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Why Points Rather Than Weeks

breezez

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Hyatt Pinon Pointe
Hyatt Coconut Plantation
I would hate all that checklng in and checking out business. We like settling in for a while.

I used to feel this way... But now I find it fun to see more by changing my locations while on a trip. Earlier this year we flew to Portland, OR. Spent night in hotel in Portland, next morning went and seen some falls in area then head off to spend a week at WM Depoe Bay, OR. Left there and went Seattle for a night staying at WM Camlin before flying out of Seattle the next morning.

For us it was a blast I had not been to any of these places before. You do move some but you get to experience a lot while on vacation. We are not retired yet, so this gives us opportunity to do and see more. Once I retire staying longer in a place will probably be more ideal.

As far as Depoe Bay WM goes, the view from that place is awesome if you have never been or if you like the ocean, you can’t get much closer too it than this. I recommend to take a trip here.
 

Jan M.

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Club Wyndham Access
Grandview Las Vegas and Discovery Beach Resort - Both in RCI Points
Woodstone and Summit at Massanutten - Both in RCI weeks used as Wyndham PICs
We've always had points both with Wyndham and our resorts in RCI and that has been the perfect choice for us. When we bought our first Wyndham points the attraction was being able to go whenever we wanted to a variety of locations. We were never interested in having a fixed week.

My sister and BIL both taught and their school districts had the same week for Spring Break so their fixed week in Orlando worked well for their family of 5 for a number of years.
When our son and not yet DIL were in college we were all going to Florida for two weeks starting first of the year. Because the flights to get down there were pricey the three of them were going to drive down and my husband was going to drive home by himself which I wasn't happy about. I had to fly both ways because I couldn't take that whole time off. Even after they had their plans set I kept checking the prices of flights because I wasn't thrilled with him driving home by himself. It irritated my husband to no end because they had it all planned out and he insisted that he would be fine driving home by himself. It paid off because with only a little over two weeks to go I finally found flights for the three of them for the trip down, him for the trip home and a rental car too for what it was going to cost to drive. When we were at my sisters for Easter my husband was telling them what a good thing it was that I had refused to listen to him, again. Before I got to Florida he met people also staying at the resort who drove down from our area at the same time when they would have been driving down. They told him how their two day drive turned into a three days ordeal due to a bad snow storm that hit a several state wide area you have to drive through. Of course the driving conditions were horrible and they were still exhausted from the drive and the stress. The real kicker for him was that the area they were forced to overnight in lost power so they had to get up to leave in the dark and couldn't get showers or even a cup of coffee. Not being able to shower in the morning is just awful as far as he is concerned but for him not being able to have his morning coffee might as well be the end of the world. That led to my sister telling us what they had to pay for flights when they flew for their Spring Break week that year and how she was never able to get good prices for their week. I had no idea! I always thought it was easy to find cheap flights to Orlando if you kept looking unless it was Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter weeks. The airlines know the couple weeks in March that are prime Spring Break weeks and charge higher prices.

With points I can book our reservation for when I find cheap flights. With a fixed week all too often you can only take advantage of cheap flights if you are willing to give up a day or two of your fixed week or pay for a hotel or extra nights at the timeshare which means you might as well pay for the higher priced flights.
 

e.bram

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The problem with points and float weeks from my point of view is the "Subject to availability" clause in every contract. No such problem with fixed week fixed unit deeded TS.
 

VegasBella

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Many points systems take that into account and charge according to view.
This is exactly why I don't like points - they are more efficient. And by being more efficient, that means I don't get a chance to work the system and find value others have left on the table. With weeks systems, there is often an inefficiency created whereby everyone pays the same MF no matter if their use is in the high season or low season, with a good view or not. So... if I can snag a valuable high season week with a view at a deal (which is often very easy to do) then I get to pay the same MF. In essence, the other owners are subsidizing my vacation. I end up paying a much lower rate than I would if I'd booked via points.

Granted, it comes with a loss of flexibility. But some of us are fine with that :D

And that's why point systems are so great -- they cater to individual's vacation needs, vs. a one-size-fits-all fixed weeks (which doesn't).

Another example -- my daughter has a softball tournament in Vegas the end of October, and even though it is relatively last minute, I was able to book a Thu-Sun reservation in a studio (just my wife and I, our daughter travels and stays w/ the team) just this week. Non-point system owners wouldn't be able to use their timeshare and would have to pay to stay in a hotel.
Well, first off Vegas is always easy no matter what. There are plenty of deals to be had. I can book Vegas through RCI extra vacations and get a great deal for a timeshare unit. I live in Vegas so I have done that for visiting relatives.

The problem with points and float weeks from my point of view is the "Subject to availability" clause in every contract. No such problem with fixed week fixed unit deeded TS.
This was my issue with the float week we sold - it was a big hassle to book it each year. The demand was just too high. You had to be really on top of it at the minute it became available. It felt like a lot of stress and I didn't like it. I prefer my fixed weeks.

But I do also have a float that is no problem to book. It's a legacy ownership at a resort where most owners have points and my ownership is uncommon, so there's not much competition for it. I don't have to worry about fighting with other owners. Plus they have some level of guarantee built in for us legacy owners. It actually works out very well.
 

MrockStar

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This is exactly why I don't like points - they are more efficient. And by being more efficient, that means I don't get a chance to work the system and find value others have left on the table. With weeks systems, there is often an inefficiency created whereby everyone pays the same MF no matter if their use is in the high season or low season, with a good view or not. So... if I can snag a valuable high season week with a view at a deal (which is often very easy to do) then I get to pay the same MF. In essence, the other owners are subsidizing my vacation. I end up paying a much lower rate than I would if I'd booked via points.

Granted, it comes with a loss of flexibility. But some of us are fine with that :D


Well, first off Vegas is always easy no matter what. There are plenty of deals to be had. I can book Vegas through RCI extra vacations and get a great deal for a timeshare unit. I live in Vegas so I have done that for visiting relatives.


This was my issue with the float week we sold - it was a big hassle to book it each year. The demand was just too high. You had to be really on top of it at the minute it became available. It felt like a lot of stress and I didn't like it. I prefer my fixed weeks.

But I do also have a float that is no problem to book. It's a legacy ownership at a resort where most owners have points and my ownership is uncommon, so there's not much competition for it. I don't have to worry about fighting with other owners. Plus they have some level of guarantee built in for us legacy owners. It actually works out very well.
 

MrockStar

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We only have points and really like the flexibility they allow, i can stay longer than a week or just the weekend. I can get a two bedroom for family or a studio if its just the two of us. I can book Ocean front, ocean view or garden view depending on the resort. Because i purchased developer points and own enough i am a platinum owner and can book wait list at 15 months and usually get any type or view units that i like. I realize thats not the case for resale owners however with some planning and a little luck i was able to do this before platinum at the normal 11 month window just like all other points owners. We also like to go to many other locations each year and points allows us to do that for the same maintenance fee/cost each year. Also we pay no cleaning fees or other fees in the Blue green points ownership system.
 

WinniWoman

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I just met a older woman in the gym while on vacation and she told me if she had to do it all over again she would have bought fixed weeks where they like to go, though points always worked for them. She just got tired of always having to plan way ahead of time and work on getting an exchange they wanted, and so on.
 

Jan M.

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Woodstone and Summit at Massanutten - Both in RCI weeks used as Wyndham PICs
I just met a older woman in the gym while on vacation and she told me if she had to do it all over again she would have bought fixed weeks where they like to go, though points always worked for them. She just got tired of always having to plan way ahead of time and work on getting an exchange they wanted, and so on.

That is why we see some Tuggers talking about how they've re-evaluated and readjusted what they own. "Change is the only constant" is attributed to Heraclitus of Ephesus c. 535-475BC. You can't count on what suits your needs and wants right now, and maybe has for years, continuing to do so in years down the road. It could but just as easily might not.
We've never wanted any part of owing a fixed week but that doesn't mean we won't ever change our minds even if it is hard for me to imagine that ever happening at this time.

What I've come to realize is that while I'm more than competent with a computer and navigate the websites just fine I could be more challenged with that in the years to come as I age. The time could come that owning a fixed week at a resort I'm familiar with would have much greater appeal than it does right now. I'm also realizing that I really, really need to have my husband sit at the computer with me while I look for reservations and book them. He is competent with a computer but I've always handled our timeshares. If something happened to me he'd be in big trouble but now that he's retired we are working on that. He at least now knows what we own and didn't have "a moment" when I told him how much the maintenance fees are on everything we own!

In our case the first points week we ever bought in RCI was an underlying week we were sure we would want and use. We owned Wyndham, then Fairfield, points so we understood points. The sales person tried his best to get through to us that we didn't need to own the week we were so sure we wanted to be able to get it as it wasn't one of the high demand weeks. He had several better deals on different weeks that would given us more points for less money. All we could see was that we'd have to pay the exchange fee to book that week we were so sure we would want if we didn't own it. He finally just gave up and sold us the week we wanted for more money and less points. We never used that week even once; we did however go there other weeks. The only thing we did right was to buy there. About seven years later the resort sold to a developer, we made several thousand dollars over what we paid, had use of the points for three more years and our maintenance fees paid for those three years too. Talk about even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile!
 

elaine

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<<You can't count on what suits your needs and wants right now, and maybe has for years, continuing to do so in years down the road. It could but just as easily might not.>> This is us.

We bought 2 summer East Coast beach weeks and thought we'd go every year-which we did for a couple of years. Then kids got older, and we wanted different vacations, so started using EOY, then kids got even older and none of them liked the beach anymore, so have now exclusively traded the past few years and don't see ever going back to those TS. So, now I'm locked into the love/hate RCI relationship--worked out fine so far--we can plan in advance and just risk losing the exchange fee if it doesn't work out.

We had great vacations ad are thankful for being able to trade--but in hind-sight I wish we had bought a mini-points system.
 

tschwa2

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<<You can't count on what suits your needs and wants right now, and maybe has for years, continuing to do so in years down the road. It could but just as easily might not.>> This is us.

We bought 2 summer East Coast beach weeks and thought we'd go every year-which we did for a couple of years. Then kids got older, and we wanted different vacations, so started using EOY, then kids got even older and none of them liked the beach anymore, so have now exclusively traded the past few years and don't see ever going back to those TS. So, now I'm locked into the love/hate RCI relationship--worked out fine so far--we can plan in advance and just risk losing the exchange fee if it doesn't work out.

We had great vacations ad are thankful for being able to trade--but in hind-sight I wish we had bought a mini-points system.

On the other hand summer East Coast Beach weeks should be very sell-able especially if it is 2 br with reasonable MF's and points are cheap. It would probably be easy to re-arrange your portfolio.
 

Free2Roam

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How many tuggers out there like me... fixed weeks, float weeks (some biennial, triennial, quad) and points systems (Wyndham and RCI)?

I started with Wyndham (Fairfield) points, then bought RCI Points and a couple summer east coast fixed weeks at the beach for personal use... then went a little overboard with all the bargains a few years back and ended up with more than we can use each year.

As a result, renting vacation weeks has become one of my hobbies. I used to rent what I couldn't use. Now I offer most of the summer beach weeks for rent and what remains determines our summer vacation plans. Also, I work from home full time, so if a summer beach week doesn't rent, I just pack up the office and work from the beach that week.
 

JohnPaul

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Like everything, there are pros and cons to both fixed weeks and points systems. The trick is to match the pros and cons to what works best for you. Since people are different, it's great there are a variety of approaches. Seems like a lot of times these discussions devolve into the points people trying to convince the fixed weeks people and vice versa.

I've personally always been a points person, but I've come to see why fixed weeks work well for some people.
 

Magnum

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