What is this new Travel + Leisure??

[Arimaas]

So I am sure there are 1000 of posts on this, but I don't remember reading it. The last two times I checked in (BC in January, TOTG now), the wristband folks keep telling me I am paying for some features I don't use. Now I own half a million points that I paid $1400 for, and no retail points, so I like to think I know my way around the system. When they kept trying (honestly, it lasted all of five minutes the sales pitch, eventually the senior person at the desk came over to tell the one trying to get me to come to a meeting to leave me alone when I mentioned TUG and resale), I was sort of wondering what they were talking about, but not wondering enough to attend a meeting. I just figured I'd come here and get the real deal.

So what are all these "perks" that I am currently paying for, and not using? Obviously, it's all sales lies, but I didn't want to engage them to even find out what they were talking about. I'm fairly certain I know exectly what I'm doing, and, since I've been keeping a cost benefit spread sheet of my ownership, know exactly how much ahead I am coming.

Thanks!

 

[paxsarah]

It's nothing. There's a newish add-on with new retail purchases called TravelUp, which is a travel discount program for non-timeshare travel that's supposed to give better discounts the higher the VIP level. By all reports it's pretty "meh," though a couple of Founders level folks on Facebook have stated that they got good cruise deals through it (with no reporting on what comparison shopping they did, so grain of salt and all that). There's nothing about it that justifies a retail purchase to get it (just like none of the other non-VIP-related retail benefits - Club Pass, PlusPartners, Nightly Stays - justify a retail purchase).

Also, about 2 years ago, Wyndham bought Travel + Leisure, and then took T+L as their corporate name. I don't think there's been anything yet that's affected timeshare benefits that's come from that purchase and name change.

Short story, it's the body snatcher's job to tell you you have benefits you're not using, to get you into a meeting. They generally have no idea about the differences in what retail vs resale can already do, and they have no specific knowledge of what benefits you do or don't already use.

 

[Eggrollcreative]

Pretty insane system going on. I’d say wherever you go ask for an upgraded room and tell them it’s part of the benefits they promised…that right there would be worth something and if you aren’t already doing it and had the benefit I would recommend it, Met a Wyndham VIP couple they said they got that deal…I could have misunderstood…

 

[paxsarah]

Pretty insane system going on. I’d say wherever you go ask for an upgraded room and tell them it’s part of the benefits they promised…that right there would be worth something and if you aren’t already doing it and had the benefit I would recommend it, Met a Wyndham VIP couple they said they got that deal…I could have misunderstood…

Upgrades are a VIP benefit, so for us resale owners, we were never promised that - and that's fine. Resale owners buy knowing that's part of the deal. And the desk people who try to get us to go to a meeting have a set spiel that doesn't take into account anything about our particular ownership - it's just a set of attractive buzzwords to make people want to go to the sales meeting.

 

[Eggrollcreative]

Well if you only have resale they claim you have “no benefits.” So I guess that means the gal had no clue.

 

[Richelle]

Well if you only have resale they claim you have “no benefits.” So I guess that means the gal had no clue.

It's entirely possible they have no clue, but it's equally possible she was outright lying and knew what she was saying was false. She was trying to convince you to buy by any means necessary. That includes lying. Its what they do.

 

[Arimaas]

It's entirely possible they have no clue, but it's equally possible she was outright lying and knew what she was saying was false. She was trying to convince you to buy by any means necessary. That includes lying. Its what they do.

I think it's likely a combination of both.

 

[1Melanie]

So I am sure there are 1000 of posts on this, but I don't remember reading it. The last two times I checked in (BC in January, TOTG now), the wristband folks keep telling me I am paying for some features I don't use. Now I own half a million points that I paid $1400 for, and no retail points, so I like to think I know my way around the system. When they kept trying (honestly, it lasted all of five minutes the sales pitch, eventually the senior person at the desk came over to tell the one trying to get me to come to a meeting to leave me alone when I mentioned TUG and resale), I was sort of wondering what they were talking about, but not wondering enough to attend a meeting. I just figured I'd come here and get the real deal.

So what are all these "perks" that I am currently paying for, and not using? Obviously, it's all sales lies, but I didn't want to engage them to even find out what they were talking about. I'm fairly certain I know exectly what I'm doing, and, since I've been keeping a cost benefit spread sheet of my ownership, know exactly how much ahead I am coming.

Thanks!

Of course you have benefits. You get to stay at any Wyndham Resort using points. That’s the biggest benefit. Some levels of membership include all the other stuff like RCI, II, TPI, TRAVELUP and the discount club. It’s only worth having if you actually use it. In my mind the only benefit that is worth anything really are the discounts that come with the various levels of VIP. If you are paying extra for them then you might want to find out if you can cancel those extras. If you can’t, then learn how to make the most of them. Early in our membership we paid for RCI because it wasn’t an option, but don’t any longer because it was included once we hit gold, which was only 300k back then. I can’t remember when the last time I used RCI, used the coupons once or twice for excursions will probably have little use for TRAVELUP. (We have our own agent for cruising and take advantage of the Rewards program for hotels.)
The only real benefit we take the most advantage of are the discounts when booking within 60 days and the upgrades. ( see: https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com/us/en/club-benefits/vip-by-wyndham). Empty nesters/retirees we can do that now but couldn’t always. We had to plan around school schedules for many years. If it’s in your long term plan to be able to travel on a whim, then it might be worth looking at retail points for the discounts. When you’re only paying 40% of the regular rate in points for a unit, you can recover the cost of retail points by stretching your usage out without having to pay the extra maintenance fees for those points. It took us many years, lots of negotiating, time, energy and money to get to our desired level of membership before we were in a position to be able to unload the resale contracts, consolidate all our small contracts and reduce the MF along with them. And remember, there is a list of contracts that are discounted significantly from the ones they try to sell you in a meeting. They’re still going to cost more than the $1400 you paid for your 600k. With 25% off you could potentially get 150k additional points sans MFs. That’s a potential extra week a year in some resorts. At a minimum of $1200 a week without maintenance fees how long would it take to recover the cost of additional points purchased directly from Wyndham?

 

[paxsarah]

Some levels of membership include all the other stuff like RCI

Every Wyndham points owner receives a membership to RCI and the ability to exchange points via the Wyndham-RCI portal. It's included in the program fee we all pay.

 

[1Melanie]

There was a time….back in the dark ages….when we were charged an additional fee for RCI membership. It went away when we became VIP . . . A loooong time ago. Good to know there are no longer charges for it especially when it’s pretty useless.

 

[Arimaas]

Of course you have benefits. You get to stay at any Wyndham Resort using points. That’s the biggest benefit. Some levels of membership include all the other stuff like RCI, II, TPI, TRAVELUP and the discount club. It’s only worth having if you actually use it. In my mind the only benefit that is worth anything really are the discounts that come with the various levels of VIP. If you are paying extra for them then you might want to find out if you can cancel those extras. If you can’t, then learn how to make the most of them. Early in our membership we paid for RCI because it wasn’t an option, but don’t any longer because it was included once we hit gold, which was only 300k back then. I can’t remember when the last time I used RCI, used the coupons once or twice for excursions will probably have little use for TRAVELUP. (We have our own agent for cruising and take advantage of the Rewards program for hotels.)
The only real benefit we take the most advantage of are the discounts when booking within 60 days and the upgrades. ( see: https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com/us/en/club-benefits/vip-by-wyndham). Empty nesters/retirees we can do that now but couldn’t always. We had to plan around school schedules for many years. If it’s in your long term plan to be able to travel on a whim, then it might be worth looking at retail points for the discounts. When you’re only paying 40% of the regular rate in points for a unit, you can recover the cost of retail points by stretching your usage out without having to pay the extra maintenance fees for those points. It took us many years, lots of negotiating, time, energy and money to get to our desired level of membership before we were in a position to be able to unload the resale contracts, consolidate all our small contracts and reduce the MF along with them. And remember, there is a list of contracts that are discounted significantly from the ones they try to sell you in a meeting. They’re still going to cost more than the $1400 you paid for your 600k. With 25% off you could potentially get 150k additional points sans MFs. That’s a potential extra week a year in some resorts. At a minimum of $1200 a week without maintenance fees how long would it take to recover the cost of additional points purchased directly from Wyndham?

I asked on the Facebook group what the going rate is for points direct from Wyndham recently is and the answer was $220 per thousand so my 600k is “worth” $132k. With $1200 in free vacations a year, to make up the different of $130k in money spent, I’d break even in what, 100 plus years? I don’t think that benefit alone, for me is worth the buy in. But there are other benefits and each person has their own reasons.

Personally, I’m going to stick to resale. I’m in a two bedroom at towers on the grove overlooking the Atlantic right now. My maintenance fees on the 600k points is likely as much as rack rate would be for a comparable room somewhere. And I still have enough points for another two weeks somewhere (although I was at bonnet in January but you get the idea). And I’m still $130k ahead in initial sunk costs.

The only “benefit” I need from my timeshare is the ability to use my points to stay in multiple rooms a year I likely couldn’t afford paying rack year after year.

 

[paxsarah]

There was a time….back in the dark ages….when we were charged an additional fee for RCI membership. It went away when we became VIP . . . A loooong time ago. Good to know there are no longer charges for it especially when it’s pretty useless.

Fixed weeks owners do not get the RCI membership for free, so if you had converted from fixed to points at the time you became VIP, that could have been it.

All I can say is RCI has been included with Wyndham points ownership since before I bought in 2010.

 

[Richelle]

Fixed weeks owners do not get the RCI membership for free, so if you had converted from fixed to points at the time you became VIP, that could have been it.

All I can say is RCI has been included with Wyndham points ownership since before I bought in 2010.

2008 here and RCI was free then too. That was about two years after Cendant spun off the hospitality division to Wyndham Worldwide. Maybe they had to pay for it prior to that when it was Fairfield?

 

[1Melanie]

Every Wyndham points owner receives a membership to RCI and the ability to exchange points via the Wyndham-RCI portal. It's included in the program fee we all pay.

F

Fixed weeks owners do not get the RCI membership for free, so if you had converted from fixed to points at the time you became VIP, that could have been it.

All I can say is RCI has been included with Wyndham points ownership since before I bought in 2010

 

[1Melanie]

You’re probably right. We bought early 90s before our TS was Fairfield. RCI fee went away when it became Fairfield.

 

[1Melanie]

I asked on the Facebook group what the going rate is for points direct from Wyndham recently is and the answer was $220 per thousand so my 600k is “worth” $132k. With $1200 in free vacations a year, to make up the different of $130k in money spent, I’d break even in what, 100 plus years? I don’t think that benefit alone, for me is worth the buy in. But there are other benefits and each person has their own reasons.

Personally, I’m going to stick to resale. I’m in a two bedroom at towers on the grove overlooking the Atlantic right now. My maintenance fees on the 600k points is likely as much as rack rate would be for a comparable room somewhere. And I still have enough points for another two weeks somewhere (although I was at bonnet in January but you get the idea). And I’m still $130k ahead in initial sunk costs.

The only “benefit” I need from my timeshare is the ability to use my points to stay in multiple rooms a year I likely couldn’t afford paying rack year after year.

Ownership was so much easier when we first bought. There was no difference between resale and developer points. Resale was automatically part of the membership and could be traded without penalty. Probably didn’t pay more than you did for all the contracts we were able to trade into the program eons ago. The last vestige of hope we have for our children and grandchildren is the ability to add them to our membership with all the perks that come with the membership, without todays prices. It doesn’t seem fair anymore. Points are points regardless of how they are acquired. It seems with every year that goes by, W thinks of another way to squeeze more $$ out of the consumer.

 

[Richelle]

Ownership was so much easier when we first bought. There was no difference between resale and developer points. Resale was automatically part of the membership and could be traded without penalty. Probably didn’t pay more than you did for all the contracts we were able to trade into the program eons ago. The last vestige of hope we have for our children and grandchildren is the ability to add them to our membership with all the perks that come with the membership, without todays prices. It doesn’t seem fair anymore. Points are points regardless of how they are acquired. It seems with every year that goes by, W thinks of another way to squeeze more $$ out of the consumer.

They have to give people a reason to buy direct from them. Plus, owners who spend 10's of thousands of dollars would not be happy that someone who got theirs for free has the same benefits. So Wyndham has to limit resale somehow. Other timeshare companies put restrictions on resale, and many are worse then Wyndham. Diamond wont let you use your points outside your "collection" unless they were bought direct from them. So if you bought Hawaii points, you couldn't use them for resorts in the continental US.

Also, when you bought, wasn't it fixed/float weeks and not points? Weeks systems were simpler but had a lot less flexibility.

 

[1Melanie]

They have to give people a reason to buy direct from them. Plus, owners who spend 10's of thousands of dollars would not be happy that someone who got theirs for free has the same benefits. So Wyndham has to limit resale somehow. Other timeshare companies put restrictions on resale, and many are worse then Wyndham. Diamond wont let you use your points outside your "collection" unless they were bought direct from them. So if you bought Hawaii points, you couldn't use them for resorts in the continental US.

Also, when you bought, wasn't it fixed/float weeks and not points? Weeks systems were simpler but had a lot less flexibility.

Makes sense. Yes, it was fixed back in the dark ages but converted when Fairfield took over