Streach Your FF Points With RCI

[Hostelling Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hostelling]

Here is one more little rule for the use of points when requesting an RCI visible deposit that bears repeating from time to time.

There are rules for depositing, of course. FF will allow deposits 10 months before the use year starts. So, March 1st of 2006, you can start depositing 2007 points to RCI (use the visible request form at the FF web site and specify which year the points are to come from, if you call by phone there is a 90 percent chance you wont get what you ask for).

There is also a trick, that is common knowledge, for making deposits earlier than 10 months in advance of the use year. Call and book something with a check in that is less than 90 days from the date you make the reservation, and you can borrow points from your next use year, to have enough for the reservation. # of points you borrow is up to you. Call back and cancel the reservation, and because you borrowed the points in 2006 (from 2007) the points will return to 2006 use year.

Then you can make an RCI deposits with these points "borrowed" from your next use year. Hope this helps.

*Fairfield Point Denominations used for RCI Weeks Deposits

HK Credits/ Type of Unit-Season/ Points
28/ Studio-Quiet Season/ 28K
28/ Studio-Value Season/ 42K
28/ Studio-High Season/ 70K

63/ 1 Bedroom-Quiet Season/ 63K
63/ 1 Bedroom-Value Season/ 77K
63/ 1 Bedroom-High Season/ 105K

77/ 2 Bedroom-Quiet Season/ 77K
77/ 2 Bedroom-Value Season/ 126K
77/ 2 Bedroom-High Season/ 154K

140/ 3 Bedroom-Quiet Season/ 154K
140/ 3 Bedroom-Value Season/ 189K

*A sample of what a small FF deposit can pull for a larger RCI exchange:

Date booked/Resort/City/ Unit Size/Date of stay/FF points to RCI
03.19.02/ Orange Lake Golf Resort/ Kissimmee, Fl/ 2 Bedroom/ 02.07.04/ 42,000 (studio)
03.25.03/ Grandvista Emerald Pointe/ Branson, Mo/ 2 Bedroom/ 05.22.04/ 28,000 (studio)
09.29.03/ Fairfield Nashville/ Nashville, Tn/ 1 Bedroom/ 06.19.04/ 28,000 (studio)
05.27.03/ Waterside by Spinnaker/ Hilton Head Is. SC/ 1 Bedroom/ 08.28.04/ 28,000 (studio)
07.01.03/ Sheraton Vistana Kissimmee, Fl/ 2 Bedroom/ 03.06.05/ 28,000 (studio)

*Many thanks to the Yahoo group Fairfield timeshare http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fairfield_timeshare/ for the valuable information

Daniel

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

What does the HK stand for - Housekeeping?
and how does that affect the number of points?
Do you add then to the totals to get the "actual" number of points that you need?
I want to share this info with my Bluebeard's BeachClub Yahoo Group where we are a mix of Fixed week (me!), Float Week and FF Point owners.....
TIA

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

HK is Housekeeping.
VIP has unlimited HK. Otherwise, it is one free HK per 1000 pt. But if you just use HK to deposit to RCI week, it should cover no matter how you do. The only problem you will have is when you try to take serval short trips inside FF. But if you have mixed it with RCI week deposit or stdio 2 BR FF reservation, it may do. It usually has problem if you travel on 1 Br inside FF.

For example, you have 84K that gives you 84 free HK, if you deposit to RCI, 3 28K deposit need 84 HK, 1 28k 1 42 k deposit costs you 56 HK. So you are O.K.

But if you want to take 2 trips in FF, 42K each on say 1 Br, which requires 63k per trip, so 126 HK, you will short 42 HK, at 1.5 per HK, you will pay $63 extra for 2 trips.


If you have 154K (avg 2 BR one week in Prime season), you split it and take 2 trips but each time you take 2 BR, it will cost you 2 77 HK, or 154, so you are O.K. If you split it to three trips, and all 1 BR, it will be 189HK, then you are short 35 HK. But if you deposit 2 RCI weeks in stdio (56K point, and 56HK), and split it to 2 1 Br trips 128, you only short 30 HK.

Now they allow you to borrow your own HK from next use year if the travel day is within 90 days. So you should be ablt to arrange it better.

Jya-Ning

[Hostelling Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hostelling]

FF House Keeping Credits Defined

What does the HK stand for - Housekeeping?
and how does that affect the number of points?
.....
TIA

*Housekeeping Credits....

Housekeeping refers to the once-per-week major cleaning that takes place before/after a Member's vacation...

You will receive 1 (one) Housekeeping Credit for every 1,000 points allocated to your ownership interest for all ownership types. For example, if you have 210,000 points, you will receive 210 Housekeeping Credits, which is more than enough to cover the cleaning of a 2 bedroom unit for two 1-week vacations (see chart below). Every additional vacation that you take will require additional Housekeeping Credits.

Depending on how you use your points, you may need to pay additional cleaning charges...

You can determine the additional amount you will need to purchase by referencing the chart below. Remember the number of Housekeeping Credits required is based upon the length of stay and the size of the unit.

Aditional Housekkping credits may be purchased at a cost of $1.50 per credit, paid at the time of confirmation.

Length of stay (days)...Hotel or Studio...1 Bed....2 Bed....3 Bed....4 Bed
..........2-7.........................28...............63..... ...77........140......154
..........8-14.......................56..............126...... 154........280......308
.........15-21.......................84.............189....... 231.......420.......462

As a side note; When you rent points from another owner, or borrow points from a future use year the points are transfered into your account. The housekeeping credits, for those points, are also transfered into your account. When you deposit a week (7 days) to RCI you will use up the required number of Housekeeping credits according to the size unit (points) you deposit.

Daniel

*From FairShare plus member's directory 2004-2005

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

As a side note; When you rent points from another owner, or borrow points from a future use year, and the points are transfered into your account the housekeeping credits for those points are also transfered into your account.

Don't quite sure both statement. Is this new? Because upto last Oct, they do not allow you to move HK from one use year to another. So I was supprise to see I can borrow next most close use year HK (I have 2 Different use year (Jun - July and Jan-Dec). It does bring some points from that use year, but I am pretty sure it is not 1000 point per HK. It is much less ratio. So when I try make reservation for my March trip, I have nothing left from 2005 June-July contract, and 49 HK in 2006 Jan-Dec. The on-line system moved few 2006 June-July point (actually less than 3K) to give me 77 HK.

So if you rent points and do need HK, better check with VC, otherwise, if you are renting from at least a gold VIP member, it is much easier to just transfer your point to their account, and let them make a reservation and send you a guest certification (make sure the member does not charge you extra for Guest certification).

I'd be very supprise if they automate move the HK from borrow point (i.e. from your next use year) to this year. The HK will expired in the end of this use year, and if you have enough HK to cover the current trip, you will loss these carry forward HK.

Will see when they push the new reseravtion system out, if this will still stay. I sure hope so.

Jya-Ning

[Hostelling Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hostelling]

It's Been True For Me

Don't quite sure both statement. Is this new?
Jya-Ning

I did not say borrow just HK Credits. I said when Points are transfered the HK Credits come with them. Makes it kinda hard to use the Points if it was otherwise. The points and HK Credits expire together (in the year they reside together) as it should be.

I don't limit my options to make a change by opting for just a guest cirtificate issued by another account. I may change my mind and use the points transfered to my account in another way. For instance I may reserve a few days and bank the rest with RCI.

Daniel

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

More on housekeeping credits

Depending on how you book your week, you may double up the amount of housekeeping credits you need. In my case, I have booked 2br split week in Fairfield Flagstaff and Fairfield Sedona for Christmas week. Normally, a 2br full week requires 77 HK credits. But because I have two separate booked transactions, each require 77 HK credits or a total of 154 HK for one week.

The HK credits are the same for a 2 day stay up to a 7 day stay for the respective room size you book.

[GlennBenscoter Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GlennBenscoter]

visible deposits

I believe they have switched the online form to be a request for generic and to get a visible you must call a VC to make the request.

Glenn Benscoter

[jlfernandez5 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jlfernandez5]

My experience of Visible versuses invisible weeks throught RCI has been that
Fairfield gives out shoulder Red viewable weeks when requested verses prime weeks. I have found that overall your better off getting a invisible week eventhough you can not search yourself as the trading power seems to be overall better. For an easy trade it might not matter but for those harder trades it seems to help.