Does anyone have TravelUp

[Don40]

Went to a presentation yesterday and the salesperson was pushing TravelUp as a great way to save on travel. They claim with the Wyndham purchase of travel and leisure the TravelUp membership will allow savings on cruise, safaris of up to 70% percent off. Has anyone used this feature. salesperson said buy more points to get enrolled, 13k for 64k CWA contract and then TravelUp is added. I could not find anything on TravelUp. Does anyone have TravelUp, and if so are the discounts worth it.

 

[bnoble]

if so are the discounts worth it

Without knowing anything about it, I will go out on a limb and say no.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Please search this forum for more guidance on the TravelUp program. There are a few threads on it already will provide some answers to your inquiry. Many thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tschwa2]

I know this site is not full of retail buyers but it is surprising that no one here has bought 49,000 or more retail wyndham points in the last 5.5 months (introduced May 20, 2021) . Of course the biggest discounts would be from platinum or founders members who also bought retail since they have offered this benefit but even a standard member would be able to discuss their up to 20% discounts so it could be compared to what might be possible for the up to 40% (platinum) and up to 50% (founders) discounts.

 

[Don40]

Please search this forum for more guidance on the TravelUp program. There are a few threads on it already will provide some answers to your inquiry. Many thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I read the comments, but wanted to see if anyone had actual experience with using the program. At the presentation it showed some really great pricing on an African Safari. So I wanted to see if someone actually booked a trip and were the prices that much lower than like say Costco.

 

[ILSherry]

Went to a presentation yesterday and the salesperson was pushing TravelUp as a great way to save on travel. They claim with the Wyndham purchase of travel and leisure the TravelUp membership will allow savings on cruise, safaris of up to 70% percent off. Has anyone used this feature. salesperson said buy more points to get enrolled, 13k for 64k CWA contract and then TravelUp is added. I could not find anything on TravelUp. Does anyone have TravelUp, and if so are the discounts worth it.

Never buy CWA - very high maintenance and large increases in maintenance fee. Wyndham puts all of the old resorts in there - they require more upkeep. TravelUp is a 3rd party travel agency. We talked to them directly. They told us that you cannot use points/reward points to purchase travel. They are cash. Also, unless you do a lot of traveling, Owners at lower levels will not benefit much. You need to be Platinum, Founder of Presidential to get the larger discounts.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Never buy CWA - very high maintenance and large increases in maintenance fee. Wyndham puts all of the old resorts in there - they require more upkeep. TravelUp is a 3rd party travel agency. We talked to them directly. They told us that you cannot use points/reward points to purchase travel. They are cash. Also, unless you do a lot of traveling, Owners at lower levels will not benefit much. You need to be Platinum, Founder of Presidential to get the larger discounts.

Actually CWA is middle of the road on MFs in reality. This is typical BS from the sales and marketing team at Wyndham. The highest MFs in the system are around $13/1000 and the lowest are around $4.50/1000 with the program fees included (that's a spread of $8.50/1000 from highest to lowest MFs). The medium would be $8.75/1000 using basic mathematics. 2022 MFs for CWA are $7.61/1000 including program fees. That's actually below the basic medium calculation we just demonstrated here. There are certainly lower CWS contracts from BH, NH, Canterbury, etc., but those are generally harder to come by and typically costlier even for resale contracts because of the lower MFs. I own resale NH for example, and 2022 MFs including the program fees are $5.47/1000. You also don't get ARP to 70+ resorts with CWS contracts - which matters to some owners who typically book in the ARP window. There's no one right answer with respect to what ownership works best - it all depends on your vacation habits.

I would love to see some actual real world examples from anyone who has made a retail purchase since TravelUp has been introduced as those owners should have received TravelUp subscriptions with their retail purchases to the best of my understanding. Has anyone run some price comparisons between typical travel sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak, etc., and TravelUp? If we could get some folks at different VIP levels to post up some comparison numbers - it might help to validate if higher VIP tiers really see any appreciable price advantage when using TravelUp since this is often the claim during the sales process. From what little I've observed - it doesn't seem worthwhile - but I've also not seen any real world pricing posted along this line - hence the ask.

 

[geist1223]

I assume without knowing that Wyndham indirectly gives you cash per Point. So they pay cash and deduct "X" Points from your Account.. Worldmark has something like this for Travelshare Members. For Worldmark you only get 4 cents per Credit. So it is a bad use of Credits. Also you get the best price on the day you make the Purchase. If the cost goes town too bad.

Also the approximate cross value of Wyndham vs Worldmrk is 16 Wyndham Points for 1 Worldmrk Credit. So it is probably even a worse deal for Wyndham Members.

 

[jwalk03]

I have seen numerous posts about Travel Up in the Facebook groups too and I am yet to see a single response from someone that has Travel Up and got some great discount using it. Personally I would assume its all the usual smoke and mirrors and not remotely worth the cost to get it.

 

[bnoble]

The median would be [...] using basic mathematics.

This is a bit of a quibble, but you've provided the mid-point, not the median. I suspect that the distribution is not symmetric around the mid-point, and the median is in fact probably lower.

Does that matter? probably not. But the pedant in me has not let that sort of thing go.

 

[chapjim]

This is a bit of a quibble, but you've provided the mid-point, not the median. I suspect that the distribution is not symmetric around the mid-point, and the median is in fact probably lower.

Does that matter? probably not. But the pedant in me has not let that sort of thing go.

Median is the mid-point. Half above, half below.

Trying to do any kind of weighted average would be beyond our capability.

 

[chapjim]

Deleted

 

[bnoble]

Median is the mid-point. Half above, half below.

The median is the point at which half of the “population” (in this case, contracts) are above and below. The mid point is the middle of the range. They are not the same thing.

Again I know I’m being pedantic about this, but it’s an occupational hazard as a professional pedant.

 

[chapjim]

The median is the point at which half of the “population” (in this case, contracts) are above and below. The mid point is the middle of the range. They are not the same thing.

Again I know I’m being pedantic about this, but it’s an occupational hazard as a professional pedant.

What does "middle of the range" mean if not half above and half below?

The population in this case is a list of resorts and corresponding maintenance fees, sorted by maintenance fee. Take that list, find the item halfway down the list. That is the median. It is also the mid-point. Can't be anything else.

 

[bnoble]

Full disclosure: I'm a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at a reputable university, so I teach statistics as part of my living in the guise of performance measurement and evaluation. I get very good teaching ratings, so I'm probably good at it. Maybe the students just like me; it is not because I am an easy A.

The population in this case is a list of resorts and corresponding maintenance fees, sorted by maintenance fee. Take that list, find the item halfway down the list. That is the median. It is also the mid-point. Can't be anything else.

You define the median correctly, but the median is not necessarily the mid-point of the range. I'll give you two hypothetical examples to illustrate the difference.

In the first example, imagine there are a total of 9 contracts in the Wyndham universe. One is the highest: $13/K. One is the lowest: $4.5/K. The others are roughly evenly distributed, so the sorted list is $4.5, $6, $7, $8, $8.75, $10, $11, $12, $13. In this population the median is $8.75, because there are four contracts that cost less ($4.5, $6, $7, $8) and four contracts that cost more ($10, $11, $12, $13). $8.75 also happens to be the midpoint of the range [($13-$4.5)/2]+$4.5. In this example, the median and the midpoint are identical.

In the second example, imagine there are a total of 9 contracts in the Wyndham universe. One is the highest: $13/K. One is the lowest: $4.5/K. The others are not evenly distributed, but instead occupy the bottom half of the range: $4.5, $5, $5.5, $6, $6.5, $7, $7.5, $8, $13. Now, the median is $6.5, because there are four contracts that cost less ($4.5, $5, $5.5, $6) and four that cost more ($7, 7.5, $8, $13). But the midpoint of the range is still $8.75, because the range is still $4.5 to $13. In this example, the median and the midpoint differ.

I believe that the universe of Wyndham deeds looks more like our second example than our first example, and the MF history seems to back this up based on how I am reading it. So, while CWA's $/K cost is below the midpoint of the Wyndham $/K range, I suspect it is above the median of Wyndham deeds ordered by $/K.

 

[HitchHiker71]

This is a bit of a quibble, but you've provided the mid-point, not the median. I suspect that the distribution is not symmetric around the mid-point, and the median is in fact probably lower.

Does that matter? probably not. But the pedant in me has not let that sort of thing go.

Sorry - that was an autocorrect issue - I typed medium and autocorrect changed it to median for some reason. Have I mentioned how much I hate autocorrect? Medium and mid-point are the same IME. It is likely that the CWA average of $7.61/1000 is actually closer to the true median in comparison - as I have asked this question to some Wyndham contacts during my travels and this is generally exactly where they try to keep the CWA MFs - close to the true median MFs across the entire CWP portfolio. So the medium/mid-point is $8.75/1000 while the median is likely closer to $7.61/1000. Sorry for the confusion - I have corrected the post now.

 

[chapjim]

Full disclosure: I'm a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at a reputable university, so I teach statistics as part of my living in the guise of performance measurement and evaluation. I get very good teaching ratings, so I'm probably good at it. Maybe the students just like me; it is not because I am an easy A.



You define the median correctly, but the median is not necessarily the mid-point of the range. I'll give you two hypothetical examples to illustrate the difference.

In the first example, imagine there are a total of 9 contracts in the Wyndham universe. One is the highest: $13/K. One is the lowest: $4.5/K. The others are roughly evenly distributed, so the sorted list is $4.5, $6, $7, $8, $8.75, $10, $11, $12, $13. In this population the median is $8.75, because there are four contracts that cost less ($4.5, $6, $7, $8) and four contracts that cost more ($10, $11, $12, $13). $8.75 also happens to be the midpoint of the range [($13-$4.5)/2]+$4.5. In this example, the median and the midpoint are identical.

In the second example, imagine there are a total of 9 contracts in the Wyndham universe. One is the highest: $13/K. One is the lowest: $4.5/K. The others are not evenly distributed, but instead occupy the bottom half of the range: $4.5, $5, $5.5, $6, $6.5, $7, $7.5, $8, $13. Now, the median is $6.5, because there are four contracts that cost less ($4.5, $5, $5.5, $6) and four that cost more ($7, 7.5, $8, $13). But the midpoint of the range is still $8.75, because the range is still $4.5 to $13. In this example, the median and the midpoint differ.

I believe that the universe of Wyndham deeds looks more like our second example than our first example, and the MF history seems to back this up based on how I am reading it. So, while CWA's $/K cost is below the midpoint of the Wyndham $/K range, I suspect it is above the median of Wyndham deeds ordered by $/K.

So, you define mid-point as the average of the top and bottom values. Even though there might not be any of the data with that value. Got it.

I have no difficulty believing you are not an easy A!

 

[Ty1on]

So, you define mid-point as the average of the top and bottom values. Got it.

I have no difficulty believing you are not an easy A!

But he's right. midpoint isn't median. If you add the highest observation to the lowest observation and divide by two, that is the midpoint. The median is the point at which there are an equal number of observations above and below it.

Similarly, in geometry, the midpoint is the point exactly halfway between the upper and lower extremities of a line.

 

[chapjim]

But he's right. midpoint isn't median. If you add the highest observation to the lowest observation and divide by two, that is the midpoint. The median is the point at which there are an equal number of observations above and below it.

View attachment 46219

Similarly, in geometry, the midpoint is the point exactly halfway between the upper and lower extremities of a line.

I understand the difference. Thanks!

 

[Ty1on]

Retracted, as I think I misinterpreted the response

 

[Cyrus24]

I'd like a lesson on Average versus Weighted Average Price. Thanks. I'll give an A if it is explainable to a non-TUG/non-Timeshare idiot that I deal with.

 

[Ty1on]

I'd like a lesson on Average versus Weighted Average Price. Thanks. I'll give an A if it is explainable to a non-TUG/non-Timeshare idiot that I deal with.

Yeah good luck with that!

 

[capital city]

I think the point is CWA does not have the outrageous mf's that many on here say it does. Is it the best contract to own? No, not unless you need arp at several dozen resorts without actually owning contracts at these resorts. I own CWA and royal vista, royal vista is higher but CWA also gives me access at 13 months, guess which contract Ill dump first?

I can get Limetree in St thomas, Daytona 500, mardi gras, etc. all at 13 months for the middle, median, midpoint (who gives a *bleep*) mf cost

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

The median is the point at which half of the “population” (in this case, contracts) are above and below. The mid point is the middle of the range. They are not the same thing.Again I know I’m being pedantic about this,

but it’s an occupational hazard as a professional pedant.

Well said.
Pedant - seems to be a popular profession among TUG members.


*********
@bnoble - in case I wish to join , when are the annual dues payable to the pedant organization ?
I am thinking ~ mid January / perhaps the 15.5 ?

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

I'd like a lesson on Average versus Weighted Average Price. Thanks. I'll give an A if it is explainable to a non-TUG/non-Timeshare idiot that I deal with.

If the party in question is a family member - I do not think this will be a win -win
regardless of the quality of the explaination .
LOL