Destinations Club Rocks!

[dioxide45]

I bet you would never expect to hear ME say that. Of course II deserves a lot of credit also.

We had an exchange in to an Ocean Point studio for Memorial Week this year. We are going on a cruise on the 19th for five nights out of Tampa. We had used some of our enrollment PlusPoints for two nights at Lakeshore Reserve and another night at Marco Island in a Gulf View 2BR. We were cutting one night off the front of our Ocean Pointe exchange at the end to stay at Marco Island.

We had been watching II to see if we could score an XYZ for Lakeshore Reserve for us to stay in for 3 nights after we got off of our cruise. Today while searching (as we had been doing constantly) we saw a 2BR Lakeshore with the exact checkin day we were looking for. Of course I couldn't get an XYZ since we didn't have a 2BR corresponding exchange to piggyback off of. But I called II and was able to do a re-exchange of our Ocean Pointe exchange. Of course no $119 fee since we are in DC.

I then called MVCI Owner Services and canceled our current Lakeshore and Marco Island stays and re-booked Marco Island Gulf Side for two nights at the end of our Lakeshore stay. Instant availability.

The great thing about DC is that it gave us two nights in Marco, which would cost over $600 if we were to pay cash. The ability to call up and find instant availability in points was great. Also the al-a-carte fee that covered an exchange and a re-exchange fee. So that saved us $238 with II.

We still have 100 PlusPoints left over that will likely go to waste and we still haven't used our AC from II that we got when we enrolled.

 

[winger]

Great re-trade + new booking!

You just demonstrated again two reasons why we enrolled way back when: 1) flexibility-instant trades 2) away with the ala carte fees (for your retrade)

We do not expect to buy any points, just enrolled to keep our options open.

Have fun on your trip

 

[TravlinDuo]

trying to better educate myself on retrading...

Dioxide, you mentioned that you re-exchanged an Ocean Pointe studio for a 2BR Lakeshore. Did II allow you to uptrade from a studio to a 2BR with no fee... or did you originally relinquish/trade a 2BR unit for the Ocean Pointe Studio?

Sue

 

[dioxide45]

trying to better educate myself on retrading...

Dioxide, you mentioned that you re-exchanged an Ocean Pointe studio for a 2BR Lakeshore. Did II allow you to uptrade from a studio to a 2BR with no fee... or did you originally relinquish/trade a 2BR unit for the Ocean Pointe Studio?

Sue

We originally relinquished a studio Harbour Lake week for the trade in to the Ocean Pointe studio (we couldn't get anything larger at the time at Ocean Pointe with our studio).

We also had a studio Grande Vista on deposit that allowed us to continue to search using a studio. We saw the Lakeshore Reserve sitting online in instant exchange with the Grande Vista studio. That means that our studio Grande Vista had enough trade power to pull that 2BR Lakeshore Reserve. I figured then that our Harbour Lake week also could. I placed the Lakeshore Reserve on 18 minute hold and called Marriott Desk at II. They were able to drop the hold and re-exchange our current Ocean Pointe exchange and get us in to that 2BR Lakeshore Reserve. I should also note that the week includes Memorial Day.

There was no fee to uptrade in unit size with our studio. If you can see the week online with what you are using, you can trade for it regardless of the size of the relinquished unit.

 

[mjm1]

Congratulations on your success. This is a great example of some of the benefits of the DC. We had a similar success of retrading and saved on fees. It is great to see some benefits come through for people. Have a great trip.

 

[TravlinDuo]

Thanks Dioxide !

We joined the DC to save on fees... but I don't remember reading about no-fee re-trades in either the DC documents or here on TUG. I love TUG and the more experienced TUG posters!! I sure have learned a lot. Thanks again. Just sad that we didn't know about this site until after our (developer) purchases.

Sue

 

[dioxide45]

Thanks Dioxide !

We joined the DC to save on fees... but I don't remember reading about no-fee re-trades in either the DC documents or here on TUG. I love TUG and the more experienced TUG posters!! I sure have learned a lot. Thanks again. Just sad that we didn't know about this site until after our (developer) purchases.

Sue

Since you can only re-trade once and you can't cancel a re-trade, there are some limitations to consider when doing the re-trade. It is great to save on the fees.

Of course we still are not close to getting to our breakeven point on enrollment, but we tend to do re-trade somewhat often.

I think this is where the II exchange fee being included in the DC fee is a good thing. I can confirm to a studio and then if I see a 1BR or larger I can call up and do a re-trade for no extra cost. It gives me peace of mind to have a reservation and I have all the time up to my stay to try to re-exchange.

 

[wvacations]

I too am coming around to liking the flexibility. We had a DC reservation to Newport Coast Villa for early June for 4 nights (Mon Check-in). The more we thought about it the more we thought that maybe Newport was not what we were looking for. We will be getting off an Alaskan Cruise on the Sunday before our Monday check in. We were looking to just relax by a pool in the sun. Newport is so large, you can be a long way away from the pool. Also early June can have the marine layer of clouds hang over the area until afternoon. We were using 1700 DC points for the reservation.

This morning we decided Shadow Ridge Enclaves would fit our plans better. I know it will be hotter, but really that is what we are looking for. It would be nice to be by the ocean, but my wife is more of an 85 degree water temp than 70's so I don't think she would even get in the ocean. Because Enclaves was never completed, all the units are right at the pool and they have really nice cabana's to use.

So we able to do an online chat to cancel the Newport reservation. The points showed up online instantly and I booked the same 4 nights in a 2BR at SR Enclaves right online. Total time to change the reservation about 2 minutes! Very convenient and no fees!

Best part is that the Enclaves reservation was only 800 points so I have 900 still to use for a weekend trip to Tahoe!

In this case I feel I did get back most of my "skim"!!

 

[dioxide45]

I am not sure I am willing to pay the price for the flexibility of points yet. Like in Doug's prior thread, the exchange we just got would have been impossible for us using DC points.

The flexibility of DC works for different people in different ways. Being able to cancel without a fee is great and being able to re-exchange without a fee is also very good. The flexibility of getting two shots at an exchange is cool. Using pure legacy points still will be a stretch for us. I am sure the time will come, but not just yet.