Hi Everyone,
I mentioned Oahu in my original post as the location. I get it that there are probably several places there.
I have a 1 bedroom (Sales guy told me no problem to put all 5 of us in it, but I have read differently so another thing that he misrepresented to get the sale) Gold at The Islander with 8,190 points on odd years. Everything was not explained well at all, even though I asked very detailed questions. I am being told that the sales guy who is no longer with them was new and did not know the ins and outs very well. We were staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village at Christmas which we do every 1-3 years. We told the sales guy that we only go at Christmas. We bought what he said would work for us to do one week every other year there. He did not explain that by the time the 9 month window hits, they would all be sold out since my home week is during a time frame that we would never go. I was given 32,000 bonus points. So right now, I have 8,190 points in RCI, 8,190 current points and 32,000 bonus points.
I am only interested in weeks 51 or 52, but they do not have any Christmas weeks available for alternating years. They have Christmas week available with 11,200 points annually, but it is out of my budget right now. My budget can do an upgrade from my 1 bedroom 8,190 gold at the Islander to a 2 bedroom 11,200 platinum at the Lagoon. I am finding lots of constraints with this as well, that are a bit frustrating. My goal for this particular year which would be out of the ordinary is to book one 3 bedroom unit from Dec 13th - 27th, but they are all already sold out other than some super expensive penthouse suites. There are a couple of 2 bedroom suites at the higher levels, all the lower level 2 bedrooms are sold out. I can currently only book to Nov 20th with my gold.
If I upgrade to platinum, they will give me 20,000 bonus points (guy says that is the max that can be done since I am an owner and not a new buyer after I said I got 32,000 when I bought a gold 8,190). The knife in the ribs is that I just paid $2200 in HOA fees last month, and with the upgrade, I am told there is no pro rating or anything, that I just have to straight up pay $2500 again in HOA fees for the upgrade from 8,190 to 11,200. So the upgrade will cost me $20,000 plus another $2500 in HOA fees that I just paid last month.
An annoying part is that, I will be able to book one week for a two bedroom with the platinum, but will have to wait on the 9 month window to open to book the other one and then gradually increase the days until I get the full two weeks for two rooms and hope the days are available and not sold out by then. I did just use 900,000 of my Hilton Honors points to book two rooms at Hilton Hawaiian Village from the 20th - 27th as a just in case hail Mary.
Also, I was just told for the first time by anyone at HGVC that I cannot combine my year points with bonus points for a booking. That I have to book as many days as I can with my year points, and then book the rest with my bonus points as a separate transaction. So this method will likely result in some points being lost from the year points.
So I will have 8,190 gold points, 11,200 platinum points, 32,000 gold bonus points, 20,000 platinum bonus points and 8,190 RCI points that I am not even sure how to use at all for this. the lower price 2 bedrooms are all gone, so I would have to get the expensive rooms if they stay available. It is also a but frustrating that with my 9 month window, I cannot even book when the 13th becomes available, I have to wait until 15th or 16th becomes available since you have to book at least 3-4 days so it makes it even riskier that the the 13th could vanish if open at all by then.
This is why this is my third year of trying to use my points to get a stay at Christmas and it is looking like without upgrading to Platinum it will be a complete failure again.
I had thought about buying resale instead of retail, but then I will end up with double HOA fees and murky waters of restrictions and I keep getting different information from everyone including HGVC about how they treat resale owners and 9 month vs 12 month home weeks for resale deeds.
I had thought that it would be best to upgrade directly with HGVC, but maybe it is better to buy resale?
So if it all combined like magic, I guess I would have 71,390 year and bonus points and 8,190 RCI points. Right now, the least expensive rooms are 26,880 each for the 13th - 27th and 33,600 for each room at the next cheapest. if I was able to book it all right now, then I would have enough points, but by the time it gets to March 27th none of this may be available any more for the full booking I am trying to get.
My apologies that I am not an expert at all of this, but I was going by what I was told when it was told to me and finding out that it was a lot of rubbish. In theory, it makes sense, but in reality that dates I want at the resort I want have not been possible.
