Government Employee Travel Opportunities

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

THIS IS PROBABLY "OLD" BUSINESS BUT WITH THE CLASS ACTION SUIT AND THE TRAVEL AGENT ARTICLE . . .

Welcome to Government Employee Travel Opportunities (G.E.T.O.), a leisure travel benefits program sponsored by Resort Condominiums International (RCI)), a leader in vacation rental. G.E.T.O. is a "Space Available" program that offers Federal, State and Local Government employees the opportunity to take affordable condominium vacations at resorts around the world. G.E.T.O. makes this possible by utilizing marketable inventory at condominium timeshare resorts. Marketable inventory consists of condominium units that resort owners do not use, which generally means off-season or short-notice travel. Thank you for your service and we hope you enjoy this tremendous vacation opportunity.

LOOK INTO THIS: www.getravelop.com

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

That's correct, the old business part.

I've had GETO, or, actually, it's companion site, AFVC, in my Favorites for years, since back when I used to be upset because no one else seemed to be upset.

I don't think I've opened it, to see how unfair it all is, for maybe two years.

Both sites open to the same inventory and selection process.

Now, if you really want to get into an Internet brouhaha, try suggesting that our veterans are somehow not entitled to some of our timeshare inventory without being a member. There's a battle you will not win.

THIS IS PROBABLY "OLD" BUSINESS BUT WITH THE CLASS ACTION SUIT AND THE TRAVEL AGENT ARTICLE . . .

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

Tax collectors and welfare bureaucrats are a different kettle of fish than the military, but neither situation should be allowed. One of my home resorts have had a couple of deedbacks from people who owned off season to trade, qualified as civilian employees of the military for the military rentals, and discovered that RCI treated them better as a non-owner than if they continued to own, pay m/f's, pay RCI dues, and exchange through RCI.

RCI is hosing its members and affiliated resorts with their rental programs.

Why buy (or continue to own) the cow, when RCI is providing the milk for pennies??????????

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

Same argument against the new Guest Pass program.

It's hard to conceive the affiliates not revolting when the exchange company is giving folks so many ways to timeshare without owning.

Perhaps they are reluctant to bite what they think is the hand that is feeding them. Only the big boys seem to be willing to stand up and protest.

Who is the dog and who is the tail, and which is wagging the other?

Does it not seem that every new RCI program appears to be flailing in the wind, an attempt to counter things they are not in a position to effectively compete against?

Why buy (or continue to own) the cow, when RCI is providing the milk for pennies??????????

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

This is a great comparison of value

There have been opinions put forth that it is "an equal" trade to use a blue or white seasonal week to trade into red time in Orlando as that area is "overbuilt". This website offers a very easy way to test that theory as it offers a choice to search based on an area for a specific month. And the results?

First number is the number of East Coast South Resorts available on Space A
Second is the same month for Orlando
Third is East Coast South for "High Demand"
Forth is the same for Orlando

Nov '06 53/33 54/34
Dec '06 59/34 60/35
Jan '07 44/4 47/25
Feb '07 33/0 42/20
Mar '07 8/0 33/11
Apr '07 0/3 21/22
May '07 0/2 10/27
Jun '07 0/0 0/22
Jul '07 0/0 1/18
Aug '07 0/2 16/24
Sep '07 0/12 16/28
Oct '07 0/6 29/24

So what do we see? Exactly what I have speculated in many posts. The seasonal area spikes in the warm. desirable months and tanks for 5-6 months each year. The non-seasonal Orlando holds steady and actually has higher demand in the months those blue/white weeks desire most - Dec-Mar.

But its worse than that for the seasonals. The actual number of available resorts are close. That shouldn't be. Think of how many resorts are in the Orlando footprint (some refer to as overbuilt) vs how few are in that East Coast South area that excludes Florida. Yet the availability is higher or almost equal nearly year round! Puts the lie to the no demand, over supply theories doesn't it?

So it is clear why Fl and Orlando specifically is year round Red even though there are a few months where they "only" have 70% or so in occupancy. It's not a conspiracy or favoring developers it is a year round demand that exceeds even the tremendous amount of inventory. The easy search of the Government Employees site shows it for a fact not some baseless theory or secret input from an unnamed source. I won't even get into the fact that the prices average out much higher for Orlando and that the quality resorts don't show up in FL as they do on the coast. Bottom line is the valuation from the exchange companies is correct as I would expect it to be. They have to make a living off of it and have no reason to make it unattractive to one group or another.

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

I guess my brain is getting too old for the analytical stuff! All I read is nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.

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

I guess my brain is getting too old for the analytical stuff! All I read is nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.

"nah, nah, nah, nah
hey hey hey
goodbye"

I love that song!

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

"nah, nah, nah, nah
hey hey hey
goodbye"

I love that song!

Me too!

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

Back to the topic, sorta.

And, since they allow non-owners to be pseudo-members, to purportedly use EVs and LCs, it is not a far stretch for those pseudo-members to have Spacebanked weeks transferred into their pseudo-membership account, so that they can access the exchange pool just like owner real-members.

The exchange company cannot say, "We would never do that," believably. They already do that, allow non-owners to use prime weeks intended for the exchange pool. Why would they not do it since it obviously does not run against anything they believe in? It fits into their business model perfectly.

It is in issues like this where Madge being on TUG, or any public RCI comment, is meaningless. She is great for answering question about how stuff works, the nuts and bolts of using RCI, but many folks want to know more than that. Policy issues are more important than how far out you need to deposit.

And there will never be a straight answer, publicly, to anything like that.

The instructions for Ask RCI ought to read, No Policy Questions Allowed.

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

#5 Yesterday, 05:28 PM
timeos2
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This is a great comparison of value

There have been opinions put forth that it is "an equal" trade to use a blue or white seasonal week to trade into red time in Orlando as that area is "overbuilt". This website offers a very easy way to test that theory as it offers a choice to search based on an area for a specific month. And the results? etc. etc.

After reading this post several times - I do not understand your revelance to this thread. Please explain! Thank You!

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

A way to check things not usually easily seen

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There have been opinions put forth that it is "an equal" trade to use a blue or white seasonal week to trade into red time in Orlando as that area is "overbuilt". This website offers a very easy way to test that theory as it offers a choice to search based on an area for a specific month. And the results? etc. etc.

After reading this post several times - I do not understand your revelance to this thread. Please explain! Thank You!

It only uses the existance of the GETO site as a method to verify availablity. That type of specific search across areas is very hard to do within the regular RCI system. Just a tool.

[Carol C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carol C]

Me too!

How bout this one?

I see the states, across this big nation
I see the laws made in washington, d.c.
I think of the ones I consider my favorites
I think of the people that are working for me

Some civil servants are just like my loved ones
They work so hard and they try to be strong...

TALKING HEADS - "DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT"

(Yeah RCI...take a hint from Talking Heads!)

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

But that assumes that exchange inventory is the same as rental inventory, and that assumption is not necessarily valid.

It only uses the existance of the GETO site as a method to verify availablity. That type of specific search across areas is very hard to do within the regular RCI system. Just a tool.

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

In addition to GETO (http://www.getravelop.com and AFVC (http://www.avfclub.com), other RCI/Cendant affiliated rental sites include:

http://www.alumnitravelbenefits.com
http://www.snaptravel.com
http://www.icondovacations.com

I'm sure there are many, many more!

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

The AFVC and GE Travel Op

They both offer the same resorts