# RCI Savings Dollars



## sfwilshire (Jun 14, 2018)

Has anyone found anything useful to use the Platinum Savings Dollars for? I got a notice that I have $199 expiring soon, but so far it looks like slim pickings.

Sheila


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## Jan M. (Jun 14, 2018)

When I've looked I haven't seen anything I was interested in either. If I'm remembering correctly, and I might not be, I looked at using them for hotels and wasn't at all impressed with how that worked because I would still have to pay at least $75 and up per night. We stay in our timeshares frequently but don't stay at hotels. For our own personal use, not my husband's stays for work, we've stayed in a hotel twice in the last 7.5 years and only for a single night each time. Both times I paid less than $75 as I booked the cheapest decent places I was able to find since we were only there to sleep and get ready to go the next morning.


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## Panina (Jun 14, 2018)

I find no use for them.


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## rickandcindy23 (Jun 14, 2018)

I don't use them at all.  You wouldn't believe the number of supposed savings dollars I have built up.


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## tschwa2 (Jun 14, 2018)

I've seen hotel discounts that were maybe $6-$12 cheaper than what I could find elsewhere- Say on a $120 vs $126 room.  Problem is when using saving dollars the room is immediately non refundable and I am not sure if I would be eligible to earn reward points.  So not really worth using to save the little that may be applicable.


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## silentg (Jun 14, 2018)

I never saw the benefits of being a Platinum RCI member?


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## Free2Roam (Jun 14, 2018)

silentg said:


> I never saw the benefits of being a Platinum RCI member?


I've enjoyed some platinum benefits... but I liked the program a bit more before 'Savings Dollars' were introduced. The rebates on certain transactions were more useful than the savings dollars. 

It's like they had a brainstorming session to determine what would be the LEAST beneficial to their customers.


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## Jan M. (Jun 14, 2018)

silentg said:


> I never saw the benefits of being a Platinum RCI member?



If you are an RCI weeks not points owner then not enough of the benefits will apply to you to make it worth the extra expense. For points owners if you have enough points that you go frequently or use a lot of sale weeks they are so worth it IMHO. I've gotten a lot of use out of the free holds, free upgrades, free ongoing searches, advance time to book sale weeks, 10% off on sale and last call weeks and the discount on guest certificates. There are some other benefits but these are the only ones I've used.


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## bluehende (Jun 14, 2018)

Jan M. said:


> If you are an RCI weeks not points owner then not enough of the benefits will apply to you to make it worth the extra expense. For points owners if you have enough points that you go frequently or use a lot of sale weeks they are so worth it IMHO. I've gotten a lot of use out of the free holds, free upgrades, free ongoing searches, advance time to book sale weeks, 10% off on sale and last call weeks and the discount on guest certificates. There are some other benefits but these are the only ones I've used.



Which of these are points only benefits?


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## Jan M. (Jun 14, 2018)

bluehende said:


> Which of these are points only benefits?



Sorry I don't know. I only know that weeks owners posted in a thread a while back that they don't get some of the best platinum benefits. After that I asked one time when I called RCI and she confirmed that weeks owners don't get all the platinum benefits that points owners get.


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## Panina (Jun 14, 2018)

Jan M. said:


> Sorry I don't know. I only know that weeks owners posted in a thread a while back that they don't get some of the best platinum benefits. After that I asked one time when I called RCI and she confirmed that weeks owners don't get all the platinum benefits that points owners get.


Doesn’t surprise me as they have been diminishing the value of week owners in trading too.


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## Eric B (Jun 14, 2018)

I’ve used the savings dollars for restaurant certificates, but that’s about it.  You can get a $25 one each month with them.


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## Jan M. (Jun 14, 2018)

RCI PLATINUM® Benefits
*Annual RCI Points Platinum Fees* *Total Cost (USD)* *Price Per
Year (USD)*
RCI Points Platinum® 1 Yr $89  
RCI Points Platinum® 2 Yrs $155 $77.50
RCI Points Platinum® 3 Yrs $221 $73.67
RCI Points Platinum® 4 Yrs $279 $69.75
RCI Points Platinum® 5 Yrs $322 $64.40





*10% Discount on Extra Vacations getaways and Last Call Vacations*
Enjoy an additional 10% off all your Extra VacationsSMgetaways and Last CallSM Vacations — even those already on sale.*




*RCI Platinum Points Extension*
Get more time to enjoy your Points! As an RCI Platinum member, who is also an RCI Points® member, you are eligible to extend your unused Points for Two Use Years, as compared to standard RCI members who can extend their Points for only One Use Year, when they pay the same applicable fee. While extended Points expire at the end of a Third Use Year for standard RCI members, RCI Platinum members will enjoy a Fourth Use Year with no additional fee.




*Free Ongoing Search*
Can’t find the vacation you’re looking for right now? We’ll keep a lookout for you 24/7 and you won’t be charged your exchange fee until we find a match!





*Free On-Hold Vacations*
Not quite ready to book? We’ll hold your 7-night RCI Weeks®vacation for you without a fee while you iron out those last minute details.





*25% discount on Guest Certificates*
Receive a 25% discount on the purchase of Guest Certificates which you can share with family or friends! An RCI® Guest Certificate lets them experience a vacation at an RCI affiliated resort booked through your RCI account.





*Travel Concierge*
Receive access to the comfort, care, and attention of personal assistance coordinators available 24/7 to respond to your phone calls. Available services include restaurant reservations, event ticketing, ground transportation coordination, golf tee-time reservations, and more! Click here to view all available services. *Please contact RCI directly (at 1.866.545.7205) to assist you with Exchange-related inquiries*. To take advantage of your Travel Concierge services, call *1.866.557.3238* (domestic) or *715.342.2414* (International collect).1





*24/7 Emergency Travel Assistance*
Relax knowing you have access to dedicated around-the-clock travel counselors, just a phone call away to help solve last minute travel problems or to help with emergencies, such as flight or hotel re-booking, roadside assistance - assist only, or emergency travel return services. Click hereto view all available services. *Please contact RCI directly (at 1.866.545.7205) to assist you with Exchange-related inquiries*. To take advantage of your Emergency Travel benefits, call *1.866.557.3238 *(domestic) or *715.342.2414*(International collect).1




*City Attractions*
Save 20% off things to do when you travel with a Go City Card multi-attraction pass. Passes include admission to top attractions, tours, museums, and more in 11 popular destinations for one low price. Pay nothing at the gate. More choices, more savings.




*Complimentary Unit Upgrades & Changes*
Here’s how it works: when you book your confirmed Exchange vacation, you’ll have the opportunity to receive Complimentary Unit Upgrades and Resort Changes. Just let us know you’re interested in a unit upgrade or resort change. Within two weeks of check-in, if one of the resorts you’ve specified, or a bigger unit at your confirmed resort becomes available, we’ll change your reservation and provide you with the details.




*Savings Dollars*
Earn Savings Dollars on select RCI transactions you already do (like paying exchange fees and renewing your RCI®subscribing membership).Then it’s up to you how you redeem them – hotel stays, home electronics, fashion, wine (where legally available to ship), jewelry, sporting goods, dining certificates and more.*




*Priority Access*
Get exclusive access to exchange vacations at select hotels and resorts before they’re made available to standard RCI®subscribing members for exchange.





*Platinum Previews*
RCI Platinum members have first dibs on Extra VacationsSMgetaways sales! With RCI Platinum membership, see (and book) Extra Vacations getaways sales one day earlier than standard RCI members.




*RCI® Points Partner Program*
Make your Points go farther! RCI Platinum members, who are RCI Points members, can use more of their annual Points allocation when booking travel – 50% of your annual Points allotment, rather than 33% for standard RCI members.




*Platinum Cruise Exchange*
RCI Platinum members still receive an extra $25USD off per cabin towards the purchase of select cruises (and can enjoy this benefit on an unlimited number of cabins, so bring along the whole family!)





*Priority Answer*
RCI Platinum members who call *1.866.545.7205* get quicker access to our knowledgeable guides. Enjoy fast answers from the RCI Platinum experts who are waiting to help you with your vacation planning!





*Free Points Transfers*
Know an RCI Points member that could use additional Points? Lucky them! Now RCI Platinum members no longer pay a Points transfer fee, so transfer away!




*RCI Platinum® Guided Vacations*
Looking to explore exotic locales? Or do you want to visit a new location in the U.S.? Either way, we’ve got a vacation tour for you! Plus, RCI Platinum members receive an extra $25USD per couple towards the purchase of select tours, as compared to standard RCI members.


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## Eric B (Jun 14, 2018)

There are sometimes some good deals through the priority access.  For example, there are a few Grand Luxxe units available that don’t have the resort fee and are for the upper tier ones (spa, loft and residence units) as well as the suites and villas.  I used that before they limited it to non-Vidanta owners; right now it would save you the $30 pppd fee for the cost of a platinum membership ($89/yr).  There is a limit of one week per year per resort ID, but that would still let you go there 5 or 6 times and avoid $420 in fees for a couple; way more for a family.


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## Free2Roam (Jun 14, 2018)

Having early access to extra vacation sales is nice. And getting a discount on those also helps...if you use those


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## sfwilshire (Jun 15, 2018)

Thanks for the responses. The only thing I saw at all was the restaurant gift cards where I could use $5 at a time to get $5 off. Probably not worth it to me. I used Restaurants.com in the past, but had too many experiences where the restaurants were closed or had stopped taking the certificates. Maybe I'll give them another shot.

Sheila


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## klennan (Jul 24, 2018)

sfwilshire said:


> Has anyone found anything useful to use the Platinum Savings Dollars for? I got a notice that I have $199 expiring soon, but so far it looks like slim pickings.
> 
> Sheila


Hi,  I like the hold function and the ongoing search function.  I also received a 10% off when booking some weeks.  I am weeks and book about 3 trips a year so for me it is 
worth it.  The upgrades too have worked to our benefit. Savings points are not much good.  Have used a few for eateries in the USA but they have none for Canadians. Have also used for booking hotel rooms with minimal savings.  I keep renewing because I feel I save a bit with it and it covers the costs of it all.


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## breezez (Jul 24, 2018)

If savings $$$ are so beneficial why can’t you use them to reduce exchange fees....    They are more of a gimmick that said if you look at the special offers on so things they are selling sometime you will find good deals that beat other online prices for items.   But YMMV.

I would never use for hotel room unless I booked as I was leaving for hotel all their hotel deals are non refundable to my knowledge, rental cars same way.


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## iwanttoflyaway (Jul 24, 2018)

I'm pretty sure these are very similar to the travel savings dollars that Specials by Restaurant.com sells.  They are...  Not terribly useful, but can be useful on occasion.  The use case I've found them most worthwhile for is one way long distance car rentals - twice now I've been able to use them to cut my costs by about 40% over autoslash rates.  You can also sometimes use them to save a few dollars on independent hotel/motel stays, though I I'd usually rather use hotels.com to earn points.  I'd almost always rather earn loyalty points by booking directly if the property is associated with a chain.

You can buy the (I'm pretty sure identical) version for about 3c per 'dollar' on restaurant.com - I have been able to redeem them for over 50c apiece on two occasions.

If anyone else has any use cases that are worthwhile, I'd surely be interested.  They're essentially worthless otherwise, in my opinion.

Edit: refundability seems to come down to the agreement they have with individual vendors - some hotel stays are fully refundable, as have been my rental car reservations   Well, technically, the cash portion was the only part that was refundable, you lost the savings dollars if you canceled.  I considered that to be acceptable, since the points are mostly worthless otherwise...


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## iwanttoflyaway (Nov 15, 2019)

Looks like they're retiring these, with new platinum benefits 'coming soon'.  Maybe they'll actually offer something of value...


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## rapmarks (Nov 15, 2019)

Eric B said:


> I’ve used the savings dollars for restaurant certificates, but that’s about it.  You can get a $25 one each month with them.[/QUO
> 
> thanks for the reminder, I just redeemed a restaurant.com certificate
> I don't understand what the savings dollars do for you.   I have 500, will they get me anything?


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## rapmarks (Nov 15, 2019)

I got an offer from RCI on Oct 10 8 months for $32 for platinum membership.   when I checked my credit card statement, I saw they charged me $59.  I wanted to do a combine and save the 10% but I was unwilling to pay $59.   I called about it, and after a very long hold while the agent talked to a supervisor, they credited the $59 and gave me seven months for no cost.   So I got the combine discount and i will grab a restaurant.com certificate when I remember.  Big deal you don't have to pay for the search, you still have to pay the exchange fee.


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## tschwa2 (Nov 15, 2019)

rapmarks said:


> Big deal you don't have to pay for the search, you still have to pay the exchange fee.


Several people on facebook and one or two people here have reported that ongoing searches have auto booked instead of being held.  When they called they were told that this is a change in rci coding.  I am not sure if this is true but as a platinum member who has not prepaid the exchange fee, I have had several matches and none auto book.  They just hold until released or not booked by the deadline.


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## rapmarks (Nov 15, 2019)

Mine did not auto book


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## Eric B (Nov 15, 2019)

iwanttoflyaway said:


> Looks like they're retiring these [restaurant.com certificates], with new platinum benefits 'coming soon'.  Maybe they'll actually offer something of value...



Actually, they look like they're still there.  Just a bit hard to find.


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## iwanttoflyaway (Nov 15, 2019)

Eric B said:


> Actually, they look like they're still there.  Just a bit hard to find.



I mean savings dollars more generally, it appears they're being retired.  The email and some google says all dollars will expire by December 31st, though my dollars still say they're expiring next August.  I do get my restaurant.com certs monthly, but haven't found any other user for them yet.


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## rapmarks (Nov 15, 2019)

What can you do with saving dollars?  Is it just a discount or can you get something tangible?


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## iwanttoflyaway (Nov 15, 2019)

They're very close to worthless, according to most everyone.  You can use 25 of them every month for a restaurant.com certificate, which can be bought several time a year for $2 each.  A few posts up I described the only valuable use I've ever found for similar credits, which was for one-way car rentals.  I haven't had any need for one-way car rentals since buying the timeshare, so I don't know for sure these were able to be used that way.  Regardless, you can buy similar 'dollars' for 3c apiece, which imo is maybe still an overestimate of their value.  I won't be sorry to see them retire, there is some small possibility that they'll replace it with a slightly more valuable perk.


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## Eric B (Nov 16, 2019)

RCI Travel is run by ICE, which also runs the SFX travel store for SFX, the Vida Lifestyle for Vidanta, and a similar travel store for Pueblo Bonito.  I'm sure there are others as well.  The model they use is to provide some form of credit like the savings dollars with RCI that can be used for credit towards purchases of cruises typically, some other travel expenses, some shopping, wine, etc.  In general, the net prices wind up being comparable to what it would cost through other travel aggregators or discount shopping sites.  There are some fairly decent deals in each of the different set ups; with RCI the restaurant.com certificates are the best use IMHO because they don't require you to pay any additional money to get them, though there are minimum purchase requirements at the restaurants ultimately when you use them.  They typically have a price match guarantee based upon the net price after the savings dollars or other credits are applied, which you could take as an indicator of what value they place on the savings dollars (closer to 0 than $.03).

That being said, it's not a bad thing because it gives you another option to look at for pricing hotels if you need one, rental cars, flights, etc.  I just never lose any sleep if my savings dollars or other credit currency with ICE expire.  I also don't look at them as a great influencer for where I spend my travel dollars because I recognize their actual value.


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## bbodb1 (Nov 16, 2019)

*What are oxymorons?
*
Potpourri for $1,000 please Alex.


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## tschwa2 (Dec 1, 2019)

I was going to do a combine today and saw that savings dollars are being discontinued and you could continue to earn them through 12/7 and use them until the end of this year.  I hope they are being replaced by something better.  I think I might wait to combine until next week to see what is going on.


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## VanX (Dec 2, 2019)

tschwa2 said:


> I was going to do a combine today and saw that savings dollars are being discontinued and you could continue to earn them through 12/7 and use them until the end of this year.  I hope they are being replaced by something better.  I think I might wait to combine until next week to see what is going on.



Smart move.   I combined last week as well as joined and added Platinum while moving 8 weeks in for 80 TPUs.  

I now have $1189 in RCI saving dollars and would prefer to have it all in whatever the next program may be vs the one ending in December.   Very little value for me in any of those dollars in terms of discounts.   

Oh well I never knew about these saving dollars going in to this so it’s no great loss in them sunsetting the program soon for me.   

So far I do prefer my points RCI program and it’s use with travel partners vs RCI weeks but now that we have both we will see if we decide to keep them both or just stick with RCI points.


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