# Questions about Wyndham and RCI Points



## mom2two06 (Oct 12, 2013)

I am hoping some people can help with some details on how Wyndham and RCI work together.. 

I have purchased a Christmas Mountain Village UDI, which allows me several 1 week reservations per year.  My initial plan is to deposit these weeks into RCI Weeks or II for exchange purposes.  However, I _think _I read somewhere in these threads that owning a Wyndham Points contract gives includes an RCI membership in it's MFs and that you can book Wyndham resorts without an exchange fee.  So, I want to see if what I am thinking is correct.. 


Are the above details right?  Does owning Wyndham Points include the RCI membership with no exchange fees into Wyndham resorts?
If yes, could I then deposit my CMV weeks into the PFD program to add points to my pool?
Can the Wyndham Points be combined with points obtained from PFD?
If they can be combined, can I then still book into Wyndham resorts without an exchange fee?
If they can be combined, can these points be used to book smaller stays at hotel type places, for weekend getaways and such?

I am sure we would not always be booking Wyndham resorts, but even the once in awhile exchange fee savings would be worth it.  I thought I saw somewhere that an RCI Points membership includes RCI Weeks.. is that true as well?  So we could still deposit our weeks into RCI Weeks if we decided to?

Ah, I have read so much but there is still so much more to learn.   Sometimes, the more I read the worse it gets, because then it all gets jumbled together in my head.


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## mom2two06 (Oct 12, 2013)

Just after a bit more reading, I am thinking that my above understand is almost 100% incorrect.


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## kwindham (Oct 12, 2013)

With Wyndham, you do get an rci acct.  Its a weeks acct, not points, but you go thru the wyndham/rci portal to deposit points, make ressies, etc.


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## luvNMB52 (Oct 12, 2013)

*exchange fees*

I haven't made too many reservations through RCI, but I'm thinking that ANY reservation made through RCI requires an exchange fee whether it is into a Wyndham resort or other.  If you make a reservation at a Wyndham Resort other than your "Wyndham home resort" through Wyndham, there is no fee.  (clear as mud, huh?)


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## Bigrob (Oct 12, 2013)

mom2two06 said:


> I am hoping some people can help with some details on how Wyndham and RCI work together..
> 
> I have purchased a Christmas Mountain Village UDI, which allows me several 1 week reservations per year.  My initial plan is to deposit these weeks into RCI Weeks or II for exchange purposes.  However, I _think _I read somewhere in these threads that owning a Wyndham Points contract gives includes an RCI membership in it's MFs and that you can book Wyndham resorts without an exchange fee.  So, I want to see if what I am thinking is correct..
> 
> ...



As most Wyndham regulars will tell you... the best use for Wyndham points is to make Wyndham reservations. Having said that, you do get an RCI account with your Wyndham Club membership, and you do have access to RCI weeks inventory. You can deposit your Wyndham points to make RCI reservations. It would always be better to make any reservations at Wyndham resorts using your Wyndham points, rather than going through RCI. Main reason is you have access to more inventory plus you avoid the exchange fee. Wyndham only puts some of its lower demand inventory for availability through RCI... for example, in Myrtle Beach at Ocean Boulevard, only the tower across the street from the ocean is available through RCI - all the oceanfront towers are only available through Wyndham.

Depending upon your status, you have options for your points... one that many Wyndham experts swear by is "credit pooling". While Wyndham's documentation makes it sound like the primary use of credit pooling is to save points you won't use in the current use year for a later use, you can also pull points forward (so for example, you would be able to pull 2014 and 2015 point allocations into your credit pool - I think in December of this year). If you are VIP, you have later in the year to credit pool current year points, which gives you an additional 3 years to use them. Again the advantage is that by not going through an exchange company, you avoid the $199+ exchange fee. But you may have no other choice for leftover points in the current use year, deposit to RCI may be the only real option. The only major downside of credit pooling - besides the nominal $39 transaction fee for doing it - is that the credit-pooled points lose their ARP status at the home resort. So if you had points at a resort that is hard to book when you wanted - like Glacier Canyon, for example - you would probably not want to credit pool your GC points. I am not sure of the difficulty of making reservations at CMV.

Perhaps the best use of the RCI account benefit is access to last call/extra vacation inventory. For example, during the sale that just ended last night, RCI was selling inventory of weeks for $199 for reservations as far out as March 2014. Of course these were low-demand weeks, but it gave access to vacations for just the cost of an exchange fee with no points. In the past some Tuggers have scored ski weeks during the President's Day holiday for $199 during this sale.

I am a little confused about your ownership however. Do you own Wyndham points or Wyndham weeks (either fixed or floating)? If you own weeks, most of what I have said here does not apply unless the weeks are converted to points, which rarely pays off (better to just buy cheap points-based contracts than pay the $2395/week conversion). The thing that confuses me is you are talking about depositing weeks, but if you have points, you don't have "weeks". 

If you do in fact own Wyndham points, it probably would NOT be the right thing to do to make one-week reservations at Wyndham so you can "deposit" the weeks. What you would be doing is a sort of "reverse conversion" that would actually reduce the value of what you own. If you have points, the best use is to use them for Wyndham reservations - that's how you'll get the most bang for your buck. The only exception to this would be for those few folks who have ARP rights at a very difficult resort to book in to, who can leverage those ARP rights into rentals... but for the typical user who is not looking to rent out weeks, this won't apply.


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## vacationhopeful (Oct 12, 2013)

It takes many months to absorb the info thrown at you here on TUG. Most of us have been using these systems for 5-35 YEARS.

You will learn most of this -- just takes time. We try very hard to KEEP newbies from jumping into a FIRE by buying 3-10 TS weeks or the equivalent points totals UNTIL they have been around TUG reading and gone on several timeshare vacations with their families. 

RCI Points membership includes an RCI Points membership.

Wyndham Points includes an RCI Weeks membership - but not units in ONLY their Fixed or Floating week ownerships.

RCI, II, VRI, TPI, SFX and the other exchange companies MAKE their monies on a combination of exchange fees, guest fees, membership fee, upgrade fees, platinum membership fees, and sometimes, JUST out & out renting to the general public, their exchange inventory. Their inventory might be just from members trying to trade, bulk deposits from developers and HOAs, AND any combination of the above.

Most POINTS programs have very different rules from the other competitor's points programs. Points programs include Shell, Wyndham, DRI, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, RCI, Worldmark, Starwood, AND all the ones I have forgotten ...

*SUGGESTIONS for YOU:*
Decide where you must travel (and owning as a Home Resort) and look for the chains who have resorts there. 
Look WHERE those chains have other resorts which you have the cheaper ability or an interest to travel to.
Figure out the COST to own on a YEARLY basis - using a factor of depreciation on your original purchase cost (with TS almost ALWAYS figure ZERO as the final value) and how many years.
Then READ and READ and ASK QUESTIONS. Then visit or stay, at several of those resorts and talk to the other owners -- be surprised HOW MUCH those chats and visits MIGHT shape your opinion --- I know several resorts which got CUT from my lists VERY quickly.

Happy Hunting!


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## Free2Roam (Oct 12, 2013)

Because all this is so confusing, and you asked specific questions... 



mom2two06 said:


> Are the above details right?  Does owning Wyndham Points include the RCI membership with no exchange fees into Wyndham resorts?
> -YES IT INCLUDES AN RCI MEMBERSHIP... BUT THERE ARE STILL EXCHANGE FEES.
> 
> If yes, could I then deposit my CMV weeks into the PFD program to add points to my pool?
> ...


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## bnoble (Oct 12, 2013)

> It would always be better to make any reservations at Wyndham resorts using your Wyndham points, rather than going through RCI.


There are a handful of exceptions to this, depending on your $/K ratio.  But, they are few and far between.


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## mom2two06 (Oct 12, 2013)

Thanks to all.. I don't own any Wyndham anything yet.  I thought for some reason there was a benefit to buying a small Wyndham contract to use alongside other weeks.  Either I misunderstood what I read, or misread it completely.  I will probably stick with what I have for now until I learn how to use that.


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## ronparise (Oct 12, 2013)

mom2two06 said:


> Thanks to all.. I don't own any Wyndham anything yet.  I thought for some reason there was a benefit to buying a small Wyndham contract to use alongside other weeks.  Either I misunderstood what I read, or misread it completely.  I will probably stick with what I have for now until I learn how to use that.



Based on your original post you are really confused regarding the relationship of a Wyndham points ownership to the included rci weeks account; you are really confused.  Im not going to try to clear up your misunderstanding here, since you are not even an owner

I am one that would say it might make sense to buy a small Wyndham account for the included rci weeks account and access to Last Calls and Extra Vacations. But in your case you already own a timeshare affliliated with RCI. I think I would just buy the RCI membership. Your Christmas Mountain ownership will give you so many weeks to exchange (at $199 each) it doesnt make sense to try and save the $89 membership fee by buying and paying mf for Wyndham points (ie to pay $300+ a year to save $89 is throwing good money after bad)


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## mom2two06 (Oct 13, 2013)

Right.. I will gladly admit to being really confused.  There is a metric ton of information available about timesharing just on this board, much less on the rest of the internet.  It is difficult to wade through it all, especially when much of it it several years old... it's hard to tell what is still valid/current.  Lots of details getting confused in my head.  

Thanks again to all who responded!


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## FL Guy (Oct 14, 2013)

Bigrob said:


> If you have points, the best use is to use them for Wyndham reservations - that's how you'll get the most bang for your buck.



It certainly appears this is true.  As an example, I'm looking at Wyndham Flagstaff in AZ.  RCI has a 1 bedroom unit from 4/26/14 - 5/3/14 for 126,000 points.  This is during week 17 or "Value" period and only 49,000 points booked directly through Wyndham.  So it's over 2 1/2 times more points to book the same unit through RCI as compared through Wyndham.  It makes no sense.


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## Rent_Share (Oct 14, 2013)

vacationhopeful said:


> *SUGGESTIONS for YOU:*
> Figure out the COST to own on a YEARLY basis - using a factor of depreciation on your original purchase cost (with TS almost ALWAYS figure ZERO as the final value) and how many years.


 
Use no more than five years, if you still want to use it the your implied savings will increase. 10 years is too far out to plan with any certainty in the T/S market


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## FL Guy (Oct 16, 2013)

FL Guy said:


> It certainly appears this is true.  As an example, I'm looking at Wyndham Flagstaff in AZ.  RCI has a 1 bedroom unit from 4/26/14 - 5/3/14 for 126,000 points.  This is during week 17 or "Value" period and only 49,000 points booked directly through Wyndham.  So it's over 2 1/2 times more points to book the same unit through RCI as compared through Wyndham.  It makes no sense.



This is still puzzling and concerning to me.  I have 2013 points expiring and the only viable option for me to keep from losing them is to deposit them into RCI.  Is this a "fluke" situation where the points required to book this unit through RCI is 2 1/2 times what it would require if booked directly through Wyndham?  From others' posts, it appears there are bargains to be found on RCI.  For Wyndham properties, I have the directory where I can research the point costs to determine how it compares to the point costs to book the same resort through RCI.  But for other timeshare systems, I have nothing to compare to determine if the available unit is similarly overpriced on RCI.


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## FL Guy (Oct 16, 2013)

FL Guy said:


> This is still puzzling and concerning to me.  I have 2013 points expiring and the only viable option for me to keep from losing them is to deposit them into RCI.  Is this a "fluke" situation where the points required to book this unit through RCI is 2 1/2 times what it would require if booked directly through Wyndham?  From others' posts, it appears there are bargains to be found on RCI.  For Wyndham properties, I have the directory where I can research the point costs to determine how it compares to the point costs to book the same resort through RCI.  But for other timeshare systems, I have nothing to compare to determine if the available unit is similarly overpriced on RCI.



Even though there have been several views, I guess no one wants to tackle my question?  

I've checked several RCI current listings for Wyndham resorts other than Flagstaff and they are kind of all-over-the-board in terms of points required on RCI versus points booking directly with Wyndham.  Why would there be so much discrepancy?  I would think there would be more consistency as to the RCI points being equal to, above, or below the points it costs to book through Wyndham.  The lead time before the reservation doesn't seem to have any influence on the variance either.  I've seen similar discrepancies on reservations available in a few weeks as there are for reservations available in a few months.  

After I deposit my Wyndham points expiring 12/31/13 into RCI, I want to be sure I am maximizing the value when I finally book something through RCI to use them.  For Wyndham properties, I can check the directory for the points required to book direct to see the discrepancies.  But for other timeshare systems, is it purely a "crap shoot" to have any idea if the unit I'm booking is a bargain or over-inflated as to the value of it if traded into the originating timeshare system?


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## paxsarah (Oct 16, 2013)

The best way to maximize your Wyndham deposit in RCI is to use it on a "high-value" exchange. Typical examples would be the Orlando DVC properties or urban areas like New York. There is really no relationship between the Wyndham internal points charts and the points requirements in RCI, and you're right - they're across the board. If you're looking at trading back into Wyndham, the older, legacy resorts with lower points requirements are probably not going to be a good value in RCI, but some of the newer high-point resorts might be, if they have units deposited into RCI. I currently have an ongoing search in RCI for a DVC resort which should cost me 126K Wyndham points for a 2BR - the same week at Bonnet Creek internally would cost me 189K. But at other times on the calendar, those values could be flipped, just due to the eccentricities of the Wyndham points charts and RCI seasons.


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## FL Guy (Oct 17, 2013)

paxsarah said:


> The best way to maximize your Wyndham deposit in RCI is to use it on a "high-value" exchange. Typical examples would be the Orlando DVC properties or urban areas like New York. There is really no relationship between the Wyndham internal points charts and the points requirements in RCI, and you're right - they're across the board. If you're looking at trading back into Wyndham, the older, legacy resorts with lower points requirements are probably not going to be a good value in RCI, but some of the newer high-point resorts might be, if they have units deposited into RCI. I currently have an ongoing search in RCI for a DVC resort which should cost me 126K Wyndham points for a 2BR - the same week at Bonnet Creek internally would cost me 189K. But at other times on the calendar, those values could be flipped, just due to the eccentricities of the Wyndham points charts and RCI seasons.



Thanks for the info!  That's what I was afraid of; that there is not a lot of "rhyme or reason" to the RCI points requirements.  As I said, I can look at the Wyndham directory to see if the unit in RCI is a good deal, but aside from posting on TUG to ask owners in other timeshare systems, I don't know how to determine if something I might be interested in is over or under priced.  I would have thought there would have been some consistency in the RCI pricing so one could depend on that a resort posting for higher points than another resort truly was a better/nicer resort.  That doesn't seem to be the case.  Thus far my perspective is that going forward I will only deposit into RCI if it is a last-resort situation where I would be otherwise losing my points, (like this year's points).  Thanks again!


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## ronparise (Oct 17, 2013)

FL Guy said:


> Thanks for the info!  That's what I was afraid of; that there is not a lot of "rhyme or reason" to the RCI points requirements.  As I said, I can look at the Wyndham directory to see if the unit in RCI is a good deal, but aside from posting on TUG to ask owners in other timeshare systems, I don't know how to determine if something I might be interested in is over or under priced.  I would have thought there would have been some consistency in the RCI pricing so one could depend on that a resort posting for higher points than another resort truly was a better/nicer resort.  That doesn't seem to be the case.  Thus far my perspective is that going forward I will only deposit into RCI if it is a last-resort situation where I would be otherwise losing my points, (like this year's points).  Thanks again!



Conventional Wisdom is that the best use of your Wyndham points is within the Wyndham system. The only time to exchange through RCI is when you have no other choice. You are either stuck with expiring points at the end of the year, or you want  a particular vacation experience not available through Wyndham.  In those situations you dont have the luxury of comparing the option od using an RCI exchange to anything except other available RCI exchanges.

I dont get your fixation on determining whats a good deal or not a good deal when you are looking at potential exchanges.  I dont understand what you are comparing a potential trade to to determine whats a good deal. 

You should know what your Wyndham points cost in terms of mf dollars. and you know how many Wyndham points your exchange will cost. Do the math (dont forget the $200 RCI exchange fee and you will know what your weeks vacation will cost in  dollars. 

 It doesnt matter if you could get it cheaper using your Wyndham points directly, or if you could get it cheaper exchanging another week for it, or using RCI points or what it might cost if you owned a week at that resort.  You dont have those other options available. What you have is Wyndham points in RCI that you have to use sooner or later. It seems to me that your job is to find a vacation experience that you and your family will enjoy. It doesnt matter if you could get it cheaper, only if...


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## Explorer7 (Oct 17, 2013)

FL Guy said:


> Thanks for the info!  That's what I was afraid of; that there is not a lot of "rhyme or reason" to the RCI points requirements.  As I said, I can look at the Wyndham directory to see if the unit in RCI is a good deal, but aside from posting on TUG to ask owners in other timeshare systems, I don't know how to determine if something I might be interested in is over or under priced.  I would have thought there would have been some consistency in the RCI pricing so one could depend on that a resort posting for higher points than another resort truly was a better/nicer resort.  That doesn't seem to be the case.  Thus far my perspective is that going forward I will only deposit into RCI if it is a last-resort situation where I would be otherwise losing my points, (like this year's points).  Thanks again!


FL Guy, the following is how I determine if depositing my Wyndham points over into RCI is a deal
1.	I determine my avg cost per thousand for my maint. Fees. I use $5 per thousand. I.E. 100K points cost me $500.
2.	I check the cost of renting the week I want on Extra Holidays through RCI and the cash price to rent directly from the resort if available. I.E. Manhattan Club NYC. For the sake of this discussion I am estimating about $2100 cash rental price for a studio unit per week.
3.	Not actual figures but lets just say I can book the studio unit for 126K plus $199 exchange fee through the Wyndham portal. My cost would be 126 times $5 per thousand equals $630 plus $199 equals $829 for the week. Compared to $2100 renting for cash. In this case the Wyndham points use would be a huge deal.
4.	You can do this same comparison for any resort that offers a cash rental option either through Extra Holidays or other sources.

The net result is that more often than not you will find that the best deals are for high value location like was articulated in an earlier poist. But this process gives you a viable process to make the call for yourself on a case by case basis for non Wyndham resorts.


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## paxsarah (Oct 17, 2013)

One thing that may help in comparing resorts is that through the Wyndham/RCI portal, all resorts in the same area for the same week will have the same point cost. So a week in a 1BR Orlando DVC property will require the same number of points as any other 1BR in Orlando for that week. In that sense, pick the best property you can find in the area you want to travel to (using whatever criteria for "best" that are most important to you), because they'll all cost the same number of points. If you're trying to pick between different locations and times of year, your best bet is to translate it into dollars as mentioned above to get a feel for what kind of value you're getting. At some point, especially if you're dealing with use-it-or-lose-it points, I think we have to be satisfied with getting a "good enough" value as opposed to the best possible deal ever.


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## FL Guy (Oct 17, 2013)

Explorer7 said:


> FL Guy, the following is how I determine if depositing my Wyndham points over into RCI is a deal
> 1.	I determine my avg cost per thousand for my maint. Fees. I use $5 per thousand. I.E. 100K points cost me $500.
> 2.	I check the cost of renting the week I want on Extra Holidays through RCI and the cash price to rent directly from the resort if available. I.E. Manhattan Club NYC. For the sake of this discussion I am estimating about $2100 cash rental price for a studio unit per week.
> 3.	Not actual figures but lets just say I can book the studio unit for 126K plus $199 exchange fee through the Wyndham portal. My cost would be 126 times $5 per thousand equals $630 plus $199 equals $829 for the week. Compared to $2100 renting for cash. In this case the Wyndham points use would be a huge deal.
> ...



Thank you!! This approach sounds like a very good and methodical way to evaluate the available RCI options.  :whoopie:


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## Dave&Linda (Oct 18, 2013)

FWIW: Just spent a week at Wyndham Kingsgate in Williamsburg, VA where I was able to rent four 2-br units for $306 each for a week through RCI for a reunion. I do not own any Wyndham units and after going through a really hard sell from the sharks there likely never will. That said, all the units were quite nice and comfortable. Will likely continue to rent through RCI when they have their "sales".


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