points and use year.

Hi,

Can someone clarify this for me. We are in the process of taking over 2 wyndham resale contracts with 10/1 use year. Both contracts say that all 2016 pts are available. From the information I've found, it seems that 2016 points would actually expire 9/30/2016. We are planning on doing 2 possible trips next year. 1st would be through Wyndham in Myrtle beach, we own at Seawatch. The other would be a possible RCI exchange into DVC. Once the points are actually in our name, we would have to bank or deposit to RCi right away ..correct. So part one...am I correct 2016 pts expire 9/30/2016? Part 2, what should I be doing with the points once we receive them. None will actually be used until 2017. Sorry if my question is confusing.

dansyr2514 said:

...10/1 use year. Both contracts say that all 2016 pts are available. ... am I correct 2016 pts expire 9/30/2016?

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Your 2016 use year begins on 10/1/2016. Those points will expire a year later, on 9/30/2017. Your travel dates for using the 2016 allotment of points will fall between 10/1/2016 and 9/30/2017.
[edit: This is in error. Please read below.]

dansyr2514 said:

...planning on doing 2 possible trips next year. 1st would be through Wyndham in Myrtle beach, we own at Seawatch. The other would be a possible RCI exchange into DVC. ... what should I be doing with the points once we receive them. None will actually be used until 2017.

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1. If you plan on a summer vacation at the beach, mark your calendar with a reminder 13 months in advance of desired travel. Plan to use "October 2016 use year" points for a summer 2017 reservation. You do not have to wait until October to make the summer reservation. Log in or call as early in your 13-month ARP window as possible to make your reservation. So if you want to travel in July 2017, you would want to try to make the reservation online or by phoning, in June 2016, if possible, or soon thereafter.

2. As soon as you gain access to your RCI account, place an ongoing search request for the DVC vacation. Note that it has become rare to be able to confirm trades for most DVC properties besides SSR, and even rarer to get a 2BR at any of them. Consider making a Wyndham Bonnet Creek reservation for your desired vacation as a back-up. It may be cancelled up until 15 days prior to check-in and the points deposited with RCI, if your Ongoing Search matches successfully in RCI.

3. Points may be placed in the credit pool up until the day before the use year begins. So if you do not anticipate using them all during the upcoming use year, place the anticipated excess points into the credit pool for future use, during or beyond your use year. Credit Pooled points may be used for Wyndham reservations made during the 10 month standard booking window. They lose the ARP advantage but they won't expire as fast.

4. Mark your calendar with an annual reminder to deposit remaining unused points with RCI every year in September, as long as you have at least the minimum needed for an RCI deposit. I think the minimum is 10,000 points. Once in RCI, your Wyndham points will be good for 2 years from the time of deposit. All points which were deposited at various time but which will not have expired by a desired travel date will be combined automatically for your exchanges. The "oldest" points, those with the soonest expiration date, are used first.

Hope that helps! Hope you enjoy your Wyndham ownership. We do.

Thank you sooo much!

Lisa is wrong and you are right, If yours is a Sept use year, the 2016 points are for travel from Oct 1 2015 through Sept 30 2016

and you cant "bank" (we call it credit pool" the 2026 points at this late date.

However Lisa is correct in that you can make the reservations you want. If your travel will be sometime between Oct 2016 Sept 2017, you will use your 2017 points and if between Oct 2017 and Sept 2018 you will use your 2018 points

You should read the "book", pages 336-341 to understand use year and credit pooling

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/wyndham/plus_membersdirectory1415/

Hi Ron,

I am trying to decipher the book. However, what can we do with the 2016 points if we aren't using them them this year?

Here are a few quotes copied and pasted from the "Use Year" FAQs posted on Wyndham's website:

"Your Use Year is the 12-month period in which your points are allocated for a variety of uses annually, and was determined based upon the date your first ownership entered the CLUB WYNDHAM® Plus program."

"For each set of points you receive, you will have a Use Year Start Date and a Use Year End Date."

"For example:
You have a January 1- December 31 Use Year.
Today’s date is April 1, 2015.
You want to make a reservation for a February 14, 2016 check-in date.
Points for this reservation will be deducted from your 2016 point allocation."

On page 336 of the Directory, it states:
"Each new Use Year, you receive a new set of points to spend."

My interpretation of these has always been that with each new use year (say, 2016 use year), on the Use Year Start Date (say, Oct 1, 2016), you receive a new set of points to spend for 12 months.

This is the same interpretation of use year as used by Disney. I could easily be wrong. But I don't see anything to indicate that a Use Year is defined by the expiration date for the points. It looks to me like all Use Years are defined by their allotment date (Jan 1, Apr 1, July 1, or Oct 1) of that Use Year (here, 2016). YMMV.

We had multiple use years, beginning and ending several different months. Wyndham, in their great wisdom, changed our use year for all of our contracts to be the same, 1/1-12/31. We were told it was better, but it really wasn't better.

I do not understand how you can take over another contract and keep the use year as is. I would say you cannot do it and your use year will be changed to 1/1-12/31. But that's our experience. Since we are Platinum, maybe they only did it to us.

Lisa P said:

My interpretation of these has always been that with each new use year (say, 2016 use year), on the Use Year Start Date (say, Oct 1, 2016), you receive a new set of points to spend for 12 months.

This is the same interpretation of use year as used by Disney. I could easily be wrong. But I don't see anything to indicate that a Use Year is defined by the expiration date for the points. It looks to me like all Use Years are defined by their allotment date (Jan 1, Apr 1, July 1, or Oct 1) of that Use Year (here, 2016). YMMV.

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I have points that begin on July 1st, 2016. They are listed under my 2017 point allocation, so it is defined by the expiration, not allotment date. My July 1st, 2017 allocation are listed under my 2018 points.

In fact whatever your use year (Jan Apr, July or Oct) points are allocated on Jan1. This coming Jan you will be allocated your 2019 use year points

heres the way it looks in your account

rickandcindy23 said:

We had multiple use years, beginning and ending several different months. Wyndham, in their great wisdom, changed our use year for all of our contracts to be the same, 1/1-12/31. We were told it was better, but it really wasn't better.

I do not understand how you can take over another contract and keep the use year as is. I would say you cannot do it and your use year will be changed to 1/1-12/31. But that's our experience. Since we are Platinum, maybe they only did it to us.

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Happens all the time (use year stays the same

Lisa P said:

Here are a few quotes copied and pasted from the "Use Year" FAQs posted on Wyndham's website:

"Your Use Year is the 12-month period in which your points are allocated for a variety of uses annually, and was determined based upon the date your first ownership entered the CLUB WYNDHAM® Plus program."

"For each set of points you receive, you will have a Use Year Start Date and a Use Year End Date."

"For example:
You have a January 1- December 31 Use Year.
Today’s date is April 1, 2015.
You want to make a reservation for a February 14, 2016 check-in date.
Points for this reservation will be deducted from your 2016 point allocation."

On page 336 of the Directory, it states:
"Each new Use Year, you receive a new set of points to spend."

My interpretation of these has always been that with each new use year (say, 2016 use year), on the Use Year Start Date (say, Oct 1, 2016), you receive a new set of points to spend for 12 months.

This is the same interpretation of use year as used by Disney. I could easily be wrong. But I don't see anything to indicate that a Use Year is defined by the expiration date for the points. It looks to me like all Use Years are defined by their allotment date (Jan 1, Apr 1, July 1, or Oct 1) of that Use Year (here, 2016). YMMV.

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Lisa, you really are incorrect about this

Lisa P said:

Today’s date is April 1, 2015.
You want to make a reservation for a February 14, 2016 check-in date.
Points for this reservation will be deducted from your 2016 point allocation."

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It's easy to be confused by this, but your own example clearly shows it.

Points booking Feb 2016 would expire March 2016.

ronparise said:

Lisa, you really are incorrect about this

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Thank you for posting that screen shot, Ron. It's surprising to me that someone with an April 1st Use Year would receive their 2017 use year points in April 2016. I would guess a lot of folks are surprised that their points expired before they knew it, especially in the first year of ownership. They would be unable to use their 2017 points for most of 2017. But clearly, this is so. I stand corrected. Since all of my points have been changed to a Jan 1st Use Year, this never made sense to me before. So the screen shot helps a lot!

Roger830 said:

It's easy to be confused by this, but your own example clearly shows it.

You have a January 1- December 31 Use Year. ... February 14, 2016 check-in date... 2016 point allocation."

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Points booking Feb 2016 would expire March 2016.

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Thanks, Roger. I don't actually find Wyndham's example to be that clear either way. Regardless of whether it is the start date or the end/expiration date which determined the Use Year, the January 1, 2016 - December 31, 2016 Use Year in their example would still be the 2016 allotment. I think they need a better example. Thanks to all who explained from first hand experience.

dansyr2514 said:

I am trying to decipher the book. However, what can we do with the 2016 points if we aren't using them them this year?

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As long as you gain access to the 2016 points before they expire, you may deposit them with RCI before they expire. Use them to exchange/travel within 2 years after their deposit to RCI.

ronparise said:

Happens all the time (use year stays the same

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing that. It does help it make more sense.

Lisa P said:

As long as you gain access to the 2016 points before they expire, you may deposit them with RCI before they expire. Use them to exchange/travel within 2 years after their deposit to RCI.

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Thanks... I started to panic we would lose all 2016 points since the contract is still in the transfer process.