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Re: Question on Fairfield week and RCI points (by Luke W.):

Let me say that after a recent timeshare tour I learned of a program called RCI Weeks. I have been in the RCI Weeks program for a few yrs.

If for some reason I could not use all 308,000 points from Fairfield (Daytona Beach) I could bank the points with RCI Weeks and through RCI Vacation Counselors book a week at another resort within the RCI system.

That really left me dissatisfied for a number of reasons. It seemed as though there were no desirable resorts. The one or two times we did an exchange it was as though our points were greatly diluted in value, i.e., so many pts are equiv to a red week, so many for a blue week, so many for a white week.

The last tour guide we talked with (a Vacation Village salesman in Kissimmee, FL) spoke of something called the Bucket. Under RCI Weeks the bucket is always empty (i.e no choices for you and I to swap our weeks) To have a choice of another resort there has to be lots of owners willing to bank their points, thus the bucket remains empty.

Well RCI Points is the new system whereby you are buy a week at a participating resort. You are assigned a week and you are supposed to view it as a 'piece of inventory' no more. It guarantees you a place at your home resort for that particular week. The sales people would prefer that you not get hung up about the week they present you with (at closing) because, under the new RCI Points system, on Jan 1 all the resort owners have their weeks deposited into the bucket. Unless you opt out! In which case you will be staying at your home resort during that week forever - hope you like that 'piece of inventory' for that particular time of the year. I personally would visit Florida during a hurricane if I could steer clear of whiny brats and drunken college students. Anyway, you also receive an allotment of points at closing (and every year that you pay your M dues) that you use for making reservations at other resorts within the chain (Vacation Village, in this example, or RCI catalog resorts, plus rental cars, cruises, Disney, hotels, u name it).

We were given the strong impression that: 1. Fairfield resorts (and FF owners) were about to be left out in the cold with regard to RCI for being stubborn/difficult, i.e. being late to recognize the failure of RCI Weeks exchange system. And FF Owners would not have much luck in the future selling their timeshares, people were going to have 'fire sales' with their FF timeshares and flock to resorts within the RCI Points system.

We actually managed to buy a (third) timeshare at Vacation Village, out of sheer appreciation for the Fabulous, Improved RCI Points system (over the RCI Weeks system) then cancelled out one day after the closing. I kinda enjoyed that part - plus it served the greedy b**tards right. Yes, there was mention of RCI collecting a huge fee to allow us to be part of the next generation of timeshare ownership. It's pure windfall profit. The whole idea sounded good enough to buy a THIRD Timeshare. Maybe I do need a hole in my Head.

My wife and I reconsidered the stories we had been told over a nice Kobe steakhouse meal ($100) and decided we'd rather take a disciplined approach to eliminating our sizable and not insignificant investment in Fairfield Points, NOT through a fire sale.

If you rent your points at any of the excellent rental websites out there (Redweek.com and hotstays are both terrific for traffic) don't shortsell yourself. $10 per thousand is reasonable, you can do quite well. Let me know if this helps you or if I can be of further assistance. Luke