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Am I really saying this, I am...I will probably keep my RCI Account

Panina

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It’s no secret my preference has been II over RCI. In the past, I haven’t been able to find much good to say about my RCI experiences.

I was suppose to go to an all inclusive up in Safety Harbor, FL. With Red Tide getting worse in the surroundings area I didn’t want to risk high exposure to red tide so I cancelled a few days ago.

With this being Thanksgiving week I didn’t expect to find anything good in south Florida and thought I would be going home early but I did at The Surf Club at Marco Island for only 13 Tpu’s.

So I am now rethinking renewing my RCI account and keeping some tpu’s in it for reduced tpu last minute trades. It is the best thing RCI offers it’s members and I must admit no one else offers this.
 

mdurette

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I’m with you. II all the way - but I keep my rci account for extra vacations and the handful of TPUs I have left. So far that one deposit I have left has given me to last minute TPU exchanges and I’m sure I will get one more.
 

Rhiannon35

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It’s no secret my preference has been II over RCI. In the past, I haven’t been able to find much good to say about my RCI experiences.

I was suppose to go to an all inclusive up in Safety Harbor, FL. With Red Tide getting worse in the surroundings area I didn’t want to risk high exposure to red tide so I cancelled a few days ago.

With this being Thanksgiving week I didn’t expect to find anything good in south Florida and thought I would be going home early but I did at The Surf Club at Marco Island for only 13 Tpu’s.

So I am now rethinking renewing my RCI account and keeping some tpu’s in it for reduced tpu last minute trades. It is the best thing RCI offers it’s members and I must admit no one else offers this.

I'm fairly new to the timeshare world and have read a lot of your posts, Panina, which have been helpful in helping me to decide if I want to use RCI or II. I have a late July week at Winner's Circle in Solana Beach, Calif., which I've been told is a great week. 2019 will be the first year we exchange.
Here's why I'm leaning to RCI instead of II, and perhaps you can provide some feedback: I have a 1 BR, 2 BTH unit. No matter where I want to go or when, it's my understanding to get a 2 BR with II, I'll have to pay an upgrade fee, and an even bigger fee if I want a 3 BR. However, with RCI, I'm told I'll get about 40 TPUs because of the desirability of the season. That will be more than enough to get a 2BR or 3 BR in Orlando at the end of Aug., low season, which is what I'd want to exchange for. In fact, on another thread I started, I was told I could get a nice 3 BR at Orange Lake for 26 TPUs.
And, I might even have enough TPUs left to get a last-minute deal, like you or the other poster did. I didn't even know about the last-minute trades until I read your post, but this seems to be another reason for me to choose RCI.
 

Panina

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I'm fairly new to the timeshare world and have read a lot of your posts, Panina, which have been helpful in helping me to decide if I want to use RCI or II. I have a late July week at Winner's Circle in Solana Beach, Calif., which I've been told is a great week. 2019 will be the first year we exchange.
Here's why I'm leaning to RCI instead of II, and perhaps you can provide some feedback: I have a 1 BR, 2 BTH unit. No matter where I want to go or when, it's my understanding to get a 2 BR with II, I'll have to pay an upgrade fee, and an even bigger fee if I want a 3 BR. However, with RCI, I'm told I'll get about 40 TPUs because of the desirability of the season. That will be more than enough to get a 2BR or 3 BR in Orlando at the end of Aug., low season, which is what I'd want to exchange for. In fact, on another thread I started, I was told I could get a nice 3 BR at Orange Lake for 26 TPUs.
And, I might even have enough TPUs left to get a last-minute deal, like you or the other poster did. I didn't even know about the last-minute trades until I read your post, but this seems to be another reason for me to choose RCI.
Overall with your situation what you are saying is right with an exception. For 40 Tpu’s you can get multiple weeks off season in RCI. So in this situation RCI might work better for you. If you wanted to go somewhere different that is higher in demand it might not work out.

The exception for me is I love the Marriott’s in Orlando. For me it is definitely worth going to these places and paying the extra fee. If you go with interval you must make sure you only request resorts that the smallest units are two bedroom. If the resort has one bedroom you can get matched, you cannot say I don’t want a one bedroom on an ogs. You do have 24 hours to cancel but that becomes a pain. The Marriott Sabal or Marriott Cypress Harbour and others have only two bedrooms, Imperial Palms have three.

It all comes down to personal preference and the scenario of what you want on determining whether RCI or II works better for you.
 

Rhiannon35

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Overall with your situation what you are saying is right with an exception. For 40 Tpu’s you can get multiple weeks off season in RCI. So in this situation RCI might work better for you. If you wanted to go somewhere different that is higher in demand it might not work out.

The exception for me is I love the Marriott’s in Orlando. For me it is definitely worth going to these places and paying the extra fee. If you go with interval you must make sure you only request resorts that the smallest units are two bedroom. If the resort has one bedroom you can get matched, you cannot say I don’t want a one bedroom on an ogs. You do have 24 hours to cancel but that becomes a pain. The Marriott Sabal or Marriott Cypress Harbour and others have only two bedrooms, Imperial Palms have three.

It all comes down to personal preference and the scenario of what you want on determining whether RCI or II works better for you.

Well, multiple off-season weeks would be even better!
Am I understanding correctly that if you have a 1BR you deposit with II, you can request a resort with only 2 BRs and failure to do so means you can get matched to a 1BR? In other words, you can't put in a request for a 2BR but you can put in a request for resorts which only have 2 BRs?
I love Marriotts, too. I have a Marriott and SPG card and usually have enough points for free or low-cost stays combining cash with points. For me, not sure if it would be worth it factoring my AMF, membership fee and exchange fee to bother exchanging into one. I just think II's upgrade fee stinks if you have a 1BR in high season and want a 2BR in low season.
 

missyrcrews

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I have been quite happy with RCI, as you know. We use the last call and extra vacation options quite a bit, because we don't do a ton of trading. It's all based on where/when one travels. We don't need Marriotts, we're not traveling to high demand areas, and RCI has a ton of New England options that work for us.

Do I wish it were cheaper? Of course. But by and large, I've learned to work it to my advantage. I hope that your decision yields some great last-minute trips!
 

Panina

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Well, multiple off-season weeks would be even better!
Am I understanding correctly that if you have a 1BR you deposit with II, you can request a resort with only 2 BRs and failure to do so means you can get matched to a 1BR? In other words, you can't put in a request for a 2BR but you can put in a request for resorts which only have 2 BRs?
I love Marriotts, too. I have a Marriott and SPG card and usually have enough points for free or low-cost stays combining cash with points. For me, not sure if it would be worth it factoring my AMF, membership fee and exchange fee to bother exchanging into one. I just think II's upgrade fee stinks if you have a 1BR in high season and want a 2BR in low season.
Yes you understand interval trading but high season is not the only thing that determines trade value, the rating of the resort does too. If I trade an unrated one bedroom into a highly rated 2 bedroom I am ok with paying the additional fee.

Interval is like for like so members with more desirable weeks/resorts get the same. With Rci, all members can combine multiple weeks so people depositing higher demand weeks/resorts wanting to get the same are competing with others who paid a fee with rci to combine their weeks making it harder for them to get those desirable weeks. I also find that rci many times diminishes your value. For example You deposit a week for 25 tpus. You see a week for the following week that works for you and if you deposited it you would also get 25 tpus but rci wants 29 tpus for the trade and you can't get it.

With your Orlando scenario rci will work and you will get a second week.
 

melissy123

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To Rhiannon35:
I also own at Winners Circle late July week. It used to get about 52 TPU in RCI but then the value kept decreasing. So I deposited the Winners Circle week into II one year and never went back to RCI. The Winners Circle unit has very very good trading value in Interval. I’ve gotten some very nice trades with it. But since you want low demand weeks in Orlando then RCI will probably work best for you. But Interval also has getaways that are decently priced sometimes.
 

SmithOp

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To Rhiannon35:
I also own at Winners Circle late July week. It used to get about 52 TPU in RCI but then the value kept decreasing. So I deposited the Winners Circle week into II one year and never went back to RCI. The Winners Circle unit has very very good trading value in Interval. I’ve gotten some very nice trades with it. But since you want low demand weeks in Orlando then RCI will probably work best for you. But Interval also has getaways that are decently priced sometimes.

Interval also gives you free Accomodation Certificate (AC) weeks when you have a good trader, do you get them? I owned an Orlando Sheraton, sold it but kept the Interval account and still get AC weeks. I’m staying in Sedona, 2br in December, its off season but a great bargain for under $400 after paying the AC and Resort fees.

The Sheraton traded in RCI also but I’m going to let that membership expire in Feb.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 

melissy123

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I get AC weeks sometimes even for depositing my no-name resort in Big Bear. Doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason behind it. Depends on what promotion is running. And then AC weeks just show up randomly.
 

mdurette

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Just adding in that August in Orlando could be very cheap via extra vacations or getaways via rci or II. Check that before you book and use a week or tpus. Sometimes for only a couple hundred more than the exchange fee you can get the unit and save your deposit.
 

Laurie

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I've had a love-hate relationship w/RCI for over 20 years now; it has increasingly been tipping towards the negative over that time. But, still enough reason to warrant keeping - I can often get more than a week out of 1 deposit's worth of TPU's. For instance, we recently returned from an RCI exchange into a lovely Georgetown hotel (with a kitchen AND breakfast included, including 24-hr cappuccino machine in the lobby) in DC, right on cheap transportation route - total TPU's low 20's and not last-minute - it was fabulous! We have been to almost every national park in the US, and on about 15 month-long trips to Europe using RCI mostly, how many trips-of-a-lifetime have we had in one lifetime and I really have to credit RCI for that.

I became an II member a couple of years ago when one of my no-name low-rated ownerships dual-affiliated. I didn't think I'd like it in my circumstance, because like-for-like and week-for-week; but they gave me a 1-year free membership + 1 free trade for depositing, so nothing to lose. I've found some destinations that are difficult to non-existent in RCI which I like, but best thing is eTrade - we're going to Captiva (on your sighting, Panina, thanks again) and this was from that free membership/free exchange deposit! I've bought the eTrade for my other 2 exchanges, that's such a worthwhile feature and I wish RCI had that. II has given me a lot of AC's, haven't used any yet. maybe in the future they'll have value.

Over the years I've gone from about 5 TS ownerships down to 2 - so far it's working to keep one for each exchange company, with the occasional foray over to Platinum Interchange or someone like that. I just wish RCI didn't continue to degrade their offerings, because soon it may not be worth it at all.
 

Rhiannon35

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Yes you understand interval trading but high season is not the only thing that determines trade value, the rating of the resort does too. If I trade an unrated one bedroom into a highly rated 2 bedroom I am ok with paying the additional fee.

Interval is like for like so members with more desirable weeks/resorts get the same. With Rci, all members can combine multiple weeks so people depositing higher demand weeks/resorts wanting to get the same are competing with others who paid a fee with rci to combine their weeks making it harder for them to get those desirable weeks. I also find that rci many times diminishes your value. For example You deposit a week for 25 tpus. You see a week for the following week that works for you and if you deposited it you would also get 25 tpus but rci wants 29 tpus for the trade and you can't get it.

With your Orlando scenario rci will work and you will get a second week.
Thanks for the feedback, and I have read other posters complain about the TPU trick, as well. Your explanation does bring up another question: Re: II, you said resort rating also determines trade value. I was of the understanding that if you have a 1 BR, you can trade into a 1BR for no extra fee. So, would there be a fee to trade into a higher rated 1BR, or would that option just not be available to you in an OGS?
I understand having to pay the upgrade fee for going from 1BR to 2 BR, but how does it work trading 1 BR for 1BR?
 

Rhiannon35

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To Rhiannon35:
I also own at Winners Circle late July week. It used to get about 52 TPU in RCI but then the value kept decreasing. So I deposited the Winners Circle week into II one year and never went back to RCI. The Winners Circle unit has very very good trading value in Interval. I’ve gotten some very nice trades with it. But since you want low demand weeks in Orlando then RCI will probably work best for you. But Interval also has getaways that are decently priced sometimes.

Interval also gives you free Accomodation Certificate (AC) weeks when you have a good trader, do you get them? I owned an Orlando Sheraton, sold it but kept the Interval account and still get AC weeks. I’m staying in Sedona, 2br in December, its off season but a great bargain for under $400 after paying the AC and Resort fees.

The Sheraton traded in RCI also but I’m going to let that membership expire in Feb.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I wasn't aware of the AC -- have no idea if I'd get them or not! I have only owned for two years and have never exchanged (thus the many questions!).
Melissy -- that stinks that the TPUs have gone down so much. I would definitely consider II in the future. I just figured that with such high availability in Orlando low season, it makes less sense to trade like for like and pay an upgrade fee, and more sense to get TPUs that will hopefully be above and beyond what I need for one week. I appreciate you sharing the insight!
 

Rhiannon35

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I've had a love-hate relationship w/RCI for over 20 years now; it has increasingly been tipping towards the negative over that time. But, still enough reason to warrant keeping - I can often get more than a week out of 1 deposit's worth of TPU's. For instance, we recently returned from an RCI exchange into a lovely Georgetown hotel (with a kitchen AND breakfast included, including 24-hr cappuccino machine in the lobby) in DC, right on cheap transportation route - total TPU's low 20's and not last-minute - it was fabulous! We have been to almost every national park in the US, and on about 15 month-long trips to Europe using RCI mostly, how many trips-of-a-lifetime have we had in one lifetime and I really have to credit RCI for that.

I became an II member a couple of years ago when one of my no-name low-rated ownerships dual-affiliated. I didn't think I'd like it in my circumstance, because like-for-like and week-for-week; but they gave me a 1-year free membership + 1 free trade for depositing, so nothing to lose. I've found some destinations that are difficult to non-existent in RCI which I like, but best thing is eTrade - we're going to Captiva (on your sighting, Panina, thanks again) and this was from that free membership/free exchange deposit! I've bought the eTrade for my other 2 exchanges, that's such a worthwhile feature and I wish RCI had that. II has given me a lot of AC's, haven't used any yet. maybe in the future they'll have value.

Over the years I've gone from about 5 TS ownerships down to 2 - so far it's working to keep one for each exchange company, with the occasional foray over to Platinum Interchange or someone like that. I just wish RCI didn't continue to degrade their offerings, because soon it may not be worth it at all.

What is eTrade? And how did you get the free membership/trade? did you ask or did they just offer?
Congrats on the great trips!
 

Panina

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Thanks for the feedback, and I have read other posters complain about the TPU trick, as well. Your explanation does bring up another question: Re: II, you said resort rating also determines trade value. I was of the understanding that if you have a 1 BR, you can trade into a 1BR for no extra fee. So, would there be a fee to trade into a higher rated 1BR, or would that option just not be available to you in an OGS?
I understand having to pay the upgrade fee for going from 1BR to 2 BR, but how does it work trading 1 BR for 1BR?
You would not pay more if your resort is not rated and you trade into a rated resort. From other comments I think your week would do good. One of the weeks I own is a non rated resort and it is my strongest trader. I always get great trades into highly rated resorts. There is a bit of the unknown with II as we don’t know how II ultimately decides how strong a week is but I have no complaints. I have been very happy for many years with II.
 

Laurie

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What is eTrade? And how did you get the free membership/trade? did you ask or did they just offer?
eTrade: pay $59 and you can trade a confirmed exchange for a different exchange, up to 3x.

I didn't ask; the free 1-year memberships were offered to all owners at the resort I own, which had been affiliated with RCI in the past for many years, and then newly dual-affiliated with II. So II offered an incentive for us to try them out, hoping in the future we'd pay for membership and continue to use them instead of RCI. In my case, it worked.
 

Panina

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What is eTrade? And how did you get the free membership/trade? did you ask or did they just offer?
Congrats on the great trips!
eTrade: pay $59 and you can trade a confirmed exchange for a different exchange, up to 3x.

I didn't ask; the free 1-year memberships were offered to all owners at the resort I own, which had been affiliated with RCI in the past for many years, and then newly dual-affiliated with II. So II offered an incentive for us to try them out, hoping in the future we'd pay for membership and continue to use them instead of RCI. In my case, it worked.
II calls it eplus not etrade
 
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