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RCI Points "Use Year" brilliant or evil?

harveyhaddixfan

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So I'm finally figuring out this use year thing. My 2014 use year didn't start until December 1, 2014. So I'm not even into my 2015 year yet. I had just renewed my membership through 11/30/16 and was looking to book a week next year.

This is where it gets complicated. I still had 64,500 points from 2014 that I wasn't sure what I was going to book with them. I don't have any 2015 points (one unit is EOY even, the other first use is 2016) so it was allowing me to borrow from the 2016 points to make a 2016 reservation. But wait, no go. My membership was paid up, but not for the use year I was booking. It still doesn't make sense that I want to book in early 2016 but have to pay to extend my membership from 12/1/16 - 11/30/17 to do this.

On the bright side is the home week reservation period. One of my weeks gets me 69,000 points for a 2BR lockoff. Don't need the 2 1BR units. So I booked a week next year in early September in an actual 2BR for 44,500, instead of the 69,000 point 2BR, for the $40 exchange fee and have till early May to cancel with a full reimbursement of the points. Big plus!

So it seems the only drawback is always having your membership paid up a few years. Who came up with the bright idea of running the use year the way they did instead of by the calendar year?
 

tschwa2

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Did you have enough 2014 points for what you wanted to book? Your 2014 points should be good through December 2016. If you actually needed to borrow your 2016 points then yes you would have to have the extra year. I have a Nov 1 use year. Your date is the date your points account opened. Otherwise you would have had to pay for 11 months you never used and your points would expire 11 months earlier than they would have.
 

bogey21

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The whole time I owned RCI Points I never did understand the use year. I never lost any but had little idea what I was doing.

George
 

harveyhaddixfan

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Did you have enough 2014 points for what you wanted to book? Your 2014 points should be good through December 2016. If you actually needed to borrow your 2016 points then yes you would have to have the extra year. I have a Nov 1 use year. Your date is the date your points account opened. Otherwise you would have had to pay for 11 months you never used and your points would expire 11 months earlier than they would have.

I did have enough still from 2014. I was trying to get ahead of the game and use the 2016 points since I get 195,000 in even years and 69,000 odd years. All of the points left for 2014 were freebies, so I was going to try and use them to book a hotel or flight instead of paying cash for that.
 

tschwa2

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Well then yes, in that case you will have to pre-pay for the rci membership because you are using points that don't technically enter your account until Dec 2016.
 

JudyS

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.... Who came up with the bright idea of running the use year the way they did instead of by the calendar year?
The problem with using a calendar year is that all the owners have their points expire at the same time (December 31), so many people try to book during the last few months of the year, and there is not enough inventory to go around. Having different use years means that some people's points expire in January, some in February, etc. This helps spread the demand for reservations more evenly. I know Disney and Worldmark also have staggered use years and maybe other systems, too.

The whole time I owned RCI Points I never did understand the use year. I never lost any but had little idea what I was doing....
I lost some of my points early on after I joined RCI Points. I had both an every-year week and an every-other-year week, and was always confused about the use year. I called RCI a couple of times to explain it to me, but the information they gave me was completely wrong. At the time (about a decade ago), the information displayed online tended to be very confusing, so that didn't help, either.

Now, I think I've figured it out, and it's very simple (at least for every-year weeks.) The points from all of your 2015 weeks go into your 2015 use year, the points from all of your 2016 weeks go into your 2016 use year, etc. In other words, suppose you have a December use year. And, suppose you own a fixed January week with check-in January 3, 2015. Your points from that January 3, 2015 week will be allocated to you on December 1, 2015 because that's when your use year starts. (You can also borrow the points starting one year before they are allocated.)

My every-other-year week works just like I describe above for every-year weeks. I own an every-other-year (Odd) fixed July week, and my use year starts in September. So, my points for my July, 2015 week went into the use year that runs September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2016. This week gives me no points for the use year that starts September 1, 2016. Some resorts, though, give owners of every-other-year weeks half of their points each year -- i.e., if the owner owns an every-other-year week worth 60,000 points, they get 30,000 points each year.
 
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harveyhaddixfan

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That's exactly what I finally figured out. I got the 2014 points when I bought a unit. It's EOY Even. I bought another points unit that's every year with first use 2016.

My 2015 use year starts Dec 1. I have no 2015 points. A few weeks ago I paid another year on the membership fee to cover the 2015 use year. I was able to make a reservation in Sept 2016 using the 2014 points, but wasn't able to borrow from the 2016 points since I hadn't paid the membership fee for that year.

Last week, I paid for the 2016 membership fees. I was able to borrow my 2016 use year points to make a reservation in 2016 since I had paid the fee. My account still doesn't show points available to borrow since I'm still in the 2014 use year. Come Dec 1, it will show the balance of what I have available in 2016 to borrow less what I used last week.

It all takes some time to figure out. It just sucks that you basically have to pay 2 years in advance to make a reservation in the same calendar year as your use year to be able to borrow those points.
 
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