Experiences by Welk - Now Charging Membership Fee?

[JManteca]

I received an email from Welk saying that my free membership in the Experiences by Welk program had expired and they are asking me to pay $199/yr to continue as a member. I asked another Welk owner if they had received the same email but she had not. She originally bought from the developer; I bought resale. Has anyone else gotten an email saying that Welk is charging for membership? If so, are you a resale owner?

 

[Shankilicious]

I am an owner who bought from Welk (developer) three years ago. I just spoke with owner services on Monday about this. I was told that the experiences by Welk (travel assistant type app/site not the collection of affiliated resorts) is included for your first year of ownership but then costs an annual fee.
If you don't pay the fee, the experiences program is still accessible but the discounts are not as good. Kind of like II member levels.
My experiences account is currently in accessible but I'll keep checking and let you know for sure as I have never paid for the experiences membership.

 

[nuwermj]

I was told that the experiences by Welk (travel assistant type app/site not the collection of affiliated resorts) is included for your first year of ownership but then costs an annual fee.
If you don't pay the fee, the experiences program is still accessible but the discounts are not as good. Kind of like II member levels.

Yep, this is how it works for me. My introductory account expired; I've not renewed; I can renew for $199; I can access the travel services without renewing.

 

[Shankilicious]

Update: my account is working again and I did some quick flight searches through the experiences app and they were the same price as through Google flights. I'm not paying the $199/yr membership. So that's good at least and you can collect rewards points, which I'm guessing take a long time to add up to anything. However:
Not to hi-jack the thread, but the OPs question being answered, has anybody had much experience with gaining and using Welk Reward Credits?