Orange Lake conversion to points

[long post-- any help is greatly appreciated]

I just visited Orange Lake and got "educated" on Global Access.

They want $1995 to convert my week into 100,000 Global Access points (which they claim is 50,000 RCI points). Since this isnt enough points to come back during the peak time, they were more than willing to sell me an upgrade ( anywhere from 12K to 16K) to get around 177,000 G.A. points.

They also claim that since most places are moving to points, week exchanges will become non-existant and therefore I really "should/must" convert to points to have any flexibility in travel.

My first question is... how can I anlayze this this deal ?. (i.e. I've seen metrics like cost per/point for Maint. Fees, but I dont understand how to apply it here).


Next, After checking the RCI points it looks like I need 57,500 points to return in peak(assuming I go back to Orange Lake). But my understanding is that you can rent points (O.L says 5$ per 1000). So my second question is... Can't I just use my points and rent the rest for 5*7.5= $37.5 ?

Last, buying resale is cheaper than buying from the developer, however O.L. claims they will tack on $5,000 fee to convert (Even if the property is transferred from a family member). I would get more than enough points, but end up with two maintenence fees and taxes (MF around $600 per year per unit).

Can they do that !? and is it worth carrying two MF's ?

There are many posts about OL and their point system. Most everyone says it is a waste of money.

They also claim that since most places are moving to points, week exchanges will become non-existant and therefore I really "should/must" convert to points to have any flexibility in travel.

Click to expand...

It maybe true that many systems are going to points. But if you really want a point based TS, you can buy a point based TS or buy a converted week somewhere for a lot less money. There will be lots of people who don't convert to points and weeks will always be available for you.

Last, buying resale is cheaper than buying from the developer, however O.L. claims they will tack on $5,000 fee to convert (Even if the property is transferred from a family member). I would get more than enough points, but end up with two maintenence fees and taxes (MF around $600 per year per unit).

Click to expand...

Most TS charge only a single fee to convert to RCI points. Some like OL charge a new owner the rip off fee to convert again and some even say that resale buyers are not allowed to convert. Don't play their game.

If you like OL, great! but don't give them another dime if they are going to be so difficult with you. DON'T CONVERT!

TUG4ME said:

They want $1995 to convert my week into 100,000 Global Access points (which they claim is 50,000 RCI points). Since this isnt enough points to come back during the peak time, they were more than willing to sell me an upgrade ( anywhere from 12K to 16K) to get around 177,000 G.A. points.

Click to expand...

Please tell me that your current week isn't peak time and they're NOT trying to charge you extra over the conversion fee to simply get back what you had already.

I'm no expert but if you have a peak week now why in the world would you pay an exchange fee and an upgrade fee to use what you already have?

Even if your week is not a peak week and you use it, then why convert? Continue using it like you do now. Not much chance of weeks exchanges going away anytime soon. It's like people who bought high def TV's several years ago when they were REALLY expensive because the salesman told them "soon stations won't broadcast standard definition anymore". Here it is years later and standard def is still around and HDTV's are really cheap.

My first question is... how can I anlayze this this deal ?. (i.e. I've seen metrics like cost per/point for Maint. Fees, but I dont understand how to apply it here).

Next, After checking the RCI points it looks like I need 57,500 points to return in peak(assuming I go back to Orange Lake). But my understanding is that you can rent points (O.L says 5$ per 1000). So my second question is... Can't I just use my points and rent the rest for 5*7.5= $37.5 ?

Click to expand...

RCI rents points for $0.02 per point or $20 per 1000. Not sure where the $5 per 1000 comes from unless that's GA points.

To analyze it, consider this, you get 50,000 RCI points for $1,995. That's about 4 cents per point not including what you orginally paid for the week. I bought 75,000 for $1,200 or 1.6 cents per point plus closing. Much cheaper when you consider what you paid for your week.

My MFs are $770 (Florida ) or 1.02 cents per point ... your's would amount to 1.2 cents per point.

Others have done MUCH better than I did, but I'm happy.

My advice is go buy RCI points resale if that's what you really want and hang on to your OL week and use it the same way you do now, or use Points for Deposit and use it for more points on top of what you go buy.

Thanks BKnTsDad, That helps quite a bit.

To answer your question... My week is in Red time, but all weeks are Red at O.L (which is how they sold it when I bought it). The premise was that buy cheap week (since all were red) and pay the exchange fee (which has been working).

The problem is that in the points system all the RED weeks (e.g. my week 50) doesnt map into a peak time, therefore less points. So eventhough I used to come back in the summer, no problem it will now cost me extra to rent points (and whatever other exchange fees that still apply).

The reason I thought I had to change was the threat that week exchanges are dwindling and therefore (they claimed) would only be able to come back in week 50 in the near future. (Bill4728 made me feel a litter better with his comments)

It may be that they're convincing a lot of OL owners to convert which may cut into inventory a bit if you're trying to exchange back into OL and only OL. If you've never had a problem getting a summer week with a week 50 I wouldn't see why it would be a problem down the road unless a whole lot of non-peak owners convert and upgrade. Consider though, they have to convince an extremely large number of owners to convert at $1,995 a pop plus the upgrade fee for those who don't currently own peak time. Doesn't seem likely. Heck it may actually help you if other non-peak owners convert but don't buy enough points to get into summer. They've taken themselves out of contention for the summer weeks by not having enough points thus making your chances of swapping your week for a summer week even better.

Buy an inexpensive week on eBay or any other site and trade into Orange Lake for much less. MF for our Colorado summer weeks are $440, so we can exchange our two bedroom, sleeps 8 privately, for a three bedroom very easily, at peak season. $440+$164 is less than MF and taxes at Orange Lake. If you keep the week you have, you don't have to worry about 1-in-4 echange rules, either.

I have seen dozens of resorts in Orlando all summer long with a blue week, so I don't think buying Orange Lake points is a good idea. I am all about doing the same thing cheaper. You can always rent out your Orange Lake week for cash on Redweek, or www.myresortnetwork.com, or Craig's List. Recover your fees and then some. Then buy a cheap week and trade into your favorite resort, Orange Lake. You can always try Hilton, too, and Summer Bay, Vacation Village at Parkway, Cypress Pointe, etc. There are some really great resorts in Orlando that you are missing by always staying at Orange Lake.

I have had a look at the GA points and I would imagine that for new owners not in any system its looks good.

HOWEVER

As a member for 13 years now at OLCC I feel ripped off and very annoyed at this system!

We own two weeks in a 3 bed villa at OLCC. We have had to be a member of RCI as that is the only way you could carry out an internal exchange as OLCC did not do so. When they announced GA points I thought this would be a better way. Looks like I was wrong.

When the list came out of points per apartment per week, it turns out that in reality, GA Points has re introduced White, Blue and red times at a resort that was all red.
My weeks are worth 133,000 GA points each, but to use them I can only go to my own 3 bed or in another 3 bed in North Village, West Village or east village in weeks 1-4, 18-19, 35-39 or 48-50
At all other times including my own villa, we either have to downgrade to a 2 bed or even a 1 bed or buy more timeshare.

We bought a 3 bed specifically for space, we do not live in the USA so are not interested in short breaks. We specifically bought it for two weeks vacation a year.

Now, to even exchange into the new River island units in our time slot, the disfference is 36,000 points per week, rising up to 174,000 EXTRA points per week.

When speaking to the GA person, after telling me how I could get lots of holidays etc etc, and she admitting that we would have to buy more poits as this was the figure GA reckoned our unit was worth plus still RCI membership, she said that to get extra points to enable us to go even around our current time period (i.e. into "blue" weeks) we would have to buy two more weeks of tiemshare at a further £8,000!!

They also forget to tell you that its extra maintenance fees of ANOTHER £1,100 per year.

So, to get any sort of flexibility near what we have as a weeks owner, we would
a) have to spend a furtherv £8,0000 minimum
b) Maintenace fees each year of $2,600

For the maintenace fees alone, you can rent a decent four bed villa wityh pool, let alone a nice hotel for two weeks!

You cannot join RCI points direct from being a weeks member due to the agreement with the resellers RCI have, they can only point you in the direction of resellers like GA who want more money to convert you.

To me its a rip off and a downgrade from what we have currently, so we will not be joining in thank you very much. We will continue as weeks owners and exchange direct through RCI.

It has coloured our view of OLCC VERY badly, and I have to say they are now even more expensive than say, Disney vacation Cub membership!

"...My week is in Red time, but all weeks are Red at O.L (which is how they sold it when I bought it). The premise was that buy cheap week (since all were red) and pay the exchange fee..."

"...When the list came out of points per apartment per week, it turns out that in reality, GA Points has re introduced White, Blue and red times at a resort that was all red."

(Emphasis added to the above quotes.)

Someone needs to say something about this; I guess I have the honors.

The color scheme goes back to the early days of timesharing. Perhaps they had some purpose originally, but as timesharing evolved, the only thing that colors really do is help timeshare developers sell weak trading power weeks to the unsuspecting. (You can trade red for red. Buy this cheap red and trade it something better.) The truth is that colors play no role - none - in determining the trading power (that is, the real worth) of a unit.

As best as I can tell the Weeks system is going to be around a long time. As long as it is, you can use it to trade up. But RCI seems to be tightening the screws on owners ability to do that so the size of the uptrades might be getting smaller and smaller. Regardless, don't go under the illusion that OLCC is suddenly changing the value of their units. The underlying value of the units (their trading power) never was attached to the color of the units.

That having been said, personally, in response to the OP's original inquiry, I would follow the advise of others and do nothing for the time being. Take your time and you will be in a much better position to assess your options as the market evolves.

TUG4ME said:

[long post-- any help is greatly appreciated]

I just visited Orange Lake and got "educated" on Global Access.

They want $1995 to convert my week into 100,000 Global Access points (which they claim is 50,000 RCI points). Since this isnt enough points to come back during the peak time, they were more than willing to sell me an upgrade ( anywhere from 12K to 16K) to get around 177,000 G.A. points.

They also claim that since most places are moving to points, week exchanges will become non-existant and therefore I really "should/must" convert to points to have any flexibility in travel.

My first question is... how can I anlayze this this deal ?. (i.e. I've seen metrics like cost per/point for Maint. Fees, but I dont understand how to apply it here).


Next, After checking the RCI points it looks like I need 57,500 points to return in peak(assuming I go back to Orange Lake). But my understanding is that you can rent points (O.L says 5$ per 1000). So my second question is... Can't I just use my points and rent the rest for 5*7.5= $37.5 ?

Last, buying resale is cheaper than buying from the developer, however O.L. claims they will tack on $5,000 fee to convert (Even if the property is transferred from a family member). I would get more than enough points, but end up with two maintenence fees and taxes (MF around $600 per year per unit).

Can they do that !? and is it worth carrying two MF's ?

Click to expand...

Was this guy a farmer? From the amount of Bullspit he was throwing, I would have thought it. There are a ton of resorts that are not even into the RCI points and just as many who aren't even associated with the big chain resorts. For the salesperson to predict the demise of all weeks based timeshares is just plain crap.

As far as RCI points go, I have seen multiple Sheraton 60000+ points packages on EBAY going for their conversion fee or less. They have a number of resorts around the country and in Orlando although not really sure of + and - of Starwood. We stayed at the Sheraton Vistana this year and thought it comparible to if not better than the Marriot Cypress Harbor.

Seeing as Orlando is pretty easy to trade into and I don't think OL has many resorts in its points program as of yet, I would look into buying an RCI points package resale and save yourself some money.

Bill