Vacation Village weeks exchange - home group discount?

[iwanttoflyaway]

So, as I understand it, the home group perk for a VV RCI points ownership is that you can book early - the exchange fee is not discounted. I believe, though I am not sure, that resale owners also get this perk.

A booking window perk is not that interesting to me, as most of our travel is short notice and off season. I've read that there's some sort of discount on the exchange fee for WEEKS owners within Vacation Village, but I couldn't find anything recent. I have seen the warning multiple places that the discount is only valid on TPU generated from VV properties, combining kills the home group discount eligibility.

I asked a chat representative, and while I'm not confident in his accuracy, he said that the current exchange rate within the VV home group is $159, and that resale owners do get that perk. I just want to make sure that that's what everyone here has experienced!

Also, something I didn't think to ask the agent was whether that reduced exchange fee is valid on heavily discounted weeks - like during the 4tpu sale or similar. Does anyone have any experience to share with me? Many thanks!

 

[tschwa2]

Yes the exchange fee is currently is $169 when exchanging into a VV affilliate and that does apply to resales and it does apply to tpu trades from 2-60.

 

[rboesl]

To my knowledge that discounted exchange rate of $159 is only available to Vacation Village Preferred owners. Plus when you are exchanging to a Vacation Village property the rate drops to $99 for 2 years then the rate becomes $139. There are other perks as well. You get a free Sam's Club membership, and my 2 bonus weeks can be booked 90-days in advance rather than the usual 45-days. When I sign in to my RCI account there's a link that will take me to a page that describes all the VVP perks I get.

 

[tschwa2]

No the $169 is for all weeks affiliate owners exchanging back into affiliates even if you are resale. Exchanging elsewhere is the regular exchange price. Preferred owners - direct purchase or direct conversion get the even lower rate. The bonus week may or may not transfer on resale. I own about 5 affiliates and get 1 bonus week. I never use it because it is usually cheaper for me to pay the 3-6 tpu's and the $169 rate vs the $239 rate with the bonus week.

 

[rboesl]

No the $169 is for all weeks affiliate owners exchanging back into affiliates even if you are resale. Exchanging elsewhere is the regular exchange price. Preferred owners - direct purchase or direct conversion get the even lower rate. The bonus week may or may not transfer on resale. I own about 5 affiliates and get 1 bonus week. I never use it because it is usually cheaper for me to pay the 3-6 tpu's and the $169 rate vs the $239 rate with the bonus week.

What I see must be because I did my upgrade with the developer. Per what I see on screen: "As a Vacation Village Preferred member, you receive a special discounted rate of $99USD on all internal Vacation Village exchanges for 24 months from the date of your upgrade. Then you pay only $139USD for all internal exchanges after that." My exchanges to non-affiliates are $159. Developer exchange must also explain why I have 2 bonus weeks. I own at 2 affiliates. Grandview in Las Vegas (2BR) and VV at Bonaventure in Weston, Fl (3BR). Original Grandview purchase was via a 3rd party. But the upgrade to 2BR was developer upgrade. The VV at Bonaventure was not a developer purchase.

 

[iwanttoflyaway]

Thanks guys! I think maybe I have a handle on how this works, if someone wants to check me:


*If you buy an RCI Points VV property resale, you get the extended booking window on affiliates.

*If you buy an RCI weeks VV property resale, you get a discounted $169 exchange fee for affiliates.

*If you buy an RCI weeks VV property retail, or do a developer upgrade, you get a really discounted $99 exchange fee for two years on affiliates, and a still pretty discounted rate of $139 after that. You also get a discounted $159 exchange fee on non-affiliates, which is pretty sweet.


That leads me to wonder if there is a similar program for retail/conversion points owners - does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[tschwa2]

The VV plus program applies to both points and weeks retail/ converted with upgrade.

 

[iwanttoflyaway]

Thanks so much, guys! @tschwa, I wanted to tell you that in my many recent searches, your posts keep showing up - your knowledge has been invaluable.

 

[tschwa2]

Thanks so much, guys! @tschwa, I wanted to tell you that in my many recent searches, your posts keep showing up - your knowledge has been invaluable.

Thanks. With the price of RCI exchanges these days, I rely on that internal discount. I would love the Vacation Village plus discounts but won't spend the thousands to "upgrade"

 

[rboesl]

Thanks. With the price of RCI exchanges these days, I rely on that internal discount. I would love the Vacation Village plus discounts but won't spend the thousands to "upgrade"

The upgrade, all things considered, was not that expensive for what I got. I added 1BR to my Grandview Ownership, my bonus weeks were upgraded as well to allow booking 0-90 vs. 0-45 days (which is a big deal in my book), and they converted my Grandview & VV Bonaventure ownership to points ownership giving me more flexibility. I originally bought my Grandview ownership because I have a business that requires me to be in Las Vegas every November. Keeps my expenses under control.

 

[Eric B]

Just went through the VV owner update in Weston, they’re calling the VV plus the 35th Anniversary Special now and offering the VV Preffered program if you own multiple weeks, pretty much as described in this forum. At the check in, there was a VIP check in line, which was empty, that listed VV Premier as well. When I asked about that, the second tier salesman got flustered and asked where I had heard of that program, which he said was only in development now, but will have another 30 day’s for the bonus weeks (2-120 vice 2-90 for VV Preferred).

The closer offered us a week at Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort for $4k that included a couple of bonus weeks, but we didn’t ask if that included the VV Preferred since we don’t really need more weeks. It would be tempting for the extended bonus week booking period, which I’ll ask about next year, but I figure I’m better off waiting to see if they do go to 120 days. The big downside in VV resorts in FL for me is that they get less RCI points per MF $ than I get at Massanutten (137,000 for ~$800 there and 86,500 or less for ~$950 in FL). The extended booking bonus weeks would make up somewhat for that, but I’ve got a lot of options besides RCI with my other weeks.

They quoted a price of $13,995 for point conversion when touting what a great deal they were offering us. We didn’t pursue that and I couldn’t say whether that’s what they really charge throughout VV, but figured I’d pass that on. The only VV week I’ve got that isn’t points already is a Massanutten Summit one and they aren’t in points now anyway, so couldn’t be converted. (I’ve been depositing that one with SFX to trade for Grand Luxxe weeks and wouldn’t be able to as an RCI points one either, which I view as a downside to the RCI points program.)

I don’t know if they do it for the VV resorts in FL, but at Massanutten they typically offer stub RCI weeks if you pay your MF early. We’ve got two units there, so I’ve been doing that and getting a couple of extra 8 TPU weeks that are only good for a couple of months, then combining them to get a low cost bonus week that’s good for two years.

 

[iwanttoflyaway]

As far as I know, Massanutten is the only area that does those boosts. Do you mean you get the stub weeks even on your Woodstone points ownership?

That's a hideous conversion price, by the way. I'd be very interested in VV Plus/Preferred/Premier, and actually would value the points conversion pretty highly, but nowhere near that highly.

 

[Eric B]

Yep; got one on the Woodstone points too. I thought the conversion price was way too high from what I had heard elsewhere; it was part of them trying to sell me another points one, which seems to be a kick they're on. In fact, it sounds like they threw in a point conversion for an upgrade a couple of posts up without an additional charge. Points are nice for the flexibility in RCI, but do have a downside if you use other exchange companies (VRI, SFX, et al.) so I'm pretty much neutral on the program. I've gotten very good trades in and out of RCI.

 

[iwanttoflyaway]

We think we'll like points, as we take many two or three night trips. The ~$35/day exchange fee is reasonable, but I'm concerned about housekeeping costs and resort fees. We shall see - for internal exchanges, at least, I may do better with booking full weeks. I have my eye on several properties that I'd be willing to 'purchase' if the right ownership became available for next to nothing.