WYndham Platinum Benefits

First of all, thank you all in advance for all of your advice- it really is appreciated! We are currently planning for our retirement and looking at a variety of options, including looking at the benefits of a platinum membership in the ability to use 50% less points when we book. We still have 12-13 years until we retire...in your opinion, is it worth it to be able to slowly build up to platinum to be able to use the benefits later on, or even currently in using less points? Also, if we were to get to platinum, can we use 50% less points immediately and get that discount at the 13month mark where our home resort is? We always book way in advance as flying out of Canada is expensive, and currently we can only travel during peak times. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!

Cdn Gal said:

First of all, thank you all in advance for all of your advice- it really is appreciated! We are currently planning for our retirement and looking at a variety of options, including looking at the benefits of a platinum membership in the ability to use 50% less points when we book. We still have 12-13 years until we retire...in your opinion, is it worth it to be able to slowly build up to platinum to be able to use the benefits later on, or even currently in using less points? Also, if we were to get to platinum, can we use 50% less points immediately and get that discount at the 13month mark where our home resort is? We always book way in advance as flying out of Canada is expensive, and currently we can only travel during peak times. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!

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50% points discount is only available 60 days out. In essence, the original idea was to give VIPs a discount on what no other owners wanted at the 60 day mark.

Many VIPs book at 13 or 10 months, then cancel that reservation and rebook at 60 days to get the 50% points discount. There is some risk involved in this, as some owners have reported cancelling their reservation and having the availability be snapped up by someone else before they could rebook.

For the $150K it would take to get to platinum, you could buy resale and pay maintenance fees on a whole lot of extra points and not depend on the cancel-rebook game. It looks to me like the best time to buy resale is in the fall. As vacation season is coming up, and more people attend sales presentations and then discover resale for less, you might want to hold off until after the summer.

Hmmm that's interesting...at the last sales meeting they said that if you were a Platinum member you would automatically get the 50% off the points regardless of whether or not you were calling 60 days out. They said that it was now becoming automatic so that way people would not be confused about what benefits they actually had.

Cdn Gal said:

Hmmm that's interesting...at the last sales meeting they said that if you were a Platinum member you would automatically get the 50% off the points regardless of whether or not you were calling 60 days out. They said that it was now becoming automatic so that way people would not be confused about what benefits they actually had.

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I'm guessing their lips were moving as they were spouting this nonsense?

Ty1on has it exactly right. Also be aware that the Platinum Benefits are not in any way guaranteed; over the past 6 years there have been changes that have eroded the value of this benefit. If at some point in the future Wyndham determines that the cost of this marketing program exceeds the benefit (to them in terms of providing a sales incentive) they can unilaterally change or eliminate the benefit altogether.

The mistake many people make is to assume that the benefit will continue on indefinitely and that they can recover the cost over 30, 40, or even more years. To be realistic you should assess whether you can recoup the cost to gain platinum status over a 5-year period, or at most a 10-year period.

For the vast majority, the answer is going to be a resounding no.

Cdn Gal said:

Hmmm that's interesting...at the last sales meeting they said that if you were a Platinum member you would automatically get the 50% off the points regardless of whether or not you were calling 60 days out. They said that it was now becoming automatic so that way people would not be confused about what benefits they actually had.

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To add to what BigRob posted, if this is what you understood from what they told you, either they outright lied to you, or purposely mislead you.

What's in the Member Directory is what is automatic... until there is a published notification of a change. Here's a link to the digital book. Look at page 346 the very first item.

Cheryl20772 said:

To add to what BigRob posted, if this is what you understood from what they told you, either they outright lied to you, or purposely mislead you.

What's in the Member Directory is what is automatic... until there is a published notification of a change. Here's a link to the digital book. Look at page 346 the very first item.

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Link? Use mine: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/wyndham/plus_membersdirectory1415/index.php#/4

as has been said here, the discount is for reservations made within 60 days of check in.

Some of us Platinum owners have treated it like it is as a benefit we are entitled to for every reservation. Its not but its what we expect.

And so do the salesmen. Im sure they would teach you how to do it after you write the check for $150000

Assuming any place a Canadian would want to travel to in the Winter is a SNOWBIRD destination ... you will find 50-75% of the other Wyndham guests to also be Platinum owners ... with at least as many other owners trying to score last minute "cancel" reservations within the 60 day out from check in. And the biggest points owner ... Wyndham ... will also be tilting the game to get ANYTHING good to rent out for their Extra Holidays division.

Booking at the 13 month mark has been getting harder and harder for each winter. MORE and MORE owners are retirees with your same game plan...or points managers scoring very high demand weeks to rent.

Some people are searching for other alternatives (warmer than Canada) but not a beach in South Florida. Esp if costs are a big concern... Orlando is very popular...with lots of last minute exchanges/cheaper rental units via RCI and RCI Extra Holidays.

Cdn Gal said:

Hmmm that's interesting...at the last sales meeting they said that if you were a Platinum member you would automatically get the 50% off the points regardless of whether or not you were calling 60 days out. They said that it was now becoming automatic so that way people would not be confused about what benefits they actually had.

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It's never automatic, and it never will be. How would it benefit Wyndham to give every VIP automatic 50% points discounts on every reservation?

Like most things they say, it is true but only under certain conditions and/or with some caveat.

It is true if you are making a reservation within 60 days. The discount is automatically applied.

Bigrob said:

The mistake many people make is to assume that the benefit will continue on indefinitely and that they can recover the cost over 30, 40, or even more years. To be realistic you should assess whether you can recoup the cost to gain platinum status over a 5-year period, or at most a 10-year period.

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Only way to get close to that payback is if you are going to add 5+ million (and probably a lot more) resale points and start a rental business but wyndham has made that more of a challenge with their 10 reservations per night rule.

The only true justification for VIP status is if you want to travel to the Margaritaville properties. Can only do that with VIP or Margaritaville points. That is a lot of cash to add 3 additional properties to your available destinations.

Jason

LOL I am most definitely planning to become a snowbird- it's currently snowing here and I'm losing my mind!! Ugh!!! I think that it is brutal in that they told a whole room full of people that you could begin using 50% less points automatically if you were a Platinum Owner. They said that when you logged on and went into your account to book that you would see the 50% less points so that way owners no longer had to book and re-book their reservations at the 60 day mark. Based on this, we thought that we should perhaps look into the Platinum Ownership using available existing loopholes- if they still existed. They told us all of us that they were re-vamping the system this year so that it would better suit owners since many people didn't know what exactly that they had purchased or how to use it. Funny enough, every person had a salesman with them at the table except us. Ours got up and left for the first 25min while we listened to the spiel, then nobody came to collect us at the end- finally our lady came and got us, of course we declined her offer, and as usual was upset we didn't purchase- whatever
Thanks again for all of your input