March 31-April 5 (5 nights) at Pop Century: $1012.50
Now, same dates at AKV (Our home resort) where we own 100 points. I would be using 100 banked points from last year + 51 points from this year.
Bought in 2008 for $9200....4900 points remaining in contract = $1.89 per point for initial buy in...I'll round it to $2.00 for simplicity.
First 2 nights in a standard studio = 40 points...$80 buy-in + $217.60 (MF's on 40 2012 points) = $297.60
Last 3 nights in a standard 1BR = 111 points...$222 buy-in + $326.40 (MF's on 60 2012 points) + $289.17 (MF's on 51 2013 points) = $837.57
TOTAL cost for split-stay at AKV: $1135.17
So, it would cost us an extra $125 to stay at AKV instead of Pop Century. We have a small contract and we are a family of 4 so I typically split our stay and start out in a studio and then move to a 1BR. If we did the entire 5 nights in a studio, we would save money. It would be 100 points ($200 buy-in + $544 in 2012 MF's = $744!)
Using this method of course assumes you use all of the points available to you over the life of the timeshare (which is not quite as "valid" as calculating a "break-even" point, given the increased uncertainty over longer time frames) - but it is an interesting comparison.
For example, we bought a fully-loaded 100 point contract last August at $72 pp - 2 years worth of banked points - giving us an average cost of $1.71 pp over the life of the contract.
So we had to use or lose 100 pts before Dec 2012 - and took a 3-night stay in a 1BR Savanna View at AKV Kidani for 99 points. Now since the MF had already been paid on those points by the previous owner, the trip only "cost" us $1.71 * 99 pts = about $170!!
Compare that to the rack rate cost of $1,890 for the same room ...
That shows some of the value gained by paying a little extra per point for loaded contracts ...
Using this same method for our Nov 2013 trip - 1 BR Standard View at AKV Jambo for 7 nights at 181 points, I'll now have to include 2 years of MF, giving a total cost of $1,375. This compares to the rack rate cost of $4,320 for the same room and the rack rate of $2,670 for a Pool View at AKL-Jambo.
Gotta like those numbers ...