# Vacation Internationale rules.....



## oceanvps (Aug 25, 2011)

Can someone point me in the right direction in regards to this?
I could phone VI but ...... you know how it is

I have a Worldmark TS and I'm used to their rules and the amount of info (wmowners) that is available to work the system is great, but I can't find a similar amount of info for VI 



a. Are there rules about booking for guests? I made a booking yesterday for myself and wondered if it was as simple as just putting their name on the booking and that was the end of it. The owner manual (online) doesn't talk about it specifically).

b. If i was to want to rent points from VI I'm assuming you have to call them and do the booking that way and request to top up points.

c. If i was to buy another vi contract. Do they just add it to your current owner number (assuming owners are identical) and you draw from both contracts without effort?

d.  i belong to both rci weeks and ii.   wm is fed into rci through their portal (but i had to have a rci account first).  It looks like VI fits with RCI points (after a conversion) but can you add the ts to the RCI weeks account? I know i'm going to have RCI was just wondering.......


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## JohnPaul (Aug 25, 2011)

oceanvps said:


> Can someone point me in the right direction in regards to this?
> I could phone VI but ...... you know how it is
> 
> I have a Worldmark TS and I'm used to their rules and the amount of info (wmowners) that is available to work the system is great, but I can't find a similar amount of info for VI
> ...




a)  You can book a guest any time you want (including bonus time).  Just put them down as the guest.

b)  Yes, you would have to call to rent points.  Not usually a very good deal but worth it if you are just a few points short of what you need.

c)  Yes, they just put the contracts together under your one owner number.  Used to have about 9 contracts until they combined to one for me.  (Long story but I got a great deal paying them a nominal amount and ending up Platinum.  Unusual circumstances but I love the Platinum benefits.)

d)  We own in a bunch of systems and virtually every one requires a separate account.  You got to RCI through the VI portal (accessing only your VI ownership).  We have a Points account but not sure that is always the case.


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## oceanvps (Oct 18, 2011)

*Point Shuffling*

We currently have one contract, made a booking for jan 2012 earliest point expiry is june 2013.

imminently having another contract put under the same owner number.  that one has points expiring june 2012. i emailed cust service to understand use rules (i'm used to worldmark which is very different) and they said that i have to USE the new points from contract #2 before June 2012. so my question.... 

wm points shuffle so pretty much you are always using your oldest points and hskp token, according to VI their points don't shuffle - or i didn't ask the question correctly So ....   does the jan 2012 (using points from contract 1) reservation change to pull the points from the contract 2 once it goes live on my account? do i have to cancel my jan 2012 res (which i do not want to do cause its hawaii and exact days we need) and rebook so they pull from contract 2? is there any other way to get these points re-allocated so i'm using my "oldest" points first? the only other thing we were doing with our VI points next year was an exchange in November 2012 which i don't think helps me either with the expiring points because won't they just pull the points i need from that from contract 1 as well? i don't really want to make a reservation for the sake of using expiring points but I will if i have to...:rofl: 

hope i didn't lose you halfway through and someone can explain to me how the VI points get allocated. thx.


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## JohnPaul (Oct 18, 2011)

oceanvps said:


> We currently have one contract, made a booking for jan 2012 earliest point expiry is june 2013.
> 
> imminently having another contract put under the same owner number.  that one has points expiring june 2012. i emailed cust service to understand use rules (i'm used to worldmark which is very different) and they said that i have to USE the new points from contract #2 before June 2012. so my question....
> 
> ...



I don't think VI shuffles your points after you make a reservation.  Thus, cancelling a reservation with older points even when you have more future reservations can leave you with old points that need to be used.  I'm pretty sure you could call and rework it but you'd probably pay a new reservation fee.  

Even though I have lots of points, I go through them pretty quickly and rarely get into this situation.


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## oceanvps (Oct 18, 2011)

we find ourselves a little overbooked in the vacation department from now til then (june 2012) hubby gets one week off every four otherwise is on call 24/7 so we're a bit limited i'd rather not have to book another week somewhere I'll at least give them a call to see if they can change the points we're using (once the new contract is in place).

I like VI so far but
I have to say worldmark wins hands down in the flexibility area for booking,cancelling etc......


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## gbridger (Oct 22, 2011)

As a long term owner of VI with two conracts, and only a 2 year owner of WM, I still feel more comfortable with the overall VI system.

If you have multiple VI contracts, merge them into a single account which will show different ending dates for the points. Yes, I do watch my point balance to be sure that the oldest points get used first, and call for a correction when I do not understand what they did. In 18 years have yet to loose any points.

I like the way VI shows all vacancies for a whole month for each resort, on one screen.


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## oceanvps (Oct 22, 2011)

its too bad you can't pick and choose the best features and have the perfect timeshare booking system.

i have to wait for the new contract to appear on my account then i'll see if i have to maneuver the points around


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## JohnPaul (Oct 22, 2011)

*Shuffle Years*

With VI when you make a reservation, the points come out of the oldest year.    When you cancel a reservation they go back to that year.  There is no reshuffling of your reservations when you cancel.

I found myself in a situation that sounds similar to oceanvps.  I wanted to make a reservation at the Oasis in Palm Springs in January 2012 but the only available points I had were only valid for stays after 7/1/12.

By cancelling a reservation for a stay after 7/1/12 that was made with some points that were good in January 2012 the points were freed up.  I booked the Oasis because I now had points good in January 2012.

Next I rebooked my vacation I had cancelled that was after 7/1/12 which wasn't a problem because I had plenty of points that were useable after 7/1/12.

There are only two downsides to this approach. 

1)  I had to pay another reservation fee for the post 7/1/12 vacation (only $20).

2)  It's possible that someone else can grab  your space in the brief time between cancelling and rebooking.

I was a little shocked to find myself not having enough points for a reservation as we own over 400 annual points and this is only one of about 5 timeshare systems we are in.  I added up all the vacations I have booked in the next year and I have spent about 830 points.


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## JohnPaul (Oct 22, 2011)

*Complicated Rules - Try SVC*

Just one more comment.  

We belong to VI, Wordmark, HGVC, Shell Vacations Club and RCI Points.

If you want to deal with complicated rules - try Shell.  I love staying with them in Napa and San Francisco but what a bunch of complicated rules.


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## oceanvps (Oct 22, 2011)

i was looking at shell at one point but i had to talk myself out of it...... too many weeks of vacation temptation with vi, wm, rci specials and interval getaways -  not enough time to take anymore than we are...

VI
i think vi is a super simple system. there doesn't seem to be many ways to manipulate the system - unless you're prestige.
if i had to improve it....
it would be great if a person could book bonus time online, i hate phoning people -i asked about booking bt in my last email to them and the cust serv responded they didn't think that would be available.  i would imagine if i wanted to cancel a res i'd have to phone as well. i like the fact that you can book one day at a time and they don't ding you for friday saturdays in extra points. I haven't used it yet but I think their internal exchange offerings are also interesting - planning on booking something using instant exchange for November 2012. I think I'm not going to like the non shuffling but those are the rules  normally i don't think it would cause problems, i'm sure we're going to use all our points up rather quickly...but when we bought the two vi contracts they came with banked points so we have more than we normally would.  

WM
i like wm's booking system but it would be nice to see all the unit types listed rather having to use the drop down list to view availability (pia).  i love their cancellation policy. i like wm's flexibility to book using other methods than points. monday madness, inventory special, fax time and bonus time. I think the ease of how you can transfer points between owners (renting points) is a great feature.


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## JohnPaul (Oct 22, 2011)

*Point Protection*

One thing that VI has is Point Protection.  You buy it when you make your reservation and it's $45 regardless of the number of points in your reservation.

You can cancel up to the last business day before your reservation starts FOR ANY REASON.

Most of the time I don't bother but it's been handy when I'm planning something with family that is waffley and to book December at Tahoe when the snow status is very iffy.  Paying for the flexibility but some times it's worth it.


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## tpelton (Feb 24, 2012)

*Two questions about VI*

As our group (Aviawest) is now threatened to be swallowed by VI, I need some clarification. 

Why is it that their maintenance fees are so high relative to other groups?

When they bought up P2P - how many of the owners in that system signed up (what portion of the points converted vs the portion that were swallowed and resold)?

Is the Prestige program an extra cost?  If so how much would it cost for a member with 100 points?  400 Points?  Do you have to pay different fees for different levels?

Thanks.


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## oceanvps (Feb 24, 2012)

Interesting!
That was the first I'd heard of it, but now I see that they have a faq on the vi website.

www.viresorts.com

In regards to Prestige I think that you had to buy from developer. Hopefully a P2P person will come by and answer your question.  You'd be better off starting a new thread though I think.  

There was also a thread on Tug that had the P2P discussion on it.

One thing I've noticed about VI is that the board does actually seem to care about the direction of the timeshare system. 

Hope someone more experienced comes by to answer your q's.

J


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## JohnPaul (Feb 27, 2012)

*Prestige*

When VI was started they sold 25 and 40 year packages.  Once your time was up you were done.  As property in the system is there to support the points, if the points go away so do the properties.

VI realized that it would be difficult to sustain the organization if it was just going to shrink.  They changed to perpetual membership (with perpetual property to support it).  

To encourage people to change their points to perpetual they developed the Prestige program.  It is based on how many perpetual (vs fixed year) points you own.  

When the program started a few years ago, you had to take action (make a limited purchase) to join.  Any perpetual points you had counted.  For points to count now you have to buy them from the developer.

I would assume perpetual points that come into VI through a merger would count as developer sold.  You still might have to make an additional purchase of points to enter the Prestige Program.

At the higher levels (there are 4 levels) the benefits are amazing.  We joined VI in 1989.  By the time the Prestige Program came along we had a lot of perpetual points - some from the developer and some from the secondary market.  We ended up being Platinum which is the highest leverl.  I love the platinum benefits.


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