RCI Points and Reservations -- why can't it be like this?

[SPG900NY Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SPG900NY]

OK, so why can't I just enter a specific resort ID and then when I click on "Available Units" they just show me all the units they have available for a given month or week or however I want to view them, and then I can just exchange my points and get what I want?

Or am I missing something?

First they make me click on "Extra Vacations" or "Points Vacations" or "Last Call" Vacations. If I click on Points Vacations, they take me through the whole thing of "when do you want to go on vacation."

Well, if I'm flexible, say, just tell me when you have available for the next year or two, can't you just tell me if you have anything during those times, and what points I'd need and then I can tell YOU when I want to go?

Why does this have to be so difficult? I'm so sick of the game playing.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Making it easy would be too easy.
They want you to earn those cheap vacations.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I don't spend time at Points, but on Weeks you can do what you are saying, if I understand what you are saying.

You can search a resort, an area, or even just a keyword, for all available units, or for whatever window of time you want.

[SPG900NY Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SPG900NY]

Yeah, I have two points timeshares, no weeks... So when I go in, you can't just look at what's available at any given resort, you have to start with whatever time frame you want to travel. Ugh.

[Dancingfish Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dancingfish]

I brought this up awhile ago--it just stinks... that they can't make viewing easier.. So I do click over to weeks and end up looking there to see if I can find something I want.. or just make the phone call!


There are plenty of people who can travel when they want... just show me whats available for the year in a certain area and I can work my schedule around it!

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

So what you are saying is that the Disclosure that has come out of the Classaction lawsuit only applies to Weeks, huh?

Points doesn't have Disclosure?

[ampaholic Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ampaholic]

Making it easy would be too easy.
They want you to earn those cheap vacations.

Hi Christine

I'm still thinking about 29 weeks (@7500 points ea.) in Mouseland.

I think the issue with the RCI website search in technical - meaning the site programmers haven't figured out how to add the features this guy (gal) wants.

just my $.02

Rick

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

So what you are saying is that the Disclosure that has come out of the Classaction lawsuit only applies to Weeks, huh?

Points doesn't have Disclosure?

Blaming it on the class action lawsuit is a little disingenuous. The lawsuit did not seek anything like that in its pleadings. Points Lite is only vaguely related to one of the meaningless trinkets that RCI inserted into the sellout / settlement that allowed the shyster class action lawyers to walk away with a million bucks while their clients continued to get hosed by RCI with no real relief on the issues raised in the complaint.

As to ''transparency'', the new system is a joke. Not only do they set it up where they can give any week any value they arbitrarily choose, but in the area where the best exchanges are usually snagged, ongoing searches, they remain totally opaque on points lite needed for an exchange. No matter what the Deposit Calculator shows they are giving owners who deposit that at that given time, RCI has set it up where they can charge you as many points lite as they want for the exchange. The only place you can see the numbers needed for an exchange is with online inventory. Inventory availible be search is a total black hole.

One thing the lawsuit did do was shorten the deposit timeframe. In the old system the two cutoff points to beat for better trade value was to deposit at least six months out, or even better over 1 year out. More than that did not help and was even, weirdly, sometimes counterproductive. However, one of the few aspects of the sellout / settlement that did address the issues of the lawsuit was the provision that required, at least during a couple of years, a deposit made over a year out to be held a short period for exchange before being placed in the rental pool. The new system has removed any benefit to deposit over a year out and so discourages deposits that would be protected from the rental pool. It gives full credit to deposits made several months after that deadline has passed, so that RCI can put them directly into the rental pool.

[fishingguy Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishingguy]

Potentially a huge number, ...just some thoughts

Don't get me wrong, but I am not by any means a 'happy camper' when it comes to the RCI website, and am not defending it. I think that it is antiquated and needs a considerable make-over. Furthermore, I'm not sure that mangement is even aware the site has problems and it is not very dependable, and that techincians always know what they are doing. Every weekend outage and fixes are a symptom of major underlying problems; most large companies with similar databases and useres pride themself by tracking how long they've run between a maintenance outage.... Going for 12 months without a full outage is not unheard-of.

But I suspect they don't do what is suggested because:
- A points exchange can start on any day of the week, plus
- Can have any length of stay. For example, 3 - 4 days/a week/14 days. We've even looked for 21 days and 28 days off season in a couple bigger bigger resorts. A week would be typical, but see below about setting defaults.
- The number of different unit configurations that could be available.
- The 10 month window (or 11 month or 12 month if you are an owner or in the same group.
- The antiquated system and hardware that RCI has,
- The IT support they have, and
- That the Wyndham, RCI and other rental sites; the RCI Weeks side; and Last Call and Getaways also use the same resources and databases,

When you multiply just the first 4 factors from the list above for a 10 month window, it can be a huge number. Not only would the search take up a large amount of database time, it would also take up considerable bandwidth from the server to display and transmit it, and would require the user to significantly scroll through the results for a large resort that has a lot of availabilty. You'd likely need to cut things off at some length -- because the antiquated RCI system couldn't handle it all, without impacting other users with even more delays. So read on....

The instant you start adding more [built in] default settings like a 7 day stay or only a Saturday start, it will start to reduce the listing significantly. Heck, even allowing you to specify the unit max size beforehand, can knock the potential exchanges down considerably at some large resorts. But then some users would be complaining that the default results are too restrictive, are not what they would have picked, and so on.

In many ways, the weeks results are already "filtered" by the very nature of a weeks exchange. ...just some thoughts.

[fishingguy Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishingguy]

who is the on-line system for anyway?

Let's face it, RCI is not really going to pump a lot of money into their IT, especially when Wyndham is already able to get what they need from it. In addition, I don't think the management mindset has customer service very high on the list. In many ways it seems like a company that is still stuck in the 90's. It never got aboard the IT bandwagon when everyone else did, and is more than happy in their ever-increasing fee approach, than it is at efficiency improvement and service.

Vacation conselors have better IT tools and capabilities than a typical points user. Just talk about it with them the next time you have to call Indianapolis for your points reservation. ...Oh wait, the fact that you have to call them puts even more $$$ in thier coffers --> so why would they ever want to improve the customer on-line expeince anyway? (duh!!!)

Charging customers different fees for phone service vs online, is another indicator of a company that knows it has a weak IT infrastructire. But that's o.k. because the customer is willing to pay for the additional resources to work around it, and besides nothing wrong with making a few extra $$$ while you are at it. When you own the playing table, use everyone elses money, and can set the rules; what real reason do you have to change?

[rdcigc Member Find all posts View Profile Close rdcigc]

I tried to match the average TPU's in history on the months line on the exchange planner with the TPU requirements on the months drop down on the right side of the page and the numbers were not close to matching. So much for transparency

[ampaholic Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ampaholic]

snip

As to ''transparency'', the new system is a joke. Not only do they set it up where they can give any week any value they arbitrarily choose, but in the area where the best exchanges are usually snagged, ongoing searches, they remain totally opaque on points lite needed for an exchange.

snip

Points lite TPU numbers need to be assigned by someone (in order to exist). Who exactly would YOU have give the values if not RCI?

Just because you don't understand why they give one deposit or withdrawal a certain point (lite) value and another deposit or withdrawal a different point (lite)value is no reason to call the process "arbitrary". I can easily concede they have "some" set of standards they go by internally.

[rdcigc Member Find all posts View Profile Close rdcigc]

Showing how it's done(TPU's assigned) is the transparency needed. When that happens the questions are answered.

[ampaholic Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ampaholic]

Showing how it's done(TPU's assigned) is the transparency needed. When that happens the questions are answered.

As an answer to my question - that entirely fails.

But let me ask you this - do you know how Macy's sets their prices?

[rdcigc Member Find all posts View Profile Close rdcigc]

This difference as I see it between RCI and Macy's is that Macy's pricing formula is known (Cost plus profit equals selling price) and the competive market drives the pricing. In the world of TPU's I don't think there is a competive market driving accuracy so therefore transpancy would help answer some of these questions. The question that keeps coming to mind is if everything is above board then why would you be concerned with being more transparent?