Should I purchase the 1000 points

SueDonJ said:

"... manner in which and from whom acquired ..."

Just noticed this tidbit which isn't in the definition for Premier Plus status. So now in addition to sky-high ROFR costs and re-enrollment fees on resales of purchased Points, the possibility exists for those resales to be excluded from Premier status as well?

(Note, not talking about resales of Enrolled Weeks here at all, which I think cannot - currently - be re-enrolled upon resale.)

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It does appear that Marriott has done everything in it power (or at least provided the opportunity) to destroy any possible resale market that could exist.

So how much has this decreased the resale value of Marriott Timeshare?

Wow, I keep getting more questions the more I read into this point system. How much have Marriott Owners lost in Value in their timeshare. I thought the bottom had already fallen out before points, know what are the units worth? Why are Marriott owners putting up with this? I don't understand how Marriott would make 400,000 current owners unhappy. If my 50K investment was worth 10K prior to points what is it worth today 1K? Lots of questions and not a lot of good answers, thanks to tug at least I will be informed of my demise. I love Marriott resorts that is why I purchased both of my platinum lock off week. Hopefully Marriott will listen to the owners and fix some of the problems with the point system.

dannybaker said:

Wow, I keep getting more questions the more I read into this point system. How much have Marriott Owners lost in Value in their timeshare. I thought the bottom had already fallen out before points, know what are the units worth? Why are Marriott owners putting up with this? I don't understand how Marriott would make 400,000 current owners unhappy. If my 50K investment was worth 10K prior to points what is it worth today 1K? Lots of questions and not a lot of good answers, thanks to tug at least I will be informed of my demise. I love Marriott resorts that is why I purchased both of my platinum lock off week. Hopefully Marriott will listen to the owners and fix some of the problems with the point system.

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Hopefully you will consider adding your comment also at: http://www.blogs.marriott.com/marri...eshare-owners-with-more-flexibility.html#more

RedDogSD said:

This may sound crazy since you are on a Marriott board...but ask Doug and others....you would be a lot happier if you spent that $9000 to buy a Hilton HGVC Resale property. You should be able to get a nice Platinum 2 bedroom or maybe even 3 bedroom points package (7000 or 8300 I think) at one of the Vegas properties. You should probably try for Flamingo since they do not have ROFR. I think you would be so much happier with that over getting 1000 Marriott points which is not much in their system. 1-2 nights during prime season at most places, where with HGVC, you just bought 1-2 weeks anywhere in their system.

I love Marriott as much as the next guy, but that was their weeks system. Their points system is nowhere near as nice as Hiltons.

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Actually I was thinking the same thing. I was looking at the lows in Hilton, they are hitting new lows this month. Some of the Las Vegas 7000 PT properties are going for $4600.. So for around 9K you might be able to get 14K Hilton points.. Not too shabby.

Wow, it keeps getting harder to make up my mind.

Hilton is a high quality company but I do not care for Hilton as much as Marriott. I think as I stated earlier I will sit back and wait. I have already signed up for the points system. I highly doubt I will convert my weeks to points but I will save money on lock offs and exchanges. Thank you so much for saving my family 9K. TUG rocks.

Check out Hilton...

sparty said:

Actually I was thinking the same thing. I was looking at the lows in Hilton, they are hitting new lows this month. Some of the Las Vegas 7000 PT properties are going for $4600.. So for around 9K you might be able to get 14K Hilton points.. Not too shabby.

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I have stopped buying Marriott and began buying HGVC and Hilton Club properties over the past few years... no skim, they have always given HHonors point conversions to resales, they give you Silver HHonors status for being a HGVC member, their point system has Home Resort advantage, rescue and borrowing and fairly consistent point values across properties. I don't know why Marriott didn't just follow their tail lights in designing the program... go figure.

I own two NCV Platnium weeks and a MGC Platinum EOY unit..(1developer - 2 resale units)...the Marriott program works for me...but I would not add anything else to the Marriott properties.

Check out Hilton...you could arbitrage your weeks sell low and buy low right now if you can find the location and value that you like.

There has been so much info it is difficult to get it all straight.

I thought I read that the 800 Vacation Plus Points is a one time incentive to enroll and not an ongoing every year bonus. This post sounds like a permanent bonus. Is this correct?

Are Vacation Plus Points the same as Vacation Points? Can vacation plus points be used for reservation stays or is it for usage in the Explorer Collection for cruises and other travel packages?

Thank you in advance
Emi

dannybaker said:

Wow, I have read so much on this new points system and my head really hurts. We have signed up for the new program and paid our $1995. We own 2 platinum-2 bedroom look off units at Grande Vista(total of 5550 points). We are considering buying the extra 1000 points to become premier owners, we have been told the cost would be $9200 minus $695. In addition we would get an extra 1100 points to go with our 800 points. Bottom line is we love Marriott resorts and we are not happy with the points but what other options do we have if we want to trade into the best Marriott resorts.

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You might look at the options in the resale market you have with $9200. You could probably get two very good Marriott weeks that would be excellent traders with Interval that you could use or trade outside the points program. I would not count out the possibility that Marriott offers other opportunities to bring resale into the points program as the years go on if they need inventory.

dannybaker said:

Wow, I have read so much on this new points system and my head really hurts. We have signed up for the new program and paid our $1995. We own 2 platinum-2 bedroom look off units at Grande Vista(total of 5550 points). We are considering buying the extra 1000 points to become premier owners, we have been told the cost would be $9200 minus $695. In addition we would get an extra 1100 points to go with our 800 points. Bottom line is we love Marriott resorts and we are not happy with the points but what other options do we have if we want to trade into the best Marriott resorts.

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You might look at the options in the resale market you have with $9200. You could probably get two very good Marriott weeks that would be excellent traders with Interval that you could use or trade outside the points program. I would not count out the possibility that Marriott offers other opportunities to bring resale into the points program as the years go on if they need inventory.

dannybaker said:

Wow, I have read so much on this new points system and my head really hurts. We have signed up for the new program and paid our $1995. We own 2 platinum-2 bedroom look off units at Grande Vista(total of 5550 points). We are considering buying the extra 1000 points to become premier owners, we have been told the cost would be $9200 minus $695. In addition we would get an extra 1100 points to go with our 800 points. Bottom line is we love Marriott resorts and we are not happy with the points but what other options do we have if we want to trade into the best Marriott resorts.

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What makes you think you will not be able to get good exchanges through II? Because a Marriott sales rep says so?

Even if Marriott's projections of 25% of owners enrolling come true that still leaves 75% of owners in II. And given the unfriedliness of the program, its complexity, and poor rollout I highly doubt they will get close to that in the next year or two. It says a lot that they are already signing up people based on fear that II exchanges are going away or making up artificial deadlines for enrolling, rather than on the merits of the points program (and, no offense, it seems you bought that argument...).

I read today a couple of posts from Fletch on this topic that I strongly agree with. It probably means more coming from him:

Fletch said:

Not at all, it sounds like hype to me. The bottom line is it will take 5-7 years for this to have mid level success. 5 years later, how many people are rushing to buy RCI points ? Switching in the middle of the game is very hard. They have to sell the fact that II will be a thing of the past. The question is, are you buying it ?

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Fletch said:

Thats wishful thinking. If 100 existing owners join a day, after one year, that would be 36,500 out of 400,000. Thats less than 10% and I very much doubt they will average 100 a day after MAYBE the first 30 days. It's a numbers game and the numbers are in favor of the deeded week owners so if they stick together, it will be a long process for Marriott.

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siberiavol said:

You might look at the options in the resale market you have with $9200. You could probably get two very good Marriott weeks that would be excellent traders with Interval that you could use or trade outside the points program. I would not count out the possibility that Marriott offers other opportunities to bring resale into the points program as the years go on if they need inventory.

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My thoughts exactly.

DanCali said:

What makes you think you will not be able to get good exchanges through II? Because a Marriott sales rep says so?

Even if Marriott's projections of 25% of owners enrolling come true that still leaves 75% of owners in II. And given the unfriedliness of the program, its complexity, and poor rollout I highly doubt they will get close to that in the next year or two. It says a lot that they are already signing up people based on fear that II exchanges are going away or making up artificial deadlines for enrolling, rather than on the merits of the points program (and, no offense, it seems you bought that argument...).

I read today a couple of posts from Fletch on this topic that I strongly agree with. It probably means more coming from him:

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I agree that there will still be very good trading opportunites outside of the points program. I think that picking up strong resales weeks at bargain prices to stay, trade, or rent makes sense, regardless of whether they'll be allowed to enroll in points at some point down the road. I see the cost of points being too prohibitive, plus the near certainty that Marriott will monkey around to devalue the points down the road, for this whole thing to take off.

dannybaker said:

Wow, I have read so much on this new points system and my head really hurts. We have signed up for the new program and paid our $1995. We own 2 platinum-2 bedroom look off units at Grande Vista(total of 5550 points). We are considering buying the extra 1000 points to become premier owners, we have been told the cost would be $9200 minus $695. In addition we would get an extra 1100 points to go with our 800 points. Bottom line is we love Marriott resorts and we are not happy with the points but what other options do we have if we want to trade into the best Marriott resorts.

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The ONLY difference between a Owner with Premier status and a plain old Owner is the ability to make 7+ day reservations 13 months out versus paying 20% more in Points to do the same. You can borrow the 20% more in Points from next year and eventually there will be rental Points for sale at the MF cost.

12-Month reservations has BOTH ownership levels EQUAL; same with 10 month.

Marriott just didn't make much of a difference if you own 1,000 Points or 12,999 Points.

Hell they really don't make Premier Plus owners that special - ANY owner can lock in a 13 month reservation and later reduce the 7+ days to 2 day weekend usage (at 10 months) with the other 5 days going into the Holding Account which can lock in week-end usage at 60 days.

Heck, lock in a great weekend with those Holding Account Points 60 days out and rent it for cash in CraigsList and use the money to buy rental Points and you are back in business.

So no, paying cash for 1,000 more Points isn't worth it in my observations of this extremely flexible system. The system will work for you and get around those 20% additional Points.

P.S.
If you ask me Marriott is going to have to do something about those of us who abuse their brand spanking new program; change the rules.

Premier member

Wow, it does not sound like it would be very smart to buy the extra points. Thank you again for all the TUG users inputs.

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