DRI Hawaii points discussion

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I'll weigh in with some comments on how this all works. I would not say that DRI sales personnel lie; I would say that they don't always provide the full perspective. Or, they say the truth, but it's not the whole truth.

******

The first point to understand is that each individual resort has a timeshare program that defines the usage rights for the owners of units at the resort. This program governs whether a unit is owned by one of the collections or by an individual owner.

A second key point to remember is that ownership in a Collection and membership in the Club are not the same thing. A person can be an owner in a trust without being a member of the Club. Many people conflate these two, often aided and abetted by obfuscating sales staff.

A "collection" is a trust that owns a certain number of units at a resort. The trust has the usage rights associated with the units that it owns - no more and no less. The trust then makes those usage rights available to owners who are members of that trust. But the usage right is limited to what the trust owns. For example, if the "Regency Collection" owns a total of 200 weeks at Villas Extraordinaire, then that is the number of usage weeks at the that can be booked through Regency Collection holdings.

At the resort, inventory is allocated to Regency Collection in proportion to its holdings. To keep it simple let's assume there is one check-in day and all stays are 7-days. 200 units then represents four units each check-in day. So for each check-in day, four units would be assigned to Regency Collection; the remainder would remain for use by the owners who are not part of Regency Collection.

Now let's bring the Club into the picture. When an owner in a trust is part of the Club the owner surrenders the usage right associated with their ownership to the Club. So if you are a Regency Collection owner who is a member of the Club you can no longer make reservations with a Regency Collection resort as a Regency Collection owner; you can only reserve at a Regency Collection resort as a Club member. This might seem subtle, but it's a significant difference.

Since not all Regency Collection owners are part of the Club, that portion of inventory assigned to the Regency Collection gets split again, with a portion of the Regency Collection assigned to the Club that is proportional to the fraction of Regency Collection owners that are members in the Club. For discussion purposes lets assume that 75% of Regency Collection owners are members of the Club. So the Club then has rights to 150 weeks per year at Villas Extraordinaire, representing three check-in days each week.

Regency Collection owners who are members of the Club can then use their Home Resort Advantage to access those weeks at Villas Extraordinaire that have been assigned to the Club starting 13 months before check-in. Any of those 150 weeks that have not been booked 10 months in advance are then available to all Club members. But note that the other 50 weeks per year that have been assigned to Regency Collection members who are not part of the Club never appear in Club inventory, because the Club has no right to access those weeks.

Then, if the resort has inventory that is held by different collections, each of those collections will have its set of reservation rights, which again will be further parsed based on what fraction of the Collection is owned by Club members.

So, at a specific resort you can wind up with an inventory control system that looks like the following:

• weeks that are owned fee simple by owners who are not members of the Club
• weeks that are owned by owners in Collection A who are not members of the Club
• weeks that are owned by Collection B who are not members of the Club (iterate as needed for all Collections that include holdings at the resort)
• Deeded weeks for owners who are part of the Club
• Collection ownerships that for owners who are part of the Club

And if there are specific view categories or usage seasons, then the additional allocations of inventory need to be made on that basis.

******

So in the sales pitch buyers are told that as Club members they have reservation rights to all of the resorts that are in the Regency Collection 13 months before check-in. That's technically true, but what the prospects are not told is that their access to the resorts is limited to the amount of inventory at the resort that has actually been assigned to the Club. The sales pitch is designed to make prospects believe that all of the inventory at the resort is available to Club members, when that is hardly the case.

The whole system is designed solely for marketing purposes, and to make buyers think they are getting more than they really are. A similar thing happens with all of the properties that are "affiliate" options. In many cases there is only a minuscule amount of inventory available - and the associated point values don't represent any bargain over generally available rates. But the relationships do let sales staff talk about all of the wonderful things you can do with your points.

 

[RLS50]

Just wanted to say thanks to those 2 replies. That is very helpful in better understanding the system.

I still don't understand why any DRI owner with existing points would pay DRI an additional $20K-$30K (or higher) just to secure the right to be able to use their already existing points to go to Hawaii (if not already part of the Hawaii Collection). It sounds like DRI sales reps told the poster who brought this up that soon they wouldn't be able to use to their 50K points for Hawaii at all...that access to Hawaii was going to be taken away from US Collection owners entirely at some point in the near future...not just the early reservation part. That was what I objected to.

If Hawaii is hard to get in the DRI system, why not just buy a unit you own in Hawaii as a separate plan of action? I see Marriott Gold and Platinum weeks in Hawaii at minimum ocean view and some oceanfront for $15K-$30K. One could buy a unit (or two) exactly where they want and have to keep or trade any year they want...and have access to all the Marriott resorts in the world via trade. That would give an owner access to both DRI and Marriott resorts.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

If Hawaii is hard to get in the DRI system, why not just buy a unit you own in Hawaii as a separate plan of action?

Yep. You should be able to acquire deeded weeks at Ka'anapali or Po'ipu or a 15,000 point Hawaii Collection ownership for transfer costs only. People are giving them back to DRI in the deedback program.

Note that if you own a deeded week instead of a trust interest, you avoid paying the trust management fee, but you can only reserve at that specific resort. Also if there is a special assessment at the resort you own, you will pay a full share; if your resort is among the higher maintenance fee resorts, then your annual cost might be higher than if you had an equivalent ownership in the trust.

 

[johnrsrq]

I'll weigh in with some comments on how this all works. I would not say that DRI sales personnel lie; I would say that they don't always provide the full perspective. Or, they say the truth, but it's not the whole truth.

******

The first point to understand is that each individual resort has a timeshare program that defines the usage rights for the owners of units at the resort. This program governs whether a unit is owned by one of the collections or by an individual owner.

A second key point to remember is that ownership in a Collection and membership in the Club are not the same thing. A person can be an owner in a trust without being a member of the Club. Many people conflate these two, often aided and abetted by obfuscating sales staff.

A "collection" is a trust that owns a certain number of units at a resort. The trust has the usage rights associated with the units that it owns - no more and no less. The trust then makes those usage rights available to owners who are members of that trust. But the usage right is limited to what the trust owns. For example, if the "Regency Collection" owns a total of 200 weeks at Villas Extraordinaire, then that is the number of usage weeks at the that can be booked through Regency Collection holdings.

At the resort, inventory is allocated to Regency Collection in proportion to its holdings. To keep it simple let's assume there is one check-in day and all stays are 7-days. 200 units then represents four units each check-in day. So for each check-in day, four units would be assigned to Regency Collection; the remainder would remain for use by the owners who are not part of Regency Collection.

Now let's bring the Club into the picture. When an owner in a trust is part of the Club the owner surrenders the usage right associated with their ownership to the Club. So if you are a Regency Collection owner who is a member of the Club you can no longer make reservations with a Regency Collection resort as a Regency Collection owner; you can only reserve at a Regency Collection resort as a Club member. This might seem subtle, but it's a significant difference.

Since not all Regency Collection owners are part of the Club, that portion of inventory assigned to the Regency Collection gets split again, with a portion of the Regency Collection assigned to the Club that is proportional to the fraction of Regency Collection owners that are members in the Club. For discussion purposes lets assume that 75% of Regency Collection owners are members of the Club. So the Club then has rights to 150 weeks per year at Villas Extraordinaire, representing three check-in days each week.

Regency Collection owners who are members of the Club can then use their Home Resort Advantage to access those weeks at Villas Extraordinaire that have been assigned to the Club starting 13 months before check-in. Any of those 150 weeks that have not been booked 10 months in advance are then available to all Club members. But note that the other 50 weeks per year that have been assigned to Regency Collection members who are not part of the Club never appear in Club inventory, because the Club has no right to access those weeks.

Then, if the resort has inventory that is held by different collections, each of those collections will have its set of reservation rights, which again will be further parsed based on what fraction of the Collection is owned by Club members.

So, at a specific resort you can wind up with an inventory control system that looks like the following:

• weeks that are owned fee simple by owners who are not members of the Club
• weeks that are owned by owners in Collection A who are not members of the Club
• weeks that are owned by Collection B who are not members of the Club (iterate as needed for all Collections that include holdings at the resort)
• Deeded weeks for owners who are part of the Club
• Collection ownerships that for owners who are part of the Club

And if there are specific view categories or usage seasons, then the additional allocations of inventory need to be made on that basis.

******

So in the sales pitch buyers are told that as Club members they have reservation rights to all of the resorts that are in the Regency Collection 13 months before check-in. That's technically true, but what the prospects are not told is that their access to the resorts is limited to the amount of inventory at the resort that has actually been assigned to the Club. The sales pitch is designed to make prospects believe that all of the inventory at the resort is available to Club members, when that is hardly the case.

The whole system is designed solely for marketing purposes, and to make buyers think they are getting more than they really are. A similar thing happens with all of the properties that are "affiliate" options. In many cases there is only a minuscule amount of inventory available - and the associated point values don't represent any bargain over generally available rates. But the relationships do let sales staff talk about all of the wonderful things you can do with your points.

excellent post. thanks for the refresher.

13 month windows trading among TUG FB members when the two parties are looking at other collections. Sometimes affiliates have availability 13 months out. Such as Summer East Coast Prime Oceanfront for a prime Hawaiian res,. guests.

 

[donnsuz]

Feel stupid!

The wheeling and dealing of it all is definitely enough to make you feel stupid. I wish that I had the full understanding that Troglodyte has of this information. We started our timeshare adventure about 20 years ago with one small deeded property. Over the many years of "updates" we now have 50,000 points with DRI. Every time we update (aka spend big bucks) it makes perfectly good sense. I don't feel that we are normally stupid or financially inept people, but now I feel that we have been duped. The bottom line now is that I have become a TUG (and other boards) stalker I'm learning more and more. I'm very happy we didn't bite on the $30,000 to convert to Hawaii collection. It did feel like blackmail.

My next adventure is trying to decide if we should divest ourselves of some of these points (we have 5 different contracts) to lessen our MF and then go in search of a couple of inexpensive deeded weeks at our favorite areas to purchase instead. We really do enjoy timeshares, but I want to get the biggest bang for my buck and quit lining DRI's pockets.

 

[RLS50]

The wheeling and dealing of it all is definitely enough to make you feel stupid. I wish that I had the full understanding that Troglodyte has of this information. We started our timeshare adventure about 20 years ago with one small deeded property. Over the many years of "updates" we now have 50,000 points with DRI. Every time we update (aka spend big bucks) it makes perfectly good sense. I don't feel that we are normally stupid or financially inept people, but now I feel that we have been duped. The bottom line now is that I have become a TUG (and other boards) stalker I'm learning more and more. I'm very happy we didn't bite on the $30,000 to convert to Hawaii collection. It did feel like blackmail.

My next adventure is trying to decide if we should divest ourselves of some of these points (we have 5 different contracts) to lessen our MF and then go in search of a couple of inexpensive deeded weeks at our favorite areas to purchase instead. We really do enjoy timeshares, but I want to get the biggest bang for my buck and quit lining DRI's pockets.

You are definitely not stupid.

I can speak for us and say that when we finally bought from a Developer, I knew we were overpaying but I did not fully appreciate how much. Although we had turned down other timeshare offers in previous years, we finally bought because I mistakenly believed that somehow making sure we bought oceanfront units were going to make the upfront expense more worth it.

And some of the perks they threw into our deal were not as valuable as they made them sound. They never actually "lied" to us, but in my ignorance I did not know the right questions to ask to fully understand the details of what they were throwing in the deal.

I knew about the resale market in general, but I had no idea there were resources like TUG to get educated on so many different timeshare systems and how so many companies work their own systems (both retail and resale).

So at this point we are just trying to make up the lost ground and make sure our investment works for us to the fullest possible extent it can. And I say that knowing that since we bought from a developer originally, our timeshare vacations will never provide the financial ROI that owners will get who bought 100% resale.

But to your specific example, if the DRI reps really told you what you outlined, I personally would not be motivated to spend another dollar with DRI. It makes me very wary of any system where one can already own so many points and still be told they need to spend significantly more money to fully benefit from the system. Where does it end?

 

[Michael1991]

if the DRI reps really told you what you outlined, I personally would not be motivated to spend another dollar with DRI. It makes me very wary of any system where one can already own so many points and still be told they need to spend significantly more money to fully benefit from the system. Where does it end?

This kind of story is not uncommon in the two Facebook groups for Diamond owners. Moreover, if a Hawaii owner is in Florida, or other locations where US Collection points are sold, they are often told their points will not have full benefits at mainland resorts. The common theme from the sale reps is: whatever you currently own is a mistake and you should spend more money to fix it.

 

[Michael1991]

Since not all Regency Collection owners are part of the Club, that portion of inventory assigned to the Regency Collection gets split again, with a portion of the Regency Collection assigned to the Club that is proportional to the fraction of Regency Collection owners that are members in the Club. ...

How is the split of intervals between those belonging exclusively to the Collection and those given to the Club made? Does DRI take all the plum weeks for the Club and leave the lemons for the resale owners? Or are there some rules governing this split (rules other than Diamond has full discretion)?

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

How is the split of intervals between those belonging exclusively to the Collection and those given to the Club made? Does DRI take all the plum weeks for the Club and leave the lemons for the resale owners? Or are there some rules governing this split (rules other than Diamond has full discretion)?

In my experience (at Point at Poipu) the divisions are made on a uniform basis throughout the year, in proportion to the fraction of ownership of each group. So if 40% of the ocean view deeds are owned in the Hawaii Collection, then 40% of ocean view inventory gets assigned to the trust throughout the year. Then, if we assume that 75% of trust ownership is also in the Club, then the Club winds up with 75% of that 40% inventory of the inventory, again on a uniform basis.

If you listen to the sales people, they will try to persuade you that ultimately 99+% of the inventory will wind up in the Club, so of necessity if you don't join the Club you will find yourself left with only a shriveling fraction of inventory available for check-in. First off, I don't think it will ever reach that point. There will always be a significant fraction of owners who will choose to not be part of the club.

 

[artringwald]

In my experience (at Point at Poipu) the divisions are made on a uniform basis throughout the year, in proportion to the fraction of ownership of each group. So if 40% of the ocean view deeds are owned in the Hawaii Collection, then 40% of ocean view inventory gets assigned to the trust throughout the year. Then, if we assume that 75% of trust ownership is also in the Club, then the Club winds up with 75% of that 40% inventory of the inventory, again on a uniform basis.

If you listen to the sales people, they will try to persuade you that ultimately 99+% of the inventory will wind up in the Club, so of necessity if you don't join the Club you will find yourself left with only a shriveling fraction of inventory available for check-in. First off, I don't think it will ever reach that point. There will always be a significant fraction of owners who will choose to not be part of the club.

As of 2011, the distribution at Point at Poipu was:

deeded owners 63%
trust 35%
DRI 2%

I'll be attending the annual owner's meeting in February, so I'll ask for updated data.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

As of 2011, the distribution at Point at Poipu was:

deeded owners 63%
trust 35%
DRI 2%

I'll be attending the annual owner's meeting in February, so I'll ask for updated data.

Trust ownership is trending up. As I recall at the time the water intrusion assessment was made trust was about 45%.

 

[gmidkiff]

[Advertising Deleted]

[Advertising deleted - please review the forum rules before posting again.]

 

[bobpark56]

Wow!

We had our "Owners Update" in Poipu this week. According to the sales rep, the minimum block of points they sell in the Hawaii Collection is 11,500 points, at more than $100,000. <snip>.

Wow! We paid $15,424 for 10,000 Hawaii Collection points back in May, 2014. seemed a bit high, but we splurged.

 

[tshanks1981]

Feel like I was taken for a fool...

So in 2013 my family and I were on vacation in Florida (Mickey Mouse House) and got rained out so we decided to take up the free timeshare viewing at the resort we were staying in. It is a DRI owned resort, and they offered us free "whatever" to come listen in. Long story short, we bought the sampler package. In 2014 we went to Hawaii on the sampler package and had to yet again listen to the 55 minute ordeal. They threw out the whole pitch and I was not interested at all. They wanted us to get the Silver package at $9.30 per point, for a grand total of about $140k. When I finished choking on the soda I was drinking, I politely declined. He went to process our paperwork to leave when someone came from the back and asked how we managed to make it to Hawaii on a Sampler package from the US collection. I didn't know why he was asking, and I just told them I booked it and we came, that simple...he acted in disbelief and explained to me that since we were on a Sampler, we were to be treated as owners and we were allowed to purchase our points at the point value at which we originally were given in Florida, about $2.95 per point. We did the math, and decided to proceed. We bought the minimum, 7500 points and went on about our day. Oh lucky us, we got to choose a dream vacation package for free! All we had to do was listen to a 55 minute owners update when we arrived...we booked our dream vacation back to Hawaii for the 5 days...while doing the owner's update, she tried to get us to buy the minimum 11,500 points for over $9.00 per point (again) and we declined once again. Same scenario, guy came from the back and asked us to sign some paperwork to waive the price freeze from the previous year. evidently, we were there a week before the price freeze expired, which made us eligible to purchase the remaining 7500 points needed to get to silver status rather than the minimum 11,500...again, at the $2.95 per point.

Now. I felt like we got the deal of a lifetime....twice!! After finding this website, I feel like I have been shafted---so much negativity from people about DRI and their sales tactics. Does anyone really pay $9.00+ for each point???

I just want to go on vacation and not feel like I'm being violated...

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Enjoy the vacations & skip "updates"

Dear tshanks 1981: as the saying goes ( from a poll done here ) - half of all TUG members bought at least one TS from the developer As you can see from earlier in the thread Steve Nelson/ T_R_O. bought additional points from DRI to get gold status and he seems to know more about the DRI system than they do .Learn to use what you own to the max so you enjoy all your future vacations .

Your " feelings " about the sell process will diminish if you have great vacations
and keep reading TUG .

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Dear tshanks 1981: as the saying goes ( from a poll done here ) - half of all TUG members bought at least one TS from the developer As you can see from earlier in the thread Steve Nelson/ T_R_O. bought additional points from DRI to get gold status and he seems to know more about the DRI system than they do .Learn to use what you own to the max so you enjoy all your future vacations .

Your " feelings " about the sell process will diminish if you have great vacations
and keep reading TUG .

I probably wouldn't have made the purchases myself, but DW likes the system. My reticence has enabled us to at least drive the prices down to more tolerable levels.

We have gotten a lot of benefit out of it. Most of our children like the Point at Poipu, and with the birth of our granddaughter we are now having three generation family vacations together. Being in the club has given us flexibility to accommodate their schedules. In addition, when our daughter got married on St. Martin, we used the Club to secure rooms for many of the people traveling to the wedding.

As long as it works, we will use it, especially if our kids keep coming back year with us. That's really what we were buying with our purchase and the annual fees.

 

[ccwu]

I probably wouldn't have made the purchases myself, but DW likes the system. My reticence has enabled us to at least drive the prices down to more tolerable levels.

We have gotten a lot of benefit out of it. Most of our children like the Point at Poipu, and with the birth of our granddaughter we are now having three generation family vacations together. Being in the club has given us flexibility to accommodate their schedules. In addition, when our daughter got married on St. Martin, we used the Club to secure rooms for many of the people traveling to the wedding.

As long as it works, we will use it, especially if our kids keep coming back year with us. That's really what we were buying with our purchase and the annual fees.

I am DRI platinum elite member. I have to say that I enjoyed every trip to DRI resorts by myself or with friends and family. Since I own and upgrade in Kaanapali Beach resort, I travel most to KBC. But recently, I am annoyed. I tried to check 2017 out. I always reserve 13 months in advance. I found very few inventories for 13 months in advance at KBC. I wonder what happened. I have always reserve an ocean view to upgrade to deluxe ocean view. In the past the upgrades were free. Starting two years ago, I had to pay upgrade fees. Now the only availability is garden view. :annoyed:

 

[winger]

I am DRI platinum elite member. I have to say that I enjoyed every trip to DRI resorts by myself or with friends and family. Since I own and upgrade in Kaanapali Beach resort, I travel most to KBC. But recently, I am annoyed. I tried to check 2017 out. I always reserve 13 months in advance. I found very few inventories for 13 months in advance at KBC. I wonder what happened. I have always reserve an ocean view to upgrade to deluxe ocean view. In the past the upgrades were free. Starting two years ago, I had to pay upgrade fees. Now the only availability is garden view. :annoyed:

Have you seen other platinum benefits 'degraded'? My guess is there are more downgrades coming...

 

[Emi]

It seems like Diamond has an ever moving target to suck owners into upgrading. We bought an every other year at Poipu in 1999, then a DOV week on resale at KBC. Six years ago we joined the Club by transferring our Eoy poipu and purchasing 4000 points in the Hawaii Trust collection. We are now Silver elite status. Last November we attended a presentation at Poipu and the salesman pulled the same story how the refusal we signed somehow got lost in the system and we can still get the $3.35 per point price if we purchase 10000 points to gain gold status. Silver is now "worthless".. After refusing offer a few times, we only have to purchase 4500 points and we can do Combination of one of our other resorts to get to the 30000 points gold status requirement. The Club Select benefit has worked for us since we deposit 2 to 3 of our other resorts to get the Diamond points needed for extended stays in Hawaii. Question is, if we upgrade to Gold and use Combination of one of our resorts, do we lose the Club Select benefit which they claim no longer exists?

We purchased the Sampler package to "hold" the price. It is not available to reserve at KBC and limited at Poipu which is not even on the allowed list. We did get a November reservation this year for Poipu with the Sampler by calling the reservation representative.

We were told 2 benefits to upgrade to Gold which appear to be "bull" after further independent research
1) 30/30 program 1/3 of points can get 30 cents per point for Travel value. Since maintenance fee is less than 30 cents per point, it's a slight discount to convert points to travel dollars. Seems to work only for high end, high cost travel such as African safari.

2)" can get upgrade free on unit and a rebate check for dfference in points" in other words, use garden view unit for 8500 points, can upgrade to ocean view 11500 and get 3000 points credit to use for travel. NO SUCH THING There is a benefit call Points Redemption which you can redeem your unused points for 8 cents per point for Silver status. Think it's more for Gold status. What the salesman's twisted words mean is that Instead of spending 11500 for that oceanview unit, you can reserve a gardenview unit, save 3000 points and turn that in for cash. no such thing as free points for travel.

Attended another sales presentation last week at KBC with no intention to buy because it would forfeit our Sampler package we will be using in November. Another hard sell even though we told them up front we have the Sampler package and only there to get info. Was told benefits changing, no more 30/30 limitation. Can get unlimited points redemption. Gold status changing to 50000 points requirement shortly. Diamond very good with confusing owners by constantly changing phantom benefits.

Perhaps you knowledgable tuggers can help me understand some of these Gold benefits mentioned above. What is the real benefit to upgrading to Gold? Will I lose my Club Select if I upgrade?

Thank you very much

 

[artringwald]

It seems like Diamond has an ever moving target to suck owners into upgrading. We bought an every other year at Poipu in 1999, then a DOV week on resale at KBC. Six years ago we joined the Club by transferring our Eoy poipu and purchasing 4000 points in the Hawaii Trust collection. We are now Silver elite status. Last November we attended a presentation at Poipu and the salesman pulled the same story how the refusal we signed somehow got lost in the system and we can still get the $3.35 per point price if we purchase 10000 points to gain gold status. Silver is now "worthless".. After refusing offer a few times, we only have to purchase 4500 points and we can do Combination of one of our other resorts to get to the 30000 points gold status requirement. The Club Select benefit has worked for us since we deposit 2 to 3 of our other resorts to get the Diamond points needed for extended stays in Hawaii. Question is, if we upgrade to Gold and use Combination of one of our resorts, do we lose the Club Select benefit which they claim no longer exists?

We purchased the Sampler package to "hold" the price. It is not available to reserve at KBC and limited at Poipu which is not even on the allowed list. We did get a November reservation this year for Poipu with the Sampler by calling the reservation representative.

We were told 2 benefits to upgrade to Gold which appear to be "bull" after further independent research
1) 30/30 program 1/3 of points can get 30 cents per point for Travel value. Since maintenance fee is less than 30 cents per point, it's a slight discount to convert points to travel dollars. Seems to work only for high end, high cost travel such as African safari.

2)" can get upgrade free on unit and a rebate check for dfference in points" in other words, use garden view unit for 8500 points, can upgrade to ocean view 11500 and get 3000 points credit to use for travel. NO SUCH THING There is a benefit call Points Redemption which you can redeem your unused points for 8 cents per point for Silver status. Think it's more for Gold status. What the salesman's twisted words mean is that Instead of spending 11500 for that oceanview unit, you can reserve a gardenview unit, save 3000 points and turn that in for cash. no such thing as free points for travel.

Attended another sales presentation last week at KBC with no intention to buy because it would forfeit our Sampler package we will be using in November. Another hard sell even though we told them up front we have the Sampler package and only there to get info. Was told benefits changing, no more 30/30 limitation. Can get unlimited points redemption. Gold status changing to 50000 points requirement shortly. Diamond very good with confusing owners by constantly changing phantom benefits.

Perhaps you knowledgable tuggers can help me understand some of these Gold benefits mentioned above. What is the real benefit to upgrading to Gold? Will I lose my Club Select if I upgrade?

Thank you very much

There's not much sense in going to "owner's updates" if you're not planning on upgrading, because it's hard to trust anything they say. Here's a link to the loyalty benefits that are available for 2016:

https://cmsprod.diamondresorts.com/sites/default/files/US_Benefits-for-All-Members-Revised.pdf

You can also view the document by logging into your account and clicking on "Diamond Loyalty" in the "My Benefits" menu. The benefits certainly seem to change from year to year.

Besides TUG, a very good place to ask questions is the moderated Diamond Resorts Forum. Questions will usually get answered by a DRI employee that knows what they're talking about.

 

[nuwermj]

Question is, if we upgrade to Gold and use Combination of one of our resorts, do we lose the Club Select benefit which they claim no longer exists?

"Club Combinations" has replaced "Club Select". The two programs are in most ways the same. The deposit fees for the newer Club Combinations are lower than the Club Select fees. The point values may also be different, but I don't know for sure. If you want to be sure that all of your non-DRI resorts can be deposited, renegotiate so that your existing Club Select units are included in the new Club Combination deal.

I don't blame your for being skeptical. I've read a lot of stories about salesmen explaining how an upgrade should work but it didn't work that way at all.

As for the Gold tier, I personally have no interest in the benefits. Resale only for me. But here is the benefit directory. You can look it over and do your own evaluation to see whether the benefits are worth the cost.

https://cmsprod.diamondresorts.com/sites/default/files/US-Member-Benefits-Directory_16.pdf

 

[kalima]

Don't do it for the perks

No way should you buy more points for their silly perks that they offer....they can take them away at any time. Only take more points if you need them for travelling. The sales peoples are lying weasels mostly and quite often don't know what they hell they are talking about. Consider joining our FB page: Diamond Resorts Friends Worldwide