than yours and it can be a pain trying to figure out where I want certain points being allocated. It's not as bad though because my contracts all have different home resort priorities so usually I book the RIV half of my stay with one UY and then the other half using my AKV/AUL UY.

tl;dr I don't recommend it if you can avoid it. If you're going to do it, treat them as separate memberships. Try to avoid combining their points unless necessary. Once you start mixing them it becomes confusing figuring out which points came from where and which ones expire when.

I actually like having points in different UYs for my resorts.

RIV is Aug and Dec UY and VGF is June and Dec UY…

It is nice being able to travel during all parts of the year and always book strategically at 11 months by choosing the UY that works better for it.

 

[intamin]

I actually like having points in different UYs for my resorts.

RIV is Aug and Dec UY and VGF is June and Dec UY…

It is nice being able to travel during all parts of the year and always book strategically at 11 months by choosing the UY that works better for it.

When they’re nicely spread out it works better, if I was OP and I really wanted MB I’d go with the Dec UY instead of Oct but even so I’m not a fan of the same resort being in multiple UY but that’s just my personal preference for the reasons above