Owner Update

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

I attended a Diamond Owner update over the weekend and was a little surprised at the prices on the list. The push was for 10,500 points in the U.S. Collection and the cost sheet said $36,xxx. After the deal was presented with discounts, etc. it was still at 32,xxx. The big deal seemed to be to get us to buy more pionts and convert our Calif. Collection points to the U.S. The claim was that the Calif. Collection was just about gone and there were very few owners in that collection. We would be limited to the 10 month reservation rather than 13 month outside of the Calif. collection. We were not interested in buying and said so up front but did ask what the minimum purchase would be to move our points. The number went to 3000 points for about $6500 which seemed more reasonable, then to 2000 points for about $4200. I don't remember what the maint fees were on the various point amounts, but they were in line with this years' MF.

Are there any others out there who are still Calif. Collection owners and what have you been told?

BTW the incentive was an $300 to attend!

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

I attended a Diamond Owner update over the weekend and was a little surprised at the prices on the list. The push was for 10,500 points in the U.S. Collection and the cost sheet said $36,xxx. After the deal was presented with discounts, etc. it was still at 32,xxx. The big deal seemed to be to get us to buy more pionts and convert our Calif. Collection points to the U.S. The claim was that the Calif. Collection was just about gone and there were very few owners in that collection. We would be limited to the 10 month reservation rather than 13 month outside of the Calif. collection. We were not interested in buying and said so up front but did ask what the minimum purchase would be to move our points. The number went to 3000 points for about $6500 which seemed more reasonable, then to 2000 points for about $4200. I don't remember what the maint fees were on the various point amounts, but they were in line with this years' MF.

Are there any others out there who are still Calif. Collection owners and what have you been told?

BTW the incentive was an $300 to attend!

None of the offers sound like any type of good value but $300 to go to the [STRIKE]meeting[/STRIKE] torture? THAT'S worth it! But any type of retail purchase can quickly erase that gain so best to say "No thanks" to any purchase.

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

Tommy, I own 13,000 points in the CA Collection and also a 2 Bedroom week at San Luis Bay Inn, they are all in The Club at this time. I also just attended a owner update, last month in Las Vegas. They also tried to talk me into converting my week into U.S Collection points. They already give me 10,000 points for my week to use in The Club. I will never convert my week into U.S. Collection points. Each year I reserve a 2BD. at SLBI during the 3rd. week in July. I have never had a problem getting that week. I always reserve it 12 months out, I believe I am using points for my week to get this reservation. I believe, I am competing against other week owners for this week. My CA Collection points, I use to go to other resorts. However I'm in ag. and usually go in the offseason, so my CA Collection points have worked great for me. I know everyones situation is different, hope this helps.

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

The people giving Diamond owner updates are not known for giving accurate information if it gets in the way of making the sale. If the California collection was going away they would have had a much better offer.

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

Last July when I was talking to a DRI Sales person at South Lake Tahoe (SLT) they said that they were no longer selling properties in the California Collection (CC). This means that all new sales for SLT were going into the US Collection. She knew that I was a California Collection member but she did not bother trying to convert me to the US Collection as I had already explained to her that my main interest in timeshares is to stay on the West Coast, so the CC made more sense because of the larger West Coast inventory versus the other collections.

I suspect that DRI is getting a lot of complaints from US Collection (USC) members about the difficulty of getting advanced booking into CC properties because the inventory of those properties in the USC is much smaller. For this reason they are probably trying to increase that inventory by getting CC owners to convert to the USC.

If you are planning to stay more often in properties which are better represented in the USC, then it might make sense to make this conversion, but if you are like me, then for now staying in the CC makes more sense. At least until I start having major problems getting into the timeshares here in California.

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

Thanks for all for the responses. We had no intention to purchase more points or convert, however, their variablity in the offers was surprising. If the Calif. Collection was actually going away, then the pool of available exchanges could grow smaller between the 13 and 10 month reservation window. That is not enough reason to move for me and I cannot handle more maint fees now. The $300 incentive was nice.

Tom

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

My wife and I are owners through the Hawaii Collection (K. Beach Club) and are planning on attending an Owner Update meeting in a few weeks at the Polo Towers in Las Vegas. The offer was for 3 days and 4 nights as long as we attend the presentation. Our Wedding Anniversary is around the same time so we decided to take the offer.

Anyway, I have a few questions that somebody can hopefully answer. We purchased our unit in October of last year and picked up 6500 points. We have quickly realized that the paltry 6500 points are not very usefull for what we want to do and are interseted in upping our point count. Is it possible to purchase just points or are we going to be required to buy a whole other unit. All we care about is upping our point count. What should we expect to pay for the points? Should I look into purchasing points through a re-seller insead of DRI? If so, what are the drawbacks? Any advice would be appreciated.

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

Look into the resale market. Buying directly from Diamond is expensive. Call Diamond and ask how to add resale points to your existing points. They usually charge a fee or make you buy a minimal points package from them for the conversion.

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

Look into the resale market. Buying directly from Diamond is expensive. Call Diamond and ask how to add resale points to your existing points. They usually charge a fee or make you buy a minimal points package from them for the conversion.

Thanks for the advice...your response was what I was thinking. Any recommendations on the best place to buy resale points?

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

Check ebay for top rated sellers with points for sale. Do some research and find a good company fo

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

Sorry my computer sent reply before I was done. As I was writing research and find a good closing company. There are also a few members here who might have some points to sell.

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

Thanks again for the reply. I checked on E-Bay and found what I am looking for. I spoke with the seller and it sounds like the points that are purchased can only be used in the US Collection. I will talk with the DRI rep when we meet in a few weeks and confirm this. I really want to use my points for trips out of the country.

[sheilaanthony Member Find all posts View Profile Close sheilaanthony]

OP - How many points do you want to acquire

We bought too many Diamond points and would be happy to give 3500 to the OP if that's enough.