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Re: Timeshare Points vs. Weeks (by Mary D.):

jennie wrote:

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.

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. PLEASE SEE BELOW. THIS SEEMS TO BE ABOUT RCI POINTS, NOT RESORT GROUP POINT SYSTEMS.

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."

SAME WHETHER THE DEPOSITED WEEK WAS FIXED, FLOATING, OR POINTS BASED. YOU CHOOSE A SPECIFIC WEEK AND DEPOSIT IT.

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.

If you are speaking about RCI POINTS, you are right about not being able to rent out the week you "paid for" with points, but I was not aware that any of the resort group's own point systems prohibited renting. The ones we have do not object. (Fairfield and Bluegreen) Some resorts even encourage it since that brings in new potential buyers. If we can't use all our points in a particular year, of course, we can reserve a week and bank it with an exchange company under its rules, whatever they may be. Some resort groups have additional systems for "rolling over" points to the next year, using them toward Maintenance Fees, etc. I can also rent my excess Fairfield points to another member.

We "pay for our points" when we buy. There are yearly maintenance fees (based on the points we own) and sometimes others costs such as Club Memberships, but something similar is probably true of fixed weeks also.

If someone has the perfect week in the perfect place for them, a fixed week is---perfect. But there are only so many of the Perfect weeks in existence, whether you are speaking of buying them Fixed or getting them with points. All the law suits in the world will not create more Christmas week units in Orlando or 500 Week units in Daytona. (Those are built by the Developers folks are so fond of trashing.) Why should the person who purchased his contract at a resort he likes NOT have first choice there?

That said, not all point system resort groups do give priority at the location where you bought. They may, however, give a VIP owner the opportunity to reserve earlier than a small owner. Or allow full week reservations earlier than partial week reservations. Or any of a hundred variations.

So the generic answer to Fixed vs. Points is that Fixed weeks are simple and predictable; points are almost infinitely flexible, which is a good thing but require more planning and knowledge of how your resort group works. Which is why I would recommend starting with a moderate buy from the Developer, so he will build more of what you want and will try to educate you in how best to utilize his system.

If you want more points in THE SAME RESORT GROUP, you might want to buy Resale later. But don't buy resale thinking that all points-based resort systems have the same rules or define their points in exactly the same way. THEY DO NOT! This can lead to major grief and misunderstandings between you and the Resale seller. Price per point means absolutely nothing if you don't know what the points will "buy" within their own system. MD