Use year and contract size considerations

[win555]

I'm thinking about buying a Wyndham resale contract. I don't own any Wyndham timeshares right now. I'd like a July use year as I want to use primarily travel in summer to beaches and theme park destinations. There aren't many July contracts out there but I found a 210k points july contract on eBay for Ocean Walk. I see that it has higher maintenance fee though compared to other resorts in the sticky. I'd ideally want somewhere close to 300k points. If I decide to add another contract later, do I have to buy July use year only?

I'd like to buy a low MF place like Bali Hai, and then get rid of the Ocean Walk contract so I end up with a low MF contract like Bali Hai with a July use year. Is this a workable plan? Which low MF resorts are more available in the resale market?

 

[Richelle]

Use year doesn't dictate what months you can travel. My use year is from January to December. I can book a February vacation right now, and actually just did. I have reservations for March of next year. I can book up until July at any of my home resorts right now. Personally, I think a July use year might make things more complicated because if you vacation in June, you'd be using 2020 points, but if you vacation in August, you'd be using 2021 points. Yes, a second contract would be realigned with the first, but you could end up losing points in that year. It's something @dgalati mentions a lot because it happened to him.

 

[win555]

Use year doesn't dictate what months you can travel.

Yes. I understand that but I feel better using up points early in my use year. I don't do a lot of travel in Jan to Mar time frame (weekends only).

If I can't find a good reservation for July/August, I can keep trying for rest of the year like Xmas, Spring Break, etc. If I don't get a good reservation for spring break, then I have enough time to bank it for future use year.

 

[win555]

Yes, a second contract would be realigned with the first, but you could end up losing points in that year. It's something @dgalati mentions a lot because it happened to him.

So you end up paying 18 months of MF for one year of points? The only way to avoid that is to buy aligned use years?

 

[dgalati]

So you end up paying 18 months of MF for one year of points? The only way to avoid that is to buy aligned use years?

Wyndham has decided that all use years will be aligned to a 1/01 use year start if you buy another deed outside your current use year 4/01, 7/01, 9/01 . In the process of aligning use years they stopped prorating the points. I personally don't have a issue with use year alignment but no prorating points is Wyndham math at its finest.

 

[paxsarah]

If you book 10 months in advance, you will probably be able to book what you're looking for (or a close substitute) even in summer, and then your reasons for wanting a July use year would be fairly moot. If you try to book for summer just a few months in advance, you'll have a tough time finding what you want - just as you would if you try to fall back on finding something for Christmas, spring break, and other holiday periods with late notice as well. I mean, cancellations happen, but it takes a lot more persistence and you still might not find exactly what you want. So I guess part of the equation is how far in advance you plan to book.

Also, in normal times, with a July use year as a non-VIP you would only have until September 30 to decide whether to deposit your points to a future use year. (In 2020, Wyndham made an exception because of Covid and extended that window to the end of the use year. There's no expectation that they will do it again for 2021.) For me, that 3-month deposit window is fine because I'm doing most of my booking at 10 months and by the end of the third month most/all of my points are used up on all of my vacation plans for the year. But I just wanted to clarify that expectation.

 

[win555]

Wyndham has decided that all use years will be aligned to a 1/01 use year start if you buy another deed outside your current use year 4/01, 7/01, 9/01 . In the process of aligning use years they stopped prorating the points. I personally don't have a issue with use year alignment but no prorating points is Wyndham math at its finest.

So you are saying even if I buy July use year, if I add another contract with non-July use year, I will end up with a January use year?

 

[dgalati]

So you are saying even if I buy July use year, if I add another contract with non-July use year, I will end up with a January use year?

Yes Wyndham is moving all use years to a January use year start and I agree it makes sense. The problem I have is how they don't prorate and shaft the owners out of prorated points! Prorating of points was always done in the past.

 

[win555]

Yes Wyndham is moving all use years to a January use year start and I agree it makes sense. The problem I have is how they don't prorate and shaft the owners out of prorated points! Prorating of points was always done in the past.

I do feel July use year would serve me better but since that's not scalable, I will not give any consideration to July use year.

 

[dgalati]

And if you you are not persistent and call in to complain Wyndham has taken 9 months, 6 months, or 3 months of your points but they do extend the use of expiring points until 12/31. Such a deal? No one (Unless you are a agent of Wyndham) would give up 3 months of points let alone 9 months of points for being able to extend the use of current use year points.

 

[keno999]

Wyndham has decided that all use years will be aligned to a 1/01 use year start if you buy another deed outside your current use year 4/01, 7/01, 9/01 . In the process of aligning use years they stopped prorating the points. I personally don't have a issue with use year alignment but no prorating points is Wyndham math at its finest.

Agreed. I had a July use year in my account and added a Jan use year. They realigned my original contract from July to Jan. When I called Owner Care the agent used a bunch of doublespeak to try and sow confusion. I do agree it makes things simpler for the Jan use year since reservation transactions are based on calendar year. But they shouldn't just extend the points expiration and make you pay the additional MF's!

 

[weleftmn]

The opposite happened to me. I had a Oct 1 use year and purchased a Jan 1 use year. They realigned everything to my existing Oct 1 use year. Which with how they did worked to my benefit. They deposited points into my account I scheduled a vacation with some of them and then they re-aligned and I got more points back. It was the luck of the day I scheduled.

 

[ilya]

Yes Wyndham is moving all use years to a January use year start and I agree it makes sense. The problem I have is how they don't prorate and shaft the owners out of prorated points! Prorating of points was always done in the past.

Our points were realigned from October to December. Shouldn’t we have received an additional 3 months of points in our account? This practice was always confusing to me.. how can they just take away your points?

 

[dgalati]

Our points were realigned from October to December. Shouldn’t we have received an additional 3 months of points in our account? This practice was always confusing to me.. how can they just take away your points?

You are not the only one that has been confused by this. Yes you should have received a additional 3 months of points but look on the bright side they do extend the points that would of expired Oct to Dec 31st on the realignment

 

[win555]

Agreed. I had a July use year in my account and added a Jan use year. They realigned my original contract from July to Jan. When I called Owner Care the agent used a bunch of doublespeak to try and sow confusion. I do agree it makes things simpler for the Jan use year since reservation transactions are based on calendar year. But they shouldn't just extend the points expiration and make you pay the additional MF's!

The opposite happened to me. I had a Oct 1 use year and purchased a Jan 1 use year. They realigned everything to my existing Oct 1 use year. Which with how they did worked to my benefit. They deposited points into my account I scheduled a vacation with some of them and then they re-aligned and I got more points back. It was the luck of the day I scheduled.

Looks like they are not consistent. So probably best to avoid non-January use years.

 

[cbyrne1174]

I have to follow the school schedule(teacher) and I haven't ever needed to deposit points. Worse case scenario, I'd just throw my extra points into rci and stay a week at Saratoga springs.

 

[dgalati]

Looks like they are not consistent. So probably best to avoid non-January use years.

If you currently have a January use year and buy April, July or Oct use year just don't count on points being available until Jan 1st of next use year. You may get lucky and have current use year points available depending on if it transfers before use year expiration. Wyndham will extend the use of points until Dec 31st also if points are available.