Crackdown on Amex card gifts...

[PhilD41]

Before you start, I don't really need to hear all the "don't go to sales meetings." I am very aware of that opinion, and often share it... unless they can make it worth my while. Speaking of which. I have had close to a 100% success rate at holding out for a $200 amex card as a "gift." I have been at two resorts this summer (Phoenix and St. George - WorldMark) and both places claimed corporate had maxed out what they were allowed to offer at $125. Both places let me walk away from the meeting without offering the $200 I was asking for. That is REALLY weird behavior for them. I am just curious if T&L has actually put limits on what they can offer. I am fine reworking what I ask for if they really can't give over $125 cash. I don't want to if this was just an odd fluke, but in the 5 years I have been asking for $200, I have never had anyone let me walk. That was just odd and even more so because it happened twice. Anyway... looking for corroborating evidence or known facts, or contradicting experiences. Thanks!

 

[dioxide45]

I doubt there is any hard and fast limit to what they can offer. As they book more tours and have met their quotas and bonuses for the day/week/month they may not be as willing to offer as high of an incentive to get your but in a seat on the sales floor. The most we were offered once was $200 at PCB back in March, but I opted to take $100 + 30,000 Wyndham Reward points instead. They wouldn't do straight up 40,00 Wyndham Reward points.

 

[steve_solo]

I was told by the concierge at Royal Vista in March that they could only do $125 AMEX.
But to meet my $250 requirement, they also did a $125 Tango card which I used on Amazon.
Their initial offer was a $75 gift card plus some useless coupons that looked like they were out of a magazine.

 

[geist1223]

Part of the cause of lowering "Gifts" for Attendance is Wyndham's change in Policy so that above a certain level 1/2 of the cost of the Gift is withheld from the Congeiere's Bonus.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Heard the same thing at TOTG when we checked in on Friday. Didn’t really push it since we aren’t attending a sales update. They are more apt to give you a higher gift on Tango vs AMEX from what I’ve heard as well. We could get $175-200 on Tango without much effort.


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[dioxide45]

What is Tango? We were able to get some other non Amex gift cards at SeaWatch. Think Darden, Landry's, Margaritaville etc. I suspect they get those at a discount where they have to pay 100% of the cost for an Amex gift card.

 

[basilray]

I think they offered us $150 AmEx + $150 resort credit this weekend at Glacier Canyon.

Being a holiday weekend and my son's birthday, we didn't want to waste the time over a long weekend, so I wasn't really paying attention. Amazingly, they didn't try and push me at all. Might be because my wife booked the trip and they focused on her, but she actually stuck with the decline...which was a surprise!

 

[HitchHiker71]

What is Tango? We were able to get some other non Amex gift cards at SeaWatch. Think Darden, Landry's, Margaritaville etc. I suspect they get those at a discount where they have to pay 100% of the cost for an Amex gift card.

Tango is a popular virtual gifting platform that many large companies use, you get to determine how to allocate your Tango balance as you see fit. We will typically apply the balance to our Amazon account since we use Amazon Subscribe & Save for a lot of our regular household purchases for example.

You can also create virtual Visa or MC cards if you would rather just have a generic gift card for use with PayPal or Apple Pay or whichever preferred electronic payment method you prefer. I’ve done this in the past as well.

With So Many Options, There's Something For Everyone.

View Tango's extensive global rewards catalog featuring over 1,000 digital gift cards.

www.tangocard.com

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[Floridaman76]

Depending on the resort, and whomever you negotiate you gift with, this varies quite a bit.

I have had them given me two $125 AMEX cards in the past 6 months to get me where I needed to be. I had also had them give me a $125 Amex + varying amounts of money (($75-$100) in Tango.

For me anyway, the Tango is just as good as cash because you can convert them into Amazon gift cards and use them in your online account.

I think "policy" has more to do with them not wanting to customize the amount of money put on these AMEX cards. It's probably lower overhead to just create and issue fixed AMEX cards for $125 then have to deal with programming them.

Last update I went to in Nashville, the person who did my update was really confused why I had done 9 updates in the past year. I told the guy it was just for the gifts I get.

 

[dioxide45]

Last update I went to in Nashville, the person who did my update was really confused why I had done 9 updates in the past year. I told the guy it was just for the gifts I get.

In Nashville they asked a similar question, except it was why we were there when we just did a presentation a couple days before. Atlanta we had done one literally the day before but they called us the morning after checkin begging us to go to a presentation in 15 minutes. I had to hang up on them because they wouldn't give me what I wanted but they were quick to call back. Atlanta finally ponied up 30K in Wyndham Rewards plus $50 in Margaritaville vouchers. Those 30K Wyndham Rewards are worth about $1000 in how we are using them. I was also promised a signed photo of all the staff, which I am still waiting for...

 

[basilray]

In Nashville they asked a similar question, except it was why we were there when we just did a presentation a couple days before. Atlanta we had done one literally the day before but they called us the morning after checkin begging us to go to a presentation in 15 minutes. I had to hang up on them because they wouldn't give me what I wanted but they were quick to call back. Atlanta finally ponied up 30K in Wyndham Rewards plus $50 in Margaritaville vouchers. Those 30K Wyndham Rewards are worth about $1000 in how we are using them. I was also promised a signed photo of all the staff, which I am still waiting for...

30k rewards points to $1k?

Are you using them to cover MF or do you have another sneaky secret conversion?

 

[Pennytx]

I do have a ?
Are tango cards just like a visa card
If so could I use them to pay for things like a utility bill or amusement park ticket etc
Just two examples I can come up with… therefore similar to an am ex ?
Am I understanding this correctly?

 

[JohnnyO]

$125 at Peacock Suites Anaheim … we were saying No and all the poor guy could offer us was four bottles of wine from his stash. So we said yes.

Oceanside Pier came up with $200 in gift cards for 333 Pacific restaurant or one of their sister restaurants and two bottles of wine.

 

[dioxide45]

I do have a ?
Are tango cards just like a visa card
If so could I use them to pay for things like a utility bill or amusement park ticket etc
Just two examples I can come up with… therefore similar to an am ex ?
Am I understanding this correctly?

Based on the prior response to my question and after I did some research myself, it seems to be a program where you can convert the Tango card to a number of other gift cards.

With So Many Options, There's Something For Everyone.

View Tango's extensive global rewards catalog featuring over 1,000 digital gift cards.

www.tangocard.com

 

[Floridaman76]

30k rewards points to $1k?

Are you using them to cover MF or do you have another sneaky secret conversion?

I'm curious too. I use my WR points for stays at resorts almost exclusively. I have 4 nights at Cypress Palms in late July for 30,000 total points (7500/night) and 3 night at Kingsgate in early July as well for 22,500 total points (also 7500/night). I would have to do the math on how much that would cost me in club Wyndham points and my MF on those points.

It's interesting I needed those Kingsgate nights to fill in some days they were NOT available in Club Wyndham but WERE on the hotel side, which was very unusual.

 

[Floridaman76]

As mentioned, Tango is a virtual gift card which allows you to buy other virtual gift cards. You can apparently convert it for a fee, to a physical card you could use like one of those AMEX gift cards. I convert them to Amazon gift cards, which allows you to just deposit directly into your Amazon account.

 

[WManning]

I was told by the concierge at Royal Vista in March that they could only do $125 AMEX.
But to meet my $250 requirement, they also did a $125 Tango card which I used on Amazon.
Their initial offer was a $75 gift card plus some useless coupons that looked like they were out of a magazine.

Same happened to me at Sea Gardens in Jan

 

[HitchHiker71]

I'm curious too. I use my WR points for stays at resorts almost exclusively. I have 4 nights at Cypress Palms in late July for 30,000 total points (7500/night) and 3 night at Kingsgate in early July as well for 22,500 total points (also 7500/night). I would have to do the math on how much that would cost me in club Wyndham points and my MF on those points.

It's interesting I needed those Kingsgate nights to fill in some days they were NOT available in Club Wyndham but WERE on the hotel side, which was very unusual.

I actually find this to be somewhat common especially within the 90 day ER window - where WR has availability but Club Wyndham does not. I always recommend looking in WR for last minute inventory that isn’t available within the timeshare system. The only warning I will give is that these units are more often subject to overbooking issues and you may not receive the actual unit reserved in these cases since timeshare owners always come first. I’ve had this happen multiple times when booking timeshare units via WR points but never the other way around.


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[Floridaman76]

I actually find this to be somewhat common especially within the 90 day ER window - where WR has availability but Club Wyndham does not. I always recommend looking in WR for last minute inventory that isn’t available within the timeshare system. The only warning I will give is that these units are more often subject to overbooking issues and you may not receive the actual unit reserved in these cases since timeshare owners always come first. I’ve had this happen multiple times when booking timeshare units via WR points but never the other way around.

As long as I have something, I will be ok, it's just for 3 nights to bridge into the week I reserved there. I could not get 7/3-7/5 in CW, but got 7/6-7/13 in CW (using that 50% off sale too). I don't need a 2BR for this stay.

One of the interesting and nice things about using WR points at Kingsgate is they don't charge you the resort fee. For those of you who might happen to use WR points to stay at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach and Wyndham Grand Bonnet Creek locations, same thing, if you use WR points "stay free" you don't have to pay the resort fee. It's like $45/night at CLW and BC.

 

[PhilD41]

Thank you for all the responses. I posted then promptly left of a work trip. I have never been offered a Tango card, but that would be as good (or maybe even better) than cash / amex. I will have to suggest that next time. Legacy Golf did offer the $125 Amex and then $100 resort cash. So they are willing to add to it. I just need to know what to ask for, and now I do! Thanks!

 

[dannybaker]

we have a $300 minimum to attend and let the salesman know.

 

[frankf3]

we have a $300 minimum to attend and let the salesman know.

Do you often get that? My target is $250, but as above, I often can't get the marketing / concierge team to go that high. I'm happy not going to a sales meeting though.

 

[frankf3]

I'm curious too. I use my WR points for stays at resorts almost exclusively. I have 4 nights at Cypress Palms in late July for 30,000 total points (7500/night) and 3 night at Kingsgate in early July as well for 22,500 total points (also 7500/night). I would have to do the math on how much that would cost me in club Wyndham points and my MF on those points.

It's interesting I needed those Kingsgate nights to fill in some days they were NOT available in Club Wyndham but WERE on the hotel side, which was very unusual.

In Nashville they asked a similar question, except it was why we were there when we just did a presentation a couple days before. Atlanta we had done one literally the day before but they called us the morning after checkin begging us to go to a presentation in 15 minutes. I had to hang up on them because they wouldn't give me what I wanted but they were quick to call back. Atlanta finally ponied up 30K in Wyndham Rewards plus $50 in Margaritaville vouchers. Those 30K Wyndham Rewards are worth about $1000 in how we are using them. I was also promised a signed photo of all the staff, which I am still waiting for...

hey @dioxide45

I'm interested in this too, if you don't mind giving some insights on high value WR usage. I've never accepted WR points as an incentive, but based on the value you are getting, maybe I need to rethink this.

 

[Pennytx]

Todays offer from Wyndham cypress palms was $100 Visa card and a free 8/7 night certificate or
$175 Visa fyi

 

[Pennytx]

We took the first offer because we’ve actually had some success with using the certificates recently