JillChang said:Just out of curiosity, what is the toughest area and toughest resort to trade into?
and I mean all across US, Mexico, Caribbean, Europe.....![]()
timeos2 said:According to some any beach resort on the east coast in January and February(I don't agree) I assume you are talking about weeks systems and then almost any area in summer and holiday periods can be very tough to get if you desire a specific resort not just anything available.
But if you have the right number of points any resort is fairly easy to get. Take the points you need and make a timely request. Works with them all - even DVC!
There is no one resort that is "the toughest" because things change. But DVC in Orlando on weeks during a holiday use time are going to be tough for sure as would Manhattan Club on July 4th week or a Cape Cod week between weeks 26 and 32. Where do you want to go changes what may be seen as "the toughest".
luckybunny said:Are you saying as long as you are on points you can get into DVC during Xmas? which according to a few people, is really tough. I mean unless you have DVC points, how much RCI points will that take?
I don't know if I want to go to St. Johns, but Marriott in London!....sounds good!!!!
Carol C said:In II I'd say Harborside Atlantis, Aviara in Carlsbad, Ocho Cascadas in PV, and Marriotts in Hawaii during holiday weeks (especially Maui, a really hard trade). In RCI Manhattan Club is hard to get for the really nice weather times in NYC. St. John is hard to get too. I've never seen The Homestead in Virginia available through RCI. There are lots of tough trades out there, and they get tougher every day as RCI puts inventory out for sale to the general public via Sky Auction and other venues. That's why it's best to buy the most bang (aka trade power) for the buck.
Hoc said:I don't know that there's any that can be called "the hardest." It all depends on the year and deposits. I traded into the Manhattan Club in winter with a Mexico timeshare, although I have always had to use my San Francisco timeshare or bonus week to trade in during the spring.
I traded into the Westin Maui this October with a bonus week through II.
I traded into Ocho Cascadas at the end of March using an SFX bonus week.
I traded into the Marriott Maui over Labor Day using a South Africa deposit.
I traded into the Marriott Ko'Olina over Christmas via II using my Streamside timeshare.
I see Aviara come up all the time using my Custom House week and my bonus week that I get from the Custom House.
I have never seen St. John come up, and I saw Harborside-Atlantis come up the week before Christmas, but only a month in advance.
Don't get me wrong. These are all good resorts, and they can be tough trades. But the toughest? Not when I got them. So, it's really just a matter of guesswork.
timeos2 said:Not RCI Points for DVC but DVC Points. The secret to obtaining the "unobtainable" is to own points in that system. Those are the people who can freely decide that the premium rates those types of use periods carries are worth it for a visit while the actual owners of that time spend all the points they got at other locations. It works perfectly. The issue with weeks type trades are there are less than 5% of the year that are that good - and everyone wants it. So the 5% don't give it up as they would be trading down while the 95% can't get it because it is never deposited. And even if it was occasionally an extremely small percentage would actually see it available and the rest are disappointed. Weeks are set up to disappoint while points are set up to deliver vacations.
The only remaining problem is the explosion of individual points systems - such as DVC, Grand Vacations, Shell - there are many others - that are too small to really offer much but limit the availability to the larger systems such as RCI Points. Eventually that also will have to be addressed as the value to any trade system is a large quantity of locations and unit sizes. This fragmenting of small systems works against that and won't be marketable for very long.
luckybunny said:But, do you belong to II, RCI, AND SFX? I mean, isn't it a lot to pay all the MF, membership fee to these exchange companies, and then pay for the exchange?
luckybunny said:you must do a LOT of vacationing!!!
luckybunny said:Would you say the trick is like what everyone else say, deposit and request early? or simply just keep checking until something come up?
luckybunny said:And of all these exchanges, which one works the best to get you the "toughest" trade?
Carolinian said:A points system that requires conversion, like RCI Points, makes it less likely to get prime weeks within the system.
I will go with Big Matt as it is real difficult, any Disney club not only in Christmas time but anytime.
I don't know that there's any that can be called "the hardest." It all depends on the year and deposits. I traded into the Manhattan Club in winter with a Mexico timeshare, although I have always had to use my San Francisco timeshare or bonus week to trade in during the spring.
I traded into the Westin Maui this October with a bonus week through II.
I traded into Ocho Cascadas at the end of March using an SFX bonus week.
I traded into the Marriott Maui over Labor Day using a South Africa deposit.
I traded into the Marriott Ko'Olina over Christmas via II using my Streamside timeshare.
I see Aviara come up all the time using my Custom House week and my bonus week that I get from the Custom House.
I have never seen St. John come up, and I saw Harborside-Atlantis come up the week before Christmas, but only a month in advance.
Don't get me wrong. These are all good resorts, and they can be tough trades. But the toughest? Not when I got them. So, it's really just a matter of guesswork.
OK, I'm feeling like this is "Bizarro World" or something. Steve, for as long as I remember, you have been one of the most vocal critics of the RCI points system, complaining of points "raiding" weeks and taking the best exchanges, so that they are no longer available for weeks traders. The statement above seems to contradict that. I'm sure I'm missing something. . . ??