What is the importance of UY

[anonymousegirl]

thinking about joining DVC and wondered how important the time of year is when purchasing or buying resale. I see lots of threads/resale ads with "June UY" or "December UY". Is there one month better than others?

 

[IknowDoYou?]

thinking about joining DVC and wondered how important the time of year is when purchasing or buying resale. I see lots of threads/resale ads with "June UY" or "December UY". Is there one month better than others?

Though a number of people here feel that UY is overrated, and that it doesn't matter what you get, I'm in the camp that feels that it is important. The reason why UY is important to me is that after the 8 month mark, you can no longer bank points. If you have a reservation in your 10th month, and have to cancel it for some reason (six weeks before the trip, lets say), you have until your UY to use the points, otherwise they're gone.

If you're like me and will take your trips at the same time each year, get a UY before that date, that way if you cancel, you have the rest of your year to use the points.

The people who argue against the importance of UY say that vacation times change over the years, and there's certainly merit to that argument.


Just my 2 cents...

 

[TheGeddings]

I will give a few simple answers for you, but I am sure there are better people that will elaborate further.

UY is the month in which you get your new points to use until the next use year. If you are going to bank current year points until the next UY, you need to do it prior to 4 month our from your UY.

For example, our UY is December, so if we are going to bank, we have to have it done by July 31st.

 

[doconeill]

Depends on your travel habits.

In my mind, the only major reason you may want to choose a particular UY is if you tend to travel mostly at the same time each year, and there is the possibility of canceling close to the reservation time, or at least within 4 months of your UY (since the banking deadline is then).

Say you had a September UY, and had a reservation in August, which you then canceled in May or later. Since you are beyond your banking window, you can no longer bank those points into the next UY - you have to use them or lose them. In addition, if you cancel within 30 days of the reservation date, the points go into a "Holding" pool which has even stricter limitations on how they can be used.

If you have a UY that comes prior to when you would normally travel, and then you cancel (except for the 30 days/Holding issue), you'll have more time and more options to decide what to do with the points.

 

[disneynutz]

thinking about joining DVC and wondered how important the time of year is when purchasing or buying resale. I see lots of threads/resale ads with "June UY" or "December UY". Is there one month better than others?

We have a Oct UY. We never vacation in the heat of summer and never will. We get new points every Oct 1 and have until May 31 to bank them. If we have a vacation scheduled for May and have to cancel due to illness or work schedule change, we can bank the points and not lose them. If we don't bank the points we have to schedule a vacation during June, July, August, or September, which, as I have said will never happen.

 

[Disney_Villain]

I agree with "IknowDoYou?" on this topic. My UY is April and I mostly vacation in May, October, December & January. My vacationing patterns fall one month after my UY begins, when all my new UY's points become available to me. This works for me.

 

[ACDSNY]

Another vote for getting a UY that works best for your normal vacation plans. I wish I would have paid more attention when we first purchased DVC. We started with a Feb UY and normally travel in the Fall due to work and farm needs, so our trips are after the banking deadline. It's bothered me enough that I purchased a new master contract of 100 points at AKV in order to get an Aug UY. This way when I add-on at the VGC those points will also have an Aug UY. For now I'll be selling 120 of our SSR Feb UY points to off set the switch. It's been a costly mistake as the cost of AKV is much higher then when we purchased SSR. Plus we'll have to pay the sells commission on the points we're selling.

On the bright side now I own two of my favorite resorts...SSR & AKV!

 

[FLYNZ4]

We optimized assuming that we have kids and need to travel in the summer... or spring break. Even though our kids were finishing high school... we knew it would be an issue during their college years. We also assumed that at some point, grandkids would once again force summer vacations.

We do not like going for just a week. So that makes times other than the summer difficult. We have found that going for a longer time, with APs... and mixing early park admission with lots of relaxation time works best for us... even in the summer.

We have recently made some extra trips in Nov, Dec, Jan, March and April. Believe it or not... we tend to like summer the best because we tend to use the pools and waterparks more. However... we have enjoyed all trips

/Jim

 

[angey77]

I've got a question:
We just bought into AKL with the 100-point incentive and our use year is Dec. 08. Now, we always vacation at WDW around the beginning of December, week pending on our APs.
Now, here is the question: In 2009, we have our standard winter trip which is going to fall from Nov. 29-Dec. 4. What would that be considered? Would it be all 2008 UY points since the ressie starts before Dec. 1?

 

[jarestel]

If your job or lifestyle makes it difficult to schedule time off with a fairly high degree of certainty, use year would be important. Otherwise it doesn't make a lot of difference.

Regardless of use year, if an "emergency" occurs, requiring cancellation within 30 days of check-in, your points will go into a restricted status called "holding" and there are no use years that will prevent this.

Bottom line is, if you don't engage in speculative bookings, and you have a fairly stable employment situation, use year will be of minimal concern to most members. It's also important to consider that your optimal use year today may not be so good in 5-10 years due to lifestyle or job changes.

Good luck!

 

[DVCLiz]

I've got a question:
We just bought into AKL with the 100-point incentive and our use year is Dec. 08. Now, we always vacation at WDW around the beginning of December, week pending on our APs.
Now, here is the question: In 2009, we have our standard winter trip which is going to fall from Nov. 29-Dec. 4. What would that be considered? Would it be all 2008 UY points since the ressie starts before Dec. 1?

Nope - DVC is a night by night system. November 29 and 30 will be in your 2008 Use year, and the other nights will be 2009 points.

 

[IknowDoYou?]

Nope - DVC is a night by night system. November 29 and 30 will be in your 2008 Use year, and the other nights will be 2009 points.

You could always borrow the specific amount of points needed from the '09 allotment if you were out of '08 points.

 

[FLYNZ4]

If your job or lifestyle makes it difficult to schedule time off with a fairly high degree of certainty, use year would be important. Otherwise it doesn't make a lot of difference.

Regardless of use year, if an "emergency" occurs, requiring cancellation within 30 days of check-in, your points will go into a restricted status called "holding" and there are no use years that will prevent this.

Bottom line is, if you don't engage in speculative bookings, and you have a fairly stable employment situation, use year will be of minimal concern to most members. It's also important to consider that your optimal use year today may not be so good in 5-10 years due to lifestyle or job changes.

Good luck!

I believe that this post understates the problem. In particular the section which I took the liberty to highlight.

While technically true... it omits other important data. For example: If you were to emergency cancel a March vacation within 30 days... it would make a huge difference if you had a March or April UY.

You did give good advice stating that most people's job situations will likely change over the life of the contract and that can make "good UY's" into "bad UY's"... but at any given point in time... UY does indeed matter... and I think it is a disservice to indicate otherwise.

/Jim

 

[angey77]

Nope - DVC is a night by night system. November 29 and 30 will be in your 2008 Use year, and the other nights will be 2009 points.

That works even better. Thanks for the info!

 

[SophiasDad]

I was wondering if anyone can help. I have been looking at all your posts and I'm still trying to determine what the best UY would be for me and my family. We usually like to vacation, end of april into may and end of september til the first week of december. Any advice?

 

[angey77]

You could always borrow the specific amount of points needed from the '09 allotment if you were out of '08 points.

OK, I'm sorry if I'm hijacking this thread, but one more question that just hit me. I'm new at all of this, outside of renting for years and leaving the headaches to my DVC renter.
I will most definitely have enough 08 points to cover that entire stay that happens during the transition from my 08 and 09 use year, so without sounding too convoluted, could I bank 08 points by July 31 that I won't be using for 08 and borrow 09 points to cover the last three nights of our stay that fall in the 09 UY?
Example:
Nov. 29-30 (08 UY) - 24 points total for a studio
Dec. 1-4 (09 UY) - 33 points total for a studio
Could I, in theory (well, in reality) bank any left-over points from 08 into 09 and replenish those 33 points I borrowed partly or completely so I am on the right foot in 2010 when our trip falls completely in December?
That brings up one more question ... since my UY are December, does that mean when I book every January for our December trips, will I have to borrow from the upcoming year?
I may be making this way more difficult than it is, but since I'm new (and a planning freak!), I want to be sure I somewhat have a grasp on all of this!

 

[jarestel]

... but at any given point in time... UY does indeed matter... and I think it is a disservice to indicate otherwise.

/Jim

In 8 years it has never mattered to me. Never lost a point or found myself anywhere near doing so. So while we may argue the theoretical implications of use years, it has never made a practical (real world) difference to me. Hence my cavalier attitude about over-thinking such matters. We don't restrict ourselves to vacationing at one certain time each year, so use years, in my case, just wouldn't matter. We have visited WDW in every month and are not wedded to any specific timeframe.

Of course, one should always do what makes one comfortable and if a specific use year makes you feel better about your membership, by all means go for it!

 

[FLYNZ4]

In 8 years it has never mattered to me. Never lost a point or found myself anywhere near doing so. So while we may argue the theoretical implications of use years, it has never made a practical (real world) difference to me. Hence my cavalier attitude about over-thinking such matters. We don't restrict ourselves to vacationing at one certain time each year, so use years, in my case, just wouldn't matter. We have visited WDW in every month and are not wedded to any specific timeframe.

Of course, one should always do what makes one comfortable and if a specific use year makes you feel better about your membership, by all means go for it!

My recommendation is more generic. Many people do not have the flexibility to travel any time during the year.

In my case... I chose a March UY because I wanted to optimize for summer vacations. With kids in school, and the likelyhood of eventual grandchildren in school... and our desire to take 2 week vacations... it was (and continues to be) a good use year for us.

In summer '06... I had to cancel a reservation because some family members cancelled their trip at the last minute (within my cancellation window). My March UY allowed me to use those holding acount points in a Nov reservation. Had I had a September UY... I would have lost the points.

I fully acknowledge that it is hard to pick a perfect use year for all vacations. We choose to do a one-time New Years reservation for this year. My March UY is horrible for this one trip. However... this is the exception, not the standard vacation we will take. If something happens... I will be trying to schedule a last minute trip in Jan/Feb before I lose the points.

All I am suggesting is to think about this before you pick your use year... and pick one that minimizes any potential problems.

/Jim

 

[lisareniff]

We have a Oct UY. We never vacation in the heat of summer and never will. We get new points every Oct 1 and have until May 31 to bank them. ...

This is us exactly. Would never travel to FL in the summer so an Oct UY works great for any vacation Oct.through May (in reality June since you would cancel a month in advance).

Another point I want to add is that it is not just about outright canceling your vacation. Many would never be in that situation. But it's also extremely helpful if you wanted to shave a day off the trip because of airfare, you can still bank those points. Or you are on the waitlist for a room that costs less points, the surplus points you can still bank. You have a lot more flexibility with booking your resort. If it's still allowed and you have enough points, you can have your home resort reservation intact while you create a new reservation at a non-home resort at 7 months before canceling and banking the original reservation.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

My recommendation is more generic. Many people do not have the flexibility to travel any time during the year.

In my case... I chose a March UY because I wanted to optimize for summer vacations. With kids in school, and the likelyhood of eventual grandchildren in school... and our desire to take 2 week vacations... it was (and continues to be) a good use year for us.

In summer '06... I had to cancel a reservation because some family members cancelled their trip at the last minute (within my cancellation window). My March UY allowed me to use those holding acount points in a Nov reservation. Had I had a September UY... I would have lost the points.

I fully acknowledge that it is hard to pick a perfect use year for all vacations. We choose to do a one-time New Years reservation for this year. My March UY is horrible for this one trip. However... this is the exception, not the standard vacation we will take. If something happens... I will be trying to schedule a last minute trip in Jan/Feb before I lose the points.

All I am suggesting is to think about this before you pick your use year... and pick one that minimizes any potential problems.

/Jim

I too have a March UY for my large contract. I am not much on holiday crowds, I never vacation in January or February(too much bad weather here in the east). I did consider this very carefully even before the changes.