I think the easiest way to think of use year is to treat it as if it were a calendar year, only changing the dates. If your use year is June, then for you, June 1st is 'like' January 1st, and May 31 is 'like' December 31. Your year runs June 1 thru May 31.
This chart may help.
YEAR...Receive Points....Use Points during this period
2001....June 1, 2001.....6-1-01 thru 5-31-02
2002....June 1, 2002.....6-1-02 thru 5-31-03
2003....June 1, 2003.....6-1-03 thru 5-31-04
2004....June 1, 2004.....6-1-04 thru 5-31-05
etc.
You can BANK points into any following year. For example you could bank your 2001 points into 2002. If you did, then for you, these points would then be available for use between 6-1-02 thru 5-31-03.
You can BORROW any points into a prior year. For example you could borrow your 2003 points into your 2002 year. If you did, then those 2003 points would be available for use between 6-1-02 thru 5-31-03, the same as above.
As you can see, you can have as much as 300% of your points in any given year by banking and borrowing. In this example, you'd bank your 2001 points, borrow your 2003 points, retain your 2002 points, and have all of these for use in your 2002 use year, which is 6-1-02 thru 5-31-03.
As for making reservations, use year is important only in that points must be available for the actual dates of stay you want to make reservations for. First you follow the 7/11 month reservation windows. Then second, you don't have to have the points in your account when you make the reservation. They only have to be there for the actual reservation dates you select. For example, suppose you have used all your 2001 points, so you have no points in your account. In Jan 2002, you want to make a reservation for July 2002. You can go ahead and make this reservation, because in June 2002 you will be receiving the points that the reservation would then use in July.
Again, assuming you've used your 2001 points, and in January 2002 you wanted to make reservations for May 2002. In this case you don't have any 2001 points left, and you won't receive your 2002 points until a month later, so you would BORROW the required number of points from 2002 and put them into 2001. These points can then be used for a 2001 use year reservation, which for you covers the period 6-1-2001 thru 5-31-2002.
Remember, once borrowed, points cannot be put back into their previous use year. If you borrowed 2002 points into 2001, they act just like 2001 points (except they can't be banked), and would expire (in your case, on May 31, 2002...the end of your 2001 use year) if not used.
Use year is also important for banking purposes. As you get closer to the end of your use year, the banking percentange allowed is reduced, and finally becomes nothing. For example, if you did not use any of your 2001 use year points, you could not call in May 2002 (which is the last month of your use year), and try to bank them into the 2002 use year. That is too late. However, if you knew NOW that you would not be using your 2001 points prior to May 2002, you could call today (October), and bank ALL the points into 2002. Remember however, that once banked, they cannot be returned to the previous use year. Those point would <u>have</u> to be used sometime during the 12-months of your 2002 use year.
Hope this helps.
