Frankly, even though you got an excellent deal on those Aulani points, I still wouldn’t have bought them even at that price for stay around points. For us, the short term savings on points tends to get spent and absorbed into our general finances, and certainly doesn’t get banked for future trips. As the years go by, the purchase price almost gets forgotten. That leaves the maintenance fees, which for Aulani, as we all know, are incredibly high. And that lasts forever, or certainly as long as you own the points.
You‘re also giving up the 11 month window, which for WDW will only grow increasingly significant over the years. When we initially bought, I didn’t realize that there is far from unlimited availability at 7 months. For us, it’s gotten trickier and more difficult to book the popular resorts for any decent amount of time, say a week or longer. Sometimes you can only get a day or two here and there.
Buyers might initially think that this doesn’t matter if they’re not currently travelling at any time other than the lowest peak periods. But, personally, we’ve found that tastes and preferred travel times can change over the years, and that the flexibility built into the system is a good thing. That’s a tough one to give up.
Anyway, of course that’s just my opinion, and of course everyone uses points differently! And we do love Aulani!!