TUG is a great resource for timeshares in general. But Yahoo's E-group for
Fairfield Timeshare Owners is, by far, the best website I've found, with the most extensive, useful info for FF owners and people who want to learn more about it. We love our FF points.
As betslinc and Diane have posted, your friends would do well to cancel. They'd need to rescind according to the specific directions in their contract... usually by telephone, followed by a certified letter sent the same day. No reason need be given.
An excellent resale can be found through brokers who specialize in FF points, for less than 3¢ per point. If they bought, say, 203,000 points (2BR prime season week at the newest beach or Hawaii resorts), they could find that for ~$6,000. Maint fees would be about $500-$700/year for that. Choosing a home resort where they want to stay regularly during prime season or otherwise, choosing where the maint fees are low, are both wise choices.
...the seller kept comparing it to DVC saying they were very similar programs...
Similar, yes. There are a few more restrictions on points usage and a few more a la carte fees, for those who make certain choices. DVC's points are slightly more flexible and the maint fees are higher. But the basic idea is very similar.
FF's points program preceded DVC's by a year or two and they offer
many more destinations. The newest FF resorts offer excellent quality, studios up to (awesome!) 4BR penthouses and many of the very same amenities as the DVC resorts (often at a slightly lower cost). Resort staff seem similarly friendly and helpful at FF & DVC resorts. We have had good sales experiences w/FF staff but FF's salespeople are notoriously
terrible at pressuring tour guests and using deceptive sales tactics. It's a shame, the new resorts should sell themselves - they're great!
DVC's program is somewhat more flexible, with more consistently high quality throughout all of their resorts. Their resorts are beautifully themed and member services provides more consistently knowledgable service. Sales CMs are known for low pressure, mostly (or completely) honest presentations.
They also told my friend that Fairfield is the only other timeshare building directly in Walt Disney World.
Others have clarified this above. It's technically just offsite, with an onsite entry road. It will be a nice resort. No Disney theme. Shuttle bus service has not been officially announced. Another offsite FF resort offers free (very limited) shuttle service to Disney/USF/SW.
She made it sound like she was told they could easily stay anywhere they want, basically like picking up the phone to make a regular hotel reservation. Nothing was said about getting on an exchange list or waitlist or anything.
FF owners use their points to reserve stays at other FF resorts in a similar way to your using DVC points to reserve stays at other DVC resorts (besides your home resort). You really do just pick up the phone and call Member Services. But unless you plan early enough for popular times, they may be all booked.
With DVC, you may reserve any date at your home resort, 11 months ahead and at any other DVC resort, 7 months ahead.
With FF, it's 13 months ahead for your home resort and 10 months ahead for any other FF resort.
With DVC, all of the dates of a reservation must be within the booking window or you must call back to add days to the reservation.
With FF, only the check-in date must be within the reservation window, for up to a 7 night stay. But prime season reservations (like "premier" & "magic") at
most FF resorts are restricted to 3-night, 4-night or 7-night reservations, beginning or ending on a Fri/Sat/Sun. For other seasons, the only restriction is a 2-night minimum. At 3 months ahead, there are no reservation restrictions at any resorts, pending availability.
With DVC, if your requested destination is booked full, you may go on a waitlist. There is no way to be put on a waitlist earlier than the 11/7 month windows.
With FF, there are no regular waitlists, so if your request is not available, you must keep calling back. 8AM (eastern time) calls can yield good results but require diligence. If a prime reservation (July at the beach, Christmas, etc.) is desired at a prime location, there's a process called "Rotating Priority List" which is useful up to 22 months ahead, for requesting an early reservation appointment around 11.5 months ahead.
Both companies have an "800" phone number at Member Services for U.S. owners.
Fairfield has dozens of
nice resorts and they are continuing to expand. We haven't even stayed at our home resorts, having too much fun traveling to different places with it! We've had no trouble getting into Washington DC during midseason, 2 months ahead, Smoky Mountains prime season at 7 months ahead, Myrtle Beach in late May at 5 months ahead. But it's necessary to call exactly 10 months ahead for a July week at some oceanfront FF resorts (like Myrtle Beach, SC or Destin, FL). That's kind of like the difficulty in booking DVC HHI in premier summer, I would guess.
She was told that they exchange through RCI.
Most FF home resorts trade externally through RCI. A couple FFs trade through II. RCI gives trading priority to FF owners who trade back into other FF resorts. This would be like II allowing you to deposit an "adventure" season studio week at OKW, pay the exchange fee and accept a trade into the first 2BR "premier" or "magic" week that became available at HHI. It's definitely a useful benefit for FF owners who trade through RCI, to stretch points.
They aren't interested in DVC by the way, they want to travel to too many other places.
FWIW, if your friends wanted to trade FF points into a DVC resort during adventure or choice seasons, they probably could. I've read on the Yahoo site, of several folks doing this, who owned at a FF that trades through II. These kinds of trades seem to match under 4 months ahead of travel and a lot of flexibility is needed. So it's not the way to go, for most people. Generally, if they buy resale, they would do well to make sure their home resort trades via RCI. HTH!
