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Who Says You Can't Find 9,000 Points Weeks in Florida?

bogey21

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Often I see posts which say that the 45 day/9,000 Point Week in RCI Points isn't worth a darn as such weeks can't be found when you want them.

Yesterday I confirmed that the hurricane repairs on my Unit at the Emerald Seas in Deerfield Beach are just about finished but will not be done in time for my Week 1 (January 7) arrival. That's ok. I understand, but it does put me in a bind as I have plane tickets, a car reservation and exchanges in place for Weeks 2 and 3.

Well guess what? I go to RCI (using my Points Account) and say "I guess the chance you have anything available in South East Florida starting January 6, 7 or 8 are slim to none, Right"? My nice, pleasant RCI Guide says "Let me check". Then she comes back and says "How would you like the Avalon in Deerfield Beach for 7,500 Points?" I say "I'll take it. Please charge my credit card number which you have on file".

Now I'll be the first to admit that 45 day/9,000 Point Weeks are not just hanging on trees waiting to be picked, but this is the second time in 4 years that I have been able to get one in an emergency (The other one was Light House Cove in Pompano Beach in January 2003). In addition I have probably used 45 day/8,000 Point Weeks in Branson three times in the last 2 years.

GEORGE
 
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JLB

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Your good fortune could be related to the sudden appearance of Florida inventory, much of which was not available as recently as yesterday.


Florida/Florida 12/30/05-1/16/06

12/13/05: 24 Resorts have availability
12/14/05: 25 Resorts have availability
12/15/05: 21 Resorts have availability
12/16/05: 25 Resorts have availability
12/17/05: 27 Resorts have availability
12/18/05: 26 Resorts have availability
12/19/05: 24 Resorts have availability
12/20/05: 17 Resorts have availability
12/21/05: 20 Resorts have availability
12/22/05: 18 Resorts have availability
12/23/05: 16 Resorts have availability
12/24/05: 37 Resorts have availability Noon: 30 Resorts 6:00PM: 22 Resorts

Florida/Resorts on the Beach 12/30/05-1/16/06

12/13/05: 9 Resorts have availability
12/14/05: 8 Resorts have availability
12/15/05: 4 Resorts have availability
12/16/05: 6 Resorts have availability
12/17/05: 4 Resorts have availability
12/19/05: 9 Resorts have availability
12/20/05: 8 Resorts have availability
12/21/05: 8 Resorts have availability
12/22/05: 8 Resorts have availability
12/23/05: 8 Resorts have availability
12/24/05: 18 Resorts have availability Noon: 13 Resorts 6:00PM: 10 Resorts


The same thing happened last year on December 19.
 

AwayWeGo

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[triennial - points]
7,500 Points For The Kids' Orlando 2BR - Zero Points For Our Orlando 1BR

Our 1st points transaction was a 7,500-point 2BR Orlando Instant Exchange reservation for the kids' pre-Christmas vacation the week of December 17-24, 2005.

That was so satisfactory that we looked for 9,000-point & below Instant Exchange reservations for our own after-Christmas vacation in January 2006.

Instead, for Zero Points, we took a 1BR Last Call reservation for January 15-22.

If this keeps up, I don't know how we'll manage to use up all the (minimal) points in our (dinky) timeshare points account.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
 

donnaval

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I'm very happy with the 2-br New Smyrna Beach unit we snagged for 7,500 points for January 20.

We do love Last Call but found nothing of interest when we we decided last week to look for a late-January getaway. There were many units of interest available in points, and this one was just what we were in the mood for.

Made it nice that Southwest had $49 airfare for non-stop flights, too :D
 

Dani

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George,

Your post caused me to do a little investigation. Ever since I found out about the wonders of 9,000 point or less vacations through Points, I have been doing searches and like you, have noticed that there is very nice availablity within the 45-day time-frame...including Florida. The other day, I saw a 3-bedroom Orange Lake unit for MLK week for 9,000 points. However, I never even bothered to search in Weeks because my past experience has been that trade restrictions were never really lifted. Only my best weeks would see increased availability.

Well, maybe that has changed. I just did a 45-day search with my Dik week and my Southern Cal week for Florida and East Coast, and pulled up 86 and 87 resorts respectively!!! I could not believe it. There was a time when my Dik weeks would only see increased availablity within a week or two of a use date.

This is good news...RCI may now have a true last minute window like II.

Edited to add that I am starting to see the light ;) With a spacebanked Dik week in my account that is about to expire in a few months, I can get one vacation. Many of my Dik weeks would simply expire in the past or I would give them away. With the 27,500 points I got in my account for PFD of a Dik week, I can get three 9,000 point weeks!!!
 
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timeos2

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Weeks to points means an owner gets the time

Dani said:
Edited to add that I am starting to see the light ;) With a spacebanked Dik week in my account that is about to expire in a few months, I can get one vacation. Many of my Dik weeks would simply expire in the past or I would give them away. With the 27,500 points I got in my account for PFD of a Dik week, I can get three 9,000 point weeks!!!
And that should make weeks owners happy as those weeks are going to AN OWNER not an outside renter. But I'd guess that rather than appreciating that weeks owners just cry about "raids" of the weeks system. It's not the points systems fault that weeks is set up to only give you a one week for one week regardless of time period while points understands the lessening value as the dates draw near. Of course the weeks owners can also get those weeks at 45 days BUT only one vs as many as 3 in points. Now which system is more owner friendly?
 

RonaldCol

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Florida is Overbuilt ...

... and that is why there are so many availabilities for the 9000 points or less vacations.

This is flukish but if you're game for tryng to get the 9000 points weeks the best place to try and get them would be in Florida.
 

JLB

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"my email to you was . . . to warn you that as you share information with a core group of timesharers that youa re sharing with others resorts, salespeople, managemetn companies . . .

". . . my comment was that bragging on tug raises awareness of ineffeciences of the rci economic system to a group that you don't want to know about this such as sales and marketing....

"I think the older we get as a company the more real our data becomes... I think in reality our ability to process data mirrors society's ability to transmit data."
 

Dani

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JLB said:
"my email to you was . . . to warn you that as you share information with a core group of timesharers that youa re sharing with others resorts, salespeople, managemetn companies . . .

". . . my comment was that bragging on tug raises awareness of ineffeciences of the rci economic system to a group that you don't want to know about this such as sales and marketing....

"I think the older we get as a company the more real our data becomes... I think in reality our ability to process data mirrors society's ability to transmit data."

This is one case where everyone stands to benefit. RCI benefits as they can get three exchange fees instead of one out of a member using the example I have used. That's more money in their pocket. The sales and marketing teams benefit as this knowledge might actually convince some that they should pay the cost that many of us, myself included, swore that we would never pay to convert a week that we already own to Points, not to mention more bodies in unused units. This is also a great selling point. Take a look at many of the ads already running on ebay for the sale of Points. Listings by resellers of Points usually make this fact a big selling point in their presentation. I would say that the ability to pull great last minute weeks for 9,000 Points might be a great incentive to many.
 

JLB

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Merry Christmas

:D

Yeah. One would think so.

But, almost every other good thing we have bragged about seems to have gone away, so why not this . . . :eek:

PS--It is not all that different than the 45-day window in Weeks (except for the items already pointed out) in that that was the method used to try to get rid of stuff at the last minute, and that has pretty much become a thing of the past.

Nothing is etched in stone. This may be one of those inequalities that will need to be corrected over time.
 
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AwayWeGo

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[triennial - points]
The Intstant Exchange Feature (9,000 Points & Below) Got Us Interested In Points.

Dani said:
I would say that the ability to pull great last minute weeks for 9,000 Points might be a great incentive to many.
That's exactly what got The Chief Of Staff & me interested in going with timeshare points instead of straight weeks.

(Well, that plus the opportunity to get partial-week reservations. But those partial-week reservations can take way more than 9,000 points, & so it disturbs our sense of economy to expend more points for a few midweek timeshare days than takes to get a full 7-day Instant Exchange week.)

Even so, it took a couple of years for us to figure out enough about how the RCI Points system actually works, & how to get into it without spending much, before we took the plunge into points (in a small-time, penny-ante kind of way).

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
 
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JLB

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Can you get that Sanibel week for 1/8/06 for 9000 points?
 

timeos2

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Only on the second tuesday of next week.

JLB said:
Can you get that Sanibel week for 1/8/06 for 9000 points?
Yeah, sure. And the Easter Bunny came down our chimney last night to wish us Happy Thanksgiving too.
 

JLB

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Sorry if that was a stupid question. :eek:

It is there online for 1/8. I am only asking if it can be gotten through Points for 9000, like everyone is talking about.
 

donnaval

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Nope, it doesn't show up for points in either weeks or standard reservations for me.

I can pull it with my weak Fairfield studio deposit, though. (Assuming you are talking about the studio at the Caribe Beach Resort?)
 

Dani

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JLB said:
Sorry if that was a stupid question. :eek:

It is there online for 1/8. I am only asking if it can be gotten through Points for 9000, like everyone is talking about.


Jim,

What I do not understand is why we would not be able to see that Sanibel week while conducting a search in Weeks on the Points side...can someone please explain? Thanks.
 

JLB

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Beats me. Obviously I'm not a Points expert.

But I was serious about wanting to know what it would take to get it, and then convert that to dollars, maintenance-fee-wise.

It's not there this morning.
 

bogey21

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Dani said:
What I do not understand is why we would not be able to see that Sanibel week while conducting a search in Weeks on the Points side...can someone please explain? Thanks.

I suspect that the answer has to do with how RCI's computer system works (or in this case doesn't work). I'll bet if you want the week and call an RCI Points VG and explain the situation, you'll get the week.

GEORGE
 

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I think that I have one possible answer to yoru question. When you search for an exchange using your points account, you can search through points or weeks. If searching through points, you must 'pay" the going rate for the points exchange.

if searching through weeks, you are able to see most (but not ALL) of the weeks inventory. The reason some is hidden is that these resorts are points resorts, so you cannot see them and RCI forces you to use your POINTS for the exchgange.

I recently discovered this when I searched on the weeks side of my points account as described above. I could see the week in the POINTS, I could also see it when I used my REGULAR RCI WEEKS account (Not the weeks side of points account) BUT I could NOT see the resort using the weeks side of my points account. RCI instead prompted me to use the points for the trade, costing much more in points.

I hope this explanation is clear, and it is my recent experience which might explain the question of why we cannot see ALL weeks available.

Happy Holidays.
 

JLB

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Is Sandy's answer what's up, or have I still not gotten a straight answer to my question. How many points would it take to get something like I saw in Weeks, that Caribe unit on Sanibel for 1/8/06. I saw both a 2-bedroom and a studio.

Several of you have touted points as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but when I finally take the bait and ask a real question I got a smart--- answer. Hey, Points members don't know how it works, so we ask.

I do know I could have gotten it with Weeks and I do know how much it would have cost me. If you couldn't get it through Points, or it would have cost beaucoup bucks, then why would Points be better in this case?

So, what's the problem in giving straight answers to Points questions?

Frankly, it's hard to think of something better then sliced bread. I tried some of the unsliced loaves of French and Italian bread from Wal Mart, and you can have them. Now I take them to the bakery counter and they slice them for me. :D
 
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timeos2

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Maybe this is the answer

Jim - Unless someone went in and actually searched for that week and it was less than 45 days away they wouldn't see the points value required. If ir were 45 days or less and it was a week deposit then it should be available for 9000 points or less. If it is actually a points resort deposit then the true points value will show up even in the 45 day timeframe. There is no discount I'm aware of for points deposits even at 45 days or less. Does that answer your question?
 

JLB

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timeos2 said:
Does that answer your question?

That's a start.

So how much would it cost under either scenario?

And, if I can see it in Weeks, and Points folks can't see it (if I'm following what everyone is saying), how would I be better off in Points in this particular case?

If you speak really slow, and enunciate, maybe I will catch on. :cool:
 

timeos2

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Until the 45 day window a points search would show it at the full point value. The biggest advantage to the points owner is that they will "see" it as there are no restrictions on VEP and other hocus pocus of trade power, etc. They just need the required points & they can reserve it. It is possible that a weeks owner could see it with a week that has a lower overall cost but it is also possible that they won't see it at all due to the unknown restrictions and values applied to weeks.

It cannot be said that in every case the points "view" will be better but at least it is straight forward. You'll see whats available and what the cost is. In weeks that isn't the case. The bread can be sliced many ways but not every one is to everyones liking.
 

JLB

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I'm hearing (loosely translated) Points is the greatest thing since sliced bread, except for when it's not. :cool:
 
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