Extra Vacations may or may not offer great discounts. You have to know what you're getting to determine because those prices vary greatly. Sometimes they're great; other times they're just a little discount off rack.
The "Last Calls" are always greatly discounted, and really good prices, but sometimes there is a reason why they are so steeply discounted. May not be the greatest resort, not prime time, etc -- but you can get some very good Last Call deals. As others have said, that's the difference between exchanging through DVC's corporate RCI membership and having your own individual RCI membership through Wyndham. So you use your Wyndham account for cash stays and whichever works best for straight exchanges.
For example, I was looking at the Wyndham Smoky Mountains resort. Using my Wyndham points, it would cost me about $1200 for a week to stay there. When Wyndham ran a sale a few weeks ago, the same time period was available for purchase for $350 for the week. I don't have to be good at math to figure out that one!
I was looking to see if DVC/RCI offered this as I was contemplating dumping my Wyndham timeshare through their new program, "Ovation," that will take these white elephants off owners' hands.
Both Wyndham and DVC trade on a fixed grid, but you'll have to run the numbers to see which is a better deal.
Also, due to the differences in credit pooling/banking between the two systems, you might decide to use DVC points for a particular exchange -- either because of the limited flexibility of DVC's banking system, or because you don't want to give up credit pooling for 3 years with Wyndham.
Every hotel I looked at using DVC points worked out to be fairly expensive. Perhaps cheaper than rack rate, but not a big bargain.
You need to look at the benefits/downsides of both systems in the context of the particular exchange you want because both have pluses and minuses in any given situation.
Bill
