Bluegreen preference in RCI trading?

[Jim and Cindy Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jim and Cindy]

Do Bluegreen members get preferential trading power into other Bluegreen resorts within RCI?

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

Good question! If we do, it's not something they bother to communicate.

I personally wouldn't go thru RCI to get Bluegreen, cuz that just adds $149 plus having to make a deposit and wait for it to show up and then hoping another person from Bluegreen deposited what I want.

Skipping RCI as the middleman is one of the nicer parts about Bluegreen.

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

Good question, but I think the answer is "no." There is a special Bluegreen phone number for RCI. But, you simply book a week and then deposit it as any other week. Bluegreen's role is only to verify your ownership.

As Boardgirl mentioned, I would NEVER consider trading back into Bluegreen. I would rather just book the week I want and avoid all of the exchange fees.

[Jim and Cindy Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jim and Cindy]

Can I do that thought if I am a float week owner and not a points owner?

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

Can I do that thought if I am a float week owner and not a points owner?

Oh I see what you mean. I am pretty sure that there is no internal trading preference for Bluegreen floating week owners into other Bluegreen resorts.

You can always do a direct exchange with your week with a Bluegreen owner. I would post a message onto a direct exchange board to do that.

[xzhan02 Member Find all posts View Profile Close xzhan02]

Exceptions

There may be some exceptions to this, especially if you own limited number of points and want to stretch them further.
1) BG may have some preference for Big Cedar. It's not a bad idea to use a 5000 Big Cedar deposts +$149 to get 1 br in summer (costs 10000 pts) or 2 br cabin in May or Christmas (costs 13000 BG pts).
2) Big Sky: Last summer, I was trying very hard to reserve Big Sky for Summer 06. I put on waitlist (only silver member though), called 11 month out at 8 am for 5-6 weeks straight, and was never able to get it (all grabbed by the Gold members). Then I started playing the RCI game, with 5000 pt Big Cedar studio or 9000 pt CMV 2 br. Right away there was a June week that I passed. A week into ongoing search, I was offered a July week, but by then I'd prefer Island Park in Idaho (much closer to Yellowstone), and I was offered that next day. So I think 5000 pts +$149 is a better deal than 15000 or 18000 pts+ plenty of aggrevation.

3) Pono Kai. It's so hard to book through BG (esp 2 br) and costs so many points. Yet it's not hard for BG deposits to pick up much higher quality Hawaii resorts, if you pay attention to TUG sighting. I was able to find three consecutive summer weeks on 3 Hawaii islands, all Gold Crown, with 5000 or 9000 pt BG deposits (although I gave up due to other arrangements). Much beeter deal than Pono Kai reservation.

4) Even for Orlando, I love the Fountains, but it costs too much points. A 5000 deposits easily picks up many 2-3 br high quality units during high season, if you plan ahead. I got a Summer Bay house with private pool the week before Christmas, and added a few more days at the Fountains after Christmas, saved a lot of points.

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

There may be some exceptions to this, especially if you own limited number of points and want to stretch them further.
1) BG may have some preference for Big Cedar. It's not a bad idea to use a 5000 Big Cedar deposts +$149 to get 1 br in summer (costs 10000 pts) or 2 br cabin in May or Christmas (costs 13000 BG pts).
2) Big Sky: Last summer, I was trying very hard to reserve Big Sky for Summer 06. I put on waitlist (only silver member though), called 11 month out at 8 am for 5-6 weeks straight, and was never able to get it (all grabbed by the Gold members). Then I started playing the RCI game, with 5000 pt Big Cedar studio or 9000 pt CMV 2 br. Right away there was a June week that I passed. A week into ongoing search, I was offered a July week, but by then I'd prefer Island Park in Idaho (much closer to Yellowstone), and I was offered that next day. So I think 5000 pts +$149 is a better deal than 15000 or 18000 pts+ plenty of aggrevation.

3) Pono Kai. It's so hard to book through BG (esp 2 br) and costs so many points. Yet it's not hard for BG deposits to pick up much higher quality Hawaii resorts, if you pay attention to TUG sighting. I was able to find three consecutive summer weeks on 3 Hawaii islands, all Gold Crown, with 5000 or 9000 pt BG deposits (although I gave up due to other arrangements). Much beeter deal than Pono Kai reservation.

4) Even for Orlando, I love the Fountains, but it costs too much points. A 5000 deposits easily picks up many 2-3 br high quality units during high season, if you plan ahead. I got a Summer Bay house with private pool the week before Christmas, and added a few more days at the Fountains after Christmas, saved a lot of points.

wow, those are some great trades. I agree with doing it that way. It sounds like you can do in Bluegreen what others are doing in Fairfield on this trading back into the resorts idea.

We really do need to do that Bluegreen trade test. I'll figure out how to pull one together in a few weeks after I've done my taxes.

[Tom52 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom52]

Did you know??

This is a little off topic from the OP but...

If you deposit a white week from CMV into RCI you can get an automatic upgrade to a red week at CMV? I have done it! Yes, it costs the $149 exchange fee but if you prefer to go from a less desirable week to a prime summer week the $149 is minimal, especially when using a UDI week. Better yet, you can upgrade into any available unit. If you deposit a cottage unit you can get into a villa which is a much bigger unit.

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

Tom,

Wow. That is an awesome benefit. This is a great thread.

There is a preferred member benefit that allows owners once per year to deposit a Blue week into RCI and get an upgrade to a White week. That is nice, too. But, hardly anyone does it.

[xzhan02 Member Find all posts View Profile Close xzhan02]

Could Tom and Boca explain to me how this works ? Say I book a Jan 07 CMV (white) week today, give it to RCI, once it's confirmed, if there is any summer CMV on deposit, RCI will automaticallly give it to you ? Do you have to request it ? Is is because that there is internal preference of BG so that any BG week will see a summer CMV (which has very high trade power) ?

About the preferred member Blue to white: does this mean if I want to reserved a blue week to give to RCI, BG will find another white week instead to deposit ? Is it for both silver and gold member ?

There seems to be always new things to learn in BG (at least they are all good).

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

Could Tom and Boca explain to me how this works ? Say I book a Jan 07 CMV (white) week today, give it to RCI, once it's confirmed, if there is any summer CMV on deposit, RCI will automaticallly give it to you ? Do you have to request it ? Is is because that there is internal preference of BG so that any BG week will see a summer CMV (which has very high trade power) ?

About the preferred member Blue to white: does this mean if I want to reserved a blue week to give to RCI, BG will find another white week instead to deposit ? Is it for both silver and gold member ?

There seems to be always new things to learn in BG (at least they are all good).

I've heard of the CMV white to red upgrade, but we'll have to let Tom explain how it's done because I have never done it. I vaguely remember Bruce telling me something about that feature and I forgot about it.

As for the Blue to White upgrade, I called about it once. The Bluegreen preferred line told me to call RCI. I called RCI and they told me to call Bluegreen. My best guess is that Bluegreen must do it. I can't imagine that RCI would know what to do and keep track of it.

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

Just guessing, but this sounds like good ole fashioned trade up to me. I've deposited blue weeks and had them match larger red weeks.

[xzhan02 Member Find all posts View Profile Close xzhan02]

Just guessing, but this sounds like good ole fashioned trade up to me. I've deposited blue weeks and had them match larger red weeks.

What Tom said was "automatically". Summer CMV does not sit in RCI for long. Well we need Tom to explain this.

[Tom52 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom52]

Well, I thought it was something special so I checked

Like Jim I had heard from CZ about depositing a white week at CMV with RCI and then exchanging back into RCI for a Red week and maybe even a larger unit based upon availability. I thought this was some sort of special arrangement between BG and RCI. So, I called RCI today and asked if this was something special between RCI and BG. They said NO, it is the same rules as for anyone trying to trade up, back into their home resort. Darn, I thought that was some sort of special perk.

I guess the only advantage for me is that a UDI white week costs practically nothing beyond the $50 housekeeping fee, so anytime I can upgrade back through RCI to a redweek, that's a cheap vacation.

xzhan02, I have one time deposited a white cottage week at CMV and had an ongoing search for for red week at CMV. I did an ongoing seach in hopes that a bigger unit, such as a villa would pop up. It didn't but I still got a red week in a cottage unit. I know that CZ does this all the time and he has been successful getting the bigger units as well. That way he can rent out his red week(s) and use the exchanged red week for himself or family.

[xzhan02 Member Find all posts View Profile Close xzhan02]

Thanks Tom for clarifying it. This may indicate that Bluegreen does have internal preference in RCI exchange. CMV summer is not easy to get. Again, a trade test is needed.