Depositing Advice -- Please Help!!!

[MUTUAL Member Find all posts View Profile Close MUTUAL]

I would like to book for 2 weeks in Hawaii next April. I only own 115K points. A Fairfield VC adviced me to use my 2008 pts and pool my 2009 pts to have enough for a week stay in the Big Island. I also have my 2007 pts that I'm thinking of depositing to RCI for the other week. My question is, after reading all postings about depositing, exchanging, etc., should I just deposit 70K and 42K of my 2007 pts to RCI and pray that I can get my 2 weeks in Hawaii? I'm new at this timesharing thing and am slowly getting the concept of it. Please Help!

Thanks

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I am by NO means anywhere knowledgeble with the FF points system. I do no the RCI weeks exchange system extremely well. You have already missed the Kona Hawaiian Village bulkbank for next March/April at RCI.

How large are the units you need and which island(s) are you wanting to visit? Two weeks on the BI? Are there certain resorts you have in mind?

There are probably better ways to exchange to Hawaii than thru RCI and you could make better economic use of your points depending on your answers.

[MUTUAL Member Find all posts View Profile Close MUTUAL]

Thank you Lawren for replying. I was thinking of 1 week in one island and another week in a different island. It doesn't really matter which island or what kind of room it is (studio or 1 bedroom is sufficient), as long as we can get to use our timeshare points, (whether Fairfield or RCI). The only thing is we can only go in April of next year. Since you know RCI well, is there any advice you can give me on how to go about getting something for 2 weeks in Hawaii. Also, what is spacebanking and how far in advance do you have to do it? Thanks for your help!

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

I did not pay too much attention to that place. But once I have deposit 105k and get a 2 BD exchange. So try to call FF VC tell them you want do a search first, and see if 70k can pull anything. If nothing, make sure they will not deposit these point to RCI. Call later again (like 1 day or 2 day). If you luck, maybe you get back to back week confirmed at once. if not, then you can consider use FF internal to bind with RCI week. Since you don't have enough point, you can not make ARP reservation, so you have to wait until 10 month anyway. Which means you can do 2 month + RCI search first. And since you don't care about the resorts, you should get something. I don't believe 42k is enough. If you luck and get a resort doing space bank and open to FF, you may only need 28k deposit, but that will be extreme rarely, so don't depend on it. For now, I believe you should try ask them to start with 70k.

Jya-Ning

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Thank you Lawren for replying. I was thinking of 1 week in one island and another week in a different island. It doesn't really matter which island or what kind of room it is (studio or 1 bedroom is sufficient), as long as we can get to use our timeshare points, (whether Fairfield or RCI). The only thing is we can only go in April of next year. Since you know RCI well, is there any advice you can give me on how to go about getting something for 2 weeks in Hawaii. Also, what is spacebanking and how far in advance do you have to do it? Thanks for your help!

Mutual you are welcome.

Now take a DEEP breath. How long have you owned timeshare?

I am going to suggest that you DON'T use RCI for this exchange. I am not points savvy and April is not a horrendously hard trade but it is expensive points-wise or so I understand from reading.

How many points would it take to reserve a 2 one bedroom weeks at any Fairfield Resort 6 to 12 months from now? Could you do that your 112k 2007 points? If so, I think you should deposit those weeks with an Independent Exchange company that specializes in Hawaii.

Trading Places International will do a like for like exchange for you. They have a lot of properties that they exchange with on the BI, Maui, etc. Here is their website: Trading Places International - Timeshare Rentals, Exchange, Resales, and Travel Services

I am working on the assumption that you will not be looking for the week of April 21-25 2008. That is when most schools are out here in NY and in other areas and could be a difficult trade.

You can ask the Representative of Trading Places questions here on the "Ask Trading Places" forum: http://www.timeshareforums.com/forum...rading-places/

and I will certainly help answer whatever questions you have for me.

As to bulk spacebanking? We will save that conversation for a little later in your knowledge curve.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

There were some April weeks in the recent Bay Club bulk banking in RCI, but FF people had trouble seeing them (see thread below). There are better ways to do what you want, as Lawren indicated; there are a number of companies that might get you what you're looking for, including Hawaii Timeshare Exchange, SFX, or TPI...

TUG Bulletin Board

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

You can try HTSE who supposes to have quite a few inventories since they manage some resorts there. If you go to http://www.timeshareforums.com/forum...hare-exchange/, you can ask what they accept. Since you just need stdio and/or 1Br, you can check with them to see how they take deposit from FF. read the sticky, it gives you an id and password there to look around their inventories.

If they don't require you to take your "home resort" (which I will guess they don't), then I believe the cheapest one for 1 Bd in FF is 84k (has to be red week). So you can go through them. Their charge is much cheaper than RCI if you don't need 2 BD. However, you have to pay the membership fee $49. So if you can not get anything compare to their resort using 70k deposit from RCI search first, I will try that way.

You can also try SFX. http://www.timeshareforums.com/forums/ask-sfx/. They use to accept Kingsgate, I don't know if they still take it or not since Kingsgate was downgrade. Again, they will require red week. But you can deposit any reservation week (not need to beyour home resort). They are special in West coast.

Still not very clear on Trading Place. FF does has relation with them. Which means there will be more restrictions usually. But they did has a chat session in this forum. And sounds pretty nice. You should read Lawren's link.

Jya-Ning

[MUTUAL Member Find all posts View Profile Close MUTUAL]

Thank you all for replying. I just recently took over this timeshare from my MIL and as you can tell, am still a novice at it. I will look into all of your suggestions and hopefully find something. Lawren, you hit the mark when you guessed which week I was looking into. I have two school-aged children and I don't want them to miss too much school. I am hoping that I can still secure something for that week.
Again that you all for all of your help and advice!!!

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

hawaii on 115k Fairfield points

It can be done, but if you have been looking at the various point charts to see what is required you have found that 115k of FF points wont get you a week at any FF in hawaii (unless you can pull it off through RCI).

You could borrow (pool) points as the FF VC suggested, down side is it puts you in the hole in points for years to come and you have to hope the 2008 pool will have points available, or rent points from other FF owners, or you could attempt to deposit some points to RCI and try that way.

Rent points from other owners (transfered into your FF account), at a rate below what FF charges, rent them far in advance of when FF will rent them to you. Renting the points keeps you within the FF reservation system and may be less expensive than the RCI exchange fee. Downside, week has to be available in the FF reservation system. (check out the FF owners group at yahoo-groups, database, timeshare rentals) Fairfield_timeshare : Fairfield points and fixed week owners

A deposit of 70K (red studio) or 105K (red 1 bedroom) to RCI may get you there if you do an ongoing search as soon as you do the FF deposit. Bad news gotta pay the exchange fee up front. Good news, if no match comes up over time you get the fee back. (side bar - 70K deposits have been known to pull a two bedroom/week during a bulk space bank, ie when a resorts dumps many weeks into RCI, this is the only way 115K pulls a week in Hawaii)

After the search is in I would also consider giving a call and talking to an RCI VC and see if you can get them to lift the VEP (vacation expierence profile) filter. FF deposits are mostly all Gold Crown status and this filter will filter out places that are not GC.

And even if the search is in and ongoing keep an eye out here for reported bulk space banks. My last two weeks in hawaii were reported here, prompting me to call RCI, before the RCI VC called me to offer them.