Wyndham Privileges: new Wyndham VIP Levels starting late 2020 [Merged]

[Happy Hopian]

Link to current Privileges brochure, which indicates grandfathering for current tiers:

https://www.wyndhaminteractivesaleshub.com/club-wyndham/CW_Privileges.pdf

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SOOOOOO.... I am reading this and I don't see the same grandfathering you see. I see three current levels in the middle with the benefits listed and then arrows underneath show how many points those benefits will cost going forward. I can say that we bought exactly enough to get platinum and would apparently be pushed down to what is today called gold under this new plan

 

[55plus]

SOOOOOO.... I am reading this and I don't see the same grandfathering you see. I see three current levels in the middle with the benefits listed and then arrows underneath show how many points those benefits will cost going forward. I can say that we bought exactly enough to get platinum and would apparently be pushed down to what is today called gold under this new plan

I read it as a VIP Platinum owner is moved up to the new Diamond level.

 

[davejulien]

I read it as a VIP Platinum owner is moved up to the new Diamond level.

Where do you see “Diamond” in the levels? I see “Legend”.

 

[kaljor]

I read it as a VIP Platinum owner is moved up to the new Diamond level.

I agree. It looks like anyone who is currently Platinum will become Legend, which I think was called Diamond in an earlier brochure, but to attain Legend/Diamond in the future you will need 1.1 million points. So that would be considered grandfathering.

 

[HitchHiker71]

There are earlier posts in this thread that provide comments that support grandfathering here:

<a href="https://www.tugbbs.com/forums/index...g-late-2020-merged.289659/page-6#post-2283705"</a>

Attaching the images again here for reference. Basically, grandfathering is explicitly referenced - same as it was when the VIP program changes were enacted in 2012 - and will apply for the Privileges changes planned for 2020.

 

[Joski]

So I went to an owners update at Wyndham Ocean Walk Daytona today. They of course spoke about Privileges. We are right now Platinum with our 2 pics. But they told us that our 2 pics do not go towards Privileges. Only developer points count towards Privileges. So we needed to buy more points to keep us at the Platinum level or new Privileges level. Is this a sales gimmick or truth?

 

[kaljor]

So I went to an owners update at Wyndham Ocean Walk Daytona today. They of course spoke about Privileges. We are right now Platinum with our 2 pics. But they told us that our 2 pics do not go towards Privileges. Only developer points count towards Privileges. So we needed to buy more points to keep us at the Platinum level or new Privileges level. Is this a sales gimmick or truth?

Well I'm no expert but I do know two things for sure. First, the new Privileges program has not been finalized or announced, and the target date to begin it is not until late in 2020.

Second, anytime and every time a sales person tells you you have to buy points because of ........whatever, it's just simply not true.

I know it sounds simplistic to say, but until Wyndham announces a new program or a change to an existing program, the program still exists as is. And they don't announce big changes through their sales department, they will inform all members when they feel it's appropriate. So just enjoy your vacation.

 

[HitchHiker71]

So I went to an owners update at Wyndham Ocean Walk Daytona today. They of course spoke about Privileges. We are right now Platinum with our 2 pics. But they told us that our 2 pics do not go towards Privileges. Only developer points count towards Privileges. So we needed to buy more points to keep us at the Platinum level or new Privileges level. Is this a sales gimmick or truth?

Last I spoke with a SVP in sales/marketing a couple months back now, PIC will stay intact as part of the Privileges rollout. As others have said, everything is always subject to change, but I know from direct conversations that early on the topic of whether PIC would stay intact was discussed at length in ideation meetings and the consensus agreed upon was that PIC contracts will still be honored as developer point status within Privileges.

Don’t believe anything the normal sales staff tells you, their job is to sell you developer points to make a commission, and many of them will say just about anything, including the use of dishonest sales tactics to make you fearful you will lose something you currently have, to get you to buy. It’s unfortunate but often true.




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[Braindead]

I think some might be missing a big part when Privileges is Officially Announced
There’s a very good chance that when the announcement comes that will be the date of your Grandfathering status.
It will be like the credit pool the day Voyager was officially announced. Voyager wasn’t in effect yet but some rules changed the day of the announcement.

So if some like HitchHiker wait to see the official announcement to make a decision to stay Gold or move up Platinum it might be too late.
Some might end up having to buy another 100k points to get the benefits they want with Privileges.

Grandfathering could also be changed to say: as long as your membership doesn’t change. You could possibly lose your Grandfathered status if you buy resell, sell or use Ovations.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I think some might be missing a big part when Privileges is Officially Announced
There’s a very good chance that when the announcement comes that will be the date of your Grandfathering status.
It will be like the credit pool the day Voyager was officially announced. Voyager wasn’t in effect yet but some rules changed the day of the announcement.

So if some like HitchHiker wait to see the official announcement to make a decision to stay Gold or move up Platinum it might be too late.
Some might end up having to buy another 100k points to get the benefits they want with Privileges.

Grandfathering could also be changed to say: as long as your membership doesn’t change. You could possibly lose your Grandfathered status if you buy resell, sell or use Ovations.

Anything is possible, that's why everything Wyndham publishes has an asterisk next to it that says "subject to change." I've actually never said to wait just to be clear. I'm only passing along what I hear directly from people in senior leadership positions at least on this thread. I generally don't have conversations with people in senior leadership positions within the Sales/Marketing division very frequently, which is why I don't post many updates in this thread. I'm heading to the owners meeting in Austin in early November, after which I expect to have some updates.

I can tell you that those I have spoken with collectively had indicated that Wyndham received a LOT of negative feedback in 2012 about the way the VIP program was rolled out, in not giving sufficient advance notice for people to either provide feedback, or to make purchase decisions that would positively impact grandfathering prior to the actual program effective date. Therefore, they are sharing more data in advance than they did previously, hence the advanced announcement of Privileges well over a year in advance of the program effective date which is estimated to be late 2020 best we know. I'm also under the impression from said conversations that those VIP members who may be considering moving to the next VIP level now, will be grandfathered using the current point levels. I've also been told that Wyndham may actually announce the program effective date in early 2020, with an effective for late 2020, and give a time window for VIP members, or prospective VIP purchasers, to make VIP purchase decisions prior to the effective date - to encourage anyone interested in obtaining VIP levels to make developer purchases ahead of the effective date, but this hasn't been written down anywhere that I've seen, so there's a risk involved at this point in that anyone making a purchase now would have to make an assumption that historic grandfathering rules will still apply. At the end of the day, each person will have to come to their own conclusions until some kind of official update is provided.

 

[dgalati]

Last I spoke with a SVP in sales/marketing a couple months back now, PIC will stay intact as part of the Privileges rollout. As others have said, everything is always subject to change, but I know from direct conversations that early on the topic of whether PIC would stay intact was discussed at length in ideation meetings and the consensus agreed upon was that PIC contracts will still be honored as developer point status within Privileges.

Don’t believe anything the normal sales staff tells you, their job is to sell you developer points to make a commission, and many of them will say just about anything, including the use of dishonest sales tactics to make you fearful you will lose something you currently have, to get you to buy. It’s unfortunate but often true.




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Its nothing more than a great marketing strategy to sell more points. Many have attended owner updates to hear about the new Privileges only to hear a hard sales pitch filled with lies and bs from sales.

 

[55plus]

With all the "white privilege" crap and talk going on, why would Wyndham change VIP to Privilege? Are we now considered privileged to own a timeshare? I don't get it.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Its nothing more than a great marketing strategy to sell more points. Many have attended owner updates to hear about the new Privileges only to hear a hard sales pitch filled with lies and bs from sales.

You know I have no love for the sales tactics and often refer to their tactics as “pure BS on the part of sales” so no argument there. In part I attend the updates not only for the WR points, but also to keep my ear close to the ground with respect to the sales tactics.

That said, of course their marketing strategy is designed to sell more developer points. Wyndham Destinations would go bankrupt without developer points sales so, at least on some level, we need to collectively support the sale of both developer and resale contracts. My issue lies, pun intended, with the means used to meet the ends.


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[Braindead]

With all the "white privilege" crap and talk going on, why would Wyndham change VIP to Privilege? Are we now considered privileged to own a timeshare? I don't get it.

I think a lot of owners are putting way too much emphasis on the term “Privileges”
It’s a name for a new VIP Program. New point-tier levels, new name
I think we’ll always refer to it as the VIP Program not Privileges
We always refer to VIP levels now Silver-Gold-Platinum & will just switch to the new levels in the future

ARP is a privilege of being an owner

 

[Richelle]

With all the "white privilege" crap and talk going on, why would Wyndham change VIP to Privilege? Are we now considered privileged to own a timeshare? I don't get it.

I’m not a fan of the name either. I think they could have done better.


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[Richelle]

I think a lot of owners are putting way too much emphasis on the term “Privileges”
It’s a name for a new VIP Program. New point-tier levels, new name
I think we’ll always refer to it as the VIP Program not Privileges
We always refer to VIP levels now Silver-Gold-Platinum & will just switch to the new levels in the future

ARP is a privilege of being an owner

Wyndham’s Asia Pacific VIP program is also named Privileges. You would think they would actually try some creativity and originality. Too much to ask I guess.


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[HitchHiker71]

I think a lot of owners are putting way too much emphasis on the term “Privileges”
It’s a name for a new VIP Program. New point-tier levels, new name
I think we’ll always refer to it as the VIP Program not Privileges
We always refer to VIP levels now Silver-Gold-Platinum & will just switch to the new levels in the future

ARP is a privilege of being an owner

Agreed. In today’s global corporate ecosphere, KISS works best. If Privileges is already being used in other global regions - the more the underlying program frameworks can be standardized the better off everyone is across the board. I’m glad to see this, it tells me that Michael Brown actually understands key leadership principles like not making things overly complex for no good reason, and to leverage common frameworks where possible to promote simplicity and efficiency within and across the organization. Standardize the Privileges naming convention, or whatever common name is ultimately chosen, and standardize the program framework across the globe.


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[Sandy VDH]

I know they fiddled with the names, but did they fiddle with the numbers too now. Or have I just been ignoring the detail since it is all subject to change?

 

[JJVGHNC]

Last I heard, from telesales last Tuesday, point breakdowns and names are same as that brochure.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I know they fiddled with the names, but did they fiddle with the numbers too now. Or have I just been ignoring the detail since it is all subject to change?

View attachment 14407

Depends on what you mean. When they changed the naming conventions, they also upped the proposed points levels for the middle three tiers by 100k each. Champion 400k-->500k. Ambassador 700k-->800k. Legends 1MM-->1.1MM. The lowest and highest tiers - that all just happen to be the net new tiers, Advantage and Founders, did not change. This is probably a play to eventually get existing owners that will be grandfathered VIP to purchase more points if/when they want to upgrade tiers - because the grandfathering typically does not apply with net new purchases. Basically it means every current VIP will have to purchase a larger number of net new points to get to the next tier - since they are increasing by 100k ALL middle tiers that ALL existing VIP owners will grandfather from/into.

 

[JerseyDeb]

Is it possible that they will not grandfather you in at the new level? Went to a recent sales presentation and they kept trying to sell me enough points to get to 400,000 so I would be grandfathered in at silver and then up to the new gold or champion level. Then I called corporate to confirm and was told there is no plan to grandfather anyone in. If I have 400,000 I would only be at the new lowest level of Advantage which has a lot less perks than silver. Would they really drop all those silver people currently under 500,000 to a level with less benefits??

 

[Richelle]

Is it possible that they will not grandfather you in at the new level? Went to a recent sales presentation and they kept trying to sell me enough points to get to 400,000 so I would be grandfathered in at silver and then up to the new gold or champion level. Then I called corporate to confirm and was told there is no plan to grandfather anyone in. If I have 400,000 I would only be at the new lowest level of Advantage which has a lot less perks than silver. Would they really drop all those silver people currently under 500,000 to a level with less benefits??

If you talked to corporate sales, then it makes sense they would tell you there was no plans to grandfather anyone in. They want to make money selling you points. The leaked memo said they are grandfathering people in, including the people who were grandfathered at pre-2012 levels. Obviously the whole “subject to change” means they could change that, however, it wouldn’t make good business sense to do so. I am VIP gold now. If they dropped me down a tier, do you think I would be willing to spend more money to get back there again? Absolutely not, and while I am sure there were some who would, many like me would not. If they take away their status, people are not going to want to continue to upgrade only to lose it. While anything is possible, I seriously doubt they will downgrade people’s VIP status or take it away if they didn’t meet the minimum requirements for the lowest level. I know Wyndham looks out for the bottom line (what for profit company doesn’t?), they are not stupid enough to downgrade people so they would be forced to buy more points to keep their VIP status. It’s more logical, and less risky, to make it look more appealing.




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[Marisol]

I know the sales weasels lie!!! But when they share info without trying to sell me something, I get to where I can’t tell if they are really lying or are they just lost in the previous lies.

Went to an update today at Emerald Grande, Destin. Update part was normal except for where the presenter mentioned the new VIP levels that were announced (apparently only to sales) on 5/1/19 effective in 2020. In the individual meeting, I received a bit more detail.
300K for Emerald (15% in the discount window)
400K for Gold
700k for Platinum
1000K for Diamond
1400K for Titanium
Our salesperson even pulled out the note they received and flashed it in front of our eyes. It looked like it would be shared with Owners on 5/16/19. I had already had a bit of a contentious conversation with the weasel and was unable to snap a picture of the letter. I also was not given time to read any of the FAQs.

I am Gold so I asked about how this would impact me.
- Would I now be 'new' Platinum? Only if I bought 64K points.
- Well, what about my current Gold benefits? I’d be Grandfathered.
- Are New Platinum VIP benefits, at the new lower point level the same benefits as current day Platinum owners? Don’t know.

At this point we were lost in the weeds and the salesperson seemed lost as well. We never saw an option for buying more points and were rushed off to gifting. It was an odd ending to the update. Unless they were just totally BSing us, we are going to start hearing and seeing more on this change. Hopefully those attending update sessions in the coming days can gather a bit more info on this change.

Side note. The part of our individual session that got contentious was when the salesperson tried to tell me I'd missed the open enrollment period earlier in the year. What open enrollment period? For what new benefits? 5 things I was told. 1. New Perks (I have perks), 2. Club Pass changes (ie. 10 months for WorldMark reservations), 3. New Rewards Card (they wanted me to apply for a new Rewards card, I'm not doing that), 4. Plus Partners (have that, never saw any value for using) and 5. WWE or World Wide Exchange (I never understood what this was about and I'm sure it's a scam of some sort).

I always enjoy reading about updates. Thought I'd share this one, as odd as it was. The breakfast was good, BTW.

Apparently they still dont know what the tiers are and when they will be effective. I upgraded to ensure VIP status and apparently I still have none!

 

[dgalati]

Apparently they still dont know what the tiers are and when they will be effective. I upgraded to ensure VIP status and apparently I still have none!

Dealing with Wyndham sales is like stepping in a pile of cow sh**. At least cow pies have some benefit to the environment.

 

[Jan M.]

Apparently they still dont know what the tiers are and when they will be effective. I upgraded to ensure VIP status and apparently I still have none!

Log into your account and go to News. Under News and What's Happening you will see Privileges. Open it up and you will see all the information that is available at this time. Sales doesn't have anything more than you can read for yourself on the website.

It says that VIPs will retain their equivalent tier in Privileges. The example given is if you are currently silver you will be champion in Privileges. Champion is the second level. Privileges and the associated benefits are in development and anticipated to launch in late 2020.