Ok, call us crazy ... our journey to 1 million HH points via HGV Owner Updates ...

[CalGalTraveler]

@Reddart The staff at W57 are awesome. Enjoy your stay. We cannot wait to return.

 

[JohnnyO]

Owners Update 2: HGVC La Pacifica Los Cabos, a Hilton Club. February 2025. 150,000 points. We went to Owner Update. Salesman (US expat) very good and knew the product better than most we’ve ever met. Spent over two hours there. My wife wasn’t happy but we got on his computer and did searches with the new Max search engine v the Legacy search engine. Learned more about the program and how to make the Max window 7 months v 6 month using ongoing search. Closer (Mexico) was very nice and professional. Took No for an answer. Moved on to VIP offer at another desk as posted above to freeze our offer. Said no. Collected our points. Will post their offer later.

The following is what HGV/Max was offering during our OU. This was allegedly enough points (1,500 Max Trust Points with only a $231 HOA fee) to bump us into Preferred + (Elite+) from Elite. But what was not taken into real consideration was the vast majority of our HGVC points (29,280 even years 31,040 odd years) beyond our HGVC Marbrisa EOY Studio 4,000 points are from resales. I told the salesperson about our resales. I didn't hammer the issue as we had already exceeded two hours and my wife was fuming and we already had said NO. The $5,000 discount on the price was if we didn't take the 5,000 tour bonus points.

 

[JohnnyO]

@JohnnyO Where will you spend the Honors points?

Ok we just burned half a million points between a reservation at Botanika Oso Peninsula, Curio Collection by Hilton and Hilton San Jose La Sabana in Costa Rica plus another local trip. We figure we may as well use them before Hilton devalues them again. Unfortunately I don't think either of these resorts offer an HGV owner update so we can't pad our goal. Put to good use. Still a millionaire for now.

 

[pedro47]

To the OP: Do you liked HGV and why ?

 

[JohnnyO]

To the OP: Do you liked HGV and why ?

We like the level of quality of the resorts and the rooms of HGVC, HC and bHC. Not so interested in HVC Max Trust ... DEI and Bluegreen. Embarc (Max) is interesting and seems to be good quality. Cabo Azul (Max) looks nice as we walked the grounds a week ago. There are some other resorts that have potential as they are upgraded. But its not worth the developer investment to get access to Max with only a six months reservation window after most reservations have been picked over.

 

[WorldT]

You should apply for an airline. Alaska hired a 75 year old to be a flight attendant last year.

My daughter started at Alaska last year and we have been making heavy use of the benefits. Can't wait until Alaska starts flying from SeaTac to Narita in May.

Unfortunately, no family in the airline business to do us a solid. But a friend offered DW and I access for a year (before the kids came) and we absolutely enjoyed it.

 

[TolmiePeak]

Unfortunately, no family in the airline business to do us a solid. But a friend offered DW and I access for a year (before the kids came) and we absolutely enjoyed it.

We hit the daily double. Our daughter works for Alaska Airlines and her boyfriend works for Disneyworld. We get free flights and free admission.

 

[brp]

We hit the daily double. Our daughter works for Alaska Airlines and her boyfriend works for Disneyworld. We get free flights and free admission.

Can you adopt us? We're potty trained and don't eat much.

The AS SFO-MCO flight is, far and away, our preferred choice.

Cheers.

 

[jeffox]

We hit the daily double. Our daughter works for Alaska Airlines and her boyfriend works for Disneyworld. We get free flights and free admission.

My son works in vitamin manufacturing so I get free vitamins. Who's jealous now?

 

[TolmiePeak]

My son works in vitamin manufacturing so I get free vitamins. Who's jealous now?

Well if you become president I hear AF1 is,a pretty sweet ride.

 

[Chris-ATX]

@JohnnyO > when is your next OU?! Inquiring minds want to know. I'm pulling for your 1MM HH point goal from OU's!

 

[JohnnyO]

@JohnnyO > when is your next OU?! Inquiring minds want to know. I'm pulling for your 1MM HH point goal from OU's!

Not quite sure just yet. The potential schedule gets heavy starting in August. Could be one in the near future if we schedule our two day marketing trip.

 

[JohnnyO]

I was just trying to negotiate our next "Owners Update" using one of the free "Your 3-Day/2-Night Vacation Awaits" certificates we received on our last Elara OU. The marketing phone team has some flexibility but not what we wanted. We are traveling and only wanted the two nights (Hilton Hotel (Garden Inn in this case) Sun-Wed check in good for 12 months) at the end of our trip. The GI was $235 or 64k HH points per night v $405 or 209k per night at an HVC resort. They always try to upgrade you to an additional night, check-in any day of the week, and stay at the HVC resort where prices much higher per night than standard brand Hilton. And of course you need to do the OU.

I tried to just book the two nights Hilton Garden Inn and see what they could do incentive wise to get me an HH OU ... I wanted the minimum of 100K HH points for the tour. Best offer was to upgrade to the three night package, pay the $99, 60K HH points, and a $200 Hilton Hotel credit certificate to be used within six months. Pricing this at Hilton.com, the HVC Resort total value was about $1,215 plus out of pocket $99, $200 credit, plus 60k HH points. GI value was $470 no out of pocket cash. Note to add that we have stayed at this HVC resort and it's a bit run down and meh. Certainly not worth what they are trying to charge for it at Hilton.com. Not bad, but we don't want three nights as it will already be a long trip and the DW doesn't want the cat to die or be lonely anymore (me? meh). The HGV marketing rep was pretty green so we spent some time on hold while they consulted with their supervisor. They did say that the sales team on the ground at the HVC resort has more flexibility than they do regarding points. But if we are staying at the GI, we won't be talking/negotiating with the "concierge" so I don't see how that would work. We need to maximize our HH OU incentives so we can complete our million points mission.

 

[Pennytx]

It’s been almost a month
I love reading the updates
Anything new scheduled

 

[JohnnyO]

I was just trying to negotiate our next "Owners Update" using one of the free "Your 3-Day/2-Night Vacation Awaits" certificates we received on our last Elara OU.

We have booked the two nights in Scottsdale. We have errands to run and need to visit some people. No we are not staying the extra night nor are we attending an OU. They changed the terms so we said NO. Thanks for the two "free" nights HGV. Value at about $400.

Next up in the OU line up will be in the midwest in May and the west in June. We shall find out soon enough if we have achieved our PNG status or if we are still in the line-up.

 

[JohnnyO]

Update 3: Just racked up another 101,000 HH points. HGVC Magnificent Mile Chicago. The concierge called us a week in advance and started at 65k HH points ... negotiated up to 100k which was their "max" so they say. DW talked up the Concierge when we were checking in trying to up the ante ... all they had to offer was a Hilton backback, which actually came in handy as we toured the city.

Half hour total OU including checking in, coffee and more coffee. ️ That guy couldn’t get rid of us fast enough. He’s had 24 years with HGV and was the only sales rep that does OU. I think we may be on our way to PNG status. He was shocked about CL. Never knew they did sales. Already credited the 100k points to our account plus the tour barkers loved us and granted us 250 HH points x 4 (1,000 HH total) for just talking to them. They were offering the HGV tours with OU attached. They were just happy to talk to someone. DW and I both got the points at HGVC Magnificent Mile and The Hilton Palmer.

 

[Pennytx]

You are my hero
Absolutely look forward to your updates
Which I could have you negotiate for us

 

[GT75]

You are my hero

I agree, would you go in my place to all of my OUs?

 

[JohnnyO]

I was just trying to negotiate our next "Owners Update" using one of the free "Your 3-Day/2-Night Vacation Awaits" certificates we received on our last Elara OU. …

GI value was $470 no out of pocket cash. Note to add that we have stayed at this HVC resort and it's a bit run down and meh. Certainly not worth what they are trying to charge for it at Hilton.com. Not bad, but we don't want three nights as it will already be a long trip…

We ended up staying two nights “free” at HGI Scottsdale. The $99 actually turned into $112 with the governments bite. We finally just received the $99 credit back on our HH AMEX Aspire from Hilton Marketing.

The staff was nice but the HGI was meh. Our A/C in our room could not be adjusted so they ended up upgrading us to a larger room. It was starting to get warm in Phoenix.

 

[JohnnyO]

Such a deal??? We passed on this “deal” which we think is just HGVC’s standard offer. The HGVC Chicago vacation counselor had to offer us something to get us out of there as quickly as possible.

This wasn’t the real offer … which was some gobblygook about getting a free trial of Max Centum for two years if we bought a Max points package for $20k. That wasn’t clear what that meant either but my DW had her spring action foot ready to clobber my shin bone if I asked a question or made any statement other than NO Thank you.

The VC wasn’t very friendly nor welcoming and didn’t seem to want us there wasting his time especially after revealing we bought CL from HGV in Scotland via email. Record setting OU update time of less than 30 minutes including check-in, coffee ️, more coffee ️, the quick meeting and collecting our 100k points.

Are we still in the running for the goal??? Or are we headed to the bench as PNG? Only time will tell. We have seen multiple reports of “resale” owners being benched … but we do have some retail so maybe we are in the lineup still.

 

[Pennytx]

Go Johnny go… you can do it.
Agsin, if we are ever in the same place I want you to negotiate for me
Pretty please

 

[mountainboy]

Such a deal??? We passed on this “deal” which we think is just HGVC’s standard offer. The HGVC Chicago vacation counselor had to offer us something to get us out of there as quickly as possible.

This wasn’t the real offer … which was some gobblygook about getting a free trial of Max Centum for two years if we bought a Max points package for $20k. That wasn’t clear what that meant either but my DW had her spring action foot ready to clobber my shin bone if I asked a question or made any statement other than NO Thank you.

The VC wasn’t very friendly nor welcoming and didn’t seem to want us there wasting his time especially after revealing we bought CL from HGV in Scotland via email. Record setting OU update time of less than 30 minutes including check-in, coffee ️, more coffee ️, the quick meeting and collecting our 100k points.

Are we still in the running for the goal??? Or are we headed to the bench as PNG? Only time will tell. We have seen multiple reports of “resale” owners being benched … but we do have some retail so maybe we are in the lineup still.

View attachment 111288

100K+ for 11,200 pts, financed at 19%, MF >4k say what?
@GT75 , that's way more than $5/pt.. Time to update the back of napkin calculations..
New level of insanity for folks buying retail....

 

[pedro47]

19% financed charge and the total purchased was only $97, 574.00.
LOL.

 

[brp]

19% financed charge and the total purchased was only $97, 574.00.
LOL.

I know, right! Not sure why @JohnnyO turned this one down. It's practically a steal
(Well, a steal for someone...)

Cheers.

 

[TolmiePeak]

I know, right! Not sure why @JohnnyO turned this one down. It's practically a steal
(Well, a steal for someone...)

Cheers.

I feel so ripped off that I'm not eligible to go to the owners updates at HGVC.