Using points for RCI weekly exchange question

[O'MalleytheAlleyCat]

OK...I have read through the information and think I understand how this works, but wanted to be sure I had things correct. My family is considering a trip to London next August. :thumbsup: There is an RCI exchange in London right in the area we'd like to stay. We have just enough DVC points to cover a stay for a week (one year's worth of points). It appears you can book those exchanges up to 2 years in advance. Our use year is August and we'd plan to take this trip in August of next year. I assume they would be able to use my August 2010 points to cover this vacation even if I book now, yes? I do understand that if we cancel then depending on the time frame, we would get those points deposited in an RCI account that would have to be used by the end of the following calendar year. I guess my biggest question is: If for some reason we book, then decide not to go then how hard would it be to use those RCI points? Do things typically fill up far ahead? I would guess maybe yes, which is why I thought we should book the London trip early if we think we really want to go. Clear as mud???? :confused::confused: I'd appreciate any advice!!

[c&d]

I'm going to say yes you can based on what we just did. We are going to Maui in August for 2 weeks and our use year is August also. I used our points from this year (2009 banked) and next year (2010) to cover the 2 weeks.

It did take almost a month to get confirmation about the availability. They have to wait until the RCI owner frees up the space and since we wanted 2 weeks I'm guessing it took longer.

[O'MalleytheAlleyCat]

It did take almost a month to get confirmation about the availability. They have to wait until the RCI owner frees up the space and since we wanted 2 weeks I'm guessing it took longer.

I hope you didn't have to commit the points until you knew for sure whether you could get the reservation! That's another question I had. I'm not willing to commit the points unless I know I can get the time I want.

[c&d]

They didn't take the points until they got the confirmation from RCI.

[O'MalleytheAlleyCat]

I did call Member Services and asked a couple of questions. One thing I did learn was that you actually have to have points in hand if you want to make a reservation with RCI, no matter how far in the future the reservation is. So, you can't make a reservation based on what points you'll have at the time of the trip, but you can only use what points you actually have at the time the reservation is made....make sense?