Is it true that RCI Points members see more resorts than RCI weeks? Should I get more TPUs, or Points?

[Jeth01]

I have been a longtime RCI Weeks member. I have a good handle on TPUs and feel like I've gotten good value out of my membership. I am thinking about purchasing another timeshare, and this one is RCI Points only. I called RCI and they told me that to trade with that resort I would need to convert my membership to RCI Points. They said my legacy resorts that are weeks-only would still be included as TPUs, but any new resorts would automatically be deposited as points. I have no idea about the value of points. But the thing that caught my attention was when he told me that once I move to RCI Points, I will see many more resorts available for exchange than I do now. Is this true? That alone seems like a reason to do it.

One thing I hate about RCI is that they only show you what you can "afford". They should show you all of their inventory, even if you don't have the TPUs for it. That would be a good incentive to add more deposits, IMO. It seems like they only show me what I could get with a single deposit, and sometimes I see things available if I combine deposits. I have tried looking through the extra vacations inventory to get a sense of what high TPUs look like, since they show you the TPU range. I wish the resort directory listed that for every resort! Based on those limited searches, it seems like 40-50 for a prime week in Scottsdale or Hawaii. Are there some higher than that? How much TPU do I need to get the best resort in the best location for the best week? Now if I go with RCI Points, will it work the same way, and only show me stuff I have the points for?

I am trying to figure out if I am better off buying more weeks to get more TPUs, or buying weeks at resorts with RCI Points. My goal is to open up the most possible trading opportunities with RCI.

Thanks for any help on this!

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

I have been a longtime RCI Weeks member. I have a good handle on TPUs and feel like I've gotten good value out of my membership. I am thinking about purchasing another timeshare, and this one is RCI Points only. I called RCI and ...........

But the thing that caught my attention was when he told me that once I move to RCI Points, I will see many more resorts available for exchange than I do now. Is this true? That alone seems like a reason to do it

I understand there are some differences but not many of significance
[edited -see posts by other TUG members below ]
@tschwa2 knows a lot on this topic

I am trying to figure out if I am better off buying more weeks to get more TPUs, or buying weeks at resorts with RCI Points. My goal is to open up the most possible trading opportunities with RCI.

Thanks for any help on this!

I would go for the most (TPU's or Points) per dollar of MF

I believe a per TPU cost of $ 10 is quite good & that $ 30 is average.
I believe a penny a point is good for RCI points & Grandview Las Vegas ( a VV property) has some higher points contracts that get that.

 

[Sandy VDH]

They are different inventory buckets. Some resorts are RCI points only, some have points and weeks, as the resort started out as weeks, but at some time they offered a points option, but not everyone has switched to points.

So you will see different inventory on the RCI Points side.

 

[bnoble]

Think of Points and Weeks as completely separate exchange systems, with independent currencies, but that have an "extra" layer of exchange between them.

That layer of exchange is to the benefit of Points. Points owners can see both Points and Weeks inventory, but Weeks owners can only see Weeks. If a Points owner books Weeks inventory, some corresponding Points inventory is supposed to be made available to Weeks owners to balance the books. But, Weeks owners can't pick-and-choose among Points inventory the way Points owners can with Weeks inventory.

One thing I hate about RCI is that they only show you what you can "afford".

I'm not sure this is true. I seem to recall being able to see exchanges that require more TPU than I had in any one deposit, and that would have required combining deposits to make the exchange. What you can't do is look "beyond" the latest-expiring deposit you have. Right now, my latest-expiring deposit is good through August 2024, and so I can't see any inventory past that in that account.

How much TPU do I need to get the best resort in the best location for the best week?

TPU values max out at 60.

But the thing that caught my attention was when he told me that once I move to RCI Points, I will see many more resorts available for exchange than I do now. Is this true? That alone seems like a reason to do it.

Because you are a TUG Member, you can put a Sightings Request in on the Sightings board and see what some of the major differences are.

 

[timeshare trader]

I have been a longtime RCI Weeks member. I have a good handle on TPUs and feel like I've gotten good value out of my membership. I am thinking about purchasing another timeshare, and this one is RCI Points only. I called RCI and they told me that to trade with that resort I would need to convert my membership to RCI Points. They said my legacy resorts that are weeks-only would still be included as TPUs, but any new resorts would automatically be deposited as points. I have no idea about the value of points. But the thing that caught my attention was when he told me that once I move to RCI Points, I will see many more resorts available for exchange than I do now. Is this true? That alone seems like a reason to do it.

One thing I hate about RCI is that they only show you what you can "afford". They should show you all of their inventory, even if you don't have the TPUs for it. That would be a good incentive to add more deposits, IMO. It seems like they only show me what I could get with a single deposit, and sometimes I see things available if I combine deposits. I have tried looking through the extra vacations inventory to get a sense of what high TPUs look like, since they show you the TPU range. I wish the resort directory listed that for every resort! Based on those limited searches, it seems like 40-50 for a prime week in Scottsdale or Hawaii. Are there some higher than that? How much TPU do I need to get the best resort in the best location for the best week? Now if I go with RCI Points, will it work the same way, and only show me stuff I have the points for?

I am trying to figure out if I am better off buying more weeks to get more TPUs, or buying weeks at resorts with RCI Points. My goal is to open up the most possible trading opportunities with RCI.

Thanks for any help on this!

I see inventory that is more you than I have

 

[Jeth01]

I see inventory that is more you than I have

Really? Beyond what you can combine for? I have never seen more than what I can combine for.

 

[Jeth01]

They are different inventory buckets. Some resorts are RCI points only, some have points and weeks, as the resort started out as weeks, but at some time they offered a points option, but not everyone has switched to points.

So you will see different inventory on the RCI Points side.

Do I have to deposit my points to see the inventory? Like with weeks, you can't search with no TPUs. Is it the same?

 

[tschwa2]

Do I have to deposit my points to see the inventory? Like with weeks, you can't search with no TPUs. Is it the same?

rci points auto deposits your home week at 12 months if you haven't pre-reserved your home week. You can still see the inventory if you are out of points for this year because you can borrow from next year's points. I usually borrow ahead and occasionally run out of points I can borrow but I can still look around.

 

[Jeth01]

rci points auto deposits your home week at 12 months if you haven't pre-reserved your home week. You can still see the inventory if you are out of points for this year because you can borrow from next year's points. I usually borrow ahead and occasionally run out of points I can borrow but I can still look around.

Cool, that's great! We pulled the trigger on a new resort that is points-only. So we will be upgrading to a points membership. I am excited to see what new resorts or better weeks that come up!

 

[tschwa2]

Cool, that's great! We pulled the trigger on a new resort that is points-only. So we will be upgrading to a points membership. I am excited to see what new resorts or better weeks that come up!

are you keeping your weeks too? I have them both and sometimes I can see things with weeks that I can't see with points and 95% of the time if I go through chat, they can book those weeks with points (or at least tell me how many points so I can decide which I would rather use), but if you don't know the other weeks are there, you wouldn't know to ask about them.

 

[Jeth01]

are you keeping your weeks too? I have them both and sometimes I can see things with weeks that I can't see with points and 95% of the time if I go through chat, they can book those weeks with points (or at least tell me how many points so I can decide which I would rather use), but if you don't know the other weeks are there, you wouldn't know to ask about them.

Yes. I own at 2 resorts right now. What I was told was that when I add the new resort, I will have to switch to points because they are points-only. One of my existing resorts is points or weeks, and one is weeks-only. They told me that once I switch, the dual one will be deposited as TPUs, or I can pay a fee to deposit as points instead. But the other one will always be TPUs, and exchange with weeks inventory, because it cannot be converted to points.

I am glad to hear you straddle both, because that's what I am planning to do. I still need to learn the value of the points, in terms of whether to convert my week or not. I am hoping that once I can see some of the points inventory, that will give me a better sense of it. The week I am buying gives me 111k points. Can you give me an idea of an equivalent number of TPUs for that?

 

[rboesl]

As a purely points owner in RCI I do see both points and weeks inventory. There's an easy way to tell the difference. When viewing what's available at a resort it also shows the possible check in days. Weeks resorts only have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday check in days. Resorts that are points resorts show all 7 days of the week as possible check in days.

The cost per point is dependent upon your resort's maintenance fee and the alotted points for your week. There are a few resorts, like Grandview peak weeks, where the cost per point works out to about 1 cent per point. But there are other Grandview weeks, which are not peak demand weeks, where the maintenance fee is the same (VV is consistent with the fees based upon unit size) but fewer points are awarded within RCI resulting in a higher cost per point.

So, if you're looking for best bang for buck look at Grandview 122,000 point weeks or VV Colonies @ Williamsburg 144,000 point weeks. (These would be 2 br units.) The maintenance fee for both are right around $1000.

 

[tschwa2]

Not really because one resort that is 89,000 rci points could have a tpu value of 7 while another one is 38. TPU's are more dynamic where as the rci points are a negotiated thing between rci and the resort when they were setting up sales in rci points. Most Massanutten prime points and Vacation Village/Grandview are a result of back room deals with rci not a true indication of supply/demand in any way, shape or form.

https://www.rci.com/static/docs/en_US/points-grid.pdf
https://www.rci.com/static/docs/en_US/pow/help/rci-points-grids.html

The second one is more recent but it goes in rci ID order (when they joined rci) not any logical grouping so it can be harder to find a particular resort.
RCI can be more dynamic with giving out points values for non rci points resorts. Since they weren't sold as points resort, rci can value them however they want and change the values usually not everyday, but a good 2-3 times a year if they see fit. They use to publish a crossover grid for non rci points resorts using rci points. Usually the points were much lower than the points rci was assigning for resorts still in active sales. That has changed over the last 5 years. An older ocean front Virginia Beach summer one Bedroom use to go for around 20,000-30,000 points tops and now they are going for 40,000-48,000 points for that same resort.

 

[tschwa2]

So, if you're looking for best bang for buck look at Grandview 122,000 point weeks or VV Colonies @ Williamsburg 144,000 point weeks. (These would be 2 br units.) The maintenance fee for both are right around $1000.

With VV Colonies 4 BR you want to make sure they are already converted if you want them in rci points (downside is you can no longer exchange them in II if converted to rci points- they are pretty good in II). For every 1 VV Colonies rci points owners, there are probably 10 weeks owners who haven't converted or bought direct in the last 3-4 years when they were selling direct as rci points. Grandview has a lot of weeks owners too but it still isn't that hard to find an rci points grandview owner.

 

[mdurette]

One thing I hate about RCI is that they only show you what you can "afford".

I recall in the past there was a setting in RCI weeks that you were able to click that only gave search results for what you had TPUs for. I just looked around the site and can not put my finger on, but maybe you have that set?

I have 1 TPU left in my weeks account and when I search I still see all the options with higher TPUs. A call/chat to RCI may resolve this for you.

 

[moonstone]

Do I have to deposit my points to see the inventory? Like with weeks, you can't search with no TPUs. Is it the same?

Our RCI points get deposited into our account automatically then we use them (reserve resorts) as we need them. I can stretch our 77K points into 3-5 vacations, all 7-13 nights long pretty much every year. There is a search function to look for stays (7 nights) costing 10K points or less which helps stretch the points. The great thing with points is that the RCI exchange fee to stay 7 nights is the same as staying 13 nights. You should play around with the check-in/out dates if staying more than 7 nights as the points needed can vary depending on check-in/out days at many resorts. Also be aware if booking less than a 7 night stay you will need to pay a housekeeping fee which varies by resort. Years ago when we needed a 6 night stay to add to an existing FL trip, it was cheaper to book a Last Call and leave a day early than use our points and pay the housekeeping fee as well as the exchange fee for 6 nights. When we got our Points timeshare, RCI combined our membership with our pre-existing (since 1982) Weeks account so we just pay 1 membership, however we have different accounts and log-ins on their website depending on which ownership we want to deal with.

~Diane

 

[Jeth01]

I recall in the past there was a setting in RCI weeks that you were able to click that only gave search results for what you had TPUs for. I just looked around the site and can not put my finger on, but maybe you have that set?

I have 1 TPU left in my weeks account and when I search I still see all the options with higher TPUs. A call/chat to RCI may resolve this for you.

Wow, that is some good info. I just tried searching Hawaii and I got one available week, and got this message:

Anyone else get this?

 

[Jeth01]

Our RCI points get deposited into our account automatically then we use them (reserve resorts) as we need them. I can stretch our 77K points into 3-5 vacations, all 7-13 nights long pretty much every year. There is a search function to look for stays (7 nights) costing 10K points or less which helps stretch the points. The great thing with points is that the RCI exchange fee to stay 7 nights is the same as staying 13 nights. You should play around with the check-in/out dates if staying more than 7 nights as the points needed can vary depending on check-in/out days at many resorts. Also be aware if booking less than a 7 night stay you will need to pay a housekeeping fee which varies by resort. Years ago when we needed a 6 night stay to add to an existing FL trip, it was cheaper to book a Last Call and leave a day early than use our points and pay the housekeeping fee as well as the exchange fee for 6 nights. When we got our Points timeshare, RCI combined our membership with our pre-existing (since 1982) Weeks account so we just pay 1 membership, however we have different accounts and log-ins on their website depending on which ownership we want to deal with.

~Diane

Yeah, I was thinking that points would be the way to go for longer stays due to the single exchange fee. Thanks for this info! They told me that I would end up with just one account, but that I'd still be able to book weeks or points. It sounds like you cannot book weeks unless you're logged into weeks, is that right?

 

[Carolinian]

Think of Points and Weeks as completely separate exchange systems, with independent currencies, but that have an "extra" layer of exchange between them.

That layer of exchange is to the benefit of Points. Points owners can see both Points and Weeks inventory, but Weeks owners can only see Weeks. If a Points owner books Weeks inventory, some corresponding Points inventory is supposed to be made available to Weeks owners to balance the books. But, Weeks owners can't pick-and-choose among Points inventory the way Points owners can with Weeks inventory.


I'm not sure this is true. I seem to recall being able to see exchanges that require more TPU than I had in any one deposit, and that would have required combining deposits to make the exchange. What you can't do is look "beyond" the latest-expiring deposit you have. Right now, my latest-expiring deposit is good through August 2024, and so I can't see any inventory past that in that account.


TPU values max out at 60.


Because you are a TUG Member, you can put a Sightings Request in on the Sightings board and see what some of the major differences are.

I bailed out of RCI years ago. It used to be a great exchange system as long as it was run the way its founder Chrsytal deHahn set it up. However, I recall when Points first came out the grids to trade into the Weeks system were heavily stacked to shortchange Weeks to the advantage of Points owners. I posted quite a few examples of that at the time after I got my hands on a Points directory. That is when I started downsizing my involvement with RCI and moving to use independent exchange companies. I presume they still have those Points to Weeks grids and that they are still very one sided. If so, the skids are greased so that you are better off in Points.

 

[Jeth01]

Not really because one resort that is 89,000 rci points could have a tpu value of 7 while another one is 38. TPU's are more dynamic where as the rci points are a negotiated thing between rci and the resort when they were setting up sales in rci points. Most Massanutten prime points and Vacation Village/Grandview are a result of back room deals with rci not a true indication of supply/demand in any way, shape or form.

https://www.rci.com/static/docs/en_US/points-grid.pdf
https://www.rci.com/static/docs/en_US/pow/help/rci-points-grids.html

The second one is more recent but it goes in rci ID order (when they joined rci) not any logical grouping so it can be harder to find a particular resort.
RCI can be more dynamic with giving out points values for non rci points resorts. Since they weren't sold as points resort, rci can value them however they want and change the values usually not everyday, but a good 2-3 times a year if they see fit. They use to publish a crossover grid for non rci points resorts using rci points. Usually the points were much lower than the points rci was assigning for resorts still in active sales. That has changed over the last 5 years. An older ocean front Virginia Beach summer one Bedroom use to go for around 20,000-30,000 points tops and now they are going for 40,000-48,000 points for that same resort.

This is really good info! I had no idea that points were a negotiated thing between the resorts and RCI. Definitely cannot compare that to TPUs then.

It sounds like we got a pretty good one. We will get 111,500 points for a 2 bedroom September week. It sounds like we'll be able to do a lot with that many points, I can't wait to see!

 

[moonstone]

Yeah, I was thinking that points would be the way to go for longer stays due to the single exchange fee. Thanks for this info! They told me that I would end up with just one account, but that I'd still be able to book weeks or points. It sounds like you cannot book weeks unless you're logged into weeks, is that right?

Yes, that is the case, one RCI account and 1 fee, but 2 log-ins, at least with our account. When I am logged into one, I can not see what weeks/points are available in the other. Recently I had 2 weeks space banked at once (due to Covid) and when I logged into my points account I could not 'see' them. Only my unused points (2yrs worth at that time) showed. RCI extended our use time for both our week & points due to the Canada/US border being closed for so long. When it re-opened I did a pretty good job of using the points up with only 120 left over -not enough to pay to extend IMHO.


~Diane

 

[rboesl]

Yeah, I was thinking that points would be the way to go for longer stays due to the single exchange fee. Thanks for this info! They told me that I would end up with just one account, but that I'd still be able to book weeks or points. It sounds like you cannot book weeks unless you're logged into weeks, is that right?

That is not correct. Points accounts see points resort availability and weeks resort availability.

 

[mdurette]

Wow, that is some good info. I just tried searching Hawaii and I got one available week, and got this message:

View attachment 75247

Anyone else get this?

Yes, I get that message when I search with my 1 TPU that I have lef......but below it, it shows the inventory that would have required more TPUs. Maybe you just need to scroll down a bit more?

 

[Jan M.]

We've been points owners for about 15 years and my sister and BIL have been weeks owners for over 35 years. I know from my sister and I both being online at the same time looking at the available inventory that I consistently saw more than she did. A lot more. Their week gets a large number of TPUs so that wasn't a factor.

Last year I found two 4 bedroom weeks here on TUG to use as PIC weeks with our Wyndham ownership. It was too late to deposit the weeks to get the Wyndham points for them for 2022 so I deposited them for TPUs. I had a decent amount of TPUs to use but what a challenge TPUs are compared to points! I learned I had to pay to combine my TPUs if I wanted to book something that was more than one week got. Also if I had a few letover ones. It's a good thing I have two years to use those 6 combined leftover TPUs because I've discovered it's a challenge to find something for 6 TPUs that I can use. I will always be using my weeks for Wyndham points so I won't have more TPUs other than those leftover 6 TPUs.

I know I'll eventually be able to find something to use up those few leftover TPUs and I'll really be glad when they're gone. The biggest reason is that I find it much more difficult to search on the weeks account because of the way it's set up. At first I thought it was just because I was being forced to learn something new but I still think searching on the points account is much easier to navigate.

A major important difference, at least to me, in the weeks and points account are the platinum benefits. There are platinum benefits points get and I use that weeks don't get.

 

[escanoe]

So, if you're looking for best bang for buck look at Grandview 122,000 point weeks or VV Colonies @ Williamsburg 144,000 point weeks. (These would be 2 br units.) The maintenance fee for both are right around $1000.

The Grandview is an excellent choice and basically a commodity that can be bought or sold for RCI Points.

Has anyone ever seen a 144k VV the Colonies (Williamsburg, VA) in the wild on the resale market? They could exist in theory because that have been being sold by the developer for at least a few years now. That would be a great thing to own, but not something to hold your breath while looking for.