jjking42
TUG Member
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
- Messages
- 1,905
- Reaction score
- 513
- Points
- 474
- Location
- Nevada
- Resorts Owned
- WKV and SVV, Wyndham Canterbury, Wyndham Flagstaff
We are finally empty nesters and with three kids in college we don't have to travel during High School breaks anymore. Of course college tuition is breaking the bank but that's another topic. Now that we only have to buy two tickets we want to go to Hawaii every year.
Is E-plus worth it because of the last minute upgrade in resorts you can get as your travel date approaches. This year we wanted to go to Maui in whale season. Never been anytime other than summer break. We did an OGS with II but did not get an acceptable match so I ended up using my Hilton Honer points to stay at the Grand Wailea. I did turn down some trades because I am kind of picky. Once I made the decision to stay at the Grand Wailea I changed my OGS to 2020. I did see some decent trades appear at the last minute for 2019 but I was already committed to using my Hilton Honors points. I assume that if I had accepted a trade for a lesser quality resort and had E-plus that I could have switched when the last minute inventory showed up. Is this an effective strategy for Hawaii? I am not really concerned with how it works anywhere else.
I am a HH diamond member so using HH points is always a back up plan. Other options would be just renting in Hawaii every year or buying something in Hawaii. With exchange fee plus MF plus E-Plus cost I would be upset if we got stuck staying at a lesser resort. I know lesser resort is subjective so lets define it as anything with a tug rating below 7.5 or anything without air conditioning. It would just be the two of us so a studio would work.
We both have demanding jobs so we do need to plan our vacations in advance
Is E-plus worth it because of the last minute upgrade in resorts you can get as your travel date approaches. This year we wanted to go to Maui in whale season. Never been anytime other than summer break. We did an OGS with II but did not get an acceptable match so I ended up using my Hilton Honer points to stay at the Grand Wailea. I did turn down some trades because I am kind of picky. Once I made the decision to stay at the Grand Wailea I changed my OGS to 2020. I did see some decent trades appear at the last minute for 2019 but I was already committed to using my Hilton Honors points. I assume that if I had accepted a trade for a lesser quality resort and had E-plus that I could have switched when the last minute inventory showed up. Is this an effective strategy for Hawaii? I am not really concerned with how it works anywhere else.
I am a HH diamond member so using HH points is always a back up plan. Other options would be just renting in Hawaii every year or buying something in Hawaii. With exchange fee plus MF plus E-Plus cost I would be upset if we got stuck staying at a lesser resort. I know lesser resort is subjective so lets define it as anything with a tug rating below 7.5 or anything without air conditioning. It would just be the two of us so a studio would work.
We both have demanding jobs so we do need to plan our vacations in advance
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