Apologies in advance for the rant...but I feel a need to vent and my experiences might prove useful for others.
Almost 4 years ago I received a mailing offering me three years of II Platinum membership free if I deposited my week with them. So I did - an Oceanview Waiohai 2BR July week with the highest TDI. But it turned out that since I already had a MVC membership Interval wouldn't give me a Platinum membership. Moreover, they wouldn't give me my week back. I could have tried to escalate the issue...but since I would have had to rent out the week and I had read that getting a trade on II was 'easy' if you used a good trader I would just keep my Waiohai week deposited.
For the next two years I kept trying to find trades. Europe in the summer and Hawaii at various school holidays and summer...but I never got a match for the dates and locations we needed. After that - with only one year left on my trade - I decided to change strategy and put in a wide ranging request for anywhere we would be willing to stay if the trade 'hit' on the vacation dates we had available. And then plan our vacation around II instead of the other way around. (And yes, I know there are workarounds to extend for up to a year...but they involve having to constantly do manual search for trades and I have better things to do with my time).
A few months later we got a trade into NCV Easter week. Yay! It was Friday to Friday instead of the Sunday to Sunday that we wanted...but at least we could use most of the days. Then we found out our daughter's high school was putting together a trip over spring break and I adjusted our plans accordingly. Then after many more months passed we found out that the HS spring break trip didn't actually happen over spring break but instead half over spring break. Of course the wrong half....and now we could use none of the days at NCV. So I cancelled and started to look again. By this time the pickings were slim...but I found a nice 2BR at Williamsburg that we could use over a 3 day weekend in March.
59 days from the start of our stay we found out that our daughter's chamber ensemble was one of the winners of a competition in which they had entered and had been selected to play in NYC...on that weekend. Yay! Boo! And since it was under 60 days I was now in 'flex-time' - my mid July 2020 expiration (which I might have extended) was now the beginning of April. I found a studio at Williamsburg Sequel in late March that it seems unlikely we'll get to use...but that's all there is for now.
Did I mention I love DPs? We use them constantly and are always borrowing. And even put in a holding account (because of a 59 day cancellation) they would have been useful.
Almost 4 years ago I received a mailing offering me three years of II Platinum membership free if I deposited my week with them. So I did - an Oceanview Waiohai 2BR July week with the highest TDI. But it turned out that since I already had a MVC membership Interval wouldn't give me a Platinum membership. Moreover, they wouldn't give me my week back. I could have tried to escalate the issue...but since I would have had to rent out the week and I had read that getting a trade on II was 'easy' if you used a good trader I would just keep my Waiohai week deposited.
For the next two years I kept trying to find trades. Europe in the summer and Hawaii at various school holidays and summer...but I never got a match for the dates and locations we needed. After that - with only one year left on my trade - I decided to change strategy and put in a wide ranging request for anywhere we would be willing to stay if the trade 'hit' on the vacation dates we had available. And then plan our vacation around II instead of the other way around. (And yes, I know there are workarounds to extend for up to a year...but they involve having to constantly do manual search for trades and I have better things to do with my time).
A few months later we got a trade into NCV Easter week. Yay! It was Friday to Friday instead of the Sunday to Sunday that we wanted...but at least we could use most of the days. Then we found out our daughter's high school was putting together a trip over spring break and I adjusted our plans accordingly. Then after many more months passed we found out that the HS spring break trip didn't actually happen over spring break but instead half over spring break. Of course the wrong half....and now we could use none of the days at NCV. So I cancelled and started to look again. By this time the pickings were slim...but I found a nice 2BR at Williamsburg that we could use over a 3 day weekend in March.
59 days from the start of our stay we found out that our daughter's chamber ensemble was one of the winners of a competition in which they had entered and had been selected to play in NYC...on that weekend. Yay! Boo! And since it was under 60 days I was now in 'flex-time' - my mid July 2020 expiration (which I might have extended) was now the beginning of April. I found a studio at Williamsburg Sequel in late March that it seems unlikely we'll get to use...but that's all there is for now.
Did I mention I love DPs? We use them constantly and are always borrowing. And even put in a holding account (because of a 59 day cancellation) they would have been useful.