WATCH OUT PREMIER MEMBERS

Grand Vacation here covered a whole load of resorts through out the world. RCI is the exchange company used to exchange into other resorts through out the world.

 

I know I upset some people on this....

all i want is people to discuss apples to apples.

exchanging in with rci is not the same as
exchanging out with rci

is not the same as premier rci weeks
is not the same as rci by day

clearly some people got screwed by original, and some by rci

but people have a lot of different programs.

 

Well that is one of the issues trying to discuss anything to do with Premier. The program has been changed so many times and sold at so many different price points that no two are alike usually. It started out as a perk for repeat guest. In fact you had to be a repeat guest to even listen or buy into Premier. But once RCI dug there claws in it went south quickly. Then they started selling nights, points, weeks, trading these weeks or nights, selling points or nights for airfare, AI fess, to VISA gift cards, and all kinds of combinations within it.

For me.....I was one of the first people in when it started. For what I paid I made all my money back on savings by my 6th to 8th week for sure. I got lucky and used about 10 weeks or so pretty quickly(still have like 14-15 weeks left). Through the years they have really jacked up the AI fees to the point that its about break even at best when comparing booking a vacation through Alpharooms or Apple or any travel service. During certain times of the year I can easily go way cheaper booking it myself.

AI fee increases have really pissed a lot of members off. When you start talking $100+ per a person per a day it just doesn't add up to much of any savings and many times of the year actually cost you more then booking it yourself. Also benefits of Premier have been changed many many many times during the last decade. Some for the better but also many changes for the worse.

The math worked out to my favor when I bought in and I knew I could take advantage of it while the getting was good. So I got my money out of it. I just don't know how much I'm even going to use it anymore. I don't mind if I pay an extra $100 or $200 cause I get some perks finally. But alot of members have been completely taking to the cleaners by Premier and RCI.

 

Wow, I wish I would have read all this stuff before we signed up. We joined the RCI weeks program last year after our second visit. I did the math and if we stay for 7 days it would be the same as paying for 5 days through other travel website. Its a good deal, but far from a great deal. I just hope they don't change the contract or fees or else it's not worth it.

After getting the premier package we were very disappointed. It's like all the other workers don't care about you anymore other than your server at the pool. After tipping the premier server a couple pesos in the morning he constantly filled our drinks and checked if we needed anything else. This was great while we were at the pool, but when we went to other bars we were barely looked at. One night we went to the sports bar before nice shoes opened. There were only a few other people in the bar. The bartender got us our first drink no problem, but then wouldn't even look at us to get another one. He kept trying to act like he was busy cleaning or finding small things to do. We waited ~10 minutes and then just left.

Oh well, live and learn :aktion060:

 

Well through the years the staff has been told multiple things on how to handle Premier members. Also some bartenders are just better then others. Behind the scenes they(Temptations) also play a game of how much alcohol should be served each day. You ever notice how they never run out of the cheap stuff. :biggrinbandit:

I hate to say you should tip just to get better service because it shouldn't be the case. But one dollar to them is like someone giving us $5-$10 to get one drink. Many of the workers haven't always worked in the AI resort business before so they learned the trade outside of the resort. In Cancun its very common practice in the tourist areas to play the ignore game to get a tip at bars. For me to part with $10-$20 worth of tips each day to get great/instant service I don't mind. Especially since I know how much some of them make.

 

Another good point...I give them 10-20 per session if i am going to be there for a while

 

Can anyone tell me what the details are?

We loved Temptation, and I like the ideas about the other original resorts ...

What were looking for is an all inclusive timeshare where we pay for so many weeks of usage per year at a certain rate for a certain duration of time ... is this the actual way it works?


M.

 

When we signed up last year as an RCI weeks member this is basically how it works. You pay a flat fee (very very negotiable as we got it ~33% off the asking price) and can sign up for the platinum, gold, or silver package. Each package comes with a price and a certain amount of weeks (we signed up for the silver package to try it out). We negotiated the package for 25 weeks that we can use within 25 years. We can use the weeks at any Temptation resort (except Desire) and pay something like $400 a week plus AI fees ($20 a night or so depending on season). We can also book at other resorts, but you have to put in a request in advance (Haven't tried this yet, but sounds simple). The only maintenance fee is an RCI fee of $100 a year (so they say) until we use up our weeks.

The RCI packages are very negotiable, so make sure you act like you aren't very interested. You can negotiate the weeks and price to get the best deal possible.

 

Our contract mentions referral weeks but I can't find any information about them anywhere online. Can someone give me a quick rundown on referral weeks? Pros? Cons? Thanks in advance.

 

Great question about the referral weeks. We negotiated ours down to only 1 and got something else. I haven't seen this anywhere online either. You might try calling and asking. If you find out, you should let me know.