Strategy in supplementing our bi-annual someday

[kevreh]

For better or worse we bought a bi-annual property (4800 points) that came with 10k bonus points directly from Hilton. Would have saved $$ buying on the open market, but not sure I would have after coming home. So we splurged a bit. Maintenance fees are a little high, around $1300.

As we're thinking about how to use our current points and future ones down the road I'm considering a few options.

a) I vaguely remember the sales agents saying something about buying them back at a certain rate. Is there any info out there on this? If we go this route, then we could buy a replacement property on the open market for a reduced rate, and at a resort with lower MFs.

b) Buy a supplemental property on the open market for our off year. We would get more points and could buy a property with lower maintenance fees. Is there any reason to do this before we use our 15k point reserve? Is there a pro or con to owning two different properties? I understand at the end of the day its all one bucket of points.

Thanks!
Kevin

 

[Talent312]

First, you can toss whatever the sales-weasel told you out the window.
They'll buy-back, but for pennies on the dollar, likely LT what you may get selling it yourself.

They are known to credit what you paid against a new sale of a higher-priced package.
...that's called throwing good money after bad.

Use up those bonus points B4 doing anything else. They have a very limited lifespan.
.

 

[kevreh]

I didn't know the bonus points expired. What is that lifespan?

 

[Talent312]

Bonus Point Expiration. Any unused Bonus Points expire two (2) years from the date of award and cannot be reinstated once expired. If a Member sells or transfers their timeshare interest and their Club Membership terminates, unused Bonus Points shall automatically expire.
-- The Rules, p.6

Read the rules here:
https://d1m2ucn09z2f8d.cloudfront.n...7b541e59/2018-HGV-Club-Rules-Reference-v3.pdf

.

 

[GT75]

I didn't know the bonus points expired. What is that lifespan?

two years (look at your HGVC login) Also, you can not mix bonus points and club points in the same reservation. You can make however two separate reservations. In addition, any reservation made with bonus points is non-changeable.

 

[kevreh]

Cool, thanks for that. I'm sure I read that language at some point, its been a few weeks.

 

[JohnPaul]

The one way Hilton (or any of the major TS) will sometimes "buy back" your developer purchase is if you buy something different and more expensive from them. They will often take back your original ownership and credit you whatever you have paid on it towards the new purchase. For example, you upgrade from a gold week to a platinum week.

 

[JohnPaul]

Also, note that a "non-changeable" bonus points reservation does not mean that it is not cancellable (which is what my head said to me when I heard that). It means that if you want to do something different you have to cancel the bonus time reservation (within allowable dates) and then make a new reservation. For most people with HGVC that means paying another reservations fee (a couple of the NY properties have the ability to pay a higher club fee and get free reservations).

 

[alexadeparis]

As for your future strategy, you have 2 choices. Buy a unit for the other year so you have 4,800 annually and take short vacations every year, or buy another unit in the same year so you can take a real vacation with the 9,600 Points every two years.

 

[Mosescan]

If you bought a 4800 point annual contract you could get two weeks every year if you didn’t mind 1 week in a studio and 1 in a 1 BR. Or you could just alternate 1 week, 2 weeks.