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The reason we have two systems is when we went to Cabo and had traded into Pueblo Bonito Sunset Resort made the mistake of going to the tour. It is a really ausume place. Long story short Cabo was using the avenue that RCI had changed there point system on how much value you get for your points and how hard it was to get into places. Now we did at times with short notice and prime time was more difficult but finding out weeks are not much better. If you can plan ahead and put in a request with RCI and when something comes up they let you know. If you are flexable and just want to get away, you can usually find things on short notice. You mentioned Last Minute Get away's we have not used them. Check with RCI because I think it is not available to everyone, The reason alot of people can not fine avail inventory is because owners at a resort has not put the time into RCI. Alot of resorts belong to RCI, but not all owners want to trade. Also, some places may have only a few timeshare units in the hotel, or resort, or the whole resort is a timeshare. It just depends. so that is why you start a ongoing search with RCI and you can have several places your interested in that search. If it comes up, they let you know and you have the option to say yes or no. .RCI told me to check around July and there is sometimes more people who have put in their weeks since they know by then they are not using their own resort. How we ended up with two systems Cabo approached us that they would let us trade in our points timeshare towards the weeks system. But had to buy four weeks to do this. We bought resale weeks in Mar 2011 from the resort. With timeshares so hard to sell we thought good, and they also told us that with this we could do the rental system and make $ per week after maintence. Not really knowing what things rented for we were stupid to believe them. They had a premier program that we get unlimited weeks that we can get at discounted rates, and really focused on we could use the rental profits to pay for vacations. premier weeks are similar to extra vacations. We have hard enough time using the time share time, never mind extra weeks. Especially now with both points which gives us approx 2 weeks depends where we use them. And now 4 weeks in Cabo., which cost us more to use than our points system. What they did not tell us was that the rent was a max rate and maybe in prime econimic times a few years ago. That the six resorts they have in their chain , only their Cabo resorts you can book without going through RCI. The rest of there resorts and other trades is RCI. So alot of things like this. Long story short, they came back to us after all said and done a couple weeks later that they were new at doing the trade ins and would not be able to take our timeshare in as trade in but still will honor the dollar amount they credited us. The amount was way more that we would ever get infact we made $ on our other timeshare. But really did not want two timeshares. Also had no idea that timeshares were so cheap to buy on ebay etc. We really were not looking for more timeshare but were a bit frustrated not being able to book what we would like on short notice, and they presented so much more flexablity and perks of course. Just recently figured out the on going search you can do with RCI, is fairly new, again by asking questions. But the flex with the points is useful at times. RCI combines the systems and only charges one membership. I discovered /Red Week and have been able to rent out two of my weeks this year. So this covered my Cabo maintence. Luckly our resort is fairly popular as far as Mexico goes, Cabo in general is fairly popular over other places in Mexico. With the weeks you have to use the whole week. I like the points because you can book a few nights, also the RCI booking fee is based on the number of nights you use and the balance of your points are left to use the next time you book. with in the points usage time period. Works For you for short weekend getaways. Also, you may know, if you wanted to let a friend use your points you can do a gift certificate, plus a booking fee if your unable to use the points in the time usuage you have. Or pay to carry them over. . . I agree, being able to take unit max of people and not be charged extra is a great aspect of timesharing. Also, most places have a kitchen. Non timeshare your couped up in a hotel room verus a unit, or townhouse you get using timeshares . If you are able to pick up timeshares on Red week or ebay and NOT have thousands of dollars invested it is worth it. You may not get all the perks that some have, but will still get to use the trading system. Alot of times we have done a trade and the resot will charge for some of the amenties like boat usage etc. So, the waterpark may be charge for if your not a owner at the resort. Now check into which timeshare that you purchase from a owner on what does transfer and check with the resot to confirm it. Also, you mentioned trying to get hold of someone by email, click on the reply bar just under the message the person has written and they should get the , notice that you replyed to their comment, just like I did. I know ours we have a lifetime membership with Premier weeks and a Golf discount that they paid for and was part of the deal which does I am fairly sure it does not transfer if we sell the timeshare in Cabo. And really we did not need the perks, as we like to trade and have more time than we can use. It was the trade in aspect mainly. . If you were to take one trip a year times 20 and pay the hotels and extra costs with the extra people and would probably not stay the same places you get to stay with timeshare it is worth it. The maintence fees plus what you pay to use the system if trading into other places can help you do the math. Also the kids more likiely to get there own bed, verus sharing. At times it pays for itself, we stayed at Orange Lake Country and Golf club in Florida when we went to Disney, we had a two bedroom townhouse on the golf course and stayed two weeks with our points. At that time the resort was a weeks resort. We only paid $175 per week and normally the units went for $300 a night, for non timeshare. This was in 2002. We had priced out staying at the holiday inn in a ste with one pool and very basic and was going to be $1000 per week. For your family points would work better with the flex for short stays. Weeks just do not have the flex to stay a few days, you can book the week and stay a few days, but will lose the bal of the week. Only if you take points from a week to add it to another week then you would use the balance of the points value left in the week. Anyways, it gets confusing and points would work better for your plans. If you want to email me, send a note to Red Week. Go to contact Redweek and ask them to forward the email to me. Then I can email you and you would have my email. Do not like to post email on forums. I get alerted when someone responds to a comment I have put on the fourm. Take care and hope all this info helps you decide. Carol PS timesharing also encourages you to take time for vacation and we have met two sets of people that we keep in touch with.