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Gold VDP to Points opinions

AlbertaTravel

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IMG_0091.jpeg


I was offered this contract to transfer my Gold contract to a points. I feel it would be easier getting to different VDP places that I can’t go to because I’m gold. I know it’s more expensive but I could also utilize a studio rather than a one bedroom sometimes. Any opinions.
 

easyrider

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I can't see your jpeg but if you have a gold Winter Week and your contract is a pre-fix other than 16- or 18- you have access to all but the newest resorts. The only way into some of the resorts is owning points is what I was told at a presentation. The problem becomes the length of time on the rtu for my timeline. My rtu's all expire before I'm 70. After that I plan to rent or exchange if I want to go to a VDP or go to other resorts that are available through SFX, RCI and II.

We were priced around $17,000 to upgrade a two bed unit. The mf would increase as well. The only way this works for me is if I can use a 50 year rtu in 10 years. Like five weeks every winter. Even so, the costs are way more than I would want to spend on trips to Mexico.

Bill
 

EJC

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View attachment 101755

I was offered this contract to transfer my Gold contract to a points. I feel it would be easier getting to different VDP places that I can’t go to because I’m gold. I know it’s more expensive but I could also utilize a studio rather than a one bedroom sometimes. Any opinions.
Are they going to charge you for the conversion, or will they do it for free? I converted my Gold Holiday studio to points. They sent me an email offering the conversion for free. The first time I used the points was for a BOGO offer that I used last month for two weeks at VDPM Vallarta. I booked a studio unit. When I arrived, they put me in building 3 in the studio with a small undercounter fridge. I do NOT like those units because I go to Costco and stock up the freezer and fridge. You can't do that with an undercounter fridge. Prior to this visit, I was always given studios with large fridges. I told the concierge that I'm never given those units with the small fridge. She said that was because I used to have gold and now you ONLY have points. I was furious. I told her if I had known I was going to get worse units with points than Gold, I wouldn't have converted. They did let me change units after a few days. I think the most important thing to note is with points, a 1-bdrm is 1,000 more points than a studio. That means the mtnc fee is $500 higher for a 1-bdrm vs a studio. With Gold memberships, the mtnc fee for a 1-bdrm was only very appx $200 more than a studio. If they continue to assign me studio units with undercounter fridges, I'll regret the conversion.
 

EJC

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View attachment 101755

I was offered this contract to transfer my Gold contract to a points. I feel it would be easier getting to different VDP places that I can’t go to because I’m gold. I know it’s more expensive but I could also utilize a studio rather than a one bedroom sometimes. Any opinions.
I just noticed that the conversion price is $0. So, they must be converting for free. One thing that is a better value with points is the summer season. With Gold, you'd pay your regular mtnc fee amount for a summer week. With points, that summer week would cost less because you'd only pay the mtnc fee for the required summer points, in your case 1,700 points for a summer week. 1,700 points mtnc costs $850 vs your regular Gold mtnc of $931.
 

AlbertaTravel

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Yes they are converting to 4400 points and I have access to holiday weeks and there is no cost for the conversion. I do have a 16 prefix. I wish I knew of others that converted and were given less pleasant accommodation than they had before.
 

EJC

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Yes they are converting to 4400 points and I have access to holiday weeks and there is no cost for the conversion. I do have a 16 prefix. I wish I knew of others that converted and were given less pleasant accommodation than they had before.
With 4400 points you get 2 winter 1-bdrms at Flamingos, Loreto, and Cancun, but if you book a 2550-point holiday 1 bdrm, you don't have enough points for a two-week vacation in a 1-bdrm.
What amazes me is they still don't have a point schedule for the new Vallarta resort. So, they expect you to convert to points or buy more points, but you don't even know how many points the new resort will require. The Vallarta resort is the only one where they have large and small studios. In Cabo, the VDPM studio units have large fridges, but I believe the other newer resorts do not. So...the issue I had with the studio room assignment in Vallarta last month would be less of an issue at their other resorts. The other thing that bothered me was on the list of room priority, VPA is higher than Gold. Why, then was I given a worse unit than I normally have been assigned with Gold.
 

EJC

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Yes they are converting to 4400 points and I have access to holiday weeks and there is no cost for the conversion. I do have a 16 prefix. I wish I knew of others that converted and were given less pleasant accommodation than they had before.
I wonder what UVC's main motivation is in offering up these free conversions. Obviously, they're going to get $338 more in mtnc fees from you. Do they just want everyone using points? One perk you lose by giving up your Gold membership is free room upgrade at check-in.
 

easyrider

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VPA is higher than Gold. Why, then was I given a worse unit than I normally have been assigned with Gold.

That's really odd, imo. It's also good to know so thanks for bringing it up. So far, they haven't offered us a free point conversion. It probably has something to do with being premiere memberships with a short rtu.

Bill
 

AlbertaTravel

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Bill
I didn’t get an offer. I heard of someone else getting one on here (I think) and then I contacted Resortcom then I received an offer. Might want to try that and see what you get.
 

EJC

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That's really odd, imo. It's also good to know so thanks for bringing it up. So far, they haven't offered us a free point conversion. It probably has something to do with being premiere memberships with a short rtu.

Bill
I suspect the conversion is just for Gold contracts. I have two, two-week Premiere contracts, and I was not offered the conversion for those, I assume because there are very few years remaining on those.
 

AlbertaTravel

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[QUOTE="EJC, post: 3113436, member: One perk you lose by giving up your Gold membership is free room upgrade at check-in.
[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately I have never received a free upgrade on checkin so I probably won’t miss that a. LOL
 

easyrider

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[QUOTE="EJC, post: 3113436, member: One perk you lose by giving up your Gold membership is free room upgrade at check-in.
Unfortunately I have never received a free upgrade on checkin so I probably won’t miss that a. LOL
[/QUOTE]

With my premiere membership we have upgraded to the ocean front penthouses units a few times before the point system rolled out. We mostly reserve winter weeks and now days it's tough to get an upgrade for winter.

Bill
 

beach.bar.bob

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AlbertaTravel said:
I was offered this contract to transfer my Gold contract to a points. I feel it would be easier getting to different VDP places that I can’t go to because I’m gold. I know it’s more expensive but I could also utilize a studio rather than a one bedroom sometimes. Any opinions.
Seems to be a reasonable offer to me.
No fee to convert, no extension of length of contract, holiday use included. Seems only downside is increase in maintenance fees. If that doesn't bust your budget then I like it.

Regular readers know I've been on points a long time now. There is a ton of flexibility in terms of borrowing/banking, unit types, time of year, length of stay, different resorts, etc. For me the flexibility is well worth it. Just a quick example: in late Jan our daughter is getting married at Arco. We were able to book 13 different units - some of 4 days, some of 7 days, some studios, some 1 bedroom, some 2 bedroom and a 3 bedroom ocean front for myself so we can host a cocktail party the night before. I could never have pulled off something like that without a points membership.

Part of UVC's motivation maybe the new online reservation system. It works great for points membership. It seems they have challenges rolling it out for premier/gold memberships. Plus, since there are far fewer premier/gold memberships training the phone reservation staff is more difficult. If they only have points memberships all the internal processes are easier. I think premiers all expire soon, but golds have many more years before they all roll off. Converting them for free might just be a good business decision for them now. Just a thought.

FWIW

bbb
 

easyrider

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Seems to be a reasonable offer to me.
No fee to convert, no extension of length of contract, holiday use included. Seems only downside is increase in maintenance fees. If that doesn't bust your budget then I like it.

Regular readers know I've been on points a long time now. There is a ton of flexibility in terms of borrowing/banking, unit types, time of year, length of stay, different resorts, etc. For me the flexibility is well worth it. Just a quick example: in late Jan our daughter is getting married at Arco. We were able to book 13 different units - some of 4 days, some of 7 days, some studios, some 1 bedroom, some 2 bedroom and a 3 bedroom ocean front for myself so we can host a cocktail party the night before. I could never have pulled off something like that without a points membership.

Part of UVC's motivation maybe the new online reservation system. It works great for points membership. It seems they have challenges rolling it out for premier/gold memberships. Plus, since there are far fewer premier/gold memberships training the phone reservation staff is more difficult. If they only have points memberships all the internal processes are easier. I think premiers all expire soon, but golds have many more years before they all roll off. Converting them for free might just be a good business decision for them now. Just a thought.

FWIW

bbb

Hi Bob. Sounds like a fun party planned. Congrats.

With my Gold winter I can reserve two years out and bank five weeks either direction. With the Premiere I can only reserve ten months out except for our home resort in Puerto Vallarta.

My question is how many weeks can a points membership bank if it's purchased resale.

Bill
 

EJC

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Hi Bob. Sounds like a fun party planned. Congrats.

With my Gold winter I can reserve two years out and bank five weeks either direction. With the Premiere I can only reserve ten months out except for our home resort in Puerto Vallarta.

My question is how many weeks can a points membership bank if it's purchased resale.

Bill
Everything I have seen says with a points resale you can bank one year and there is a fee. I think that was also stated in the transfer doc you posted in response to Brian's question regarding alcohol.
 

beach.bar.bob

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Everything I have seen says with a points resale you can bank one year and there is a fee. I think that was also stated in the transfer doc you posted in response to Brian's question regarding alcohol.

I know the standard points is bank/borrow 5 year either direction...but the transfer document will prevail I'm sure.
I don't know anything to the contrary.

FWIW

bbb
 
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