• Welcome to the FREE TUGBBS forums! The absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 32 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 32 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 32nd anniversary: Happy 32nd Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    All subscribers auto-entered to win all free TUG membership giveaways!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $25,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $25 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

rci points faq update!

TUGBrian

TUGBrian

Administrator
Joined
Mar 24, 2006
Messages
26,377
Reaction score
13,471
Location
Florida
http://tug2.net/advice/tugrcipoints.html

so this is an extremely old article that could use a facelift as well as the information inside it updated.

i plan on tackling this over the next week or so, so if anyone has any suggestions on items to add..or what portions of it are woefully out of date...please chime in and ill be sure to get those included in the new article!
 
In the FAQ section, #2 asks about how to use them. The answer says to call RCI. I think it should also say to go online (if the owner has an account set up).
It might be worthwhile in the section about using points for other "non-timeshare products" that it is not a good use of points.

I just learned a couple years ago that I can book a 10 day vacation with our points for, I believe, the same cost as booking a 7 day. That makes more economic sense to us, and we usually get at least 1 whole weekend during the stay.

I read somewhere a while back that you can't start an ongoing search for a (RCI) points vacation. While I was searching online this afternoon for a spring vacation I noticed in the middle of the results, a box that said "Don't see what you are looking for, start an ongoing search." So I clicked on the box & filled out the form that popped up with my dates & areas. When I hit submit nothing happened. I clicked on Live Help & asked the VC what was going on. He replied that you can't do an ongoing search with points. When I told him what was in my search results he said it must be yet another glitch in the system! I also noticed that with many results I could not place a unit on hold like you can with weeks searches.


~Diane
 
moonstone said:
In the FAQ section, #2 asks about how to use them. The answer says to call RCI. I think it should also say to go online (if the owner has an account set up).
It might be worthwhile in the section about using points for other "non-timeshare products" that it is not a good use of points.
Click to expand...

Not sure I concur, if you use for auto rentals you get around 1 cent per point. So if you have points to burn up before they expire this is a good way to use them up
 
Not sure what the difference is, but I have ongoing searches all the time in my points account. I did pay for the platinum upgrade, so that might change things, but all it’s supposed to do is make them free.

I would suggest discussing the RCI terms and conditions for the use of points. The current write up reads a bit positive for my taste and doesn’t highlight any of the limitations of points, e.g., in some resorts you may not be able to use the week you own if you don’t reserve it with RCI 12 months beforehand. There are some significant benefits, but it takes some figuring out.

The home resort discussion could be expanded to cover home weeks, home resorts and home groups, which are all treated differently and can differ between management companies based on their contracts with RCI.

One other thing I’ve noted that makes having both weeks and points is that there is not a set exchange rate between TPU and points. This makes it beneficial to check both sides when planning trips.
 
breezez said:
Not sure I concur, if you use for auto rentals you get around 1 cent per point. So if you have points to burn up before they expire this is a good way to use them up
Click to expand...

We have never tried using the points for a car rental, only hotel rooms, so I will look into that. We have had small amounts of points to burn a couple of times so I booked a hotel room for the night on our way to/from Florida. I found that I could have booked the same room at the same hotel for nearly (or 1 time less than) half of what the equivalent price was to use the points by using Hotels.com or other booking website. The points were just going to expire soon anyways (& I refuse to pay to extend them) so we didn't care.


~Diane
 
breezez said:
Not sure I concur, if you use for auto rentals you get around 1 cent per point. So if you have points to burn up before they expire this is a good way to use them up
Click to expand...

True, I did it, also got the best rental prices booking through RCI, using Enterprise, $250 cheaper of 20 day full size car rental.
 
moonstone said:
I also noticed that with many results I could not place a unit on hold like you can with weeks searches.

~Diane
Click to expand...

In points, you make a booking and have 24 hours to cancel and get everything, including your exchange fee back.
 
For resorts that are in RCI weeks, you can place a hold in an RCI points account; you can’t do this for RCI points resorts or for weeks resorts within 14 days of check in. In any case, you can cancel an exchange you’ve made and paid for and get the exchange fee back if you do it in time; the RCI points terms & conditions gives you until the end of the next business day for the RCI office, which may not equate to 24 hours.
 
moonstone said:
<snip>I read somewhere a while back that you can't start an ongoing search for a (RCI) points vacation. While I was searching online this afternoon for a spring vacation I noticed in the middle of the results, a box that said "Don't see what you are looking for, start an ongoing search." So I clicked on the box & filled out the form that popped up with my dates & areas. When I hit submit nothing happened. I clicked on Live Help & asked the VC what was going on. He replied that you can't do an ongoing search with points. When I told him what was in my search results he said it must be yet another glitch in the system! I also noticed that with many results I could not place a unit on hold like you can with weeks searches.


~Diane
Click to expand...

Ongoing searches only work for RCI Weeks inventory (if the week available was deposited with RCI Points, it won't match the search.)

Also, in my experience, RCI Points inventory cannot be placed on hold (maybe only for reservations that are not a full week). But, when booking RCI weeks inventory (including last call and extra vacations) thru your RCI points account, you can place a hold if it's more than 2 weeks from checkin.
 
JohnPaul said:
In points, you make a booking and have 24 hours to cancel and get everything, including your exchange fee back.
Click to expand...
This also applies to RCI Weeks. I think it extends to close of business on the following day (not absolutely sure of that part though)
 
So I should probably make a practice of reading the complete thread before commenting, as EricB already made the same points! Oops
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top