Wyndham Owner Update at Daytona Ocean Walk

[regatta333]

My husband and I just attended the owner update here today. We are grandfathered VIP Gold and own three floating Wyndham weeks that were purchased resale. We were looking to possibly convert 2 of the floating weeks, with an additional points package purchase from Wyndham, to possibly get us to VIP Platinum.

Once the salesperson realized that the floating weeks were resale, she said that absolutely nothing could be done with them, other than to continue to use them as floating weeks. The only pitch she really made was to consolidate our points in one deed or in Club Wyndham Access, which we were not interested in doing. I was surprised that no offer was made to "requalify" these weeks and convert to points with some type of other purchase. Anyone had any recent experience in this area.

She also made it sound as though our kids would no longer have VIP once the ownership passed to them since the GOLD threshold is now 700K points and we were grandfathered at the 500K point level. This does not sound right to me. I believe the VIP would be retained by immediate family. Is that not correct?

Also, they were touting new VIP benefits, one of which is supposed to be a "free" annual VIP cruise. When questioned the "free" aspect, noting the footnote that stated "Cruise can only be redeemed through cash and not through use of points", our salesperson stated that you only had to pay taxes and port fees. I was extremely skeptical of this, so after the presentation, I went up and looked up the 2019 cruise, which is to Alaska. When I called the number provided to get more information, lo and behold, the price is $4482-4829.

The sales manager, who did the initial group presentation, claimed to have been able to use the benefits of the new Wyndham rewards credit card to be able to transfer her Wyndham points to hotel points using "Blue Thread" and book Wyndham Midtown for 15K points per night. Also claimed to be able to redeem 7,700 leftover Wyndham points to get a $200 Home Depot gift card. These claims seemed completely bogus to me. I did not really challenge them, as I really only wanted to get my specific questions addressed.

As it turned out, we were out pretty quickly. I was pretty surprised. I guess they will no longer requalify anything that is resale, even with a new purchase.

 

[spackler]

Only the parts of the presentation that were in writing should be taken seriously.

 

[cbyrne1174]

Gold is good enough anyways. I would hold onto that as long as you can. I wish I could take short stays without running out of housekeeping credits ;_;

 

[kaljor]

The only kernel of truth I saw in the account you posted is that you can in fact get a room at the Wyndham Midtown for 15k points. But that’s 15k Rewards Points, not Wyndham timeshare points. Anyone can join the Rewards program for free, and accumulate Rewards Points by staying at Wyndham hotels. If you get the Wyndham Rewards credit card you can get points for other purchases as well. I don’t recall hearing that you can convert timeshare points to Rewards points, but maybe you can. I doubt there would be a conversion rate that would make sense though.

 

[regatta333]

I have since looked up the conversion rate, which is 1,000 timeshare points to 400 reward points, so not a good value.

The group presenter made it sound like the points were equivalent. Afterwards, we repeatedly asked the sales rep what the conversion rate was, and she repeatedly skirted the question, saying it depended on the type of ownership. Even when we circled back to the question, she just avoided answering.

 

[regatta333]

I am just surprised at their response that there is nothing to be done with a resale floating week contract. I thought for sure they would convert it with some "minimum" developer purchase.

 

[Jan M.]

If your kids are even older teens you should consider adding them to your deeds now. At 21 they can check in their own and you don't want to have to use guest certificates for them. I thought people said Wyndham Cares will take care of that for you. It can save a lot of headache later on, ensure that there are no screw ups and the gold status on the account doesn't get lost if you aren't there to guide the kids through things.

When you were grandfathered at gold there was no time frame on that, it is permanent. Yes the gold status gets retained but again add the kids sooner rather than later. Make sure you or the kids don't do anything that screws that up your gold status. Be very leery of getting fast talked into trading in your deed or deeds towards a new purchase. Other people have posted that it negated their grandfathered gold status and knocked them down to silver. So if you are ever trading any of your current deeds in towards another purchase get it in writing in a signed letter from corporate that your account will retain the gold status. One of the people who posted got bamboozled into trading in low maintenance fee deeds for a much high maintenance fee Club Wyndham Access contract. They spent quite a bit of money on the new purchase, their maintenance fees took a huge jump and they got bumped down to silver. It sounded like owner care told them too bad, you lose when. Make sure the kids know not to break up the account, at least the developer purchases that count towards gold. We've seen posts that family members split up the account, each taking different deeds, not knowing anything about VIP and what they were losing.

It's been a few years now that Wyndham no longer allows resale deeds to be "re-qualified" with an additional purchase. When sales people start talking about supposed benefits and using the Wyndham credit card, it is a good time to stop listening and let your mind wander until you are collecting your gift and out of there.

 

[regatta333]

We were thinking to establish a trust, which included the kids, and get everything redeeded to the trust. Now, I am wondering if that might negate our gold status.

Are you saying Owner Care will add the children's names (they are adults) to the deeds at no charge, or is retitled involved? When I brought it up at the owner's update, the saleswoman said we would need to have it retitled deed by deed.

 

[Jan M.]

We were thinking to establish a trust, which included the kids, and get everything redeeded to the trust. Now, I am wondering if that might negate our gold status.

Are you saying Owner Care will add the children's names (they are adults) to the deeds at no charge, or is retitled involved? When I brought it up at the owner's update, the saleswoman said we would need to have it retitled deed by deed.

I thought OP said to call Wyndham Cares for help with that. I'm not sure how it works.

 

[Tyles Davenport]

My husband and I just attended the owner update here today. We are grandfathered VIP Gold and own three floating Wyndham weeks that were purchased resale. We were looking to possibly convert 2 of the floating weeks, with an additional points package purchase from Wyndham, to possibly get us to VIP Platinum.

Once the salesperson realized that the floating weeks were resale, she said that absolutely nothing could be done with them, other than to continue to use them as floating weeks. The only pitch she really made was to consolidate our points in one deed or in Club Wyndham Access, which we were not interested in doing. I was surprised that no offer was made to "requalify" these weeks and convert to points with some type of other purchase. Anyone had any recent experience in this area.

She also made it sound as though our kids would no longer have VIP once the ownership passed to them since the GOLD threshold is now 700K points and we were grandfathered at the 500K point level. This does not sound right to me. I believe the VIP would be retained by immediate family. Is that not correct?

Also, they were touting new VIP benefits, one of which is supposed to be a "free" annual VIP cruise. When questioned the "free" aspect, noting the footnote that stated "Cruise can only be redeemed through cash and not through use of points", our salesperson stated that you only had to pay taxes and port fees. I was extremely skeptical of this, so after the presentation, I went up and looked up the 2019 cruise, which is to Alaska. When I called the number provided to get more information, lo and behold, the price is $4482-4829.

The sales manager, who did the initial group presentation, claimed to have been able to use the benefits of the new Wyndham rewards credit card to be able to transfer her Wyndham points to hotel points using "Blue Thread" and book Wyndham Midtown for 15K points per night. Also claimed to be able to redeem 7,700 leftover Wyndham points to get a $200 Home Depot gift card. These claims seemed completely bogus to me. I did not really challenge them, as I really only wanted to get my specific questions addressed.

As it turned out, we were out pretty quickly. I was pretty surprised. I guess they will no longer requalify anything that is resale, even with a new purchase.

There was one partial truth in there. You can use 15K reward points, not Wyndham points, to rent a hotel room at Midtown 45. I stayed there 3 nights using reward points.

 

[Crafty71]

There was one partial truth in there. You can use 15K reward points, not Wyndham points, to rent a hotel room at Midtown 45. I stayed there 3 nights using reward points.

And you would have to convert 112K Wyndham Points to get 45K Wyndham Rewards Points (assuming I did the math correctly). A hotel room at Midtown 45 costs 55K Wyndham Points on weekends and 33K points on weekdays...so three (3) nights midweek = better using Wyndham Points; 3-night long weekend (including Friday and Saturday) = better to convert Points to Rewards Points...

Cheers!

 

[Richelle]

Last time I checked, VIP grandfather status passed to Children. You would want to call Ovations about that though. The Tribute program and the program that allows you to transfer your contracts to direct family for free, and without losing the retail benefits or VIP status. That program falls under the Ovations umbrella. That’s if you want to transfer full ownership to them. I am not sure if they can help you with adding them to the account. Or deed. I myself have not tried that. I have not done the trust thing either.

If you are going to add your kids to the deed or the account, make sure they know what will be expected if them when you pass away. With any luck, they will be well established in their careers and financially secure, and can handle the MF payments. If not, let them know what their options are, and how to get out, if they don’t want it or cannot take on the financial commitment.

 

[Richelle]

And you would have to convert 112K Wyndham Points to get 45K Wyndham Rewards Points (assuming I did the math correctly). A hotel room at Midtown 45 costs 55K Wyndham Points on weekends and 33K points on weekdays...so three (3) nights midweek = better using Wyndham Points; 3-night long weekend (including Friday and Saturday) = better to convert Points to Rewards Points...

Cheers!

And there is a $99 fee for the conversion.

 

[Crafty71]

And there is a $99 fee for the conversion.

Oops...didn't know that...

Cheers!

 

[Richelle]

Oops...didn't know that...

Cheers!

That’s ok, I didn’t know that until recently too.


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