Intro to Fairfield Fairshare Plus

[Jya-Ning]

There are three elements in reservation process
1. points needed, 2 transaction credit, 3. House Keep Credit (HK)
Although FF can change the point value, I never see them do that for the FF own resorts and Affiliate resorts, however, they did adjust the week (move from prime to high or reverse). I will tender to think there is regulation issues involved so it will not be easy to change the point value. I did see change during the period resort was developing. For associate resort and hotel provided for Outrigger Club member or other travel program, it can be changed, and I saw some quicker than inflation rate. You can borrow points, rent points, transfer points, move points between use year.

Every 77k you own gives you one free transaction credit. If you own 105k, you get 1 free transaction. You can purchase the transaction credit if you use all the free ones. Currently, one extra transaction credit is $25. Currently, you can make several reservations on-line or through VC or make external exchange deposit, as long as they are in the same day, it will be count as one transaction. Don’t know how long this will hold. If you own EOY contract, the point will be divided by 2 and distributed on each year. My first contract is start with every year, so don’t know if you owns EOY but less than 154k, how many free transaction credit you will get per year.

Every 1000k you own will give you one free HK, it is associate with the point. HK Credit per stay that is within 7 days
Stdio 1BR 2BR 3BR 4BR
28 63 77 140 154
So if you make 2 reservations, one is stdio 3 days and the other is 2Br 10 days, it will cost you 28 + 77 + 77 or 182 credits. If you make one reservation within 7 days but it is split with different units, it will be counted as twice. You can purchase more HK. Currently, it will be $1.5 per credit. You can also borrow from your next use year for the Express Reservation, it will move points, plus HK credit with a formula I have no idea what it is.

[Jya-Ning]

You can go to FF’s website and look at it. There are three types
Fairfield Owned Resorts – Resorts built by FF or FF has purchase the original develop group or management group and convert some units to the program. All inventories that assigned to FSP will be shown on 13 month for Home Owner. The resort may not be managed by FF
Affiliate Resort – resorts that developed by other builder but assigned its units to FSP program and sell it that way. All inventories that assigned to FSP will be shown on 13 month for Home Owner.
Associate Resort – Resort that willing to provide their excess inventories to FF in exchange something. The inventories will be opened when the contract was signed and when the resort opens it. The point value could vary every year.

[Jya-Ning]

Tom in MI (TJM) has developed a Excel spreadsheet two years ago to show the point required for FF owned resorts. It is store in Yahoo group, and also in Tug’s point discussion as a sticky note. You can take a look at that.

[Jya-Ning]

1. If a reservation is cancelled more than 30 days prior to the check-in day, it become cancel points
2. If a reservation made before 30 days of check-in time and is cancelled at 30 days or less prior to the check-in day before 4pm check-in time, it become limited account points
3. If a reservation is made within 30 days, you only have 10 days grace period to cancel it, the point will become limited account points
Both points will be expired at the nearest use year the trip date starts day. So if you make an ARP trip for July 2006 at June 2005 and cancel it at Aug 2005, the point will return to 2006 use year.
The HK associated with the reservation will be return to the same use year as the cancel points or limited account points. Cancel is not counted as a transaction. However, you will loss the transaction you used for the reservation. If you pay any extra during the reservation, it is not refundable.

You can use cancelled points for any FF internal reservation at standard reservation time period, or deposit for external exchange. You can use it for Cruise, Adventure Club, Plus Partner.

You can use limited account points only at 30 days or less before the check-in time. You can deposit for external exchange. You can use it for Plus Partner RCI nightly stay only.

The proposed change is there will be no limited points (start Jan 2008). And if canceled within 15 days, all points will be forfeited with some exceptions they will make decision on what it could be. (Aug, 2007)

[Jya-Ning]

All exchanges you will have to pay exchange fee based on the exchange company, and addition cost. FF will only charge you one transaction credit.

IMHO, all weekly external exchange company will have to deal with different resorts each has its own rules and schedule when they want to deposit their excessive inventory or if they let owner deposits it. So you usually don't know when and how many some week will be appeared. Plus, some exchange company has certain trading power, so you have no idea if the week do appear, your week deposit is the strongest one that can get it. On the other hand if you exchange internally, you will always know when the inventory appears. And if you have enough points or can get enough points, you will get it if you call before other owner call.

However, with external exchange company, you do have selections on the area FF does not have resorts, and if FF does has resorts in these area, since owner has priority in RCI and II, sometime, you can extend your points by deposit a small point week. The way I see it, you take risk, you may or may not get reward suit the risk you take, but most of the time, you should expect the reward is proportion to the risk level you take.

[Jya-Ning]

Depends on the 1st contract you purchased, FF will set a external exchange company account and part of your membership fee will be used to pay the membership fee for that account. It will be either II or RCI week account. If the property is HI, it can also be exchanged through Trading Place International

There are four ways to request a week exchange through RCI
1. ARP deposit, if you are converted week, you can do that, but it is not support by FF. FF takes away UDI ability to do that start 2006.
2. Generic deposit: based on the generic grid table, you can deposit FSP point and request a not on-line searchable generic week. It has the trading power based on whole FF group, so it usually has a little better power in RCI. But it will never be the strongest week. You have 2 years to use that deposit. You can pay extra to extend the week.
3. On-Line Visible week, you have to go through a VC to request a week starting 2006, that is a real week but was randomly deposited by FF and given to you using the points by the generic grid table. The week is a real week, so it can be used to do on-line search. You can search 2 years after the check-in date the real week was given.
4. Search first, you can ask VC to do a search first to check if there is anything in the RCI inventory. All the prior three options you will use your points immediately as you made a deposit, this one, if there is no week available, you can select not to deposit the points.

I don’t believe this generic grid is guaranteed, but for 7 years, I don’t think it has been changed.
Studio (70-42-28)
1Br (105-77-63)
2Br(154-126-77)
3Br(254-189-154)
You do need to have HK for the deposit

II deposit
I don’t own II resorts, to my best understanding, FF generic deposit can do on-line search on II. But I have no idea if it has good trading power.

TPI deposit – no idea, based on directory, looks like you need to reserve a really week to deposit.

[Jya-Ning]

Exchange with other exchange companies.
You can open an account with any exchange company, as long as they are willing to accept the FF week you can get, you need to talk with them. Most of them has its own representative in timeshareforum.

Exchange using PP for RCI nightly stay
At this moment, your assigned exchange company has to be RCI to use it. See the PP benefits for RCI nightly stay. You don't have search ablity and have to rely on VC to do search for you.

[Jya-Ning]

If you need more points, you can rent from FF to the total number of points you have for the year. Currently, it is $10 per 1000 at standard reservation time, and $5 per 1000 at express time.

If you can find owner willing to rent you the points, there is no limitation, the owner can transfer only the regular use point to your account, or you can transfer your points to him/her, it will need a transaction credit.

In express reservation period, you can borrow your own points from next use year.

Since the cancel points goes to the use year that trip starts, you can move the point from future year to this year by make one reservation for this year at express period (90 days) than cancel it. But you will waste the transaction credit you used to make reservation.

You can deposit all the future year points to credit pool, and it has 3 year from the day you deposit, but it will require the credit pool has the points for the use year you plan to use. It can only be used after for standard and express reservation.

If you deposit your points to an external exchange company, you have whatever that company gives you the timeframe. For RCI, it is 2 years.

[Jya-Ning]

TJM has 2 files in Yahoo groups 1 - The unit number in FSP based on resorts
2. The Quartly occupancy Statistic based on resort. When you joint in, I strong suggest you read them.

FF when you attend their sale, should have a "Public Offering" (???) that states the trust rule, what they actually sell, and the occupancy statis inside their system. You can try to ask to read them.

II has a demanding index about differnt area, you can look at them. IMHO if the index looks pretty flat, you should expect to see inventory at 10 month period. If there is one period that expecially higher than the other, then it may indicates that more likely the owner will try to take the unit that that time period. So if that index is extreme high than all other area's high demanding area, you probably will not see any units left 2 days or 3 days after 13 month opening period.

Tripadvisor sometimes will list the number of units at a TS resorts. It may not accurate, but it should give you some idea. Please note that sometimes FF may not own all the units in that resorts.

[Jya-Ning]

These are the fee structure start from Feb 1, 2008

• The fee for purchasing housekeeping credits beyond those allotted will increase from $1.50 per credit to $2.25 per credit.
• The fee for reservation transactions beyond those allotted will increase from $25 to $30.
• The service fee for use of the Points Credit Pool will increase from $25 to $30.
• Billing charges will increase from $5 to $6.

The FSP program fee start at Jan 2008 is

< 154k - $86.0 - $105.46
154k ~ 300k - $.56 - $.68
> 300K - $.50 - $.52

Jya-Ning