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Converting Bluegreen time to RCI Trading Power - Help, please.

Jeddy

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Not sure if this is the correct forum; mods, please feel free to move this post to the correct place. Previously posted in the RCI forum...

I am a (sorta new) gold Bluegreen member, and wanted to book my 'free' week as soon as white season opened. For my target resort, that is RCI week 42 (per the BG website). In 2022, RCI week 42 for Fri-Fri is 1//21-28, Sat-Sat is 10/15-22, and Sun-Sun 10/16-23. I wanted a Sat-Sat week, made the call to BG Premiere, and they told me I couldn't book my week 42 as Sat-Sat because "That resort is a Friday-to-Friday deed week".

Hunh? So I ended up waiting a few days until the calendar adjusted, ended up booking a Fri-Fri (in Week 43).

"Oh, that's why we have you call us to reserve your week... there are restrictions..." (that are NOT disclosed anywhere in their public material).
Which was really weird, because in 2021 we reserved a week at the same resort, using the gold 'free' week, as a Saturday-Saturday stay.
Did something change? If so, they forgot to tell us.... which doesn't seem out-of-character, with BG....

At any rate, IF (hypothetical) we decide to exchange our week for RCI Trading Power points (which BG says is allowed, but does a poor job of explaining), is there a requirement that the renting interval conform to a "deed week" at a specific resort? I can't say that I've read a whole lot about the RCI system involving weeks, but I have never encountered a requirement that the unit to be exchanged must conform to a resort "deed week" of any kind. I imagine that it's natural if someone owns a specific week at a specific resort, and wants to convert it to RCI Trading Power points, but coming from a points-based rental system (like Bluegreen) which doesn't worry about "deed weeks", this took me by surprise.

So I am looking for anyone who has some previous experience or inner knowledge of how this system of booking "a week" with points in the Bluegreen system (or, perhaps, any other points-based timeshare system) and aligning that reservation so it can be traded into the RCI Weeks system for RCI Trading Power points.

I would have posted this in the Exchange Forum, but that Forum is locked. Is there a tutorial somewhere that addresses this situation?

Apologies in advance if this is long-winded; I don't have a good feel for what's important and what's not in the situation.

(follow-up) So, thinking about this for a couple of weeks (I originally posted this on the RCI forum), it would make sense that BG might have a legal requirement in its deal with RCI to only rent "intact" ownership weeks. OK, I can deal with that.

But: Bluegreen charges different point values according to its "seasons" [which they label as (low to high) Blue,White, Red, High Red, and Ultra Red] and would not allow my "free week" in the "Sat-Sat" RCI Week 42 because that specific RCI Sat-Sat "Week 42" included some days in Red, rather than all White, season. So this is a something-to-be-aware-of when looking at how many points a BG rental will require when the rental interval spans the dates between different coloured "seasons" in the Buegreen rental calendar... or when trying to use a "free" week as a Gold level member.

We obtained our "free" Sat-Sat booking this calendar year because it was 100% in White season. Aha. That explains much.

Thanks for reading this far...
 

tschwa2

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Some resorts only have Friday check in days, or Saturday, or Sunday or any combination of those days. For sure many resorts won't let you deposit a Wed-Wed reservation into RCI (although a few do). When you look at the tpu values you can see which days of the weeks are allowed to be booked. So without knowing the specific resort it is hard to say for sure.

In terms of the free blue or white week it makes sense that it has to include all days in that category.
 

MrockStar

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You should call Bluegreen to ask if the week/resort conforms and is available for deposit into RCI.
 

Jeddy

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Thank you all for you replies and advice.
While I decided eventually to use the week itself, I HAVE had several callbacks from their customer service (and investor relations) departments regarding the issue.

Turns out that:
---our desired dates for the 'free' week, although being RCI "Week 44", because we wanted Friday-Friday, it overlapped by one day into a "red" season and so wasn't eligible for the 'free' week.
---units within our target resort are deeded so as they must be assigned as 'weeks' ONLY as Saturday-Saturday for exchange.

All this information is SUPPOSED to be available to the agent at the other end of the phone line when you call to make your reservation for exchange (which is WHY BG has owners call and chat with live people in order to make an RCI exchange), but in this case, the folks at the end of the line couldn't put together the correct series of conditions that made this particular rental a no-go.

So in my case, it was a multiple-cause issue. It snarled the folks on the BG end of the line, and left me bemused and befuddled because I did not realize the constraints on making an RCI week exchange. It's simple if you own a week; that's the week you own, and it goes happily into the RCI system. If you're mapping from a points-based system (like BG) into the RCI weeks exchange, you have to make sure the week you "rent with points" aligns with the deed-week requirements of the resort for transfer. (otherwise the RIC transfer involves TWO deeds, not just one).
 
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