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Pros & Cons of Oodles of Points

RahRah

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I'm looking at buying a big-point property and am trying to figure out if it's a good deal for us or not.

I'm still fuzzy on how the Wyndham properties are deeded, especially when it has a lot of points - this one is like 500K points, which translates to potentially 4 or 5 weeks at the home resort if points are used in the better seasons in big units.

Within the Wyndham system - can I use points wherever I want outside the home resort? Are there fees for each week booked or is it just points if it's booked with Wyndam?

Can you exchange with RCI resorts by depositing points from Wyndham to RCI or do you need to reserve a week with a Wyndham resort and then deposit that to RCI for exchange?

What are the pros and cons of owning a big amount of points at Wyndham - any extra privileges or bonuses if it's purchased resale?
 

vacationhopeful

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Ah, to be an owner of multiple weeks of vacationing!

The ad should state HOW many deeds and what combination of points and deeded locations are. Yes, there are single deeds for large point blocks - if that is what the original owner brought from Wyndham

Yes, points are good through out the system to book vacations. Home resort priority booking is important if you want a certain week. If all 500,000 points are at XYZ, and you want to go to XYZ for NYE, you would book at the 13 months before NYE week start if you want to watch the ball drop. Go to ABC (not your home resort) you would book at 10 months before NYE week start.

Wyndham reserves and selects the deposit to RCI. You reserve and deposit week to one of the independant exchange companies (Redweek, SFX, DAE, etc).

No resale priviledges with Wyndham. A negative is your member number only gets ONE guest certificate. RT and HK are based upon points owned.
 

RahRah

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I'm trying to get the seller to detail out how the points are deeded - still waiting for that question to be answered before I even consider plunking down any money!

If I understand correctly, if I have Wyndham and I want to exchange for something in the RCI system, like Vail, CO where there is no Wyndham properties, then Wyndham would figure out what week they'd drop into RCI's system and then I'd see what I could exchange for?

Here's another question - an unlikely situation for us, but if you don't use all your points in a given year, can you roll them into the next year and if you can, is there a fee?
 

lprstn

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Having multiple points deed is actually pretty good, and as a resale owner it allows you to have priority booking in more than 1 place. I just helped a friend purchase thier Wyndham points package at 2 great locations in which she wanted priority APR. She got 2 contracts that allowed her to book a 2 bedroom, prime time week within Wyndham...totallying 308,000pts. She got it for about $2400.

Pros of oodles of points- LOT's of VACATIONs within and outside of the Wyndham internal resort network.

Cons - Maintenance fees!

You can only roll them into the next year within the first 60 days of them being given to you. Thereafter, your only option is to use them or bank them with your trading company. (RCI or II depending on which company your initial resort purchase is affiliated with)
 
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Sandy VDH

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You can only roll them into the next year within the first 60 days of them being given to you. Thereafter, your only option is to use them or bank them with your trading company. (RCI or II depending on which company your initial resort purchase is affiliated with)

Don't think that is a correct statement.

You can POOL points, that is the term that Wyndham uses. Those pooled points are then good for an additional 3 years from that date they were deposited. However you must now use them in the Wyndham system ONLY for standard (10 months to 3 months) or express (less than 3 months) reservations. They are no longer available for RCI deposits or booking your home resort (13 to 10 months + 1 day out).

You can pool all of your annual points, or just a portion of your points. It depends on what you think your usage might be.

People who have smaller allotments that want to save and combine multiple use years to get a larger unit or multiple vacation use this option. It is also used by people who otherwise would not get to use all of their points in a given year and want to save them for a future use.

VIP members get extensions to this date based on their VIP level. Since you are purchasing resale VIP this is not an option, as resale point do not count toward VIP status. Frankly VIP is not worth the price, since you have to buy it from the developer.

Pooling fee is now $39.

As far as getting trades in RCI, Wyndham now has only average trade power. High demand weeks might be very difficult to obtain via RCI, difficult but not necessarily impossible. If you want to go to CO to ski, buy that instead, as ski weeks are very high demand and very low availability in RCI.
 
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lprstn

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Ok you made me pull out my book.

Points credit pool, every thing you said, but

Points Credit Pool

Points Credit Pool is a great feature to use when you know you are unable to travel prior to the start of your Use Year. You are able to “Pool” all, or part of your points and prevent them from going unused.

Points can only be pooled PRIOR to your use year (it says so on the Wyndham site)

see below (from the website - owner education)

Contact the Vacation Planning center prior to your Use Year Start Date and request that your points are placed in the Points Credit Pool.

I know that you can only pool points in the first 30 days or before of your use year because I tried.

So for example if its June and your use year is from Jan-Dec...its too late to pool your points.

However if its Jan of your use year and you know you are not traveling...you can pool your points for use for the next 3 years.
 

RahRah

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All of this information is very helpful!

Another question - what is the range for maintenance fees per point with Wyndham? It seems like it's a fairly large spread - either that or the weeks/points for sale aren't listing accurate MF.....it looks like some are 0.00432, then others are almost double at 0.00825 per point? Do different resorts with points have different rates per point for MF?
 

Jya-Ning

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I know that you can only pool points in the first 30 days or before of your use year because I tried.

That is not right, you are VIP, so you can pool in the 1st 3 month. I am not, so I have to pool before the use year start, sonce it starts, I can not pool, no 30 days.

Jya-Ning
 

RahRah

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Also.....it sounds like having a lot of points is good if you are going to be able to use them, but that you're better off having multiple deeds rather than one large one since (if I understand this) you get one guest cert per deed?
 

RahRah

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Here's another question - are there Wyndham resorts that don't pop up in RCI but are available to owners internally through Wyndham?

Can you use points for hotel stays?
 

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The MF range can be very large at resorts with converted fixed weeks. A prime season week is worth twice as many points (typically) as a value season week. But, they pay the same MFs. (The total fees are a little different because the FSP/VOA fee is proportional.) At UDI resorts, the variance is much lower.

I think each resale FSP owner gets one GC, no matter how many deeds/points.

There are many Wyndham resorts that don't show up (or don't show up often) in RCI but that are relativey easy to book internally. Some are in II (e.g. Governor's Green), and some just don't have many units banked (e.g. Bonnet Creek).

For all practical purposes, you cannot use points for hotel stays. There are a few that are enrolled, but you're better off paying cash in most cases.
 

RahRah

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The MF range can be very large at resorts with converted fixed weeks. A prime season week is worth twice as many points (typically) as a value season week. But, they pay the same MFs. (The total fees are a little different because the FSP/VOA fee is proportional.) At UDI resorts, the variance is much lower.

Internally, within Wyndham - are points, well, points? That is, does it simply not matter much what your home resort(s) is if you're booking/exchanging internally to go somewhere else? I'm asking since it would make sense to find weeks/point-deeds at lower price MF resorts and then book into the higher priced ones....but if getting into a higher priced MF resort is harder internally, then maybe it's worth the extra cost if that resort is my preference?
 

Jya-Ning

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Internally, within Wyndham - are points, well, points? That is, does it simply not matter much what your home resort(s) is if you're booking/exchanging internally to go somewhere else? I'm asking since it would make sense to find weeks/point-deeds at lower price MF resorts and then book into the higher priced ones....but if getting into a higher priced MF resort is harder internally, then maybe it's worth the extra cost if that resort is my preference?

You need to decide. Each resort has few weeks you will need to get using ARP. I believe Wyndham's own statistic is 4% of inventories were taken in that period. So which means about 2 weeks. And consider some may get it just because, not necessary.

Basically, you should use point is points, you may value the resorts that close to you or you can reach cheaply a little bit higher, but not too high.

Jya-Ning
 

RahRah

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I know, I have way too many questions....LOL

OK....so, if I were to buy points at the Old Town Alexandria, VA location, and don't use all the points I have there, so deposit some to RCI - does location where points are coming from into RCI matter for trading power? Does that make sense?
 

Jya-Ning

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I know, I have way too many questions....LOL

OK....so, if I were to buy points at the Old Town Alexandria, VA location, and don't use all the points I have there, so deposit some to RCI - does location where points are coming from into RCI matter for trading power? Does that make sense?

Your question make sense. The location of the point that you use to make external exchange does not matter. Wyndham controls the deposit, and you either get a generic that is just a bookend and assigned by RCI with the same trading power for all Wyndham generic deposit based on size and season, or real week that randomly assigned by Wyndham which may or may not contains your resort.

Jya-Ning
 

Sandy VDH

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That is not right, you are VIP, so you can pool in the 1st 3 month. I am not, so I have to pool before the use year start, sonce it starts, I can not pool, no 30 days.

The rule is:

NO VIP must pool prior to the use year.
VIP have a 3 month extension
VIP Gold have a 6 month extension
VIP Platinum have a 9 month extension.

You must have been VIP or the VC made an expection and let you Pool your points anyway.
 

vacationhopeful

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One Guest Certificate per FSP Member Number - which is your master number under which you hold your various (or one) contract number.

Each deed has a contract number. Owners can have multiple Member Numbers if there are different owners on the deeds.

ie: Husband has a deed in his name only
Wife has a deed in her name only
H & W own deed together.

IMO, after a year or two of trying to manage your points and WHERE is that reservation, and transferring points between Member Numbers, you might be willing to pay for those 2 guest certificates.
 

RahRah

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Well, I took a pass on the big point option and instead decided to start with a smaller point value, closer-to-home resort and went with a 154,000 point week in Branson, MO. I think I did okay for price - bid was $561.77, which was a bit higher than I would have liked, but the MF are $45/month (annual $540 or 0.0035 per point) which I think (hope) is a low MF by point for Wyndham.....closing is $348, so all totaled $909 to buy and close....MF start in January 2009.

For our needs, I think this one is going to be a good start since it'll get us into a few different resorts in places we vacation if points are points! I just wanted to thank everyone who has taken time to answer my questions since the information helped a lot in making my decision on what to buy!
 

bnoble

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That doesn't sound right. IIRC, all of the Branson resorts are UDI. MFs there range between $4.30-$4.63, plus FSP fee. Is this maybe an every-other-year deed?
 

RahRah

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That doesn't sound right. IIRC, all of the Branson resorts are UDI. MFs there range between $4.30-$4.63, plus FSP fee. Is this maybe an every-other-year deed?

The auction listed it as annual, Wyndham Branson Mt. Vista...."The property described above is a/an ANNUAL ownership interest as described in the Declaration and such ownership interest has been allocated 154,000 Points (as defined in the Declaration) for use by the Grantee(s) in EACH year."

The listing also said it was $45 per month MF, that includes taxes & RCI membership (which RCI is included anyway).

I haven't sent my payment since I'm waiting to see the final paperwork - so I'll definitely check the MF since if they're a lot more than $45 a month, then I'd prefer a location with lower MF.....I picked this one since it looked like it had really good MF's!

Me thinks I'm off to call the resort to ask about MF too!
 

RahRah

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Now I'm a tad annoyed....

I called Branson Mt Vista to see what MF's are for 2009 and was told I need to call corporate. So, I called the 800 number and after being shuttled around to three different people, was told I need to call the location/resort directly, they have that information. Sheesh.....who am I supposed to call to confirm MF's? HELP!
 
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