Try for Platinum or just points?

[r4rab]

First time post after reading this forum for about a week.
Some background: My wife and I are Wyndham owners with 400K points (CWA & Margaritaville), all retail. We've been owners for just over 4 years and have enjoyed all of our travels and have also stayed in a few Worldmarks.

We have never booked anything larger than a 2 bedroom and usually a 1 bedroom suits our needs. Our children are grown; sometimes 1 of them will accompany us. We've also occasionally taken another set of relatives with us.

My wife has just retired from teaching (12 month program) and I am a consultant so our ability to do last minute travel and travel on shoulder seasons has greatly improved. I'm also likely to retire in a couple years. I figure we can probably travel for 2-4 weeks a year on our points depending on where we go but it won't be until next year that all bonus points are gone so we'll have to see.

With the changes to the VIP program (we are currently Silver; were Gold for a while but only took advantage of the unlimited reservations benefit), we're considering if it pays to try for Platinum, purchase more points or just stay where we are. I have tried unsuccessfully renting through Airbnb previously.

If we were to go for Platinum, it appears that the PIC Plus program would be the best way to do this. Where is the best place to purchase additional deeded TS that we could use? I've looked at ebay and can find some stuff there. I haven't yet checked tug. Is TUG better than ebay for this purpose? Alternatively we could just go for more points (not necessarily CWA though, based on my reading). Is there enough time to purchase & get to Platinum before 12/31/2019? We were advised by a Wyndham salesman to do it before 2020 if we wanted to do it. I estimate (back of the envelope) that it would be another 25K-30K to get there by buying 2 3-bedroom TS and putting them into PIC PLUS with 1-2 additional 49K contracts. Or we could just get more points. Either way, if we did this we'd try to rent out some portion to help cover maintenance costs and still try to travel a bit more. I'm very confused by what I've read about PIC Plus on the wyndham site and in the directory. We could also just stay at the level we are but I'm starting to think that is probably not what we want as we head into retirement.

Suggestions, advice, comments from those who have gone either route would be greatly appreciated. My head is spinning and I have a feeling the clock is ticking.
Thanks for reading.​

 

[bnoble]

It doesn't sound like you have a good case for needing more points just yet, and buying with a plan to rent more than on an ad hoc basis is probably more work than you think. Don't let FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) drive a purchase decision.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

You have a good grasp of the options / from a week’s worth of TUG reading .

I assume you are approx. age 60 ; with good health etc. you have 15 years of usage / (ie ) everything beyond age 75 is a crap shot - so I would use a maximum of 15 years in calculating the pay back on spending $ 25-30 K . to get VIP platinum-versus just “buying “ resale points at one of the lower MF per point locations .

I assume the $ 25-30 K is not a financial issue / you just don’t want to spend money needlessly .

The last calculation I would include in your analysis is the most important one :
- happy wife = happy life .

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

....... Don't let FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) drive a purchase decision.

Great Advice -

******

There will always be another deal from Wyndham AND there will be resale points
available as well .

Also - you may wish to explore reading about other systems on TUG or specific locations.
You may find - one size fits all isn’t the best fit for you .

 

[capital city]

If your already at 400k then I would definitely look into doing the pics to get you to platinum. I think it will be closer to 20k than 30k. I'm considering it and I'm at 0 retail points right now.

 

[cbyrne1174]

If you buy 105,000 more points and get two 3 bedroom PIC (508,000 points), that will bump you to the Platinum level. Telesales sells CWA contracts for about $135 per 1,000, so it will cost you roughly $14,000 to go Platinum. With a Platinum membership, you shouldn't have issues finding renters on here for your extra points that want a cheap reservation 2 months out.

 

[Jan M.]

The pickings are really slim right now to pick up something to use for PICs and that is typical for this time of year. If you decide making a retail purchase to have PICs is the right thing for you, wait until this fall or winter and there will be a lot more available. Three bedroom units get you 254k points so two of them would get you 508k points and added to your current 400k points means you would need to buy at least 92k. But you would want to make it at least 93k so you have 1,000,001. At the moment I forget why it's important to have that one point over a million but I remember people posting that it is. Guest certificates maybe. That really doesn't matter in your case because from what has been posted you have to purchase a minimum of 105k points to be able to enroll two PICs.

Also you can enroll PICs with any purchase, not just when you make a telesales purchase. It might be to your advantage to buy something deeded at a resort with lower maintenance fees than CWA has. It would also help round out what you own. You would have CWS, Club Wyndham Select, points in addition to having CWA and Margaritaville points.

 

[r4rab]

Having maybe only 15 years of active vacationing left is a good point we hadn't considered. I'm a little under 60, my wife a little over; she did recently have a scare with her foot that was impacting her mobility for a few months (normally on vacation we'll do 20K steps a day; we'll walk everywhere). I'm a double cancer survivor. So this is a consideration.

Buying 2x 3 bedroom deeds that could be used for PIC along with 105K or 2x49K point contracts was what I was thinking of if we were going to go for Platinum.
My concern is doing it before the VIP programs change and the points needed increase (along with who knows what other rules changes). From what I've seen, it can take anywhere from 1-4 months to close on a purchase we'd use for PIC and then I don't know how long it actually takes to move them into the PIC Plus program. The logistics of it seem daunting to me based on what the directory says (needing to have paid maintenance fully in advance, letters needed from RCI, etc). How does this actually work? Are we likely to have enough time to complete the process before Privileges replaces VIP? I was considering a deeded CWS purchase instead of CWA (potentially at Wyndham Smoky Mountains) but haven't looked at the MF's in detail yet. My $25K - $30K number came from back of the envelope assuming $200/1000pt plus anticipated purchase costs of 2 3-bedroom units (including closing costs), maintenance fees up front, PIC fees, etc. If we can get $135/1000pt that makes it even easier. Achieving Platinum before the program changes so we are grandfathered is potentially very attractive given the benefits you get.

So I think it boils down to:
Is there enough time to find and buy 2 3-bedroom deeded units, close on them and transfer them into the PIC Plus program (while buying additional from Wyndham to do this) before year end?
Yes => this becomes something my wife and I want to seriously consider and move on fairly quickly
No => chill out, wait a bit. See how things go as my wife adjusts to being retired and what our travel plans look like. Then decide whether or not to buy resale contracts, probably giving up the idea of rising above Silver VIP

PS Non-Wyndham related: If you are old enough to get a colonoscopy and you haven't yet, get it. Do not delay. Colon cancer saved my life. They found the lung cancer because of it. Both were primary sites and both were found early; no chemo, no radiation. If I hadn't gotten a colonoscopy at age 51, I'd probably already be dead. Colon cancer is very treatable if found. If it grows for years and years, that's when you're in trouble.

 

[r4rab]

Great Advice -

******

There will always be another deal from Wyndham AND there will be resale points
available as well .

Also - you may wish to explore reading about other systems on TUG or specific locations.
You may find - one size fits all isn’t the best fit for you .

Can you (or anyone else) suggest a system that is more European-centered?

 

[r4rab]

If you buy 105,000 more points and get two 3 bedroom PIC (508,000 points), that will bump you to the Platinum level. Telesales sells CWA contracts for about $135 per 1,000, so it will cost you roughly $14,000 to go Platinum. With a Platinum membership, you shouldn't have issues finding renters on here for your extra points that want a cheap reservation 2 months out.

How can I reach Telesales? They've called us before but we've refused in the past; I was typically out of work and we didn't have the money to spend at the time.

 

[Cyrus24]

From what I've seen, it can take anywhere from 1-4 months to close on a purchase we'd use for PIC and then I don't know how long it actually takes to move them into the PIC Plus program. The logistics of it seem daunting to me based on what the directory says (needing to have paid maintenance fully in advance, letters needed from RCI, etc). How does this actually work? Are we likely to have enough time to complete the process before Privileges replaces VIP?

I believe they are saying that Privileges will not kick in until late 2020, so you may have more time than you think. There are some potential 'almost free' 3BR properties on the TUG marketplace that might work for PIC. You might need to join TUG to get access. I'd suggest joining, anyhow, it's a bargain.

All you will need for Telesales when you call to PIC a property is the data on the property, ie. resort, week number, unit number, room size, etc. that you'd have with your PIC'd resort purchase. Enrolling something for PIC does not require that you pay MF at the PIC'd resort, only that you have the ownership. You will learn about how to PIC the resort for Wyndham points via other threads, there are several on PIC. 2 key points on PIC'ing, at this point. First, in order to convert the PIC'd week to Wyndham points, the MF's will need to be paid. Not paid to enroll but they must be paid to convert. Second, you have to convert the PIC'd week to Wyndham points at least 9 months before the week of use at the PIC'd resort. So, if you are looking to purchase something, now, for conversion in 2020, you'll probably want to purchase something with a week late in 2020.

Do read up on PIC. It's a great program for those wanting to be VIP. But, if you are not used to owning a weeks resort, it's different than dealing with Wyndham.

 

[HitchHiker71]

FWIW IME you do not have to wait 90+ days for the two PICs to actually close. I purchased two PIC properties last July and a week later executed the developer points purchase on the two PICs. As long as you can show you have the two PIC properties under contract you should be good. At least this was the case in July 2018.

If you are looking for a telesales contact I can send you a contact I have when you are ready.


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[Cyrus24]

FWIW IME you do not have to wait 90+ days for the two PICs to actually close. I purchased two PIC properties last July and a week later executed the developer points purchase on the two PICs. As long as you can show you have the two PIC properties under contract you should be good. At least this was the case in July 2018.

This is good to know. THANKS. I currently have a 3BR purchase in the works and was waiting for it to close before calling Telesales. My plan is to replace a 2BR currently enrolled for PIC with the 3BR that I'm buying and bump on up to Platinum at the same time. I may not need to wait for it to close so this is good to know.

 

[WyndhamBarter]

PS - while you're researching PIC here, you may notice that a BBS search for "PIC" doesn't work
because the keyword is too short. One workaround is to use Google; several recent hits can be
found thusly:

https://www.google.com/search?q=pic+site:tugbbs.com+after:2016-01-01

 

[ecwinch]

You feel like the clock is ticking because that is exactly what they want people to feel when they preannounced the changes coming sometime in 2020. Changes that are very vague now, and subject to change at any time.

So trying to frontrun those changes is just playing into their hands... because we have no clue on any adverse changes that will also likely occur. Wyndham is not doing this to make the VIP program better. They are doing it to accelerate the sales pipeline and to reduce the overall cost of the VIP program to them.

That creates an uncertain future and moving target for anyone that falls for the “lock in your VIP level now” pitch.

 

[Sandy VDH]

It is GC for why you want slightly over 1M and NOT exactly 1M points. You get an additional 15 GC for any portion of points over 1M. So having just over will double your allotment of GCs from 15 to 30 for the year.

 

[kaljor]

What I think is the biggest factor you didn't address. Are you currently getting enough vacation to match your desire? Have you used up your points in reservations early in the year and you wish you had more? That's the thing I would use to decide. A good point was raised about your age. That matters when figuring out if it's worth it to drop a chunk of change for a few more privileges

I'm not a VIP, but I love the idea of the VIP benefits, even Silver. But I'm 65 and I don't know how many years of travel it would take to make the VIP benefits a good idea, speaking financially only. And I am so far content with the vacations I get each year with my current points.

If I were VIP Silver and wanted more vacation I would surely just buy resale points. They have the same VIP benefits you already have and can be bought for pennies on the dollar. If I wanted the additional benefits of becoming Gold or Platinum, it would be a different decision point. That decision depends on your income!