Worldwide Exchange Unit Size Upgrade

[Explorer7]

Page 288 of the 2012 directory documents that Gold and Plat VIP’s are eligible to receive a “nest largest unit size upgrade on all low and medium season deposits”

I had to jump through hoops to find out how it works and learned that I could not use the upgrade benefit for points I already had on deposit in RCI and it would not work with the up to 50% off point sale on RCI/Wyndham portal ending April 19.

This is how it works:
You contact the Wyndham VIP VC and let them know that you would like to use the RCI unit upgrade deposit benefit. You may need to point them to page 288 of the 2012 directory so they can begin to educate themselves on the process.

What the VC does is complete a form for you that causes Wyndham to make a deposit over to RCI for the additional points needed for your White or Blue season upgrade.

I.E. for the White Season studio to 2BR upgrade I was requesting I would have been required to place a 74K deposit with the Wyndham VC on the phone that would in turn calculate and generate the extra points required into an online form. I believe you will also need to provide the resort id and the check in date requested.
The form would then generate the extra 35K “benefit” points from Wyndham for the difference to make my total deposit in RCI of 109K points.
The RCI reps and supervisors are oblivious to this Wyndham benefit and I wasted time trying to find someone over on the RCI side that was knowledgeable. Turns out they have nothing to do with the upgrade they only see the points needed for the actual reservation.
Since I was trying to find a way to use the points I already deposited in RCI as a result of left over Wyndham internal points last year the “upgrade” benefit was of no use to me for this purpose.
I did however proceed to book a discounted points vacation as I believe I would not get a better point value for my “deposited or lose” points than the current sale before they expire.
So the net result for me is that unless I wind up with more use or lose points I can probably do better using extra Vacations or last call bookings on the RCI site than using the upgrade benefit or otherwise booking into RCI during off season.

 

[johnstonga]

Ira ---

Thanks for this 'real world' update ---- seems this VIP benefit is "forgotten" but not Totally "gone" yet.

Hopefuilly someone out there has actually completed this process and can verify that their 'enhanced' deposit landed in RCI and they can verify that the 'upgrade' did occur and is visible to the RCI VC -- and hopefully to owner in his/her online account.

I used to do a couple of exchanges each year with RCI -- and with II --- but I don't anticipate doing anymore after my current deposits are used.

 

[Xcalibur]

Ira ---

Thanks for this 'real world' update ---- seems this VIP benefit is "forgotten" but not Totally "gone" yet.

Hopefuilly someone out there has actually completed this process and can verify that their 'enhanced' deposit landed in RCI and they can verify that the 'upgrade' did occur and is visible to the RCI VC -- and hopefully to owner in his/her online account.

I used to do a couple of exchanges each year with RCI -- and with II --- but I don't anticipate doing anymore after my current deposits are used.

I can confirm that. however, i haven't used the points yet. it doesn't look the pts are differentiated so, i wonder if they can be used on discounted vacations? too bad OP didn't try that...

 

[Explorer7]

I can confirm that. however, i haven't used the points yet. it doesn't look the pts are differentiated so, i wonder if they can be used on discounted vacations? too bad OP didn't try that...

In the unlikely event that I ever find myself at year end with points left over I will certainly take a shot at adding a few more points "if needed" in order to see if I can gain the addition of unit upgrade points into my RCI account. The directory does not specify that I have to make a specific reservation at the time of the deposit, it simply says I receive additional points sufficient to book the next higher level of unit. Now if my left over points are only something like 27K it is unlikely I will add another 50K points to get the upgrade as there is a tipping point somewhere below 74K that I would not consider it worthwhile based on my travel preferences.