If you are reading this, you are probably a Wyndham owner who likes to save their points for special vacations or you have found that you cannot take the vacations you would prefer every year and you want to maximize your points usage so that the points will not be wasted. 

The Points Credit Pool is a feature that you may benefit from if you know well in advance that you are not going to be able to use your points for the upcoming Use Year. Any member who has not purchased ½ million or more points from the developer, cannot place points into the Points Credit Pool after the start date of their Use Year. VIP Gold members can use the feature up to six months after their Use Year start date. VIP Platinum members can use the feature up to nine months after their Use Year start date. Once in the “pool” the credits can be used for a Standard or Express internal reservation.  Pooled credits cannot be used as a deposit with your assigned exchange company and they cannot be converted to Club Wyndham^SM Plus Assessment dollars.                                     

Upon placement of all or part of your next Use Year points into the Points Credit Pool the credits show up in your account as Pool Credits that can be used up to three years from the date they were placed in the pool for a Standard or Express internal reservation. There is a fee of $39 to use the Points Credit Pool feature. For each 1,000 points placed in the pool one Housekeeping Credit will also be deposited. 

Note: If you typically take yearly vacations and use your Wyndham points throughout the year the Points Credit Pool is usually not a feature you would consider using; but there is a benefit that can be derived if you are an owner of points and simply do not have enough points to get you that special vacation that you want in some future year.

TIP:  Some Wyndham point owners periodically realize that they need additional points in the current Use Year to get the Vacation that they want.  In such a situation the member can deposit all or part of their next Use Year point allocation into the Points Credit Pool to get access to additional points so that the desired reservation can be made.  After moving all or part of the next Use Year’s points to the Points Credit Pool the member can immediately redeem pooled credits from the pool to use in the current year. The following scenario is detailed; but it is provided to help you understand how the Points Credit Pool might be a worthwhile benefit IF you intend to redeem the “pool credits” immediately.

 
Let’s say that it is June 1, 2010 and you own 259,000 points at Wyndham Bonnet Creek,  Lake Buena Vista, FL with a Jan 1 - Dec 31 Use Year.  Regardless of how you have used or may eventually use your 2010 allotment of points, you can see those points and also see your 2011 and 2012 allotment at the Wyndham website. For this discussion the 2010 points do not matter.

  Illustration # 1 - Display of Points & Housekeeping Credits on June 1, 2010

As The 2010 Year Progresses Routine Reservations Are Made

 
Based on your point status, as seen on June 1, 2010, you as an owner decide that you want to make a reservation for a 1-BR Deluxe at Alexandria, VA for the nights of May 7, 8, & 9, 2011. However, because your “home resort” is not at Wyndham Old Town Alexandria, VA the earliest you can request your reservation is July 7, 2010 at the start of your Standard Reservation period.

Since you realize that demand will be high at Alexandria you plan to contact a Wyndham Vacation Counselor (VC) as early as possible (ten months out) to get what you want.  On the morning of July 7, 2010 a Wyndham VC may find that there is availability and confirm a reservation for you, after all, you have the points and on July 7, you are within the “window.”

Because the vacation is for 2011 the 102,000 points needed for the reservation and the 63 Housekeeping Credits required are taken from your 2011 point allocation. Meanwhile, the Reservation Transaction is taken from your 2010 calendar year allotment. Assuming that you have a complimentary 2010 Reservation Transaction available, the cost to make the transaction should entail no additional fees. Once the reservation is complete you will notice that you have 157,000 points and 196 Housekeeping Credits still available in your 2011 Use Year. When   2011 rolls around you know that you will get three complimentary Reservation Transactions.

Illustration # 2 - Display of Points & Housekeeping Credits on August 1, 2010

 
Between August 1, 2010 and the end of 2010 you elect to deposit the points remaining in your 2010 Use Year with RCI. On December 1, 2010 you make the deposit, so that you can use the deposit to secure a vacation through RCI up until December 31, 2012.

Illustration # 3 - Display of Points & Housekeeping Credits on January 1, 2011

 
Your check-in date for the Hawaii trip is to be Friday, December 23, 2011 so the earliest you can get a reservation is the first day of the Standard Reservation window for that date, which would be February 23, 2011 (ten months ahead of the check-in date). So, on February 23, 2011 you get a Wyndham Vacation Counselor (VC) on the phone and ask the VC to “pool” all of your 2012 points. Once the 2012 points are pooled you then ask the same Wyndham VC to reserve a lower floor 2-BR Deluxe at Wyndham Shearwater for December 23 through December 30, 2011.

For this hypothetical we will assume that other Club Wyndham Plus members had previously placed enough 2011 Jan-Dec Use Year points in the Points Credit Pool and enough of those “pool credits” were available on February 23, 2011 for you to redeem 243,000 “pool credits.”

The Wyndham Vacation Counselor tells you that a 2-BR unit has been found so she uses one of your 2011 complimentary Reservation Transactions, 77 of your 2011 Housekeeping Credits and the remaining 2011 points (157,000) as well as 243,000 redeemed “pool credits” to book your Hawaii Vacation.  You, by pooling your 2012 points on February 23, 2011, were well within the guidelines for pooling 2012 points. Those guidelines allow you as an owner to “pool” your points prior to your Use Year start date and thereby receive up to three years from the date they are pooled to redeem the points and Housekeeping Credits.   

Illustration # 4 – Representation of Points & Housekeeping Credits After

 Hawaii Reservation was completed on February 23, 2011

The total necessary points to complete the Hawaii reservation was 400,000, so the balance that remained in the Points Credit Pool came to 16,000 “pool credits.” As you can see in Illustration # 4, after the reservation for the Hawaii vacation was completed you were left with zero points and 119 Housekeeping Credits available for 2011 and for 2012 you were left with zero points and zero Housekeeping Credits because all of the 2012 points and Housekeeping Credits had been moved to the Points Credit Pool.

 
TIP: As pointed out in the example above. One Housekeeping Credit is placed into the Points Credit Pool with every 1,000 points transferred to the pool. The complimentary Reservation Transactions come your way on the first of each year and if they are not used during the year they simply expire. If you put all or part of a future year’s points into the Points Credit Pool and later redeem “pool credits” for internal Wyndham reservations using the Standard Reservation window or the Express Reservation window, during the following three years after the placement, it is possible that you will not use all of your Housekeeping Credits in the Points Credit Pool.  If that happens and there is a need to use Housekeeping Credits in conjunction with regular use points during the three year eligibility period, you can ask a Wyndham Vacation Counselor to use those Housekeeping Credits instead of paying for additional Housekeeping Credits,  to use with your then current regular use points.

Note:  Pool credits can only be used to confirm Standard and Express Reservations at Club Wyndham^SM Plus resort locations and at Affiliate and Associate locations.  To identify those locations or to see the points needed for your vacation use the Directory at this link: 

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/wynd...directory0910/

Caution:  Future reservations using pooled credits depend upon the availability of pooled credits placed in the pool by other members with the same Use Year End Date as the year you choose to redeem your credits.  In the example above, the pool credits that you redeemed were to be used in the 2011 Use Year with an end date of December 31, 2011. So for you to have been able to redeem the credits, it was necessary that there be sufficient credits in the Points Credit Pool placed there by other members with a Use Year expiration date of December 31, 2011.

Recommendation:  Do your business involving the “pool” on the same day and ask the Wyndham VC to first check the availability of the credits that you need to redeem.

Footnote:

If, you have any inquiries regarding how to use Wyndham’s product features or benefits consult Wyndham’s written documents and materials including the resort directory for additional information about how to use the product.

Wyndham Forums on TUG