Shell/Wyndham travel discounts and other sales claims

We attended a Shell timeshare presentation today (5/15/16) at Vino Bella in Napa, CA. We were treated very well and other than the price we were interested. There were a number of aspects that seemed very attractive. I would love to get some feedback from those who have used this system to validate what we were told.

1) The Wyndham connection provides travel services at dramatic discounts. We were quoted prices of $159 per week for rental cars, $700 round trip airline tickets to South Africa and $900 one week cruises for two ($1300 Alaska cruises for two (I think two weeks). The idea was that buying into Shell and Wyndham would save us enough money to pay for the Shell points over say 5 years. Are these discounts real or was this just another sales exaggeration?
2) We could “deposit” our existing timeshares (not Shell or Wyndham) and get 3X the value if we called and asked for that once a year.
3) Since you can turn points into a MasterCard gift card you can use your points for almost anything such as golf tee times, airlines, rental cars, etc. Is this true and is this a good deal?

I think we may own enough timeshare weeks in resorts/locations we find desirable. We would love to add the flexibility that appears to be available through Wyndham. If the travel discount information is bogus then we would probably pass on the whole idea.

There are no good reasons to pay developer price for Shell. I know Vino Bello is a beautiful resort, but some of the "resorts" Shell has in the system are more like hotels and have limited amenities.

The value you get for your points is NOT GOOD and never believe what a salesperson tells you. How many people walk out of a sales presentation and wish they could have recorded everything said, because they wish they hadn't bought but heard only lies to make them sign on the dotted line.

$159 for a car rental? Total price? What city, what dates? I doubt it. I have never gotten any discount better than Costco.

We also just went on a Shell Presentation less than two weeks ago. The guy was a liar, simply put. He talked up the Club Wyndham credit card and said we would get $3,800 per year toward our maintenance fees for a $5K per month spend. Then he backtracked when I wanted to see the terms of the credit card on paper. He wouldn't show the terms to me.

Don't try to sell me a credit card based on some lies as to the number of points I will get per $1.00 spent, if in fact you are making it up. I was disgusted. He told us 10X points for our maintenance fees and other MF's we pay, and it was so not true. He said 2X in the end and still wouldn't show me the terms of the credit card. What a phony.

stodgman said:

We attended a Shell timeshare presentation today (5/15/16) at Vino Bella in Napa, CA. We were treated very well and other than the price we were interested. There were a number of aspects that seemed very attractive. I would love to get some feedback from those who have used this system to validate what we were told.

1)The Wyndham connection provides travel services at dramatic discounts. We were quoted prices of $159 per week for rental cars, $700 round trip airline tickets to South Africa and $900 one week cruises for two ($1300 Alaska cruises for two (I think two weeks). The idea was that buying into Shell and Wyndham would save us enough money to pay for the Shell points over say 5 years. Are these discounts real or was this just another sales exaggeration?
2)We could “deposit” our existing timeshares (not Shell or Wyndham) and get 3X the value if we called and asked for that once a year.
3)Since you can turn points into a MasterCard gift card you can use your points for almost anything such as golf tee times, airlines, rental cars, etc. Is this true and is this a good deal?

I think we may own enough timeshare weeks in resorts/locations we find desirable. We would love to add the flexibility that appears to be available through Wyndham. If the travel discount information is bogus then we would probably pass on the whole idea.

Click to expand...

Never buy any timeshare for anything but to use it to go where you want to go. If perks happen, great, if not, you have no unfounded expectations.

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rickandcindy23 said:

We also just went on a Shell Presentation less than two weeks ago. The guy was a liar, simply put. He talked up the Club Wyndham credit card and said we would get $3,800 per year toward our maintenance fees for a $5K per month spend. Then he backtracked when I wanted to see the terms of the credit card on paper. He wouldn't show the terms to me.

Don't try to sell me a credit card based on some lies as to the number of points I will get per $1.00 spent, if in fact you are making it up. I was disgusted. He told us 10X points for our maintenance fees and other MF's we pay, and it was so not true. He said 2X in the end and still wouldn't show me the terms of the credit card. What a phony.

Click to expand...

It begs the question why would you go to these. Before the presentation did you think you were going to get an honest salesman?

You can get Shell points free in the Bargain Deals forum, no sales lies will beat free.


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Buying from the developer does give you more benefits than resale, but the value of the benefits are not worth the cost.

I own Shell and went to an update at Vino Bello a few months ago. They were adamant that Shell and Interval (the exchange company) weren't good enough and I needed to trade in my Shell points for Wyndham points. Their math showed that if I did that, I'd pay the same as paying 5 years of my annual dues to Shell. Well, too bad for them that I can do math even better than they can. They left out the annual dues that I would pay for Wyndham over the 5 years and all the additional fees they charge for reservations.

Sales pitches and owner updates are always slanted to whatever they think will get you to buy. If they had a great product at a great deal, they could just list the price and the benefits and people would buy them. They wouldn't need to manipulate and change the pitch depending on what you already own.

am1 said:

It begs the question why would you go to these. Before the presentation did you think you were going to get an honest salesman?

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Not that I am obligated to answer your question, but with rumors flying that Shell owners are being converted into Wyndham points, and with the concierge promising I wouldn't hear the same old garbage, we went to see what was new. Nothing was new. Same old line, same old garbage. I might consider converting my huge number of points to Wyndham, if they did it for a low price. I would pay up to $20K, if I could get Platinum. I could be talked into it.

Travel Discounts and MasterCard

We appreciate the replies so far. There was no way we were going to buy retail. We knew we could get Shell points for next to nothing if we spent 5 minutes shopping. My real question was would I want Shell points if they were free. So far, nobody has jumped in to rave about the travel discounts nor the MasterCard idea so I will assume the initial answer is that they are not a "must have" feature. There were a lot of Shell owners in the room. Once they separated us it seems they are telling the Shell owners that their best path is to upgrade to Wyndham points. I probably want nothing to do with Shell points if that is the case.

stodgman said:

We appreciate the replies so far. There was no way we were going to buy retail. We knew we could get Shell points for next to nothing if we spent 5 minutes shopping. My real question was would I want Shell points if they were free. So far, nobody has jumped in to rave about the travel discounts nor the MasterCard idea so I will assume the initial answer is that they are not a "must have" feature. There were a lot of Shell owners in the room. Once they separated us it seems they are telling the Shell owners that their best path is to upgrade to Wyndham points. I probably want nothing to do with Shell points if that is the case.

Click to expand...

The only reason to own Shell is if you want to stay in their timeshares. So, you'd only want to own the club that has the resorts that you will use. This is actually the case with all timeshares. There are no add on benefits other than staying in timeshares that are worthwhile.

Shell ownerships are free, but they do have higher than normal annual fees. The trade power in Interval was fantastic, but Interval recently added a top level to their timeshares called Elite and now it costs more Shell points to trade into those. It's probably a better bargain now to book a Shell week and deposit it to SFX if you want a trade, unless you don't want an Elite resort at high time.

Since Wyndham bought Shell, they removed things like daily housekeeping and continental breakfast. That's not too big a deal to me, as Shell was obviously overextended when they sold out to Wyndham. What annoys me about having Wyndham as an owner is that they don't leave people on vacation alone. They constantly push for sales pitches and then say that Shell isn't a good enough product. That is not true. Shell is a good product if you want to stay at their properties.

Shell properties are really nice. We stayed at Suites at Fisherman's Wharf and enjoyed it more than any other we have stayed. You cannot beat the location! Right on Hyde St., on the cable car line, and just two blocks from Fisherman's Wharf and some of the best restaurants in San Francisco. We enjoyed our lunches at every restaurant, and lunch is just cheaper.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom with 1 bathroom, and I think it would be good for a family with kids. Supposedly sleeps 6, but one bathroom is way too limited for two couples. If we had our adult kids with us, we would definitely want them to have their own unit.

Shell points are a bargain for staying in San Francisco. For example, a 1 bedroom at Suites at Fisherman's Wharf for 10/23-10/28, Sun-Fri, my total cost is $572. 2,600 points. My Shell West Club maintenance fees are now .22 per point. There were no additional charges at check-out.

That is a true bargain for San Francisco, and we had almost a full kitchen, sans conventional oven. The unit had a two-burner stove, a dishwasher, a full-sized refrigerator and plenty of cabinets. We watched the cable car from our living room. It was a very special trip. We had light suppers in the unit and breakfasts, too. We walked to Trader Joe's for groceries.

We will always stay there, and because of that trip, I am not selling every Shell point we own. I am keeping a few for this location and for Peacock Suites, which I love, even though most people think Dolphin's Cove is superior for Anaheim. Peacock Suites is a bit fancier for unit quality, but the amenities at Dolphin's Cove are better, in my opinion.