Mid August update (downtime *early* Wednesday night)

[T-Dot-Traveller]

........ the story about why we bought TS 25 years ago - Fairfield at the time. It has to do with staying in Florida at my other SIL house with her six cats ….
Wes.

1996
So the salesperson said:
- we don't allow cats / sign on the dotted line , and you were done ?
********
2021
1 )where in the original documents or contract does It say no cats.?
2 ) Is it part of the no commercial use verbiage ?
3 ) Do resale or feral cats qualify for VIP
4 ) Are 4 cats family vacation use , but 6 cats is running a business ?
5 ) in which bucket can you find your cats?

Can @HitchHiker71 confirm the above with Wyndham contacts

 

[paxsarah]

Yes, I think the only thing developer wouldn’t show is ARP at a resale location (that you don’t also own developer of). Resale wouldn’t show developer ARP, 11 month RARP, plus Margaritaville outside 5 months or Outrigger.

 

[Eric B]

Yes, I think the only thing developer wouldn’t show is ARP at a resale location (that you don’t also own developer of). Resale wouldn’t show developer ARP, 11 month RARP, plus Margaritaville outside 5 months or Outrigger.

… mine would show Outrigger.

 

[Cyrus24]

I created my spreadsheet of pending reservations this morning. Thankfully, I only have 16 reservations between what is left in 2021 and for all of 2022. I have more resale points assigned to these pending reservations then I actually own (almost 2X), in both 2021 and 2022. And, things changed during the night. What a Mess!!! Glad that I don't have any need for new reservations or any need to do cancellations.

 

[paxsarah]

… mine would show Outrigger.

That’s true, if you own it. I guess that’s not actually resale/developer at all - I was just thinking of what didn’t show for me during the “filter only what you can book” debacle. Same is true for Margaritaville, if you own Margaritaville resale.

My main point being, there’s very little resale is prevented from seeing in an availability search simply for being resale.

 

[Eric B]

One more item for your list, @HitchHiker71 - I tried to check out the functionality for the points deposit feature to see if the numbers there match what I believe mine should be for resale and developer and it shows 0 developer points available to deposit. I am VIPG with a January/December use year and have 93,322 points available, of which 26,623 should be developer points based on the allocations they are showing in the system. When I select resale points as the source it indicates that I cannot deposit because it's past the deadline despite the specific allowance for that for the remainder of the year. When I select "All Purchase Types" it spins for a little bit and kicks me back to the original page without doing anything.

Might be that the system isn't ready for prime time yet, though they indicated it was on line in their email. Or it might be a problem in the implementation. I had not intended to actually execute the deposit yet, but wanted to see what it thought my allocations were - I've got one of those weird display situations where it's showing current year in the points summary as being a bonus contract one that ran 10/1/2019-9/30/2021 and have been needing to rely on the display of current year points in the upper right hand corner and the dashboard to see what my remaining points for 1/1/2021-12/31/2021.

 

[Braindead]

… mine would show Outrigger.

Mine does show Outrigger as ORC on the benefits page

 

[VacayKat]

Reservation transactions are not required for cancellations, just for booking (and depositing to RCI).

Did not know that... but if I still have to pay to use the points after the cancellation not so much worth my time if they give me enough to cover in future years - having to pay when Wyndham could have made much more intelligent decisions on how to use my points is not something I am inclined to do.

 

[VacayKat]

Oh - one other thing from my call yesterday:
If a reservation has an upgrade request on it, even if it is now a resale transaction that request stands and will remain active. @HitchHiker71 might be worth adding to the list of questions for confirmation.

 

[Eric B]

... having to pay when Wyndham could have made much more intelligent decisions on how to use my points is not something I am inclined to do.

Don't forget that there are no reservation transaction fees being charged for online transactions for all of August.

 

[VacayKat]

Don't forget that there are no reservation transaction fees being charged for online transactions for all of August.

true - but what are the chances that Wyndham will get their act together by end of august so I know exactly what they've done and how it will stand? I mean if past experience holds true, I should not have much confidence. My account is now (again) in the "I'll have to look into that" stage of owner care help. Since I have an ongoing case (which they finally made a case after ~ a year) that does not appear to have any priority, or any progress, the company is just underwhelming me in their efficiency and competency.

 

[Cyrus24]

I called the number on the email to address issues with how developer and resale was assigned to future reservations. Got the ‘can’t help you with that’ response. Can’t believe Wyndham computer system would just arbitrarily, via some crazy algorithm, assign how many points to assign to future reservations.

So how will they remedy the fallout from the above problem that can’t be fixed? ‘Bonus developer points being added to 2022 in the amount of 50% (since you are VIPP) of your resale points, up to 400,000 points.’

Got past that and went on to issue 2, why do resale points on future reservations add up to more than my total resale points in both 2021 and 2022? Response, ‘We can audit that’. Ok, audit that. Should have a response in 5 to 7 business days.

Very nice conversation with someone who seemed to know what she was talking about.

 

[HitchHiker71]

One other thing that makes me nuts is I now have to search twice for availability if I am not sure which points I want to use. Presumably looking with developer will show all availability for resale as well but would like some confirmation that is the case.

I haven't run through the various use cases myself - but my initial thinking is that unless you're attempting to search for availability leveraging VIP benefits - there would be no difference when viewing available inventory with developer vs resale - so this issue is really limited only to VIP resale owners. I'm referring to MVC, RARP, etc. This should be something you know in advance of initiating a search - at least I would know - but that's IMHO of course.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Wow. I reserved the same week months ago. My wife’s sister lives in PR and what better time to visit than February. But I love not staying with them when we visit. Someday I’ll bore you with the story about why we bought TS 25 years ago - Fairfield at the time. It has to do with staying in Florida at my other SIL house with her six cats …. I’ll buy you a Margarita or beer - if you remind me. I’m older than you (unless you robbed the cradle).

Wes.

LOL - we'll see you there then Wes! Let's definitely meet up for an alcoholic beverage while there. We'll be there from Jan 31-Feb 6 - at least that's the current plan. I turn 50 myself in October this year - I'm a few months ahead of my better half.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Nice to see someone else is getting a free ride on Southwest. I have a companion pass and booked all flights with points over the last several years.

The best part is it's literally 100% free for us. Back in Jan 2020 we booked flights for a company sponsored event - and the flights weren't cheap - about $1400 for the two of us to fly to the Bahamas at that time - mostly because the company waited until the last minute to green light the trip (it was one of those trips for the annual best performers type thing). Spouses were included as well. All expenses paid type trip. So I expensed the airline charges as usual. Then the pandemic ramped up - and they postponed the entire trip at the last minute. Then we got acquired in Sept 2020 - so no more trip - so the acquiring company handed us a $3k expense bonus as compensation for the trip cancellation - plus we got to keep the airline tickets. So we've got $1400 in Southwest flights to burn between now and 9/7/2022 (that's the current expiration date - Southwest kept pushing it out due to the pandemic). That's at least two round trips for us under regular circumstances - which means we can take two couples trips with flights for no cost outlay. I'll take it.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Those type of requests scare me. I'd rather see things I don't need to, rather not see things I need to see. And history shows some things are best left alone.

Perhaps the enhancement request is to allow for your Benefits Summary to display just that - the Benefits you actually want to see. So allow for the account owner to display/hide the buckets via settings that are saved as part of your account. So if I could care less about the developer HK bucket for example - since it's unlimited - allow me to hide it at my discretion. This was actually my primary complaint about the entire Owner Dashboard itself. Dashboards should be customizable by the owner - such that I can configure my dashboard according to my ownership preferences. This still remains my primary ask for the dashboard functions today.

 

[HitchHiker71]

true - but what are the chances that Wyndham will get their act together by end of august so I know exactly what they've done and how it will stand? I mean if past experience holds true, I should not have much confidence. My account is now (again) in the "I'll have to look into that" stage of owner care help. Since I have an ongoing case (which they finally made a case after ~ a year) that does not appear to have any priority, or any progress, the company is just underwhelming me in their efficiency and competency.

Did they give you a case number? If so, PM me the case number, once things calm down a bit from these recent changes, I can try to get your case in front of someone directly and see if we can get you some dedicated help/attention.

 

[HitchHiker71]

So how will they remedy the fallout from the above problem that can’t be fixed? ‘Bonus points being added to 2022 in the amount of 50% (since you are VIPP) of your resale points, up to 400,000 points.’

That's a very interesting response - because on the education session last week - IIRC Vanity indicated that the complimentary points would be developer points only. Are you saying the complimentary points will be resale points? Or they are simply calculating the complimentary points based upon your resale points owned - but into the developer future use year bucket?

Got past that and went on to issue 2, why do resale points on future reservations add up to more than my total resale points in both 2021 and 2022? Response, ‘We can audit that’. Ok, audit that. Should have a response in 5 to 7 business days.

Very nice conversation with someone who seemed to know what she was talking about.

Very nice to know we can request an audit from this team. That's good info for everyone here.

 

[Cyrus24]

That's a very interesting response - because on the education session last week - IIRC Vanity indicated that the complimentary points would be developer points only. Are you saying the complimentary points will be resale points? Or they are simply calculating the complimentary points based upon your resale points owned - but into the developer future use year bucket?



Very nice to know we can request an audit from this team. That's good info for everyone here.

The 50% would be added as Developer Points. I’ll update my post to be more clear.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Yep. By the fact that he is temporary platinum, a bonus contract would be in play.

I was temp VIPP until 9/30/2020 - I dropped down to VIPG after that date. My original bonus contract was from 10/1/2018 - 9/30/2020 - so I can't really explain the two year bucket from 10/1/2019 - 9/30/2021 as a result.

 

[HitchHiker71]

A couple of you raised a very valid bug fix for the HK credits showing differently between the Points Summary and the Benefits Summary. Selfishly, I actually like seeing the HKs broken down differently on the Benefits Summary - because it tells me exactly how much of my VIP benefits are being paid for out of the program fees vs the Sales & Marketing division.

I've learned in my travels that the program fee covers the non-VIP contract costs - whereas the Sales & Marketing division pays for any/all costs beyond those normal consumption. So in the graphic above - for my current use year - so far - I can see that my program fee covered costs for seven HKs, and the Sales & Marketing division covered the costs of two HK credits (to date) for this year. Interesting tidbit to "see" via this new Benefits Summary page. We should still ask for it to say "unlimited" to match the Points Summary page to be clear - since it is confusing - but it makes perfect sense to me why they are tracking this data - because they have to do so to divide up the internal departmental costs properly.

 

[Eric B]

So how will they remedy the fallout from the above problem that can’t be fixed? ‘Bonus points being added to 2022 in the amount of 50% (since you are VIPP) of your resale points, up to 400,000 points.’

Hmmm, I wonder if they're planning on giving me 35% of my resale points as VIP-eligible points since I'm VIPG. That kind of makes sense as representing what I could have gotten as discounts.

 

[HitchHiker71]

One more item for your list, @HitchHiker71 - I tried to check out the functionality for the points deposit feature to see if the numbers there match what I believe mine should be for resale and developer and it shows 0 developer points available to deposit. I am VIPG with a January/December use year and have 93,322 points available, of which 26,623 should be developer points based on the allocations they are showing in the system. When I select resale points as the source it indicates that I cannot deposit because it's past the deadline despite the specific allowance for that for the remainder of the year. When I select "All Purchase Types" it spins for a little bit and kicks me back to the original page without doing anything.

Might be that the system isn't ready for prime time yet, though they indicated it was on line in their email. Or it might be a problem in the implementation. I had not intended to actually execute the deposit yet, but wanted to see what it thought my allocations were - I've got one of those weird display situations where it's showing current year in the points summary as being a bonus contract one that ran 10/1/2019-9/30/2021 and have been needing to rely on the display of current year points in the upper right hand corner and the dashboard to see what my remaining points for 1/1/2021-12/31/2021.

I can certainly add this to our bug report list. In the interim - I would call into the dedicated line and see if they can do it for you - if you really need to get it done sooner rather than later. I know the next sprint release is currently scheduled for 9/1/2021 so unless a particular fix is considered urgent and requires a dedicated CR - the earliest we would see a change would be 9/1/2021 - and that's assuming any one fix can be coded and rolled out within a two week window between now and then.

I saw more changes to my dataset overnight last night as well. This makes me believe more firmly that the back office team is still running code to fix data integrity issues and to properly align the dataset so that it displays properly via the Benefits Summary that the front office website DT team rolled out. The problem with exposing more data via the website - as we're all seeing with our own eyes now - is that the data integrity has to be correct. In a way - as painful as this might be for us in the short term - long term this is a good thing what we're going through now - because if additional data exposure results in better data integrity on the back end - that's not a bad thing. I may recommend to my contacts that they consider keeping the dedicated support line around through year end as opposed to the current 30 day window - to allow the subset of owners more time to get account audits sorted out and get our data integrity issues resolved.

 

[scootr5]

Is your Benefits Summary tab populated at all? Mine is completely blank (as was another resale owner's further back in the thread).

Just curious if yours is still blank today? Mine still is.

 

[Eric B]

I can certainly add this to our bug report list. In the interim - I would call into the dedicated line and see if they can do it for you - if you really need to get it done sooner rather than later. I know the next sprint release is currently scheduled for 9/1/2021 so unless a particular fix is considered urgent and requires a dedicated CR - the earliest we would see a change would be 9/1/2021 - and that's assuming any one fix can be coded and rolled out within a two week window between now and then.

I saw more changes to my dataset overnight last night as well. This makes me believe more firmly that the back office team is still running code to fix data integrity issues and to properly align the dataset so that it displays properly via the Benefits Summary that the front office website DT team rolled out. The problem with exposing more data via the website - as we're all seeing with our own eyes now - is that the data integrity has to be correct. In a way - as painful as this might be for us in the short term - long term this is a good thing what we're going through now - because if additional data exposure results in better data integrity on the back end - that's not a bad thing. I may recommend to my contacts that they consider keeping the dedicated support line around through year end as opposed to the current 30 day window - to allow the subset of owners more time to get account audits sorted out and get our data integrity issues resolved.

I'm hoping to wait until they finish up fixing the data before I do anything - I'm seeing a lot of movement in things, too. The only thing is that they're only waiving RT fees for online transactions through the end of August and they just updated my usage statistics to take away all my resale RTs for this year retroactively, so that adds to the cost (even if it's just a minor amount).