My wife and I have been owners of SVC for a few years now and are quite happy with ALL the options available to us for points use (AMEX cards, hotel stays, lift tickets, airfare, etc...) (see their website for more details).
This program IS not cheap up front. This program is not for people who can't afford to vacation every year or two, but it is for people who can and want to invest in the long term. Assuming SVC never goes under (and there are absolutely no signs it ever will because of the way it's structured legally), you are buying into a trust (I believe that's the proper term) that gives you legal ownership of one of the home properties/resorts, but as an owner, that entitles you to so many "Points" per year that can be used in a number of ways, much like cash. This is where SVC deviates from your typical time-share model (like RCI), and why we were willing to buy into this program.
The big picture you should see before buying is this: Say you finance your points over 20 years (it is a 2nd mortgage and if you only own one home, the interest IS tax-deductable so 20 years isn't uncommon), then you're going to pay a bit more each year toward SVC that you will for what you're getting out of it. After the 20 years is passed though, you're only going to pay your maintenance fee (remember, you bought a property and it costs money to maintain it, the furniture, etc..), but you will continue to get your points for the rest of your life.
I bought in young so this means that before I'm 50 I'll have my share paid off and I like to think I'll have another 20-50 years to use the points. That sounds like a pretty decent investment to me.
No, the points don't convert well for airfare and the likes because that takes cash from SVC and you didn't hand them money to hold onto so you could buy plane tickets. You bought a property (like a time-share), and the flexibility to use the points you got to stay at other properties (better than a traditional time-share), and you still can convert those points into cash saving tools (nothing like, but far better than a time-share). When you only vacation every 2-3 years as is the case with my wife and I, and "bank" the points, then you end up with more like 21,000 points to spend on a vacation instead of 7,000.
Before I end this rebuttal, here's the two most significant ways we've used our points:
We had quite a bit of family come into town for our wedding (I purchased the points before hand) and they needed accommodations. We were able to put up a few family members at our local resort, for a few nights each, and spent less than 1/2 years points.
Recently, we took a 4 day vacation in Vegas. We used points to stay at the Desert Rose Resort (very nice little place, across the street from the Luxor and MGM). We used points for AMEX food cards that kept us fed the entire time, and we used points for an AMEX movie card that got us into a couple shows.
So please, do your homework before you spend $30,000 and take what this person says in context (that of someone who foolishly spent a LOT of money without getting promises on paper).
To the original plantiff; word of advise. Sales people are there to SELL. They are generally not well educated on a product or service beyond that which should make it easier to sell.
