I like the idea of a "visible" trading value exchange system for Weeks Exchange. I have pointed out in the past my opinion on this and my puzzlement on why RCI needed to introduce the Points System in the first place.
As many have posted here, it was mainly for RCI`s and the Resort Developer`s own benefit. Anyway that`s in the past.
However, RCI have always given the impression of pushing the Points System for all their worth, but so far only a minority of Members have changed over to it.
The reason most of us never changed over is because of the fee involved - if we own multiple weeks at more than one resort, we have to pay as much as $3000 per resort to change to RCI Points. I suspect RCI envisioned a system where most members would convert, but the developers got in the way.
This time around, they are converting everybody, and the developers don't get any extra money.
Now here we have a new Points Lite, so we can expect the current "Weeks Exchange" to dissappear. Its not a case of "Weeks Exchange", "Lite Points" and "Points FD"
The first one, to which most of us belong, will disappear, and we will be left with two Points systems. Points Lite and Points FD.
So wave bye bye! We will all be in a Points Exchange System.
Mission partly accomplished.
Next step, combine the two Points Systems into One.
That won't happen without people who paid $3000 to convert crying foul. If anything, we will probably see them becoming more and more alike, but RCI will maintain some sort of benefit for the points owners - such as split-week usage (for those resorts that offer it). Remember also that RCI Points assumes you are depositing, where RCI Weeks waits for you to deposit. As such an RCI Points member can reserve his own week, and then cancel it when he decided he wants to do something else, and still have his full allotment of points. RCI Weeks members will only get a full allotment of credits by depositing 9 months ahead. RCI almost has to maintain some differences.
I hope that the new points Lite will be better, easier to use (website dependent!) and fairer.
But will it?
Questions raised are:
1. Why did RCI remove the details of the new P.L. from their website?
"If you confirm an Exchange with a lower trading power than your deposited week, you'll get a Deposit Credit for the remaining trading power you didn't use, which will appear as a new Deposit on your account for you to use however you like. Combine it with another Deposit or use it on its own to look for and book another vacation! **
** These vacations are limited. Destinations and travel times are subject to availability and confirmed on a first come, first served basis.
Why do RCI say the weeks available are limited? Was there any need for them to say this? Why are they limited?
They are limited because the remainder points are likely to be in small increments - such that they may only qualify for blue studios or last-minute exchanges
If the banding system is removed, this goes against the traditional principles of RCI, that weeks can only be exchanged "like for like" . I anticipate that RCI would wish to retain this aspect of the Weeks System.
If the weeks were in one big band, all these weeks would be available to allcomers providing they have enough Lite Points available. So I don`t think that these weeks available would be limited. Thus this supports the idea that bands will be retained.
Most of us believe there will still be bands, but not in the same broad sense. Rather than dumping your week into one of 10 bins, there will be 60 bins, so fewer weeks will be considered a perfectly even exchange.
2. How long will we have to spend "Left Over Lite Points".? If other systems eg Points FD, or Airmiles etc they will have a "shelf life". Use them or lose them. And the shelf life is of course determined by RCI and is subject to change.
Since there is a shelf life to your original deposit, it only makes sense for there to be a shelf life for the remainder points. Otherwise you'll have the person who deposits a week worth 60 credits, who then uses 5 points for a single last-minute reservation, and leaving the remainin 55 points for however long they wish. Not a good idea.
3. The entry in another thread posted by jerseygirl is revealing.
quote from Starwood " The ability to combine multiple deposits from multiple RCI affiliated resorts and use years into a combined Deposit for a fee"
Why do we have to pay a fee for combining unused portions of weeks deposited? (obvious). Will that fee apply for unused portions of weeks from the Same Resort?
You can't really compare two different systems that way. What starwood was suggesting was the ability to in effect exchange multiple weeks within Starwood internally, to get a single high-value Starwood week to deposit to RCI. With a new Credit system, that whould not be necessary.
The only reason we would want to combine weeks left over is for upgrading, so we may have no option but to pay a fee.
RCI has not said whether they will charge a fee to combine points. I could see it going either way. But even if they don't charge to combine them, assuming you're using 5 leftover points from each of 4 weeks to get an extra 20-point week, you're still paying an exchange fee. Do you call that an extra fee?
Dawn
