Anyone ever have success using your DVC points for a RCI trade?

[TheresaBoynton]

I have tried several times to use my DVC points for a vacation through RCI with no success. Has anyone had any success doing this?

A little history: My husband inherited an ownership in another timeshare. Even though we live on the opposite coast and weren't able to take advantage of that timeshare, we were encouraged to keep it and pay the yearly fees since we could always trade our week for another location through RCI. After 2 years of unsuccessful attempts at an RCI trade, we ended up selling that timeshare. Our timeshare representative told us we were unsuccessful at a trade because most of RCI's locations are on the west coast and we were requesting locations on the east coast.

Now we own in DVC and have again attempted to use our points for RCI destinations. This time we were told by the DVC employee that we were having trouble getting a reservation because you must book a vacation at least 10 months in advance for RCI. BTW, we gave them a window of 6 weeks of possible dates and asked for any location in NC or TN and we were unable to find any date of availability.

We're just wondering if anyone has ever been able to use their points for a RCI destination and what tricks they needed to use to get something booked.

 

[M&C]

I just booked RCI today - first time ever! It's for next summer though in Lake Tahoe. I was looking for this summer, but couldn't find anything. Since I was feeling kinda lucky, I thought I'd try for Christmas 2011. No luck getting Hawaii. I'll have to rethink where to go, sort of broaden the choices then call back as soon as I can.

As a suggestion, you might want to look at least a year ahead.

Good luck!

 

[utahkennedys]

I just booked RCI today - first time ever! It's for next summer though in Lake Tahoe. I was looking for this summer, but couldn't find anything. Since I was feeling kinda lucky, I thought I'd try for Christmas 2011. No luck getting Hawaii. I'll have to rethink where to go, sort of broaden the choices then call back as soon as I can.

As a suggestion, you might want to look at least a year ahead.

Good luck!

Totally agree. I just posted on another thread. If you are looking on RCI, I'd put a request in at least one year ahead, longer if you are trying for peak times or peak places.

 

[JulieWent]

I don't know, maybe beginner's luck: We wanted to give my parents accommodations in Hawaii for their 50th anniversary, so I deposited our points and gave a four month window of possible dates. We got a booking for them at the resort of our choice within three weeks.

As a side note: My parents told us to "let our DIS friends" know that the accommodations at this resort (Hawaiian Grand Vacations on WaiKiki) were excellent.

So, yes, we have had success.

Julie

 

[Nursejilly]

We were able to trade into holiday inn club smoky mountain resort at about 10 months out. We loved it! We wanted a 2 bedroom but were only able to get a 1 bedroom. It worked for our family of 4. The resort was in a great location and we had zero complaints! Don't give up hope!

 

[auntsue]

We had great luck on our very first exchange ever and we've owned for eleven years. We love Disney and usually just go there all the time.

I requested an exchange for a 1BR into any of the three towers at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for our 40th anniversary next year, not really expecting it to come through. In my research, I had read that Hawaii is very difficult to get and I limited it to just the one resort because I wanted to be on the beach in Oahu, so I thought my chances were not great. I put in my request on October 2, 2009, about 17 months out with a range of five dates. It came through for the Grand Waikikian Tower on February 1, 2010. We are totally excited. I'm glad we're saving big-time on the room, because the air was almost $2000, not to mention the 7-night cruise with excursions, etc., but hey, we'll only be married forty years once, so I say go for it, and we did.

Good luck with your exchange! I think you may have to put in your request a lot further out next time.

 

[CandyMandy]

We were able to exchange into a 2BR at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club at the Flamingo in Las Vegas (below) about 5.5 months out. We did that right after the DVC/RCI program started. The exchange took a while on the phone to work out because at that time there were only a handful of MS "exchange advisors" who were up to speed on how to get these things into and through the RCI systems.