RCI New Cancellation Policy - Sept 7, 2020

[longnoury]

We are very happy with RCI this year. I complained long, loud and often to RCI about being unable to use our points this year due to the gov't closure of the US-Can border. I complained to every rep I talked to on the phone, on the on-line chat, the feedback and the email on their 'contact us'. We had to cancel one of our vacations just 4 days before check-in due to the border closure extension. I told them it wasn't our decision not to travel, but rather we were legally not allowed to. Finally on Dec.12th we got a phone call (mesg. on our machine) with a follow up email from an RCI Customer Care specialist. He said " Special consideration is being given to Canadian members due to the border situation". He went on to say "RCI is in survival mode as we have been in negative cash flow since March, but we are trying to assist our members in accord with their situation and at the same time not go out of business as many have. That would not serve the best interests of our members, employees or resort affiliates. " He then said RCI was extending our points use year by an additional year (they were to expire this May) as well as adding an additional year to our RCI membership all at no charge (& with us not having points protection insurance).

So now we have all of last year's point to use, all of this years, as well as our own deeded week from last year that we were able to space bank, with full TPU value restored, less than 2 weeks before check-in. Let's hope the vaccination program ramps up so it's safe to travel again soon!


~Diane

 

[longnoury]

Nice work Diane your persistence paid off. I guess my angry voice isn't that good. Lol
Anyways I'm done with RCI. Not renewing my membership. To many fees, too many rules, theres way better options out there. Just going to my timeshare in myrtle beach every year and use Airbnb and VRBO for the other vacations.

 

[Papa2015]

We are very happy with RCI this year. I complained long, loud and often to RCI about being unable to use our points this year due to the gov't closure of the US-Can border. I complained to every rep I talked to on the phone, on the on-line chat, the feedback and the email on their 'contact us'. We had to cancel one of our vacations just 4 days before check-in due to the border closure extension. I told them it wasn't our decision not to travel, but rather we were legally not allowed to. Finally on Dec.12th we got a phone call (mesg. on our machine) with a follow up email from an RCI Customer Care specialist. He said " Special consideration is being given to Canadian members due to the border situation". He went on to say "RCI is in survival mode as we have been in negative cash flow since March, but we are trying to assist our members in accord with their situation and at the same time not go out of business as many have. That would not serve the best interests of our members, employees or resort affiliates. " He then said RCI was extending our points use year by an additional year (they were to expire this May) as well as adding an additional year to our RCI membership all at no charge (& with us not having points protection insurance).

So now we have all of last year's point to use, all of this years, as well as our own deeded week from last year that we were able to space bank, with full TPU value restored, less than 2 weeks before check-in. Let's hope the vaccination program ramps up so it's safe to travel again soon!


~Diane
Glad that you were able to "fight city hall" and win-big time! Congrats!

 

[Thomaskennedy]

I called to cancel our Points exchange soon after the formal announcement was made to extend the Canada - US border closure to Oct.21st. this afternoon. We had booked a 10 night stay in VA beginning Sept.26th last April, foolishly thinking the virus would be over by now. I got a very nice rep and she said all the points would be returned to our account and a credit for the exchange fee would be added to our account for the next exchange. I did not need to pay any Points Protection Fee which we were happy about. Now to see if we can use all the points we are left with by their expiry next May. I hate paying to extend them and I doubt RCI will be extending anybody's use year by even 6 months, even though we couldn't go anywhere to use the points.

~Diane

Simply not fair that your points will expire if you are not permitted to travel anywhere. RCI must show some reason and flexibility over this.

 

[escanoe]

Anyone notice when RCI dialed back their COVID-19 related "enhanced Points Protection" for a coupon that only covers 1/2 of exchanged fees? It appears they are keeping the same price increase that they had when it covered all exchange fees. I am assuming this will go up to $120 once I am 30 days out from booking as it has in the past.

Below is what I see related to adding coverage to a booking I made via chat earlier today making use of my running tab on coupon balances.

Points Protection - USD 89.00​

​

With Points Protection if your confirmed RCI Exchange vacation is changed or cancelled for any reason the Points used for that exchange will be fully restored. For a limited time, RCI is pleased to offer enhanced Points Protection that now covers 50% of your exchange fee. With your purchase of the enhanced protection if you have to cancel your vacation you'll receive an exchange fee coupon, valid through November 30, 2021.​

 

[tschwa2]

Anyone notice when RCI dialed back their COVID-19 related "enhanced Points Protection" for a coupon that only covers 1/2 of exchanged fees? It appears they are keeping the same price increase that they had when it covered all exchange fees. I am assuming this will go up to $120 once I am 30 days out from booking as it has in the past.

Below is what I see related to adding coverage to a booking I made via chat earlier today making use of my running tab on coupon balances.

Points Protection - USD 89.00​

​

With Points Protection if your confirmed RCI Exchange vacation is changed or cancelled for any reason the Points used for that exchange will be fully restored. For a limited time, RCI is pleased to offer enhanced Points Protection that now covers 50% of your exchange fee. With your purchase of the enhanced protection if you have to cancel your vacation you'll receive an exchange fee coupon, valid through November 30, 2021.​

I did not notice that. I kind of assumed that it wasn't going to cover any of the exchange fee and that they would keep the higher fee. I guess that is what will be coming Dec 1.

 

[escanoe]

It is up to them how they price/structure it and up to me if I buy it. I have generally been buying it since paying it would cover 100% of exchange fees. I am probably at my getting off point for most transactions with it dialed back to 50% of exchange fees.

With so many points bargains during COVID-19 often the exchange fee was the biggest part of what I was insuring.

I never bought it before COVID-19 and guess I will soon be back to not buying it again.

I wish they they had something like E Plus from II where you could simply swap out or modify your reservation for a few times for less than a Benjamin.

I am sure I am naive, but I would love to see the newly merged HGVC/Diamond try to make destination exchange a disruptive competitor to RCI/Wyndham and II/Mariott. Some competition and shaking things up a bit would certainly not hurt.

I did not notice that. I kind of assumed that it wasn't going to cover any of the exchange fee and that they would keep the higher fee. I guess that is what will be coming Dec 1.

 

[Laurie]

Anyone notice when RCI dialed back their COVID-19 related "enhanced Points Protection" for a coupon that only covers 1/2 of exchanged fees? It appears they are keeping the same price increase that they had when it covered all exchange fees. I am assuming this will go up to $120 once I am 30 days out from booking as it has in the past.

Below is what I see related to adding coverage to a booking I made via chat earlier today making use of my running tab on coupon balances.

Points Protection - USD 89.00​

​

With Points Protection if your confirmed RCI Exchange vacation is changed or cancelled for any reason the Points used for that exchange will be fully restored. For a limited time, RCI is pleased to offer enhanced Points Protection that now covers 50% of your exchange fee. With your purchase of the enhanced protection if you have to cancel your vacation you'll receive an exchange fee coupon, valid through November 30, 2021.​

Oh! Thank you for noticing! Very disappointing. It's always something with RCI, isn't it?

So if you do buy it, be sure to print up what it covers, because my print-outs of some of those I'd purchased earlier didn't match policy, I had to hunt around and then I was assured by RCI verbally that yes exchange fee would be covered. My most recent exchange I didn't purchase that within the 30 days, thought I'd wait and see, of course the cost goes up -- might be $129 -- not so worth it for just half the fee returned.

 

[escanoe]

I am generally happy with RCI Points.

I feel they have treated people fairly well during COVID.

I do feel their competition with II is not very fierce and that they are not having to keep costs down or innovate much to maintain market share.

In retrospect, the representative I made the booking with on chat was not that transparent. This is what (s)he asked:

Alex J. (11:05:03 AM) Do you want cancel protection on this ? $ 89

I said no, knowing I had time to add it online later if I wanted. Once I looked it up, I was glad I handled it that way.

Honestly, if RCI simply allowed you to pay a reasonable fee to swap out a reservation 3 times ... I would be happy.

I also keep an eye on resort fees and cleaning fees when booking too. With RCI now booking the transaction fee for shorter stays there will be a significant amount of time now that I will be better off booking a week.

Oh! Thank you for noticing! Very disappointing. It's always something with RCI, isn't it?

So if you do buy it, be sure to print up what it covers, because my print-outs of some of those I'd purchased earlier didn't match policy, I had to hunt around and then I was assured by RCI verbally that yes exchange fee would be covered. My most recent exchange I didn't purchase that within the 30 days, thought I'd wait and see, of course the cost goes up -- might be $129 -- not so worth it for just half the fee returned.

 

[djyamyam]

Anyone notice when RCI dialed back their COVID-19 related "enhanced Points Protection" for a coupon that only covers 1/2 of exchanged fees? It appears they are keeping the same price increase that they had when it covered all exchange fees. I am assuming this will go up to $120 once I am 30 days out from booking as it has in the past.

They started offering this on April 1 when the old program ended on March 31. This is the "new" promotion

 

[tschwa2]

Before points protection RCI had another program called Vacation protection. It was offered from 2010-2012. Points protection was introduced in 2012 and for a while they ran at the same time and you could choose. Vacation protection gave you a coupon for the exchange fee good for 6 months plus your points back at that time it was $89. Points protection when introduced was $59. Both allowed you to cancel up to the day of the exchange. Vacation protection had to be added with 7 days of the exchange or 24 hrs if you were with 30 days of the exchange. I added the vacation protection pretty much anytime I made an exchange that was more than 6 months in the future. Once that was eliminated and they went to points protection I stopped using it altogether because the exchange fee is often at or more than half of my total exchange costs and if I book something that is particularly high in points, I can add the points protection if I think I would need it.

Also back in those days for things like vacation protection and guest certs, if you had RCI platinum you didn't get a discount but you got a 25% rebate credit on those types of fees that you could use toward your membership renewal or your next platinum renewal.

 

[escanoe]

I would love to see something like vacation protection, but it is pretty clear they have decided they are better off not offering something like that.

Once RCI has your fees, there is a real aversion to giving them back or giving you credit for a future exchange. They like you keeping your points, because that means you will book another vacation and pay another exchange fee.

To me, what keeps II and RCI from blowing the mini systems out of the water is how high their exchange fees are. Not sure how much incentive there is to change that when they are owned by mini systems.

I would not care that much about “vacation protection” if the exchange fees were not so high relative to the points cost.

Honestly, I am not that negative on RCI. I get value from it. I just think it could be better than it is.

 

[Laurie]

Honestly, if RCI simply allowed you to pay a reasonable fee to swap out a reservation 3 times ... I would be happy.

I would not care that much about “vacation protection” if the exchange fees were not so high relative to the points cost.

Honestly, I am not that negative on RCI. I get value from it. I just think it could be better than it is.

Agreed. If only RCI offered something like ePlus, I'd quit II and stick with RCI. ePlus puts II ahead of RCI for me, in spite of fewer destination choices generally.

I'm in RCI weeks, not points, but similar experience. Over the past 20 years had wonderful travel opportunities, even though I've eaten enough RCI exchange fees due to plan changes during normal times. RCI started to deteriorate when so much of its exchange inventory got moved into rental. And now, with covid travel uncertainty, and all the extra fees to recombine and re-exchange, for the very first time in over 2 decades, I have nothing banked with RCI.

 

[escanoe]

RCI is apparently having some technical challenges keeping up with cancellations and bookings made as part of the COVID-19 enhanced points protection. As we all know, there is no electronic way for them to handle these on an RCI Points account. You have to cancel on the phone or via chat to get the coupon credit, then when using the "coupon" to book something else you also have to do the transaction with a agent .

On Monday I used credit from a coupon to book an exchange. The chat agent told me what my coupon balance was when we ended (I like having a written record from them of what my balance is.)

Last night I tried to modify an ongoing search (OGS) that I have (platinum account that does not require prepaying the exchange fee). Where I would normally hit "confirm" I was instead informed I had an outstanding balance I needed to pay first that was in the same amount as the exchange fee on Monday that I used my coupon balance toward.

I reach out to chat with RCI around 9:15 (Eastern) this morning to get the status of my account cleared up. I was 14 in line and things moved fairly quickly (~30 minutes) for them to get to me and moved quite slow once they got to me. I sometimes wonder how many people on chat an agent is helping at a time.

I had already pre typed out my issue, and it took her a long time to research it and deal with it. I was eventually told that each time someone uses the coupon balance to pay an exchange fee, someone in the finance department has to go in manually and show the outstanding balance as paid and adjust their record for a coupon balance. She said they were running significantly behind doing this.

I hope when they get through the mad rush they look at technological solutions that involve an automated system to have something like "vacation protection" or some version of e plus. I now suspect they may be having more technological challenges than we see on the public side. @tschwa2 has pointed out something else today that is a bit strange related to RCI Points and Weeks ... that might be a technological challenge or it might not.

Too bad they didn't work to modernize their technology related to exchanging versus the whole "new shape of travel" or "panorama" launch.

 

[tschwa2]

Too bad they didn't work to modernize their technology related to exchanging versus the whole "new shape of travel" or "panorama" launch.

I haven't had a coupon balance in several months. It was always weird IMO that the coupon balance could be used online with no problem in the weeks account but the points account required you to call or chat with someone in order to apply it and you couldn't see if you had a credit or how much the credit was for online with that account.

I didn't want to mention it at the time but their was even a glitchy thing that allowed you to book a VV affiliate for the $159 exchange fee and when you cancelled you got a coupon for $249. I was tempted to do it over and over but only did it twice last summer and assumed there was a good chance they would figure it out and deduct it back but it never happened.