Wyndham Privileges Program
When you buy a Worldmark South Pacific membership from Redseason you receive all the Worldmark provided benefits that any other owner would receive. The only thing you do not get are some additional benefits that Wyndham (formerly Trendwest) provide under the banner of the Privileges program. Note that Wyndham has only been supplying Privileges benefits to new owners since mid-November 2006 - anyone who purchased a membership prior to this date will not receive the Privileges benefits unless they purchase more credits directly from Wyndham.
So What is Privileges?
The Privileges program are some additional benefits provided to Worldmark owners who purchased their credits direct from Wyndham. It is important to note that the Privileges benefits are provided by Wyndham and as such they are not written into the Worldmark constitution like the Worldmark benefits so they can be changed or cancelled at any time. There are a number of different teirs of benefits depending on how many Worldmark credits you own however here I am just looking at the basic Privileges benefits that are avialable to anyone owning less than 20000 Worldmark credits (since over 90% of owners fall into this category).
Privileges Basic Benefits (6000 to 19000 annual credits owned)
- RCI membership included in Privileges fee
- ICE membership included in Privileges fee
- Fun Time booking window increases from 14 days (what non-privileges members have) to 21 days and the maximum length of stay is four nights instead of three. Note that Bonus Time (which is the same concept as Fun Time but provided by the club instead of Wyndham) has the same 14 night booking window for all owners and is generally cheaper than the same reservation made under Fun Time.
- Access to some additional Associate resorts in the South Pacific Region - note that normal Worldmark owners have access to most of these resorts but with a restricted booking time but there are a couple of Associate resorts that are restricted to Privileges owners only. Note that the Associate resorts generally require a lot more credits than an equivalent club owned resort so they are not the best way to use your points.
- Access to some additional resorts in the USA via the "Worldmark USA" club (note that regular owners who purchased their membership prior to May 2010 also have access to those resorts).
- Some of the tours offered by the Travel Club have places reserved for Privileges owners (so Privileges owners may be able to get a booking on a tour that would be sold out for normal members..
There is an additional fee payable to Wyndham Vacation Resorts by those that have the Privileges benefits membership. Currently this fee is around $73 for a 6000 credit membership and goes up by $7.20 for each additional 1000 credits owned. Failure to pay your Privileges fee can result in your Privileges status being removed and you will have to buy additional credits from Wyndham to reinstate it.
Note that owners who do not have Privileges status can still join either RCI or ICE (or both) by paying the relevant annual fee directly to the RCI or ICE. Unlike Priviliges you can just drop out of RCI or ICE if you do not intend using their services in a particular year and then rejoin when you want to use them again.
For more information on Privileges or the benefits available to those with more than 20000 credits please have a look at the FAQ section of our forum section of our website where I have expanded on this topic.