Fyi RCI is now $230 for exchanges plus the annual membership fee. TPI has had upgrade fees for seasons for at least 2 years.
All I know is I exchanged week 43- 10/25/15 check in- white- for week 37-9/13/15- on 9/1/15 and was not charged an upgrade fee.
Now I am exchanging a week 42 in 2018 for a 9/7/18 check in and am being charged the fee. I have to rethink using them next time because RTX charges $117 and Platinum charges $129. DAE is up to $179 and upgrades are only for bigger units. In 2014 I exchanged through DAE- not Trading Places- week 44 Smuggs 2 bedroom for a one bedroom at South Mountain for week 38. No season upgrade fees with them.
This time was just so bent on getting the exchange out of principle I remained persistent. Smuggs should confirm I am an owner in good standing and up to date with current maintenance fees and that should be the end of it. But pissed about the season upgrade fee.
They tell me maintenance fees have to be paid for the deposited week. Well- I do not pay maintenance fees a year in advance. Don't even know what the fee will be by then as they go up every year. As it is, we are not billed for the off season week until like 2 months before. If I want to travel that same year it is right down to the wire with trying to deposit and get an exchange! What- I am going to pay the maintenance fee in July, deposit the week and then try to get a Sept. exchange? Yes- as I posted above it can happen and did work for me in 2015, but I assumed it was just pure luck. This time I wanted to make sure I could get something ahead of time; if not I would just use our Smuggs week in Oct., but really preferred something else a bit earlier in New England.
I call my resort and they say they fill in the verification form that I am an owner and in good standing and all that and it will be fine and they would not reject the deposit so I called TP back and explain that Smuggs does things a bit differently than other resorts and they agree to let me do the exchange pending the verification. Long story...But it just keeps getting worse and they only then after all the aggravation tell me about the upgrade fee for the season. After everything I just pay it out of exhaustion. Ugh!
And so this is why I even posted on the other thread about exchanging for a smaller unit- how we should be given credit for that! Here I am now paying $1171.00(my maintenance fee plus the exchange fee) for a one bedroom silver crown giving them my two bedroom gold crown. Ok- yes- it is a month earlier in New England and should be much nicer weather- but, come on! This is another reason why I rarely exchange and will not pay a fee to join ANY exchange company. I could rent privately or from Home Away and get a larger place and all that.