HGVC original vs. MAX

[Kathymjakob]

Please forgive me, as I am new to this group. I purchased a platinum deeded week at Tuscany Village almost 20 years ago. Since the merger with Diamond, it seems like I can never find availability anymore for the more desirable locations, even when checking exactly nine months out. We are booked for an Owner Update meeting soon, and I'm wondering what the Max program entails. If I purchase a resale, do those points merge with my own 13,400? I realize I would have two MFs. Any insight I could get prior to meeting with HGVC would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[will.i.am]

Personally, I haven't found any need to upgrade to MAx. They're definitely trying to push it but it has been discussed here the reasons for staying legacy versus Max.

I think the ability to book out in Max locations reduces down to 6m and I'm hesitant to believe they say my legacy locations would not be affected by this and I can maintain my 9m with them.

Unless someone here has any actual experience, I'd stick with Legacy. And it all depends where you're trying to go too? Are you trying to book at Tuscany?

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[cd5]

The purchase of Diamond is not what's affecting your availability as they can only trade into Hilton using Max and only at 6 mths from checkout at that.
If you buy a resale the points do not merge. The whole point of introducing Max is to have people buy more RETAIL points.
You'd be better off using RCI to get more options - and it costs a fraction of the price of a few thousand points to get into Max.
PS Max is just an exchange program internal to Hilton - you are not buying "Max" points you are buying either Hilton or Diamond or Embarc which translate into Max points for exchanges.

 

[Talent312]

Spending mega-bucks to get Max status is a fools errand.
All it does is give you access to old DRI resorts at 6 mos.
It will give HVC-DRI members access to HGVC, but at 6 mos.
It does not affect HGVC availability at 9 mos. Keep looking.
.

 

[SmithOp]

I've never had trouble booking Club season at nine months, what are you trying to reserve?

 

[letsgobobby]

the vast majority of board participants would pay under $500 for max. The most common value respondents would pay was $0.

Do with that information what you will.

 

[GT75]

availability anymore for the more desirable locations, even when checking exactly nine months out.

I haven't experience any change. I am finding good availability at 276 days mark. What are you trying to book?

Any insight I could get prior to meeting with HGVC would be helpful.

They will present FOMO. What ever you share, they will sell you something to solve your problem (but it will only make matters worse for you). Expect they to try to sell you DRI trust points, which would be a huge mistake.

 

[dayooper]

Please forgive me, as I am new to this group. I purchased a platinum deeded week at Tuscany Village almost 20 years ago. Since the merger with Diamond, it seems like I can never find availability anymore for the more desirable locations, even when checking exactly nine months out. We are booked for an Owner Update meeting soon, and I'm wondering what the Max program entails. If I purchase a resale, do those points merge with my own 13,400? I realize I would have two MFs. Any insight I could get prior to meeting with HGVC would be helpful. Thanks!

My insight is to not go to the owners update. They will be of no help and their only solution would be to sell you something.

I haven’t had any problem with using my points. Since the merger, I gave book Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Chicago and Hilton Head. Only had to truly walk one of them (Hilton Head), but walked Ocean Enclave in Myrtle Beach to be safe.

 

[Talent312]

IMHO, "owners updates" are a colossal waste of valuable vacation time. The sales-weasels will will make it sound as it Max is the best thing since sliced bread and try to sell HVC-DRI points (w/o telling you its not HGVC) since the price is lower than HGVC. Many are beguiled by the notion of cross-system exchanging, but at 6 month, what you're getting are the leftovers.

 

[Kathymjakob]

Thank you everyone for your insight. We had met with HGVC when we were in Orlando in 2022, and we walked away. So glad we did! Now they are calling us for this year. We are planning to attend a meeting in June, only because they offered a long weekend in VA Beach for $99 and 50,000 HH points (we live in Williamsburg which is close by and we travel a lot with Hilton Honors points). I truly hate these "update meetings" with sneaky salespeople. Any suggestions on how people got out of there in less than 3 hours would be appreciated! One other question...what does it mean to "walk" a booking?

 

[dayooper]

Thank you everyone for your insight. We had met with HGVC when we were in Orlando in 2022, and we walked away. So glad we did! Now they are calling us for this year. We are planning to attend a meeting in June, only because they offered a long weekend in VA Beach for $99 and 50,000 HH points (we live in Williamsburg which is close by and we travel a lot with Hilton Honors points). I truly hate these "update meetings" with sneaky salespeople. Any suggestions on how people got out of there in less than 3 hours would be appreciated! One other question...what does it mean to "walk" a booking?

3 hours is not an appropriate time. Look and see how long is required for you to be there for your package and set a timer for the agreed upon time (usually 90 min to 2 hours). Give as little information up as possible in your discussions. Their questions are designed to mine information to use against you.

Walking a reservation is a method used to book hard to reserve properties. You make a reservation at 9 months (start of the club booking window) for 3 nights with your checkin day as the last day and every dat afterward you move your reservation a date forward one day. Once your checkin day is your first day, you extend your reservation out until your desired reservation is made. The link below explains it with pictures.

2026 HGVC, HCNY, HGV Max Club Rules, Fees and Tips

2026 HGVC, HCNY, HGV Max Club Rules, Fees and Tips (1) Hilton Grand Vacations Club (HGVC) 2026 Club Rules & Fees & Resorts Club Point Charts and Open Season Rates - Post #2 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 Fee Change Comparison - Post #3 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 Open Season Rate Change...

tugbbs.com

 

[GT75]

Any suggestions on how people got out of there in less than 3 hours would be appreciated!

Way past the stated time (which is probably 90 mins). Set a timer (tell the salesperson that you have set a timer). Don't ask questions and don't share information. When the salesperson asks me what I would like to do, I say sell a deed back to HGVC because I have too many points. Tell the salesperson that you don't want Max and you certainly don't want HVC trust points.

 

[Kathymjakob]

Thanks...I plan to set my watch for 90 minutes and make them keep that commitment. I greatly appreciate the explanation of "walking"...it was an eye opener!

 

[Kathymjakob]

Way past the stated time (which is probably 90 mins). Set a timer (tell the salesperson that you have set a timer). Don't ask questions and don't share information. When the salesperson asks me what I would like to do, I say sell a deed back to HGVC because I have too many points. Tell the salesperson that you don't want Max and you certainly don't want HVC trust points.

Thank you! I hate to be a rude person, but they are incessant!

 

[brp]

Thank you everyone for your insight. We had met with HGVC when we were in Orlando in 2022, and we walked away. So glad we did! Now they are calling us for this year. We are planning to attend a meeting in June, only because they offered a long weekend in VA Beach for $99 and 50,000 HH points (we live in Williamsburg which is close by and we travel a lot with Hilton Honors points). I truly hate these "update meetings" with sneaky salespeople. Any suggestions on how people got out of there in less than 3 hours would be appreciated! One other question...what does it mean to "walk" a booking?

There is certainly disagreement here on the value of attending presentations. Several who don't like it have posted. Others of us find it can be worth the perks if the offer is good enough, you have some free time, and you can limit them to the stated time, or less. Talking about resale can certainly shorten it. We each make our own choices, but both sides of the issue are viable.

Cheers.

 

[Reddart]

Wear this at the meeting, it should shorten it.
Tugbbs shirt.

 

[brp]

Wear this at the meeting, it should shorten it.
Tugbbs shirt.

Amusingly, I did wear a TUG shirt at a MVC sales pitch meeting (with good perks). We did talk about the shirt, and the agent found it amusing. Since MVC substantially hampers resale, from what I understand, she did not consider this much of a threat. HGVC, on the other hand, no restriction, so it does matter.

Cheers.

 

[PigsDad]

The purchase of Diamond is not what's affecting your availability as they can only trade into Hilton using Max and only at 6 mths from checkout at that.
If you buy a resale the points do not merge. The whole point of introducing Max is to have people buy more RETAIL points.
You'd be better off using RCI to get more options - and it costs a fraction of the price of a few thousand points to get into Max.
PS Max is just an exchange program internal to Hilton - you are not buying "Max" points you are buying either Hilton or Diamond or Embarc which translate into Max points for exchanges.

Sorry, I have to correct / clarify this statement. The OP owns a HGVC deed, and if they add a resale HGVC or HC deed, the points most certainly DO merge. Quite nicely, in fact. However, if they buy Diamond points / deed resale, that would not merge (not sure if that's what you were talking about, so giving you the benefit of the doubt).

This is very important, as salespeople will try and tell you that resale deeds cannot be merged into your account, saying that the only way to do that is to buy retail. Of course, they will say almost any lie to entice you to buy retail so they can get their fat commission check.

Kurt

 

[cd5]

Sorry, I have to correct / clarify this statement. The OP owns a HGVC deed, and if they add a resale HGVC or HC deed, the points most certainly DO merge. Quite nicely, in fact. However, if they buy Diamond points / deed resale, that would not merge (not sure if that's what you were talking about, so giving you the benefit of the doubt).

This is very important, as salespeople will try and tell you that resale deeds cannot be merged into your account, saying that the only way to do that is to buy retail. Of course, they will say almost any lie to entice you to buy retail so they can get their fat commission check.

Kurt

I understood the discussion to be about the use of retail/resale points in Max specifically.
They can't be merged - in Max - for Embarc or Diamond. An Embarc or Diamond member that buys resale points can combine them to use within their own "collection" - for Embarc that means that all 9 resorts can be booked with resale & retail points together, regardless of how they were acquired. Diamond works the same way.
Here's the discussion for Max specifically:
Should one have bought resale points first, and then, later, retail points to get into Max they merge for Max and the original collection, of course. If another number of resale points are bought afterwards, the resale points are NOT useable in Max. You would need to again buy another batch of retail points to make them all useable together.
IOW: You can't buy 4000 retail points (to get into Max) and then afterwards buy 20,000 resale points and then use all 24,000 in Max just based on that original 4000 point purchase.
HGVC may work differently in Max but I would be surprised because they're trying to keep things "standard" across the board for that (as much as possible). It just wouldn't make sense for the developer to allow that. The same principle applied to Extraordinary Escapes and The Club before Max was introduced by Hilton.

 

[geist1223]

W have been DRI member for years. At one Point we owned Resell and Retail DRI Points in the Hawaiian Collection. You can not combine resell and retail DRI Points to make a single Reservarion.

 

[GT75]

At one Point we owned Resell and Retail DRI Points in the Hawaiian Collecrion. You can not combine resell and retail DRI Points to make a single Reservarion.

Wow, that certainly sucks.

 

[dioxide45]

W have been DRI member for years. At one Point we owned Resell and Retail DRI Points in the Hawaiian Collecrion. You can not combine resell and retail DRI Points to make a single Reservarion.

Do you know if you can combine points from multiple resale contracts to make a single reservation?

 

[cd5]

W have been DRI member for years. At one Point we owned Resell and Retail DRI Points in the Hawaiian Collecrion. You can not combine resell and retail DRI Points to make a single Reservarion.

Wow. Another reason to be happy it's Club Intrawest (now Embarc) I bought into. There's a lot less of the craziness.

 

[PigsDad]

I understood the discussion to be about the use of retail/resale points in Max specifically.
They can't be merged - in Max - for Embarc or Diamond. An Embarc or Diamond member that buys resale points can combine them to use within their own "collection" - for Embarc that means that all 9 resorts can be booked with resale & retail points together, regardless of how they were acquired. Diamond works the same way.
Here's the discussion for Max specifically:
Should one have bought resale points first, and then, later, retail points to get into Max they merge for Max and the original collection, of course. If another number of resale points are bought afterwards, the resale points are NOT useable in Max. You would need to again buy another batch of retail points to make them all useable together.
IOW: You can't buy 4000 retail points (to get into Max) and then afterwards buy 20,000 resale points and then use all 24,000 in Max just based on that original 4000 point purchase.
HGVC may work differently in Max but I would be surprised because they're trying to keep things "standard" across the board for that (as much as possible). It just wouldn't make sense for the developer to allow that. The same principle applied to Extraordinary Escapes and The Club before Max was introduced by Hilton.

I see what you are saying, and agree that buying resale DRI or Embarc points will not merge. However, HGVC does indeed work differently.

If you have Max access and then add resale HGVC or HC points, those additional points can be used for Max reservations -- it has been reported here several times that it does work that way. In the same way, if you only have resale HGVC or HC deeds and then buy a Max-eligible HGVC or HC deed, those original resale points can be used for Max reservations.

I just wanted to point out that in certain cases (HGVC / HC only), resale deeds do merge in nicely.

Kurt

 

[geist1223]

What we did one time was call in to make a Booking. We used resell Points to make a 3 day Reservation. Then retail Points to make a 4 day consecutive Reservation. In that it was the same sized Unit consecutive we were not required to move Units. You had to have a knowledgeable DRI person on the line to do this. But it was a pain. We got the resell Pounts for zero dollars. Seller paid all costs of transfer. Shortly after this we bought into Cabo Azul, washed our dirty Points, and combined all our Points into a single Contract.