Wyndham Discovery Vacations Points Program

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Well, this last November we signed w Discovery membership...trial...308k pts w VIP membership w points expiring in Dec 2011. If we sign on for the real deal before its over then any points remaining roll over. The only thing I don't like about the temp plan here is that we can't use the points for anything other than rooming... so we are thinking if we sign on we might travel more and use points for flights, tickets, etc... to save money. I figure we paid $2500 for this initially... and they said it counts off the full plan if we sign on before its up.

So far we have signed up for 4 nights at Bonnet Creek for a 2 room deluxe (64k points and wasn't prime time) and 3 nights in a presidential suite during prime season at a brand new resort in Pigeon Forge...Great Wolf Lodge I think its called (the one with the indoor waterpark) and we still have close to 100k points left.

So I calcuated the value of the points vs the amt we spent on them this year and think that the value of the Bonnett Creek trip is around $500, which was better than what I can find off the market. I don't recall what I calcuated w the other trip but with a 4 room stay at the Great Wolfe lodge we were coming out MUCH cheaper.

Thus so far we seem to think its a good deal with what we want to do and hope to have points to use on other things if we do sign on for the real deal. Plus we're thinking, if we sign on for real, we'll be paying $2500 per year for 4 years I think and then nothing and keep getting 308k points every year and hopefully a complete free vacation every year since we can use the points on tickets and flights, etc...

Sign on for other deal (air tickets, amusement ticket) is most of the time lossing money in front (because you have to pay developer price which loss 90% its value as soon as you pass the day of rescind) and in the back (since you will need to pay MF which if you use these points to purchase air line ticket it usually charge you at full amount and very limited selections, you end up saving like at least 30% most of the time if you just pay out of pocket to buy the airline ticket compare to use these point to travel.

Not to mention that you will have to pay the MF does not matter if you want to travel or not.

So at this moment, rent is the best especially if you like Wyndham's resort. Be a resale owner is 2nd.

Jya-Ning

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

by the way 2500 for 4 years (total 10,000) will not get you 308k per year. It will give you maybe like 70k per year. Which at this moment will give you notwhere worth the cost.

Also, you forget that any point not in discover program will now need to pay maintainence fee. assume you have 308k per year, at avg MF (which is now about 5.5 per 1K, it is about 1,700 extra per year.

Jya-Ning

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

by the way 2500 for 4 years (total 10,000) will not get you 308k per year. It will give you maybe like 70k per year. Which at this moment will give you notwhere worth the cost.

Also, you forget that any point not in discover program will now need to pay maintainence fee. assume you have 308k per year, at avg MF (which is now about 5.5 per 1K, it is about 1,700 extra per year.

Jya-Ning

$1700 in maintenance fees? wow.

So in other words, enjoy what we have this year and don't sign on permanently? Just rent from owners?

So I hate thinking we made a wrong decision, is the discovery package really that bad? I guess we don't have any maintenance fees this year so we don't pay that $1700 and get to use all the points this year. I guess we won't sign on at the end of the year... They didn't make it sound like maintenance fees were that high...like $100 ish.
ohand we NEVER use the Wyndham perks card we got free with it either. Total waste.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

$1700 in maintenance fees? wow.

So in other words, enjoy what we have this year and don't sign on permanently? Just rent from owners?

Well, if you do plan to vacation at least few times every year, and does budget say at least 20% higher than that amount for vacation lodging expense, than you may want to look at ownership through resale.

Otherwise, if you know that you will very likely has some year you don't plan to do that kind of vacation, than rent from owner will be better.

Jya-Ning

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

My wife and I did a Discovery package with Wyndham. We got 314k for around $2600. Probably got raped but we were able to make 3 trips. Twice in Destin Florida and one in Orlando. We are really interested in getting a timeshare through Wyndham and will of course by resale. Any help would be much appreciated.

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

They tried to sell us the discovery package after we declined at the sales presentation, but as I explained to my husband, $1400 will cover the closing costs and a year's MF on a resale package of 154,000 points, and if you decide you don't want to keep them just put them back on eBay for $1, someone will always buy them.