Original Message:
Re: Diamond Resorts International (DRI) "THE CLUB" Points Program & Converting your Week to Points (by Cory J.):
thanks Charles and Michael. That was helpful. I am only able to book 10 months in advance with my club membership, although I believe I can book 12 months for my home resorts. I don't usually do that since I am usually traveling to Orlando at times that I get a discount on top of usually being able to upgrade. I haven't had too much trouble booking into the club if I book them far enough in advance, although I could see that being a problem as more points are sold. I go to Kaanapali beach every year, sometimes twice, and haven't had a problem getting in there if I reserve in advance. You can make the points go a long way if you can be flexible when you travel, alot more than before I was in the club.
I did miss traveling with RCI, so I picked up some additional weeks and bank them far in advance to use with RCI. I like their website and its even better now. RCI now has a value system based on the week you deposit and how far in advance you bank it. Not like it used to be where you didn't know the value. Now, you know the value and can use the leftover value to book additioal units. I usually get 2-3 units for each week I bank. My only problem is I have ended up with more RCI time than I can use. Thus my dilemna about whether to convert any of those weeks into points or not. I may give it some consideration, as long as I don't have to convert all my weeks. You might consider picking up another week for RCI when you retire. It gives you more resorts to choose from. However, the downside is you do have an annual fee, exchange fees, and unless you have RCI points, you do have to stay for a week. You can still probably pick up a week for the cost of the maintenance fee for that year and closing costs (about 350, I think). If you do it at a DRI resort, you can always convert it to points at a later time, although I'm not sure of the costs. It might be cheaper to do that than buying more points, but I really have no idea.
I did the math and the maintenance fees are about the same for points and deeded at my resort, although we don't pay a collection fee.