Limitations on Resale Purchase of Anantara Vacation Club (AVC) Points?

Hi all,

Does any one have experience in buying resale Anantara Vacation Club (AVC) points?

I am a new Ruby member (9,000 points) and has been happy with my purchase so far. During an Owner's Preview Session, I attended a sales presentation inviting us to upgrade our membership to the next level (Diamond - minimum of 16,000 points). Diamond members can book 'higher tier' resorts, i.e. maldives, queenstown, etc. on an annual basis, compared to Ruby members who can only book these 'higher tier' resorts on an every other year basis.

I have only recently about the secondary market for timeshares such as this group. As such, I asked the salesperson if I can buy 9,000 resale points from a fellow Ruby member and combine it with my own points to have 18,000 points in total, and qualify as a Diamond member. I was informed by the salesperson that purchase of resale points will not be counted to upgrade my status. In other words, even if I have 18,000 points, I will still be a Ruby member.

I am hoping that someone in the forum has experience on this. Thanks in advance!

You did exactly what you're supposed to do that is come to the forum and ask for advice . You will be getting quite a few responses shortly. NEVER purchase anything from a developer . If you decide to upgrade and purchase points buy on the secondary market . They will tell you anything to get you to buy from them. Go through the different threads in the forums and you will read many stories from people who regret buying into their point system.

You will find threads in here that are specifically dealing with Diamond resorts and many people who are dedicated to fighting Diamond resorts about their business practices. Be patient and you will be getting plenty of feedback to help you make your decision .

I may be mistaken, but don't think the OP is asking anything about Diamond Resorts (DRI).

If I read the OP post correctly, OP is actually asking about a higher (i.e., "diamond") level of points within AVC (a "vacation club", which is neither a developer nor DRI --- and an entity I've never even heard of before). OP seems to be asking about upgrading from "ruby" level of points currently owned within AVC to a higher "diamond" level of points within AVC.

joell82 wrote:

I am a new Ruby member (9,000 points) and has been happy with my purchase so far. During an Owner's Preview Session, I attended a sales presentation inviting us to upgrade our membership to the next level (Diamond - minimum of 16,000 points).

I was informed by the salesperson that purchase of resale points will not be counted to upgrade my status. In other words, even if I have 18,000 points, I will still be a Ruby member.

First of all, very rarely should you buy anything at a sales presentation. They are almost always overpriced.

Secondly, the sales people tell a lot of lies. You can't believe everything they say.

Finally, if you are happy with what you have so far, why pay thousands of dollars to upgrade?

I’m a diamond member for 5 years already. The beauty of being of diamond member is 1) I can exchange my annual 25,000 AVC points into Hilton Honor points. This can converted into 500,000 Hilton honor points. If you used this wisely, you can get more value than you invested. I stayed in Conrad Maldives for 5 nights during CNY period which should costed me around HK$100,000 (or USD 12,500). 2) I can use the AVC points nearly expired and converted to Hilton honor point (not expired as long as you have movement in Hilton honor account). 3) But the Hilton Honor silver status is not too useful compared to Hilton Gold or Hilton Diamon which has room upgrade and free breakfast, Raymond

Unfortunately, AVC decided to end the relationship with Hilton. So, I cannot exchange any Hilton Honor points in future, the great benefit from AVC to exchange Hilton Honor points disappear. I will no longer be use Hilton Honor points to stay in Conrad Maldives or Conrad Bora Bora. I missed the big savings from using AVC points conversion. To me, the Value of the AVC reduced a lot. Raymond

Just coming from the sales presentation, almost signed up when I heard about the resale possibility. Thanks

so Raymond, what's good is the AVC membership now? what other conversion is worthwhile?

The secondary market trades at a large discount to the public offering, check the listings on Redweek. You can also exchange points to Travily or Interval, and with Interval you can also book a lot of hotels at a discount, you dont have to exclusively use their timeshares.

This is only personal opinion. Loss of Hilton Honor conversion greatly reduce the value of AVC. I used total purchase price plus the total maintenance fee to estimate the value of 1AVC point costed me around HK$1. But currently, I don’t see any existing conversion will provide great value. The value of conversion to airline mileage nor to Travily usually is less than cost involved. I really cannot find any good conversion. If one day, AVC converted to Hyatt points or Marriott points, then may be it can create or increase the value of AVC points holders. But at present, I cannot find any good conversion can greatly exceed the cost of buying AVC points. This is sad to me.

Raymond, this is sad indeed. I am stuck with the membership for now as well. This sucks.

Hi Clark, But you still can find some value when using in the club premises. E.g. you can still use points to stay in Anantara Ching Mai. It is still some value of using AVC. It really depends on the frequency and resort you plan to stay. Raymond

hi raymond, im ruby member.. i saw the list of interval's hotels and they suck.. how's travily's list of hotels? i really miss hilton conversions.. AVC is useless now..

I personally did not find any good deals in Travily so far. Before I can find a lots of good deals in hilton Honors. I have redeemed Conrad Maldives which cash price of US$10,000 for 5 nights during CNY but I only spends 380,000 points or 19,000 AVC points which I value about US$2,000+. AVC still get some good deals in like Anantara Chiang Rai. But in term of conversion, I did not find any now...

so travily is useless too?