Yes I saw that story yesterday and some others where tourists have been arrested by ICE https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/...urists-creates-fear-over-traveling-to-america.
I'm in Montreal and have Embarc (trades through Interval). I can drive to Tremblant or Blue Mountain, the others I fly to. Embarc has 9 resorts you can use your points to stay as well as 4 Diamond properties in Europe (not Embarc but bookable same as our own resorts with no resort or exchange fees). 6 of the 9 Embarc are in Canada (Tremblant, Blue Mountain, Panorama, Vancouver, Whistler and Ucluelet), 2 in the US (Palm Desert and Sandestin) and one in Mexico (Zihuatenajo). The EU resorts are in France (near Paris & near Nice), Italy (near Florence) and Portugal (near Faro).
You've got the story a bit wrong. She was trying to renew her 6-month work visa (which can usually be done at a land border). Instead of just refusing her - she was still in Mexico and that would be the usual procedure - they detained her for 3 weeks and would not allow her to communicate with anyone nor purchase her own fare home to Vancouver. Rule of law not followed and arbitrary decisions being made, which makes it difficult to assess how any perceived anomaly will be treated. Reports of French scientist trying to attend a conference (CBP examined his phone and found negative comments about Trump & administration) and several other persons detained who normally would have gone across with no issues.
This is actually a response for Bizaro86 (sorry Bill, used wrong quote). There's a difference between preclearance at a Canadian airport and land borders. CBP can't detain you arbitrarily because you're still in Canada and can just decide to not board the flight to the US. I don't think it would be very well received if they didn't follow normal procedures with Canadians on Canadian soil and decided to detain someone like they did the Vancouver woman...
I am also looking at Grandview Las Vegas, fees seem reasonable and we are looking at 2br- biannual, keeping it at approx 475 us per year in fees. What does the RCI exchange value look like? what does 61k(122k total) in points get you roughly in RCI, family of 5! thank you
It all depends on where and when you vacation and the size of the unit you need. Obviously a Gold Crown resort in a popular high demand area for a popular week is going to require more points than staying in the interior of, say TN, in November. We have 77K points and always get 3-5 vacations, all 7-13 nights long from them with careful planning. Last year I worked it out well, and had just 50 points leftover. I refused to pay to carry that small amount over to this year. If you wanted to book a 2 or 3 bedroom unit at a Gold Crown resort during a popular time at a high demand resort, it could take all or most of your 122K points, or they may not be enough.
I experienced this even as a US citizen. At the US CBP pre-clearance at Toronto Pearson, I was unlucky and got randomly chosen to be put in the "non-US citizen" line and undergo extra interrogation. I got a particularly arrogant agent who purposely kept me there for 40 minutes while he asked me ridiculous questions, some bordering on accusatory. I was seething but kept my mouth shut and stayed "polite". That was in 2017.
Embarc is HGVC in name only. HGVC can only trade into Embarc using Destination Xchange or HGV Max. Rules are specific to Embarc as are booking windows. Embarc is points based. No deeds. How many points you have determines where and when you book. There is no home resort, equal access to all 9.
I'm not embarc, but in my DEX i see europe availability. my DEX is via craig lodges ownership.
Yes, I went to the Portugal resort in September. You just enter the location or resort name in the usual points search box and they come up. No exchange or resort fees. Right now we have 4 available for sure, I believe there's a fifth one in Spain as well.
Being in the same neck of the woods as you. Coutts has always been hit/miss but more so coming back into Canada, then going down into the USA. My feeling is that if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about, Montana has always operated under a different set of perceived rules (no State Tax so Tourism I think is likely their largest industry). We have NEXUS as well as make sure our Passports are renewed as soon as eligible (the 6 month expiration thing does somewhat concern me, probably unfounded). At YYC with NEXUS often (probably 90% of the time) they call our names, ask us if we have anything to declare, verify where we are going and up the escalator we go into the gift shop, it takes us less then 15 minutes to do Security/Customs with the layout at the new(ish) International Terminal. If they want to search our bags/vehicle whatever, they can go for it, again nothing to hide, nothing to worry about. I think those that do have something to hide, they might tend to need to worry a little bit more then the lackadaisical approach to some border crossings in the past.