It used to cost us 65,000 points plus $49.00 per ticket to get to Cancun..... Now, they charge only 55,000 points and you get $500.00 credit on the airfare. So the tickets I'm looking at are $712.00 ---- less the $500 and I have to pay the additional $212.00 PLUS the $49.00 fee..... That's over $500.00 plus 110,000 points for 2 tickets!!! Let me think of something good to say about the Premier Club and RCI......... still thinking.......still thinking..... I have not gotten any diseases from all of the times they've screwed me. Jim
The program seems to always be changing to benefit them. New A.I. fees are out of this world if you went in Feb. $105 a night. That is crazy. That is almost a $20 hike from last year. So on a avg. week if they had 70 Premier Members staying there they'd pocket an extra $10,000 almost for the one week. I understand inflation but that is a bit extreme. Not to mention with the new changes are perks are now down to OV room (won't surprise me if they ditched that), small discount at the spa, and I'm not sure if the few extra items on the menu are still there. When is it going to stop???? Is it crazy to think that in two years it will cost an extra $200 to $300 for us members to use are weeks compared with just booking through a travel agent or over the internet??? Cause that is were its heading right now. As usual I'd just like to know why non-member prices have basically stayed around the same for the last eight years??????? Nick and Renee
Thats expensive airfare! I'd save the points and look around the internet for cheaper rates. Where are you in Ohio? Does USA 3000 or another charter company or discount airline fly out of your area?
Yes there are other options and flights. BUT the point is we bought into the plan under a set of rules, and now the rules have changed. My points value is decreasing. Why should I pay for arifare again if I already purchased the points to redeem for airfare??
That was our reasoning for buying into the "Premier" program because of the expense of airfare. With the increase in everything we'll probably be better off using a travel agency instead of RCI :cry:
And this why us Premier members should be emailing Premier about are concerns. It's getting to the point were you can book through a travel agency or internet and go for less money. I really think they operate on Premier side of things as "we have your money and who cares now". I'm sure they don't intentionally do this but that seems to be the message I've been getting from them over the last two years or so. Nick and Renee
I started to look into this and what is below I took from the RCI website. It is just what I found not that I agree with it as it will end up costing all of us more money to travel. I think it is RCI's way of not paying as much for air fare as before. The big problem I have is you are not in controll of the prices on travel from the air lines. I am hopeing that you would get discounted air fare from RCI but I am not to hopeful on that. Points Partners Points Partners® Program What’s New? * Subject to change without notice. Transaction fees also apply. For example, say you want to purchase a round-trip airline ticket from NYC to Aruba, valued at $695. You can choose to exchange 12,500 RCI Points for a $100 discount off the ticket price, 70,000 RCI Points for a $600 discount off the ticket price, or any value in-between, shown in the grid above. How you exchange your RCI Points and what you choose to do with them is completely up to you! Exchange this many RCI Points*... ...for this discount amount. 12,500 $100 20,000 $150 25,000 $200 35,000 $300 45,000 $400 55,000 $500 70,000 $600 90,000 $800 115,000 $1,000 145,000 $1,250 170,000 $1,500 200,000 $1,750 You’ve always had the freedom to exchange your RCI Points for airfare, hotel stays and more. Based on your feedback, we’ve made improvements to give you more control over how many RCI Points you exchange each time, with fewer limitations. Your Points are converted to discounts – which you can apply toward the cost of airfare, hotel stays, rental cars, theme park admission tickets and much more. Use the conversion grid above for most Points Partner transaction types and save. Increased flexibility. • No more pre-determined RCI Points values for each transaction type. You choose how many RCI Points you would like to exchange for each transaction. • No more RCI Points balance restrictions. Low RCI Points balance? No problem. Exchange as little as 12,500 RCI Points for a discount of $100 off almost any RCI Points partner transaction. Fewer limitations. Frank & Bonny
I emailed RCI and asked them how the prices were determined for the flights...were they the prices the airline quoted? Waiting for answer still. I know when we called to make our reservations for our upcoming trip I was told over and over again that certain flights were full and not available through RCI (meaning RCI could not book the seats but I could directly). Using the cost of my flight vs the number of points I used I would have had to pay an extra $300 or used an additional 15,000 points for our tickets if I had waited one week to make flight reservations. Not seeing the new system working in our advantage. This change is RCI though not Premier so it is through no fault of Temptation management.
Twice I checked on flights through RCI(back in 2001 and 2002) both times I could get the same flight booked over the internet for about $75 cheaper per a person then what RCI was quoting. :roll: I told the RCI rep on the phone I can get on the exact same flight for less and all they said basically that is what are computer is showing and there is nothing they could do about it. Either way have any of you actually figured out how much your points are worth as far as $$$$ goes??? I know its different for everyone depending on what they bought and how low they got it for. Point being is it even worth trading in your points on airfare. I've talked to a few people that have told me when you figure out $ to point value that they've always came out ahead booking there flight seperate. Though that is more money out of your pocket for each vacation the return was you got more nights at BBG to use. Also had a couple tell me each time they've traded points in for airfare it came out about even over booking the flight themselves. Nick and Renee
# of pts divided by what we paid for said points and add RCI costs I actually break about even with cost of flight....that is if we fly from Green Bay, if from Milwaukee or Chicago I think we would actually be losing money if could find a really sweet flight deal. We bought into short time knowing we were going to use the points for air travel and only use bonus week to actually stay at resort. I could have gotten room cheaper from alpharooms than my premier AI costs, but would have gotten a basic gardenview. I don't feel like we were robbed but really don't see that we are getting a big bonus by having joined. As a side note I will say RCI really worked with me this time to get a flight that worked for what our friends had booked prior to our booking. We land within minutes of each other and there is not too much of a time difference for when we leave either so we can share transportation. Only worry about my flight is we only have a little over an hour between our flights landing in Ohare on our way back...just don't see making the connection since we are infamous for getting pulled by customs for some reason.