Thank you TUG! Saved $20k with RCI

ace2000 · Jan 19, 2015

ronandjoan said:
When that happened to us, I could not trust RCI to assign the same number of TPU and they even changed them after I deposited; ( and also since their exchange fee kept going up)thus, we seldom use RCI.

I recall that you were using Wyndham and assumed you were supplementing those points with RCI Last Calls, etc. What else do you use to keep your costs down?

LynnW · Jan 19, 2015

Conan said:
My comment was based on the understanding that Weeks deposits from properties that participate in RCI Points are omitted from RCI Points searches. Say I own a week at Palm Beach Shores, and I've never paid the $3,000 they charge to convert that week into the Points system. I can deposit that week as an RCI Weeks member, and nobody who's searching with RCI Points will see it because Palm Beach Shores (the Resort itself) participates in RCI Points?

The RCI Points website used to list RCI Weeks availability (restricted as above, and looking up to two years forward) separately from its RCI Points availability (looking only ten months forward). Now as far as I can tell they're lumped together so its hard to tell what's what.

But I just searched Palm Beach Shores (#4856) in RCI Weeks and found 77 units. Then I searched Palm Beach Shores (#4856) in RCI Points and found 358 units. Does this make me wrong about how the system works currently? Are Points people allowed to see Weeks deposits from Points-participating properties nowadays?

It seems that we are able to see them all now. I was looking at resorts in Carlsbad CA which are all points resorts and I was able to see all the weeks inventory. I was waiting until 10 months out before booking as the exchange fee for points is less. Ended up having to book it as a week because there was no points inventory available for the week I wanted. I do know that not long ago you had to call if you wanted to check weeks availability at points resorts.

Lynn

pedro47 · Jan 20, 2015

To the OP please keep on sharing the word about this web site. That Knowledge is Power about buying and owning a timeshare.

tschwa2 · Jan 20, 2015

LynnW said:
It seems that we are able to see them all now. I was looking at resorts in Carlsbad CA which are all points resorts and I was able to see all the weeks inventory. I was waiting until 10 months out before booking as the exchange fee for points is less. Ended up having to book it as a week because there was no points inventory available for the week I wanted. I do know that not long ago you had to call if you wanted to check weeks availability at points resorts.

Lynn

Lynn, even though they are listed as RCI points, I don't believe they ever sold RCI points. This is the way most developer controlled non RCI points, points resorts are listed with RCI. The Carlsbad resorts are managed by Hilton and Hilton can deposit inventory on the points side or the weeks side. Unlike true RCI points that come available at 10 months, Hilton can deposit points inventory at any time. So it makes it harder to predict and use. If it had been deposited at points inventory then it would have had the lower weekly fee. This would be the same for Wyndham, DVC, Bluegreen, and others.

LynnW · Jan 20, 2015

So even if they are managed by GPR they are still part of Hilton?

Lynn

tschwa2 · Jan 20, 2015

I think that the units that you see deposited as points are those that are associated with Hilton. The weeks inventory can come from HGVC or non HGVC inventory.

http://www.hiltongrandvacations.com/california/

I could be mistaken but I don't believe rci points were ever sold directly by GPR.

ronandjoan · Jan 23, 2015

ace2000 said:
I recall that you were using Wyndham and assumed you were supplementing those points with RCI Last Calls, etc. What else do you use to keep your costs down?

We very seldom use RCI. And I will repeat that - we very seldom use RCI

We have to plan so far out that Last Calls don;t work for us - and the Extra Vacation offerings have not worked for us either - either too much $$ or poor choices for us.

Neither do we find that the Wyndham-RCI Portal is cost effective for us since it takes so many Wyn points and adds the RCI exchange fee on top of that.

We supplement our owned stays with weeks deposited in Platinum Interchange, DAE, or SFX, and use their bonus weeks to advantage and therefore pro=rate our MF to 1/2 or 1/3

Thank you TUG! Saved $20k with RCI

ace2000

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