Does it pay to pay RCI?

[Purseval]

I paid the booking fee in advance so HGVC's RCI rep will search for a timeshare week and notify me if one becomes available. Since I've never done this before I was wondering how it worked out for people who have. Are they constantly scanning the bookings and grab a cancellation the second it enters the system or am I better off looking on my own? I didn't spot a way to search RCI listings on the HGVC site but I haven't read the book the required 3 times yet either :rofl:

 

[Bill4728]

When you have RCI do your search for you, they will see everything before you can see it online. Therefore having automatic RCI search for you, will get you hard to get trades that you likely would never see yourself.

When you search the RCI listings, you'll see only those weeks which been passed over by the automatic RCI search.

 

[Purseval]

We're going to Orlando in March so we will give them until February to see if they can find something for us, then I'll book myself if the search comes up empty. Orlando isn't one of those places where you have to scramble to find a room but we're looking for a DVC cancellation, which I know is very low odds. But still, a slight chance is better than no chance at all.

 

[Talent312]

A reminder for anyone with expiring 2009 points looking to book an RCI stay...
If you want to use your 2009 points for RCI in 2010, you can deposit them to the RCI program
(or have a confirmation in hand by 12/31), but "rescued" points are restricted to HGVC stays.

For those who'd like to do RCI search themselves using HGVC's portal, here's the basics:
1. Goto HGVC's member website ( https://www.hgvclub.com/login.php )
2. In the menu box on the left-side, click on "My Club" > "RCI Affiliated Resorts"
3. Under "RCI Affilated Resorts," click on "-> Reservations"
4. That takes you to a page where you'll find a link to RCI Reservations,
Click on that and you'll be taken to an RCI webpage dedicated to HGVC Members.
It'll say, "My RCI Account" (a misnomer, since its really Hilton's account).
You'll have a choice of making resevations (nightly or weekly) or reviewing your history.

Happy hunting.

 

[alwysonvac]

HGVC members have access to RCI Weeks and RCI points (aka RCI Nightly Exchange). Your ongoing search is only searching for deposits made in RCI Weeks. Ongoing searches are not available with RCI Points. For some resorts like DVC it pays to check availability in RCI points (aka HGVC's RCI Nightly Exchange)

See this old post regarding the difference - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=746186&postcount=19

 

[flexonguy]

Can you put a RCI reservation on a 24 hour hold before you convert the points. Then convert the points and book the resort?

 

[Talent312]

Can you put a RCI reservation on a 24 hour hold before you convert the points. Then convert the points and book the resort?

There's no need to manually convert (move) HGVC points to RCI before confirming your reservation. When you book the stay, the system automatically draws the requisite # of HGVC points from your account. Example: Book a 2BR-red week for a week, and 4800 HGVC points will disappear.

 

[riz]

what was also "nice" I thought (and didn't know before) was that at least for our 5 or 6 night stay at an RCI place in Vancouver in July 2010, they took points out of the 2009 "pot" not 2010, even though I had understood it to be taken out of the pot the year you are staying....not the year you are booking.

At least this is what happened to us. Was good because we were not going to be able to use those 5000 pts this year and would have had to pay to move them forward, but now we have like 300 pts and I'm not even going to move pay the fee to move such a few.

YMMV