This is a wrinkle that I was not aware of. We have HGVC points - not weeks, we have 2 x 7000 Las Vegas for a total of 14,000. Can these be deposited directly in SFX? If that is the case would I have to call HGVC to make that deposit, and then in turn contact SFX for the booking. Would I have to deposit one "block" of 7000 points or would I be able to just deposit the amount of points I want to use in GL. If I was not able to get the booking I wanted would I be able to retrieve these points?
If you are using SFX to Exchange (vs. booking via HGV):
You can deposit with SFX (with Hilton) two ways:
1) Deposit your home week (this would use all your 7,000 points, and I'm assuming it's a 2 BR unit in that case)
2) Deposit a points/club-booked week (in which case, you book a CLUB reservation where a 1 BR, 1 Week unit would cost anywhere from 2400-3400 points if using a Vegas booking).
Does that help?
You have to join SFX first (they have a free membership).
You then would use their "deposit offer" link on the website, and find the item you are wanting to deposit and it'll tell you if it's "high demand" week or not and what they would give you in return (typically 1 Exchange week, and one bonus week--cash booking basically).
You then book that week via HGV (either HOME week - which uses all your points) or Club booking (Usually you will pick a Sat-Sat, at least that's what I do--if using a non-home week) for say, a Vegas week. Deposit it. You'll get a form from SFX stating basically that when they get someone to use your deposited week, they will contact you and you have X days to get the Guest Certificate to them.
Once you make your deposit with SFX you cannot retrieve it/take it back, AFAIK. You typically have 2 years to use that deposited week with SFX before it expires. (Pretty much the same as "regular" II/RCI, AFAIK).
You can most certainly deposit your home week if you so desire. But for me, it makes "financial" sense to use my club weeks (ie: points). 7,000 in most cases is a 2 BR unit "high" season (say Hawaii), or in one of mine, a 3 BR Gold in Vegas. I'd rather deposit a 3400 or 4800 points and book a 2 BR Vegas (Flamingo,etc) and deposit THAT with SFX instead.