Timeshare Points vs. Weeks

We are occasionally asked to write an article on this debate: which is better - points or weeks?

Any proud or regretful points owners out there who can help us answer this question?

Thanks, Kylie

I am a points type owner with Fairfield and yet I am an RCI weeks member. Points are always going to be much more flexible. For instance, although I like extended vacations, sometimes I just want to go for the weekend. I can do this with points. A misconception people have about points is that you don't have a deeded property. This is not true. With Fairfield I have what is called an undivided interest which means I share the overall property with everyone else who owns at my resort, not just a particular unit in that resort. If you own a particular unit, you share ownership with everyone who has every other week in that year for that unit only. So, an undivided interest is the same except on a broader scale. Follow me? Now to get down to how those points play out each year......... Say a one bedroom takes 100,000 each week ( 12,000 each weeknight and 20,000 each weekend night). A two bedroom takes 140,000 for the week (18,000 each weeknight and 25,000 for each weekend night). I have a choice how many points I purchase but they will only go so far in this type of system. But, if I own 280,000 points, I can get two whole weeks in a two bedroom each year. Or, I can get a one bedroom for a week, plus two 5 day excursions taking only weekdays in a one bedroom, plus have 60,000 points still left over for a weekend and another night. Now if I go during less than peak times, my points go even further because the same units go for far less points per night. Flexibility is the name of the game with points. Where it gets sweet is if you own in a large network such as Fairfield that lets you use those points at all their resorts with no exchange fee. The possibilities are endless because by time you check out most of those resorts, they will have added several more. It just keeps getting better and better!!!!!!

I have been a weeks member for Aprox. 15 years. and only a points member for less than 2 years. I am so much more happy with the points system, that I will not be depositing into the weeks system anymore. Yes. I had to pay to become part of the points system, however when buying, look to buy into a system that offers the points. Points offers so much more flexibility and costs less. Couple that with Redweek.com, and I am in timeshare heaven. Wonet

I favor points!! I have accumulated a large number thru RCI. In fact, I have to use half of those by the end of Jan, 2007. To go to a different location generally uses less than 30,000 points. The remainder of my points will be available to the new owner.

Bottom line is points are much more flexible (nightly stays, long weekends etc.) than whole weeks ... you can divide your stays in short increments with points.

Points systems do have some potential disadvantages. If you wish to reserve a high demand period ( e.g. Christmas, President's week), you need to call on the earliest possible date. With Fairfield, you can confirm at the resort from which you own points 13 months in advance. All others must wait until the 10 month opening reservation date, and by then the week you want may be unavailable. (This is the basis of a class action lawsuit now pending against Cendant and Fairfield).

The points must be paid for and used in the year received, or otherwise deposited with one of the exchange companies, thus incurring additional fees and rules governing usage.

There are many Points-based systems including Marriott, Starwood,RCI, Hilton, Disney, Equivest, Sunterra, Worldmark, Royal Holiday Club, etc... Each has their own distinct rules, fees, options, etc...The learning curve can be steep! Sometimes the Customer Service representatives of the program don't even know the rules, and can give you contradictory or misleading or just plain false information. And if/when you finally learn, some companies can and do change the rules.

If your vacation planning allows for a good deal of flexibility, and if you are willing and able to devote enough time to learning the complexities of a program that has multiple properties you would like to visit, then owning points can be a good deal. There is a great deal of information about this on the Points Discussion bulletin board at the Timeshare Users Group web site:http://www.tug2.net . There are also Yahoo Groups dedicated to the various programs. The Fairfield Yahoo Group is particularly active and informative.

But if you would like to be assured of the same week at a particular resort, especially in a high demand period, it is better to own a fixed week. If you wish to go somewhere else in a particular year, you have the right to rent your week for a good price. You can use the money to rent exactly what you want from another fixed or floating week owner through Redweek ads

Points based systems do not allow you to rent out the weeks or nights you have reserved. You may obtain "guest certificates" (usually for a fee of $49. to $59.) but their rules forbid you to do so for profit. People who have posted rental ads on web sites have been "caught" and have had the week cancelled. This can result in a lawsuit from the renter who does not get to use the week agreed upon.

With a fixed week, you can space-bank it with RCI or II or one of the smaller exchange companies up to 2 years in advance of the check-in date. Some resorts even allow you to do so without paying the maintenance fees until they are actually due a year or two later. If you enter an on-going search for a particular area or resort and season, you will have a greater chance of obtaining it, as your search will be "sitting there" longer and may catch other fixed week deposits coming in over a year in advance. Most points owners cannot, or do not, deposit and request weeks that far in advance so you have less "competition."

If, after doing extensive research, you decide that one of the Points programs best meets your vacation needs, consider purchasing on the resale market, which includes owners who may post ads on Redweek, Ebay, etc...You will save huge bucks compared to the price you will pay buying directly from the developer.

Another word of caution, it's against RCI and II's rules to rent out exchanged weeks. You can rent your "owned" week(s) all you want, but not exchanged week(s). Some people do it and get away with it, but if RCI or II catches you your membership privileges can be revoked forever.

jennie wrote:

Points based systems do not allow you to rent out the weeks or nights you have reserved. You may obtain "guest certificates" (usually for a fee of $49. to $59.) but their rules forbid you to do so for profit. People who have posted rental ads on web sites have been "caught" and have had the week cancelled. This can result in a lawsuit from the renter who does not get to use the week agreed upon.

Sunterra Sun Options have more value and are much more flexible. A week at a Sunterra Resort in prime time any time full week is only 5,500 - 6,000 points. You get your exchange more readily with II (not through RCI - we always had bad luck with RCI and switched to II - they are more quality Resorts. No exchange fee through Sunterra and your free II Membership gives you the same choice to swap a week or a few days at a minimal amount of points. You always have too many points to use. It is the greatest way to go economically more sound for your money to stay in First Class Resorts$ You pay for what you get!

I have a problem converting over to weeks - when I sat down at my resort to talk about it, I realized that the conversion would have left me with the inability to get back into my own resort!!! Besides not getting my monies worth in the conversion there are too many rules and hidden fees. This was Sunterra and there are exchange fees plus not every prime time unit is 5000 points - my units would go for 18000. They were only willing to give me 15000 for them and sell me another 5000 (at a discounted price of course!!!).

We have been members of Disney Vacation Club for 10 years. It is a fairly easy to understand point system, but exchanging out can be cumbersome at best and not cost effective at worst. Because DVC has fairly high maintenance fees, we tend to only use it for Disney trips, and will rent other weeks when we go other places. The only time I have felt fairly confident in exchanging DVC for a week somewhere else has been with Hawaii, but even there, I think I could do a bit better cost wise by renting.

We have 2 timeshares and changed to points about 3 years ago. Before we could only have 2 weeks exchange and as we are in red we lost out if we took an out of season holiday. With points we can have 2 holidays if we go out of seasons. We haven't added to our points because of the management fees RCI charges. The more points you have the more the fees and I don't see how it should cost more to administer 50000 pints or 500000 points.

Another thing to consider with points. If you travel within 45 days out, you can rent a resort ( based on availabilty) for no more than 9,000 points. So if you have 45,000 p you could potentially travel on short notice for 5 weeks rather than your 1 fixed week at a red season resort.

One disadvantage to points through RCI is that you can only search 13 months in advance tops! Weeks can search 2 yrs out.

Also, do your homework when trying to convert your points! Not all of your resorts allow you to convert to RCI points even though they are affilliated! Celebrity Weeks Resorts for instance only allow you to convert to points through them!!!!

It should be pointed out as well that RCI only allows short term stays under the Standard Reservation system. Under the Weeks Reservation system in a points account ( which I refer to as Last Call ) you must travel for 1 week!

I have been a points member for two years and find the increased flexibility over the weekly exchange system to be a major benefit. I was surprised when I wanted to add two weeks from another resort to my points account on a permanent basis and was informed that I must pay a realtor at this second resort a commission of $1,500. Apparently this $1,500. amount would apply if I was trying to convert one week, two weeks or 10 weeks. Have other members had this experience? Where you able to work around it?

chris460 wrote:

Another thing to consider with points. If you travel within 45 days out, you can rent a resort ( based on availabilty) for no more than 9,000 points. So if you have 45,000 p you could potentially travel on short notice for 5 weeks rather than your 1 fixed week at a red season resort.

One disadvantage to points through RCI is that you can only search 13 months in advance tops! Weeks can search 2 yrs out.

Also, do your homework when trying to convert your points! Not all of your resorts allow you to convert to RCI points even though they are affilliated! Celebrity Weeks Resorts for instance only allow you to convert to points through them!!!!

It should be pointed out as well that RCI only allows short term stays under the Standard Reservation system. Under the Weeks Reservation system in a points account ( which I refer to as Last Call ) you must travel for 1 week!

Hi, I read your message. My husband and I belong to a points system with RCI. We did an ongoing search for Hawaii for 2 years, and we didn't have any problem with doning a ongoing search because we were points affiliated. We switched all our weeks over to points 2 years ago and have enjoyed the flexibility. With points you may choose a weeks resort or a points resort and yes, with a weeks resort you have a weeks stay but you don't have to stay a week. You may check out early, as we have done in the past.

POINTS ... THE BEST WAY TO GO! Points provide everything deeded weeks do and more. As most everyone has stated above, flexibility in travel plans are key ... points give the most flexibility. Highly recommend Sunterra SunOptions.

gracie1

I was under the impression that points can lose value over time.

noork2 wrote:

I was under the impression that points can lose value over time.

I don't see why. We have 2 weeks which we converted to points and one of them had a points increase recently because of work that's been done to the resort. Someone else mentioned going for 9000 points within 45 days. This varies depending on the resort, the time of year and how last minute you are. You can get 50% off some.

Points don't lose value, however the number of points required to get into a condo costs more in newer properties. So the 50,000 points you have for today's home resort might not get you into a standard resort in 10 years.

I do wonder how they will handle adding points to your existing membership when the time comes..... I'd hate to think there would need to be two memberships with two monthly member fees to add points!

robertk1 wrote:

Points don't lose value, however the number of points required to get into a condo costs more in newer properties. So the 50,000 points you have for today's home resort might not get you into a standard resort in 10 years.

I do wonder how they will handle adding points to your existing membership when the time comes..... I'd hate to think there would need to be two memberships with two monthly member fees to add points!

That was my question. I recently read in an ebay offering that additional points can be purchased, if needed at the time of booking, for additional days or upgrades at a rate of $5 or $10 per thousand points. Not sure how this works though.

We've been Marriott owners of several weeks, for several years. We recently bought some points with Shell, and I'd love any tips on how to best use the points, and pitfalls to watch for. Thanks!