Update on Bluegreen RCI Points roll out - POST Technical difficulties here

[BocaBum99]

Bluegreen asked me to provide everyone with this update regarding RCI Points.

As many of you know, there have been issues with RCI in registering RCI Points accounts for Bluegreen owners in the new program. RCI and Bluegreen had a meeting this week to resolve those registration issues. They believe those issues are now resolved. To get your RCI Points account established, contact RCI at 800-445-0088.

Now, we should be able to search availability online with that new account (woo hoo).

Bluegreen has asked for anyone who experiences technical issues to post those issues on this thread.

[SteveChapin]

This is primarily for the benefit of any BG personnel who may be reading this, as I've already documented most of the story on the Bluegreen mailing list at Yahoo!.

Background: I have a pre-existing RCI points account (starting 4-), and an aligned preexisting RCI weeks account (starting 19xx), from before I joined the BG Vacation Club. I called last week about setting up an RCI points account. RCI told me that all was in order, and cited my 19xx and 4- accounts as being affiliated with Bluegreen. The problem for me is that I paid personally for those accounts, and now I'm paying for them again through my Traveler Plus and BG VC dues. Bluegreen needs to set up a separate points account for me, which they appear to have done for other pre-existing RCI Points members. When I explained the problem, the RCI rep told me to call Bluegreen. I called Bluegreen. They told me to call RCI.

Now, to the present: I called RCI today, as directed. They again told me to call Bluegreen. I'll do that when I get home, but I don't expect any good result to come of it, as the BG reps (even in owner services) don't seem to have any concept of the difference between a weeks and points account at RCI.

I hope that someone from Bluegreen reads this and gets in touch with me to straighten it out.

Regards,

sc
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[crwisconsin]

Originally Posted by SteveChapin

Bluegreen needs to set up a separate points account for me, which they appear to have done for other pre-existing RCI Points members. sc --

Steve,

Not sure exactly what you mean but I am guessing at one possibility. I know you will correct me if I am wrong.

Do you know who has had BG assume paying the membership fee of a regular RCI Points Account? I think not. You could simply let your regular RCI Points account lapse and use the BG TP RCI Points Account. However (and a big however), it remains to be seen if you could, for example, use "Points for Deposit" in the BG TP RCI Points Account or even deposit a regular RCI Points unit into the BG TP RCI account. One advantage of the BG TP RCI Account is that you don't have to deposit. You just pick an exchange and RCI contacts BG which takes the BG Points out of your BG account. My gut tells me that is all you will be able to do with it but you will have access to all of the RCI Points inventory. I can envision many owners not wanting to deposit BG into weeks and then hope they can find something. Most owners are not timeshare junkies (they don't know what resort and week and unit type to select) and will want something simple.

Charles

[SteveChapin]

I got a call from BG, and had an excellent discussion. The folks managing the BG<->RCI interaction have a good handle on what's going on, it's just a matter of getting the details right.

So, I just wanted to publicly thank BG for the quick response, and hope to be thanking them soon for having this straightened out.

[SteveChapin]

Originally Posted by crwisconsin

Do you know who has had BG assume paying the membership fee of a regular RCI Points Account? I think not.

Nope, I don't know anyone who's had that happen. I expect to have 2 RCI points account, one paid by my Traveler Plus dues, and one out of my own pocket.

You could simply let your regular RCI Points account lapse and use the BG TP RCI Points Account.

That's what I expect I will do once I'm sure the BG RCI Points account will fulfill my needs.

However (and a big however), it remains to be seen if you could, for example, use "Points for Deposit" in the BG TP RCI Points Account or even deposit a regular RCI Points unit into the BG TP RCI account.

Good news! During the phone call with BG, the rep stated that they'd asked RCI specifically about this, and that we should not lose any PFD privileges. As I understand it, they covered all the cases:

1. PFD a non-RCI-points resort (e.g., CMV) into a pre-existing RCI Points account.
   
2. PFD a non-RCI-points resort into a new BG RCI Points account.
   
3. PFD a new RCI-points resort (such as the Fountains) into a pre-existing RCI Points account.
   
4. PFD a new RCI-points resort into a new BG RCI Points account.

The last two are <BillyFuccillo> HUGE </BillyFuccillo> (and if you don't know who Billy Fuccillo is, count yourself lucky). This means that even though some BG resorts are now searchable in RCI points, we should still be able to PFD them.

[crwisconsin]

Originally Posted by SteveChapin

hope to be thanking them soon for having this straightened out.

Well Steve, I guess I didn't understand and still don't understand what is to be straightened out??

Charles

[SteveChapin]

Originally Posted by crwisconsin

Well Steve, I guess I didn't understand and still don't understand what is to be straightened out??

• In December I had an RCI weeks account (19xx...) and an RCI points account (4-...). I was not a BGVC member yet.
  
• My BGVC membership went live in early January.
  
• Then, on MLK day, BG announced the new Traveler Plus benefit, wherein all TP members were to get a new RCI Points account.
  
• I don't have one.
  
• Every time I talk to BG or the RCI BG desk, they say, "You're fine! You have an RCI account," and point to my personal accounts that existed in December (19xx... and 4-...).
  
• I have no RCI account paid for by my BG/TP dues. I'm paying two fees (one directly, one through BG) but only have one RCI Points account.
  
• BG needs to set up a separate RCI Points account for me, paid for out of my TP dues, just as has been done for other TP members.

Does that make it clear? The last step is what needs to be straightened out.

[crwisconsin]

Originally Posted by SteveChapin

BG needs to set up a separate RCI Points account for me, paid for out of my TP dues, just as has been done for other TP members.

Does that make it clear? The last step is what needs to be straightened out.

I think I understand. You cannot get access to the Traveler Plus menus on the BG website as yet. Or if you can, you do not see RCI Nightly Stays as a menu choice. Am I correct?

Charles

[akparsa]

I did not ask about PFD into the new BG/PFD/TP accounts as that was not my area of interest. I was asking only about PFDing into my old RCI Points account. (we really need better names for these things!).

The original rep didn't really know, but he called a supervisor onto the line and together they told me the following:

I was told that I can no longer PFD a newly-RCI-points-affiliated resort (ie, BG's Carolina Grande) into my RCI Points account.

However, I can still PFD any non-RCI-points-affiliated resorts (ie, CMV) into my RCI Points account.

That is enough of a loophole to make me happy

Anita

[crwisconsin]

This morning I made a BG RCI Points reservation for 2 nights at a non-BG resort. The RCI exchange fee was $79 which I had to pay right then. I was told that when I check-in, there will also be a $45 housekeeping fee.

I think it is bad PR on BG's part not to mention this on the Traveler Plus RCI Nightly Stays web page. We are told very clearly what the exchange fee is but no mention is made of a Housekeeping Fee. I can envision many people make plans and then getting hit with learning about the additional fee at reservation time and being very upset and wasting RCI time with the RCI Guide and then wasting BG time when they call to complain and/or inquire. Just be up front and don't give owners something else to stew about.

For me, it would have been cheaper to use RCI Weeks and get a week and stay only 2 nights. Unfortunately, there was no suitable RCI Weeks inventory at that exact location and at that exact time period (in other words I had zero flexibility). So my hat's off to BG for providing us this additional opportunity of the BG RCI Points system. I now have four sets of inventory to draw upon: BG, RCI Weeks, Select Connections and RCI Points.

By the way, at the bottom of the resort page when I checked availability at RCI, there was mention of a Housekeeping fee. However, the BG web pages told us to ignore the RCI points that were listed for the resort so I am guessing that many members will not read the very fine print or, if they do, they will think it does not apply to BG owners since in the BG VC, we don't have to pay Housekeeping fees since they are incorporated into our maintenance fees with the BG's understanding that a certain percent of the reservations will be partial week reservations.

Charles