Exchange Fees Waived?

I sat through a Wyndham presentation a couple weeks ago, and one of the things the salesman said was that there were no exchange fees. His "fuzzy math" showed that I would save thousands of dollars in exchange fees each year. (We travel a lot.)

I'm assuming that's only for INTERNAL Wyndham point redemptions?

Exchange fees aren't waived for RCI exchanges, are they (even into Wyndham timeshares)?

No exchange fees when you use Wyndham points internally. They do charge guest fees of $99 (first few are free).

As a matter of fact, with Wyndham we have to pay higher RCI exchange fees for our non-visible deposits, because we have to call a guide to do the exchanges. That gripes me to no end.

Fuzzy math is right...

And I should add that it's almost impossible for a Wyndham deposit to pull a DVC resort, so the trading power of even 154K deposited (2 bed red week) isn't good. Those deposits work about the same as a blue week. I could see studios with my blue summer week at Disney resorts. (I would take one of those, too, rather than waste a week.)

I figured as much. I saw the salesman's mouth moving, so that explains it.

He was really pushing three separate things that can't all work together. 1) Using PIC to get a large number of points (about 640k between the required purchase and PIC), 2) no exchange fees, and 3) redeeming for 28k weeks (Blue studios, I found out later) and exchanging them up to 2BR units.

within the 45 day window trade power is waived, so you could definitely snag a 2br with 28k blue studios. wyndham points seem to trade pretty well back into wyndham properties, in overbuilt areas, in shoulder season, as well as in the 45 day window.

edit: it is a real pain in the ass to not be able to search online, but when I call in it seems my 105k red generic can pull some decent trades if I'm flexible enough.

Right, but then you're exchanging in RCI so you are subject to the exchange fee and you're limited to what's available 45 days out. (That can be some pretty good stuff if you're very flexible and quick, but not so good if you have to call in to exchange it.) By not qualifying his statements, my salesman was implying that you could use 28k for a 2BR without an exchange fee, which isn't the case.

I already have a cheaper source for weak traders to exchange for 45 day inventory, using my CMV UDI.

<45 days is good for RCI Points, weeks side, too. 9K points or less will get some great stuff.

We have only taken two exchanges short notice. I need to plan vacations, and I wish I could just buy airfare and hope for a couple of great exchanges, but that is not me. I love to plan. I like to look at the last-minute availability, but when it comes right down to it, that is never going to happen for a major trip, just an occasional short trip.

I actually made a spreadsheet on my old laptop that had all of the places we wanted to go and how we could do it. That's what kept me from buying "where we want to go," because I have discovered I don't want to own 26 places. So my spreadsheet has Hawaii, then I have columns with the ways I can get each island, including the different exchange companies, RCI Points, etc., and I realized I didn't need to buy Hawaii. Well, we did buy that one oceanfront unit on Maui. However, it did become apparent that we needed to buy more RCI Points, because Disney, Hawaii, Manhattan Club, and S. California resorts are all plentiful in RCI Points.

MichaelColey said:

Right, but then you're exchanging in RCI so you are subject to the exchange fee and you're limited to what's available 45 days out. (That can be some pretty good stuff if you're very flexible and quick, but not so good if you have to call in to exchange it.) By not qualifying his statements, my salesman was implying that you could use 28k for a 2BR without an exchange fee, which isn't the case.

I already have a cheaper source for weak traders to exchange for 45 day inventory, using my CMV UDI.

Click to expand...

Michael,

We have had success booking 2 bedroom rooms with 28K deposits at 6-8 months out. We have only booked Wyndham resorts with those deposits. We haven't really tried to get anything outside of Wyndham so I don't know what you would be able to pull but we did have to pay the exchange fee:annoyed:. For me I take whatever deposit I need + 39K points (equals the value in points for $195) and if it is less than what it would be internally good for me, if not I just book through Wyndham.

Jason

MichaelColey said:

I sat through a Wyndham presentation a couple weeks ago, and one of the things the salesman said was that there were no exchange fees. His "fuzzy math" showed that I would save thousands of dollars in exchange fees each year. (We travel a lot.)

I'm assuming that's only for INTERNAL Wyndham point redemptions?

Click to expand...

Yes and he's partly correct... isn't that the nature of most sales lies? If you purchased a ton of developer points, you would have access to more home resort ARP and VIP privileges, entitling you to reserve earlier (a few standard reservations at 11 months instead of 10) and use your points for Nightly Stays or RCI Plus Partners options. That's nice - very costly but nice. Separately, there are no "exchange fees" associated with any internal reservations. The fact that this is true with resale points as well as developer points is merely a "distraction to be avoided" in a sales presentation.

Also, if you were in Hawaii at the time, they may have been referring to Trading Places or SFX exchanging, or whatever exchange company currently has a special arrangement with the Hawaii (Pacific?) Collection of Wyndham resorts. I don't know IF they have a special arrangement to waive exchange fees with the additional Wyndham corporate membership that's currently in place for that resort grouping but it's possible. This special exchange membership's costs are rolled into maint fees for those resorts, just as the RCI/II membership fees are rolled into the Club Wyndham fees, included with annual dues in Wyndham points ownerships now. So the exchange fees may be, as well ... or not. Anyway, the lack of any mention of continued RCI/II exchange fees would either be "lying by omission" or "confuse them with fast-talking/doublespeak". Sounds like you had a good one.