Vacation Protection on an RCi exchange

[yeereid]

Does anyone have any experience with using Vacation Protection for an RCi exchange. From what I read on RCi, it appears that if you buy the plan, you can:

1) change you mind on a confirmed vacation and exchange that week for another week without penalty/fees

2) you have 6 months from the date of canceling to find another week to exchange for

3) and reinstate your initial trading power that you used for that original trade

Is this right? Any other info?

 

[BevL]

Basically if you buy their insurance, you can cancel your exchange at any time right up to pretty much the date it is supposed to start.

You will get a credit for the exchange fee, which must be used within 6 months, if I'm not mistaken.

You will get your TPUs back. There is no restriction on how soon you must use your TPUs other than the normal expiration date, or that was my experience.

I believe there may be some other things that play into it if you're using a combined deposit and so forth, but I think those are the answers (hopefully correct) to your questions.

 

[yeereid]

Thanks BevL! I was curious if there are any hidden rules!

 

[jlwquilter]

For me, the key thing to keep in mind is the 6 month life for the refunded exchange fee credit. I plan so far out that many times I have everything I need/want so when I cancel I don't have any planned other exchanges I am even thinking of. It would kill me to lose the exchange fee credit after paying $79 (now $89) to save it!

So what I do is wait until either the last minute to cancel the exchange, therefore pushing the 6 month expiration date out as far as possible or cancel the exchange right before (and I mean the action is immediately before) confirming a new exchange, thus using the exchange credit immediately.

I used to not pay the protection fee. Then I learned to think of the protection fee as an 'upgrade' fee. If I found a good exchange I was happy with but knew there were better options that may come available later on (particularly close to check in) I would pay the fee and keep searching manually or use an ongoing search to snag the better exchange. If it happened then I essentially paid the fee to 'upgrade' to this more desirable exchange. If I already had the best exchange possible then I would only by the protection if I thought it was likely that I would need to cancel it due to life happening.

I have found no hidden fees or catches in using the protection coverage. I have cancelled as late as 2 days before check in without a single issue or question being asked and got my fee and trade power back as promised.

My only grip is of coure the price, now at $89. With that on top of the current exchange fee...yikes!

 

[bnoble]

Then I learned to think of the protection fee as an 'upgrade' fee.

This is exactly what I use it for, as well.

 

[mbh]

Just Used This

I had to cancel an exchange last week due to family illness. I had Vacation Protection. I got the value of my TPU's back and have an exchange credit that I have to use within the next 6 months. I only have to book within 6 months to not lose the exchange fee. The trade can be for any unit within the time period alloted for the deposited unit ( in this case, the unit travel period expires in June 2013, so as long as I book within the next 6 months, I can exchange for anything my TPU's can get that has a check in day until June 2013).

 

[Bourne]

My only grip is of coure the price, now at $89. With that on top of the current exchange fee...yikes!

There are now two flavors of it.

$49/$89... get your TPU back or get your TPU+Exchange fee back

 

[MuranoJo]

You probably can't 'combine' the returned TPUs, can you? I think not, but not 100% sure on this one.

And I agree--good way to think of it as an 'upgrade' fee.

 

[yeereid]

For me, the key thing to keep in mind is the 6 month life for the refunded exchange fee credit. I plan so far out that many times I have everything I need/want so when I cancel I don't have any planned other exchanges I am even thinking of. It would kill me to lose the exchange fee credit after paying $79 (now $89) to save it!

So what I do is wait until either the last minute to cancel the exchange, therefore pushing the 6 month expiration date out as far as possible or cancel the exchange right before (and I mean the action is immediately before) confirming a new exchange, thus using the exchange credit immediately.

I used to not pay the protection fee. Then I learned to think of the protection fee as an 'upgrade' fee. If I found a good exchange I was happy with but knew there were better options that may come available later on (particularly close to check in) I would pay the fee and keep searching manually or use an
ongoing search to snag the better exchange. If it happened then I essentially paid the fee to 'upgrade' to this more desirable exchange. If I already had the best exchange possible then I would only by the protection if I thought it was likely that I would need to cancel it due to life happening.

I have found no hidden fees or catches in using the protection coverage. I have cancelled as late as 2 days before check in without a single issue or
question being asked and got my fee and trade power back as promised.

My only grip is of coure the price, now at $89. With that on top of the current exchange fee...yikes!

My thoughts exactly! Thank you for confirming!

 

[tombo]

You probably can't 'combine' the returned TPUs, can you? I think not, but not 100% sure on this one.

And I agree--good way to think of it as an 'upgrade' fee.

I booked and exchange using combined points. When I cancelled the exchange they didn't recombine my points. I called RCI and pointed out that these were combined points before I used them and I wanted them recombined. They put me on hold for a minute and came back and said they are recombined. I don't know for sure if you can combine returned TPU's, but I know for a fact if they were combined beforeyou exchanged that they will add them back to your combined pile of points at no charge.

 

[paxsarah]

To piggyback on this topic, I have a related question - how does vacation protection work when dealing with a straight points grid from a mini-portal (in my case, Wyndham)? What would happen with no vacation protection, vs. the $49 fee, vs. the $89 fee? Hopefully I won't have to deal with it, but I like to file away this kind of information for future reference.

 

[sandkastle4966]

it depends.....if it was combined week and the remainder is still there (ie not used, and not combined again) then they will "put it all back".

if there has been any other activity, then the returned week is left as the same ref number with the TPU of the week you just cancelled.

(otherwise they will be cancelling transactions you have already done to putit all back)

You can combine returned TPUs for the fee.....

 

[MuranoJo]

I booked and exchange using combined points. When I cancelled the exchange they didn't recombine my points. I called RCI and pointed out that these were combined points before I used them and I wanted them recombined. They put me on hold for a minute and came back and said they are recombined. I don't know for sure if you can combine returned TPU's, but I know for a fact if they were combined beforeyou exchanged that they will add them back to your combined pile of points at no charge.

Thanks, Tombo.
I was wondering if, once you get your TPUs back, can you combine the returned TPUs with another week or weeks to extend another 2 years, in order to get around the six-month deadline to use them?

 

[tombo]

Thanks, Tombo.
I was wondering if, once you get your TPUs back, can you combine the returned TPUs with another week or weeks to extend another 2 years, in order to get around the six-month deadline to use them?

I called today and confirmed that my recombined points are good until 2013, not 6 months. I do not know if it would work the same if they hadn't been combined before the exchange. I would be curious to hear if you could take TPUs from a cancelled exchange with a 6 month life and extend them 2 years by combining them with other TPU's.

 

[bnoble]

The "six month limit" is on the exchange fee credit, not the TPUs. The TPUs are returned to your account with whatever expiration date they had when the exchange was confirmed. They can be combined, and presumably if they are still eligible for extension, extended.

 

[MuranoJo]

Oh, that's right--thanks, Brian. Since I've never cancelled, I had forgotten it was the exchange fee credit, not the returned TPUs, that have a 6-month shelf life.