Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Plus

I love the new E-Plus option but I am realizing some drawbacks. With a regular retrade you are always bound by the expiration date of the original deposit. For example I have an exchange with a check-in at the end of this year. I can retrade with a window that does not end until July 2015.

E-plus on the other hand immediately starts an expiration at one year from the check-in day of the initial exchange. You lose the expiration date of the original deposit.

I am thinking that this expiration change can be flipped to an advantage. You might be able to use E-Plus to extend a deposit for only $49, which is a bargain compared to the $189 12 month extend fee. Exchange for the farthest check-in day that your window allows and opt for E-Plus. This will trigger an expiration date of one year from the check-in day. Since retrades are limited within flex you would want to do this prior to hitting 60 days from expiration and then retrading again so you do not hit flex on the initial exchange. You would then have two more free retrades left as well as a 12 month extension for only $49.

Can anyone confirm whether or not this "extension" scenario works? I have no way right now to test whether they programmed the "lesser of" within the E-plus expiration date programming.

I had a replacement week that had to be used by June 17, 2014. The original week would have expired June 30, 2014. It was a 2012 week. I exchanged for Jan 2014. I added eplus. I now can re-trade for anything through Jan 2015.

tschwa2 said:

I had a replacement week that had to be used by June 17, 2014. The original week would have expired June 30, 2014. It was a 2012 week. I exchanged for Jan 2014. I added eplus. I now can re-trade for anything through Jan 2015.

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Nice! Thanks for the info.

They have some tweaking to do on the programming because with a normal deposit you cannot add e-plus if there was ever a confirmed exchange, even if it was immediately canceled. The 5 day clock begins with the first confirmation. I don't think this is intentional, but just a byproduct of the 5-day clock programming. If e-plus can be added to a replacement week it only makes sense that it should be available for a pending request or exchange after a canceled confirmation.

I wonder if you can get away with a second replacement week after the e-plus exchange(s).

I would love it if someone could explain the E-plus to me. I've talked to reps, but every time I call, I seem to get one that has the communication skills of a potted plant.

shoeie said:

I would love it if someone could explain the E-plus to me. I've talked to reps, but every time I call, I seem to get one that has the communication skills of a potted plant.

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You can thank the cheap labor foreign ESL call centers for the potted plants. There is one in Miami and occasionally you can get lucky.

E-Plus is an option to pay $49 and then have the ability to retrade three times for no extra cost. Have you read the FAQ? E-Plus FAQ

Can you do E-plus on a late deposit, and does it essentially remove the 60 day restriction?

Can you set up ongoing searches with E-plus, or do you have to catch deposits "in the wild"?

MichaelColey said:

Can you do E-plus on a late deposit, and does it essentially remove the 60 day restriction?

Can you set up ongoing searches with E-plus, or do you have to catch deposits "in the wild"?

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i think you can do eplus but the restriction remains. If you have eplus on an unrestricted week it becomes restricted if you retrade during flex time.

No searches with e plus.

tschwa2 said:

I had a replacement week that had to be used by June 17, 2014. The original week would have expired June 30, 2014. It was a 2012 week. I exchanged for Jan 2014. I added eplus. I now can re-trade for anything through Jan 2015.

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Were you able to do this online or did you have to call in?

If I understand your situation correctly, I think that I am in a similar position. I did a re-trade with my SF week which originally expired on July 5, 2014. I currently have a Thanksgiving week in Tahoe and my kids are having work issues and may not be able to travel. If I cancel before 60 days, I would get a replacement week which I would have to use before July 5, 2014, but I could use that replacement week to make a new reservation and add e+ to extend the usage for 12 months from that date correct?

I would hate to give up the Tahoe week and not be able to add e+ to the replacement week.

MichaelColey said:

Can you do E-plus on a late deposit, and does it essentially remove the 60 day restriction?

Can you set up ongoing searches with E-plus, or do you have to catch deposits "in the wild"?

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tschwa2 said:

i think you can do eplus but the restriction remains. If you have eplus on an unrestricted week it becomes restricted if you retrade during flex time.

No searches with e plus.

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What he said. The system will let you buy e-plus on an eligible deposit even if you are within 14 days and will never be able to retrade. If you are within 59 days of check-in the retrade can only be for something else within 59 days. If you are within 14 days you cannot retrade.

klpca said:

Were you able to do this online or did you have to call in?

If I understand your situation correctly, I think that I am in a similar position. I did a re-trade with my SF week which originally expired on July 5, 2014. I currently have a Thanksgiving week in Tahoe and my kids are having work issues and may not be able to travel. If I cancel before 60 days, I would get a replacement week which I would have to use before July 5, 2014, but I could use that replacement week to make a new reservation and add e+ to extend the usage for 12 months from that date correct?

I would hate to give up the Tahoe week and not be able to add e+ to the replacement week.

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Aren't replacement weeks good for 1 year from the date of cancellation? If I am correct in my assumption then your replacement week would be good until ~9/20/2014. Then if you can add e-plus on a 9/20/2014 exchange it would push the expiration to ~9/20/2015.

That said, they will probably either tweak adding e-plus to cancelled confirmation deposits or go the other direction and remove it from replacement weeks. I am leaning towards them removing it from replacement weeks. I think that is a loop hole right now. While it is still there you can opt for the latest date you can find and add it. They are not going to take it away from you after you already bought it.

Saintsfanfl said:

E-Plus is an option to pay $49 and then have the ability to retrade three times for no extra cost. Have you read the FAQ? E-Plus FAQ

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Thanks for the link.

FYI, you have to be logged in to see the eplus FAQ's. Otherwise it links you to the main FAQ page.

Saintsfanfl said:

Aren't replacement weeks good for 1 year from the date of cancellation? If I am correct in my assumption then your replacement week would be good until ~9/20/2014. Then if you can add e-plus on a 9/20/2014 exchange it would push the expiration to ~9/20/2015.

That said, they will probably either tweak adding e-plus to cancelled confirmation deposits or go the other direction and remove it from replacement weeks. I am leaning towards them removing it from replacement weeks. I think that is a loop hole right now. While it is still there you can opt for the latest date you can find and add it. They are not going to take it away from you after you already bought it.

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Forgive me because I'm probably about to ask a "duh" question, but if I cancelled my Thanksgiving reservation and got a replacement week, it would essentially extend my week from July 5, 2014 to twelve months from my cancellation date?

Btw, I just did a dummy retrade and no eplus option comes up at any point in the transaction. Does it come up during the online reservation process on a replacement week?

klpca said:

Forgive me because I'm probably about to ask a "duh" question, but if I cancelled my Thanksgiving reservation and got a replacement week, it would essentially extend my week from July 5, 2014 to twelve months from my cancellation date?

Btw, I just did a dummy retrade and no eplus option comes up at any point in the transaction. Does it come up during the online reservation process on a replacement week?

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It was my understanding that the replacement is good for an entire year from when you cancel. Other posts have indicated that but perhaps I am mistaken. I have never dealt with a replacement week.

You cannot add eplus to a retrade. The eplus option can only be added within 5 days from the initial confirmation date. That clock ticks and never resets for that same deposit.

If you cannot add e-plus during the check-out process, or in the "My History" section after completing the exchange, it cannot be added by calling. The reps can only add e-plus using the same system that is now available to us. I was told that there is no option to override the eplus restriction even if they wanted to. Not sure how true that is but it does make sense.

Saintsfanfl said:

It was my understanding that the replacement is good for an entire year from when you cancel. Other posts have indicated that but perhaps I am mistaken. I have never dealt with a replacement week.

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I believe you are correct. It doesn't matter when you cancel, the cancellation replacement is good for one year. You could however be tied to a flexchange trader if you cancel within 59 days of travel.

One other thing about EPlus, it was mentioned in a post on the II Communities, it doesn't seem to be available for Marriott DC weeks exchanges. I have a studio week that I placed a request with and the EPlus option does not come up during the checkout process. This was an otherwise "clean" week. I even put in a request first with an un-deposited dummy week (causing an embarrassing call to II to cancel the bogus request). The EPlus option did not come up.

Can you not add EPlus to a request and can only add it to a confirmed exchange after a match or to an instant confirmation?

What happens if you cancel a confirmation that had EPlus attached to it. Are subsequent exchanges with that cancellation replacement thus "free"? If not, it would never make sense to cancel a confirmation that had EPlus attached.

Saintsfanfl said:

It was my understanding that the replacement is good for an entire year from when you cancel. Other posts have indicated that but perhaps I am mistaken. I have never dealt with a replacement week.

You cannot add eplus to a retrade. The eplus option can only be added within 5 days from the initial confirmation date. That clock ticks and never resets for that same deposit.

If you cannot add e-plus during the check-out process, or in the "My History" section after completing the exchange, it cannot be added by calling. The reps can only add e-plus using the same system that is now available to us. I was told that there is no option to override the eplus restriction even if they wanted to. Not sure how true that is but it does make sense.

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Thanks for all of this information. It's much appreciated.

dioxide45 said:

I believe you are correct. It doesn't matter when you cancel, the cancellation replacement is good for one year. You could however be tied to a flexchange trader if you cancel within 59 days of travel.

One other thing about EPlus, it was mentioned in a post on the II Communities, it doesn't seem to be available for Marriott DC weeks exchanges. I have a studio week that I placed a request with and the EPlus option does not come up during the checkout process. This was an otherwise "clean" week. I even put in a request first with an un-deposited dummy week (causing an embarrassing call to II to cancel the bogus request). The EPlus option did not come up.

Can you not add EPlus to a request and can only add it to a confirmed exchange after a match or to an instant confirmation?

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In the eplus FAQ's it mentions that Marriott weeks (and a couple of others as I recall) don't have eplus capability yet. I believe it said they were aiming for the end of the year. I tested it with my Donatello week, and the eplus option came up on the same screen as the insurance. You can't miss it if it's there.

klpca said:

In the eplus FAQ's it mentions that Marriott weeks (and a couple of others as I recall) don't have eplus capability yet. I believe it said they were aiming for the end of the year. I tested it with my Donatello week, and the eplus option came up on the same screen as the insurance. You can't miss it if it's there.

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This is from the FAQ:

Currently, there are some members who do not have the option to purchase E-Plus. Due to a phased technology rollout, we are hopeful to have E-Plus available to Marriott individual week, Shell Vacations Club, and Hyatt Vacation Club memberships by the end of the year. At this time, E-Plus is not available for Marriott Club Destinations, Club Intrawest or Diamond memberships.

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I take that to mean that there are no plans to make it available for Marriott Destinations Club members. Of course it could perhaps just mean that they won't be able to use it on points exchanges, but at some time this year it will be available on weeks exchanges in the DC account. It is kind of vague.

dioxide45 said:

This is from the FAQ:


I take that to mean that there are no plans to make it available for Marriott Destinations Club members. Of course it could perhaps just mean that they won't be able to use it on points exchanges, but at some time this year it will be available on weeks exchanges in the DC account. It is kind of vague.

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If you're in the DC, don't you get free retrades any way? (I'm sure I'm missing some sublety). Since I'm weeks only, I don't pay a ton of attention to the DC. And I am hoping that they add this feature for us old fashioned Marriott weeks owners.

klpca said:

If you're in the DC, don't you get free retrades any way? (I'm sure I'm missing some sublety). Since I'm weeks only, I don't pay a ton of attention to the DC. And I am hoping that they add this feature for us old fashioned Marriott weeks owners.

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We do, but only when trading Marriott to Marriott. Adding EPlus to a non Marriott trade would be a plus, but it doesn't look like it is an option. I guess I won't complain, because the "free" Marriott to Marriott trade fees are great!

I didn't even realize you couldn't add E-plus with a Marriott deposit. They tried to tell me this when I had trouble for a completely different reason and I thought they were nuts because I wasn't using a Marriott although I was trading into a Marriott, which I know you can do. It seems a little silly to me is that you can use it trading into a Marriott but not with a Marriott. At least for the time being non-Marriott traders have increased in value. E-Plus is a very valuable option for people that play with alot of exchanges.

Saintsfanfl said:

I didn't even realize you couldn't add E-plus with a Marriott deposit. They tried to tell me this when I had trouble for a completely different reason and I thought they were nuts because I wasn't using a Marriott although I was trading into a Marriott, which I know you can do. It seems a little silly to me is that you can use it trading into a Marriott but not with a Marriott. At least for the time being non-Marriott traders have increased in value. E-Plus is a very valuable option for people that play with alot of exchanges.

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It seems though that before the end of the year they plan to add EPlus for Marriott weeks based members. It doesn't seem that DC Marriott members will be as lucky though, I take it that there are no plans for them at all. Though the impact is not as big since many trade primarily Marriott to Marriott where they can retrade as many times as they want (before deposit expiration) for no additional cost.

dioxide45 said:

What happens if you cancel a confirmation that had EPlus attached to it. Are subsequent exchanges with that cancellation replacement thus "free"? If not, it would never make sense to cancel a confirmation that had EPlus attached.

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I don't think they would be free. You would have to pay an exchange fee again.

That said I can think of one scenario where it would make sense to cancel an exchange with E-Plus attached. When you opt for E-plus you have an expiration date of 1 year from the 1st exchange check-in date. If you end up retrading and then you get too close to 60 days of final expiration you have no choice but to cancel or occupy the exchange. If you cancel, and they still provide replacement weeks for E-plus, you would then trigger another 12-month window. Since it has been confirmed that as of right now you can add E-Plus to a replacement week, in theory you could keep a deposit going forever. It's not ideal since you do have to pay another exhange fee as well as add E-Plus again but it is still interesting. In a nutshell you get an almost 2 year extension for a little more than the price of a normal 1 year extension.

I am thinking they will plug this loophole but we will see.

So it is kind of like RCIs process for combining TPUs? You can pretty much keep a deposit alive forever, though it will cost you a bundle of money.

Similar in some ways (like extending the life of a deposit), but different in others (combining TPUs in RCI gives you access to inventory you couldn't have exchanged into before).

I have to thank Dioxide for explaining this new option to me. I had a banked week expiring on Oct 8 and was thinking of paying $99 to extend it for 6 months.

Dioxide posted that I could save some $$ my buying the Eplus for $49 instead. So I just booked a 2 bd at Paradise Village for Sept 29. I think it said that I could cancel up to 24 hours before check in, so I'll cancel on the 27th and rebook something for as far in advance as it will let me (I think thats 60 days, right? I need something from Dec 21-Jan 9 so I might get a trade on my secnod go that works; if not, it said I had a YEAR instead of 6 months to made my 2nd and 3rd trade. Yippee!

I love saving money!!! Thanks, dioxide! ♥