NEW RCI Points benefits effective June 1

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

My RCI alliliate representative said that would be many more BENEFITS in the Points System. Andy is faxing me the brochure tonight and I will post.

One thing I know - they are reducing the number of points necessary to book an airline flight. THAT WAS NEEDED!

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

If they make airline tickets cheaper in points, that means that they will have to rent out MORE spacebank inventory to pay for them!

Polluting the exchange system with non-timeshare goods and services is one of the worst aspects of points. It has degraded the primary purpose of the exchange system, which is timeshare exchange.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Actually, I'll bet the new benefit is actually the same benefits that exist today, but only with higher fees. The old Cendant companies are chcck full of double talkers.

Dave Herrick, an Executive in WorldMark by Wyndham, published a letter on the home page of the WorldMark the Club website that actually says this "Modest Increases enhance owner value"

What a CROCK! First of all, higher fees destroy value, they don't increase or enhance it. It only enhances the pockets of the developer.

Second of all, the fees were raised to the maximum amount allowed by the bylaws.

So, the real title of the letter should have been, "WorldMark by Wyndham increases annual fees by the highest amount possible. Since we couldn't raise them more than 5%, we decided to dilute your ownership by introducing new resorts for much higher credit values thereby making what you own worth less."

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

''Enhance'' is one of those words that should make consumers cringe. Every time an airline talks about how they are going to ''enhance'' their ff program, members start to wonder what they are going to lose this time around.

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

Yeah, I also expect the RCI Points "new benefits" will either not be that great or not without strings - higher costs, less availability, more BS, more Points, ... RCI has proven themselves to care only about money and not the customer. If they offer something new that's low cost that people want, the fee will be jacked up within 6 months, and again and again.

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

Maybe yes, maybe no!

If they make airline tickets cheaper in points, that means that they will have to rent out MORE spacebank inventory to pay for them! Polluting the exchange system with non-timeshare goods and services is one of the worst aspects of points. It has degraded the primary purpose of the exchange system, which is timeshare exchange.

There are many aspects to consider in their approach. I believe that YES, rental income is going to have to pay a part of the airline fare reduction. IT IS NOW! THEY ADMIT IT! RCI is entitled by their contract with us to any darn thing they want to do with our property. That is a problem WE CREATED and all most of us do is talk and complain.

Today, I placed 2 RCI Gold Crown Resorts into Sunterra's Club Select - for Sun Options (Points through Sunterra and II). I received more value for my dollar. Two pieces of inventory RCI has had for YEARS - they have no more.

RCI's well is going dry for several reasons - the real estate market is sagging dramatically . . . along with the mortgage lenders problems. RCI is , therefore, getting LESS inventory from the developers and . . . because of ebay and because of TUG and TS4MS, the resale markets are gaining momentum. RCI is not getting their "automatic" inventory as they have for years.

RCI had to do something in order to survive. Hence, POINTS!

SFX and many other small exchanges are also taking a noticiable amount of their inventory. RCI MADE their own problems with their terrible service, greed, executive scandals, obvious rentals put right in front of our noses, Horrible horrible public relations . . .

Points, AT THIS TIME, I believe to be good for the industry IF the pricing for the benefits is reasonable and RCI is not insulting us as they have with the so called "discounts" for cruising. The weak will be removed and the strong will survive. Who will that be? I can only guess!

The success we can enjoy with points is based on the COST WE PAY for these points. If your initial investment is small and the cost per point is less than $ .008/point, you can make things happen.

Shopgirl was saying in the past 10 days that the inventory for the 9000 points has disappeared. This depends on the date - the destination - the seasons etc. I know that in the area that I want to travel to, at THIS time, has an abundance of last minute point trades and last calls. In fact, as I reported a couple of weeks ago, I have dropped an ebay purchase of a gold crown because for the past two years I could have taken my spring trip there for less than half the price of my MF.

My affiliate person did NOT fax the informationto me tonight as promised. Will he tomorrow? Don't know but would bet NOT. He will, as most of the ThinkTheyAres and WannaBees, eventually get around to it - after several calls, of course. Do I expect something good from RCI? - THIS time I "feel" that they are trying to do something that actually is a benefit. PERHAPS I WILL BE FORCED TO EAT THIS COLUMN.

I am having fun with points - beats the heck out of weeks for me.

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

......
RCI had to do something in order to survive. Hence, POINTS!

RCI MADE their own problems ... .

Points, AT THIS TIME, I believe to be good for the industry IF the pricing for the benefits is reasonable ...The success we can enjoy with points is based on the COST WE PAY for these points. If your initial investment is small and the cost per point is less than $ .008/point, you can make things happen.

....

I am having fun with points - beats the heck out of weeks for me.

RCI was surviving just fine....their greed is what brought points into fruition, the points system allows them to do so many hocus pocus, smoke and mirrors that you want to think it came out of their need to survive, but it is not possible to reasonably conclude that.

With a weeks exchange program, that is week=week, they realized they were losing out on breaking weeks into 3/4 day profitable rentals, daily rentals, cruise for week hocus pocus, etc.

Points is not a survival tool, but a siphon tool.

I am happy for you that you are getting your value, but be warned, the profit margin for RCI means more to them, not your success, and just as we weeks owners have seen the dry-up, so shall you, and yes, you points folks will find the value, not so valuable. Enjoy it while you can. We sure did.

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

Katiemack - You are absolutely correct. RCI props up its points system by mooching off of Weeks. Someone on TUG found in Cendant's corporate filings where they justified renting Weeks deposits to pay for Points benefits. This is absolute crap. There should be an absolute firewall between the systems.
Weeks will thrive if this Points leech is plucked off of its back.

Putting extraneous things in the exchange system, like the ripoff ''cruise exchanges'', airline tickets, etc. degrades the primary function of the system, exchanging timeshare weeks, because it drains timeshare inventory to pay for the extraneous services. This has been a major objection I have raised about RCI Points since they first rolled out the system and called it GPN.

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

My RCI alliliate representative said that would be many more BENEFITS in the Points System. Andy is faxing me the brochure tonight and I will post.

One thing I know - they are reducing the number of points necessary to book an airline flight. THAT WAS NEEDED!

I agree wholeheartedly on the flights. I used points last year for one ticket because I was in danger of having them expire. Since I don't have the greatest points cost in the book, I probably "spent" about $200 more than if I'd just bought the ticket for cash. They didn't have any better selection on availability than I could have gotten through other channels.

I'm in danger of losing (or being forced to pay the fee to extend) another 45,000 points this year. I would use the partners more if the price was right.

I really need to sell a timeshare or two!

I'm looking forward to your posting the details.

Sheila

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

Sheila, a 7-day, non-expiring Disneyworld ticket is 44,400 points and I think that is the best use of a large number of points. My cost for the tickets is a little more than I could buy them from Disney, but rather to let the points expire, I would choose that option. You can sell an unused ticket. No one is going to get in trouble for that.

We had weeks that expired on occasion because we couldn't use them. Those very weeks are now used as PFD. So, we are no longer wasting weeks.

Bill, the RCI system has some Instant Exchanges available within the dates that should be 9K points, but the system is charging full points. I have to call the next morning, after putting a week on hold, and have the points amount corrected to 9K points. I am concerned that these new "changes" will take away our 9K options for Hawaii and Orlando. Those are the only locations I want to go last minute. I would love to take advantage of these easy exchanges for a few more years. It would be RCI's style to change our benefits completely. Maybe this time they put the cart before the horse and changed the site before they changed the rules.

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

I agree wholeheartedly on the flights. I used points last year for one ticket because I was in danger of having them expire. Since I don't have the greatest points cost in the book, I probably "spent" about $200 more than if I'd just bought the ticket for cash. They didn't have any better selection on availability than I could have gotten through other channels.

I'm in danger of losing (or being forced to pay the fee to extend) another 45,000 points this year. I would use the partners more if the price was right.

I really need to sell a timeshare or two!

I'm looking forward to your posting the details.

Sheila

Here is another downside of points, in any system....the Pts Creator, here RCI, determines how many points you get and how much something costs, and then add arbitrary deadlines, blackouts, fees, etc. In points systems (like rewards or FF), if you want to use points but do not have enough to get a thing, they will sure love to sell you more points, or add a fee to give you flexibility.

Having the pressure of a deadline, the possibility of losing something you paid maintenance fees for, sure puts you at their mercy.

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

I downloaded the 2006 RCI Points Partner summary, and I have a question about the points ranges. For example, the Disney World 7-day Adult Park Hopper Pass with no expiration is valued at "40,800 - 46,900" point value range. How do you know exactly what the point value would be? I couldn't find this anywhere in the summary. And please don't make me call RCI!

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Bill just emailed me. He is currently ill and in the Hospital. Bill, We wish you a speedy recovery.

He had contact with the RCI rep and he asked me to post some info here. I could not get it all posted but am still trying. If I can't get it I will email it to Mike to see if he can figure it out.

Here is some of what I could gather.

Other limitations, restrictions and priorities may be employed in the operation of the Network, including limitations based on seasonality, Unit size or other factors. These limitations may not be uniformly applied and as a result certain Vacation Time or Partner Inventory may be restricted in availability based upon applicable priorities and classification grouping of resorts, Vacation Time or benefits. Inventory is shared regionally to facilitate Member Exchanges. The Network Administrator may set aside Deposited Vacation Time to match regional Reservation requests and other demand needs. In the event such Reservations are not confirmed, the Vacation Time will be utilized to confirm other Reservations. Demand and supply and, therefore, RCI Points allocated to Vacation Time, may be influenced by many different factors. Location, quality, timing, seasonality, region and comparability are among those factors, any or all of which may change and which influence supply and demand.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Bill just emailed me. He is currently ill and in the Hospital. Bill, We wish you a speedy recovery.

He had contact with the RCI rep and he asked me to post some info here. I could not get it all posted but am still trying. If I can't get it I will email it to Mike to see if he can figure it out.

Here is some of what I could gather.

Other limitations, restrictions and priorities may be employed in the operation of the Network, including limitations based on seasonality, Unit size or other factors. These limitations may not be uniformly applied and as a result certain Vacation Time or Partner Inventory may be restricted in availability based upon applicable priorities and classification grouping of resorts, Vacation Time or benefits. Inventory is shared regionally to facilitate Member Exchanges. The Network Administrator may set aside Deposited Vacation Time to match regional Reservation requests and other demand needs. In the event such Reservations are not confirmed, the Vacation Time will be utilized to confirm other Reservations. Demand and supply and, therefore, RCI Points allocated to Vacation Time, may be influenced by many different factors. Location, quality, timing, seasonality, region and comparability are among those factors, any or all of which may change and which influence supply and demand.

LOL. Frank, I think the new benefits didn't post. It looks like all you have are the restrictions.

Well, it is RCI. So, may they actually believe that new restrictions on points usage are indeed a new set of benefits to their customers.