Which use year?

[to be tink]

I am thinking about booking a stay Aug. 29 - Sept. 2, 2019. My use year is August. Which year would the points come from, 2018 or 2019? I'm not sure we will definitely go so I think I would rather use the 2019 points. Then I could bank them into 2020 if I had to cancel. If I used the 2018, I would be past the time I could bank them. Thoughts?

 

[Matty B13]

I am thinking about booking a stay Aug. 29 - Sept. 2, 2019. My use year is August. Which year would the points come from, 2018 or 2019? I'm not sure we will definitely go so I think I would rather use the 2019 points. Then I could bank them into 2020 if I had to cancel. If I used the 2018, I would be past the time I could bank them. Thoughts?

The reservation will be in your 2019 UY, so you would have to bank your 2018 UY points by March of 2019.

 

[drusba]

Banking 2018 points by March 31 is what the rules require if you want to bank at all and use them for that trip. If you do not bank those points by March, you will have to use them for a trip that ends no leter than July 31, 2019, or lose them. So unless you intend to use the 2018 points for a trip that ends before July 31, 2019, you better bank them.

As a practical matter, if you are going to use those 2018 points for that late Aug/early Sep 2019 trip, you will need to bank them long before March 2019, because you will need to make your reservation long before March or potentially face an issue of no availability.

 

[Frederic Civish]

Your new use year starts at the beginning of your use year month, which is August 1.

Since August 1 in the coming year falls in the calendar year of 2019, and that is when your use year starts, it is the 2019 use year. Any reservations made for the next 12 months after that will be in the 2019 use year. Even if you use those points to make a reservation in February 2020 or anytime in 2020 up until the end of July 2020 then you are still in your August 2019 use year.

The only way to get 2018 points into your 2019 use year, so you could use them, is to bank them. And you must do this by FOUR months before the end of your youth year. This means that they must be banked by March 31, 2019.

When you are making reservations in the 2019 use year, even if you are making those reservations now in 2018, you will be in the 2019 future. Because you are making the reservation for the 2019 use year, you will be able to borrow points from 2020, if you need them.

 

[to be tink]

Thanks everyone! I was unclear when the use year started. Now I know it's at the beginning of August not the end.