New limits to RCI Points usage just announced

I just got the following message regarding RCI Points partners. It looks like they are severely limiting the amount of points you can use for Points partners. I guess they are having a hard time renting out units.

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Effective December 10, 2008, RCI® will be updating the RCI Points Partner Program. The updated program will reflect the feedback we have received from RCI Subscribing Members over the course of the year. Some of the value-added improvements to the RCI Points Partner Program include:

More Value for Your Points –
Get more bang for your buck every time you exchange your Points for discounts!

More Products and Services –
Major Orlando theme park tickets are back! Plus, book airfare, rent a car, or book a hotel anywhere in the world where RCI Points Partner products are available!*

More Flexibility to Choose Your Discount Level –
Fewer restrictions to the tiers within the RCI Points Partner Discount Grid!

In addition, we have made another important change to the program concerning the number of Points you can use per calendar year. You can now use up to (a) 33% of your annual Points allotment, or (b) 25,000 Points, whichever is greater. An upper limit of 250,000 Points per calendar year applies.

Here at RCI, we value your membership and we are committed to ensuring your vacation exchange experience is the best around. As we roll into 2009, we will strive to make this experience even better by bringing the RCI Points Partner Program online later in the year!

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Your RCI Points team

RCI email

I too received the RCI email about Points Partners and came immediately to TUG for help understanding it.


I belong to points, but have never used them with a Points Partner. I have looked into using points for a car rental, but was able to get a better price from the rental company website. Also, priced a cruise with points, but saw reasonable cash prices elsewhere-never did do a cruise though.

So I have a feeling this isn't a good announcement from RCI.

Wondering if there was any kind of limit before this announcement?

I do know that RCI is affiliating with DVC Jan. 1, 2009. Hopefully, this is a good thing.

To me, this is clearly targeting owners who use PFD to get really big point totals to use RCI Points for airlines and such products. With the new limits, you will only be able to use PFD for RCI Points resorts.

What really ticks me off about RCI is that they always try to spin a negative into a positive. I'd be happier if they just told us the bad news and left it at that.

Rentals way down

From what I've heard RCI rentals are WAY down as you surmized. Limiting the need to raise cash via rentals makes good sense under these circumstances. We never use Points Partners in any case as our points are always used up for great vacations.

BocaBum99 said:

What really ticks me off about RCI is that they always try to spin a negative into a positive. I'd be happier if they just told us the bad news and left it at that.

Click to expand...

How can you say such a thing? After all, the announcement makes it very clear that these changes are "value -added improvements"....

It's just one more reason why a person should buy a timeshare that they can get personal usage out of when all else fails.......and all else will eventually fail. Of course, even this philosophy has it's limitations when what was a good resort get managed into the ground.

BocaBum99 said:

To me, this is clearly targeting owners who use PFD to get really big point totals to use RCI Points for airlines and such products. With the new limits, you will only be able to use PFD for RCI Points resorts.

What really ticks me off about RCI is that they always try to spin a negative into a positive. I'd be happier if they just told us the bad news and left it at that.

Click to expand...

What does the remark I bolded in Blue mean? What's a PFD? Thanks

icydog said:

What does the remark I bolded in Blue mean? What's a PFD? Thanks

Click to expand...

Points For Deposit -- an RCI Points feature allowing RCI Points members to deposit RCI Weeks-affiliated resorts into their account for "one-time-use" points.

The part I really liked was " The updated program will reflect the feedback we have received from RCI Subscribing Members over the course of the year. " So does that mean I asked for this ??? NOT......

I rarely use the option, but do like having it for the rare time when I want to use it. I am in the process of buying two new weeks and found myself with too many points that had to be used by Aug 2009. So I just used a bunch to book airfare for my spring Caribbean trip. Not the best value, but in light of the fact I would not be able to use then up with exchanges by the expiration date, it was a good move for me. I now have about 35000 left to use by 8/09 and was going to use it on a car rental for the same spring trip.

So when is the year?? Is it the same as your usage year or is it calendar?? Does the annual points tie only to your actual points weeks or does it include PFD? So many questions and no one to answer.

So glad to know this is something we all wanted.

B.S.

dougp26364 said:

It's just one more reason why a person should buy a timeshare that they can get personal usage out of when all else fails.......and all else will eventually fail. Of course, even this philosophy has it's limitations when what was a good resort get managed into the ground.

Click to expand...

I disagree with this philosophy. My philosophy is to get 100% of your value out of a timeshare in one year. Once that happens, eveything else is gravy and you just sell it for whatever you can get.

One example, buy 4 units at a resort you like. Make sure you believe you can sell one for doubled the cost of any of them and rent one for double the MF. Sell two of them to cover your capital cost. Now, since your capital cost is zero, then rent one to cover the maintenance fees for both. Now, you have one unit left that you use for free or for pure profit. And, you have equity equal to whatever you can sell both for later.

Give how cheap timeshares are today, this is extremely easy to do.

Another example. Buy a unit at the market value minus closing costs, but get this years usage included with the deal. Immediately sell the unit, but keep this year's usage. You get a free week.

Many, many more ways to capitalize on almost free timeshares.

Changes in RCI Point Partners (merged with other thread)

Did anyone else receive this e-mail...

Effective December 10, 2008, RCI® will be updating the RCI Points Partner Program. The updated program will reflect the feedback we have received from RCI Subscribing Members over the course of the year. Some of the value-added improvements to the RCI Points Partner Program include:

More Value for Your Points –
Get more bang for your buck every time you exchange your Points for discounts!

More Products and Services –
Major Orlando theme park tickets are back! Plus, book airfare, rent a car, or book a hotel anywhere in the world where RCI Points Partner products are available!*

More Flexibility to Choose Your Discount Level –
Fewer restrictions to the tiers within the RCI Points Partner Discount Grid!

In addition, we have made another important change to the program concerning the number of Points you can use per calendar year. You can now use up to (a) 33% of your annual Points allotment, or (b) 25,000 Points, whichever is greater. An upper limit of 250,000 Points per calendar year applies.

Here at RCI, we value your membership and we are committed to ensuring your vacation exchange experience is the best around. As we roll into 2009, we will strive to make this experience even better by bringing the RCI Points Partner Program online later in the year!

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Your RCI Points team

I looks like the max limit in points will hurt those of us who use PFD to purchase plane tix....as you are now only allowed 33% of your annual points allotment for points partners transactions (I assume that this is the point allotment for your points resorts, excluding PFD)

Already being discussed in the Exchanging Board. <LINK>

BocaBum99 said:

To me, this is clearly targeting owners who use PFD to get really big point totals to use RCI Points for airlines and such products. With the new limits, you will only be able to use PFD for RCI Points resorts.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I thought when I read this, too -- this is designed to stop people from depositing low-cost weeks into Points-for-deposit and then using the Points for airfare and such. I'm wondering if this rule change will have a noticeable impact on the price of contracts that allow booking multiple weeks, such as Christmas Mountain Village UDIs -- I'm betting that it will.

BocaBum99 said:

What really ticks me off about RCI is that they always try to spin a negative into a positive. I'd be happier if they just told us the bad news and left it at that.

Click to expand...

Yeah, and as Patty noticed, then they add insult to injury by claiming they are making the changes "in response to customer feedback." Sure, they respond -- by doing the opposite of what their customers ask.

They did bring back the ability to purchase Disney tickets, which I like. However, if you can only use 1/3rd of your annual points a year, that will mean only one ticket for most people, which may make the RCI fees involved rather high on a per-ticket basis -- we will have to see on this.

caribbean said:

...Does the annual points tie only to your actual points weeks or does it include PFD? So many questions and no one to answer.....

Click to expand...

The announcement makes reference to one's "annual points allotment." The "annual points allotment" is a fixed amount based on how many points are in one's actual Points contracts, and does not include Points-for-deposit. So, as Boca mentioned above, this change means that any additional points you get via Points-for-deposit can be used for timeshares only -- if a person has one Points contract worth 21,000 points a year, and also deposits 500,000 points via Points-for-deposit, they would only be able to use 7,000 points a year for Points Partners.

As for the year involved, the simplest thing would be for RCI to define "year" as one's Use Year -- otherwise it could get quite complicated, especially for people (like me) who own EOY RCI Points contracts.

Ah, what a month! We are already only 3 days into December, and already II has lost DVC and RCI Points Partners has been crippled. Well, maybe I can use some of my RCI Points to get a DVC unit!

For those of us who use ff miles, we dread hearing that an airline is going to have ''enhancements'' to its ff program. From long experience, we know that ''enhancements'' is corporate-speak for screwing the customer.

Moving the goal posts is a problem that is endemic to a points system. It is not the first time it has happened in the RCI Points ponzi scheme and is unlikely to be the last.

As someone who has been a Weeks member (and with one more deposit to exchange before I bail out of RCI due to the rental scam), I hope that RCI shuts down Points Partners completely so that hopefully it will decrease the rentals.

BocaBum99 said:

To me, this is clearly targeting owners who use PFD to get really big point totals to use RCI Points for airlines and such products. With the new limits, you will only be able to use PFD for RCI Points resorts.

What really ticks me off about RCI is that they always try to spin a negative into a positive. I'd be happier if they just told us the bad news and left it at that.

Click to expand...

JudyS said:

That's exactly what I thought when I read this, too -- this is designed to stop people from depositing low-cost weeks into Points-for-deposit and then using the Points for airfare and such. I'm wondering if this rule change will have a noticeable impact on the price of contracts that allow booking multiple weeks, such as Christmas Mountain Village UDIs -- I'm betting that it will.

Click to expand...

CMV udis had plenty of value before PFD, so I think it will hold its own.

PFD was just an extra perk - those who owned before it, maximized their value and will go back to using CMV udis however they did before PFD showed up. Those that bought because of the PFD feature will sell but CMV UDIs won't be hurt any more than any other timeshare in this market. There are almost always buyers for those udis.

Darn. I'm oversubscribed with exchanges in 2009 and 2010, so figured I'd just use my RCI points for plane fares...

Does this rule apply to travel after Dec. 10 or to booking after Dec. 10? I am hoping I can book a plane flight for next year with the rest of my 2009 points before the 10th.

If you buy your tickets by the 10th you can travel through Oct. 28, '09. (I think that was the date they gave me) I'm thinking there could be some RCI points resales available soon. Anyone want to buy one:annoyed:

I was reluctant to buy RCI Points due to the company's history of changing the ground rules at will. And whenever they make changes, it rarely, if ever, benefits the members, no matter what spin they try to put on it.

That's why I have only purchased RCI Points that have been converted from a fixed week I would love to use every year, if unable to reserve something more acceptable. I passed on many Points packages with much lower maintenance fees knowing that if the Points scheme deteriorated, I could just drop out of RCI Points and revert to owning weeks I can use, rent, and/or exchange. The three weeks/Points I bought are 2 bedroom lock-off units, back-to-back, at the same resort. It's dual affiliated (RCI and I.I) and also a VRI managed resort with internal exchange privileges, making me not dependant upon RCI for my future vacation needs.

RCI's recent "enhancements" (to their bottom line, not mine) re-affirm the value of my "conservative" approach to Points ownership.

If RCI continues to water down the benefits of their Points program, more and more people who own valuable "underlying" weeks may drop out of the program, causing the inventory of prime weeks to dwindle.

That's the approach I took when I bought my two RCI Points Timeshares

Jennie said:

I was reluctant to buy RCI Points due to the company's history of changing the ground rules at will. And whenever they make changes, it rarely, if ever, benefits the members, no matter what spin they try to put on it.

That's why I have only purchased RCI Points that have been converted from a fixed week I would love to use every year, if unable to reserve something more acceptable. I passed on many Points packages with much lower maintenance fees knowing that if the Points scheme deteriorated, I could just drop out of RCI Points and revert to owning weeks I can use, rent, and/or exchange. The three weeks/Points I bought are 2 bedroom lock-off units, back-to-back, at the same resort. It's dual affiliated (RCI and I.I) and also a VRI managed resort with internal exchange privileges, making me not dependant upon RCI for my future vacation needs.

RCI's recent "enhancements" (to their bottom line, not mine) re-affirm the value of my "conservative" approach to Points ownership.

If RCI continues to water down the benefits of their Points program, more and more people who own valuable "underlying" weeks may drop out of the program, causing the inventory of prime weeks to dwindle.

Click to expand...

Many times I've read in the past that the main focus has been to purchase RCI Points with low cost to point ratio and low maintenance fee to point ratio with not much concern about the underlying week. I kept the cost ratios in mind when purchasing my two Points timeshares, but also made sure they were weeks I could and would use and weeks that would have good trade value should RCI Points no longer have value for me.

Jennie said:

I was reluctant to buy RCI Points due to the company's history of changing the ground rules at will. And whenever they make changes, it rarely, if ever, benefits the members, no matter what spin they try to put on it.

That's why I have only purchased RCI Points that have been converted from a fixed week I would love to use every year, if unable to reserve something more acceptable. I passed on many Points packages with much lower maintenance fees knowing that if the Points scheme deteriorated, I could just drop out of RCI Points and revert to owning weeks I can use, rent, and/or exchange. The three weeks/Points I bought are 2 bedroom lock-off units, back-to-back, at the same resort. It's dual affiliated (RCI and I.I) and also a VRI managed resort with internal exchange privileges, making me not dependant upon RCI for my future vacation needs.

RCI's recent "enhancements" (to their bottom line, not mine) re-affirm the value of my "conservative" approach to Points ownership.

If RCI continues to water down the benefits of their Points program, more and more people who own valuable "underlying" weeks may drop out of the program, causing the inventory of prime weeks to dwindle.

Click to expand...

This is a great strategy for RCI Points.

Thanks to the Tuggers who reported this. I haven't received an email. I was on the phone to RCI points partners yesterday morning before I read the posts, and they didn't breathe a word about the rules change. Not that I'm surprised.

So, last night, I was on the phone with RCI points partners, burning through 500K+ points on airfare to Hawaii, a car rental for that trip, and a car rental for an upcoming Orlando trip. I'm trying to figure out how to burn another 160K+ points by next week. This will deplete all of my 2009 and 2010 points.

I've just been a points member for a year. I put 8 off-season weeks into the points program. They don't generate much rental income. The 8 off season weeks came as part of my package of 8 high season Smugglers Notch weeks. Maybe I'll just extract most of the off season weeks from the points program when my membership runs out in 2010 and rent them out for cheap. Or I can visit Smuggs in the off season. I'm glad I've followed the same strategy as Jennie and Egret. :whoopie:

Geesh, go figure, I get my points package on Dec 1 (47K/yr) and was planning on using 3/4 for airfare and such, only keeping ~two for 8,500 last minute point exchanges into weeks. I have no immediate use for air though, except for Nov 7 which of course is right after that deadline too. This sucks.

Poor communication

I called RCI today and booked 3 plane flights to use up my 2009 points and some of my 2010 points. But, neither the RCI rep nor the points partner rep knew about the upcoming 33% limit. The RCI rep said, "I just got trained on Monday." The points partner rep knew about changes to the structure of the program, but not about the limit.

Also, I never received the e-mail, so I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't been reading TUG.

Seems like RCI is not handling the communication of this new policy very well. I would have been very upset if I learned about it when trying to book next year.

This is a crazy change for RCI to make and I've sent just such a message upon receipt of the email.

I've also been on the phone with the VC's trying to get some implementation details as it relates to the 2008 calender year. Having already used 110,000 points for airline reservations within 2008, I wondered if those points would be applied to the limit since they where used before the upcoming rule change. No answer.

I had plans to use points for expensive airfare and decided to use another 230,000 points today (before the new limits to be applied December 10th are imposed) to be on the safe side.

I agree with other posters who have stated this hurts the owners of large points accounts who have plans to take large discounts like the 230,000 points for a $2000 discount.

The new discount rates taking effect Dec 10th is better.

Discount/Points
$120/12500
$180/20000
$235/25000
$340/35000
$440/45000
$540/55000
$660/70000
$870/90000
$1100/115000
$1350/145000
$1700/170000
$2000/200000

However, RCI continues to be cruel to the owners with few points to redeem, offering the lowest value ratio for these point totals (especially when you factor in the influence of the $49 transaction fee for each airfare). Again, a flat penny per point discount towards Points Partner purchases would be a much simpler system to implement and would be fair to members of all levels of ownership.

While I, like others, see the need to constantly re-evaluate our timeshare portfolios, this change to impose a limit on the Points Partner usage of RCI points will cause me to divest some RCI points inventory. It was exactly the flexibility for unlimited use of points partner airfare that encouraged me to acquire a large inventory of points base on desired underlying weeks that I would will one day use for the accomondations......but actual use of these weeks is still several years off.

I think RCI is being short sighted to place these limits and by effect reduce the value of RCI Points. They should be making changes that trumpet the value and flexibility of RCI Points so that they can convince more customers to convert.

Well spoken, and agreed. I'd be surprised if the resorts are happy about this. They keep pushing points to resorts and the resorts just want to see their MF's paid, now it becomes harder to use those points and this really decreases the value of those points. Frankly, I find it tough to use points otherwise unless you just want to blow them on bad deals. I like the 8,500 point/weeks for last minute travel, and maybe one "expensive" points trip per year. Otherwise I'm using my weeks to get my best trades.