I have been reading this thread with amusement and interest. I have no need for VIP at this time, but possibly when I retire in a few years it may be worth PICing my way to gold with some direct purchases.
But, I know I would be pissed off If I bought points direct so I could PIC only to have resort become a points resort, drop RCI or Wyndham change rules again.
Wouldn’t it just be safer to.... Buy a Platinum persons account under an arrangement. You pay them going resell rate for the account. They add you to the account as another member you give them say 500K points for 1 or 2 year for reservations and you pay MF’s then you remove them from the contract a year later. Now you have a Platinum account for less than $10K plus MF you give up 500K Points for one year. I am sure their are people nearing the end of their travel days and would be more than happy to work a deal like this vice giving back to Wyndham. You would also have the $299 fee per contract to add yourself to each one closing and recording fees.
Next I have RCI points and some of what you see at 60 days in Wyndham’s system I can get on RCI for even less than a Platinum VIP even adding exchange fees. This is hit or miss and a lot of time I can find stuff not even available in Wyndham’s system.
Example I just looked at Austin TX for next month 1 week in 1 Bedroom is 6000 RCI Points I pay about .0082 per RCI point so this unit plus exchange fee of $239 will cost me $288.20 for a week if a Platinum gets a 50% discount this would be 125K points to stay at average of $5.75 /1000points this would cost $718.75 or 249% more than the RCI exchange, plus you can’t get same unit either in Wyndham weekends are not available. Notice the normal points that are crossed out would still have been cheaper than a Wyndham platinum reservation even with exchange fee.
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When I first got into Wyndham I felt the need to get to VIP Gold or Platinum, but as time has gone on and I have learned how to better use exchange systems and other TS programs, I’m not so sure it’s worth doing unless I can just take over a VIP’s account leaving status in tact. But I have a few years to ponder and already more TS’s than I have vacation to use.