Which Use Year would you choose

[TyGuy]

We are finalizing our purchase at BLT. We mostly have gone down to WDW in late October, Early November or Early December. I had originally discussed with our Guide having a September use year in case we ever have to cancel one ofo our trips. Yesterday she called and suggested that it be an October use year. She was pretty insistent about it. I haven't been very thrilled with her (slow returning calls, sent the package out with the wrong use year to start with, etc.) So I thought I would bounce it off the experts on here.

So, does anyone see a problem with October vs. September? Which one would you choose based on our trips?

Thanks for all of your help
Ty

 

[culli]

We are finalizing our purchase at BLT. We mostly have gone down to WDW in late October, Early November or Early December. I had originally discussed with our Guide having a September use year in case we ever have to cancel one ofo our trips. Yesterday she called and suggested that it be an October use year. She was pretty insistent about it. I haven't been very thrilled with her (slow returning calls, sent the package out with the wrong use year to start with, etc.) So I thought I would bounce it off the experts on here.

So, does anyone see a problem with October vs. September? Which one would you choose based on our trips?

Thanks for all of your help
Ty

I'm not a UY expert like some but based on your info for trips either would work. As long as you don't travel in Sept, Oct would be fine. I'm sure others will chime in too.

 

[hopare]

We are at the same point, finalizing our purchase at BLT. We are choosing a Sept use year. We typically travel in Oct, nov, Jan or Feb. For us it is not so much when we travel that made us choose Sept, With being able to borrow points it did not matter so much. .
Our biggest factor in choosing Sept is that we would have until May to bank points. My husbands job requires him to pick his vacation picks for the upcoming 12 months on April 1st, and there is no flexability to change those picks. This way we can bank points by the eight month.
But if you cancel a ressie at the last moment you need to leave enough time to reschedule before you lose the points, I am not sure of the exact rules that apply, this could factor into the use year. My guide mentioned this factor to us in making our choice.

 

[drusba]

If usual time is October, Nov or Dec, October is an ideal use year to maintain the hedge on the possiblity of having to cancel and then being able to bank points. To maintain the hedge you should usually get a use year that begins from 0 to 6 months before you usually go each year. If Oct is your usual trip time the Oct use year (that zero month in the 0 to 6) in fact begins shortly before you usually go since its points effective date is Oct 1.

A different way to look at is what months do you believe you will seldom if ever go. If those are July, Aug, and Sep, then Oct is ideal for always maintaining the hedge on the possibility of having to cancel and being able to bank points.

Also, a note to hopare: with a Sep use year, you have until April 30 to bank not May.

 

[hopare]

Also, a note to hopare: with a Sep use year, you have until April 30 to bank not May.

Thanks for clearing that up for me, I probably would have found out the hard way!

 

[redrosesix]

Gee, I didn't think I had to worry about this, but maybe I need to think about the use-year. We will be travelling to WDW mid-Feb. every year, so I would normally not care when the UY started since it will definitely be an annual trip.

But...I'm pretty sure I would choose to bank my points and stay at a WDW resort if they had a ridiculously great special for the time that we are there. If I have to cancel 60 days in advance, that would be in December.

So...which UY months would I be looking to purchase?

 

[drusba]

Here is the concept
Assume Feb use year. Usual trip Feb. You call in March 2009 to reserve Feb 2010 and use the points coming Feb 1, 2010 as those will be the "current" use year points for that trip. In December 2009 you realize you have to cancel and do so. No banking problem because you have until Sep 2010 (eighth month of your use year) to bank those points you used for that ressie.

Same trip assumption but you have an April use year. Call March 2009 and make ressie for Feb 2010 using points coming in April 2009, which will be your "current" use year points for that trip in Feb 2010. In December 2009, you have to cancel. The cut-off date for banking any of those April 2009 points is November 30, 2009, so you can't bank them if you cancel in Dec 2009. You must therefore use those points for a trip that ends no later than March 31, 2010, or they will be forfeited.

Thus, recommendation is to get use year that starts near or before your usual trip. Actually anything from 0 to 6 months before is safe. Thus if your usual trip is Feb, a Feb use year would be fine, as would be Dec, Oct, Sep, and even Aug.

 

[christa112]

Don't mean to highjack the thread, but I have a UY ? as well.

We very rarely get to book a vacation 11 mos out. My husband gets his vacation request usually in Jan for that year. We usually will ask for Sept or Oct, but sometimes we go for July. I was thinking about a Jan UY when the time comes for us to pick it out.

Anyone have a recommendations.

 

[culli]

Don't mean to highjack the thread, but I have a UY ? as well.

We very rarely get to book a vacation 11 mos out. My husband gets his vacation request usually in Jan for that year. We usually will ask for Sept or Oct, but sometimes we go for July. I was thinking about a Jan UY when the time comes for us to pick it out.

Anyone have a recommendations.

Based on the time you would travel DO NOT DUE Jan! If you have to cancel you won't be able to use your points and you will be past your bank window. I would think about June which you have until Jan31 to bank pts.

 

[christa112]

Thanks for your help!!! There is so much info to learn and keep straight.

Based on the time you would travel DO NOT DUE Jan! If you have to cancel you won't be able to use your points and you will be past your bank window. I would think about June which you have until Jan31 to bank pts.

 

[culli]

Just one thing of caution with UY is don't get too frustrated if your "normal" travel plans change as this will throw the UY thing out the window. Try to look in the future and see when you will normally travel and like others have said try to get a UY before you travel NOT after. In our case we have a June UY which works great as we planned on travel in summer or oct/nov. Now I'm thinking we might do WDW in spring.........if I run into any issues I'm pretty much hosed with pts as it is too late to book and I would have to use them before June 1st.

However I did get saved by my June UY as we had an early NOV trip and had a family issue which caused me to cancel. To put into "christa112's question" if i had a Jan UY (I don't know all the UY that DVC has) I would have lost like 700pts because we couldn't rebook by Dec 31. It was a big trip that we borrowed and used banked pts for, but I was able to book into Mar (yup we are here now)!

However, my new dilema is my wife wants to change our trips to spring........I'm thinking we should do two a year oct/nov then spring if we want to

Oh yeah christa112.......I learned so much from these forums so happy to help when I can. The more you know the easier it is to deal with member services too, I find they appreciate it when they don't have to explain everything about how DVC works.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Just one word of warning to anyone making one trip a year to WDW...think about banking points, too.

We have an Aug UY. We like to travel in Aug. Sounds like a great UY. Gives us all the time in the world if we need to cancel and reschedule. Here's where we consistently run into problems:

Say you had 400 points deposited on 8/1/08. You make a reservation for a 2-BR villa at SSR in the summer of '09 for 316 points. Since you won't be using the remaining points, you bank 84 points into the next UY ('09 UY) by the banking deadline (March '09). Those 84 points are now good for vacations from 8/1/09 - 7/31/10. If not used by 7/31/10, they expire. So, in 2010, I would be forced to travel before August, or I would lose those 84 points.

I'm not trying to confuse anyone, but I wished I had realized this before I chose a UY. I NEVER (knock on wood) cancel a vacation, but I often have to travel earlier than I'd like because of straggling banked points. If you resort hop, and/or change the size of your room (which we do), it's not a neat exchange year after year.

Best of luck to everyone choosing a UY. To most people, it's just a day on a calendar. If you plan one visit a year, or will bank and/or borrow, it may make a big difference.

 

[redrosesix]

Here is the concept
Assume Feb use year. Usual trip Feb. You call in March 2009 to reserve Feb 2010 and use the points coming Feb 1, 2010 as those will be the "current" use year points for that trip. In December 2009 you realize you have to cancel and do so. No banking problem because you have until Sep 2010 (eighth month of your use year) to bank those points you used for that ressie.

Same trip assumption but you have an April use year. Call March 2009 and make ressie for Feb 2010 using points coming in April 2009, which will be your "current" use year points for that trip in Feb 2010. In December 2009, you have to cancel. The cut-off date for banking any of those April 2009 points is November 30, 2009, so you can't bank them if you cancel in Dec 2009. You must therefore use those points for a trip that ends no later than March 31, 2010, or they will be forfeited.

Thus, recommendation is to get use year that starts near or before your usual trip. Actually anything from 0 to 6 months before is safe. Thus if your usual trip is Feb, a Feb use year would be fine, as would be Dec, Oct, Sep, and even Aug.

Thanks so much for this I love it that I actually understood it all.

 

[drusba]

Don't mean to highjack the thread, but I have a UY ? as well.

We very rarely get to book a vacation 11 mos out. My husband gets his vacation request usually in Jan for that year. We usually will ask for Sept or Oct, but sometimes we go for July. I was thinking about a Jan UY when the time comes for us to pick it out.

Anyone have a recommendations.

First, there is no Jan, May, July or Nov use year. Second, see my post above going through example of cancellation/banking issue. Use year has nothing to do with when you can call to reserve (always 11 months out at home resort or 7 at others) or when you can go (any time of year). Thus, regardless of what use year you have, you can call in Jan to make a reservation anytime between July and Oct at your home resort. For preserving the cancellation/banking hedge (the issue you would consider in choosing a use year), the use years you would be looking at would be June or April.