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Pressure to Convert to Wyndham

Seeking439

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Merits (if any) to converting? Currently own a Bali Hai, 2xKa EoKai, and a Vacation Village - all held outside of Wyndham and all but the Bali Hai purchased resale. I’m attending the ‘update’ Monday and anticipating pressure to convert into Wyndham via a small retale purchase somewhere which’ll yield Platinum VIP status. Do it or don’t do it?
 

markb53

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Merits (if any) to converting? Currently own a Bali Hai, 2xKa EoKai, and a Vacation Village - all held outside of Wyndham and all but the Bali Hai purchased resale. I’m attending the ‘update’ Monday and anticipating pressure to convert into Wyndham via a small retale purchase somewhere which’ll yield Platinum VIP status. Do it or don’t do it?

Depends on the size of the retail purchase, I suppose. What is your VIP status now?
 

Seeking439

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Depends on the size of the retail purchase, I suppose. What is your VIP status now?
No VIP status as I’m currently entirely outside of Wyndham. The conversion + a small purchase (~$17K) would yiel >1M points for Platinum.
 

Railman83

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I think you need to determine if it is actually permanent conversion or some part of a PIC plan
 

Avislo

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If you would like to travel in the Wyndham System and can afford the purchases, it is worth considering at 17,000 dollars. I do not think you are going to get the offer you think you are.
 

Railman83

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I don’t think $17k is going to get what you think either. It sounds like a version of PIC program where they count toward VIP for a few years then revert. I am not an expert or have participated in the program or have any real interest, but others that are more familiar can chime in.
 

markb53

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No VIP status as I’m currently entirely outside of Wyndham. The conversion + a small purchase (~$17K) would yiel >1M points for Platinum.

What makes you think you are going to get that offer. It sound like what you have are several Pahio fixed weeks. I think there was a time in the past that it was possible to convert some Pahio fixed weeks to Wyndham points and become VIP platinum with a purchase. I don’t think that’s still possible. Ron would be the expert on that. Maybe he will chime in.
 

ronparise

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Thats how I became platinum. Three Pahio weeks were converted to points with a 126000 point eoy contract purchased directly from wyndham ($12000) and that was enough to become platinum. I know others that were able to convert more than three weeks with one small purchase.

If they can still do this, a number of the units at Ka Eo Kai and bali Hai are worth over 300000 points. so three of them,converted; plus a small purchase will get you to platinum

there are three questions I think
1) will they still do a "three for one" conversion? Sometime after I did it, I tried to do it again and was told that the "rules" had changed and it was a "one for one" thing. One small purchase could convert one week so to get to platinum, So three purchases of $12000 were needed
2) They may convert the weeks, but will they count toward VIP?
3) Is being a VIP worth paying anything for?
 

Seeking439

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Thats how I became platinum. Three Pahio weeks were converted to points with a 126000 point eoy contract purchased directly from wyndham ($12000) and that was enough to become platinum. I know others that were able to convert more than three weeks with one small purchase.

If they can still do this, a number of the units at Ka Eo Kai and bali Hai are worth over 300000 points. so three of them,converted; plus a small purchase will get you to platinum

there are three questions I think
1) will they still do a "three for one" conversion? Sometime after I did it, I tried to do it again and was told that the "rules" had changed and it was a "one for one" thing. One small purchase could convert one week so to get to platinum, So three purchases of $12000 were needed
2) They may convert the weeks, but will they count toward VIP?
3) Is being a VIP worth paying anything for?

Thanks very much Ron - last yr when they did the update they still offered the three for one. Your last question is the best - is VIP worth paying anything for? Do people really see the ‘great’ benefits they preach?
 

55plus

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VIP benefits have been eroding over the years. Every time there is a policy change or policy update VIP benefits are weakened or eliminated. In my opinion, in the future VIP benefits will be eroded to almost nil and another (higher) VIP level will be introduced with bunch of benefits VIP owners use to enjoy. And there will be a cost to obtain those benefits. It's another way for Wyndham to get their greedy hands into your pockets.
 

Avislo

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The core benefits are the point reductions, free upgrades, number of guest passes, points deposit pool deadlines, reservation transactions, newspaper (although the newspaper is iffy at National Harbor). VIP benefits offered during the stay are iffy depending on the resort.
 

55plus

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What a previous policy changed did: Guest certificates use to to be unlimited for VIP Platinum owners. Now there are down to 30 per million points.

What impact has the new website created: Point discounts are still available, but with Wyndham Extra Holidays a contender if units aren't available discounts mean nothing. Reservation upgrades are still free, but controlled by Wyndham if you can't get it at the time of the reservation.

What the latest policy changes did: Eliminated overlapping reservations.

What could be next: Limiting VIP reservation transactions like Wyndham did with guest certificates, charge for WIFI, resorts fees, etc. (If it can be turned a benefit into a revenue stream Wyndham will find a way to harness it.)

Other: Points deposit pool deadlines for VIP Platinum owners are a good benefit if you have points remaining at their drop dead date - otherwise it means nothing. Newspapers aren't a big deal unless you like to read printed material - Press Reader means nothing if you don't have a strong enough WIFI signal in your room.
 

ronparise

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For me the primary benefits of platinum were the discounts and guest confirms.

A million Point platinum account can act like a 2 million point account if you can get a discount on all your reservations

So if the op is right about the $17000 price tags the potential savings is about $6000 a year. So a three year payback

In the past we could count on getting the discount using the cancel and rebook technique almost every time. Now not so much.
 

55plus

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A million Point platinum account can act like a 2 million point account if you can get a discount on all your reservations
Another way to look at it is, if you can turn 1M points into 2M points, the cost per 1000 points in maintenance fees is cut in half. A free reservation upgrade on top of that is icing on the cake.
 
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