Need help understanding RCI and trading

[dlm1017]

Would someone please explain to me how RCI works? I have read through some posts and cannot seem to grasp how to trade, deposit points?? 2 years in advance? It’s all so confusing to me. This is my scenario, my husband and I are planning a trip to Hawaii in 2012, and we are hoping to go to the new DVC resort, Maui and possibly the Big Island also. I don’t know how many points I will need for Auluni until they release the point charts. We are planning on a 2 week visit and we have 300pts per year (use year DEC) so I could potentially have 3 years points with banking and borrowing. This is our first trip to Hawaii and has been a dream for my husband for some time. We would like to use our DVC points for this vacation so as too not have to pay out of pocket for hotels but it seems like a real pain to use RCI from what I have been reading. Is this going to be possible for us? Do I have to have the points available right away to deposit into RCI? I suppose I can’t use points that are not available to me yet (ie borrowed points) Sorry for rambling but I need to know how to make this trip happen.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dana

 

[dlm1017]

Anyone???

 

[Brian Noble]

Dana, the Aulani point charts are supposed to be made public on July 1st. After that happens, you'll have a much better idea of what you want to do and we can better help you.

When are you thinking about going in 2012?

 

[dlm1017]

Thank you! I am not so concerned about Aulani just hopeful that we will be able to stay there, I am open as to when we will travel. I am thinking about October of 2012. I am just not sure how to use RCI to travel to Hawaii or anywhere else for that matter. I am just looking for some insight in how it works. I am not intending on using RCI again as we will almost always be staying in DVC resorts so this will most likely be the only time we will be trading into RCI for a vacation( but maybe to Europe someday) Should I just call Member Services with my questions? Do they do a good job of explaining how RCI works?
Thanks for your reply!
Dana

 

[Brian Noble]

The basic idea is that you can exchange some of your points for stays at non-DVC resorts. Unlike a DVC or hotel booking, you need someone who owns where you want to go to decide that they'd like to deposit *their* time for exchange as well. You can do this either for full weeks, or by the night---different resorts will have more or less availability as full-week stays or by-the-night stays, and it looks like full-week stays might be easier to obtain. You can look at the resorts available to you here:

http://b2b.rci.com/RDGateway/Functional/RDMain.jsp?clubId=102

Remember, just because a resort is in this list, doesn't mean it will necessarily be available to you---you need someone to deposit the time you are interested in. That said, I would expect the Hiltons to have some availability, depositing between one and two years in advance. To give you an idea, I confirmed an exchange at one of the Honolulu Hiltons for May of 2011 in February of this year. The Wyndhams, on the other hand, will deposit more like 8 months in advance.

A week in a 1BR during high season would be 160 DVC points---and Hawaii is "high season" year round.

You can make a full-week exchange as early as two years prior to use---so starting in October 2010. You can make a by-the-night exchange as early as 10 months prior to use---so starting in December 2011.

Note that, often, it's a better deal to rent out your points and use the money to secure the lodging that you desire. But, Hawaii might be an exception to that, I don't know what the market rental rates are.