PFD resorts are few and far between

I finally succumbed and bought an RCI points week for $1 plus closing costs and the $249 RCI charges, but I only bought it because the underlying week was a July Week on the beach oceanfront in a 2 bed room. I will probably never again have points to use from this account because I will always reserve 13 months in advance to use the fixed week. I am too late now to reserve the fixed week this year so I will get the points for 2010. I started looking through my weeks to see which weeks I might use for PFD in the future, and almost every resort I own at is already a points resort. Out of 13 resorts only 2 are not points resorts. That means that I will be a points member but have no points to use other than the ones that came with my original points week. Am I just unlucky since almost all of my resorts are already points resorts, or are the majority of RCI resorts enrolled in the points program already? For me PFD with my existing inventory is not going to be a great deal.

Is there an easy cheap way to convert exisiting fixed weeks at points affiliated resorts to points so I could use the points in the future for exchanging if needed? I am not paying $2000 or more to get points when you can buy all the points you want on e-bay for about $1 plus closing costs, I am just asking if some resorts or RCI offer the conversion for reasonable prices.

So many here seem to love their points so much better than weeks. Maybe I soon will see if I feel the same way.

It's a rip off and thats too bad

tombo said:

I finally succumbed and bought an RCI points week for $1 plus closing costs and the $249 RCI charges, but I only bought it because the underlying week was a July Week on the beach oceanfront in a 2 bed room. I will probably never again have points to use from this account because I will always reserve 13 months in advance to use the fixed week. I am too late now to reserve the fixed week this year so I will get the points for 2010. I started looking through my weeks to see which weeks I might use for PFD in the future, and almost every resort I own at is already a points resort. Out of 13 resorts only 2 are not points resorts. That means that I will be a points member but have no points to use other than the ones that came with my original points week. Am I just unlucky since almost all of my resorts are already points resorts, or are the majority of RCI resorts enrolled in the points program already? For me PFD with my existing inventory is not going to be a great deal.
Is there an easy cheap way to convert exisiting fixed weeks at points affiliated resorts to points so I could use the points in the future for exchanging if needed? I am not paying $2000 or more to get points when you can buy all the points you want on e-bay for about $1 plus closing costs, I am just asking if some resorts or RCI offer the conversion for reasonable prices.

So many here seem to love their points so much better than weeks. Maybe I soon will see if I feel the same way.

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Unfortunately most resorts choose to, IMO, rape owners with fees of $2000-$5000 to convert weeks to points. They only NEED to charge the $199 RCI charges. I wouldn't begrudge them a few hundred for a simple sales pitch and some paperwork, but instead they seem to feel it is a goldmine to be harvested at owners expense.

So unless your resort hasn't signed on to RCI Points you have to deal with unreasonable conversion cost or not use that resort in the far superior RCI Points system. That's a shame for you and the points system as it loses out on getting more available inventory. Lose lose all so some sales weasel can make an unearned grand or two. Sad.

Ahhhh, RCI Points ... so addicting, so seducing, so easy to rent additional points now that you have an RCI Points account. Rent RCI Points from other owners vs RCI.

Why buy another TS?

vacationhopeful said:

Ahhhh, RCI Points ... so addicting, so seducing, so easy to rent additional points now that you have an RCI Points account. Rent RCI Points from other owners vs RCI.

Why buy another TS?

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Don't worry, I will not buy another timeshare, heck I am selling some of mine. I was just mentioning how cheaply you can buy points weeks on e-bay, not saying I was going to buy one. The underlying week I bought will be a great renter (if the economy improves) and a week my son can use during summer break from college. It was cheap, a great underlying week, and a chance for me to see firsthand what all the rave reviews for RCI points are all about. I decided I needed to become a points member after reading all of the TUG reviews.

Is it legal to rent points? Where do you find points for rent from owners? How much do points from owners typically rent for?

RCI will rent them to you for 2 cents a points. When you get your account set up, you will see there is an online option to transfer points to another owner. Another poster here on TUG recently said where they could be found for rent for around 1 cent per point.

I myself generally use the underlying South Florida "very near the beach" Week 6, but I have a Week 28 at the same resort which I use the points for scattered vacations.

So, I have booked for free my underlying week HOME WEEK (which you can cancel months later to get the points returned to your account). For $40, you can book other time at your HOME RESORT. For the regular exchange fee $139, you can book at the 11 month mark into your HOME GROUP RESORT, too.

Be careful and watch your dates 13 months in advance. RCI Points can be fun. For me, I have a decent list of HOME GROUP RESORTS (VRI) and a really good HOME RESORT.

vacationhopeful said:

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So, I have booked for free my underlying week HOME WEEK (which you can cancel months later to get the points returned to your account). For $40, you can book other time at your HOME RESORT. For the regular exchange fee $139, you can book at the 11 month mark into your HOME GROUP RESORT, too.

Be careful and watch your dates 13 months in advance. RCI Points can be fun. For me, I have a decent list of HOME GROUP RESORTS (VRI) and a really good HOME RESORT.

Click to expand...

Is it any time during the 13th month in advance you can reserve or is it like 13 months to the day in adavnce that you have to reserve? I do not want to miss that date and have my fixed week convert to points. My week is at an VRI resort too.

How far in advance can you cancel your fixed week reservation and still get all of your allocated points? Do they diminish the number of points you receive as the check in date gets closer?

Is the $40 only for the extra time or last minute calls or whatever it is termed or is it for any time booked at the home resort?

Also is the 11 month reservation window at the home resort one month earlier than anyone else can reserve who does not own a points week at that resort? When you say VRI is your home group of resorts does that mean that you get the 11 month reservation at any VRI resort or just at your home VRI resort?

It is sad that I own so many weeks and have been an RCI member for years, yet I know virtually nothing about the ins and outs of RCI points.

Thanks for the help,

Tom

Sad? Maybe Just Semi-Wistful. Possibly Not Even That.

tombo said:

It is sad that I own so many weeks and have been an RCI member for years, yet I know virtually nothing about the ins and outs of RCI points.

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I verge on a low-grade variety of sadness when some doofus move of my own doing causes another negative outcome -- specially if beforehand I thought I knew what was what, only to find out otherwise the hard way.

The feeling has more in common with embarrassment than with actually feeling morose -- i.e., I should have known better, I thought I knew better, then later I discovered that I pulled another doofus move.

I am in that boat with my dinky points timeshare in the USA heartland. Bought it for next to nothing -- so cheap, in fact, that I could pay the annual fees for years & years & still stay ahead of the game. Then the fees started skyrocketing upward, & now I've got a deeded timeshare property in the USA heartland that I can't get rid of & that's good for only 2 frivolous things -- (a) paltry number of timeshare points each year (15,000) & (b) toe-hold into the timeshare points system allowing me to do PFD with my straight-weeks timeshares.

If I realized at the time that I had not figured it all out, I might instead have gone with Rayburn Country points-timeshare in Texas, where fees are closer to stable, or with that clever 3-year Club Trinidad renewable points-timeshare lease in California. Either of those would have worked as well as what I've got, or better, with more favorable economics. Live & learn, eh ?

Meanwhile, however, I have reason to believe that my straight-weeks timeshares will stay that way indefinitely.

One of those is in South Africa, where apparently there is already some kind of timeshare points system in place that applies to African & European owners, but not to North American owners. Hard to imagine why they would bother layering over their current regional points system with another just to snag some of their USA & Canadian owners.

Our USA timeshares are links in the DRI (formerly SunTerra) chain, where internal DRI club exchanges are on some kind of proprietary DRI-only points system that is irrelevant to non-club owners at those timeshares. Hard to imagine that the Developer Of Record (DRI) would welcome a competing, non-DRI points system at those DRI timeshares. Even harder to imagine that the owner-controlled homeowner associations at those timeshares would have any interest in going with RCI Points. What would be the advantage ?

Ever since taking the points plunge (2005), we have taken as our baseline the economy-rate reservations available through RCI Last Call & Instant Exchange. Those are good. What is not so good is that now we feel we are over-extravagant if we take any straight week-for-week exchange instead of taking the straight week's points value via PFD, then using the points for Instant Exchange. Ditto straight-points exchanges at the full points value of the week. (We've only ever done 1 of those.)

Fortunately for us, most of our timeshare vacations are off-season when the Last Call & Instant Exchange pickings are not always so slim. Keeping it in perspective, I realize that even the outrageous fees at our dinky USA points timeshare are still tolerable within our overall el cheapo timeshare vacationing scheme. That doesn't keep me from feeling retroactively wistful at going with what I've got instead of waiting for Club Trinidad or Rayburn Country.

Then again, the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, no ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

Tom,
During the 13th month. At the 12 month "day" and the rest of the 12 month mark, is the HOME RESORT 30 day window to book for $40 - you could call it the 'brain fart month' when you or I miss the HOME WEEK booking month. That is the ONLY period you get to pay that low exchange fee.

At the 11 month mark and the following 30 days, is the HOME GROUP period (any VRI resort and only RCI Points owners) and that is for the full exchange fee of $139. But you get a jump on the rest of RCI Points owners to get to these VRI locations.

You will be asked what "resort points" you will be using to book a reservation. I only have RCI Points at one resort - several weeks in RCI points, but it is easier than if I owned 1 VRI and 1 nonVRI.

As for getting your points back from a cancellation (no getting any exchange fee money if paid), I have to find my RCI Points book when I get home today (unless someone else wants to answer ).

Hope this helps,

tombo said:

Is it any time during the 13th month in advance you can reserve or is it like 13 months to the day in adavnce that you have to reserve? I do not want to miss that date and have my fixed week convert to points. My week is at an VRI resort too.

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You have the full month (start of 13th month until the day before the 12th month) to exclusively book your fixed week.

How far in advance can you cancel your fixed week reservation and still get all of your allocated points? Do they diminish the number of points you receive as the check in date gets closer?

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You can get your full points back if you cancel more than 120 days from the check-in date. If you cancel less than that, there is a reducing schedule depending on when you cancel. The schedule is on the RCI website.

Is the $40 only for the extra time or last minute calls or whatever it is termed or is it for any time booked at the home resort?

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The $40 charge applies for additional home resort reservations (if you have more points) made during the 11-12 month home resort period (typically for floating converted weeks members)

Also is the 11 month reservation window at the home resort one month earlier than anyone else can reserve who does not own a points week at that resort? When you say VRI is your home group of resorts does that mean that you get the 11 month reservation at any VRI resort or just at your home VRI resort?

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The 11-12 month window is for floating ownership members at that resort that have converted their floating ownership weeks to points. It is for booking the resort that you own at only. The 10 - 11 month window is when you are allowed to book at other resorts within that home group of resorts. This is where being part of a larger management group such as VRI can be advantageous because they have a large group of resorts that you would have priority access to. At the less than 10 month mark, all points resorts are available for booking to all points owners.

PFD?

[Duplicate post deleted - DeniseM Moderator]

Thanks to everyone for the quick responses and great advice. I am sure that I will have a lot more questions when I start trying to use my new points account. I can't wait to see if it is as good as most here seem to feel that it is. Even many RCI haters seem to like RCI points.

Thanks again and feel free to post any tips, do's, dont's, and secrets that you think of.

Tombo,
I think you will learn to love your RCI points account. I have a points resort that I have strictly for the good 7500 or 9000 deals. I bought it for this reason.

Have not yet been to the resort and honestly probably won't ever go although it's a nice resort. Now I bought it so that I can exchange my very old weeks resort that I love where I own 2 weeks into a PFD with a second week that I don't plan to use very often. RCI gives me 38,000 pts for this week and I can exchange back into my favorite little place on the beach for only 7500 pts plus exchange fees of course. That gets me about 5 more weeks from my 1 measly week that I deposited.

Since I am an opportunistic traveller in the summer I check the deals often and try to snap up the weeks I want. So far so good with my plan. I end up staying at my little resort about 5 to 6 times in the summer (off season) in Florida for the beach but my favorite time to go. It's like owning a second home but for the price of one payment of a real mortgage I can get 7-8 weeks of vacation a year and share with my friends and family. Because the resort already knows me very well they usually upgrade me to a bigger or better unit when I check in.

I know many hate RCI, I don't. I just see them for what they are. They use me and I use them. No one is harmed and we are both happy. Now if it wasn't for PFD there is no way I'd give them my week at the beach. Hell no.
I've got to get what I want in return or I'll use my week. When they stop doing the PFD then I'll start using my week again. I think that's fair.

This is exactly how I feel about RCI

chriskre said:

I know many hate RCI, I don't. I just see them for what they are. They use me and I use them. No one is harmed and we are both happy.

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I think RCI Points has allowed me to remain happy with being a member. I no longer deposit my Weeks resorts with RCI. I utilize the last minute exchanges, which provide several weeks of vacation for one maintenance fee. I had no problem finding nice resorts in 2BR units during the high season this past summer in high demand, low availability areas.

Tombo, yes, there was a learning curve in the beginning. But it didn't take that long to get the hang of things. On the purchase of your RCI Points resort, I believe that buying a great underlying week that can be utilized or rented, and has good potential resale value is definitely the first step in the right direction. I have not reserved my actual week in the past, but plan to do so with a couple in the future. Since you have a 120 days prior to check-in to cancel it and get the points in full, it allows you to decide closer to check-in how you want to use the week.

Best wishes on your RCI Points!

Egret1986 said:

I think RCI Points has allowed me to remain happy with being a member. I no longer deposit my Weeks resorts with RCI. I utilize the last minute exchanges, which provide several weeks of vacation for one maintenance fee. I had no problem finding nice resorts in 2BR units during the high season this past summer in high demand, low availability areas.

Tombo, yes, there was a learning curve in the beginning. But it didn't take that long to get the hang of things. On the purchase of your RCI Points resort, I believe that buying a great underlying week that can be utilized or rented, and has good potential resale value is definitely the first step in the right direction. I have not reserved my actual week in the past, but plan to do so with a couple in the future. Since you have a 120 days prior to check-in to cancel it and get the points in full, it allows you to decide closer to check-in how you want to use the week.

Best wishes on your RCI Points!

Click to expand...

I like knowing that I can put my week up for rent and if it hasn't rented or if I see that I can't use it myself that I can get my full amount of points about 4 months in advance. At 6 months in advance on weeks you have already lost some trading power.

I am reading and learning a lot, but I have a lot more to learn. There seem to be major differences between weeks and points. I am going to have to learn how to maximize my points membership like I have tried to do with my weeks in the past. I am also going to have to learn how and when to use which account to trade and to get extra vacations etc. since I get a weeks account with my points account from what I understand.

Tombo,
Yes it´s a bit learning curve what time well spent on these boards and others. Everyone will help you gladly. I´ll chime in when I can. I love my RCI points.