New Fairfield Plus Owner

[sideshowbob72 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sideshowbob72]

My went to a Fairfield/Wyndham sales presentation when we were in Hawaii. While we did not buy a timeshare, we did buy 300,000 Fairshare Plus points.

A few questions:

What are the advantages of owning a timeshare over points only?

We are plannng another trip for late this year or the first half of next year, but I might not use up all of my points. What do I do wth the leftovers, move them to RCI?

How well fo Fairfield points hold their value when moved to RCI?

Thanks,

Bob

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

I know you are excited about your purchase, as we were when we purchased our Fairshare Plus points two months ago. But I am going to ask the question: Is it too late for you to rescind.

Check eBay Real Estate, then timeshares, then type in Fairfield. The points are cheap, cheap, cheap. Buy resale.

[aliikai2 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close aliikai2]

Was this an exit package of points or a purchase??

If this is a purchase, then you bought a timeshare, a points based unit, that will have annual costs based upon the location you own, that you receive RCI access included in your annual club membership.

Then, you would be able to bank a specific week or a " Generic week" with RCI, using your left over points.

If on the other hand this was an " exit package" of just points usable over the next 12 months or so, then it is a different type of animal, and I am not sure how you go about handling any left over points.

jmho, Greg

My went to a Fairfield/Wyndham sales presentation when we were in Hawaii. While we did not buy a timeshare, we did buy 300,000 Fairshare Plus points.

A few questions:

What are the advantages of owning a timeshare over points only?

We are plannng another trip for late this year or the first half of next year, but I might not use up all of my points. What do I do wth the leftovers, move them to RCI?

How well fo Fairfield points hold their value when moved to RCI?

Thanks,

Bob

[bluka Member Find all posts View Profile Close bluka]

sideshowbod72 - to find out if you feel like you did the right thing you need to provide us with a little more info. the points you bought seem to be pretty heavy if you dont even know if you bought a "timeshare"

Buying into a points program is still indeed buying a timeshare.

Please read thru this forum - you took the time to sign in , find out what it is you actually bought and make sure your happy with your purchase. if you have any doubts ask the questions that will make you feel comfortable with the purchase you made and also what you need to do ,or ask if you dont think you did the right thing. ex. RECINDING

The people here are for you to make sure your a happy timeshare owner.

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

sideshow,

Did you buy a "Discovery Package"?

[sideshowbob72 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sideshowbob72]

Sorry I wasn't clear in the first post, we bought the Discovery Package. We are planning to use those points to visit Hawaii again, check out some properties in person and then buy resale if the right opportunity presents itself.

Bob

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

Good for you!

I just wanted to be sure that we covered all the bases.

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

My went to a Fairfield/Wyndham sales presentation when we were in Hawaii. While we did not buy a timeshare, we did buy 300,000 Fairshare Plus points.

A few questions:

What are the advantages of owning a timeshare over points only?

We are plannng another trip for late this year or the first half of next year, but I might not use up all of my points. What do I do wth the leftovers, move them to RCI?

How well fo Fairfield points hold their value when moved to RCI?

Thanks,

Bob

Bob,

Do you own other timeshares and have an RCI account?

As for the Discovery Package you purchased, you may want to consider rescinding as you can most likely rent a week in Hawaii for a lot less than the Discovery Package price ($2,395 was the last price I was offered for a 300k "deal").

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

Info from Discovery owner

Sorry I wasn't clear in the first post, we bought the Discovery Package. We are planning to use those points to visit Hawaii again, check out some properties in person and then buy resale if the right opportunity presents itself.

Bob

Hi, Bob. Do you still have your 300k FF discovery package? If so, my experience may be useful to you. We did the same thing a couple of years ago. It is not a bad way to "try out" FF (now Wyndham) ownership.

Some things I learned over the past 2 years:

1) They tell you the points expire in 12 months. But they can be extended to at least 18 months, maybe 24. You have to ask. If the VC (Vacation Counselor) says you can't extend them, try another call to another VC or ask for a supervisor.

2) If you end up liking FF/Wyndham, I'd seriously recommend buying some cheap points on Ebay. I bought from Holiday Group, a company rather than an individual. I'm a bit scared of dealing with individuals on this type of purchase.

3) Before your points expire, you can use your $29xx (can't remember exact figure) "equity" in the Discovery as a "down payment" to purchase direct from FF/Wyndham. Basically they take that amount off the purchase price. If you do end up buying using your "equity", any remaining unexpired Discovery Points can be deposited into your FF/Wy account. Then you can deposit them into RCI up the the day before they expire and can use them for up to 2 more years. (Paying the $164 exchange fee, of course)

That is what we did. Before buying Discovery, I bought 77k points (good for a red week studio, white week 2 bed at most FF resorts and with RCI) on Ebay, less than $1200 including all transfer fees. We also bought a 2 bed red timeshare (Silverleaf) on Ebay. So when we bought this summer from FF/Wyn, we got the following deal:

77,000 points bought on Ebay
154,000 point value of our Silverleaf timeshare in the FF PIC program
84,000 bought as 168,000 EOY points bought from FF/Wyndham

grand total is 315,000 FF/Wyn points which is about the same as the Discovery package and qualifies us for VIP membership.

Plus, we got nearly $3000 credit off the sale price for our Discovery "equity" .

We used our Discovery points to stay 4 nights at Ocean Walk in Daytona Beach (1 bed dlx, June), and 7 nights at Cypress Palms in Orlando (1 bed dlx, June). Enjoyed both very much, ended up buying at OW for the ARP.

This left us 144,000 points which were due to expire 7/17/07. Since we couldn't find a reservation that suited us in time, we borrowed 10k from our remaining 2007 owned points and deposited the 154,000 points as a 2 bedroom red week with RCI.

So all together we got slightly less than 3 weeks out of our Discovery package.

Good luck,

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

That is what we did. Before buying Discovery, I bought 77k points (good for a red week studio, white week 2 bed at most FF resorts and with RCI) on Ebay, less than $1200 including all transfer fees. We also bought a 2 bed red timeshare (Silverleaf) on Ebay. So when we bought this summer from FF/Wyn, we got the following deal:

77,000 points bought on Ebay
154,000 point value of our Silverleaf timeshare in the FF PIC program
84,000 bought as 168,000 EOY points bought from FF/Wyndham

Your experience may not be the rule, however, as purchasing FF/Wyndham via resale (points or weeks) have been deemed ineligible for VIP status. The fact that you have only bought the 168k EOY points from them, they could flag your account as ineligible.

There are some existing FF/Wyndham owners who have "lost" their VIP status when it was subsequently found out that they have resale purchases in their 300K + accounts. Conventional wisdom is that if you are invited to attend a presentation, you avoid it out of concern that they learn how you acquired your various points and subsequently deny you VIP status.

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

Conventional wisdom is that if you are invited to attend a presentation, you avoid it out of concern that they learn how you acquired your various points and subsequently deny you VIP status.

Mmm. I'm pretty sure that my salesperson knew our intial points were resale, but I can't be sure. Conventional wisdom is also that we should avoid all future presentations, as we now own all that we want or need! If I need more points in the future I plan to rent them!

Thanks.

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

The sales person may have known but still allowed you to "think" you would be VIP with those resale points included in your annual points total. This is one of the areas where I believe they can really mislead folks into buying points and implying that they will have VIP when they most likely know that resale purchases cannot be used to achieve/maintain VIP.

As a purchase strategy for anyone new looking to get in with FF/Wyndham, using resale points is not a good game plan. If having VIP is important, a prospective buyer should expect to pay a premium in purchasing directly from Wyndham.