Alright letter signed and sent. Used a template from an older post from here. This thread and the amazing people here just saved me $29,000. Thank you everyone with good advise and for the rapid response!
There have been forum discussions about buying two 3 bedroom non-Wyndham RCI fixed week properties and enroll them into the Personal Interval Choice (PIC) program as part of a retail purchase to jump to either Gold or Platinum VIP.
With your 84K developer starting point, that might get you to Gold VIP while buying only 108K points. You're eligible to enroll two weeks into the Wyndham PIC program (3Br weeks are allotted 254K qualifying VIP points each, regardless of whether you decide to use PIC to exchange those fixed weeks for Wyndham points each year). So two 3Br qualified PIC weeks add 508K in qualifying VIP points (as long as Wyndham maintains the PIC program and the weeks that are enrolled still qualify).
There have been debates about whether the VIP benefits are worth it:
1. will owners use all those extra points. Some just rent out the extra points until they, their friends or their extended family can use the extra points.
2. what's the payback period for the VIP Gold vs Platinum benefits to offset the up front developer purchase cost and the Maintenance Fee commitment going forward. You must factor in the opportunity cost of lost investment income if you pay cash up front or the high interest rates Wyndham charges if you finance a purchase through them.
3. there's also the caveat that Wyndham reserves the right to change VIP benefits at any time. This has been done several times over the past ten years.