London via RCI

[jenmcnitt]

I'm considering putting in an ongoing search for a London timeshare via RCI, but I have a few questions first.

How far out does the request need to be? I was thinking of fall of next year (Sept or early Oct). Is that doable?

How many week points do I need to have toward my trade?

Thanks!

 

[Carolinian]

London is one of the hardest exchanges to get in all of timesharing. If you are using RCI, then Allen House is the preferred resort, due to location, but any of them are very very hard to get, so you cannot afford to be picky.

The exchange company with the best chance of getting you into London is SFX. They have a well located resort Sloan Gardens that used to exchange through RCI but dumped RCI to use only SFX for exchanges. I will be going to London myself next year on an SFX exchange into a 2BR unit.

 

[Carolinian]

To give an indication of the time period you are looking at, RCI currently only shows 1 availibility in all of England for September 2013 and that is for the last week of the month and only 28 for all of October. Of those 29 total availibilities in England for these two months, 27 are canalboats.

Of course, for May through August, they show no availibility of anything anywhere in the UK.

 

[stugy]

I just deposited a late sept 2013 week at Allen House with DAE. I haven't given it to RCI for several years. It gets me 47 tpu's but it won't get me into Manhatten Club or other high demand areas. Just does not make sense. DAE gives me 2 for 1 exchanges for it.
Pat

 

[Carolinian]

I just deposited a late sept 2013 week at Allen House with DAE. I haven't given it to RCI for several years. It gets me 47 tpu's but it won't get me into Manhatten Club or other high demand areas. Just does not make sense. DAE gives me 2 for 1 exchanges for it.
Pat

London has always been much rarer in timeshare exchanging than Manhattan Club. That just shows how absolutely corrupt RCI's numbers racket is.

I gave one of my August southern England weeks that I own to UKRE, and they also gave me two for one, as long as I do not trade into late July or Augusr with it. That is fine as I like May or June much better anyway. If I had given it to RCI, it would no longer have traded equally for much of the stuff I used to be able to get one-for-one in the good ole RCI Weeks before they imposed ''Points Lite'' aka the new ''Weeks''. I gave another of those weeks to SFX and they got me a 2BR in London for it. I have also given a couple of them to DAE and gotten one equal value trade in the UK so far, and a number of equal value offers in several European countries that unfortunately I could not take due to some uncertain schedules at work.

RCI is making their supply / demand situation in the UK worse, as they brazenly cheat members foolish enough to deposit good weeks with them due to the wacky valuations of Points Lite. Any member who sits down and figures out what is going on, runs, not walks, away from RCI.

 

[jenmcnitt]

I've looked at SFX, but so far they haven't responded back to an e-mail inquiry that I sent several days ago.

My main concern is if my Gold Crown TS in Las Vegas would have enough trading value to trade to London via SFX. Via RCI it usually is around 20 week points.

I'll check through the forums to see if I can find any more info about SFX though.

 

[Carolinian]

Another way to go is DAE Options. I do not know if this is availible to US based members, as I am a European-based member, but I suspect it may be. DAE Options provides non-timeshare properties as trades on a ''cash plus exchange deposit'' basis. The owners provide lots of weeks in their property, as opposed to the vacation property owners who deposit a week or a handful of weeks into the regular exchange system.

There is one property in London that is handled through DAE Options, known as 66 The Lexington. It is a 2BR condo in a good central London location, and they often have scattered weeks there availible. Right now,they are only through May, but a call may get you something later. They are priced at one exchange credit (which can be any timeshare or vacation property) plus GBP 494.

The owner of 66 The Lexington has in the past also given some weeks into the regular exchange system at DAE, and at least one Tugger has reported getting it as a straight exchange. I would not count on that however for this property.

 

[jenmcnitt]

DAE

Thank you for the tip about DAE. I took a look at the US site and so far everything is showing up as sold for next year.

The only property that I see on their list so far is The Allen House.

 

[Carolinian]

Thank you for the tip about DAE. I took a look at the US site and so far everything is showing up as sold for next year.

The only property that I see on their list so far is The Allen House.

You might call the US office and ask them if there is a way that US membes can get access to the DAE Options properties in the UK, and if so, if they can help you with 66 The Lexington.

 

[Carolinian]

I noticed that there is a studio at Sloan Gardens timeshare in London sitting online right now at SFX for check-in November 3.

 

[Carolinian]

I see that a couple of 66 The Lexington weeks have just popped up on DAE Options on the UK site, for August 24, 2012 and August 28, 2013, at GBP 494 plus an exchange deposit. These are 2BR units. Again, I am not certain if DAE Options are availible to US members.